14 WHAT IS DARWINISM? 



nomerica. Further than that, m that direction, 

 our ignorance is profound. He proves that 

 space cannot be an entity, an attribute, or 

 a category of thought, or a nonentity. The 

 same is true of time, of motion, of matter, of 

 electricity, hght, magnetism, etc., etc. They 

 all resolve themselves into appearances pro- 

 duced by an unknown cause. 



As the question, What is matter ? is a crucial 

 one, he dwells upon it in various parts of his 

 writings. Newton's theory of ultimate atoms ; 

 Leibnitz's doctrine of monads ; and the dynam- 

 ic theory of Boscovich, which makes matter 

 mere centres of force, are all dismissed as un- 

 thinkable. It is not very clear in what sense 

 that word is to be taken. Sometimes it seems 

 to mean, meaningless ; at others, self-contra- 

 dictory or absurd • at others, inconceivable, i. e. 

 that of which no conception or mental image 

 can be formed ; at any rate, it implies what 

 is unknowable and untenable. The result is, 

 so far as matter is concerned, that we know 

 nothing about it. " Our conception of matter," 

 he says, " reduced to its simplest shape, is 

 that of coexistent positions that offer resist- 

 ance, as contrasted with our conception of 

 space in which the coexistent positions offer 



