g 2 WORD MACHINERY 



which not one of them could occur, or even be conceived 

 as occurring in thought, is persistently ignored. The body 

 and all its organs are spoken of as a mere machine, and 

 as containing machinery only, and not a particle of living 

 matter. It is not likely that any one will succeed in con- 

 vincing those who have committed themselves to the 

 mechanical theory of their error, but at any rate, the 

 fallacies may be discovered by any one who will only read 

 the physical writings with attention; and it would I think 

 be difficult to find a more significant instance of faulty 

 reasoning on the machine side of thought, than in some of 

 Mr. Huxley's papers, particularly in his account of the 

 action of the word-producing machine, to which, therefore, 

 I propose to call the reader's attention. 



Of the Word-producing Machinery and of Setting it in 

 Motion. " We desire," says Mr. Huxley, " the utterance of 

 certain words : we touch the spring of the word-machine 

 and they are spoken. Just as Descartes' engineer when he 

 wanted a particular hydraulic machine to play, had only to 

 turn a tap, and what he wished was done."* But what and 

 where is the we of Mr. Huxley ? What is the spring of his 

 word-machine ? Where is it placed, and how is it to be 

 found ? How came the word-machine into being, and how 

 was its spring formed ? Jtist like the hydraulic machine of 

 course ; upon the same principles no doubt ; only they were 

 just a very little modified ! 



Concerning the " Engineer " who governed the actions 

 of the hydraulic machinery, there could be no doubt, for 



* An Address to the Cambridge Young Men's Christian Associa- 

 tion, "Macmillan's Magazine," vol. xxii, 1870, p. 77. The italics in 

 this and other extracts in the text are my own. 



