230 Literary Notices. 



find it difficult to conceive of a force without its resulting from some 

 substance in action ; and whether the term spiritual or physical is 

 applied to a force, it is equally supposed to be the effect of" a some- 

 thing acting, and not a self-existent entity. With many of Mr. 

 Bray's speculations we agree, but we think he sometimes fails to 

 see the bearing of his own words. For example, he says, " As all 

 actions are the necessary result of pre-existent force, they are 

 morally alike in themselves — rigbt and wrong, virtue and vice, 

 having no existence but as they affect the well-being of the sentient 

 creation." The introduction of the word morally is surely a mis- 

 take. All actions may be alike, in that they are the results of 

 pre-existent forces, but the morality of an action involves questions 

 of obligation, duty, etc., and hence the moral likeness of a set of 

 actions will depend upon circumstances quite distinct from the 

 physical cause of the actions themselves. Again, Mr. Bray says, 

 " Truth, justice, and wisdom are only relations to finite things, and 

 cannot therefore be infinite, or absolute in their own nature." 

 Surely if these be infinite things, there may be truth, justice, and 

 wisdom concerning them. Infinite truth would be truth concerning 

 all existing or possible things. A particular truth relating to a 

 particular thing, has no claim to be called infinite, and this may be 

 all that Mr. Bray intends. Mr. Bray quotes with approbation 

 Bentham's dictum, that an immoral action results from a miscal- 

 culation of self-interest ; but, with great admiration for Bentham, 

 we must agree with those who think his notions of moral philosophy 

 defective. It is possible to make the term " self-interest " compre- 

 hend a devoted promotion of the interest of others ; but by such 

 -an enlargement of the scope of the term we destroy its special 

 meaning, and leave it like an algebraic symbol, the significance of 

 which is determined by its position. Man has self-regardant 

 faculties, and extra regardant faculties, and it tends to confusion to 

 designate the happiness which springs from self-sacrifice by the 

 same term as that which denotes self-seeking. We do not see that 

 Mr. Bray in anywise proves his assertions that " there is nothing 

 underlying phenomena — phenomena are correlatives of force, and 

 force is all." After having demolished matter, Mr. Bray still finds 

 his force as " one infinite substance," "force changing into life, and 

 life into sentience," etc., and he endeavours to explain what are 

 called " spiritual phenomena," as resulting from modifications of 

 mental force. For those who are fond of metaphysical speculations — 

 carried often into the regions of the unknown, Mr. Bray's new 

 work will provide ample suggestions, but before undertaking to 

 reduce the so-called " spiritual phenomena" to some sort of cohesion 

 with general philosophy, we must learn exactly what phenomena 

 really occur in table-turning, spirit-rapping, etc., etc. Under all 

 ordinary circumstances no obstacle is placed in the way of applying 

 physical science tests and methods to alleged physical effects, but 

 the spiritualists demand faith at the wrong end, and their tables 

 will not rap, and their sideboards will not walk across the room, if 

 sceptical persons with experimental modes of verification or disproof 

 happen to be present. Mrs. De Morgan's recent book, written in 



