OF NATURE. 



599 



the present day, the serious consideration of thinkers 

 of all shades of opinion. 



In the first of these addresses Du Bois Eeymond 

 adopts — probably without being aware of it — a view 

 somewhat akin to that of Herbert Spencer, who had 

 published, already in 1860, the first part of his System, 

 in which he puts forward the conception of the Un- 

 knowable as the underlying ground or power in and of 

 everything.^ Similarly Du Bois Eeymond maintains 

 that the natural philosopher must admit that the ulti- 

 mate conceptions of all exact or mathematical science, the 

 conceptions of matter and force, cannot be explained 

 or further analysed, — that they constitute for him an 

 insoluble enigma. In addition to this he maintains 

 that a further equally difficult problem arises when we 

 attempt to explain how the underlying substance of 

 which matter and force are the attributes can, under 

 certain conditions, feel, desire, and think ; in fact, the 

 psychical attributes of the underlying substance consti- 

 tute a second enigma. The second enigma has occasion- 



^ It is indeed remarkable that 

 E. Du Bois Reymond's first address 

 ends with the celebrated ' Ignora- 

 binms ' with which Herbert Spencer, 

 more than ten years earlier, had 

 started his systematic speculations, 

 expressive of an idea which has 

 received popular currency through 

 Huxley's ' Agnosticism.' It is also 

 significant that Du Bois Reymond 

 rouses himself out of this humiliat- 

 ing and deadening conviction of our 

 fundamental ignorance by the fol- 

 lowing reflection : The natural 

 philosopher " now finds solace and 

 elevation in work which augments 



the treasure of human knowledge, 

 increases by wholesome exertion 

 the powers and capabilities of our 

 race, extends our dominion over 

 nature, refines our existence through 

 the enrichment of our mind and 

 beautifies it through the multipli- 

 cation of our enjoyments. From 

 that depressing ' Ignorabimus ' the 

 natural philosopher rouses himself 

 again by the dying Septimius Se- 

 verus's watchword to his legions : 

 ' Laboremus' " {loc. cit., vol. i. p. 

 235). Truly an anticipation of 

 modern pragmatism ! 



