Twelfth objection. (Sect. 67-79.) Although the impossibility of active Matter may be demonstrable, this does not prove the impossibility of inactive Matter, neither solid nor extended, which may be the occasion of our having sense-ideas.
Answer. This supposition is unintelligible: the words in which it is expressed convey no meaning.
Thirteenth objection. (Sect. 80, 81.) Matter may be an unknowable Somewhat, neither substance nor accident, cause nor effect, spirit nor idea: all the reasonings against Matter, conceived as something positive, fail, when this wholly negative notion is maintained.
Answer. This is to use the word “Matter” as people use the word “nothing”: Unknowable Somewhat cannot be distinguished from nothing.
Fourteenth objection. (Sect. 82-84.) Although we cannot, in opposition to the New Principles, infer scientifically the existence of Matter, in abstraction from all realising percipient life, or form any conception, positive or negative, of what Matter is; yet Holy Scripture demands the faith of every Christian in the independent reality of the material world.
Answer. The independent reality of the material world is nowhere affirmed in Scripture.
iii. Consequences and Applications of the New Principles (sect. 85-156).
In this portion of the Treatise, the New Principles, already guarded against objections, are applied to enlighten and invigorate final faith, often suffering from the paralysis of the scepticism produced by materialism; also to improve the sciences, including those which relate to Mind, in man and in God. They are applied:—
1. To the refutation of Scepticism as to the reality of the world (sect. 85-91) and God (sect. 92-96);
2. To the liberation of thought from the bondage of unmeaning abstractions (sect. 97-100);