tent to raise matter from one of these planes to another. The plant contains ingredients derived fi'om the mineral kingdom, with something specifically different. The animal contains all that is in the plant, with something specifically different. Man contains all that enters into the constitution of the plant and animal, with some- thing specifically different. The lifeless elements of the mineral kingdom, under " the influence of preexistent living matter," and not otherwise, become living and life-supporting matter in the plant. The products of vegetable life, in like manner, become the matter of animal tissues and organs, but only under the influence of preexisting living animal tissues. So, also, the products of the vegetable and animal kingdoms are received into the human sys- tem, and become connected with the functions and phenomena of the intellectual and moral life of man, but never otherwise than in the person of a man. This outstanding fact, vouched for by the whole history of our globe, proves that there is something in the plant which is not in lifeless matter ; something in the animal which is not in the plant, and something in man which is not in the animal. To assume, with the Materialist, that the organizing life of the plant comes out gf lifeless matter ; that the sensitive and voluntary life of the animal comes out of the insensible and invol- untary life of the plant; or that the rational, moral, and spiritual life of Man comes out of the constituents of the animal, is to as- sume as a fact something which all experience contradicts. We are not forgetful of the theories which refer these different grades or orders of existence to some process of natural development. We here, however, refer only to the outstanding fact of history, that, in the sphere of human experience, lifeless matter does not become organizing and living, in virtue of its own physical forces ; nor the plant an animal ; nor the animal a man from anything in the plant or animal, but only in virtue of an ah extra vital influence. It is indeed said that as the same chemical elements combined in one way, have certain properties ; and when combined in another way, have other properties ; so the same elements combined in one way in lifeless matter and in other Avays, in plants, animals, and man, may account for all their distinctive characteristics. But it is to be remembered that the properties of chemical compounds, however varied, are chemical, and nothing moi-e ; whereas, in vital organisms the properties or phenomena are specifically different from mere chemical effects. They have no relation to each other, any more than gravity to beauty ; and, therefore, the one cannot account for the other.
284 PART I. -THEOLOGY. [Ch. HI. — Anti-Theism.
Materialism is Atheistic.
Atheism is the denial of an extramundane pex'sonal God. In saying that Materialism is Atheism, it is not meant that all jSIateri- alists are atheists. Some, as for example, Dr. Priestley, confine the application of their principles to the existing order of things. They admit the being of God to whom they refer the creation of the world. The number, however, of such illogical Materialists is small. Leaving out of view these exceptional cases, the philoso- phers of this school may be divided into three classes, —
(1.) Avowed atheists. To this class belong the Epicui-eans ; the French skeptics of the last century ; the Positivists ; and a large part of the physicists of the present generation, especially in Europe. (2.) Those who repudiate the charge of atheism, because they admit the necessary existence of an inscrutable force. But inscrutable force is not God. In rejecting the doctrine of an extramundane Spirit, self-conscious, intelligent, and voluntary, the First Cause of all things, they reject Theism ; and the denial of Theism is Athe- ism. (3.) Those whose principles involve the denial of an extra- mundane God. To this class belong all those who deny the distinc- tion between matter and mind ; who deny the " supersensual," and "supernatural," who affirm that physical force is the only kind of force of which we have any knowledge ; and who maintain that thought is in such a sense a product of the brain, that where there is no brain there can be no thought. Biichner, who although an avowed atheist, is, as to this point, a fair i-epresentative of the whole school, says that the fundamental pi'inciple (der oberste Grundsatz) of our philosophy is, " No matter without force ; and no force without matter." "A spirit without a body," he adds, "is as untliinkable as electricity or magnetism without the matter of which they are affections." ^ This he makes the ground of his argument to prove the impossibility of the existence of the soul after death. The principle, if admitted, is equally conclusive against the existence of God. As Materialism leaves us no God to rever- ence and trust, no Being to whom we are responsible ; and as it de- nies any conscious existence after death, it can be adopted only on the sacrifice of the higher attributes of our nature • and its whole tendency must be to demoralize and degrade.
The Correlation of Physical and Vital and Mental Forces. Besides the consideraticms urged above against Materialism as a general theory, it may be proper to say a few words in reference
1 Krufl und Slof, Zehnte Auflage, Leipzig, 1869, p. 209.