A Crumb for the &quot; Modern Symposium. 1 65 



prehended by many, no one has ever refuted it, 

 and it is not likely that any one ever will. Con 

 cerning the value of Berkeley s idealism, when 

 taken with all its ontological implications, there 

 is plenty of room for disagreement; but his psy 

 chological analysis of the relation of consciousness 

 to the external world is of such fundamental im 

 portance that, until one has mastered it, one has 

 no right to speak on philosophical questions. It 

 is not unfair to say that materialists, as a rule, 

 have not mastered the Berkeleian psychology, or 

 given much attention to it. In general, their at 

 tention has been too much occupied with fila 

 ments and ganglia, to the neglect of that close 

 subjective analysis which they unwisely stigmatize 

 as dreamy rnetaphysic. Hence, on the whole, 

 materialism does not represent anything of pri 

 mary importance in modern philosophy ; it repre 

 sents rather the crude speculation of that large 

 and increasing number of people who have ac 

 quired some knowledge of the truths of physical 

 science, without possessing sufficient subtlety to 

 apprehend their metaphysical bearings. Biichner, 

 the favorite spokesman of this class of people, 

 occupies a position precisely similar to that of 

 Lamettrie in the last century, and will, no doubt, 

 in the days of our grandchildren be as thoroughly 



