Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, London, June 24, 1870 (IA b22307643).pdf/53

 Every student exalts and distorts the work upon which he is chiefly occupied. The anatomist with his microscope hopes thereby to fathom the depths of nature, and the student of the pure intellect despises his labours, each arriving at impotent conclu- sions by not mutually aiding and supporting his fellow-labourer. Yet perhaps the chasm between the two orders of human facts is other than it seems. It may be due to our not seeing that we are not dealing with con- traries, but with opposites: opposites in the highest sense; not as if the terms of the one contradicted the terms of the other, but with the assurance that each will be under- stood by admitting its antithesis. Here, says Herbert Spencer, "we arrive at the barrier which needs to be perpetually pointed out, alike to those who seek materialistic explanations of mental phenomena, and to those who are alarmed lest such explanations should be found. The last class prove by their fear, almost as much as the first prove by their hope, that they believe Mind may