110 THE CELL DOCTRINE. 



sion of the province of matter and causation, and the 

 concomitant gradual banishment from all regions of 

 human thought, of what we call spirit and sponta- 

 neity, — that is, the object of all science has been and 

 is to find out the causes of all phenomena ; and there 

 is no difference Ijetween the conception of life as the 

 product of a certain disposition of material molecules, 

 and the old notion of an Archseus governing and di- 

 recting blind matter within each living body, except 

 that here, as elsewhere, matter and law have devoured 

 spirit and spontaneity. And moreover, the physiology 

 of the future will gradually so extend the realm of 

 matter and law, until it is coextensive with knowl- 

 edge, with feeling, and with action. It is this prog- 

 ress of knowledge, according to Prof. Huxley, which 

 so many of the best minds conceive to be the progress 

 of materialism., which they watch with such fear and 

 powerless anger as a savage feels^ when, during an 

 eclipse, the great shadow creeps over the face of the 

 sun. We know nothing of this terrible " matter," 

 except as the name for the unknown and hypotheti- 

 cal cause of states of our own consciousness, and as 

 little of that " spirit," except that it is also a name 

 for an unknown and hypothetical cause of states of 

 consciousness, that is, matter and spirit are both 

 names for the inaaginary substrata of groups of natu- 

 ral phenomena. Dire necessity and " iron " law are 

 gratuitously invented bugbears. If there bean " iron" 

 law, it is that of gravitation, and if there be a physi- 

 cal necessity, it is that a stone unsupported will fall 

 to the ground. We know nothing more of this latter 

 phenomenon, except that stones always have fallen 



