Naturalism or Materialism, 89 



on a more sensitive side than his logic. But then 

 the logic of the mind may somehow be brought 

 over to the cherished opinion of the will; as so 

 many a fond wish is father to the thought. Thus 

 the comic poet said of old: — 



I brought my mind to be of my opinion ! 



100. We for our part, as philosophical critics, are 

 not free to treat this question otherwise than from 

 the side of logical reason. Still, it helps w ** lis 

 the setting and poising of a logical mind or Materiai- 

 to understand the moral temper which lsm * 



it has to meet. The temper in question, which so 

 readily accepts of a theory unproved and disproved, 

 is that disposition called naturalistic or materialis- 

 tic, which has spread over the whole body of so- 

 ciety, biassing the judgments of some, enlisting the 

 affections of others, dominating the profane sci- 

 ences, and not scrupling to interpret sacred science. 

 It invades legal ideas, and, from the clinic of the 

 physician, it passes over to sway the verdict on a 

 criminal. It touches the morality of business, as 

 well as interests political and international; and it 

 is shaping every department of letters. 



101. Under the scientific form of Darwinism, 

 around which, as a quickening nucleus, the whole 

 theory of evolution has gathered, we find this 

 naturalism or materialism acquiring such an ascend- 

 ancy that every science now pays tribute to it, and 

 to the theories which, wrongly or rightly, are taken 



