xin HUMISM AND HUMANISM 245 



science can be restored by metaphysics without a mon 

 strous paradox. 



But, after all, Naturalism in psychology is a small and 

 comparatively harmless affair. It has its uses, and as a 

 temporary expedient may even be salutary for the restricted 

 purpose of a special science. There is nothing, therefore, 

 in its use that need alarm philosophy. It can always be 

 regarded as methodological, and need not be taken as 

 true beyond the point at which it ceases to be useful. 

 If the Humian denial of Activity merely meant Naturalism, 

 philosophy could well survive the demonstration. 



There are, however, other consequences implicit in 

 Hume s denial which might well appal all but the ex- 

 tremest sceptics, or rather nihilists. If we have the 

 courage to work out the implications of Hume s philo 

 sophy completely, it will be seen to come to much more 

 than a revised notion of causation, or than scepticism 

 about some axioms of science. What it comes to is an 

 utter cancellation of all ideas of agency, activity, cause, 

 power, efficacy, force, energy, not only in us, but through 

 out the Universe. All these terms, it should be noted, 

 are not merely inexact adumbrations of more efficient 

 truths, unsuited for the clear thinking of the sciences ; 

 they are essentially illusory and unmeaning, and to be 

 wiped out of the vocabulary of those who would see 

 reality as it truly is. The whole world would thus be 

 reduced to a mere sequence of events, to a flow of 

 uncomprehended happenings within us and without us, of 

 which we should be the impotent spectators, inscrutably 

 endowed with a consciousness which might be written off 

 the ledger of the Universe without affecting its sum total 

 in the least degree. To ask what makes the Flow 

 flow ? is futile ; to control it, is impossible ; to observe 

 it, is vain ; all we can do (if we can do aught) is to let 

 ourselves drift &amp;gt; and to cultivate as much equanimity or 

 indifference as we can muster towards what is fated to 

 befall us. In short, the systems of all the sciences are 

 shattered, and the world, whether psychical or physical, 

 relapses into Chaos. 



