434 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. in. 



coulo we fairly suppose them to be deliberately intended. 

 They would imply extreme moral turpitude, were it not 

 that they are so obviously the product of extreme sloven- 

 liness of thinking joined with culpable carelessness of as- 

 sertion. The chain of ill-conceived arguments upon which 

 they depend is something like this : — Every attempt to 

 interpret the succession of mental phenomena by means ol 

 theorems originally devised to interpret the movements of 

 matter, involves the assertion of materialism ; the assertion 

 of materialism involves the denial of personal immortality; 

 the denial of personal immortality deprives morality of its 

 principal sanction, and prevents us from having any higher 

 ideal of life than the gratification of egoistic desires ; ergo, 

 we are justified in insinuating that philosophers who inter- 

 pret mental manifestations by a reference to material struc- 

 ture are likely to be men of loose morals. Such is the tacit 

 argument which underlies this kind of theological misrepre- 

 sentation ; and in pity for the mental confusion which it 

 implies, we may perhaps condone or overlook the bigotry 

 which assists in disguising its flimsiness. In truth, a more 

 striking example of the audacity of the subjective method 

 could not well be found. Not one of the premises from 

 which so startling a conclusion is drawn has been verified ; 

 and it would not be difficult to show that each one involves 

 a non sequitur. It might be shown that the denial of per- 

 sonal immortality does not deprive morality of its principal 

 sanction, or prevent us from having any higher ideal of life 

 than the gratification of egoistic desires. And it might be 

 forcibly argued that the denial of personal immortality has 

 by no means been proved to be an inevitable corollary from 

 the assertion of materialism, though it may freely be ad- 

 mitted to be a probable corollary. But with these two un- 

 verified inferences we are not now especially concerned. 

 What concerns us is the initial non sequitur, — that every 

 attempt to interpret mental manifestations by a reference 



