Yet in one case scholasticism
has proved the importance of the substance-idea by treating it
pragmatically. I refer to certain disputes about the mystery of the
Eucharist. Substance here would appear to have momentous pragmatic
value. Since the accidents of the wafer don't change in the Lord's
supper, and yet it has become the very body of Christ, it must be
that the change is in the substance solely. The bread-substance must
have been withdrawn, and the divine substance substituted
miraculously without altering the immediate sensible properties. But
tho these don't alter, a tremendous difference has been made, no
less a one than this, that we who take the sacrament, now feed upon
the very substance of divinity. The substance-notion breaks into
life, then, with tremendous effect, if once you allow that
substances can separate from their accidents, and exchange these
latter.
This is the only pragmatic application of the substance-idea with
which I am acquainted; and it is obvious that it will only be
treated seriously by those who already believe in the 'real
presence' on independent grounds.
MATERIAL SUBSTANCE was criticized by Berkeley with such telling
effect that his name has reverberated through all subsequent
philosophy.
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