Contributions to the theory of natural selection. A series of essays ... By Alfred Russel Wallace ...

AS APPLIED TO MANX 369
than those which consist in reducing the whole universe,
not merely to matter, but to matter conceived and
defined so as to be philosophically inconceivable. It
is surely a great step in advance, to get rid of the
notion that matter is a thing of itself, which can exist
per se, and must have been eternal, since it is supposed
to be indestructible and uncreated,-that force, or the
forces of nature, are another thing, given or added to
matter, or else its necessary properties,-and that
mind is yet another thing, either a product of this
matter and its supposed inherent forces, or distinct
from and co-existent with it; —and to be ltble to substitute for this complicated theory, which leads to
endless dilemmas and contradictions, the far simpler
and more consistent belief, that matter, as an entity
distinct from force, does not exist; and that FORCE
is a product of BMIND. Philosophy had long demonstrated our incapacity to prove the existence of matter,
as usually conceived; while it admitted the demonstration to each of us of our own self-conscious, ideal
existence. Science has now worked its way up to
the same result, and this agreement between them
should give us some confidence in their combined
teaching.
The view we have now arrived at seems to me
more grand and sublime, as well as far simpler, than
any other. It exhibits the universe, as a universe
of intelligence and will-power; and by enabling us to
rid ourselves of the impossibility of thinking of mind,
but as connected with our old notions of matter,
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