But, Science has taken all this to mean that Thought and Mind were purely material things, and properties of Matter. It has claimed that "Matter Thinks," instead of that Mind uses the Matter or Substance, in its finer forms, as a _substratum for the production of Thought_. Buchner, the leader of the purely Materialistic school, claims positively that Thought is but the product of Matter. He says: "Is it not a patent fact, obvious to all but the wilfully blind that _matter does think_? De la Mettrie made merry over the narrowness of the mentalists, in saying: 'When people ask whether matter can think, it is as though they asked whether matter can strike the hours!' Matter, indeed, as such, thinks as little as it strikes the hours; but it does both, when brought into such conditions that thinking, or hour-striking results as a natural action or performance." The above quoted opinion of Buchner shows how narrow and one-sided a talented man may become by reason of shutting out all other points of view, and seeing only one phase of a subject. The example of the "hour-striking" is a poor figure for the Materialists, for although matter _does_ strike the hours, it does so only when wound up by Man under direction of his Mind. And in the manufacture, adjustment, and winding of the clock, Mind is the Cause of the Action. And, more than this, the very action of the coiled spring that is the immediate cause of the striking, results from the _mental_ effort of the Particles of the spring endeavoring to resume their accustomed position, under the law of Elasticity, as explained in our chapters on Substance. Science renders valuable service in showing us the details of the "mechanism" of Thought, but it will never really _explain_ anything unless it assumes the existence of Mind, back of and in everything. It may dissect the brain-cells, and show us their composition, but it never will find Mind under the scalpel, or in the scale or test-tube. Not only is this true, but it cannot even discover the fine Psychoplasm which is used in the production of Mind. But we may make use of its investigations regarding the matter of Activity of Brain-substance in the process of Thought, and by combining them with our belief regarding the existence of Mind we may form a complete chain of reasoning, without any missing-links--these missing-links appearing both in the case of the "no-mind" philosophers, and the "no-matter" metaphysicians.