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Hylozoism versus Animism . [September, 
sensation, and due to purely physical causes, is clearly proved 
by the phenomena of reflex action in paralytics and in de- 
capitated animals ; and if such movements, originating in 
the spinal cord, are automatic, we can hardly assign a dif- 
ferent character to those manifested by the cerebral hemi- 
spheres, since the mode of adlion of all the different nerve 
centres is essentially the same. It is surely far more credible 
and rational that consciousness, like other bodily functions, is 
evolved by complexity of organisation, than that one portion 
of the nervous system is self-working, while another is sub- 
jected to the constant interference of an indwelling spiritual 
power. The vis insita of matter (which etymologically means 
indwelling, but practically means inalienable force) supplies 
the place of the Divine afflatus, and affords, in the strictest 
sense of the phrase, a logically sufficient “ cause” — i.e., a 
rationale reducing apparently anomalous phenomena to a 
familiar category. We know that increase of weight by 
calcination results from chemical combination with oxygen, 
or other supporter of combustion, and therefore dismiss the 
old theory of a separable levitating faCtor ( phlogiston ), thus 
refusing to “ assume two principles where one is sufficient.” 
The dualistic hypothesis of matter and spirit is only a wider 
generalisation of the pre-Lavoisierian fallacy. I do not, of 
course, deny “ what is called a chain of causation,” where it 
can be discovered ; but where there is no trace of such a chain 
neither Science nor Philosophy is authorised to assume its 
existence. 
No doubt “ the worst and most absurd errors are often ” — 
I would say always — “ the corruptions or exaggerations of 
truths.” But in such cases the evidence must be stronger 
on one side than on the other ; the reality must be more 
strongly supported than the simulacrum ; and until I am 
informed in what respedt the evidence for the existence of 
fairies, goblins, and witches fall below that for the existence 
of the soul, my argument is untouched. We know that men 
see visions and dream dreams, that their thoughts and feel- 
ings are capable of higher development and of more indefinite 
range than those of the brutes ; and truths such as these 
have been corrupted into the errors of Dualism. 
Mr. Barker somewhat misapprehends the significance of 
my illustration drawn from the phenomena of isomerism. I 
wished to show that as the same components might combine 
in the same proportions to form an odorous or an inodorous, 
a hurtful or a harmless compound, so the same particles 
might unite in a sentient or non-sentient organism. In the 
former case, as Mr. Barker himself observes, no one postu- 
