COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



is through slow steps of mental progress that 

 accompany slow steps of bodily progress, tacitly 

 asserts the same relation of Mind and Matter 

 which is asserted by one who traces out the evo- 

 lution of the nervous system and the accompany- 

 ing evolution of intelligence, from the lowest to 

 the highest forms of life." ^ 



It appears therefore, that, so far as objective 

 psychology is concerned, but little support has 

 as yet been obtained for the materialistic hypo- 

 thesis. The most that psychology, working with 

 the aid of physiology, has thus far achieved, has 

 been to show that, within the limits of our ex- 

 perience, there is an invariable concomitance be- 

 tween psychical phenomena and the phenomena 

 of nervous action ; and this, as we have seen, is 

 but the elaborate analytic statement of a plain 

 truth, which is asserted alike by philosophers 

 of every school and by the common sense of 

 every human being, — namely, that from birth 

 until death there is no manifestation of Mind 

 except in association with Body. But beyond 

 this it is quite clear that objective psychology 

 can never go. The most that psychology, work- 

 ing with the aid of physiology, can ever achieve, 

 will be to show the invariable concomitance be- 

 tween nervous and psychical phenomena, within 

 the limits of our experience. The most it can 

 ever do will be to illustrate, with more and more 



1 Principles of Psychology, vol. i. p. 617. [§ 269.] 

 272 



J 



