50 Life and Matter [chap. m. 



on the contrary, wholly new properties may 

 make their appearance simply by aggrega- 

 tion ; though I admit that such a proposition 

 is by no means obvious, and that it may 

 be a legitimate subject for controversy. But 

 into that question our author does not 

 enter ; and even when he has conferred 

 on the atoms these astounding properties, he 

 abstains from what would seem a natural 

 development : for his doctrine is that our 

 power is actually less than that of the atoms, 

 that instead of utilising the attractions and 

 repulsions, or " likes and dislikes,' ' of our 

 constituent particles, and directing them by 

 the aggregate of conscious will-power to 

 some preconceived end, we ourselves, on 

 the contrary, are dominated and controlled 

 by them ; so that freedom of the will is an 

 illusion. 



Freedom being thus disposed of, Im- 

 mortality presents no difficulty ; a soul is 

 the operation of a group of cells, and so the 

 existence of man clearly begins and ends 

 with that of his terrestrial body : 



