She rose, bidding him a hurried good night, suddenly aware of the busily sleeping household, friendly guardian of this wide leisurely nightlife. He too was aware and grateful, picking his way cautiously through the shadows of the large room, sheltered from his loneliness, invisibly enclosed by the waiting incommunicable statement that yet left him, accusing him of wilful blindness, so cruelly outside.
“Materialism,” scribbled Miriam eagerly, “has the recommendation of being a Monism, and therefore a more perfect explanation of the universe than a Dualism can be. … And Matter forms one great whole, persisting through many ages. Mind appears in the form of separate individuals, isolated from each other by Matter, and each ceasing, so far as observation goes, after a very few years. Also the changes which we can observe Mind to make in Matter are comparatively insignificant, while a very slight change in Matter will either destroy mind, or, at least, remove it from the only circumstances in which we can observe its existence. All these characteristics make matter appear much more powerful and important than mind.”