GEORGE HENRY LEWES. 



745 



limits of theology, philosophy, and science: "Theology, philosophy, 

 and science," he writes, " constitute our spiritual triumvirate. . . . 

 Its [theology's] main province is the province of feeling ; its office is 

 the systematization of our religious conceptions. The office of science 

 is distinct. It may be defined as the systematization of the order of 

 phenomena considered as phenomena. The office of philosophy is 

 again distinct from these. It is the systematization of the conceptions 

 furnished by theology and science kmoTrjfir] imarrjfioiv (the science 

 of sciences). This "History of Philosophy" was commenced by its 

 author with the definite purpose of showing the radical weakness of 

 all metaphysics. "The history of philosophy," he writes, "presents 

 the spectacle of thousands of intellects some of the greatest that 

 have made our race illustrious steadily concentrated on problems 

 believed to be of vital importance, yet producing no other result than 

 a conviction of the extreme facility of error. The only conquest has 

 been critical, i. e., physiological." His opinion of the value of scien- 

 tific methods in philosophical inquiry is expressed in the following 

 passage: "There are many who deplore the encroachment of science, 

 fondly imagining that metaphysical philosophy would respond better 

 to the higher wants of man. This regret is partly unreasoning senti- 

 ment, partly ignorauce of the limitations of human faculty. Even 

 among those who admit that ontology is an impossible attempt, there 

 are many who think it should be persevered in, because of the ' lofty 

 views' it is supposed to open to us. This is as if a man, desirous of 

 going to America, should insist on walking there, because journeys on 

 foot are more poetical than journeys by steam. He dies without 

 reaching America, but to the last gasp he maintains that he has 

 discovered the route on which others may reach it." In 1853 Mr. 

 Lewes contributed to Bonn's " Scientific Library " a volume entitled 

 " Comte's Philosophy of the Sciences." 



Five years later (1858) appeared his " Seaside Studies at Ilfracombe." 

 For the meeting of the British Association, the same year, he prepared 

 a paper on " The Spinal Cord as a Centre of Sensation and Volition ; " 

 in 1859 he published three papers on "The Nervous System," in 

 which he combated the received doctrines. These papers gave rise 

 to a warm discussion among British physiologists, and even attracted 

 much attention on the Continent of Europe. The " Physiology of 

 Common Life" appeared in 1860, and in the following year was pub- 

 lished " Studies in Animal Life." The object of these researches into 

 the nervous system of animals and man was, as he informs us in the 

 preface of his latest work, to obtain the clew through the labyrinth of 

 mental phenomena. Misled by the plausible supposition that the 

 complex phenomena in man might be better interpreted by approach- 

 ing them through the simpler phenomena in animals, he began to col- 

 lect materials for a work on animal psychology. But he was not then 

 aware that, rightly to understand the mental condition of animals, 



