196 CLUES AND SUGGESTIONS CHAP. 



of mechanical motion and any of the 

 phenomena of sensation or of thought. 

 But whether this assertion be erroneous 

 or not, it is certainly not easily to be 

 reconciled with the claim of neutrality. 

 An assertion that all feeling may be cor- 

 related with certain organic motions in 

 the brain or nervous system may be 

 true. But that all " feeling" is " trans- 

 formable into " mere mechanical motion 

 is an assertion of the most pronounced 

 materialism. The truth is, that so pro- 

 foundly hostile is Mr. Herbert Spencer 

 to all readings of mental agency in 

 natural phenomena that when his own 

 favourite doctrine that of evolution 

 gives a clear testimony in favour of such 

 readings he not only rejects its testi- 

 mony, but tries all he can to silence its 

 very voice. 



I know of no subject in which the 

 pure idea and the pure facts of evolu- 



