MATERIALISM
874
MATHER
not vital energy? and if vital energy, why not spiritual jialgments antl emotions? This argument has been urged with great earnestness and pertinacity by certain physiologists both of the German and English schools. Conspicuous among them are Carl Vogt, Physioloijische Briefejur GebiUeie ; Kohler-Glimhe uiid Wissenschaft, 1855 ; J. Moleschott, Physiologie des StoJJ'icechsels ; Der Krtislaiif des Lebens, etc. ; Louis Buclnier, Kraft imd iStoff {\>ihb); Natur u. Geist, etc.; Hiickcl, Nut urlick- Scliopfu)i(j.t<jeschichte ; Ueber die Entstchutu/ itnd den Staumbau des Memchenr/escldechts, etc. T. 11. Huxley, On the Plujsical Bases of Life, edit. 18G8 (compare J. H. Sterling, As irr/ards Protoplasm, etc., edit. 18G9-72), and H. Maudsley, Physiolu(jy and Patholotpj of the Hu- man Mind (Loud, and N. Y. 18G7), approximate to the same opinions among the English. Alexander Bain (The Senses and the Intellect, \o\\([. 1855, 1804); The Emotions and the Will, 2d ed. 1865 ; Mental and Moral Science, Lond. 1867) sympathizes with these tendencies, treating the soul in the main as though it ^vere but a capacity in the nervous system for special functions which obej' physiological laws. The doctrine of evo- lution by natural selection in the struggle for existence, which has been derived by the celebrated Darwin from a limited cycle of physiological facts, and extended by him to explain the production of all complex forms oi' being, inorganic and organic, is materialistic in its assumptions and its conclusions, even if neither of these are recognised or confessed by its advocates. The met- aphysical doctrine of development by successive pro- cesses of differentiation and integration, which has been hardened into an axiom by Herbert Spencer, and ap- plied to the explanation of all forms of being, and even of the primal truths of metaphysical science itself, can lead to no other than a materialistic psychology. The doctrine of unconscious cerebration, which is taught more or less explicitly by Dr.W. B. Carpenter and other eminent physi(3logists, though not necessarily involving the materialistic hypothesis, is yet materialistic in its tendencies and associations. The positive school of Comte teaches directly that the brain is the only sub- stance of the soul, and that what are usually called spir- itual activities are simply biological phenomena. J. S. Mill, though not avowedly a materialist, follo^vs Hume in reducing matter and mind to idealistic formula;, which, as conceived by him, arc not distinguishable from physiological j)henomena or products.
According to the materialistic philosophy, as devel- oped by whatever writer, but especially in its once pop- ular form of Epicureanism, the j^erception of our senses is the only source of all human knowledge. The re- membrance of man}' previous perceptions of the same nature gives rise to general views, and the comparison of these to judgments. Ethics are thus but the doc- trine of happiness, and its highest maxim : Seek joy, avoid pain ! Yet Epicurus sought to give a certain moral tendency to this fundamental axiom of his sys- tem, by declaring every pleasure objectionable which is followed by a greater impleasantness, and every pain is desirable which is followed by a greater pleasure; ac- cording to which iirinciple freedom from care and in- sensil)ility to liodily pain become the highest aim of man. Sec Lutterbeck, Neutestamentliche Lehrbeffriff'e (Mainz, 1852), i, .38-58 ; H. Kitter, Gesch. d. Philosophie ; Fries, Gesch. d. Philosophie, vol. i. See Epicurean Phi- losophy. In Boston a pajier entitled The Inrestigaior is now published in the interests of materialism. The German-Americans are also quite active in this work. They have two jiapers — the Pionicr (Boston) antl the Keue Zeit (New York). The editor of the former, Karl Heinzen, is frequently before the public all over the country to press the interests of his abominable work. Kecently Dr. G. C. Hiebeling- published a, pamphlet en- titled Naturwissenschaft gefjen Philosophie (New "i'ork, Schmidt, 1871, 12nio) to controvert Hurtmaim's Philos- ojthy of the Unknoirn.
The defects of the materialistic hj-pothesis are mani-
fold. It considers only the similarities, and overlooks the differences of two classes of actual phenomena. Through its overweening desire of unit}', it becomes one-sided and imperfect in all its conceptions and conclusions, and fails to do justice to the peculiarities of spirit^ial experiences, which are as real as the more obtrusive and palpable phenomena of matter. Moreover, it fails to discern that the intellectual and moral functions not only have a right to be recognised in their full import, but that they have a certain supremacy and authority over all others, inasmuch as the agent which knows must furnish the principles and axioms which all science assumes and on which all science must rest. If the soul is only a function of matter, then to know is one of the functions of matter. It follows that the authority of knowledge itself may be as changeable and micer- tain as the changes of form, the varieties of motion, the manifold chemical combinations, or the more or less complex developments of which matter is capable. The materialistic hypothesis not only overlooks and does in- justice to the facts which are open to common appre- hension, but it is a suicidal theory, which destroys, by its own positions and its method, the very foundations on which any science can stand — even the scientific the- ory of materialism itself. See Soul.
Literature. — Lange (Frdr. A.), Gesch. des Materialis- mus, etc. (Iserlohn, 1867, 8vo) ; Schaller, Leib. u. Seele (3d. ed. 1858); Wagner, Kampf vm die Seele (1857); Frauenstadt, Ber Materialismus ; Fabri (Dr. Friedrich), Briefe gegen den Materialismus (Stuttg. 1856 ; 2d ed. 1864, 8vo ; comp. Bibl. Sac. 1865, p. 525) ; .Janet, The Materialism of the Present Day (a critique of Dr. Bilch- ner, Lond. and N. Y. 1866, 12mo) ; Lotze, Medicinische (Leipsic, 1852) ; also his Mikrokosmus (Leipsic, 1856) ; Ulrici, Gott und die Natur (Leipsic, 1862) ; also his Gott uml der Mensch (Leipsic, 1866) ; Fichte, Zur Seelenfrafie (Leipsic, 1859) ; Seelenfortdauer, etc. (Leipsic, 1867) ; Psycholoyie (Leipsic, 1864) ; Trendelenburg, in the Benk- schriften d.K. Akad. (1849) ; also Hist. lieitrdrje (1855); Jahr, Die ivichtiffsten Zeitfragen ; Die Natur, der Men- schengeist und sein Goftesbegriff (Leipsic, 1869, 8vo) ; Weiss (Dr. L.), Anii-Materialismus ; Vortrdge aus dem Gebiete der Philosophie (Berlin, 1869, 1871, 2 vols. 8vo); Hagenbach, His't. of Doctrines, ii, 222, 475; Pearson, On Infidelity; Farrar, Crit. Hist, of Free Thought; Buckle, l/ist. of Civilization; Mansel, Limits of Religious Thought, Lect. V ; Porter, Human Intellect, p. 18 sq. ; Liddon, Our Lord's Divinity, p. 451 ; Cudworth, Intellectual System of the Universe ; Leckey, Hist, of Rationalism ; Hamil- ton, Biscnssions; Fichte, in the Zeitschr.f. die Philoso- phie, 1860 ; Christ. Exam. 1859 (Nov.) ; North Brit. Rev. 1860 (Nov.); ^;«er.Pm-6.i?er.l869,p.l93; 1872,p.l94; Bihl. Sac. 1860, p. 201 ; 1865 (Jidy) ; Theol. Eclect. 1869 (Nov.), p. 55; Princet. Rev. 1869 (Oct.), p. 616; Kitto, Journ. Sac. Lit. xxv, 25; Westminster Rev. 1864 (July), p. 90; 1870 (Oct.), p. 225; Rosenkranz, in Zeitschr.f iir wissenschaftl. Theol. 1864, vol. iii, art. i ; .loum. Specul. Phil. vol. i. No. 3, art. vi; Catholic World, 1870 (Aug.). See Matter. (N. P.) Maternus. See Firmicus. Maternus I, bishop of Cologne. See Cologne. Mather, Alexander, one of Mr. Wesley's most useful preachers, was born at Brechin, North Britain, in Feb. 1733. When a boy he had some instruction at a Latin school, and afterwards ran away with the rebels, and was in the battle of Culloden. On account of this he was treated with great harshness by his father, and deprived of all educational advantages. In 1751 he left home and went to Perth, and in 1752 to London, to earn his living as a mechanic. Here, in 1753, he married. He had been religiously inclined from boyhood, and had long followed his convictions in many moralities and means of grace; finally converted under a sermon of John Wesley's, April 14, 1754, he soon became very use- ful as a band and class leader and local preacher. In 1767 lie began itinerating under BIr. Wesley, and with