November 22.—...Had a long talk with my mother and father about the right to make Dissenters pay church rates—­and whether there ought to be any Establishment.  I maintain that there ought not in both cases—­I wonder what will be my opinion ten years hence?  I think now that it is against all laws of justice to force men to support a church with whose opinions they cannot conscientiously agree.  The argument that the rate is so small is very fallacious.  It is as much a sacrifice of principle to do a little wrong as to do a great one.

November 22 (Hinckley).—­Had a long argument with Mr. May on the nature of the soul and the difference between it and matter.  I maintained that it could not be proved that matter is essentially—­as to its base—­different from soul.  Mr. M. wittily said, soul was the perspiration of matter.

We cannot find the absolute basis of matter:  we only know it by its properties; neither know we the soul in any other way.  Cogito ergo sum is the only thing that we certainly know.

Why may not soul and matter be of the same substance (i.e. basis whereon to fix qualities, for we cannot suppose a quality to exist per se—­it must have a something to qualify), but with different qualities.

Let us suppose then an Eon—­a something with no quality but that of existence—­this Eon endued with all the intelligence, mental qualities, and that in the highest degree—­is God.  This combination of intelligence with existence we may suppose to have existed from eternity.  At the creation we may suppose that a portion of the Eon was separated from the intelligence, and it was ordained—­it became a natural law—­that it should have the properties of gravitation, etc.—­that is, that it should give to man the ideas of those properties.  The Eon in this state is matter in the abstract.  Matter, then, is Eon in the simplest form in which it possesses qualities appreciable by the senses.  Out of this matter, by the superimposition of fresh qualities, was made all things that are.

1841.

January 7.—­Came to Rotherhithe. [See Chapter 1.2.]

June 20.—­What have I done in the way of acquiring knowledge since
January?

Projects begun:—­

1.  German (to be learnt).

2.  Italian (to be learnt).

3.  To read Muller’s “Physiology.”

4.  To prepare for the Matriculation Examination at London University which requires knowledge of:—­

    a.  Algebra—­Geometry (did not begin to read for this till April.

    b.  Natural Philosophy (did not begin to read for this till April.

    c.  Chemistry.

    d.  Greek—­Latin.

    e.  English History down to end of seventeenth century.

    f.  Ancient History.  English Grammar.

5.  To make copious notes of all things I read.

Projects completed:—­

1.  Partly.