Here, indeed, we arrive at the barrier which needs to be per- 

 petually pointed out; alike to those who seek materialistic expla- 

 nations of mental phenomena, and to those who are alarmed lest 

 such explanations may be found. The last class prove by their 

 fear, almost as much as the first prove by their hope, that they 

 believe Mind may possibly be interpreted in terms of Matter; 

 whereas many whom they vituperate as materialists are pro- 

 foundly convinced that there is not the remotest possibility of so 

 interpreting them. HERBERT SPENCER. 



VI. 



SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM* 

 1868. 



celebrated Fichte, in his lectures on the 'Voca- 

 -L tion of the Scholar/ insisted on a culture which 

 should be not one-sided but all-sided. The scholar's 

 intellect was to expand spherically, and not in a single 

 direction only. In one direction, however, Fichte re- 

 quired that the scholar should apply himself directly to 

 nature, becomes a creator of knowledge, and thus repay, 

 by original labours of his own, the immense debt he 

 owed to the labour of others. It was these which 

 enabled him to supplement the knowledge derived 

 from his own researches, so as to render his culture 

 rounded and not one-sided. 



As regards science, Fichte's idea is to some extent 

 illustrated by the constitution and labours of the 



President's Address to the Mathematical and Physical Sec- 

 tion of the British Association at Norwich. 

 85 75 



