1841 EARLY JOURNAL II 



whether there ought to be any Establishment. I maintain that 

 there ought not in both cases — I wonder what will be my opin- 

 ion ten years hence? I think now that it is against all laws of 

 justice to force men to support a church with whose opinions 

 they cannot conscientiously agree. The argument that the rate 

 is so small is very fallacious. It is as much a sacrifice of prin- 

 ciple to do a little wrong as to do a great one. 



Noz'. 22 (Hinckley). — Had a long argument with Mr. May 

 on the nature of the soul and the difference between it and 

 matter. I maintained that it could not be proved that matter is 

 essentially — as to its base — different from soul. Mr. M. wittily 

 said, soul was the perspiration of matter. 



We cannot find the absolute basis of matter: we only know 

 it by its properties ; neither know we the soul in any other way. 

 ■ Cogito ergo sum is the only thing that we certainly know. 



Why may not soul and matter be of the same substance (i.e. 

 basis whereon to fix qualities, for we cannot suppose a quality 

 to exist per se — it must have a something to qualify), but with 

 different qualities. 



Let us suppose then an Eon — a something with no quality 

 but that of existence — this Eon endued with all the intelligence, 

 mental qualities, and that in the highest degree — is God. This 

 combination of intelligence with existence we may suppose to 

 have existed from eternity. At the creation we may suppose 

 that a portion of the Eon was separated from the intelligence, and 

 it was ordained — it became a natural law — that it should have the 

 properties of gravitation, etc. — that is, that it should give to 

 man the ideas of those properties. The Eon in this state is 

 matter in the abstract. Matter, then, is Eon in the simplest 

 form in which it possesses qualities appreciable by the senses. 

 Out of this matter, by the superimposition of fresh qualities, was 

 made all things that are. 



1841 



Jan. 7. — Came to Rotherhithe.* 



June 20. — What have I done in the way of acquiring knowl- 

 edge since January? 

 Projects begun- 



1. German 



2. Italian 



3. To read Miiller's Physiology. 



i to be learnt. 



See Chap. IL 



