1 92 Spiritual Evolution of Society 



desire. It is such a process of deduction which causes 

 one to believe that Bergson is scientifically right and 

 the mechanists wrong ; again we say : let the 

 mechanists reject the spiritual side of man's nature at 

 their peril. 



Is history not science ? If it is, why do not the 

 mechanists investigate it ? We suppose because it is 

 not a concrete thing ; it is not a " gross material fact." 

 Surely the history of human thought, imagination, and 

 culture are worth investigating ; these are higher 

 things than matter, which, after all, is only the medium 

 of life : it fulfils no other purpose, and in the scheme 

 of things is subservient to the spirit of man. Apart 

 from consciousness, the whole cosmos may return to 

 chaos for all the purpose it would serve, colossal as it 

 is ! That being so, why make such a fuss about 

 matter, when we have such a marvellous force as the 

 mind to investigate? No; Bergson may be false in 

 many of his analogies and conclusions, but he is by no 

 means submerged ; he still holds the field against his 

 opponents of the mechanist school; and we believe 

 the majority of intellectual men will be more likely to 

 decide in favour of " creative evolution " rather than 

 the abstract theory of " natural selection," now at last 

 discovered to be a broken reed, and devoid of support 

 from the observed phenomena of nature. 



One is surprised to find a man of Professor Lankes- 

 ter's position and reputation resuscitating the stale 

 and well-worn platitude of " the blind man in the dark 

 room hunting for a black hat, which isn't there," as 

 a satire on the metaphysician. It is both puerile and 

 futile ; the author of it may have been a great lawyer, 

 but we make bold to state that he was not a great 

 thinker ; no great thinker could ever have given ex- 

 pression to such pusillanimous twaddle ; it may be 

 considered smart, but in scientific matters we do not 



