THE NATURAL AND THE ARTIFICIAL. 197 



is of protoplasm," and in denying the action of mind in both cases. 

 But it seems to me, when we have an actual exhibition of mind 

 in the one case of making a table, our denying it in the greater 

 work of making a body is absolutely uni'easonable. What 1 

 complain of is this — that those who are so ready to acknowledge 

 the ingenuity of the humau mind, and to see the artificial where 

 it is difficult for the ordinary observer to see anything but the 

 natural, such as in the three chips in a flint arrow's head — these 

 very men who are so keen to see mind in the direction of a chip 

 are those who are most persistent in denying it in the creation 

 of the man who made the chip, and there I think there is no 

 possibility of excuse. I do not know whether I cari-y the audience 

 with me, but it is impossible for me, from my particular point of 

 view, to understand such an acceptance of mind in the production 

 of the artificial, and such a denial of it in what I call the natural, 

 unless there be behind it a bias that leads a mind, otherwise keen 

 and acute, to deny those things which seem so plain to others ; 

 but I fear that there is that bias, unconsciously acting, in men 

 who deny mind in the one case and accept it in the other. 



I thank you for the very kind way in which you have listened 

 to me. 



The Meeting was then adjourned. 



COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED ON THE FOREGOING 



PAPER. 



Professor Lionel S. Bbale, M.B., F.R.S., writes : — 

 I venture to think that already we possess incontrovertib'e 

 evidence in favour of the view that living and non-living aie 

 entirely distinct and incomparable — that the living state is ah>-o- 

 lutely separated from every other known state for condition of 

 matter — that between the two conditions there is no gradual 

 transition — that the difference is not of degree only, as has been 

 unreasonably affirmed — and that although living and non-living 

 matter may be in contact, in no case does the matter alive shade 



