MATTER AND SPIRIT 



minute detail, that same proposition in asserting 

 which it has been from the outset upheld by the 

 universal consent of mankind. To enlarge the 

 scope of that proposition, to add to it new ul- 

 terior implications, must forever remain beyond 

 its power. Or if this is still not perfectly clear, 

 the kindred considerations now to be drawn from 

 the study of transcendental physics will make it 

 clear. 



It has been not uncommonly taken for granted, 

 both by materialists and by theologians, that 

 molecular physics, in establishing a quantitative 

 correlation between the various modes of motion 

 manifested throughout organic and inorganic 

 nature, has supplied a basis whereon to found 

 some theory of the materiality of Mind. Here, 

 as before, the theologians have accepted the 

 materialistic inference and aimed their assaults 

 at the irrefragable scientific theorem, instead 

 of admitting the scientific theorem and show- 

 ing that, when rightly understood, it does not 

 afford a premise for the materialistic inference. 

 Mr. Spencer pithily remarks that the one class 

 show by their fears,^quite as much as the others 

 show by their hopes, that they believe in the 

 theoretical possibility of resolving mental phe- 

 nomena into motions of matter ; whereas those 

 who really comprehend the import of modern 

 discoveries in molecular physics are more thor- 

 oughly convinced than ever that any such re- 



VOL, IV ^73 



