SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM. 79 



the region which men of science claim as their own, 

 and where it is futile to oppose their advance ; and 

 also to define, if possible, the bourne between this 

 and that other region, to which the questionings and 

 yearnings of the scientific intellect are directed in 

 vain. 



But here your tolerance will be needed. It was the 

 American Emerson, I think, who said that it is hardly 

 possible to state any truth strongly, without apparent 

 injustice to some other truth. Truth is often of a dual 

 character, taking the form of a magnet with two poles ; 

 and many of the differences which agitate the thinking 

 part of mankind are to be traced to the exclusiveness 

 with which partisan reasoners dwell upon one half of 

 the duality, in forgetfulness of the other. The proper 

 course appears to be to state both halves strongly, 

 and allow each its fair share in the formation of the 

 resultant conviction. But this waiting for the state- 

 ment of the two sides of a question implies patience. It 

 implies a resolution to suppress indignation, if the state- 

 ment of the one half should clash with our convictions ; 

 and to repress equally undue elation, if the half- 

 statement should happen to chime in with our views. It 

 implies a determination to wait calmly for the statement 

 of the whole, before we pronounce judgment in the form 

 of either acquiescence or dissent. 



This premised, and I trust accepted, let us enter 

 upon our task. There have been writers who affirmed 

 that the Pyramids of Egypt were natural productions ; 

 and in his early youth Alexander von Humboldt wrote 

 a learned essay with the express object of refuting this 

 notion. We now regard the pyramids as the work of 

 men's hands, aided probably by machinery of which no 

 record remains. We picture to ourselves the swarming 

 workers toiling at those vast erections, lifting the inert 



