I 



THE SPIRITUALIZATION OF MATTER. 297 



§ 29. And that Matter is ultimately divine force 

 and divine mechanism, is shown also by the develop- 

 ment it undergoes. For coincidently with the 

 spiritual development of spiritual beings, Matter 

 also undergoes a process of spiritualization. And 

 of spiritualization in two senses, (i) The gulf be- 

 tween its (apparent) properties and those of Spirit 

 diminishes. We discover that it possesses more 

 and more analogies with Spirit. And curiously 

 enough this is one of the chief reasons why the 

 advance of science has seemed favourable to 

 Materialism. For as the spiritual character of 

 Matter became better known, it became less absurd 

 to explain all things by Matter. But such successes 

 of Materialism have been gained only by absorbing 

 alien elements, and have hopelessly impaired its 

 metaphysical value. In this sense Materialism has, 

 since the days of Democritus and Lucretius, been 

 fighting a losing battle. Its seeming victories have 

 been won by the absorption of spiritualistic elements 

 which have corrupted the simplicity of its original 

 conception of Matter, and caused it to diverge 

 further and further from the " clear and definitely 

 intelligible" motions of solid particles. The con- 

 nection of the scientific conception of Matter with 

 the hard Matter of common experience has become 

 fainter and fainter, as science is compelled to multiply 



impossible that the brain could be charged with memories beyond 

 a certain point. And if we consider the number of impressions 

 and ideas which daily enter into our consciousness, it is clear that 

 even in youth the brain must soon reach the saturation point of 

 memory, and that the struggle for existence in our memory must 

 be very severe. If therefore we receive unexpected proofs of the 

 survival in memory of the facts most unlikely to be remembered, 

 we have evidently reached a phenomenon which it is exceedingly 

 difficult for materialism to explain. 



