62 A Crumb for the [v. 



somewhat cynical suggestion I shall seek an excuse 

 for recurring here to what I have said more than 

 once already.! 



From one point of view materialism may be 

 characterised as a system of opinions based on the 

 assumption that matter is the only real existence. 

 On this view the phenomena of conscious intelligence 

 are supposed to be explicable, as momentary results 

 of fleeting collocations of material particles, as when 

 a discharge between two or more cells of grey cerebral 

 tissue is accompanied by what we call a thought. It 

 requires but little effort to see that materialism, as 

 thus defined, does not comport well with the most 

 advanced philosophy of our time. Materialism of 

 this sort has plenty of defenders, no doubt, but not 

 among those who are skilled in philosophy. The 

 untrained thinker, who believes that the group of 

 phenomena constituting the table on which he is 

 writing has an objective existence independent of 

 consciousness, will probably find no difficulty in 

 accepting this sort of materialism. If he is devoted 

 to the study of nervous physiology, he will be very 

 likely to adopt some such crude notion, and to pro- 

 claim it as zealously as if it were a very important 



^ Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, ii. 79, 432-451. The Unseen World, 

 4I-53- 



