304 THE FUTURE OF RELIGION AND MORALS. 



more in the world than phenomena actual or possible 

 that there is a something behind or under or immanent 

 in all phenomena, even under the cerebral atoms. This 

 something it is not necessary that we should be able to 

 describe; and indeed it is sufficiently evident, as all 

 positivists assure us, as well as Kant, that, admitting its 

 existence, neither our senses nor our understanding can 

 ever penetrate behind phenomena to tell us anything 

 further respecting it. But the mere existence of this 

 transcendent something is quite enough to destroy all 

 materialism, and indeed, unless this noumenal existence 

 be regarded as mind, all idealism as well. This some- 

 thing behind can neither be matter nor yet force, for 

 these, as we see and feel them, are entirely phenomenal. 

 Nor can it be anything even remotely resembling matter 

 or force. It cannot be, as some suppose, an original of 

 which these are copies, which is a wholly groundless 

 and unprovable assumption. We cannot even prove it 

 to be mind resembling our mind. All that we can say 

 of it is, that it is an existence, a substance, of which 

 mind and matter are, as Spinoza held, modes, or symbols, 

 or manifestations. 



But if this Something be once granted, it is quite 

 sufficient to destroy all materialism, and, unless it be 

 in some sort mental, as Berkeley held, all idealism as 

 well. It would even destroy the eclectic system of 

 material-idealism, defended by Professor Huxley.* For 

 clearly this Something is an element not to be ignored, 

 if we desire to derive the universe from a single principle, 

 be it matter or mind. For might it not be the moving 

 principle of all things, the root and source and support 

 of thought, of matter, of energy, as mere emanations 

 from it and manifestations of it ? Perhaps it is at this 



* Life of Hume, p. 82. 



