NOTES 



PAGE 114 



The remainder of the essay endeavors to meet the charge 

 of materialism. The following is the conclusion : 



" In itself it is of little moment whether we express the 

 phaeuomena of matter in terms of spirit ; or the phaenomena 

 of spirit in terms of matter : matter may be regarded as a 

 form of thought, thought may be regarded as a property of 

 matter each statement has a certain relative truth. But 

 with a view to the progress of science, the materialistic 

 terminology is in every way to be preferred. For it con- 

 nects thought with the other phaenomena of the universe, 

 and suggests inquiry into the nature of those physical condi- 

 tions, or concomitants of thought, which are more or less 

 accessible to us, and a knowledge of which may, in future, 

 help us to exercise the same kind of control over the world 

 of thought, as we already possess in respect of the material 

 world ; whereas, the alternative, or spiritualistic, termi- 

 nology is utterly barren, and leads to nothing but obscurity 

 and confusion of ideas. 



" Thus there can be little doubt, that the further science 

 advances, the more extensively and consistently will all the 

 phaenomena of Nature be represented by materialistic for- 

 mulae and symbols. But the man of science, who, forgetting 

 the limits of philosophical inquiry, slides from these formu- 

 lae and symbols into what is commonly understood by mate- 

 rialism, seems to me to place himself on a level with the 

 mathematician, who should mistake the x's and y's with 

 which he works his problems, for real entities and with 

 this further disadvantage, as compared with the mathema- 

 tician, that the blunders of the latter are of no practical 

 consequence, while the errors of systematic materialism may 

 paralyze the energies and destroy the beauty of a life." 



ON CORAL AND CORAL REEFS (1870) 



PAGE 115 



On Coral and Coral Reefs : from Critiques and Addresses. 

 The essay was published in 1870. Sic et curalium : Thus 

 also the coral, as soon as it touches the air turns hard. 

 It was a soft plant under the water. Boccone (1633- 

 1704) : a noted Sicilian naturalist. 



PAGE 116 



Marsigli (1658-1730): an Italian soldier and naturalist. He 

 wrote A Physical History of the Sea. " Trait du Corail ": 

 " I made the coral bloom in vases full of sea-water, and I 

 noticed that what we believe to be the flower of this so- 

 called plant was in reality only an insect similar to a little 



