LIFE AS MECHANISM 



observes a book obtains a different idea of it, and that 

 the real book is different from all our observations of 

 it because our sense perceptions always differ. But, 

 if men can come to no agreement on the nature of 

 spiritual phenomena; if, for example, we cannot 

 agree on the properties of virtue or of redness, these 

 same men cry out that we have no right to postulate 

 their existence and character at all. 



Now what Huxley does, is merely to affirm that we 

 can explain the material world in terms of the spir- 

 itual world or we can explain spiritual things in terms 

 of the material. Thus, although he acknowledges they 

 are different, he asks us for convenience's sake to as- 

 sume that they are alike. This juggling with words 

 by the scientist, the sworn apostle of the truth as he 

 calls himself, may excite surprise, but we can give his 

 own words: "It is of little moment whether we ex- 

 press the phaenomena of matter in terms of spirit; or 

 the phaenomena of spirit in terms of matter : matter 

 may be regarded as a form of thought, thought may 

 be regarded as a property of matter — each statement 

 has a certain relative truth. But with a view to the 

 progress of science, the materialistic terminology is 

 in every way to be preferred."" It may seem bizarre 

 to accuse Huxley and his school of being Jesuitical 

 in their methods, but it is difficult to avoid it in the 

 light of this advice: "This union of materialistic ter- 

 minology with the repudiation of materialistic phi- 



11 Method and Results, p. 164. 



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