64 A Crumb for the [v. 



though it has been misapprehended by many, no one 

 has ever refuted it, and it is not Hkely that any 

 one ever will. Concerning the value of Berkeley's 

 idealism, when taken with all its ontological impli- 

 cations, there is plenty of room for disagreement ; 

 but his psychological analysis of the relation of con- 

 sciousness to the external world is of such fundamental 

 importance that, until one has mastered it, one has 

 no right to speak on philosophical questions. It is 

 not unfair to say that materialists, as a rule, have not 

 mastered the Berkeleian psychology, or given much 

 attention to it. In general, their attention has been 

 too much occupied with filaments and ganglia, to the 

 neglect of that close subjective analysis which they 

 unwisely stigmatise as dreamy metaphysic. Hence, 

 on the whole, materialism does not represent any- 

 thing of primary importance in modern philosophy ; 

 it represents rather the crude speculation of that 

 large and increasing number of people who have 

 acquired some knowledge of the truths of physical 

 science, without possessing sufficient subtlety to 

 apprehend their metaphysical bearings. Buchner, 

 the favourite spokesman of this class of people, 

 occupies a position precisely similar to that of 

 Lamettrie in the last century, and will, no doubt, in 

 the days of our grandchildren be as thoroughly 



