Scientific Sophisms. 171 



siology " to find materials for the utter refuta- 

 tion of materialism. 



" We class," he says, " sensations along with 

 emotions, and volitions, and thoughts, under the 

 common head of states of consciousness. But 

 what consciousness is, we know not ; and how 

 it is that anything so remarkable as a state 

 of consciousness comes about as the result of 

 irritating nervous tissue is just as unaccount- 

 able as the appearance of the Djin when Alad- 

 din rubbed his lamp in the story." 1 



" Some," says Dr. Beale, " have taught that 

 mind transcends life, and life transcends che- 

 mistry, just as chemical affinity transcends me- 

 chanics. But no one has proved, and no one 

 can prove, that mind and life are in any way 

 related to chemistry and mechanics." 2 Even if 

 the step from mechanics to chemistry had been 

 admitted as ascertained and proved, it would 

 still remain true that the step from chemistry 

 to life is a mere unsupported assumption ; an 

 assumption "without the slightest reason." 



" How any material impressions should awake 

 thought ; but, still more, how, in independence of 

 all impressions, thought should be all the while 

 there, alive and active, a world by itself that 



1 P. 193- 



* " Protoplasm," p. 299, 



