SPIRIT AND MATTER.

      In commencing a course of lectures on Mental Science, it is somewhat

      difficult for the lecturer to fix upon the best method of opening the

      subject. It can be approached from many sides, each with some peculiar

      advantage of its own; but, after careful deliberation, it appears to me

      that, for the purpose of the present course, no better starting-point could

      be selected than the relation between Spirit and Matter. I select this

      starting-point because the distinction--or what we believe to be such--

      between them is one with which we are so familiar that I can safely assume

      its recognition by everybody; and I may, therefore, at once state this

      distinction by using the adjectives which we habitually apply as expressing

      the natural opposition between the two--_living_ spirit and _dead_ matter.

      These terms express our current impression of the opposition between spirit

      and matter with sufficient accuracy, and considered only from the point of

      view of outward appearances this impression is no doubt correct. The

      general consensus of mankind is right in trusting the evidence of our

      senses, and any system which tells us that we are not to do so will never

      obtain a permanent footing in a sane and healthy community. There is

      nothing wrong in the evidence conveyed to a healthy mind by the senses of a

      healthy body, but the point where error creeps in is when we come to judge

      of the meaning of this testimony. We are accustomed to judge only by

      external appearances and by certain limited significances which we attach

      to words; but when we begin to enquire into the real meaning of our words

      and to analyse the causes which give rise to the appearances, we find our

      old notions gradually falling off from us, until at last we wake up to the

      fact that we are living in an entirely different world to that we formerly

      recognized. The old limited mode of thought has imperceptibly slipped away,

      and we discover that we have stepped out into a new order of things where

      all is liberty and life. This is the work of an enlightened intelligence

      resulting from persistent determination to discover what truth really is

      irrespective of any preconceived notions from