CHAP. XI.] AN EPISODE. 353 



ditions may determine its sudden and definite manifestation, 

 is maintained more strongly than ever by some men of 

 science, and amongst them Dr. JBastian. There is one ex 

 pression of Mr. Wright s which it will be well to notice ; he 

 says : It is not impossible that vital phenomena themselves 

 include orders offerees as distinct as the lowest vital are from 

 chemical phenomena. May not the contrast of merely vital 

 or vegetative phenomena with those of sensibility be of such 

 order ? I notice with pleasure this hopeful expression. It 

 is most true that there are these differences of order, but 

 there is one more yet. The intellectual or rational order is 

 as distinct from the merely sensible as is the sensible from 

 the vegetative, or this last from the chemical. Here we 

 touch the one great and fatal error of so many of our leading 

 naturalists. The confusion of intellect with sensation, of 

 reason with the association of sensible images is, I am per 

 suaded, the fundamental speculative vice of the day. Before 

 concluding this reply there are a few more objections which 

 Mr. Wright does me the honour to make, that must be 

 noticed one after the other. 



&quot; I am represented as passing an unfair judgment because 

 I say that, though feeling myself incompetent to Verbal criti . 

 advance an opinion as to the correctness of Sir cisms - 

 William Thomson s astronomical calculations, I yet assert 

 that the fact that they have not been refuted pleads strongly 

 in their favour, when we consider how much they tell against 

 the theory of Mr. Darwin. For my part I am unable to see 

 how an incompetence for judging astronomical calculations 

 necessarily carries with it an incompetence for judging of 

 the probability of their truth, resulting from their non-refuta 

 tion by those whose interest would lead them to refute, and 

 who possess the knowledge and ability to enable them ably 

 to handle the requisite questions and calculations. 



&quot; Again, Mr. Wright does not see how, with such uncer 

 tain &quot; fortuitous, occasional, and intermitting &quot; elements, I 

 could have succeeded in making any calculations at all. I 

 venture to think, however, that an inability to determine the 



2 A 



