MATTER AND SPIRIT 



interests is liable to be accompanied by a lofty 

 disregard for that accuracy of statement which 

 to the scientific inquirer seems so indispensable. 

 It appears to be tacitly assumed that the inter- 

 ests of Truth in the abstract can be rightly 

 subserved only by the sacrifice of divers hum- 

 ble concrete truths. Abundant evidence of this 

 is to be found in the tracts and speeches of 

 "teetotalers," " labour reformers/*" friends of 

 the People," and other sentimentalists. As re- 

 gards theologians, a great deal is to be said in 

 behalf of their intolerance of opinions which 

 they honestly believe to be fraught with spirit- 

 ual and moral evil. But this zeal in the cause 

 of Truth too often betrays them into misrepre- 

 sentations which suggest that the maxim Nulla 

 fides cum hcsreticis has not yet been completely 

 expunged from their moral code. Especially 

 in the use of unpopular question-begging epi- 

 thets they are by no means sufficiently scru- 

 pulous. Such epithets as " materialism " and 

 "atheism," being extremely unpopular, have 

 long been made to do heavy duty in lieu of 

 argument. In this sort of barbaric warfare the 

 term " materialism " is especially convenient, 

 by reason of a treacherous ambiguity in its con- 

 notations. Certain abstract theorems of meta- 

 physics are correctly described as constituting 

 materialism ; and the persons who assert them 

 are correctly called materialists. On the other 



\ 



