The Attempt to Eliminate Mind 137 
it and find it, and assuredly it is not far from every one of 
us. But the course of true philosophy never did run smooth; 
no sooner have we fairly grasped the conception of a single 
eternal and for ever unknowable underlying substance, 
then we are faced by mind and matter. Long-standing 
ideas and current language alike lead us to see these as 
distinct things—mind being still commonly regarded as 
something that acts on body from without as the wind 
blows upon a leaf, and as no less an actual entity than the 
body. Neither body nor mind seems less essential to our 
existence than the other ; not only do we feel this as regards 
our own existence, but we feel it also as pervading the whole 
world of life ; everywhere we see body and mind working 
together towards results that must be ascribed equally 
to both ; but they are two, not one ; if, then, we are to have 
our monistic conception, it would seem as though one of 
these must yield to the other; which, therefore, is it 
to be? 
This is a very old question. Some, from time immemorial,. 
have tried to get rid of matter by reducing it to a mere 
concept of the mind, and their followers have arrived at 
conclusions that may be logically irrefragable, but are as 
far removed from common sense as they are in accord with 
logic ; at any rate they have failed to satisfy, and matter is 
no nearer being got rid of now than it was when the discus- 
sion first began. Others, again, have tried materialism, 
have declared the causative action of both thought and 
feeling to be deceptive, and posit matter obeying fixed 
laws of which thought and feeling must be admitted as 
concomitants, but with which they have no causal connec- 
tion. The same thing has happened to these men as to 
their opponents ; they made out an excellent case on paper, 
but thought and feeling still remain the mainsprings of 
action that they have been always held to be. We still 
say, “I gave him £5 because I felt pleased with him, and 
thought he would like it ; ” or, “I knocked him down 
