IN THE NOON OF SCIENCE 



There are questions of mind and there are questions 

 of matter; philosophy deals with the former, sci- 

 ence with the latter. The world of the unverifiable 

 is the world of the soul, the world of the verifiable 

 is the world of the senses. We have our spiritual 

 being in the one and our physical being in the 

 other, and science is utterly unable to bridge the 

 gulf that separates them. 



II 



The physico-chemical explanation of life and of 

 consciousness to which modern science seems more 

 and more inclined, falls upon some minds like a 

 shadow. In trying to explain life itself in terms of 

 physics and chemistry, science is at the end of its 

 tether. 



The inorganic world may grind away like the 

 great mill that it is, run by heat, gravity, chemical 

 affinity, and the like, and we are not disturbed; but 

 in the world of organic matter we strike a new prin- 

 ciple, and in any interpretation of it in terms of me- 

 chanics and chemistry alone, we feel matter press- 

 ing in upon us like the four walls coming together. 

 Why does one dislike the suggestion of machinery 

 in relation to either our minds or our bodies? Why 

 does the chemico-mechanical explanation of any 

 living thing give one a chill like the touch of cold 

 iron? Is it because we feel that though life may be 

 inseparably connected with chemical and mechani* 

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