2 1 8 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



sophy is, on this supposition, founded on an entirely 

 materialistic basis. What is latent in the incompre- 

 hensible we cannot discover; what lies in the know- 

 able is the law of physical force dominant everywhere. 

 It is a mere evasion of a conclusion repugnant to- 

 reason to carry us back to an ultimate actuality 

 which is neither matter nor spirit, but is manifested 

 in both; seeing that the manifestations of the un- 

 knowable in mind are wholly conditioned and are 

 irresistibly determined by the laws of matter and 

 motion, and stand in a relation to the thrill of the 

 nerve centres as definitely fixed as a musical note to 

 the vibration of a harp-string. Conditioned in one 

 mode the inscrutable reality is matter, conditioned 

 otherwise it is mind : but as mind the law of its 

 manifestation is subsumed under and wholly shaped 

 by the laws in which it is conditioned as matter. It 

 is clear that evolutionism is, as a philosophy of the 

 knowable, in principle and in effect, thoroughly 

 materialistic : it enthrones physical force as sovereign 

 over the whole extent of knowledge. 



SECTION III. 



THE UNIT OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 



On the evolution hypothesis mind is a growth. 

 To bring the growth of mind into harmony with the 



