662 
Scientific Materialism 
[October, 
science. For a further understanding of his position we 
may remark that he is an Evolutionist — though somewhat 
encumbered with teleology — and an admirer of Darwin. 
Though a stout opponent of what is called “ materialism,” 
he is far from identifying himself with any of the creeds. 
Hence every man’s hand will be against him. He has blas- 
phemed South Kensington in the person of some of its 
chiefs, and has failed to conciliate Exeter Hall and the tea- 
tables. 
As far as regards his denial of the dogma that in matter 
we have “ the promise and potency of every form and 
quality of life,” we are with him heart and soul. Nor can 
we dissent from him when he enters his indignant protest 
against the part now played in science by imagination, in 
the absence of demonstration. Philosophers have in former 
days denounced the credulity of religionists. Alas ! it is to 
be feared that in our time the authorised expounders of 
science make larger demands on the unreasoning faith of 
their hearers than did ever the apostles of a new religion. 
When we overlook the field of human knowledge, and con- 
sider how much is assumed and how little is really esta- 
blished, we are seized with a deep sadness. Nor is this 
scientific faith genial and tolerant. It is too true, as the 
author quotes from Prof. Kekule, that all “ who sin against 
these dogmas are persecuted as heretics.” Said Professor 
Tyndall in his much discussed Belfast Address : — “ There 
is in the true man of science a wish stronger than the wish 
to have his beliefs upheld, namely, the wish to have them 
true, which causes him to reject the most plausible support 
if he has reason to suspect that it is vitiated by error.” 
These are brave words ; but though the accepted theories of 
heat and of light are admittedly not free from difficulties, 
how many physicists could be found willing to submit such 
theories to a full re-consideration, and to weigh the argu- 
ments in favour of the hypothesis which our author seeks 
to revive ? Nay, what is the reception met with by an ex- 
perimental fadt which seems to point in some heterodox 
direction ? 
Mr. Billing, who takes for his motto the sober watchword 
of Du Bois-Reymond, “Ignoramus — Ignorabimus ,” compares 
with the thoughts which it embodies certain other phases of 
German speculation as brought popularly forward in the 
“Munich Addresses” of Nageli, Haeckel, and Virchow. 
The first of these worthies, who for our tastes is far too 
sanguine in his expectations of what scientific certainties 
we may yet attain, proposes as a counter-cry “ We know, 
