180 LIFE IN NATURE. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE PHENOMENAL AND THE TKUE. 



IDEAS of this order were irresistibly forced on me 

 by my studies in physiology, of which they seem, 

 indeed, to me to be the necessary consequence. We 

 cannot divide our nature into two portions, and say, 

 This belongs to science, this to religion. No such 

 barrier exists ; the attempt to erect one inevitably 

 fails. The study of physical objects is the study of 

 that which is most profoundly spiritual, and must 

 be recognized as being so, if it is to be carried on 

 freely, fully, or to any satisfactory result. Questions 

 relating to our spiritual nature, if not deliberately 

 faced and solved, are sure, consciously or uncon- 

 sciously, to embarrass all our inquiries: rightly 

 solved, they seem to me to give as great a liberty 

 and vantage-ground to thought, as they impose 



