I say advisedly, "with _almost_ the
same degree of effect," because, to be strictly accurate, we ought not
altogether to ignore the indefinitely slender presumption which Mr.
Spencer's subjective test of inconceivability establishes on the side of
Spiritualism, as against the objective evidence of causation on the side of
Materialism. As this is an important subject, I will be a little more
explicit. We are agreed that Force and Matter are entities external to
consciousness, of which we can possess only symbolical knowledge.
Therefore, as we have said, Force and Matter may be anything within the
whole range of the possible. But we know that Mind is a possible entity,
while we have no certain knowledge of any other possible entity. Hence we
are justified in saying, It is possible that Force and Matter may be
identical with the only entity which we know as certainly possible; but
forasmuch as we do not know the sum of possible entities, we have no means
of calculating the chances there are that what we know as Force and Matter
are identical in nature with Mind. Still, that there is _a_ chance we
cannot dispute; all we can assert is, that we are unable to determine its
value, and that it would be a mistake to suppose we can do so, even in the
lowest degree, by Mr. Spencer's test of inconceivability. Nevertheless, the
fact that there is such a chance renders it in some indeterminate degree
more probable that what we know as Force and Matter are identical with what
we know as Mind, than that what we know as oxygen and hydrogen are
identical with what we know as water.
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