Ebook The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science

IN commencing a course of lectures on Mental Sci ence, it is somewhat difficult for the lecturer to fix upon the best method of opening the subject. It can be approached from many sides, each with some peculiar advantage of its own; but, after careful delib eration, it appears to me that, for the purpose of the present course, no better starting-point could be selected than the relation between Spirit and Matter. I select this starting-point because the distinction — or what we believe to be such — between them is one with which we are so familiar that I can safely assume its recognition by everybody; and I may, therefore, at once state this distinction by using the adjectives which we habitually apply as expressing the natural opposition between the two — living spirit and dead matter. These terms express our current impression of the opposition between spirit and matter with suf2 The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science.