122 Life and Matter [chap.vi. 



old garment, its curves and folds can 

 suggest him vividly to our recollection. I 

 would not too blatantly assert that even a 

 doll on which much affection had been 

 lavished was wholly inert and material in the 

 inorganic sense. The tattered colours of a 

 regiment are sometimes thought worthy to be 

 hung in a church. They are a symbol truly, 

 but they may be something more. I have 

 reason to believe that a trace of individuality 

 can cling about terrestrial objects in a vague 

 and almost imperceptible fashion, but to 

 a degree sufficient to enable those traces 

 to be detected by persons with suitable 

 faculties. 



There is a deep truth in materialism ; and 

 it is the foundation of the material parts of 

 worship sacraments and the like. It is 

 possible to exaggerate their efficacy, but it 

 is also possible to ignore it too completely. 

 The whole universe is metrical, everything 

 is a question of degree. A property like 

 radio-activity or magnetism, discovered con- 

 spicuously in one form of matter, turns out 



