The horror of "Materialism" which weighs upon the minds of so many
excellent people appears to depend, in part, upon the purely accidental
connexion of some forms of materialistic philosophy with ethical
and religious tenets by which they are repelled; and, partly, on the
survival of a very ancient superstition concerning the nature of matter.
This superstition, for the tenacious vitality of which the idealistic
philosophers who are, more or less, disciples of Plato and the
theologians who have been influenced by them, are responsible,
assumes that matter is something, not merely inert and perishable, but
essentially base and evil-natured, if not actively antagonistic to, at
least a negative deadweight upon, the good.