I 



THE FINAL ANSWER TO MATERIALISM. 295 



^Bw 



and delicate preparations. On this analogy, then, 

 we may say that the lower animals are still en- 

 tranced in the lower stage of brute lethargy, while 

 e have passed into the higher phase of somnam- 

 bulism, which already permits us strange glimpses 

 of a lucidity that divines the realities of a transcen- 

 dent world. 



And this gives the final answer to Materialism : it 

 consists in showing in detail what was asserted at 

 the outset (§ i6), viz., that Materialism is a hysteron 

 proteron, a putting of the cart before the horse, 

 which may be rectified by just inverting the con- 

 ection between Matter and consciousness. Matter 

 is not that which produces consciousness, but that 

 which limits it and confines its intensity within cer- 

 ain limits : material organization does not construct 

 'consciousness out of arrangements of atoms, but 

 contracts its manifestation within the sphere which 

 it permits. 



This explanation does not involve the denial 

 either of the facts or of the principle involved in 

 Materialism, viz., the unity of all life and the con- 

 tinuity of all existence. It admits the connection 

 of Matter and consciousness, but contends that the 

 course of interpretation must proceed in the con- 

 trary direction. Thus it will fit the facts alleged in 

 favour of Materialism equally well, besides enabling 

 us to understand facts which Materialism rejected as 

 '' supernatural." It explains the lower by the higher. 

 Matter by Spirit, Instead of vice versa, and thereby 

 attains to an explanation which Is ultimately tenable 

 Instead of one which is ultimately absurd. And It Is 

 an explanation the possibility of which no evidence 

 In favour of Materialism can possibly affect. For if, 

 eg., a man loses consciousness as soon as his brain Is 



