262 COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD CHAP. 



selection. And it does not, it cannot, apply where 

 reason is at work. 



When this is more generally recognised we shall see 

 a return of men's minds to the rejected authorities. 

 Religion, conscience, philosophy, even intuitionalism, 

 they will all come back, " trooping all together." Prob- 

 ably they will all have contributions to make to the 

 social philosophy of the future. Faith in free-will must 

 also return ; the ban of ostracism will be cancelled. 

 Denial of freedom is exactly parallel to Mr. Suther- 

 land's denial of reason, though many idealists have 

 mixed themselves up with the one, while claiming to be 

 champions of the other. But this is the truth ; there 

 is a new factor distinguishing spirit from nature ; in 

 knowledge it appears as reason, in conduct as will. One 

 is delighted to find Professor Karl Pearson helping, 

 though indirectly and involuntarily, to vindicate liber- 

 tarianism. 



Yet all is not done when we recognise the import- 

 ance of reason and will. We are not at the end of 

 social philosophy. We are only at the beginning of a 

 better start. It was intolerable extravagance when 

 Mr. Sutherland tried to make away with the existence 

 or distinctive character of mind, though he only blurted 

 out what many had been whispering behind their hands. 

 And yet man has a body as well as a mind ; he has not 

 ceased to be an animal, because he has become a spirit. 

 He is still an organism. Probably old-fashioned ethics 

 and libertarian philosophy made matters too easy for 

 themselves by ignoring everything except the presence 

 of reason and of free-will. We must keep both sides in 

 view. May we advance a step further ? May we say 

 that the two sides are not to be contemplated as two 

 heterogeneous things soul and body linked together 



