THE CELL DOCTRINE. 103 



ness, that is, matter and spirit are both names for 

 the imaginary substrata of groups of natural phe- 

 nomena. Dire necessity and " iron " law are gratu- 

 itously invented bugbears. If there be an " iron " 

 law, it is that of gravitation, and if there be a phys- 

 ical necessity it is that a stone unsupported will fall 

 to the ground. We know nothing more of this latter 

 phenomenon, except that stones always have fallen 

 to the ground under these conditions, and that they 

 will continue to fall to the ground thus unsupported. 



It is simply convenient to indicate that all the con- 

 ditions of belief in this case have been fulfilled, by 

 calling the statement that unsupported stones will 

 fall to the earth a " law of nature." But when for 

 will we exchange must, we introduce an idea of neces- 

 sity which does not lie in the observed facts, and is 

 not warranted by anything that is discovered else- 

 where. And with regard to which Prof. Huxley 

 says: "For my part, I utterly repudiate and anathe- 

 matize the intruder. Fact I know, and Law I 

 know; but what is this Necessity, save an empty 

 shadow of my own mind's throwing? But, if it is 

 certain that we can have no knowledge of the nature 

 of either matter or spirit, and that the notion of 

 necessity is something illegitimately thrust into the 

 perfectly legitimate conception of law, the materialis- 

 tic position that there is nothing in the world but matter, 

 force, and necessity, is as utterly devoid of justification as 

 the most baseless of theological dogmas. 



" The fundamental doctrines of materialism, like 

 those of spiritualism, and most other 'isms,' lie out- 

 side 'the limits of philosophical inquiry,' and David 



