THE 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
HE two chief opponents by whom the Materialist is 
encountered are the negatively Agnostic savant * and 
the Christian divine ; yet his theorem is simply a 
logical deduction from the fundamental principles of Science 
and Theology. Of Science, which cannot logically assume 
two causes where one is sufficient, and must therefore deny 
that matter, being essentially active, needs to be “inspired” 
by a vital [or motor] principle ; of Theology, which, by 
postulating the existence of one Infinite Omnipresent Deity, 
in whom we “ live and move and have our being,” destroys, 
at the very outset, all distinction between body and soul, 
between God and the world. This last result of insight and 
reason is also the first dictate of instinct and nature, for 
every child, every savage, every simple and healthy human 
being is an unconscious Materialist. Yet although this 
Hylozoistic thesis is at once the expression of primitive 
feeling, the legitimate product of modern Physics, and the 
scientific equivalent of ancient Pantheism, it has been met, 
by learned and ignorant alike, with greater antagonism and 
anti-sympathy than have been accorded to any other theory 
* Of living savans — not to mention the great shades of Newton, Sir John 
Herschell, Brewster, and Faraday — who are supporters of Animism, may be 
mentioned the distinguished names of the Astronomer- Royal, Sir George Airey, 
the Lucasian Professor Stokes, Professor Adams, the discoverer of the planet 
Neptune, Mr. St. George Mivart, Professor Lionel Beale, Mr. Crookes, Mr. 
Wallace, &c. 
VOL. III. (THIRD SERIES) Y 
JUNE, 1881. 
I. HYLOZOIC MATERIALISM. 
Communicated by Robert Lewins, M.D. 
“ Audi alteram partem.” 
