Here, indeed, we arrive at the barrier which needs to be perpetually pointed 

 out; alike to those who seek materialistic explanations 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 profoundly convinced that there 

 is not the remotest possibility of so interpreting them. HERBERT SPENCER 



VI 



SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM ' 

 1868 



THE celebrated Fichte, in his lectures on the "Voca- 

 tion of the Scholar," insisted on a culture which 

 should be not one-sided, but all-sided. The schol- 

 ar's intellect was to expand spherically, and not in a sin- 

 gle direction only. In one direction, however, Fichte 

 required that the scholar should apply himself directly 

 to nature, become a creator of knowledge, and thus re- 

 pay, by original labors of his own, the immense debt he 

 owed to the labors 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 labors of the British 

 Association. We have here a body of men engaged in 

 the pursuit of Natural Knowledge, but variously engaged. 



1 President's Address to the Mathematical and Physical Section of the 

 British Association at Norwich. 



(82) 



