PROFESSOR VTRVHOW ANT) EVOLUTION. C53 



The reverse process of the production of motion by con- 

 sciousness is equally unpresentable to the mind. We are 

 here in fact on the boundary line of the intellect, where 

 the ordinary canons of science fail to extricate us. If we 

 are true to these canons, we must deny to subjective phe- 

 nomena all influence on physical processes. The me- 

 chanical philosopher, as such, will never place a state of 

 consciousness and a group of molecules in the relation of 

 mover and moved. Observation proves them to interact; 

 but, in passing from the one to the other, we meet a blank 

 which the logic of deduction is unable to fill. This, the 

 reader will remember, is the conclusion at which I had 

 arrived more than twenty years ago. I lay bare unspar- 

 ingly the central difficulty of the materialist, and tell him 

 that the facts of observation which he considers so simple 

 are " almost as difficult to be seized mentally as the idea 

 of a soul." I go further, and say, in effect, to those who 

 wish to retain this idea, " If you abandon the interpreta- 

 tions of grosser minds, who image the soul as a Psyche 

 which could be thrown out of the window an entity 

 which is usually occupied, we know not how, among the 

 molecules of the brain, but which on due occasion, such as 

 the intrusion of a bullet or the blow of a club, can fly away 

 into other regions of space if, abandoning this heathen 

 notion, you consent to approach the subject in the only way 

 in which approach is possible if you consent to make 

 your soul a poetic rendering of a phenomenon which, as 

 I have taken more pains than anybody else to show you, 

 refuses the yoke of ordinary physical laws then I, for 

 one, would not object to this exercise of ideality." I 

 say it stronglv, but with good temper, that the theologian, 

 or the defender of theology, who hacks and scourges me 

 for putting the question in this light is guilty of black 

 ingratitude. 



Notwithstanding the agreement thus far pointed out, 

 there are certain points in Professor Yirchow's lecture to 

 which I should feel inclined to take exception. I think it 

 was hardly necessary to associate the theory of evolution 

 with socialism; it may be even questioned whether it was 

 correct to do so. As Lange remarks, the aim of. socialism, 

 or of its extreme leaders, is to overthrow the existing 

 systems of government, ard anything that helps them tu 



