io6 Scientific Sophisms. 



Horace was undoubtedly right : 

 ". . . quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus." * 



But had he lived in our time, and written of 

 the Homers of modern materialism ; had he 

 heard their conjectural hypotheses, their con- 

 flicting asseverations, their autocratic dogma- 

 tism ; 



" Matter is the origin of all that exists ; all 

 natural and mental forces are inherent in it " : 8 

 "All the natural bodies with which we are 

 acquainted are equally living: the distinction 

 which has been held as existing between tht 

 living and tJie dead does not really exist : " 8 

 " The eternal is the nothing of nature : " "There 

 is no other science than that which treats of 

 nothing :" 4 " Holothuriae engender snails ;" 5 and 

 " gazing upon a snail, one believes that he finds 

 the prophesying goddess sitting upon the tri- 

 pod ;" for "a snail is an exalted symbol of 

 mind, slumbering deeply within itself : " 6 while 



1 " Ars Poet.," 359. 



2 Buchner's " Kraft und Stoff." (Collingwood's Transla- 

 tion) p. 32. 



3 " Naturliche Schopfungsgeschichte." By Dr. Ernst 

 HaeckeL Sixth Edition, p. 21. 



4 " Physiophilosophy " of Prof. Oken. 

 6 Buchner's " Kraft und Stoff," p. 80, 

 Oken. 



