JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
DECEMBER, 1884. 
I. HYLO-IDEALISM : A DEFENCE. 
(Communicated by Robert Lewins, M.D.) 
“ Now call this One [essence] what you will, the result is the 
same, speculatively or practically. There may be certain degrading 
associations attached to the idea of substance, and certain exalted 
associations attached to that of spirit. But what difference can our 
associations make with respeft to the real nature of things ? ” — 
•Lewes’s History of Philosophy . 
f HE ingenious writer who has lately impeached Hylo- 
Idealism in the pages of this “ Journal ” places me in 
one respeCt at a disadvantage. He uses weapons which 
are not in my armoury, and which I have never been trained 
to wield. Freely confessing my inability to answer Mr. 
Billing in his own style, I shall proceed on the assumption 
that he is the most courteous and chivalrous of antagonists. 
And, first, I must express the pleasure with which I find 
that, spite of all superficial differences, Mr. Billing and my- 
self are really in perfea accord. The sentence which heads 
this article, and which he quotes from Lewes with apparent 
approval, is a complete answer to all insinuations respecting 
the “ degrading ” nature of Materialistic Monism. Else- 
where my seeming opponent virtually avows himself a 
Hylo-Idealist, remarking, with admirable clearness and 
force, that “ the external world is as much a part of man as 
his own egoism.” If the creed which I advance, “the 
fundamental principle of which is the Self,” be really “ sub- 
versive of all morals and order,” and likely to make “ the 
most disgusting license the rule and practice,” surely Mr. 
Billing must consent to share the blame. 
VOL. vi. (third series). 3 a 
