The modern advocates of the theory are immeasurably superior to
the ancient Epicureans in their knowledge of astronomy, botany, zooelogy,
and biology; but in their theory of the universe, and in their mode of
accounting for all the phenomena of life and intelligence, they are
precisely on the same level. They have not added an idea to the system,
which has ever been regarded as the opprobrium of human thought.
Buechner, Moleschott, Vogt, hold that matter is eternal and
indestructible; that matter and force are inseparable: the one cannot
exist without the other. What, it is asked, is motion without something
moving? What is electricity without an electrified body? What is
attraction without molecules attracting each other? What is
contractibility without muscular fibre, or secretion without a secreting
gland? One combination of molecules exhibits the phenomena of life,
another combination exhibits the phenomena of mind. All this was taught
by the old heathen philosopher more than two thousand years ago. That
this system denies the existence of God, of mind as a thinking substance
distinct from matter, and of the possibility of the conscious existence
of man after death, are not inferences drawn by opponents, but
conclusions openly avowed by its advocates.
_Herbert Spencer's New Philosophy._
Mr. Darwin calls Spencer our "great philosopher.
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