THE CELL DOCTRINE. Ill 



to the ground under these conditions, and that they 

 will continue to fall to the ground thus unsupported. 



It is simply convenient to indicate that all the con- 

 ditions of belief in this case have been fulfilled, by 

 calling the statement that unsupported stones will 

 fall to the earth a " law of nature." But when for 

 will we exchange 7nust, we introduce an idea of neces- 

 sity which does not lie in the observed facts, and is 

 not warranted by anything that is discovered else- 

 where. And with regard to which Prof. Huxley 

 says : " For ray part, I utterly repudiate and anathe- 

 matize the intruder. Fact I know, and Law I know ; 

 but what is this necessity, save an empty shadow of/ 

 my own mind's throwing? But, if it is certain that 

 we can have no knowledge of the nature of either 

 matter or spirit, and that the notion of necessity is 

 something illegitimately thrust into the perfectly 

 legitimate conception of law, the materialistic position 

 that there is nothing in the world but matter, force, and 

 necessity, is as utterly devoid of justification as the most 

 baseless of theological dogmas. 



" The fundamental doctrine of materialism, like 

 those of spiritualism, and most other ' isms,' lie out- 

 side ' the limits of philosophical inquiry,' and David 

 Hume's great service to humanity is his irrefragable 

 demonstration of what these limits are. Hume 

 called himself a skeptic, and therefore others cannot 

 be blamed if they apply the same title to him ; but 

 that does not alter the fact that the name, with its 

 existing implications, does him gross injustice. If 

 a man asks me what the politics of the inhabitants 

 of the moon are, and I reply that I do not know ; 



