COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



duction is utterly beyond the bounds of possi- 

 bility. A brief consideration will suffice to show 

 us that one of the great results of the discovery 

 of the correlation of forces is the final destruc- 

 tion of the central argument by which material- 

 ism has sought to maintain its position. Hence- 

 forth the spiritualistic hypothesis may, perhaps, 

 be still regarded as on trial, in so far as it needs 

 much further explanation and limitation ; but 

 the materialistic hypothesis is doomed irretriev- 

 ably. 



For let us note well what is implied in the 

 assertion that sun-derived radiance is metamor- 

 phosed, first into the static energy of vegetable 

 tissue, and afterwards into the dynamic energy 

 which maintains the multiform activity of the 

 animal organism ; and that through the libera- 

 tion of a part of such dynamic energy, in the 

 form of discharges between interconnected gan- 

 glia, there are rendered possible the phenomena 

 of conscious activity.^ Let us endeavour to mark 

 out precisely what is meant by this assertion. In 

 its present form it is a concrete statement, based 

 upon the abstract truths that, within the limits 

 of our experierfce, any given species of motion 

 whatever has acquired its distinctive attributes 

 through transformation from some other species, 

 and will again lose these distinctive attributes 

 through a subsequent transformation. For ex- 

 ^ See above, vol. ii. pp. 331, 339. 

 274 



