328 
fcranslucence of tlie invisible energy, wbicb soon surrenders or 
abandons them to inferior powers (for there is no pause, no 
chasm in the activities of nature), which repeat a similar 
metamorphosis according to their kind. These are not fancies, 
conjectures, or even hypotheses, but facts, to deny which is 
impossible, not to reflect on which is ignominious.'’’’ * 
We see, then, that an organic whole imports a distinct and 
individualised agency, whereof the identity consists not in the 
ever- changing material, but in the living principle, which on 
that changing material imposes a definite form. The pro- 
found and candid Lange clearly recognises the difficulty which 
here arises for the materialistic thinker : — Sensation,^’ he 
says, is found only in the organic animal body, and here 
belongs, not to the parts in themselves, but to the whole. 
We have thus reached the point where Materialism, however 
consistently it may be developed in other respects, always 
either more or less avowedly leaves its own sphere. Obviously 
with the union into a whole, a new metaijlnj steal principle has 
been introduced, that by the side of the atoms and void 
space appears as a sufficiently original supplement 
The organic whole is, then, a wholly new principle by the 
side of the atoms and the void, though it may not be so 
recognised.^^ t 
This leads on to what appears to me an insuperable objec- 
tion. Atoms in motion, and, of course, a void space to move 
in, are, it will be remembered, the postulate of the Materialist. 
Sensibility for the atoms is not demanded. If it were, other 
considerations would be opened, to which I shall hereafter 
advert. Given, therefore, the non-sentient atoms, how is the 
sentient to be developed out of the non-sentient ? I again 
refer to Lange, who thus pursues the subject of my last 
extract. The difficulty,^^ he says {id., p. 146), which here 
again suggests itself of fixing the exact seat of sensation is the 
most important point, completely evaded by the Epicurean 
system, and, in spite of the immense progress of physiology, 
the Materialism of the last century found itself at precisely the 
same point. The individual atoms do not feel or [if they did] 
their feelings could not be fused together, since void space, 
which has no substratum, cannot conduct sensation, and still 
less partake of it. We must, therefore, constantly fall back on 
the solution, — the motion of the atoms is sensation.'’^ But 
he asks, a few lines further on, — How can the motion of 
* Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, p. 392. Pickering, London, 1836. 
t History of Materialism, vol. i., p. 144. Triibner & Co., London, 1879. 
