MATTER AND SPIRIT 



an Inscrutable Existence reveals itself to us 

 within the limits of our terrestrial experience. 

 It must always be borne in mind that we go 

 with Berkeley to the full extent of asserting that 

 the term " matter " means, not the occult real- 

 ity, but the group of phenomena which are 

 known as resistance, extension, colour, etc.^ If 

 now we proceed to the outermost verge of ad- 

 missible speculation, and inquire for a moment 

 what may perhaps be the nature of that Inscru- 

 table Existence of which the universe of phe- 

 nomena is the multiform manifestation, we shall 

 find that its intimate essence may conceivably 

 be identifiable with the intimate essence of what 

 we know as Mind. In order to show how this 

 can be, I shall cite from Mr. Spencer a some- 

 what lengthy passage, to which the attention of 

 critics has hitherto been too little directed. 



" Mind, as known to the possessor of it, is a 

 circumscribed aggregate of activities ; and the 

 cohesion of these activities, one with another, 

 throughout the aggregate, compels the postula- 

 tion of a something of which they are the activ- 

 ities. But the same experiences which make 

 him aware of this coherent aggregate of mental 

 activities simultaneously make him aware of 

 activities that are not included in it — outlying 

 activities which become known by their effects 

 on this aggregate, but which are experimentally 

 ^ See above, vol. i. p. 128. 



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