120 LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [VIL 



all vital action may, with equal propriety, be said to be the 

 result of the molecular forces of the protoplasm which displays 

 it. And if so, it must be true, in the same sense and to the 

 same extent, that the thoughts to which I am now giving 

 utterance, and your thoughts regarding them, are the expres 

 sion of molecular changes in that matter of life which is the 

 source of our other vital phenomena. 



Past experience leads me to be tolerably certain that, when 

 the propositions I have just placed before you are accessible to 

 public comment and criticism, they will be condemned by many 

 zealous persons, and perhaps by some few of the wise and 

 thoughtful. I should not wonder if &quot;gross and brutal mate 

 rialism &quot; were the mildest phrase applied to them in certain 

 quarters. And, most undoubtedly, the terms of the propositions 

 are distinctly materialistic. Nevertheless two things are certain ; 

 the one, that I hold the statements to be substantially true ; 

 the other, that I, individually, am no materialist, but, on the 

 contrary, believe materialism to involve grave philosophical 

 error. 



This union of materialistic terminology with the repudiation 

 of materialistic philosophy I share with some of the most 

 thoughtful men with whom I am acquainted. And, when I 

 first undertook to deliver the present discourse, it appeared to 

 me to be a fitting opportunity to explain how such a union is 

 not only consistent with, but necessitated by, sound logic. I 

 purposed to lead you through the territory of vital phenomena 

 to the materialistic slough in which you find yourselves now 

 plunged, and then to point out to you the sole path by which, in 

 my judgment, extrication is possible. 



An occurrence of which I was unaware until my arrival here 

 last night renders this line of argument singularly opportune. I 

 found in your papers the eloquent address &quot; On the Limits of 

 Philosophical Inquiry,&quot; which a distinguished prelate of the 

 English Church delivered before the members of the Philoso 

 phical Institution on the previous day. My argument, also, 



