78 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



one of them has been verified in physical science, there is left 

 the strong presumption that the remainder will turn out to be 

 as far from the truth as have those which are already settled, 

 if, peradventure, anything can be said to be settled. 



Perhaps most persons who are satisfied with the modern 

 doctrine of phenomenal relations and are willing to concede 

 that our notions of the constitution and nature of matter 

 needed revision, and who do not object on any ground to the 

 physical interpretations and explanations, may feel and say : 

 " Granted all you say about the whole of physical science, that 

 matter itself is not what it was thought to be or to be like, even 

 to the extent of being alive in some measure, it would not fol- 

 low that matter as such could feel or think or know, and this 

 is what the whole contention is and has been about, not whether 

 the physical constitution of things is thus or thus. There is 

 no evidence that matter as such is intelligent." This is a judg- 

 ment as to the nature and possibilities of matter based on some 

 a priori philosophy, not upon a study of the thing itself. Who 

 are they who make such an assertion ? Those who know most 

 about matter and its possibilities ? Any one who could stand 

 an examination upon the subject for five minutes? I think not. 

 Such may have feeling but not knowledge for this belief. If 

 one is to explain phenomena on the basis of what is known, if 

 all kinds of phenomena are necessarily interrelated, then it is 

 proper to ask if there be any evidence that such activities as 

 feeling, knowing, thinking, exist apart from material structure ? 

 As a matter of fact is it not entirely true that wherever there 

 is evidence for either there is abundant evidence for material 

 structure? If such matter be inert, as has been so long assumed, 

 then it was a fair inference that something other than its own 

 resources must be summoned in order to account for any kind 

 of a happening. If, on the other hand, matter be not inert but 

 endowed with energy, then what matter can do and what may be 

 expected of it need further looking into, as is indeed the case. 



If what I have presented has any proper warrant in fact, there 

 is then a warning to be heeded against assuming on limited 

 knowledge what are the possible properties of matter and assert- 

 ing what it cannot do. The difficulty of forming any concep- 



