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no person to feel ? The whole universe of thought becomes a 
multiplied heap of sentences, in which the copula only is left, 
and both the subject and the object are stolen away. 
Such is the first variety in that sensational creed, which is 
to replace Christian faith, and belief in the Bible. Mind per- 
haps may exist, and at least a compromise is proposed. “ The 
wisest thing is to accept the inexplicable fact (of memory) 
without any theory of how it takes place ; and when we speak 
of it in terms which assume a theory, to use them with a reser- 
vation as to their meaning. No such difficulties attend the 
theory in its application to matter/” That is, in plainer words, 
we may speak of minds as existent, reserving a secret doubt 
whether they exist or not. But in the case of matter the 
reserve is needless, and we may safely adopt the theory of its 
non-existence, as any thing apart from a percipient mind. 
It is the striking remark of Gibbon on the history of Bajazet 
— “ The savage would have devoured his prey, if in the fatal 
moment he had not been devoured by another savage stronger 
than himself.” And here we have a sign that, while Materialism 
is prophesying its victories, and seeking to engulf both morality 
and religion within its ravenous jaws. Nihilism, another form 
of error, is lying in wait for it to destroy it in its turn, 
and replace it by a negative creed of nothingness and utter 
darkness. 
Let us turn to Mr. Spencer, and see there another form of 
the materializing theory. His doctrine may be summed up in 
two or three principles. First, matter is indestructible, and 
this indestructibility is an d priori truth, since no demon- 
stration of it d posteriori is possible. Secondly, matter, as an 
absolute reality, is some mode of the unknowable, related to 
the matter we know as cause to effect. Thirdly, phenomenal 
matter, the relative reality we know, is made up of the pheno- 
mena or sensations we experience from material objects. 
We are thus involved, a second time, in a hopeless contra- 
diction. Phenomenal matter is constantly destroyed. The 
candle burns away and disappears. The gunpowder explodes 
and vanishes, and the sensations it gave to our touch and sight 
come to an end. The cloud melts away into the blue sky, and 
is no more. But non-phenomenal matter, the absolute reality, 
by the theory is one form of the unknowable. Of this we 
cannot know, then, whether it can or cannot be destroyed. 
And still the indestructibility of matter is to be reckoned a 
fundamental d prion truth. What contradiction can be more 
complete? How can we found an all-conquering, all-inclu- 
sive philosophy on the basis of a palpable contradiction ? 
