THE BELFAST ADDRESS. 469 
this issue of consciousness from the clash of atoms is not 
more incongruous than the flash of light from the union of 
oxygen and hydrogen. But I beg to say that it is. For 
such incongruity as the flash possesses is that which I now 
force upon your attention. The "flash" is an affair of 
consciousness, the objective counterpart of which is a 
vibration. It is a flash only by your interpretation. You 
are the cause of the apparent incongruity; and you are the 
thing that puzzles me. I need not remind you that the 
great Leibiiitz felt the difficulty which I feel; and that to 
get rid~bf this monstrous deduction of life from death he 
displaced your atoms by his monads, which were more or 
less perfect mirrors of the universe, and out of the sum- 
mation and integration of which he supposed all the 
phenomena of life sentient, intellectual, and emotional 
to arise. 
" Your difficulty, then, as I see you are ready to admit, 
is quite as great as mine. You cannot satisfy the human 
understanding in its demand for logical continuity between 
molecular processes and the phenomena of consciousness. 
This is a rock on which Materialism must inevitably split 
whenever it pretends to be a complete philosophy of life. 
What is the moral, my Lucre tiau? You and I are not 
likely to indulge in ill-temper in the discussion of these 
great topics, where we see so much room for honest differ- 
ences of opinion. But there are people of less wit or more 
bigotry (I say it with humility), on both sides, who are 
ever ready to mingle auger and vituperation with such dis- 
cussions. There are, for example, writers of note and in- 
fluence at the present day, who are not ashamed publicly 
to assume the " deep personal sin " of a great logician to 
be the cause of his unbelief in a theologic dogma.* And 
there are others who hold that we, who cherish our noble 
Bible, wrought as it has been into the constitution of our 
forefathers, and by inheritance into us, must necessarily be 
hypocritical and insincere. Let us disavow and discoun- 
tenance such people, cherishing the unswerving faith that 
* This is the aspect under which the late editor of the "Dublin 
Review " presented to his readers the memory of John Stuart Mill. 
I can only say, that 1 would as soon take my chance in the other 
world, in the company of the " unbeliever," as in that of his Jesuit 
detractor. In Dr. Ward we have an example of a wholesome aud 
vigorous uature, soured aud perverted by a poisonous creed. 
