A UNIVERSE OF MIND-STUFF 



deavoured to elucidate in the chapter on Matter 

 and Spirit in my " Cosmic Philosophy," though 

 the result was reached by different processes 

 of inference in the two cases. With Clifford's 

 further conclusion, that the complex web of hu- 

 man consciousness cannot survive the disintegra- 

 tion of the organic structure with which we in- 

 variably find it associated, I do not agree. It is 

 a conclusion not involved in the premises, and is 

 one which no scientific philosopher, as such, has 

 a right to draw. It necessitates as complete a 

 transgression of the bounds of experience as any 

 theologian is ever called upon to make. Least of 

 all would one expect to see Clifford drawing such 

 a conclusion and announcing it with a tinge of 

 dogmatic emphasis withal, after reading his 

 admirable remarks on Lobatchevski, where he 

 shows how strictly the modern thinker must 

 limit his generalizations to the region covered 

 by experience. Were it not for a trifle too much 

 of what Mr. Spencer would call the " anti-theo- 

 logical bias," Clifford's way of reasoning about 

 the universe would have left little to be desired. 



November, 1879. 



307 



