MECHANISM AND Personality: AN OUTLINE OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE LIGHT OF BY FRANCIS A. SHOUP, D.D., BOSTON, U.S.A.: COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY FRANCIS A. SHOUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. CUSHING & Co., BOSTON, U.S.A. PRESSWORK BY GINN & Co., BOSTON, U.S.A. Bi •Sh8 To My Friend, THOMAS BRESLIN, who, of all the men it has been my happiness to know, is the most thoroughly altruistic. 2457 108'00 "The truth which draws Through all things upwards; that a two-fold world In art, in morals, or the social drift, Tears up the bond of nature and brings death, -Aurora Leigh. "The reconciliation of physics and metaphysics lies in the acknowledgment of faults upon both sides; in the confession by physics that all the phenomena of nature are, in their ultimate analysis, known to us only as facts of consciousness; in the admission by metaphysics, that the facts of consciousness are, practically, interpretable only by the methods and the formulæ of physics." — Professor Huxley. PREFACE. OME time ago a gentleman of excellent attainments SOME requested the author of the following pages to recommend him a book which would give, within moderate compass, the present attitude of Philosophy in the light of the latest scientific research, and that in a way suited to the comprehension of the ordinary reader. The author mentioned several books which he thought would in some sort answer the purpose, but at the same time had to confess that he could think of no one work which exactly met the case. Reflecting afterwards from time to time upon the subject, he was still unable to fix upon any one such book. It was in this way that the need of something to meet the growing inquiry as to what has become of metaphysic in the glare of the scientific thought of the day impressed itself upon the author, and that he conceived the idea of trying what he could do himself in the way of outlining an answer. These pages are the result of his effort. The author has tried to keep the general reader in mind, and, as a result, the book is largely elementary; but, while aiming at simplicity and clearness, he has not thought it best to avoid entirely the recognized terminology of the subject. Care has been taken, however, when introducing purely technical terms, to give equivalent expressions in common speech. The author has been at times tempted almost compelled – V |