75 



Here, indeed, we arrive at the barrier which needs to be per- 

 petually pointed out ; alike to those who seek materialistic explana- 

 tions of mental phenomena, and to those who are alarmed lest such 

 explanations may be found. The last class prove by their fear, 

 almost as much as the first prove by their hope, that they believe 

 Mind may possibly be interpreted in terms of Matter ; whereas 

 many whom they vituperate as materialists are profoundly convinced 

 that there is not the remotest possibility of so interpreting them. 

 HERBERT SPENCER. 



VI. 



SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM. 1 



1868. 



THE celebrated Fichte, in his lectures on the ' Voca- 

 tion of the Scholar,' insisted on a culture which 

 should be not one-sided, but all-sided. The scholar's 

 intellect was to expand spherically, and not in a single 

 direction only. In one direction, however, Fichte re- 

 quired that the scholar should apply himself directly to 

 nature, become a creator of knowledge, and thus repay, 

 by original labours of his own, the immense debt he 

 owed to the labours of others. It was these which 

 enabled him to supplement the knowledge derived from 

 his own researches, so as to render his culture rounded 

 and not one-sided. 



As regards science, Fichte's idea is to some extent 

 illustrated by the constitution and labours of the British 



1 President's Address to the Mathematical and Physical Section 

 of the British As ociation at Norwich. 



