522 Hylozoism versus Animism. [September, 
energy of matter. So far from being a new or unintelligible 
compound it is constantly used by Cudworth, in his great 
work on the “ Intellectual System.” It has been since so 
familiarised by other thinkers that the term will be found in 
any complete dictionary of our language.* Life, in its 
simplest and broadest sense, may be defined as potential 
activity, accompanied or not by the powers of reproduction 
and sensation ; and it is a firmly established axiom of con- 
temporary science that such life or activity belongs to every 
atom of the material universe. Yet, though the theories of 
ancient deduCtive philosophy are reduced by the inductions 
of modern physics to definite formulae, Hylozoic Materialism 
is essentially identical with that of Democritus, Epicurus, 
Lucretius, and of all, ancient or modern, who have rejected 
the supernatural element from their rationale of existence. 
It is not surprising that so simple a generalisation should 
appear “wild and extravagant ” to those who find it easy to 
repose their faith in spiritual mysteries ; for the mind of man 
is always more strongly attracted by complex fictions than 
by plain faCts. Not till he has woven and rejected or worn 
out successive garbs of fable can he bear to gaze upon the 
naked truth ; and this explains the hostility which Mate- 
rialism has encountered from many grand and subtle intel- 
lects, who have chosen to deck Nature with false jewels 
instead of seeking docilely for her native treasures. It is 
true that the ignorant have displayed equal antagonism, but 
their ignorance has been imitative, not primitive, and they 
have only followed blindly in the wake of their betters. 
Children and savages are with difficulty made spiritualists, 
though their instinctive, necessarily empirical, Hylozoism is 
complicated by the influence of fear, wonder, and of that 
natural tendency to personification which is the parent of 
poetry and religion. In the same way men of science, even 
though they may recognise the fallacy of Dualism, are often 
too apt to literalise metaphors and regard abstractions as 
entities. Consciously or unconsciously they elevate Force, 
which is but a function, to the rank of an agent ; and of this 
erroneous conception I find an apposite example in Mr. 
Barker’s letter.! He says, on p. 428 (“Journal of Science” 
for July), “ But will C. N. contend that nothing has a real 
* In connection with this theorem of “ Life and Mind ” the articles “ Cud- 
worth ” and “ Animism,” in the new edition of the “ Encyclopaedia Britannica,” 
are worth the perusal of those interested in the subjedt. Liddell and Scott’s 
Greek and English Lexicon may also be turned to with profit. Hylozoism is 
the exadt equivalent of Non-Animism, the antithesis of Animism. — R. L. 
f As a further example of the confusion still existing in the scientific mind 
on this subjedl, see Prof. Tait’s Lecture, a few years since, at the Glasgow 
