ts of properties or phenomena,
while we admit that the substance or substratum is in itself entirely
unknown to us, or known only through the medium of the properties to
which we refer,--then the dispute becomes a purely _verbal_ one, and can
amount to nothing more than this, whether a _substance_ of whose essence
we are entirely ignorant should be called by the name of "matter" or by
the name of "spirit." But the dispute is not a purely _verbal_ one,
even on the suppositions which have been stated. For it is essential to
a right "philosophy of nature," that every substance possessing peculiar
properties should have a distinctive name. Thus, even in the material
world itself, we distinguish sulphur from soda, gold from granite, and
magnesia from electricity or _odyle_. Why? Because, while they have some
properties in common, in virtue of which we rank them in the same
category as "material substances," they have, severally, certain
distinctive or peculiar characteristics, which forbid us to call the one
by the same name as the other. And for precisely the same reason, when
we find another class of properties and powers existing in certain
beings, which are totally different from those belonging to mere
material substances,--incapable not only of being identified with them,
but also of being accounted for by means of them,--we are equally
warranted in ascribing these properties to a _substance_, and in
affirming that this substance, of which we know nothing except through
its properties, is radically different from "matter." That there is
something more than a mere _verbal_ difference between us and our
opponents might seem to be admitted by themselves, when they evince so
much zeal in assailing our position and defending their own; but it
becomes strikingly apparent as soon as we extend our inquiry so as to
embrace the grand question respecting the distinction, if any, between
God and the material universe.

Some, again, who are substantially, at least in all important respects,
on our side of the question, have not been satisfied with showing that
the two sets of properties are generically different, and that the same
reason exists for ascribing the one to a distinct substantive being
called "mind," as for ascribing the other to a substantive being called
"matter." They have been anxious to advance a step further; and to show
that the two sets of properties are _mutually exclusive_, and that they
could not possibly _co