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!. Hylozoic Materialism . 
[June, 
of the universe. Though it is exemplified in their practical 
conduct, and implicitly recognised in their habits of thought 
and sentiment, they shrink with repugnance from its verbal 
exposition. Lately, however, it has forced itself upon pub- 
lic attention, and become an objeCt of more calm and 
respectful criticism ; and I here propose briefly to examine 
the principal objections with which it now has to deal, and 
to endeavour to estimate their force. They resolve them- 
selves into these : — ist. That as man can know nothing 
beyond phenomena, he cannot absolutely deny the existence 
of an immaterial principle, or soul, animating the material 
body. And 2nd. That matter is, in its essence, inert, and 
therefore incapable of sensation and thought. 
A little reflection will show that these two positions are 
mutually destructive, as the latter, which is purely meta- 
physical, claims for man not only a positive , but a negative 
knowledge of noumena. Though he cannot predict how 
Nature will behave under every possible combination of 
circumstances, he is yet capable of deciding how she will 
not behave. Except from his own sensations, he can learn 
nothing of the potencies of matter, yet he feels justified in 
assigning them a certain boundary, and declaring that they 
shall go thus far and no farther. 
It is evident that we can obtain nothing from an idea 
which we have chosen to exclude from it ; and if we arbi- 
trarily limit the attributes of matter to extension and 
impenetrability, there will be a large class of phenomena 
which lie without the sphere of our science, and appear to 
be of supernatural or spiritual origin. But we are assured 
by the Law of Gravitation, as formulated by Newton and 
Laplace, that energy is as inseparable from every particle of 
matter as impenetrability itself ; and this single addition to 
our idea supplies the place of all former animistic theories. 
The force which sustains and guides the orbs of heaven is 
not a distinct or external entity, but is immanent in every 
atom of their mass ; and this “ generalisation from the 
Newtonian discovery cannot be restricted to * brute ’ matter ; 
it is equally applicable to the organic kingdom of Nature, to 
plants, animals, and man. . . . The question of the amnia 
mundi and anima humana (using the term in the sense of 
soul) is at bottom one and the same.” * 
In Mr. Barker’s first article on “ Life and its Basis,” in 
the January number of the “ Journal of Science,” he justly 
* Life and Mind on the Basis of Modern Medicine, by R. Lewins, M.D. , 
reviewed in the “ Journal of Science ” of November last. 
