288 THE METAPHYSICS OF SENSATION 



substratum of all actual and possible existences, which is the 

 doctrine of philosophical materialism, as I understand it, I 

 have no objection to his holding that doctrine ; and I fail to 

 comprehend how it can have the slightest influence upon any 

 ethical or religious views he may please to hold. If matter 

 is the substratum of any phenomena of consciousness, animal 

 or human, then it may possibly be the substratum of any 

 other such phenomena ; if matter is imperishable, then it 

 must be admitted to be possible that some of its combina- 

 tions may be indefinitely enduring, just as our present so- 

 called " elements " are probably only compounds which have 

 been indissoluble, in our planet, for millions of years. More- 

 over, the ultimate forms of existence which we distinguish 

 in our little speck of the universe are, possibly, only two out 

 of infinite varieties of existence, not only analogous to mat- 

 ter and analogous to mind, but of kinds which we are not 

 competent so much as to conceive in the midst of which, 

 indeed, we might be set down, with no more notion of what 

 was about us, than the worm in a flower-pot, on a London 

 balcony, has of the life of the great city. 



That which I do very strongly object to is the habit, which 

 a great many non-philosophical materialists unfortunately 

 fall into, of forgetting all these very obvious considerations. 

 They talk as if the proof that the " substance of matter " 

 was the " substance " of all things cleared up all the mys- 

 teries of existence. In point of fact, it leaves them exactly 

 where they were. 



The philosophical Materialist who takes the trouble to 

 comprehend Berkeley finds that strict logic carries him no 

 further than some such answer as this to the philosophical 

 Idealist : Well, if I cannot show that you are wrong, you 

 cannot show that I am ; if I should happen to be right, your 

 proofs of the impossibility of knowing anything but states 

 of consciousness would be as valid as they are now ; more- 

 over, your religious and ethical difficulties are just as great 

 as mine. The speculative game is drawn Jet us get to 

 practical work. 



