1881 .] Hylozoic Materialism,. , 315 
remarks that “ the belief that matter is, per se, passive , 
carries with it the belief in creative adts.” It is not less 
true that the certainty that matter is, per se, active, renders 
all such beliefs — including the hypothesis of a distinct, 
immaterial, vivifying agency — both superfluous and absurd. 
Dualistic philosophy is deprived of its raison d'etre by the 
removal of the sharp distinction between death and life, and 
by the theorem that both are diverse manifestations of one 
and the same energy. And this furnishes a reply to one of 
the objections mentioned at the beginning of this article, 
that, namely, which derives its force from the supposed 
impossibility of proving a negative. Total want of evidence 
is equivalent to disproof, and is practically so considered. 
If we cannot deny the existence of the “ soul,” neither 
can we deny that of fairies, goblins, ghosts, or of the genii 
or “ ruling angels,” * which were anciently believed to in- 
habit the planets and regulate their orbits. Yet it would 
scarcely be considered a wise exercise of scientific scepticism 
to suspend our judgment upon the truth of the “Arabian 
Nights.” Nay, more ; there is an immense mass of legal 
and other evidence in favour of the reality of witchcraft ; 
but since we see that all its supposed effects may be pro- 
duced by natural causes in the province of Nosology, and 
since the supernatural explanation is out of harmony with 
our present habits of thought, we contemptuously dismiss a 
doctrine held by many generations of intelligent men, and 
never, except inferentially, disproved. We may, in the same 
manner, dismiss from serious consideration that invisible, 
intangible, indemonstrable entity, whose supposed function 
as an animating principle is fully discharged by the vis insita 
of matter alone. The innate force which sustains the me- 
chanism of the universe is surely sufficient to produce all 
the phenomena of animal and vegetable life, more compli- 
cated, but not more mysterious, than the motion of the earth 
round the sun, or the falling of a stone to the ground. But 
it may be urged that, even taking into account this inherent 
energy, it is impossible to explain the powers of properties 
of organic by those of inorganic bodies. It may be said 
that mental and moral faculties “are not qualities of 
matter, not even of living matter, or they would be exhibited 
by plants and trees as well as animals.” This is certainly 
true. There is nothing in a lump of earth, or even in a 
blade of grass, which can lead us to suppose that its 
* See Pope’s line in his “ Essay on Man ” : — 
“ Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl’d.” 
