Life and Matter 199 



must underlie the material fabric half 

 displayed, half concealed, by the environ- 

 ment, and intelligible only to a kindred 

 spirit. Thus the scheme of law and order 

 dimly dawns upon the nascent soul, and it 

 begins to form clear conceptions of truth, 

 goodness, and beauty ; it may achieve some- 

 thing of permanent value, as a work of 

 art or of literature ; it may enter regions of 

 emotion and may evolve ideas of the loftiest 

 kind ; it may degrade itself below the beasts, 

 or it may soar till it is almost divine. 



Is it the material molecular aggregate 

 that has of its own unaided latent power 

 generated this individuality, acquired this 

 character, felt these emotions, evolved these 

 ideas ? There are some who try to think 

 that it is. There are others who recognise 

 in this extraordinary development a contact 

 between this material frame of things and a 

 universe higher and other than anything 

 known to our senses ; a universe not 

 dominated by Physics and Chemistry, but 

 utilising the interactions of matter for its 



