Ill ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 165 



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 mathematician, who 

 should mistake the x's and y's with which he 

 works his problems, for real entities and with 

 this further disadvantage, as compared with the 

 mathematician, that the blunders of the latter are 

 of no practical consequence, while the errors of 

 systematic materialism may paralyse the energies 

 and destroy the beauty of a life. 



[I cannot say I have ever had to complain of 

 lack of hostile criticism ; but the preceding essay 

 has come in for more than its fair share of that 

 commodity. It may be well, therefore, for the 

 general reader to study, in connection with it, the 

 first chapter of the standard " Textbook of 

 Physiology," by Dr. Foster, making fair allowance 

 for the rapid progress of knowledge during the 

 last quailer of a century. 1892.] 



