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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES - 59 kinds of facts of observation and one kind of mis. conceplion of theological origin. The facts are (1) that matter is known to affect the manifestations of consciousness, and (2) that all beings are not endowed with the same kind of mental powers ; and the misconception is that there can be no soul unless it remains in one and the same conditiou under all circumstances. I have nothing to say agaiust the facts; they are well attested and cannot be gaivsaid. As a matter of fact we shall see that Religion proper has not failed to give them the fullest consideration they are entitled to. The misconception is evident from the following lucid expression of Haeckel's views in his world-famous "Riddle of the Universe" ;"These and other familiar facts prove that man's cong-i
ciousness--and that of the nearest mammals-ie changeable [Haeckel's own italics), and that its activity is always open to modificatiou from inuer (alimentation, circulation, etc.) and outer causes (lesion of the brain, stimulation, etc.,)........The ontogenesis of consciousness makes it perfectly clear that it is not an immateial entity but a physiological function of the brain, and that it is, consequently, no exception to the general law of
substanse." As a matter of fact, Religion proper never regarded the soul to be an 'immaterial entity' in the Haeckelian sense of the expression, nor ever maintained that it could not be affected by matter. Wbat the European
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