1885 -] 
Correspondence, 
493 
cavil at the assertion— has quite succeeded in diagnosing as 
morbid cerebral symptoms, and therefore as bodily infirmity^ not 
£“ d - an heir -'<>™ Of Agriology— in Jewish^ Christian and 
so irL R lfl' 0nS V aS i, a s P‘" tual influx ° r afflatus from a supernal 
source, all such alleged Transcendentalism. Even “ Nature ” 
?h!!-"! Sed by the } ate l Platonists and other Mystics and Pan- 
J , S ’ as now . tbe vulgar realism of Scientism, is but a 
™ "I in J ag ? ° f the C E S°> a bodiless creation of a healthy Brain, 
W// Phant ° m M ° f Hamlet> Macbeth, Richard III. are of an 
unhealthy one. No crux lurks in these propositions other than 
and ^ d “ mnosa h ^editas of prejudice, superstition, 
. I , 10na c ^ sl:0 ™’ or second Nature, which, shrinking from 
the compete volte face necessitated by mental innovations, 
akes such ever a painful crisis in the history of society, 
bupreme Order, under these conditions, is envisaged as supreme 
Disorder. Contrary to popular opinion, Mental and Physical 
ocience are quite at one on this rationale, —formally since 
Hume, but informally throughout the whole past ages of Philo- 
’ . Bot h Bacon and Locke adumbrate the thesis, the latter 
distinctly stating that the adit from human to Divine is an im- 
possible transit. Newton, however, felix cognosces causas, 
wa.s the fortunate formalist who— by his hylo-ideal discovery of 
Attraction first placed the Automatism of Matter, and its 
coio lary the nullity of “ Spirit ” as an inexpugnable verity, on a 
level with the Agora— a heritage of the meanest mind. The 
average general intellect ought, since 1687, to see that since 
Mattel does its own work no other substance is necessary, and 
that anemistic Dualism, even if thinkable, — which it is not , — 
fafis quite to the ground. And yet, 0 cceca mens mortalium, 
Newton himself— like Priestley later— quite ignored the gist of 
his own induction. Both of these (to say nothing of later che- 
w C f, P h / Sical ; and physiological discoveries, and notably 
V\ oilier s pace Mr. Romanes’ hazy ambiguity, in his recent “Rede 
Lecture,” and other Opportunists) establish the truth of Mate- 
riahsm, never doubtful in sound Medical Science, and doom 
Spmtualism, the very name of which is a misnomer, to the 
limbo of other exploded pseudo-sciences, like Astrology, which 
tor many generations held potent sway, not only in the schools 
but also in the world of events. A strong trace of it is disco- 
verable even in Napoleon. To Wallenstein, and other 17th 
century heroes, astral superstition was what religion was to 
Cromwell, and to belated Chinese and Khartoum General Gordon. 
Kepler lent it the aegis of his great name. And a prediction of 
lycho Brahe, founded on the Emperor Rudolph’s horoscope, 
naively confided in by that generous patron of nascent Astro- 
nomy, is reported by Sir D. Brewster to have actually been the 
cause of his death. 
Robert Lewins, M.D, 
