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causes;

and he tells those who dare to doubt of the apeorigin of humanity, that "it is an interesting and instructive circumstance that those men are chiefly indignant at the discovery of the natural development of man from the monkey, between whom and our common tertiary ancestors there is the least observable difference, whether as to intellectual capacity or cerebral characteristics." His 'General Morphology,' published in 1866, his Natural History of Creation,' of which the first edition appeared in 1868, and his 'Anthropogenie (1874), are the works in which he has expounded his socalled monism. The second and third of them have been translated into English. For a good general exposition of his system, based on the Natural History of Creation,' see M. Léon Dumont's 'Haeckel et la théorie de l'évolution en Allemagne.'

Eugene Dühring has endeavoured in various works to establish and apply a so-called "philosophy of reality" which is essentially materialistic. He gave a general exposition of his system in a 'Course of Philosophy' published in 1875. The work has considerable merits; but, besides other defects, it has the fatal fault of seldom giving proofs either of its affirmations or its negations. The book of Hans Vaihinger, mentioned in Note V., will be found highly useful to the student of Dühring's philosophy.

David F. Strauss closed his literary career by a "Confession," in which materialism and pantheism were blended together, and Darwinism was accepted as the new and true Gospel. The celebrity which he had acquired, and his talent as a writer, were the chief reasons why this confession-The Old and the New Faith,' 1873excited a remarkable amount of attention. As regards

real intellectual substance it is poor, superficial, and confused. The "new faith" is a faith as old as speculative error. As held by Strauss it is an unreasoned faith in the eternity of matter, in spontaneous generation, in the incarnation of the ape, and in the truth of optimism, although the world is ruled by blind and aimless, unconscious and unmoral forces. Its central positive and constructive idea is that the universe — the totality of existence designated nature-is the only God which the modern mind enlightened by science can consent to worship. Among the multitude of reviews which the book called forth, those of Rauwenhoff and Nippold, of Huber, of Vera, of Henry B. Smith ('Philosophy and Faith,' pp. 443-488), of J. Hutchison Stirling ('Athenæum,' June 1873), and of Ulrici, might be specified. Ulrici's article-an annihilating and unanswerable criticism of the philosophical postulates and dogmas of the latest faith of Strauss-has been translated into English, with an introduction, by Dr Krauth.

Materialism has now for almost thirty years been spreading more and more widely in Germany, with what results the future will show. It has owed its success to the spirit of the times; not to any intellectual superiority of its advocates over its opponents. Schaller, Lotze, J. H. Fichte, Ulrici, Bona Meyer, Huber, Hoffmann, Froschammer, Fabri, Weiss, Wigand, and a host of others, have done all that could be desired in the way both of repelling and of returning its attacks. There is considerable exaggeration current as to the extent, and especially as to the quality, of its conquests. The highest class of German thinkers is chiefly composed of those who regard materialism as the least satisfactory of philosophical systems.

In France scarcely any work of merit has recently appeared in defence of materialism, if positivism be not counted as materialism. The communistic conspirator, A. Blanqui, wrote a curious little book entitled 'L'Eternité par les astres, hypotèse astronomique' (1872), which showed very considerable literary talent, and which was very ingeniously reasoned out from the assumption that matter is infinite both in extension and duration. He displayed in it his characteristic disregard of the nature of the consequences of his principles. Thus he contended that, since there must be all possible combinations of worlds if matter be absolutely infinite, there must be many worlds like the present-stars with, for example, duplicates in them of France, Paris, the Commune, and Blanqui, and even of all these at every stage of their existence. He neither proved, however, that matter is doubly infinite, nor that we have such a comprehension of absolute as to be able to deduce from it definite inferences.

M. Lefèvre, in his 'La Philosophie' (1879), has written the history of philosophy from a materialistic point, and given a general exposition of the system of materialism.

In England, Mr Herbert Spencer, Professors Huxley and Tyndall, and a few other writers of distinguished philosophical or scientific talents, have done far more to diffuse materialism than any of those who are willing to avow themselves materialists. Never was materialism more fortunate than when it secured to itself the sympathy and support of minds so vigorous and so richly gifted. It is quite incorrect, however, to say that in this country the foremost scientific men have, as a body, gone over to the materialistic camp or to the side of scepticism.

This assertion was lately made by Mr Froude;

and it called forth from Professor Tait the following unanswerable reply: "When we ask of any competent authority, who were the 'advanced,' the 'best,' and the 'ablest' scientific thinkers of the immediate past (in Britain), we cannot but receive for answer such names as Brewster, Faraday, Forbes, Graham, Rowan Hamilton, Herschel, and Talbot. This must be the case unless we use the word science in a perverted sense. Which of these great men gave up the idea that nature evidences a designing mind? But perhaps Mr Froude refers to the advanced thinkers still happily alive among us. The names of the foremost among them are not far to seek. But, unfortunately for his assertion, it is quite certain that Andrews, Joule, Clerk-Maxwell, Balfour Stewart, Stokes, William Thomson, and suchlike, have each and all of them, when the opportunity presented itself, spoken in a sense altogether different from that implied in Mr Froude's article. Surely there are no truly scientific thinkers in Britain farther advanced than these." See 'International Review' for November 1878, Art. "Does Humanity require a New Revelation ?"

Among those who have combated materialism with ability in publications written in English, the following may be mentioned: Sir L. S. Beale, Professor Bowen, Dr Carpenter, President Chadbourne, Professor Cocker, Rev. Joseph Cook, Principal Dawson, Dr Hickok, Dr. Hodge, Professor Le Conte, Professor Leebody, President M'Cosh, Dr Macvicar, Dr Martineau, Professor Clerk - Maxwell, Professor Mivart, President Porter, Professors Balfour Stewart and Tait, and Dr Hutchison Stirling.

NOTE XVI., page 163.

MATERIALISM AND FORCE

Professors Balfour Stewart and Tait, in the preface to the fifth edition of the ingenious and suggestive work entitled The Unseen Universe,' say: "As professors of natural philosophy we have one sad remark to make. The great majority of our critics have exhibited almost absolute ignorance as to the proper use of the term Force, which has had one, and only one, definite scientific sense since the publication of the 'Principia.' As such men are usually among the exceptionally well educated, ignorance of this important question must be all but universal." The observation is probably only too true. And perhaps professors of natural philosophy have themselves. contributed largely to the mental confusion which prevails on the subject. The definitions and descriptions of force given by writers on physics are conflicting enough to explain and excuse almost any amount of ignorance and error regarding it. Faraday tells us that "matter is force;" Grove that "force is an affection of matter;" and Dubois-Reymond that "force is nothing else than an abortion of the irresistible tendency to personification." Professor Moleschott declares that "force is essential to matter;" Professor Spiller affirms that "no material constituent of body is originally endowed with force;" and Dr Winslow maintains that "matter is a mere vehicle which possesses and holds force as a bladder holds water or a sack meal." Professor Balfour Stewart uses the word force as meaning "that which changes the

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