the other: and it is in this matter of their common consent that they
both commit suicide. Every process in the physical sphere must be
supposed to have its equations satisfied within that sphere: else the
doctrine of the conservation of energy would be contravened, and thus
the causation contemplated could no longer be contemplated as physical.
Similarly, every process in the mental sphere must be supposed to have
its equations satisfied within that sphere: else the causation
contemplated could no longer be contemplated as mental: some of the
equations must be supposed not to have been satisfied within the mental
sphere, but to have been carried over into the physical sphere--thus to
have either created or destroyed certain quantities of energy within
that sphere, and thus, also, to have introduced elements of endless
confusion into the otherwise orderly system of Nature.
From this vice of radical contradiction, to which both the dualistic
theories are committed, the monistic theory is free. Moreover, as we
shall immediately find, it is free to combine the elements of truth
which severally belong to both the other theories. These other theories
are each concerned with what they see upon different sides of the same
shield. The facts which they severally receive they severally report,
and their reports appear to contradict each other. But truth can never
be really in contradiction with other truth; and it is reserved for
Monism, by taking a simultaneous view of both sides, to reconcile the
previously apparent contradictions. For these and other reasons, which
will unfold themselves as we proceed, I fully agree with the late
Professor Clifford where he says of this theory--'It is not merely a
speculation, but is a result to which all the greatest minds that have
studied this question (the relation between body and mind) in the right
way have gradually been approximating for a long time.' This theory is,
as we have already seen, that mental phenomena and physical phenomena,
although apparently diverse, are really identical.
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