CHAPTER XII. 



ON SO-CALLED MATERIALISM. 



WHEN we take to pieces the materials of a house, and 

 scatter them, the individuality of that house is lost for 

 ever, or remains only as a memory or a history. In 

 like manner if we decompose, or even evaporate a 

 drop of water, its individuality is lost. But with both 

 these, if the materials were preserved, the house or 

 drop might be set up again as before. But with the 

 organic creation, if the life of the individual consists 

 in the arrangement of its particles alone, destroy that, 

 and you destroy it for ever, for had you even the com- 

 ponent particles, to the last atom in the exact pro- 

 portion, you could never set them together again and 

 reproduce the individual. On the protoplasmic theory 

 of life death is death for ever, as far as science alone 

 can teach us. And for some, who will accept no 

 teaching but the teachings of science, death is death 

 for ever, of body, mind, and soul, for man as well as 

 for all the rest of the animated creation. And thus 

 the materialist theory of life and mind comes to have 

 a meaning which excites emotions of the deepest 

 horror and aversion. We must not allow our natural 



