2 28 Thomas Henry Huxley 



it. The stud}- of the human mind naturally has at- 

 tracted the attention of thinkers almost since the be- 

 ginning of philosophy, but until this century, with a 

 few crude exceptions, it has been conducted entirely 

 apart from anatomy and physiology. Advances in 

 these physical sciences, however, have changed that, 

 and the modern psychologist has to begin by being a 

 physiologist and anatomist. 



" Surely no oue who is cognisant of the facts of the case, 

 nowadays, doubts that the roots of psychology lie in the phys- 

 iology of the nervous system. What we call the operations of 

 the mind are the functions of the brain, and the materials of 

 consciousness are products of cerebral activity. Cabanis may 

 have made use of crude and misleading phraseology when 

 he said that the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes 

 bile ; but the conception which that much-abused phrase em- 

 bodies is, nevertheless, far more consistent with fact than the 

 popular notion that the mind is a metaphysical entity seated in 

 the head, but as independent of the brain as a telegraph operator 

 is of his instrument. It is hardly necessary to point out that 

 the doctrine just laid down is what is commonly called materi- 

 alism. I am not sure that the adjective ' crass,' which appears 

 to have a special charm for rhetorical sciolists, would not be 

 applied to it. But it is, nevertheless, true that the doctrine 

 contains nothing inconsistent with the purest idealism," 



The whole doctrine of evolution is similarly a materi- 

 alistic account of natural phenomena, in the popular 

 and not the philosophical meaning of the term. But 

 even within this popular meaning, it is extremely neces- 

 sary to have an exact conception of the limits within 

 which Huxley was materialistic. Take for instance 

 the question of the origin of life. It would be one of the 

 greatest achievements of physical science could it shew 

 that life was not inco-ordinate with non-living physical 

 phenomena, but was a special case of them. Huxley 

 knew that this advance had not yet been made. 



