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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2934-h.zip b/2934-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3da0c9b --- /dev/null +++ b/2934-h.zip diff --git a/2934-h/2934-h.htm b/2934-h/2934-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd6a19c --- /dev/null +++ b/2934-h/2934-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1048 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + On the Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge, by Thomas H. Huxley + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Advisableness of Improving Natural +Knowledge, by Thomas H. Huxley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge + +Author: Thomas H. Huxley + +Release Date: January 6, 2009 [EBook #2934] +Last Updated: January 22, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMPROVING KNOWLEDGE *** + + + + +Produced by Amy E. Zelmer, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Thomas H. Huxley + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#linknote-1" name="linknoteref-1" id="linknoteref-1"><small>[1]</small></a> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + This time two hundred years ago—in the beginning of January, 1666—those + of our forefathers who inhabited this great and ancient city, took breath + between the shocks of two fearful calamities: one not quite past, although + its fury had abated; the other to come. + </p> + <p> + Within a few yards of the very spot on which we are assembled, so the + tradition runs, that painful and deadly malady, the plague, appeared in + the latter months of 1664; and, though no new visitor, smote the people of + England, and especially of her capital, with a violence unknown before, in + the course of the following year. The hand of a master has pictured what + happened in those dismal months; and in that truest of fictions, 'The + History of the Plague Year', Defoe shows death, with every accompaniment + of pain and terror, stalking through the narrow streets of old London, and + changing their busy hum into a silence broken only by the wailing of the + mourners of fifty thousand dead; by the woful denunciations and mad + prayers of fanatics; and by the madder yells of despairing profligates. + </p> + <p> + But about this time in 1666, the death-rate had sunk to nearly its + ordinary amount; a case of plague occurred only here and there, and the + richer citizens who had flown from the pest had returned to their + dwellings. The remnant of the people began to toil at the accustomed round + of duty, or of pleasure; and the stream of city life bid fair to flow back + along its old bed, with renewed and uninterrupted vigour. + </p> + <p> + The newly kindled hope was deceitful. The great plague, indeed, returned + no more; but what it had done for the Londoners, the great fire, which + broke out in the autumn of 1666, did for London; and, in September of that + year, a heap of ashes and the indestructible energy of the people were all + that remained of the glory of five-sixths of the city within the walls. + </p> + <p> + Our forefathers had their own ways of accounting for each of these + calamities. They submitted to the plague in humility and in penitence, for + they believed it to be the judgment of God. But, towards the fire they + were furiously indignant, interpreting it as the effect of the malice of + man,—as the work of the Republicans, or of the Papists, according as + their prepossessions ran in favour of loyalty or of Puritanism. + </p> + <p> + It would, I fancy, have fared but ill with one who, standing where I now + stand, in what was then a thickly peopled and fashionable part of London, + should have broached to our ancestors the doctrine which I now propound to + you—that all their hypotheses were alike wrong; that the plague was + no more, in their sense, Divine judgment, than the fire was the work of + any political, or of any religious, sect; but that they were themselves + the authors of both plague and fire, and that they must look to themselves + to prevent the recurrence of calamities, to all appearance so peculiarly + beyond the reach of human control—so evidently the result of the + wrath of God, or of the craft and subtlety of an enemy. + </p> + <p> + And one may picture to one's self how harmoniously the holy cursing of the + Puritan of that day would have chimed in with the unholy cursing and the + crackling wit of the Rochesters and Sedleys, and with the revilings of the + political fanatics, if my imaginary plain dealer had gone on to say that, + if the return of such misfortunes were ever rendered impossible, it would + not be in virtue of the victory of the faith of Laud, or of that of + Milton; and, as little, by the triumph of republicanism, as by that of + monarchy. But that the one thing needful for compassing this end was, that + the people of England should second the effort of an insignificant + corporation, the establishment of which, a few years before the epoch of + the great plague and the great fire, had been as little noticed, as they + were conspicuous. + </p> + <p> + Some twenty years before the outbreak of the plague a few calm and + thoughtful students banded themselves together for the purpose, as they + phrased it, of "improving natural knowledge." The ends they proposed to + attain cannot be stated more clearly than in the words of one of the + founders of the organization:— + </p> + <p> + "Our business was (precluding matters of theology and state affairs) to + discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries, and such as related + thereunto:—as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navigation, + Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, and Natural Experiments; with + the state of these studies and their cultivation at home and abroad. We + then discoursed of the circulation of the blood, the valves in the veins, + the venae lacteae, the lymphatic vessels, the Copernican hypothesis, the + nature of comets and new stars, the satellites of Jupiter, the oval shape + (as it then appeared) of Saturn, the spots on the sun and its turning on + its own axis, the inequalities and selenography of the moon, the several + phases of Venus and Mercury, the improvement of telescopes and grinding of + glasses for that purpose, the weight of air, the possibility or + impossibility of vacuities and nature's abhorrence thereof, the + Torricellian experiment in quicksilver, the descent of heavy bodies and + the degree of acceleration therein, with divers other things of like + nature, some of which were then but new discoveries, and others not so + generally known and embraced as now they are; with other things + appertaining to what hath been called the New Philosophy, which from the + times of Galileo at Florence, and Sir Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam) in + England, hath been much cultivated in Italy, France, Germany, and other + parts abroad, as well as with us in England." + </p> + <p> + The learned Dr. Wallis, writing in 1696, narrates in these words, what + happened half a century before, or about 1645. The associates met at + Oxford, in the rooms of Dr. Wilkins, who was destined to become a bishop; + and subsequently coming together in London, they attracted the notice of + the king. And it is a strange evidence of the taste for knowledge which + the most obviously worthless of the Stuarts shared with his father and + grandfather, that Charles the Second was not content with saying witty + things about his philosophers, but did wise things with regard to them. + For he not only bestowed upon them such attention as he could spare from + his poodles and his mistresses, but being in his usual state of + impecuniosity, begged for them of the Duke of Ormond; and, that step being + without effect, gave them Chelsea College, a charter, and a mace: crowning + his favours in the best way they could be crowned, by burdening them no + further with royal patronage or state interference. + </p> + <p> + Thus it was that the half-dozen young men, studious of the "New + Philosophy," who met in one another's lodgings in Oxford or in London, in + the middle of the seventeenth century, grew in numerical and in real + strength, until, in the latter part, the "Royal Society for the + improvement of Natural Knowledge" had already become famous, and had + acquired a claim upon the veneration of Englishmen, which it has ever + since retained, as the principal focus of scientific activity in our + islands, and the chief champion of the cause it was formed to support. + </p> + <p> + It was by the aid of the Royal Society that Newton published his + 'Principia'. If all the books in the world, except the Philosophical + Transactions, were destroyed, it is safe to say that the foundations of + physical science would remain unshaken, and that the vast intellectual + progress of the last two centuries would be largely, though incompletely, + recorded. Nor have any signs of halting or of decrepitude manifested + themselves in our own times. As in Dr. Wallis's days, so in these, "our + business is, precluding theology and state affairs, to discourse and + consider of philosophical enquiries." But our "Mathematick" is one which + Newton would have to go to school to learn; our "Staticks, Mechanicks, + Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural Experiments" constitute a mass of + physical and chemical knowledge, a glimpse at which would compensate + Galileo for the doings of a score of inquisitorial cardinals; our + "Physick" and "Anatomy" have embraced such infinite varieties of being, + have laid open such new worlds in time and space, have grappled, not + unsuccessfully, with such complex problems, that the eyes of Vesalius and + of Harvey might be dazzled by the sight of the tree that has grown out of + their grain of mustard seed. + </p> + <p> + The fact is perhaps rather too much, than too little, forced upon one's + notice, nowadays, that all this marvellous intellectual growth has a no + less wonderful expression in practical life; and that, in this respect, if + in no other, the movement symbolized by the progress of the Royal Society + stands without a parallel in the history of mankind. + </p> + <p> + A series of volumes as bulky as the 'Transactions of the Royal Society' + might possibly be filled with the subtle speculations of the Schoolmen; + not improbably, the obtaining a mastery over the products of mediaeval + thought might necessitate an even greater expenditure of time and of + energy than the acquirement of the "New Philosophy"; but though such work + engrossed the best intellects of Europe for a longer time than has elapsed + since the great fire, its effects were "writ in water," so far as our + social state is concerned. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, if the noble first President of the Royal Society could + revisit the upper air and once more gladden his eyes with a sight of the + familiar mace, he would find himself in the midst of a material + civilization more different from that of his day, than that of the + seventeenth was from that of the first century. And if Lord Brouncker's + native sagacity had not deserted his ghost, he would need no long + reflection to discover that all these great ships, these railways, these + telegraphs, these factories, these printing-presses, without which the + whole fabric of modern English society would collapse into a mass of + stagnant and starving pauperism,—that all these pillars of our State + are but the ripples, and the bubbles upon the surface of that great + spiritual stream, the springs of which, only, he and his fellows were + privileged to see; and seeing, to recognise as that which it behoved them + above all things to keep pure and undefiled. + </p> + <p> + It may not be too great a flight of imagination to conceive our noble + 'revenant' not forgetful of the great troubles of his own day, and anxious + to know how often London had been burned down since his time, and how + often the plague had carried off its thousands. He would have to learn + that, although London contains tenfold the inflammable matter that it did + in 1666; though, not content with filling our rooms with woodwork and + light draperies, we must needs lead inflammable and explosive gases into + every corner of our streets and houses, we never allow even a street to + burn down. And if he asked how this had come about, we should have to + explain that the improvement of natural knowledge has furnished us with + dozens of machines for throwing water upon fires, any one of which would + have furnished the ingenious Mr. Hooke, the first "curator and + experimenter" of the Royal Society, with ample materials for discourse + before half a dozen meetings of that body; and that, to say truth, except + for the progress of natural knowledge, we should not have been able to + make even the tools by which these machines are constructed. And, further, + it would be necessary to add, that although severe fires sometimes occur + and inflict great damage, the loss is very generally compensated by + societies, the operations of which have been rendered possible only by the + progress of natural knowledge in the direction of mathematics, and the + accumulation of wealth in virtue of other natural knowledge. + </p> + <p> + But the plague? My Lord Brouncker's observation would not, I fear, lead + him to think that Englishmen of the nineteenth century are purer in life, + or more fervent in religious faith, than the generation which could + produce a Boyle, an Evelyn, and a Milton. He might find the mud of society + at the bottom, instead of at the top, but I fear that the sum total would + be a deserving of swift judgment as at the time of the Restoration. And it + would be our duty to explain once more, and this time not without shame, + that we have no reason to believe that it is the improvement of our faith, + nor that of our morals, which keeps the plague from our city; but, again, + that it is the improvement of our natural knowledge. + </p> + <p> + We have learned that pestilences will only take up their abode among those + who have prepared unswept and ungarnished residences for them. Their + cities must have narrow, unwatered streets, foul with accumulated garbage. + Their houses must be ill-drained, ill-lighted, ill-ventilated. Their + subjects must be ill-washed, ill-fed, ill-clothed. The London of 1665 was + such a city. The cities of the East, where plague has an enduring + dwelling, are such cities. We, in later times, have learned somewhat of + Nature, and partly obey her. Because of this partial improvement of our + natural knowledge and of that fractional obedience, we have no plague; + because that knowledge is still very imperfect and that obedience yet + incomplete, typhus is our companion and cholera our visitor. But it is not + presumptuous to express the belief that, when our knowledge is more + complete and our obedience the expression of our knowledge, London will + count her centuries of freedom from typhus and cholera, as she now + gratefully reckons her two hundred years of ignorance of that plague which + swooped upon her thrice in the first half of the seventeenth century. + </p> + <p> + Surely there is nothing in these explanations which is not fully borne out + by the facts? Surely, the principles involved in them are now admitted + among the fixed beliefs of all thinking men? Surely, it is true that our + countrymen are less subject to fire, famine, pestilence, and all the evils + which result from a want of command over and due anticipation of the + course of Nature, than were the countrymen of Milton; and health, wealth, + and well-being are more abundant with us than with them? But no less + certainly is the difference due to the improvement of our knowledge of + Nature, and the extent to which that improved knowledge has been + incorporated with the household words of men, and has supplied the springs + of their daily actions. + </p> + <p> + Granting for a moment, then, the truth of that which the depreciators of + natural knowledge are so fond of urging, that its improvement can only add + to the resources of our material civilization; admitting it to be possible + that the founders of the Royal Society themselves looked for no other + reward than this, I cannot confess that I was guilty of exaggeration when + I hinted, that to him who had the gift of distinguishing between prominent + events and important events, the origin of a combined effort on the part + of mankind to improve natural knowledge might have loomed larger than the + Plague and have outshone the glare of the Fire; as a something fraught + with a wealth of beneficence to mankind, in comparison with which the + damage done by those ghastly evils would shrink into insignificance. + </p> + <p> + It is very certain that for every victim slain by the plague, hundreds of + mankind exist and find a fair share of happiness in the world by the aid + of the spinning jenny. And the great fire, at its worst, could not have + burned the supply of coal, the daily working of which, in the bowels of + the earth, made possible by the steam pump, gives rise to an amount of + wealth to which the millions lost in old London are but as an old song. + </p> + <p> + But spinning jenny and steam pump are, after all, but toys, possessing an + accidental value; and natural knowledge creates multitudes of more subtle + contrivances, the praises of which do not happen to be sung because they + are not directly convertible into instruments of creating wealth. When I + contemplate natural knowledge squandering such gifts among men, the only + appropriate comparison I can find for her is, to liken her to such a + peasant woman as one sees in the Alps, striding ever upward, heavily + burdened, and with mind bent only on her home; but yet, without effort and + without thought, knitting for her children. Now stockings are good and + comfortable things, and the children will undoubtedly be much the better + for them; but surely it would be short-sighted, to say the least of it, to + depreciate this toiling mother as a mere stocking-machine—a mere + provider of physical comforts? + </p> + <p> + However, there are blind leaders of the blind, and not a few of them, who + take this view of natural knowledge, and can see nothing in the bountiful + mother of humanity but a sort of comfort-grinding machine. According to + them, the improvement of natural knowledge always has been, and always + must be, synonymous with no more than the improvement of the material + resources and the increase of the gratification of men. + </p> + <p> + Natural knowledge is, in their eyes, no real mother of mankind, bringing + them up with kindness, and if need be, with sternness, in the way they + should go, and instructing them in all things needful for their welfare; + but a sort of fairy godmother, ready to furnish her pets with shoes of + swiftness, swords of sharpness, and omnipotent Aladdin's lamps, so that + they may have telegraphs to Saturn, and see the other side of the moon, + and thank God they are better than their benighted ancestors. If this talk + were true, I, for one, should not greatly care to toil in the service of + natural knowledge. I think I would just as soon be quietly chipping my own + flint axe, after the manner of my forefathers a few thousand years back, + as be troubled with the endless malady of thought which now infests us + all, for such reward. But I venture to say that such views are contrary + alike to reason and to fact. Those who discourse in such fashion seem to + me to be so intent upon trying to see what is above Nature, or what is + behind her, that they are blind to what stares them in the face, in her. + </p> + <p> + I should not venture to speak thus strongly if my justification were not + to be found in the simplest and most obvious facts,—if it needed + more than an appeal to the most notorious truths to justify my assertion, + that the improvement of natural knowledge, whatever direction it has + taken, and however low the aims of those who may have commenced it—has + not only conferred practical benefits on men, but, in so doing, has + effected a revolution in their conceptions of the universe and of + themselves, and has profoundly altered their modes of thinking and their + views of right and wrong. I say that natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy + natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still spiritual + cravings. I way that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws + of comfort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and to lay the + foundations of a new morality. + </p> + <p> + Let us take these points separately; and, first, what great ideas has + natural knowledge introduced into men's minds? + </p> + <p> + I cannot but think that the foundations of all natural knowledge were laid + when the reason of man first came face to face with the facts of Nature; + when the savage first learned that the fingers of one hand are fewer than + those of both; that it is shorter to cross a stream than to head it; that + a stone stops where it is unless it be moved, and that it drops from the + hand which lets it go; that light and heat come and go with the sun; that + sticks burn away to a fire; that plants and animals grow and die; that if + he struck his fellow-savage a blow he would make him angry, and perhaps + get a blow in return, while if he offered him a fruit he would please him, + and perhaps receive a fish in exchange. When men had acquired this much + knowledge, the outlines, rude though they were, of mathematics, of + physics, of chemistry, of biology, of moral, economical, and political + science, were sketched. Nor did the germ of religion fail when science + began to bud. Listen to words which though new, are yet three thousand + years old:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "...When in heaven the stars about the moon + Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, + And every height comes out, and jutting peak + And valley, and the immeasurable heavens + Break open to their highest, and all the start + Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart." <a href="#linknote-2" + name="linknoteref-2" id="linknoteref-2">2</a> +</pre> + <p> + If the half-savage Greek could share our feelings thus far, it is + irrational to doubt that he went further, to find, as we do, that upon + that brief gladness there follows a certain sorrow,—the little light + of awakened human intelligence shines so mere a spark amidst the abyss of + the unknown and unknowable; seems so insufficient to do more than + illuminate the imperfections that cannot be remedied, the aspirations that + cannot be realized, of man's own nature. But in this sadness, this + consciousness of the limitation of man, this sense of an open secret which + he cannot penetrate, lies the essence of all religion; and the attempt to + embody it in the forms furnished by the intellect is the origin of the + higher theologies. + </p> + <p> + Thus it seems impossible to imagine but that the foundations of all + knowledge—secular or sacred—were laid when intelligence + dawned, though the superstructure remained for long ages so slight and + feeble as to be compatible with the existence of almost any general view + respecting the mode of governance of the universe. No doubt, from the + first, there were certain phenomena which, to the rudest mind, presented a + constancy of occurrence, and suggested that a fixed order ruled, at any + rate, among them. I doubt if the grossest of Fetish worshippers ever + imagined that a stone must have a god within it to make it fall, or that a + fruit had a god within it to make it taste sweet. With regard to such + matters as these, it is hardly questionable that mankind from the first + took strictly positive and scientific views. + </p> + <p> + But, with respect to all the less familiar occurrences which present + themselves, uncultured man, no doubt, has always taken himself as the + standard of comparison, as the centre and measure of the world; nor could + he well avoid doing so. And finding that his apparently uncaused will has + a powerful effect in giving rise to many occurrences, he naturally enough + ascribed other and greater events to other and greater volitions, and came + to look upon the world and all that therein is, as the product of the + volitions of persons like himself, but stronger, and capable of being + appeased or angered, as he himself might be soothed or irritated. Through + such conceptions of the plan and working of the universe all mankind have + passed, or are passing. And we may now consider, what has been the effect + of the improvement of natural knowledge on the views of men who have + reached this stage, and who have begun to cultivate natural knowledge with + no desire but that of "increasing God's honour and bettering man's + estate." + </p> + <p> + For example, what could seem wiser, from a mere material point of view, + more innocent, from a theological one, to an ancient people, than that + they should learn the exact succession of the seasons, as warnings for + their husbandmen; or the position of the stars, as guides to their rude + navigators? But what has grown out of this search for natural knowledge of + so merely useful a character? You all know the reply. Astronomy,—which + of all sciences has filled men's minds with general ideas of a character + most foreign to their daily experience, and has, more than any other, + rendered it impossible for them to accept the beliefs of their fathers. + Astronomy,—which tells them that this so vast and seemingly solid + earth is but an atom among atoms, whirling, no man knows whither, through + illimitable space; which demonstrates that what we call the peaceful + heaven above us, is but that space, filled by an infinitely subtle matter + whose particles are seething and surging, like the waves of an angry sea; + which opens up to us infinite regions where nothing is known, or ever + seems to have been known, but matter and force, operating according to + rigid rules; which leads us to contemplate phenomena the very nature of + which demonstrates that they must have had a beginning, and that they must + have an end, but the very nature of which also proves that the beginning + was, to our conceptions of time, infinitely remote, and that the end is as + immeasurably distant. + </p> + <p> + But it is not alone those who pursue astronomy who ask for bread and + receive ideas. What more harmless than the attempt to lift and distribute + water by pumping it; what more absolutely and grossly utilitarian? But out + of pumps grew the discussions about Nature's abhorrence of a vacuum; and + then it was discovered that Nature does not abhor a vacuum, but that air + has weight; and that notion paved the way for the doctrine that all matter + has weight, and that the force which produces weight is co-extensive with + the universe,—in short, to the theory of universal gravitation and + endless force. While learning how to handle gases led to the discovery of + oxygen, and to modern chemistry, and to the notion of the + indestructibility of matter. + </p> + <p> + Again, what simpler, or more absolutely practical, than the attempt to + keep the axle of a wheel from heating when the wheel turns round very + fast? How useful for carters and gig drivers to know something about this; + and how good were it, if any ingenious person would find out the cause of + such phenomena, and thence educe a general remedy for them. Such an + ingenious person was Count Rumford; and he and his successors have landed + us in the theory of the persistence, or indestructibility, of force. And + in the infinitely minute, as in the infinitely great, the seekers after + natural knowledge, of the kinds called physical and chemical, have + everywhere found a definite order and succession of events which seem + never to be infringed. + </p> + <p> + And how has it fared with "Physick" and Anatomy? Have the anatomist, the + physiologist, or the physician, whose business it has been to devote + themselves assiduously to that eminently practical and direct end, the + alleviation of the sufferings of mankind,—have they been able to + confine their vision more absolutely to the strictly useful? I fear they + are worst offenders of all. For if the astronomer has set before us the + infinite magnitude of space, and the practical eternity of the duration of + the universe; if the physical and chemical philosophers have demonstrated + the infinite minuteness of its constituent parts, and the practical + eternity of matter and of force; and if both have alike proclaimed the + universality of a definite and predicable order and succession of events, + the workers in biology have not only accepted all these, but have added + more startling theses of their own. For, as the astronomers discover in + the earth no centre of the universe, but an eccentric speck, so the + naturalists find man to be no centre of the living world, but one amidst + endless modifications of life; and as the astronomer observes the mark of + practically endless time set upon the arrangements of the solar system so + the student of life finds the records of ancient forms of existence + peopling the world for ages, which, in relation to human experience, are + infinite. + </p> + <p> + Furthermore, the physiologist finds life to be as dependent for its + manifestation on particular molecular arrangements as any physical or + chemical phenomenon; and, whenever he extends his researches, fixed order + and unchanging causation reveal themselves, as plainly as in the rest of + Nature. + </p> + <p> + Nor can I find that any other fate has awaited the germ of Religion. + Arising, like all other kinds of knowledge, and out of the action and + interaction of man's mind, with that which is not man's mind, it has taken + the intellectual coverings of Fetishism or Polytheism; of Theism or + Atheism; of Superstition or Rationalism. With these, and their relative + merits and demerits, I have nothing to do; but this it is needful for my + purpose to say, that if the religion of the present differs from that of + the past, it is because the theology of the present has become more + scientific than that of the past; because it has not only renounced idols + of wood and idols of stone, but begins to see the necessity of breaking in + pieces the idols built up of books and traditions and fine-spun + ecclesiastical cobwebs: and of cherishing the noblest and most human of + man's emotions, by worship "for the most part of the silent sort" at the + altar of the Unknown and Unknowable. + </p> + <p> + Such are a few of the new conceptions implanted in our minds by the + improvement of natural knowledge. Men have acquired the ideas of the + practically infinite extent of the universe and of its practical eternity; + they are familiar with the conception that our earth is but an + infinitesimal fragment of that part of the universe which can be seen; and + that, nevertheless, its duration is, as compared with our standards of + time, infinite. They have further acquired the idea that man is but one of + innumerable forms of life now existing in the globe, and that the present + existences are but the last of an immeasurable series of predecessors. + Moreover, every step they have made in natural knowledge has tended to + extend and rivet in their minds the conception of a definite order of the + universe—which is embodied in what are called, by an unhappy + metaphor, the laws of Nature—and to narrow the range and loosen the + force of men's belief in spontaneity, or in changes other than such as + arise out of that definite order itself. Whether these ideas are well or + ill founded is not the question. No one can deny that they exist, and have + been the inevitable outgrowth of the improvement of natural knowledge. And + if so, it cannot be doubted that they are changing the form of men's most + cherished and most important convictions. + </p> + <p> + And as regards the second point—the extent to which the improvement + of natural knowledge has remodelled and altered what may be termed the + intellectual ethics of men,—what are among the moral convictions + most fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people. + </p> + <p> + They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of belief; + that merit attaches to a readiness to believe; that the doubting + disposition is a bad one, and scepticism a sin; that when good authority + has pronounced what is to be believed, and faith has accepted it, reason + has no further duty. There are many excellent persons who yet hold by + these principles, and it is not my present business, or intention, to + discuss their views. All I wish to bring clearly before your minds is the + unquestionable fact, that the improvement of natural knowledge is effected + by methods which directly give the lie to all these convictions, and + assume the exact reverse of each to be true. + </p> + <p> + The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge + authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind + faith the one unpardonable sin. And it cannot be otherwise, for every + great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of + authority, the cherishing of the keenest scepticism, the annihilation of + the spirit of blind faith; and the most ardent votary of science holds his + firmest convictions, not because the men he most venerates hold them; not + because their verity is testified by portents and wonders; but because his + experience teaches him that whenever he chooses to bring these convictions + into contact with their primary source, Nature—whenever he thinks + fit to test them by appealing to experiment and to observation—Nature + will confirm them. The man of science has learned to believe in + justification, not by faith, but by verification. + </p> + <p> + Thus, without for a moment pretending to despise the practical results of + the improvement of natural knowledge, and its beneficial influence on + material civilization, it must, I think, be admitted that the great ideas, + some of which I have indicated, and the ethical spirit which I have + endeavoured to sketch, in the few moments which remained at my disposal, + constitute the real and permanent significance of natural knowledge. + </p> + <p> + If these ideas be destined, as I believe they are, to be more and more + firmly established as the world grows older; if that spirit be fated, as I + believe it is, to extend itself into all departments of human thought, and + to become co-extensive with the range of knowledge; if, as our race + approaches its maturity, it discovers, as I believe it will, that there is + but one kind of knowledge and but one method of acquiring it; then we, who + are still children, may justly feel it our highest duty to recognise the + advisableness of improving natural knowledge, and so to aid ourselves and + our successors in their course towards the noble goal which lies before + mankind. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ A Lay Sermon delivered in + St. Martin's Hall on Sunday, January 7th, 1866, and subsequently published + in the 'Fortnightly Review'.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ Need it be said that this + is Tennyson's English for Homer's Greek?] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Advisableness of Improving +Natural Knowledge, by Thomas H. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge + +Author: Thomas H. Huxley + +Posting Date: January 6, 2009 [EBook #2934] +Release Date: November, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMPROVING KNOWLEDGE *** + + + + +Produced by Amy E. Zelmer + + + + + +ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE* + + +By Thomas H. Huxley + +[1] + + + +This time two hundred years ago--in the beginning of January, +1666--those of our forefathers who inhabited this great and ancient +city, took breath between the shocks of two fearful calamities: one not +quite past, although its fury had abated; the other to come. + +Within a few yards of the very spot on which we are assembled, so the +tradition runs, that painful and deadly malady, the plague, appeared in +the latter months of 1664; and, though no new visitor, smote the people +of England, and especially of her capital, with a violence unknown +before, in the course of the following year. The hand of a master has +pictured what happened in those dismal months; and in that truest of +fictions, 'The History of the Plague Year', Defoe shows death, with +every accompaniment of pain and terror, stalking through the narrow +streets of old London, and changing their busy hum into a silence broken +only by the wailing of the mourners of fifty thousand dead; by the woful +denunciations and mad prayers of fanatics; and by the madder yells of +despairing profligates. + +But about this time in 1666, the death-rate had sunk to nearly its +ordinary amount; a case of plague occurred only here and there, and +the richer citizens who had flown from the pest had returned to their +dwellings. The remnant of the people began to toil at the accustomed +round of duty, or of pleasure; and the stream of city life bid fair to +flow back along its old bed, with renewed and uninterrupted vigour. + +The newly kindled hope was deceitful. The great plague, indeed, returned +no more; but what it had done for the Londoners, the great fire, which +broke out in the autumn of 1666, did for London; and, in September of +that year, a heap of ashes and the indestructible energy of the people +were all that remained of the glory of five-sixths of the city within +the walls. + +Our forefathers had their own ways of accounting for each of these +calamities. They submitted to the plague in humility and in penitence, +for they believed it to be the judgment of God. But, towards the fire +they were furiously indignant, interpreting it as the effect of the +malice of man,--as the work of the Republicans, or of the Papists, +according as their prepossessions ran in favour of loyalty or of +Puritanism. + +It would, I fancy, have fared but ill with one who, standing where I +now stand, in what was then a thickly peopled and fashionable part of +London, should have broached to our ancestors the doctrine which I now +propound to you--that all their hypotheses were alike wrong; that the +plague was no more, in their sense, Divine judgment, than the fire was +the work of any political, or of any religious, sect; but that they were +themselves the authors of both plague and fire, and that they must look +to themselves to prevent the recurrence of calamities, to all appearance +so peculiarly beyond the reach of human control--so evidently the result +of the wrath of God, or of the craft and subtlety of an enemy. + +And one may picture to one's self how harmoniously the holy cursing of +the Puritan of that day would have chimed in with the unholy cursing and +the crackling wit of the Rochesters and Sedleys, and with the revilings +of the political fanatics, if my imaginary plain dealer had gone on +to say that, if the return of such misfortunes were ever rendered +impossible, it would not be in virtue of the victory of the faith +of Laud, or of that of Milton; and, as little, by the triumph of +republicanism, as by that of monarchy. But that the one thing needful +for compassing this end was, that the people of England should second +the effort of an insignificant corporation, the establishment of which, +a few years before the epoch of the great plague and the great fire, had +been as little noticed, as they were conspicuous. + +Some twenty years before the outbreak of the plague a few calm and +thoughtful students banded themselves together for the purpose, as they +phrased it, of "improving natural knowledge." The ends they proposed +to attain cannot be stated more clearly than in the words of one of the +founders of the organization:-- + +"Our business was (precluding matters of theology and state affairs) to +discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries, and such as related +thereunto:--as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navigation, +Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, and Natural Experiments; +with the state of these studies and their cultivation at home and +abroad. We then discoursed of the circulation of the blood, the valves +in the veins, the venae lacteae, the lymphatic vessels, the Copernican +hypothesis, the nature of comets and new stars, the satellites of +Jupiter, the oval shape (as it then appeared) of Saturn, the spots +on the sun and its turning on its own axis, the inequalities and +selenography of the moon, the several phases of Venus and Mercury, the +improvement of telescopes and grinding of glasses for that purpose, +the weight of air, the possibility or impossibility of vacuities and +nature's abhorrence thereof, the Torricellian experiment in quicksilver, +the descent of heavy bodies and the degree of acceleration therein, +with divers other things of like nature, some of which were then but new +discoveries, and others not so generally known and embraced as now they +are; with other things appertaining to what hath been called the New +Philosophy, which from the times of Galileo at Florence, and Sir Francis +Bacon (Lord Verulam) in England, hath been much cultivated in Italy, +France, Germany, and other parts abroad, as well as with us in England." + +The learned Dr. Wallis, writing in 1696, narrates in these words, what +happened half a century before, or about 1645. The associates met +at Oxford, in the rooms of Dr. Wilkins, who was destined to become a +bishop; and subsequently coming together in London, they attracted +the notice of the king. And it is a strange evidence of the taste for +knowledge which the most obviously worthless of the Stuarts shared with +his father and grandfather, that Charles the Second was not content with +saying witty things about his philosophers, but did wise things with +regard to them. For he not only bestowed upon them such attention as he +could spare from his poodles and his mistresses, but being in his usual +state of impecuniosity, begged for them of the Duke of Ormond; and, that +step being without effect, gave them Chelsea College, a charter, and +a mace: crowning his favours in the best way they could be crowned, by +burdening them no further with royal patronage or state interference. + +Thus it was that the half-dozen young men, studious of the "New +Philosophy," who met in one another's lodgings in Oxford or in London, +in the middle of the seventeenth century, grew in numerical and in +real strength, until, in the latter part, the "Royal Society for the +improvement of Natural Knowledge" had already become famous, and had +acquired a claim upon the veneration of Englishmen, which it has ever +since retained, as the principal focus of scientific activity in our +islands, and the chief champion of the cause it was formed to support. + +It was by the aid of the Royal Society that Newton published his +'Principia'. If all the books in the world, except the Philosophical +Transactions, were destroyed, it is safe to say that the foundations of +physical science would remain unshaken, and that the vast intellectual +progress of the last two centuries would be largely, though +incompletely, recorded. Nor have any signs of halting or of decrepitude +manifested themselves in our own times. As in Dr. Wallis's days, so +in these, "our business is, precluding theology and state affairs, +to discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries." But our +"Mathematick" is one which Newton would have to go to school to +learn; our "Staticks, Mechanicks, Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural +Experiments" constitute a mass of physical and chemical knowledge, a +glimpse at which would compensate Galileo for the doings of a score of +inquisitorial cardinals; our "Physick" and "Anatomy" have embraced such +infinite varieties of being, have laid open such new worlds in time and +space, have grappled, not unsuccessfully, with such complex problems, +that the eyes of Vesalius and of Harvey might be dazzled by the sight of +the tree that has grown out of their grain of mustard seed. + +The fact is perhaps rather too much, than too little, forced upon one's +notice, nowadays, that all this marvellous intellectual growth has a no +less wonderful expression in practical life; and that, in this respect, +if in no other, the movement symbolized by the progress of the Royal +Society stands without a parallel in the history of mankind. + +A series of volumes as bulky as the 'Transactions of the Royal Society' +might possibly be filled with the subtle speculations of the Schoolmen; +not improbably, the obtaining a mastery over the products of mediaeval +thought might necessitate an even greater expenditure of time and of +energy than the acquirement of the "New Philosophy"; but though such +work engrossed the best intellects of Europe for a longer time than has +elapsed since the great fire, its effects were "writ in water," so far +as our social state is concerned. + +On the other hand, if the noble first President of the Royal Society +could revisit the upper air and once more gladden his eyes with a sight +of the familiar mace, he would find himself in the midst of a material +civilization more different from that of his day, than that of the +seventeenth was from that of the first century. And if Lord Brouncker's +native sagacity had not deserted his ghost, he would need no long +reflection to discover that all these great ships, these railways, these +telegraphs, these factories, these printing-presses, without which the +whole fabric of modern English society would collapse into a mass of +stagnant and starving pauperism,--that all these pillars of our State +are but the ripples, and the bubbles upon the surface of that great +spiritual stream, the springs of which, only, he and his fellows were +privileged to see; and seeing, to recognise as that which it behoved +them above all things to keep pure and undefiled. + +It may not be too great a flight of imagination to conceive our noble +'revenant' not forgetful of the great troubles of his own day, and +anxious to know how often London had been burned down since his time, +and how often the plague had carried off its thousands. He would have to +learn that, although London contains tenfold the inflammable matter that +it did in 1666; though, not content with filling our rooms with woodwork +and light draperies, we must needs lead inflammable and explosive gases +into every corner of our streets and houses, we never allow even a +street to burn down. And if he asked how this had come about, we should +have to explain that the improvement of natural knowledge has furnished +us with dozens of machines for throwing water upon fires, any one of +which would have furnished the ingenious Mr. Hooke, the first "curator +and experimenter" of the Royal Society, with ample materials for +discourse before half a dozen meetings of that body; and that, to say +truth, except for the progress of natural knowledge, we should not +have been able to make even the tools by which these machines are +constructed. And, further, it would be necessary to add, that although +severe fires sometimes occur and inflict great damage, the loss is very +generally compensated by societies, the operations of which have been +rendered possible only by the progress of natural knowledge in the +direction of mathematics, and the accumulation of wealth in virtue of +other natural knowledge. + +But the plague? My Lord Brouncker's observation would not, I fear, lead +him to think that Englishmen of the nineteenth century are purer in +life, or more fervent in religious faith, than the generation which +could produce a Boyle, an Evelyn, and a Milton. He might find the mud +of society at the bottom, instead of at the top, but I fear that the +sum total would be a deserving of swift judgment as at the time of the +Restoration. And it would be our duty to explain once more, and this +time not without shame, that we have no reason to believe that it is the +improvement of our faith, nor that of our morals, which keeps the plague +from our city; but, again, that it is the improvement of our natural +knowledge. + +We have learned that pestilences will only take up their abode among +those who have prepared unswept and ungarnished residences for them. +Their cities must have narrow, unwatered streets, foul with accumulated +garbage. Their houses must be ill-drained, ill-lighted, ill-ventilated. +Their subjects must be ill-washed, ill-fed, ill-clothed. The London +of 1665 was such a city. The cities of the East, where plague has an +enduring dwelling, are such cities. We, in later times, have learned +somewhat of Nature, and partly obey her. Because of this partial +improvement of our natural knowledge and of that fractional obedience, +we have no plague; because that knowledge is still very imperfect and +that obedience yet incomplete, typhus is our companion and cholera our +visitor. But it is not presumptuous to express the belief that, when +our knowledge is more complete and our obedience the expression of our +knowledge, London will count her centuries of freedom from typhus +and cholera, as she now gratefully reckons her two hundred years of +ignorance of that plague which swooped upon her thrice in the first half +of the seventeenth century. + +Surely there is nothing in these explanations which is not fully borne +out by the facts? Surely, the principles involved in them are now +admitted among the fixed beliefs of all thinking men? Surely, it is true +that our countrymen are less subject to fire, famine, pestilence, +and all the evils which result from a want of command over and due +anticipation of the course of Nature, than were the countrymen of +Milton; and health, wealth, and well-being are more abundant with us +than with them? But no less certainly is the difference due to the +improvement of our knowledge of Nature, and the extent to which that +improved knowledge has been incorporated with the household words of +men, and has supplied the springs of their daily actions. + +Granting for a moment, then, the truth of that which the depreciators of +natural knowledge are so fond of urging, that its improvement can only +add to the resources of our material civilization; admitting it to be +possible that the founders of the Royal Society themselves looked for +no other reward than this, I cannot confess that I was guilty +of exaggeration when I hinted, that to him who had the gift of +distinguishing between prominent events and important events, the origin +of a combined effort on the part of mankind to improve natural knowledge +might have loomed larger than the Plague and have outshone the glare +of the Fire; as a something fraught with a wealth of beneficence to +mankind, in comparison with which the damage done by those ghastly evils +would shrink into insignificance. + +It is very certain that for every victim slain by the plague, hundreds +of mankind exist and find a fair share of happiness in the world by the +aid of the spinning jenny. And the great fire, at its worst, could +not have burned the supply of coal, the daily working of which, in the +bowels of the earth, made possible by the steam pump, gives rise to an +amount of wealth to which the millions lost in old London are but as an +old song. + +But spinning jenny and steam pump are, after all, but toys, possessing +an accidental value; and natural knowledge creates multitudes of more +subtle contrivances, the praises of which do not happen to be sung +because they are not directly convertible into instruments of creating +wealth. When I contemplate natural knowledge squandering such gifts +among men, the only appropriate comparison I can find for her is, to +liken her to such a peasant woman as one sees in the Alps, striding ever +upward, heavily burdened, and with mind bent only on her home; but +yet, without effort and without thought, knitting for her children. +Now stockings are good and comfortable things, and the children +will undoubtedly be much the better for them; but surely it would be +short-sighted, to say the least of it, to depreciate this toiling mother +as a mere stocking-machine--a mere provider of physical comforts? + +However, there are blind leaders of the blind, and not a few of them, +who take this view of natural knowledge, and can see nothing in the +bountiful mother of humanity but a sort of comfort-grinding machine. +According to them, the improvement of natural knowledge always has been, +and always must be, synonymous with no more than the improvement of the +material resources and the increase of the gratification of men. + +Natural knowledge is, in their eyes, no real mother of mankind, bringing +them up with kindness, and if need be, with sternness, in the way they +should go, and instructing them in all things needful for their welfare; +but a sort of fairy godmother, ready to furnish her pets with shoes of +swiftness, swords of sharpness, and omnipotent Aladdin's lamps, so that +they may have telegraphs to Saturn, and see the other side of the moon, +and thank God they are better than their benighted ancestors. If this +talk were true, I, for one, should not greatly care to toil in the +service of natural knowledge. I think I would just as soon be quietly +chipping my own flint axe, after the manner of my forefathers a few +thousand years back, as be troubled with the endless malady of thought +which now infests us all, for such reward. But I venture to say that +such views are contrary alike to reason and to fact. Those who discourse +in such fashion seem to me to be so intent upon trying to see what is +above Nature, or what is behind her, that they are blind to what stares +them in the face, in her. + +I should not venture to speak thus strongly if my justification were not +to be found in the simplest and most obvious facts,--if it needed more +than an appeal to the most notorious truths to justify my assertion, +that the improvement of natural knowledge, whatever direction it has +taken, and however low the aims of those who may have commenced it--has +not only conferred practical benefits on men, but, in so doing, has +effected a revolution in their conceptions of the universe and of +themselves, and has profoundly altered their modes of thinking and +their views of right and wrong. I say that natural knowledge, seeking +to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still +spiritual cravings. I way that natural knowledge, in desiring to +ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to discover those of +conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality. + +Let us take these points separately; and, first, what great ideas has +natural knowledge introduced into men's minds? + +I cannot but think that the foundations of all natural knowledge were +laid when the reason of man first came face to face with the facts of +Nature; when the savage first learned that the fingers of one hand are +fewer than those of both; that it is shorter to cross a stream than to +head it; that a stone stops where it is unless it be moved, and that it +drops from the hand which lets it go; that light and heat come and go +with the sun; that sticks burn away to a fire; that plants and animals +grow and die; that if he struck his fellow-savage a blow he would make +him angry, and perhaps get a blow in return, while if he offered him a +fruit he would please him, and perhaps receive a fish in exchange. When +men had acquired this much knowledge, the outlines, rude though they +were, of mathematics, of physics, of chemistry, of biology, of moral, +economical, and political science, were sketched. Nor did the germ of +religion fail when science began to bud. Listen to words which though +new, are yet three thousand years old:-- + + "...When in heaven the stars about the moon + Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, + And every height comes out, and jutting peak + And valley, and the immeasurable heavens + Break open to their highest, and all the start + Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart." [2] + +If the half-savage Greek could share our feelings thus far, it is +irrational to doubt that he went further, to find, as we do, that upon +that brief gladness there follows a certain sorrow,--the little light of +awakened human intelligence shines so mere a spark amidst the abyss +of the unknown and unknowable; seems so insufficient to do more than +illuminate the imperfections that cannot be remedied, the aspirations +that cannot be realized, of man's own nature. But in this sadness, this +consciousness of the limitation of man, this sense of an open secret +which he cannot penetrate, lies the essence of all religion; and the +attempt to embody it in the forms furnished by the intellect is the +origin of the higher theologies. + +Thus it seems impossible to imagine but that the foundations of all +knowledge--secular or sacred--were laid when intelligence dawned, though +the superstructure remained for long ages so slight and feeble as to be +compatible with the existence of almost any general view respecting the +mode of governance of the universe. No doubt, from the first, there were +certain phenomena which, to the rudest mind, presented a constancy of +occurrence, and suggested that a fixed order ruled, at any rate, among +them. I doubt if the grossest of Fetish worshippers ever imagined that +a stone must have a god within it to make it fall, or that a fruit had +a god within it to make it taste sweet. With regard to such matters +as these, it is hardly questionable that mankind from the first took +strictly positive and scientific views. + +But, with respect to all the less familiar occurrences which present +themselves, uncultured man, no doubt, has always taken himself as the +standard of comparison, as the centre and measure of the world; nor +could he well avoid doing so. And finding that his apparently uncaused +will has a powerful effect in giving rise to many occurrences, he +naturally enough ascribed other and greater events to other and greater +volitions, and came to look upon the world and all that therein is, as +the product of the volitions of persons like himself, but stronger, and +capable of being appeased or angered, as he himself might be soothed +or irritated. Through such conceptions of the plan and working of +the universe all mankind have passed, or are passing. And we may +now consider, what has been the effect of the improvement of natural +knowledge on the views of men who have reached this stage, and who +have begun to cultivate natural knowledge with no desire but that of +"increasing God's honour and bettering man's estate." + +For example, what could seem wiser, from a mere material point of view, +more innocent, from a theological one, to an ancient people, than that +they should learn the exact succession of the seasons, as warnings for +their husbandmen; or the position of the stars, as guides to their rude +navigators? But what has grown out of this search for natural +knowledge of so merely useful a character? You all know the reply. +Astronomy,--which of all sciences has filled men's minds with general +ideas of a character most foreign to their daily experience, and has, +more than any other, rendered it impossible for them to accept the +beliefs of their fathers. Astronomy,--which tells them that this so vast +and seemingly solid earth is but an atom among atoms, whirling, no man +knows whither, through illimitable space; which demonstrates that what +we call the peaceful heaven above us, is but that space, filled by an +infinitely subtle matter whose particles are seething and surging, like +the waves of an angry sea; which opens up to us infinite regions where +nothing is known, or ever seems to have been known, but matter and +force, operating according to rigid rules; which leads us to contemplate +phenomena the very nature of which demonstrates that they must have +had a beginning, and that they must have an end, but the very nature of +which also proves that the beginning was, to our conceptions of time, +infinitely remote, and that the end is as immeasurably distant. + +But it is not alone those who pursue astronomy who ask for bread +and receive ideas. What more harmless than the attempt to lift and +distribute water by pumping it; what more absolutely and grossly +utilitarian? But out of pumps grew the discussions about Nature's +abhorrence of a vacuum; and then it was discovered that Nature does not +abhor a vacuum, but that air has weight; and that notion paved the way +for the doctrine that all matter has weight, and that the force which +produces weight is co-extensive with the universe,--in short, to the +theory of universal gravitation and endless force. While learning how +to handle gases led to the discovery of oxygen, and to modern chemistry, +and to the notion of the indestructibility of matter. + +Again, what simpler, or more absolutely practical, than the attempt to +keep the axle of a wheel from heating when the wheel turns round very +fast? How useful for carters and gig drivers to know something about +this; and how good were it, if any ingenious person would find out the +cause of such phenomena, and thence educe a general remedy for them. +Such an ingenious person was Count Rumford; and he and his successors +have landed us in the theory of the persistence, or indestructibility, +of force. And in the infinitely minute, as in the infinitely great, +the seekers after natural knowledge, of the kinds called physical and +chemical, have everywhere found a definite order and succession of +events which seem never to be infringed. + +And how has it fared with "Physick" and Anatomy? Have the anatomist, +the physiologist, or the physician, whose business it has been to devote +themselves assiduously to that eminently practical and direct end, +the alleviation of the sufferings of mankind,--have they been able to +confine their vision more absolutely to the strictly useful? I fear they +are worst offenders of all. For if the astronomer has set before us the +infinite magnitude of space, and the practical eternity of the duration +of the universe; if the physical and chemical philosophers have +demonstrated the infinite minuteness of its constituent parts, and +the practical eternity of matter and of force; and if both have alike +proclaimed the universality of a definite and predicable order and +succession of events, the workers in biology have not only accepted all +these, but have added more startling theses of their own. For, as the +astronomers discover in the earth no centre of the universe, but an +eccentric speck, so the naturalists find man to be no centre of the +living world, but one amidst endless modifications of life; and as the +astronomer observes the mark of practically endless time set upon +the arrangements of the solar system so the student of life finds the +records of ancient forms of existence peopling the world for ages, +which, in relation to human experience, are infinite. + +Furthermore, the physiologist finds life to be as dependent for its +manifestation on particular molecular arrangements as any physical or +chemical phenomenon; and, whenever he extends his researches, fixed +order and unchanging causation reveal themselves, as plainly as in the +rest of Nature. + +Nor can I find that any other fate has awaited the germ of Religion. +Arising, like all other kinds of knowledge, and out of the action and +interaction of man's mind, with that which is not man's mind, it has +taken the intellectual coverings of Fetishism or Polytheism; of Theism +or Atheism; of Superstition or Rationalism. With these, and their +relative merits and demerits, I have nothing to do; but this it is +needful for my purpose to say, that if the religion of the present +differs from that of the past, it is because the theology of the present +has become more scientific than that of the past; because it has not +only renounced idols of wood and idols of stone, but begins to see +the necessity of breaking in pieces the idols built up of books and +traditions and fine-spun ecclesiastical cobwebs: and of cherishing the +noblest and most human of man's emotions, by worship "for the most part +of the silent sort" at the altar of the Unknown and Unknowable. + +Such are a few of the new conceptions implanted in our minds by the +improvement of natural knowledge. Men have acquired the ideas of +the practically infinite extent of the universe and of its practical +eternity; they are familiar with the conception that our earth is but an +infinitesimal fragment of that part of the universe which can be seen; +and that, nevertheless, its duration is, as compared with our standards +of time, infinite. They have further acquired the idea that man is but +one of innumerable forms of life now existing in the globe, and that +the present existences are but the last of an immeasurable series of +predecessors. Moreover, every step they have made in natural knowledge +has tended to extend and rivet in their minds the conception of a +definite order of the universe--which is embodied in what are called, +by an unhappy metaphor, the laws of Nature--and to narrow the range and +loosen the force of men's belief in spontaneity, or in changes other +than such as arise out of that definite order itself. Whether these +ideas are well or ill founded is not the question. No one can deny that +they exist, and have been the inevitable outgrowth of the improvement +of natural knowledge. And if so, it cannot be doubted that they +are changing the form of men's most cherished and most important +convictions. + +And as regards the second point--the extent to which the improvement +of natural knowledge has remodelled and altered what may be termed the +intellectual ethics of men,--what are among the moral convictions most +fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people. + +They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of +belief; that merit attaches to a readiness to believe; that the doubting +disposition is a bad one, and scepticism a sin; that when good authority +has pronounced what is to be believed, and faith has accepted it, reason +has no further duty. There are many excellent persons who yet hold by +these principles, and it is not my present business, or intention, to +discuss their views. All I wish to bring clearly before your minds is +the unquestionable fact, that the improvement of natural knowledge +is effected by methods which directly give the lie to all these +convictions, and assume the exact reverse of each to be true. + +The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge +authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind +faith the one unpardonable sin. And it cannot be otherwise, for every +great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection +of authority, the cherishing of the keenest scepticism, the annihilation +of the spirit of blind faith; and the most ardent votary of science +holds his firmest convictions, not because the men he most venerates +hold them; not because their verity is testified by portents and +wonders; but because his experience teaches him that whenever he chooses +to bring these convictions into contact with their primary source, +Nature--whenever he thinks fit to test them by appealing to experiment +and to observation--Nature will confirm them. The man of science has +learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification. + +Thus, without for a moment pretending to despise the practical results +of the improvement of natural knowledge, and its beneficial influence +on material civilization, it must, I think, be admitted that the great +ideas, some of which I have indicated, and the ethical spirit which +I have endeavoured to sketch, in the few moments which remained at my +disposal, constitute the real and permanent significance of natural +knowledge. + +If these ideas be destined, as I believe they are, to be more and more +firmly established as the world grows older; if that spirit be fated, as +I believe it is, to extend itself into all departments of human thought, +and to become co-extensive with the range of knowledge; if, as our race +approaches its maturity, it discovers, as I believe it will, that there +is but one kind of knowledge and but one method of acquiring it; then +we, who are still children, may justly feel it our highest duty to +recognise the advisableness of improving natural knowledge, and so to +aid ourselves and our successors in their course towards the noble goal +which lies before mankind. + + + + +[Footnote 1: A Lay Sermon delivered in St. Martin's Hall on Sunday, +January 7th, 1866, and subsequently published in the 'Fortnightly +Review'.] + +[Footnote 2: Need it be said that this is Tennyson's English for Homer's +Greek?] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Advisableness of Improving +Natural Knowledge, by Thomas H. 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Huxley + + + + + [footnote] *A Lay Sermon delivered in St. Martin's Hall on + Sunday, January 7th, 1866, and subsequently published in + the 'Fortnightly Review'. + +This time two hundred years ago--in the beginning of January, +1666--those of our forefathers who inhabited this great and ancient +city, took breath between the shocks of two fearful calamities: one not +quite past, although its fury had abated; the other to come. + +Within a few yards of the very spot on which we are assembled, so the +tradition runs, that painful and deadly malady, the plague, appeared in +the latter months of 1664; and, though no new visitor, smote the people +of England, and especially of her capital, with a violence unknown +before, in the course of the following year. The hand of a master has +pictured what happened in those dismal months; and in that truest of +fictions, 'The History of the Plague Year', Defoe shows death, with +every accompaniment of pain and terror, stalking through the narrow +streets of old London, and changing their busy hum into a silence broken +only by the wailing of the mourners of fifty thousand dead; by the +woful denunciations and mad prayers of fanatics; and by the madder +yells of despairing profligates. + +But about this time in 1666, the death-rate had sunk to nearly its +ordinary amount; a case of plague occurred only here and there, and the +richer citizens who had flown from the pest had returned to their +dwellings. The remnant of the people began to toil at the accustomed +round of duty, or of pleasure; and the stream of city life bid fair to +flow back along its old bed, with renewed and uninterrupted vigour. + +The newly kindled hope was deceitful. The great plague, indeed, +returned no more; but what it had done for the Londoners, the great +fire, which broke out in the autumn of 1666, did for London; and, in +September of that year, a heap of ashes and the indestructible energy of +the people were all that remained of the glory of five-sixths of the +city within the walls. + +Our forefathers had their own ways of accounting for each of these +calamities. They submitted to the plague in humility and in penitence, +for they believed it to be the judgment of God. But, towards the fire +they were furiously indignant, interpreting it as the effect of the +malice of man,--as the work of the Republicans, or of the Papists, +according as their prepossessions ran in favour of loyalty or of +Puritanism. + +It would, I fancy, have fared but ill with one who, standing where I now +stand, in what was then a thickly peopled and fashionable part of +London, should have broached to our ancestors the doctrine which I now +propound to you--that all their hypotheses were alike wrong; that the +plague was no more, in their sense, Divine judgment, than the fire was +the work of any political, or of any religious, sect; but that they +were themselves the authors of both plague and fire, and that they must +look to themselves to prevent the recurrence of calamities, to all +appearance so peculiarly beyond the reach of human control--so evidently +the result of the wrath of God, or of the craft and subtlety of an +enemy. + +And one may picture to one's self how harmoniously the holy cursing of +the Puritan of that day would have chimed in with the unholy cursing +and the crackling wit of the Rochesters and Sedleys, and with the +revilings of the political fanatics, if my imaginary plain dealer had +gone on to say that, if the return of such misfortunes were ever +rendered impossible, it would not be in virtue of the victory of the +faith of Laud, or of that of Milton; and, as little, by the triumph of +republicanism, as by that of monarchy. But that the one thing needful +for compassing this end was, that the people of England should second +the effort of an insignificant corporation, the establishment of which, +a few years before the epoch of the great plague and the great fire, +had been as little noticed, as they were conspicuous. + +Some twenty years before the outbreak of the plague a few calm and +thoughtful students banded themselves together for the purpose, as they +phrased it, of "improving natural knowledge." The ends they proposed +to attain cannot be stated more clearly than in the words of one of the +founders of the organization:-- + +"Our business was (precluding matters of theology and state affairs) to +discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries, and such as related +thereunto:--as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navigation, +Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, and Natural Experiments; +with the state of these studies and their cultivation at home and +abroad. We then discoursed of the circulation of the blood, the valves +in the veins, the venae lacteae, the lymphatic vessels, the Copernican +hypothesis, the nature of comets and new stars, the satellites of +Jupiter, the oval shape (as it then appeared) of Saturn, the spots on +the sun and its turning on its own axis, the inequalities and +selenography of the moon, the several phases of Venus and Mercury, the +improvement of telescopes and grinding of glasses for that purpose, the +weight of air, the possibility or impossibility of vacuities and +nature's abhorrence thereof, the Torricellian experiment in +quicksilver, the descent of heavy bodies and the degree of acceleration +therein, with divers other things of like nature, some of which were +then but new discoveries, and others not so generally known and +embraced as now they are; with other things appertaining to what hath +been called the New Philosophy, which from the times of Galileo at +Florence, and Sir Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam) in England, hath been +much cultivated in Italy, France, Germany, and other parts abroad, as +well as with us in England." + +The learned Dr. Wallis, writing in 1696, narrates in these words, what +happened half a century before, or about 1645. The associates met at +Oxford, in the rooms of Dr. Wilkins, who was destined to become a +bishop; and subsequently coming together in London, they attracted the +notice of the king. And it is a strange evidence of the taste for +knowledge which the most obviously worthless of the Stuarts shared with +his father and grandfather, that Charles the Second was not content +with saying witty things about his philosophers, but did wise things +with regard to them. For he not only bestowed upon them such attention +as he could spare from his poodles and his mistresses, but being in his +usual state of impecuniosity, begged for them of the Duke of Ormond; +and, that step being without effect, gave them Chelsea College, a +charter, and a mace: crowning his favours in the best way they could be +crowned, by burdening them no further with royal patronage or state +interference. + +Thus it was that the half-dozen young men, studious of the "New +Philosophy," who met in one another's lodgings in Oxford or in London, +in the middle of the seventeenth century, grew in numerical and in real +strength, until, in the latter part, the "Royal Society for the +improvement of Natural Knowledge" had already become famous, and had +acquired a claim upon the veneration of Englishmen, which it has ever +since retained, as the principal focus of scientific activity in our +islands, and the chief champion of the cause it was formed to support. + +It was by the aid of the Royal Society that Newton published his +'Principia'. If all the books in the world, except the Philosophical +Transactions, were destroyed, it is safe to say that the foundations of +physical science would remain unshaken, and that the vast intellectual +progress of the last two centuries would be largely, though +incompletely, recorded. Nor have any signs of halting or of +decrepitude manifested themselves in our own times. As in Dr. Wallis's +days, so in these, "our business is, precluding theology and state +affairs, to discourse and consider of philosophical enquiries." But +our "Mathematick" is one which Newton would have to go to school to +learn; our "Staticks, Mechanicks, Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural +Experiments" constitute a mass of physical and chemical knowledge, a +glimpse at which would compensate Galileo for the doings of a score of +inquisitorial cardinals; our "Physick" and "Anatomy" have embraced such +infinite varieties of being, have laid open such new worlds in time and +space, have grappled, not unsuccessfully, with such complex problems, +that the eyes of Vesalius and of Harvey might be dazzled by the sight +of the tree that has grown out of their grain of mustard seed. + +The fact is perhaps rather too much, than too little, forced upon one's +notice, nowadays, that all this marvellous intellectual growth has a no +less wonderful expression in practical life; and that, in this respect, +if in no other, the movement symbolized by the progress of the Royal +Society stands without a parallel in the history of mankind. + +A series of volumes as bulky as the 'Transactions of the Royal Society' +might possibly be filled with the subtle speculations of the Schoolmen; +not improbably, the obtaining a mastery over the products of mediaeval +thought might necessitate an even greater expenditure of time and of +energy than the acquirement of the "New Philosophy"; but though such +work engrossed the best intellects of Europe for a longer time than has +elapsed since the great fire, its effects were "writ in water," so far +as our social state is concerned. + +On the other hand, if the noble first President of the Royal Society +could revisit the upper air and once more gladden his eyes with a sight +of the familiar mace, he would find himself in the midst of a material +civilization more different from that of his day, than that of the +seventeenth was from that of the first century. And if Lord +Brouncker's native sagacity had not deserted his ghost, he would need +no long reflection to discover that all these great ships, these +railways, these telegraphs, these factories, these printing-presses, +without which the whole fabric of modern English society would collapse +into a mass of stagnant and starving pauperism,--that all these pillars +of our State are but the ripples, and the bubbles upon the surface of +that great spiritual stream, the springs of which, only, he and his +fellows were privileged to see; and seeing, to recognise as that which +it behoved them above all things to keep pure and undefiled. + +It may not be too great a flight of imagination to conceive our noble +'revenant' not forgetful of the great troubles of his own day, and +anxious to know how often London had been burned down since his time, +and how often the plague had carried off its thousands. He would have +to learn that, although London contains tenfold the inflammable matter +that it did in 1666; though, not content with filling our rooms with +woodwork and light draperies, we must needs lead inflammable and +explosive gases into every corner of our streets and houses, we never +allow even a street to burn down. And if he asked how this had come +about, we should have to explain that the improvement of natural +knowledge has furnished us with dozens of machines for throwing water +upon fires, any one of which would have furnished the ingenious Mr. +Hooke, the first "curator and experimenter" of the Royal Society, with +ample materials for discourse before half a dozen meetings of that +body; and that, to say truth, except for the progress of natural +knowledge, we should not have been able to make even the tools by which +these machines are constructed. And, further, it would be necessary to +add, that although severe fires sometimes occur and inflict great +damage, the loss is very generally compensated by societies, the +operations of which have been rendered possible only by the progress of +natural knowledge in the direction of mathematics, and the accumulation +of wealth in virtue of other natural knowledge. + +But the plague? My Lord Brouncker's observation would not, I fear, lead +him to think that Englishmen of the nineteenth century are purer in +life, or more fervent in religious faith, than the generation which +could produce a Boyle, an Evelyn, and a Milton. He might find the mud +of society at the bottom, instead of at the top, but I fear that the sum +total would be a deserving of swift judgment as at the time of the +Restoration. And it would be our duty to explain once more, and this +time not without shame, that we have no reason to believe that it is +the improvement of our faith, nor that of our morals, which keeps the +plague from our city; but, again, that it is the improvement of our +natural knowledge. + +We have learned that pestilences will only take up their abode among +those who have prepared unswept and ungarnished residences for them. +Their cities must have narrow, unwatered streets, foul with accumulated +garbage. Their houses must be ill-drained, ill-lighted, +ill-ventilated. Their subjects must be ill-washed, ill-fed, +ill-clothed. The London of 1665 was such a city. The cities of the +East, where plague has an enduring dwelling, are such cities. We, in +later times, have learned somewhat of Nature, and partly obey her. +Because of this partial improvement of our natural knowledge and of +that fractional obedience, we have no plague; because that knowledge is +still very imperfect and that obedience yet incomplete, typhus is our +companion and cholera our visitor. But it is not presumptuous to +express the belief that, when our knowledge is more complete and our +obedience the expression of our knowledge, London will count her +centuries of freedom from typhus and cholera, as she now gratefully +reckons her two hundred years of ignorance of that plague which swooped +upon her thrice in the first half of the seventeenth century. + +Surely there is nothing in these explanations which is not fully borne +out by the facts? Surely, the principles involved in them are now +admitted among the fixed beliefs of all thinking men? Surely, it is +true that our countrymen are less subject to fire, famine, pestilence, +and all the evils which result from a want of command over and due +anticipation of the course of Nature, than were the countrymen of +Milton; and health, wealth, and well-being are more abundant with us +than with them? But no less certainly is the difference due to the +improvement of our knowledge of Nature, and the extent to which that +improved knowledge has been incorporated with the household words of +men, and has supplied the springs of their daily actions. + +Granting for a moment, then, the truth of that which the depreciators of +natural knowledge are so fond of urging, that its improvement can only +add to the resources of our material civilization; admitting it to be +possible that the founders of the Royal Society themselves looked for +no other reward than this, I cannot confess that I was guilty of +exaggeration when I hinted, that to him who had the gift of +distinguishing between prominent events and important events, the +origin of a combined effort on the part of mankind to improve natural +knowledge might have loomed larger than the Plague and have outshone +the glare of the Fire; as a something fraught with a wealth of +beneficence to mankind, in comparison with which the damage done by +those ghastly evils would shrink into insignificance. + +It is very certain that for every victim slain by the plague, hundreds +of mankind exist and find a fair share of happiness in the world by the +aid of the spinning jenny. And the great fire, at its worst, could not +have burned the supply of coal, the daily working of which, in the +bowels of the earth, made possible by the steam pump, gives rise to an +amount of wealth to which the millions lost in old London are but as an +old song. + +But spinning jenny and steam pump are, after all, but toys, possessing +an accidental value; and natural knowledge creates multitudes of more +subtle contrivances, the praises of which do not happen to be sung +because they are not directly convertible into instruments of creating +wealth. When I contemplate natural knowledge squandering such gifts +among men, the only appropriate comparison I can find for her is, to +liken her to such a peasant woman as one sees in the Alps, striding +ever upward, heavily burdened, and with mind bent only on her home; but +yet, without effort and without thought, knitting for her children. Now +stockings are good and comfortable things, and the children will +undoubtedly be much the better for them; but surely it would be +short-sighted, to say the least of it, to depreciate this toiling mother +as a mere stocking-machine--a mere provider of physical comforts? + +However, there are blind leaders of the blind, and not a few of them, +who take this view of natural knowledge, and can see nothing in the +bountiful mother of humanity but a sort of comfort-grinding machine. +According to them, the improvement of natural knowledge always has +been, and always must be, synonymous with no more than the improvement +of the material resources and the increase of the gratification of men. + +Natural knowledge is, in their eyes, no real mother of mankind, bringing +them up with kindness, and if need be, with sternness, in the way they +should go, and instructing them in all things needful for their +welfare; but a sort of fairy godmother, ready to furnish her pets with +shoes of swiftness, swords of sharpness, and omnipotent Aladdin's lamps, +so that they may have telegraphs to Saturn, and see the other side of +the moon, and thank God they are better than their benighted +ancestors. If this talk were true, I, for one, should not greatly care +to toil in the service of natural knowledge. I think I would just as +soon be quietly chipping my own flint axe, after the manner of my +forefathers a few thousand years back, as be troubled with the endless +malady of thought which now infests us all, for such reward. But I +venture to say that such views are contrary alike to reason and to +fact. Those who discourse in such fashion seem to me to be so intent +upon trying to see what is above Nature, or what is behind her, that +they are blind to what stares them in the face, in her. + +I should not venture to speak thus strongly if my justification were not +to be found in the simplest and most obvious facts,--if it needed more +than an appeal to the most notorious truths to justify my assertion, +that the improvement of natural knowledge, whatever direction it has +taken, and however low the aims of those who may have commenced it--has +not only conferred practical benefits on men, but, in so doing, has +effected a revolution in their conceptions of the universe and of +themselves, and has profoundly altered their modes of thinking and +their views of right and wrong. I say that natural knowledge, seeking +to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still +spiritual cravings. I way that natural knowledge, in desiring to +ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to discover those of +conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality. + +Let us take these points separately; and, first, what great ideas has +natural knowledge introduced into men's minds? + +I cannot but think that the foundations of all natural knowledge were +laid when the reason of man first came face to face with the facts of +Nature; when the savage first learned that the fingers of one hand are +fewer than those of both; that it is shorter to cross a stream than to +head it; that a stone stops where it is unless it be moved, and that it +drops from the hand which lets it go; that light and heat come and go +with the sun; that sticks burn away to a fire; that plants and animals +grow and die; that if he struck his fellow-savage a blow he would make +him angry, and perhaps get a blow in return, while if he offered him a +fruit he would please him, and perhaps receive a fish in exchange. When +men had acquired this much knowledge, the outlines, rude though they +were, of mathematics, of physics, of chemistry, of biology, of moral, +economical, and political science, were sketched. Nor did the germ of +religion fail when science began to bud. Listen to words which though +new, are yet three thousand years old:-- + + "...When in heaven the stars about the moon + Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, + And every height comes out, and jutting peak + And valley, and the immeasurable heavens + Break open to their highest, and all the start + Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart."* + + [footnote] *Need it be said that this is Tennyson's English + for Homer's Greek? + +If the half-savage Greek could share our feelings thus far, it is +irrational to doubt that he went further, to find, as we do, that upon +that brief gladness there follows a certain sorrow,--the little light +of awakened human intelligence shines so mere a spark amidst the abyss +of the unknown and unknowable; seems so insufficient to do more than +illuminate the imperfections that cannot be remedied, the aspirations +that cannot be realized, of man's own nature. But in this sadness, +this consciousness of the limitation of man, this sense of an open +secret which he cannot penetrate, lies the essence of all religion; and +the attempt to embody it in the forms furnished by the intellect is the +origin of the higher theologies. + +Thus it seems impossible to imagine but that the foundations of all +knowledge--secular or sacred--were laid when intelligence dawned, +though the superstructure remained for long ages so slight and feeble +as to be compatible with the existence of almost any general view +respecting the mode of governance of the universe. No doubt, from the +first, there were certain phenomena which, to the rudest mind, +presented a constancy of occurrence, and suggested that a fixed order +ruled, at any rate, among them. I doubt if the grossest of Fetish +worshippers ever imagined that a stone must have a god within it to make +it fall, or that a fruit had a god within it to make it taste sweet. +With regard to such matters as these, it is hardly questionable that +mankind from the first took strictly positive and scientific views. + +But, with respect to all the less familiar occurrences which present +themselves, uncultured man, no doubt, has always taken himself as the +standard of comparison, as the centre and measure of the world; nor +could he well avoid doing so. And finding that his apparently uncaused +will has a powerful effect in giving rise to many occurrences, he +naturally enough ascribed other and greater events to other and greater +volitions, and came to look upon the world and all that therein is, as +the product of the volitions of persons like himself, but stronger, and +capable of being appeased or angered, as he himself might be soothed or +irritated. Through such conceptions of the plan and working of the +universe all mankind have passed, or are passing. And we may now +consider, what has been the effect of the improvement of natural +knowledge on the views of men who have reached this stage, and who have +begun to cultivate natural knowledge with no desire but that of +"increasing God's honour and bettering man's estate." + +For example, what could seem wiser, from a mere material point of view, +more innocent, from a theological one, to an ancient people, than that +they should learn the exact succession of the seasons, as warnings for +their husbandmen; or the position of the stars, as guides to their rude +navigators? But what has grown out of this search for natural knowledge +of so merely useful a character? You all know the reply. +Astronomy,--which of all sciences has filled men's minds with general +ideas of a character most foreign to their daily experience, and has, +more than any other, rendered it impossible for them to accept the +beliefs of their fathers. Astronomy,--which tells them that this so +vast and seemingly solid earth is but an atom among atoms, whirling, no +man knows whither, through illimitable space; which demonstrates that +what we call the peaceful heaven above us, is but that space, filled by +an infinitely subtle matter whose particles are seething and surging, +like the waves of an angry sea; which opens up to us infinite regions +where nothing is known, or ever seems to have been known, but matter +and force, operating according to rigid rules; which leads us to +contemplate phenomena the very nature of which demonstrates that they +must have had a beginning, and that they must have an end, but the very +nature of which also proves that the beginning was, to our conceptions +of time, infinitely remote, and that the end is as immeasurably +distant. + +But it is not alone those who pursue astronomy who ask for bread and +receive ideas. What more harmless than the attempt to lift and +distribute water by pumping it; what more absolutely and grossly +utilitarian? But out of pumps grew the discussions about Nature's +abhorrence of a vacuum; and then it was discovered that Nature does not +abhor a vacuum, but that air has weight; and that notion paved the way +for the doctrine that all matter has weight, and that the force which +produces weight is co-extensive with the universe,--in short, to the +theory of universal gravitation and endless force. While learning how +to handle gases led to the discovery of oxygen, and to modern +chemistry, and to the notion of the indestructibility of matter. + +Again, what simpler, or more absolutely practical, than the attempt to +keep the axle of a wheel from heating when the wheel turns round very +fast? How useful for carters and gig drivers to know something about +this; and how good were it, if any ingenious person would find out the +cause of such phenomena, and thence educe a general remedy for them. +Such an ingenious person was Count Rumford; and he and his successors +have landed us in the theory of the persistence, or indestructibility, +of force. And in the infinitely minute, as in the infinitely great, +the seekers after natural knowledge, of the kinds called physical and +chemical, have everywhere found a definite order and succession of +events which seem never to be infringed. + +And how has it fared with "Physick" and Anatomy? Have the anatomist, +the physiologist, or the physician, whose business it has been to +devote themselves assiduously to that eminently practical and direct +end, the alleviation of the sufferings of mankind,--have they been able +to confine their vision more absolutely to the strictly useful? I fear +they are worst offenders of all. For if the astronomer has set before +us the infinite magnitude of space, and the practical eternity of the +duration of the universe; if the physical and chemical philosophers +have demonstrated the infinite minuteness of its constituent parts, and +the practical eternity of matter and of force; and if both have alike +proclaimed the universality of a definite and predicable order and +succession of events, the workers in biology have not only accepted all +these, but have added more startling theses of their own. For, as the +astronomers discover in the earth no centre of the universe, but an +eccentric speck, so the naturalists find man to be no centre of the +living world, but one amidst endless modifications of life; and as the +astronomer observes the mark of practically endless time set upon the +arrangements of the solar system so the student of life finds the +records of ancient forms of existence peopling the world for ages, +which, in relation to human experience, are infinite. + +Furthermore, the physiologist finds life to be as dependent for its +manifestation on particular molecular arrangements as any physical or +chemical phenomenon; and, whenever he extends his researches, fixed +order and unchanging causation reveal themselves, as plainly as in the +rest of Nature. + +Nor can I find that any other fate has awaited the germ of Religion. +Arising, like all other kinds of knowledge, and out of the action and +interaction of man's mind, with that which is not man's mind, it has +taken the intellectual coverings of Fetishism or Polytheism; of Theism +or Atheism; of Superstition or Rationalism. With these, and their +relative merits and demerits, I have nothing to do; but this it is +needful for my purpose to say, that if the religion of the present +differs from that of the past, it is because the theology of the present +has become more scientific than that of the past; because it has not +only renounced idols of wood and idols of stone, but begins to see the +necessity of breaking in pieces the idols built up of books and +traditions and fine-spun ecclesiastical cobwebs: and of cherishing the +noblest and most human of man's emotions, by worship "for the most part +of the silent sort" at the altar of the Unknown and Unknowable. + +Such are a few of the new conceptions implanted in our minds by the +improvement of natural knowledge. Men have acquired the ideas of the +practically infinite extent of the universe and of its practical +eternity; they are familiar with the conception that our earth is but +an infinitesimal fragment of that part of the universe which can be +seen; and that, nevertheless, its duration is, as compared with our +standards of time, infinite. They have further acquired the idea that +man is but one of innumerable forms of life now existing in the globe, +and that the present existences are but the last of an immeasurable +series of predecessors. Moreover, every step they have made in natural +knowledge has tended to extend and rivet in their minds the conception +of a definite order of the universe--which is embodied in what are +called, by an unhappy metaphor, the laws of Nature--and to narrow the +range and loosen the force of men's belief in spontaneity, or in +changes other than such as arise out of that definite order itself. +Whether these ideas are well or ill founded is not the question. No one +can deny that they exist, and have been the inevitable outgrowth of the +improvement of natural knowledge. And if so, it cannot be doubted that +they are changing the form of men's most cherished and most important +convictions. + +And as regards the second point--the extent to which the improvement of +natural knowledge has remodelled and altered what may be termed the +intellectual ethics of men,--what are among the moral convictions most +fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people. + +They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of belief; +that merit attaches to a readiness to believe; that the doubting +disposition is a bad one, and scepticism a sin; that when good +authority has pronounced what is to be believed, and faith has accepted +it, reason has no further duty. There are many excellent persons who +yet hold by these principles, and it is not my present business, or +intention, to discuss their views. All I wish to bring clearly before +your minds is the unquestionable fact, that the improvement of natural +knowledge is effected by methods which directly give the lie to all +these convictions, and assume the exact reverse of each to be true. + +The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge +authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; +blind faith the one unpardonable sin. And it cannot be otherwise, for +every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute +rejection of authority, the cherishing of the keenest scepticism, the +annihilation of the spirit of blind faith; and the most ardent votary +of science holds his firmest convictions, not because the men he most +venerates hold them; not because their verity is testified by portents +and wonders; but because his experience teaches him that whenever he +chooses to bring these convictions into contact with their primary +source, Nature--whenever he thinks fit to test them by appealing to +experiment and to observation--Nature will confirm them. The man of +science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by +verification. + +Thus, without for a moment pretending to despise the practical results +of the improvement of natural knowledge, and its beneficial influence +on material civilization, it must, I think, be admitted that the great +ideas, some of which I have indicated, and the ethical spirit which I +have endeavoured to sketch, in the few moments which remained at my +disposal, constitute the real and permanent significance of natural +knowledge. + +If these ideas be destined, as I believe they are, to be more and more +firmly established as the world grows older; if that spirit be fated, +as I believe it is, to extend itself into all departments of human +thought, and to become co-extensive with the range of knowledge; if, as +our race approaches its maturity, it discovers, as I believe it will, +that there is but one kind of knowledge and but one method of acquiring +it; then we, who are still children, may justly feel it our highest +duty to recognise the advisableness of improving natural knowledge, and +so to aid ourselves and our successors in their course towards the +noble goal which lies before mankind. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of On the Advisableness of +Improving Natural Knowledge by Thomas H. 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