MENTAL FACULTIES 



inclination and voluntary motion of the higher organisms 

 seems free and independent, because in the ceaseless circula- 

 tion of matter in them the atoms are constantly changing 

 their relative positions and manner of combination, and hence 

 the final resultant of the innumerable voluntary motions of 

 the constituent atoms is highly composite and ceaselessly 

 varying. 



" While we thus from the mechanical standpoint of monism 

 conceive all matter as animate, every material atom as pro- 

 vided with a constant and eternal atomic soul, we fear not to 

 bring upon ourselves the charge of materialism. For our mon- 

 istic standpoint is as far removed from one-sided materialism 

 as from empty spiritualism. In this view only can we find a 

 reconciliation of the crude atomic, and the empty dynamic 

 theories of the universe, which have hitherto so violently 

 contended against one another, and both of which in their 

 one-sidedness are dualistic. As the mass of the atom is 

 indestructible and unchangeable, so the atomic soul insepar- 

 ably connected therewith is eternal and imperishable. 

 Transitory and mortal are only the countless and ever- 

 changing combinations of the atoms, the infinitely manifold 

 modalities in which the atoms unite to form molecules, the 

 molecules to form crystals and plastids, the plastids to form 

 organisms. This monistic conception of atoms is alone in 

 harmony with the great laws of the ' Conservation of Energy ' 

 and the ' Indestructibility of Matter ' which the natural 

 philosophy of the present day rightly regards as its irremov- 

 able foundations." 



I would only ask what is materialism if this view of 

 Haeckel's is not on what grounds does he assert that it is 

 not ? To say that the atoms are " animated " is merely to give 

 his doctrine an attractive appearance in the eyes of the 

 opponents of materialism. 



Although I am very much at one with Haeckel in giving 



