144 LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS. [vn. 



nature." But when, as commonly happens, we change 

 will into must, we introduce an idea of necessity which 

 most assuredly does not lie in the observed facts, and 

 has no warranty that I can discover elsewhere. For my 

 part, I utterly repudiate and anathematize the intruder. 

 Fact I know ; and Law I know ; but what is this Ne- 

 cessity, save an empty shadow of my own minds 

 throwing ? 



But, if it is certain that we can have no knowledge 

 of the nature of either matter or spirit, and that the 

 notion of necessity is something illegitimately thrust 

 into the perfectly legitimate conception of law, the 

 materialistic position that there is nothing in the world 

 but matter, force, and necessity, is as utterly devoid of 

 justification as the most baseless of theological dogmas. 

 The fundamental doctrines of materialism, like those of 

 spiritualism, and most other "isms," lie outside "the 

 limits of philosophical inquiry," and David Hume's great 

 service to humanity is his irrefragable demonstration of 

 what these limits are. Hume called himself a sceptic, 

 and therefore others cannot be blamed if they apply the 

 same title to him ; but that does not alter the fact that 

 the name, with its existing implications, does him gross 

 injustice. 



If a man asks me what the politics of the inhabitants 

 of the moon are, and I reply that I do not know ; that 

 neither I, nor any one else, have any means of knowing ; 

 and that, under these circumstances, I decline to trouble 

 myself about the subject at all, I do not think he has 

 any right to call me a sceptic. On the contrary, in re- 

 plying thus, I conceive that I am simply honest and 

 truthful, and show a proper regard for the economy of 

 time. So Hume's strong and subtle intellect takes up 

 a great many problems about which Ave are naturally 

 rurious, and shows us that they are essentially questions 



