86 Life and Matter [chap. v. 



The meaning of Goodness, the whole 

 domain of ethics, and the higher possibili- 

 ties of sainthood of which the human spirit 

 has shown itself capable, are at present out- 

 side his domain ; and if a man of science 

 seeks to dogmatise concerning the emotions 

 and the will, and asserts that he can reduce 

 them to atomic forces and motions, because 

 he has learnt to recognise the undoubted 

 truth that atomic forces and motions must 

 accompany them and constitute the 

 machinery of their manifestation here and 

 now, he is exhibiting the smallness of his 

 conceptions and gibbeting himself as a 

 laughing-stock to future generations. 



The atmosphere and full meaning of 

 Beauty also he can only dimly grasp. If he 

 seeks to explain it in terms of sexual selec- 

 tion, or any other small conception which 

 he has recently been able to form in con- 

 nection with vital procedure on this planet, 

 he is explaining nothing : he is merely 

 showing how the perception of beauty may 

 operate in certain cases ; but the inner 



