429 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Materialism 

 Maternity 



analogy has been too halting, no hypothesis 

 too visionary, for its purpose. It was for 

 some time a matter of dispute whether the 

 mental force had more resemblance to light 

 or to electricity. Only on one point was 

 there general agreement that it was not 

 ponderable. WUNDT Psychology, lect. 1, p. 

 9. (Son. & Co., 1896.) 



21 GO. MATERIALISM INCOMPRE- 

 HENSIBLE Mechanical Evolution of Con- 

 sciousness Not Presentable in Thought. 

 This avowal is repeated with emphasis in 

 the passage to which Professor Virchow's 

 translator draws attention. What, I there 

 ask, is the causal connection between the 

 objective and the subjective between molec- 

 ular motions and states of consciousness? 

 My answer is : I do not see the connection, 

 nor am I acquainted with anybody who does. 

 It is no explanation to say that the objective 

 and subjective are two sides of one and the 

 same phenomenon. Why should the phe- 

 nomenon have two sides? This is the very 

 core of the difficulty. There are plenty of 

 molecular motions which do not exhibit this 

 two-sidedness. Does water think or feel 

 when it runs into frost-ferns upon a window 

 pane? If not, why should the molecular 

 motion of the brain be yoked to this mys- 

 terious companion consciousness? We can 

 form a coherent picture of all the purely 

 physical processes the stirring of the brain, 

 the thrilling of the nerves, the discharging 

 of the muscles, and ' all the subsequent mo- 

 tions of the organism. We are here dealing 

 with mechanical problems which are men- 

 tally presentable. But we can form no pic- 

 ture of the process whereby consciousness 

 emerges, either as a necessary link or as an 

 accidental by-product of this series of ac- 

 tions. TYNDALL Fragments of Science, vol. 

 ii, ch. 15, p. 408. (A., 1900.) 



21O1. MATERIALISM MEANS PAR- 

 ALYSIS There can be little doubt that 

 the further science advances, the more ex- 

 tensively and consistently will all the phe- 

 nomena of Nature be represented by ma- 

 terialistic formula and symbols. But the 

 man of science, who, forgetting the limits of 

 philosophical inquiry, slides from these 

 formulae and symbols into what is commonly 

 understood by materialism, seems to me to 

 place himself on a level with the mathema- 

 tician who should mistake the ac's and t/'s, 

 with which he works his problems, for real 

 entities and with this further disadvan- 

 tage, as compared with the mathematician, 

 that the blunders of the latter are of no 

 practical consequence, while the errors of 

 systematic materialism may paralyze the 

 energies and destroy the beauty of a life. 

 HUXLEY The Physical Basis of Life, in Lay 

 Sermons, p. 146. (A., 1895.) 



2 1 2 . MATERIALISM, TENDENCY 

 TO A large part of the age feels profound 

 hatred for what is called spirit. Hence the 

 effort to make man a brute and to lose his 

 soul in matter. LOTZE An Address. (Trans- 

 lated for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



2103. MATERIALIST'S ANALOGY 



FALSE Thought Not a Secretion. The 

 phosphorus philosophers have often com- 

 pared thought to a secretion. " The brain 

 secretes thought, as the kidneys secrete urine 

 or as the liver secretes bile," are phrases 

 which one sometimes hears. The lame anal- 

 ogy need hardly be pointed out. The ma- 

 terials which the brain pours into the 

 blood ( cholesterin, creatin, xanthin, or what- 

 ever they may be) are the analogues of the 

 urine and the bile, being in fact real mate- 

 rial excreta. As far as these matters go, the 

 brain is a ductless gland. But we know of 

 nothing connected with liver and kidney 

 activity which can be in the remotest degree 

 compared with the stream of thought that 

 accompanies tne brain's material secretions. 

 JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 3, p. 102. 

 (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



2 1 04. MATERIALIST'S TRIUMPH 



Delight in the Mechanical and the Ani- 

 mal. The immense value of the theory of 

 descent in regard to biology consists, as 

 I have already remarked, in its explaining 

 to us the origin of organic forms in a 

 mechanical way, and pointing out their 

 active causes. But however highly and 

 justly this service of the theory of de- 

 scent may be valued, yet it is almost 

 eclipsed by the immense importance which 

 a single necessary inference from it claims 

 for itself alone. This necessary and un- 

 avoidable inference is the theory of the ani- 

 mal descent of the human race. 



The determination of the position of man 

 in Nature, and of his relations to the to- 

 tality of things this question of all ques- 

 tions for mankind, as Huxley justly calls 

 it is finally solved by the knowledge that 

 man is descended from animals. As a con- 

 sequence of the theory of descent or trans- 

 mutation, we are now in a position to estab- 

 lish scientifically the groundwork of a non- 

 miraculous history of the development of the 

 human race. HAECKEL History of Creation, 

 vol. i, ch. 1, p. 6. (K. P. & Co., 1899.) 



21 05. MATERNITY FORESHAD- 

 OWED "Mothering Plants" The Phanero- 

 gam,s Highest in the Vegetable Kingdom. 

 In the vegetable kingdom, from the mother- 

 lessness of the early cryptogams, we rise 

 to find a first maternity foreshadowed in 

 the flowering tree. It elaborates a seed or 

 nut or fruit with infinite precaution, sur- 

 rounding the embryo with coat after coat 

 of protective substance, and storing around 

 it the richest foods for its future use. And 

 rudimentary tho the manifestation 'be, when 

 we remember that this is not an inci- 

 dent in the tree's life, but its whole blos- 

 som and crown, it is impossible but to think 

 of this solicitude and motherhood together. 

 So exalted in the tree's life is this provision 

 for others that the botanist, like the zoolo- 

 gist, places the mothering plants at the top 

 of his department of Nature. His highest 

 division is the phanerogams named, liter- 



