DUDLEY'S ANTI-MA.TBRIALIST. * THOSE speculations on the constitution tithe universe and
of man which, occasionally occupied some of the keenest intellects for two thousand years, have within our own day been abandoned to an inferior order, who substitute crotchets for hypotheses, and bring to the support of their para. doxes less learning and logical ingenuity than the men of yore. Several causes have contributed to this result. The great discoveries,in chemis- try and geology, the attention that has been devoted to imponderable agents, the certainty that electricity plays an important part in life and death and all that intervenes, have given pause to inventive speculation on mysteries connected with the arcane of nature. We have knowledge enough to perceive the difficulties in the way of reaching a satisfactory conclusion, and to doubt the utility of a priori speculations. It,seems an idle task to he discussing materialism or immaterialism, when we know nothing of matter in its essence, and cannot from knowledge or hypothesis get even a conception of what spirit is ; late discoveries, in fact, tracing the operation of material agents in cases that would once have been ascribed to spiritual agency.
Coupled with this is (the more unavowed cause of) the greater atten- tion that has been given to the intelligent principle in animals: for it must not be disguised that the dispute about spirit and matter de- rived much of its vehemence from foregone religious conclusions. It was assumed by numbers that the immortality of the soul depended upon its immateriality ; so that the zeal and obstinacy of theology were introduced into the question. " All the notices of sense and investigations of sci- ence," says Imlac in Basset* " concur to prove the unconsciousness of
matter Matter can differ from matter only in form, deusity, bulk, motion, and direction of motion : to which of these, however varied or combined, can consciousness be annexed ? " And, after pursuing this branch of the argument, he continues, in reply to a question of the Princess, "immateriality seems to imply a natural power of perpetual duration, as a consequence of exemption from all causes of decay: whatever perishes is destroyed by the solution of its contexture, and separation of its parts ; nor can we conceive how that which has no parts, and therefore admits no solution, can be naturally corrupted or impaired." It was obvious to critical scrutiny, that this limitation of consciousness to immateriality would endow brute animals with immortality ; but some immaterialists endeavotared to escape from that conclusion by having recourse to reason. A knowledge of good and evil, a something above and beyond instinct, was in their opinion characteristic of immateriality, and therefore of im- mortality. The exhibition of what-we cannot but call a reasoning faculty in well-trained animals, especially dogs, that has been recorded of late years, has somewhat shaken this view : even orthodox divines sham' don the argument which separates man from animals solely by the power of putting two ideas together and thence deducing a third. Mr. Dudley fairly takes the bull by the horns in the volume before us, and concedes immortality to animals : on his own principles, he should concede it to all things inorganic as well as organic.
For Mr. Dudley's Anti-Materialist aims at reviving the theory which Bishop Berkeley promulgated in the beginuing of the last century touch- ing the non-existence of matter. A similar notion, indeed, had been en- tertained by certain ancient sages, who looked upon the world as a delu- sion altogether, or considered nothing real but perception or ideas. If the controvertist is allowed to choose his examples and substitute a part for the whole, theme is more to be said for this view than personaunaccus- tomed to such speculations might suppose: for example, heat and colours exist in our perception of them, and will be different to differently consti- tuted perceptions. These instances, however, are partial : heat and light (on which colours depend) are imponderable agents, and are only one and that a very limited class of material entity. The true answer to the whole argument seems to be, that the anti-materialists confound memory with perception, ,perception with the object perceived, and limit the existence of the external world to their own conceptions of it ; for Berkeley's argument, that one observer perceives a thing when another does not, and thus preserves its existence, is trifling. Mr. Dudley goes further, as in the case of the immortality of animals, and confounds perception, memory, and individual: knowledge, all to- gether. In fact, he owns that it was his observation of the effects of knowledge that first made him a convert to Berkeley's theory. The re- searches necessary in a former work of his compelled him to study reli- gious symbols, and so led him step by step to anti-materjalepn, "The evil spirit, Satan, is differently represented and differently described in Holy Writ. He is a serpent; a dragon, that is, a winged serpent; and yet no one actually supposes, the author of the poem of 'Paradise Lost' atone excepted, that Satan ever bore that form. Again, when exhibited either hyrthe punter or the sculptor as a fallen angel, the features are distorted by malignity, and his person darkly hideous. Ignorance alone supposes that the person of this spirit bears such aspect. The idea of wicked malignity endowed with no contemptible portion of power is atone contemplated by the intelligent mind. The same must be said Of the symbolical representations of Death and Time, so eolemon till of late years in all our churches. It were absurd to suppose that any portion of du- ration can possibly resemble the animal form of a bald old man, with a, single lock of hair on his front and a scithe in hand; or that Death can be a skeleton, a sys- tem of bare bones. .1' Vie. Anti-Materiallat.t. denying the Reality _or Natter, and.wInditeatkerSEVEVAlr• Stinky. of-Sptrit. Brdohn Dudley, Clerk, Author of "1taolork,7..8r4„, 0014slard Ben. -alo;reprosqnteHTOs tif„,holy persons, the Saviour or his Apostles, whether bylifiritimitirjblqIiktWn*: though they be amply sufficient for the intended .urpuee,iicaniadt beiregardediamlikettessesi se-different are the forms under which they,ece often irepresentad. The habits also in which they are clad are commonly altogiAbilr ftweigIldtortrlka habits actually worn by them when in life. Artists com- monly represent both the Sayiour and his Apostles clad in robes of consular
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such es wire never worn by Jewish peasants and fishermen. The different forms may perhapshe all atiproved, for all equally serve to excite the feelings of affectionate reverence which is due to the former, or of grateful respect dim to the latter. If the figures produce such effect, the purpose of the exhibition is fully answered. It is a matter of the utmost indifference whether there be any like- ness or not: if the proper sentiments be excited by the exhibition of the figure, all is accomplished that is desirable or desired. In truth, no form is absolutely re- quired. The exhibition of even the name of the person or the subject intended is almost always sufficient fur the intended purpose; my, indeed, the initial let- ters of the name of the personage, placed in situations likely to produce the in- tended effect, stiggest the idea of the name and thence of the person also, with a clearness and precision little if at all inferior to the most expressive signification of the intended object. "These reflections ort the form of the symbolical object led to the observation that the colour was likewise a matter of the utmost indifference, and the fancy of the painter WSIS the only rule by which the use of that article is regulated. The material also of which the form might consist was found, however various, to be alike efficient.. Whether the image or statue were of clay, of wood, or metal, it mattered not the object was equally efficient of the intended purpose, and con- veyed the same idea. All these facts led to the opinion that not only the visible object, bat the material in which it might be wrought, was a matter of perfect in- difference, for that the same effect might be produced, the same ideas excited, by forms and substances widely different, and that it was absolutely independent on the form and figure of the thing exhibited. Inquiry showed that these doubts and these opinions were by no means new, however foreign to common notions; the same had been lung entertained by persons of great ability and sound judg- ment."
It seems hardly necessary to point to the jumble here of perception, memory, knowledge, and association of ideas, or the confusion between the actual, the representation, and the imaginary conception. A person of cultivated mind, who has seen pictures of Christ, and who is well ac- quainted with the doctrine of the atonement, may have his recollection of the forms be has seen and the doctrines he has heard revived, by the symbol of the cross, or the letters I H S; but at the same time he may not-it depends upon the nature of the man and his mood of mind at the time. On the other hand, a person who has seen no pictures and heard no exposition will have no ideas suggested by the symbols, or very erroneous ones. In all eases, the idea of Christ, the Apostles, and Christianity, will not convey any certain, much less any true idea, but will depend upon the painter or the teacher, and the memory and ex- citability, of the person taught. It is in fact measuring existence, as we have said, by our perception of it.
These remarks are rather answers to the anti-materialists than proofs of matter; the existence of which is best shown after the fashion of the ancient, who refuted the philosopher denying motion by walking up and down before him-Mr. Grantley Berkeley's argumentative "punch of the head" is the most cogent confutation. It is indeed curious to see how our author trips occasionally-how unconsciously be admits the existence of matter when arguing against it. One great object of his book is to prove universal immateriality by means of Scripture-to show that re- vealed religion is more probable under his hypothesis, _and of course miracles are more intelligible when dealing with spirit made visible than when acting upon_ unmanageable matter. Yet fact is too strong for the hobby ; matter will creep in.
"Several events of the life of the Saviour confirm the belief that he was not a material substance, even during his life on earth. When the Jews attempted to stone him, he rendered himself in an instant invisible, and passed through the midst of them. Had he been a material body he must have annihilated the mat- ter of that body in an instant, otherwise he could not have escaped; the pressure of Me substance in the crowd would have subjected him to discovery, and he would have been detainedt If again he bore a material body, he must have created matter to form his body; a supposition strange and hard to be imagined. "The act of walking on a tempestuous sea was rather the faculty of an imma- terial than a material body; and the same faculty was communicated in part to the disciple Peter, and became inefficient from a defect of mental energy, the want of sufficient faith. The transfiguration can hardly be considered as of pos- sible occurrence to a material substance. The sudden and extreme change in the person and appearance, and the sudden resumption of the common personalty and appearance, accord but. ill with the stubborn mutability of matter."
Quotations of this kind might be greatly extended; but proving more, we fear, against miracles than matter, as Mr. Dudley puts it. Some very singular opinions intended for explanations are also broached touch- ing the Creation, the Trinity, and other mysteries, but having no logical bearing upon the author's hypothesis. The want of logic, indeed, ia a remat kable feature in a book evidently written by a man of lingual acquirements, scholastic education, and much self-propelled inquiry into subjects connected with religion and mental philosophy : but, once mounted on his hobby-horse, a man rides over everything.
t Hit were proper to import Scripture into scientific argument, there is an appeal from philosophy to revelation which seems to settle the question. "Behold tay hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit bath not flesh-and bowie, Sea yeaee me have"-Luke, chapter xxiv. verse 39.
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