RELIGION AND SCIENCE 243 



matter, in due process of time, originated from non- 

 living; and if that be so, we must push our conclu- 

 sion farther, and believe that not only living matter, 

 but all matter, is associated with something of the 

 same general description as mind in higher animals. 

 We come, that is, to a monistic conclusion, in that we 

 believe that there is only one fundamental substance, 

 and that this possesses not only material properties, 

 but also properties for which the word mental is the 

 nearest approach. We want a new word to denote 

 this X, this world-stuff; matter will not do, for that 

 is a word which the physicists and chemists have 

 moulded to suit themselves, and since they have not 

 yet learned to detect or measure mental phenomena, 

 they restrict the word "material" to mean "non- 

 mental," and "matter" to mean that which has such 

 "material" properties. 



You will remember William of Occam's razor; 

 "Entia non multiplicanda praeter necessitatem"; 

 when we are monists in the sense I have just out- 

 lined, we are using that weapon to shave away a 

 very unrestrained growth of hair which has long 

 obscured the features of reality. 



Holding to these principles, we must, until evi- 

 dence to the contrary is produced, reject any explana- 

 tion which proceeds by cataclysms, or by miracles; a 

 miracle becomes (when not an illusion) simply an 

 event which is on the one hand uncommon, and for 

 which, on the other, there has been found no ex- 



