170 The Three Beginnings. 



support of these beliefs there is none that will 

 bear investigation, none that would convince 

 any reasonable being." " Such opinions and 

 beliefs on the mechanics of life and thought 

 are certainly very striking, but it is remarkable 

 that no one who entertains them has considered 

 it necessary to adduce facts or arguments in 

 their support. The mechanical theory of life 

 and' consciousness rests upon authority whose 

 utterances are dogmatic and not dependent upon 

 reason, fact, observation, and experiment." l 



Widely different is the language of Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer, and of Professor Tyndall, 

 in which we are assured that "our states of 

 consciousness are mere symbols of an outside 

 entity which produces them and determines the 

 order of their succession, but the real nature of 

 which we can never know." 3 It must not be 

 concealed however that, after all, Professor 

 Tyndall does not differ from Professor Huxley 

 more widely than Professor Huxley differs from 

 himself. It is not always that he indulges in 

 prophetic imaginings of " a mechanical equiva- 

 lent of consciousness." When, as above quoted, 

 he tells us of what he "holds" "with the 

 materialist," we have only to turn to his " Phy- 



1 " Protoplasm ; or Matter and Life." 1874. P. 119. 

 "Belfast Address," p. 57. 



