SCIENCE AND MORALS 13$ 



* 



ties when I want to get change for its notes-of- 

 hand in the solid coin of reality. For the assumed 

 substantial entity, spirit, which is supposed to 

 underlie the phenomena of consciousness, as matter 

 underlies those of physical nature, leaves not even 

 a geometrical ghost when these phenomena are 

 abstracted. And, even if we suppose the existence 

 of such an entity apart from qualities that is to 

 say, a bare existence for mind, how does any- 

 body know that it differs from that other entity, 

 apart from qualities, which is the supposed sub- 

 stratum of matter ? Spiritualism is, after all, little 

 better than Materialism turned upside down. And 

 if I try to think of the " spirit " which a man, by 

 this hypothesis, carries about under his hat, as 

 something devoid of relation to space, and as 

 something indivisible, even in thought, while it is, 

 at the same time, supposed to be in that place and 

 to be possessed of half a dozen different faculties, I 

 confess I get quite lost. 



As I have said elsewhere, if I were forced to 

 choose between Materialism and Idealism, I should 

 elect for the latter ; and I certainly would have 

 nothing to do with the effete mythology of 

 Spiritualism. But I am not aware that I am 

 under any compulsion to choose either the one or 

 the other. I have always entertained a strong 

 suspicion that the sage who maintained that man 

 is the measure of the universe was sadly in the 

 wrong ; and age and experience have not weakened 



