LIFE AND MIND 



quite special question — how the digestive or- 

 gans become fitted to the materials they have 

 to act upon." But a moment's introspection 

 will make it clear to every one " that he can- 

 not frame any psychological conception without 

 looking at internal coexistences and sequences 

 in their adjustments to external coexistences and 

 sequences. If he studies the simplest act "of 

 perception, as that of localizing a touch in some 

 part of his skin, the indispensable terms of his 

 inquiry are: on the one hand a thing (i) and 

 a position (2), both of which he regards as ob- 

 jective ; and on the other hand a sensation (3), 

 and a state of consciousness constituting his 

 apprehension of position (4), both of which he 

 regards as subjective. Or, if he takes for his 

 problem one of his complex sentiments, as that 

 of justice, he cannot represent to himself this 

 sentiment, or give any meaning to its name, 

 without calling to mind actions and relations 

 supposed to exist in the environment : neither 

 this nor any other emotion can be aroused in 

 consciousness even vaguely, without positing 

 something beyond consciousness to which it 

 refers."^ 



Let us observe, in passing, that these consid- 

 erations are quite incompatible with Material- 

 ism. The doctrine of the materialists rests partly 

 on the assumption that the study of the laws of 



^ Spencer, Principles of Psychology, vol. i. p. 133. 



"5 



