Er SEN INDIRE 
E Sa TE ES R R 
Psychology. 83 
lymphatic temperament the knowledge of ignorance seems to paralyze 
théir lives. But science has done much towards elucidating the 
order of the universe, and will do more. 
Evolution gives the coup de grace to idealism of the consistent 
type. In the gradual unfolding of organic life it sees the two uni- 
versal facts, subject and object, It sees them interact and influence 
each other. Under the influence of active, conscious life thousands 
of tons of substances are transported from place to place and meta- 
morphosed in the process, Under the influence of life, from which 
consciousness may or may not be absent, thousands of tons of matter 
have been made into soil, rocks, and living tissue. On the other 
hand, the objective environment has constrained all living things 
into rigid modes, and has extinguished millions. In the midst of 
all this turmoil, consciousness has picked and wound its way, ever 
gaining in strength and skill, till now we behold man, Of all ani- 
mals, man controls his environment most completely, He begins by 
making his own heat and light ; he makes his food to grow, and his 
skin is partly his own manufacture, He does this, and very much 
more, with infinite pains and toil, and yet some individuals of his 
species actually deny the existence of this environment, which has 
compelled him to be what he is! : 
It is equally competent for the materialist to deny the existence of 
mind, as for the idealist to deny the existence of matter. The 
materialist, beholding the imperfection of the senses, may pronounce 
them to be, one by one, incompetent witnesses, and declare them to 
be illusions. The mind, which is the product of these impressions, 
immediate or remembered, falls with them; it is also an illusion. 
But the fact is, both exist, cbject and subject, matter and mind. And 
since matter cannot study mind, mind must study matter, and by so 
doing grow to more absolute knowledge and greater control of its 
physical basis, and therefore of itself. 
It can now be seen why the study of the “problem of cognition” 
has little interest to progressive science, Its result is an expression 
of our ignorance in philosophical form, a proposition which the sci- 
entist is not disposed to deny. But when he asks the philosopher 
“what do you propose to do about it?” and gets the same old story 
reiterated from the old scholastics to the latest relativist, he turns from 
such blind guides to his own, and to nature’s laboratories, and goes 
to work, And the theologian applauds the philosopher, and says 
of the scientist in his prayers, “1 thank Thee that I am not as this 
section-cutter, this bug-hunter, nor even as this bone sharp.” But 
the scientist knows that he holds the key of the situation, and he lets 
the philosopher and the theologian rejoice themselves, each in his 
appropriate department of Swedenborg’s heaven. The field of Ideal- 
ism has been well worked out, and we of this age should thank the 
mighty men of the past for having done it for us. We can now go 
on with an easier mind in a more profitable pursuit. 
