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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/75664-0.txt b/75664-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dceb863 --- /dev/null +++ b/75664-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2136 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75664 *** + + + + + + + + ADDRESS + DELIVERED BEFORE + THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION + ASSEMBLED AT + BELFAST + + + _WITH ADDITIONS_ + + + BY + JOHN TYNDALL, F.R.S. + PRESIDENT + + + + FIFTH THOUSAND + + + + LONDON + LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + 1874 + + + + + 'There is one God supreme over all gods, diviner than mortals, + Whose form is not like unto man's, and as unlike his nature; + But vain mortals imagine that gods like themselves are begotten, + With human sensations and voice and corporeal members; + So, if oxen or lions had hands and could work in man's fashion, + And trace out with chisel or brush their conception of Godhead, + Then would horses depict gods like horses, and oxen like oxen, + Each kind the divine with its own form and nature endowing.' + +XENOPHANES of Colophon (six centuries B.C.), 'Supernatural Religion,' +Vol. I. p. 76. + + +'It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an +opinion as is unworthy of Him; for the one is unbelief, the other is +contumely.' BACON. + + + + +PREFACE. + +At the request of my Publishers, strengthened by the expressed desire +of many Correspondents, I reprint, with a few slight alterations, +this Address. + +It was written under some disadvantages this year in the Alps, and +sent by instalments to the printer. When read subsequently it proved +too long for its purpose, and several of its passages were +accordingly struck out. Some of them are here restored. + +It has provoked an unexpected amount of criticism. This, in due +time, will subside; and I confidently look forward to a calmer future +for a verdict, founded not on imaginary sins, but on the real facts +of the case. + +Of the numberless strictures and accusations, some of them exceeding +fierce, of which I have been, and continue to be, the object, I +refrain from speaking at any length. To one or two of them, however, +out of respect for their sources, I would ask permission briefly to +refer. + +An evening paper of the first rank, after the ascription of various +more or less questionable aims and motives, proceeds to the +imputation, that I permitted the cheers of my audience to 'stimulate' +me to the utterance of words which no right-minded man, without a +sense of the gravest responsibility, could employ. I trust the +author of this charge will allow me in all courtesy to assure him +that the words ascribed by him to the spur of the moment were written +in Switzerland; that they stood in the printed copy of the Address +from which I read; that they evoked no 'cheers,' but a silence far +more impressive than cheers; and that, finally, as regards both +approbation and the reverse, my course had been thought over and +decided long before I ventured to address a Belfast audience. + +A writer in a most able theological journal represents me as 'patting +religion on the back.' The thought of doing so is certainly his, not +mine. The facts of religious feeling are to me as certain as the +facts of physics. But the world, I hold, will have to distinguish +between the feeling and its forms, and to vary the latter in +accordance with the intellectual condition of the age. + +I am unwilling to dwell upon statements ascribed to eminent men, +which may be imperfectly reported in the newspapers, and I therefore +pass over a recent sermon attributed to the Bishop of Manchester with +the remark, that one engaged so much as he is in busy and, I doubt +not on the whole, beneficent outward life, is not likely to be among +the earliest to discern the more inward and spiritual signs of the +times, or to prepare for the condition which they foreshadow. + +In a recent speech at Dewsbury, the Dean of Manchester is reported to +have expressed himself thus:--'The Professor (myself) ended a most +remarkable and eloquent speech by terming himself a material +Atheist.' My attention was drawn to Dean Cowie's statement by a +correspondent, who described it as standing 'conspicuous among the +strange calumnies' with which my words have been assailed. For +myself I use no language which could imply that I am hurt by such +attacks. They have lost their power to wound or injure. So likewise +as regards a resolution recently passed by the Presbytery of Belfast, +in which Professor Huxley and myself are spoken of as 'ignoring the +existence of God, and advocating pure and simple materialism;' had +the possessive pronoun 'our' preceded 'God,' and had the words 'what +we consider' preceded 'pure,' this statement would have been +objectively true; but to make it so this qualification is required. + +Cardinal Cullen, I am told, is also actively engaged in erecting +spiritual barriers against the intrusion of 'Infidelity' into +Ireland. His Eminence, I believe, has reason to suspect that the +Catholic youth around him are not proof to the seductions of science. +Strong as he is, I believe him to be impotent here. The youth of +Ireland will imbibe science, however slowly; they will be leavened by +it, however gradually. And to its inward modifying power among +Catholics themselves, rather than to any Protestant propagandism, or +other external influence, I look for the abatement of various +incongruities; among them, of those mediæval proceedings which, to +the scandal and amazement of our nineteenth century intelligence, +have been revived among us during the last two years. + +In connexion with the charge of Atheism, I would make one remark. +Christian men are proved by their writings to have their hours of +weakness and of doubt, as well as their hours of strength and of +conviction; and men like myself share, in their own way, these +variations of mood and tense. Were the religious views of many of my +assailants the only alternative ones, I do not know how strong the +claims of the doctrine of 'Material Atheism' upon my allegiance might +be. Probably they would be very strong. But, as it is, I have +noticed during years of self-observation that it is not in hours of +clearness and vigour that this doctrine commends itself to my mind; +that in the presence of stronger and healthier thought it ever +dissolves and disappears, as offering no solution of the mystery in +which we dwell, and of which we form a part. + +To coarser attacks and denunciations I pay no attention; nor have I +any real reason to complain of revilings addressed to me, which +professing Christians, as could readily be proved, do not scruple to +use towards each other. The more agreeable task remains to me of +thanking those who have tried, however hopelessly, to keep accusation +within the bounds of justice, and who, privately, and at some risk in +public, have honoured me with the expression of their sympathy and +approval. + +JOHN TYNDALL. + + Athenæum Club. + _September_ 16, 1874. + + + + +ADDRESS, + +ETC. + + +An impulse inherent in primeval man turned his thoughts and +questionings betimes towards the sources of natural phenomena. The +same impulse, inherited and intensified, is the spur of scientific +action to-day. Determined by it, by a process of abstraction from +experience we form physical theories which lie beyond the pale of +experience, but which satisfy the desire of the mind to see every +natural occurrence resting upon a cause. In forming their notions of +the origin of things, our earliest historic (and doubtless, we might +add, our prehistoric) ancestors pursued, as far as their intelligence +permitted, the same course. They also fell back upon experience, but +with this difference--that the particular experiences which furnished +the weft and woof of their theories were drawn, not from the study of +nature, but from what lay much closer to them, the observation of +men. Their theories accordingly took an anthropomorphic form. To +supersensual beings, which, 'however potent and invisible, were +nothing but a species of human creatures, perhaps raised from among +mankind, and retaining all human passions and appetites,'[1] were +handed over the rule and governance of natural phenomena. + +Tested by observation and reflection, these early notions failed in +the long run to satisfy the more penetrating intellects of our race. +Far in the depths of history we find men of exceptional power +differentiating themselves from the crowd, rejecting these +anthropomorphic notions, and seeking to connect natural phenomena +with their physical principles. But long prior to these purer +efforts of the understanding the merchant had been abroad, and +rendered the philosopher possible; commerce had been developed, +wealth amassed, leisure for travel and speculation secured, while +races educated under different conditions, and therefore differently +informed and endowed, had been stimulated and sharpened by mutual +contact. In those regions where the commercial aristocracy of +ancient Greece mingled with its eastern neighbours the sciences were +born, being nurtured and developed by free-thinking and courageous +men. The state of things to be displaced may be gathered from a +passage of Euripides quoted by Hume. 'There is nothing in the world; +no glory, no prosperity. The gods toss all into confusion; mix +everything with its reverse, that all of us, from our ignorance and +uncertainty, may pay them the more worship and reverence.' Now, as +science demands the radical extirpation of caprice and the absolute +reliance upon law in nature, there grew with the growth of scientific +notions a desire and determination to sweep from the field of theory +this mob of gods and demons, and to place natural phenomena on a +basis more congruent with themselves. + +The problem which had been previously approached from above was now +attacked from below; theoretic effort passed from the super- to the +sub-sensible. It was felt that to construct the universe in idea it +was necessary to have some notion of its constituent parts--of what +Lucretius subsequently called the 'First Beginnings.' Abstracting +again from experience, the leaders of scientific speculation reached +at length the pregnant doctrine of atoms and molecules, the latest +developments of which were set forth with such power and clearness at +the last meeting of the British Association. Thought, no doubt, had +long hovered about this doctrine before it attained the precision and +completeness which it assumed in the mind of Democritus,[2] a +philosopher who may well for a moment arrest our attention. 'Few +great men,' says Lange, a non-materialist, in his excellent 'History +of Materialism,' to the spirit and to the letter of which I am +equally indebted, 'have been so despitefully used by history as +Democritus. In the distorted images sent down to us through +unscientific traditions there remains of him almost nothing but the +name of "the laughing philosopher," while figures of immeasurably +smaller significance spread themselves out at full length before us.' +Lange speaks of Bacon's high appreciation of Democritus--for ample +illustrations of which I am indebted to my excellent friend Mr. +Spedding, the learned editor and biographer of Bacon. It is evident, +indeed, that Bacon considered Democritus to be a man of weightier +metal than either Plato or Aristotle, though their philosophy 'was +noised and celebrated in the schools, amid the din and pomp of +professors.' It was not they, but Genseric and Attila and the +barbarians, who destroyed the atomic philosophy. 'For at a time when +all human learning had suffered shipwreck these planks of +Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy, as being of a lighter and more +inflated substance, were preserved and came down to us, while things +more solid sank and almost passed into oblivion.' + +The son of a wealthy father, Democritus devoted the whole of his +inherited fortune to the culture of his mind. He travelled +everywhere; visited Athens when Socrates and Plato were there, but +quitted the city without making himself known. Indeed, the dialectic +strife in which Socrates so much delighted had no charms for +Democritus, who held that 'the man who readily contradicts and uses +many words is unfit to learn anything truly right.' He is said to +have discovered and educated Protagoras the sophist, being struck as +much by the manner in which he, being a hewer of wood, tied up his +faggots as by the sagacity of his conversation. Democritus returned +poor from his travels, was supported by his brother, and at length +wrote his great work entitled 'Diakosmos,' which he read publicly +before the people of his native town. He was honoured by his +countrymen in various ways, and died serenely at a great age. + +The principles enunciated by Democritus reveal his uncompromising +antagonism to those who deduced the phenomena of nature from the +caprices of the gods. They are briefly these:--1. From nothing comes +nothing. Nothing that exists can be destroyed. All changes are due +to the combination and separation of molecules. 2. Nothing happens +by chance. Every occurrence has its cause from which it follows by +necessity. 3. The only existing things are the atoms and empty +space; all else is mere opinion. 4. The atoms are infinite in number +and infinitely various in form; they strike together, and the lateral +motions and whirlings which thus arise are the beginnings of worlds. +5. The varieties of all things depend upon the varieties of their +atoms, in number, size, and aggregation. 6. The soul consists of +fine, smooth, round atoms, like those of fire. These are the most +mobile of all. They interpenetrate the whole body, and in their +motions the phenomena of life arise. The first five propositions are +a fair general statement of the atomic philosophy, as now held. As +regards the sixth, Democritus made his fine smooth atoms do duty for +the nervous system, whose functions were then unknown. The atoms of +Democritus are individually without sensation; they combine in +obedience to mechanical laws; and not only organic forms, but the +phenomena of sensation and thought are the result of their +combination. + +That great enigma, 'the exquisite adaptation of one part of an +organism to another part, and to the conditions of life,' more +especially the construction of the human body, Democritus made no +attempt to solve. Empedocles, a man of more fiery and poetic nature, +introduced the notion of love and hate among the atoms to account for +their combination and separation. Noticing this gap in the doctrine +of Democritus, he struck in with the penetrating thought, linked, +however, with some wild speculation, that it lay in the very nature +of those combinations which were suited to their ends (in other +words, in harmony with their environment) to maintain themselves, +while unfit combinations, having no proper habitat, must rapidly +disappear. Thus more than 2,000 years ago the doctrine of the +'survival of the fittest,' which in our day, not on the basis of +vague conjecture, but of positive knowledge, has been raised to such +extraordinary significance, had received at all events partial +enunciation.[3] + +Epicurus,[4] said to be the son of a poor schoolmaster at Samos, is +the next dominant figure in the history of the atomic philosophy. He +mastered the writings of Democritus, heard lectures in Athens, went +back to Sarnos, and subsequently wandered through various countries. +He finally returned to Athens, where he bought a garden, and +surrounded himself by pupils, in the midst of whom he lived a pure +and serene life, and died a peaceful death. Democritus looked to the +soul as the ennobling part of man; even beauty without understanding +partook of animalism. Epicurus also rated the spirit above the body; +the pleasure of the body was that of the moment, while the spirit +could draw upon the future and the past. His philosophy was almost +identical with that of Democritus; but he never quoted either friend +or foe. One main object of Epicurus was to free the world from +superstition and the fear of death. Death he treated with +indifference. It merely robs us of sensation. As long as we are, +death is not; and when death is, we are not. Life has no more evil +for him who has made up his mind that it is no evil not to live. He +adored the gods, but not in the ordinary fashion. The idea of divine +power, properly purified, he thought an elevating one. Still he +taught, 'Not he is godless who rejects the gods of the crowd, but +rather he who accepts them.' The gods were to him eternal and +immortal beings, whose blessedness excluded every thought of care or +occupation of any kind. Nature pursues her course in accordance with +everlasting laws, the gods never interfering. They haunt + + 'The lucid interspace of world and world + Where never creeps a cloud or moves a wind, + Nor ever falls the least white star of snow, + Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans, + Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar + Their sacred everlasting calm.'[5] + + +Lange considers the relation of Epicurus to the gods subjective; the +indication probably of an ethical requirement of his own nature. We +cannot read history with open eyes, or study human nature to its +depths, and fail to discern such a requirement. Man never has been, +and he never will be, satisfied with the operations and products of +the Understanding alone; hence physical science cannot cover all the +demands of his nature. But the history of the efforts made to +satisfy these demands might be broadly described as a history of +errors--the error, in great part, consisting in ascribing fixity to +that which is fluent, which varies as we vary, being gross when we +are gross, and becoming, as our capacities widen, more abstract and +sublime. On one great point the mind of Epicurus was at peace. He +neither sought nor expected, here or hereafter, any personal profit +from his relation to the gods. And it is assuredly a fact that +loftiness and serenity of thought may be promoted by conceptions +which involve no idea of profit of this kind. 'Did I not believe,' +said a great man to me once, 'that an Intelligence is at the heart of +things, my life on earth would be intolerable.' The utterer of these +words is not, in my opinion, rendered less noble but more noble by +the fact that it was the need of ethical harmony here, and not the +thought of personal profit hereafter, that prompted his observation. + +There are persons, not belonging to the highest intellectual zone, +nor yet to the lowest, to whom perfect clearness of exposition +suggests want of depth. They find comfort and edification in an +abstract and learned phraseology. To some such people Epicurus, who +spared no pains to rid his style of every trace of haze and +turbidity, appeared, on this very account, superficial. He had, +however, a disciple who thought it no unworthy occupation to spend +his days and nights in the effort to reach the clearness of his +master, and to whom the Greek philosopher is mainly indebted for the +extension and perpetuation of his fame. A century and a half after +the death of Epicurus, Lucretius[6] wrote his great poem, 'On the +Nature of Things,' in which he, a Roman, developed with extraordinary +ardour the philosophy of his Greek predecessor. He wishes to win +over his friend Memnius to the school of Epicurus; and although he +has no rewards in a future life to offer, although his object appears +to be a purely negative one, he addresses his friend with the heat of +an apostle. His object, like that of his great forerunner, is the +destruction of superstition; and considering that men trembled before +every natural event as a direct monition from the gods, and that +ever-lasting torture was also in prospect, the freedom aimed at by +Lucretius might perhaps be deemed a positive good. 'This terror,' he +says, 'and darkness of mind must be dispelled, not by the rays of the +sun and glittering shafts of day, but by the aspect and the law of +nature.' He refutes the notion that anything can come out of +nothing, or that that which is once begotten can be recalled to +nothing. The first beginnings, the atoms, are indestructible, and +into them all things can be resolved at last. Bodies are partly +atoms, and partly combinations of atoms; but the atoms nothing can +quench. They are strong in solid singleness, and by their denser +combination all things can be closely packed and exhibit enduring +strength. He denies that matter is infinitely divisible. We come at +length to the atoms, without which, as an imperishable substratum, +all order in the generation and development of things would be +destroyed. + +The mechanical shock of the atoms being in his view the +all-sufficient cause of things, he combats the notion that the +constitution of nature has been in any way determined by intelligent +design. The inter-action of the atoms throughout infinite time +rendered all manner of combinations possible. Of these the fit ones +persisted, while the unfit ones disappeared. Not after sage +deliberation did the atoms station themselves in their right places, +nor did they bargain what motions they should assume. From all +eternity they have been driven together, and after trying motions and +unions of every kind, they fell at length into the arrangements out +of which this system of things has been formed. 'If you will +apprehend and keep in mind these things, nature, free at once, and +rid of her haughty lords, is seen to do all things spontaneously of +herself, without the meddling of the gods.'[7] + +To meet the objection that his atoms cannot be seen, Lucretius +describes a violent storm, and shows that the invisible particles of +air act in the same way as the visible particles of water. We +perceive, moreover, the different smells of things, yet never see +them coming to our nostrils. Again, clothes hung up on a shore which +waves break upon become moist, and then get dry if spread out in the +sun, though no eye can see either the approach or the escape of the +water particles. A ring, worn long on the finger, becomes thinner; a +water-drop hollows out a stone; the ploughshare is rubbed away in the +field; the street pavement is worn by the feet; but the particles +that disappear at any moment we cannot see. Nature acts through +invisible particles. That Lucretius had a strong scientific +imagination the foregoing references prove. A fine illustration of +his power in this respect is his explanation of the apparent rest of +bodies whose atoms are in motion. He employs the image of a flock of +sheep with skipping lambs, which, seen from a distance, presents +simply a white patch upon the green hill, the jumping of the +individual lambs being quite invisible. + +His vaguely-grand conception of the atoms falling eternally through +space suggested the nebular hypothesis to Kant, its first propounder. +Far beyond the limits of our visible world are to be found atoms +innumerable, which have never been united to form bodies, or which, +if once united, have been again dispersed, falling silently through +immeasurable intervals of time and space. As everywhere throughout +the All the same conditions are repeated, so must the phenomena be +repeated also. Above us, below us, beside us, therefore, are worlds +without end; and this, when considered, must dissipate every thought +of a deflection of the universe by the gods. The worlds come and go, +attracting new atoms out of limitless space, or dispersing their own +particles. The reputed death of Lucretius, which forms the basis of +Mr. Tennyson's noble poem, is in strict accordance with his +philosophy, which was severe and pure. + + +During the centuries lying between the first of these three +philosophers and the last, the human intellect was active in other +fields than theirs. The sophists had run through their career. At +Athens had appeared Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who ruined the +sophists, and whose yoke remains to some extent unbroken to the +present hour. Within this period also the School of Alexandria was +founded, Euclid wrote his 'Elements,' and made some advance in +optics. Archimedes had propounded the theory of the lever and the +principles of hydrostatics. Pythagoras had made his experiments on +the harmonic intervals, while astronomy was immensely enriched by the +discoveries of Hipparchus, who was followed by the historically more +celebrated Ptolemy. Anatomy had been made the basis of Scientific +medicine; and it is said by Draper[8] that vivisection then began. +In fact, the science of ancient Greece had already cleared the world +of the fantastic images of divinities operating capriciously through +natural phenomena. It had shaken itself free from that fruitless +scrutiny 'by the internal light of the mind alone,' which had vainly +sought to transcend experience and reach a knowledge of ultimate +causes. Instead of accidental observation, it had introduced +observation with a purpose; instruments were employed to aid the +senses; and scientific method was rendered in a great measure +complete by the union of Induction and Experiment. + +What, then, stopped its victorious advance? Why was the scientific +intellect compelled, like an exhausted soil, to lie fallow for nearly +two millenniums before it could regather the elements necessary to +its fertility and strength? Bacon has already let us know one cause; +Whewell ascribes this stationary period to four causes--obscurity of +thought, servility, intolerance of disposition, enthusiasm of +temper--and he gives striking examples of each.[9] But these +characteristics must have had their antecedents in the circumstances +of the time. Rome and the other cities of the Empire had fallen into +moral putrefaction. Christianity had appeared, offering the gospel +to the poor, and, by moderation if not asceticism of life, +practically protesting against the profligacy of the age. The +sufferings of the early Christians, and the extraordinary exaltation +of mind which enabled them to triumph over the diabolical tortures to +which they were subjected,[10] must have left traces not easily +effaced. They scorned the earth, in view of that 'building of God, +that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.' The +Scriptures which ministered to their spiritual needs were also the +measure of their Science. When, for example, the celebrated question +of antipodes came to be discussed, the Bible was with many the +ultimate court of appeal. Augustin, who flourished A.D. 400, would +not deny the rotundity of the earth; but he would deny the possible +existence of inhabitants at the other side, 'because no such race is +recorded in Scripture among the descendants of Adam.' Archbishop +Boniface was shocked at the assumption of a 'world of human beings +out of the reach of the means of salvation.' Thus reined in, Science +was not likely to make much progress. Later on the political and +theological strife between the Church and civil governments, so +powerfully depicted by Draper, must have done much to stifle +investigation. + +Whewell makes many wise and brave remarks regarding the spirit of the +Middle Ages. It was a menial spirit. The seekers after natural +knowledge had forsaken that fountain of living waters, the direct +appeal to nature by observation and experiment, and had given +themselves up to the remanipulation of the notions of their +predecessors. It was a time when thought had become abject, and when +the acceptance of mere authority led, as it always does in science, +to intellectual death. Natural events, instead of being traced to +physical, were referred to moral causes; while an exercise of the +phantasy, almost as degrading as the spiritualism of the present day, +took the place of scientific speculation. Then came the mysticism of +the Middle Ages, Magic, Alchemy, the Neo-platonic philosophy, with +its visionary though sublime abstractions, which caused men to look +with shame upon their own bodies as hindrances to the absorption of +the creature in the blessedness of the Creator. Finally came the +Scholastic philosophy, a fusion, according to Lange, of the +least-mature notions of Aristotle with the Christianity of the West. +Intellectual immobility was the result. As a traveller without a +compass in a fog may wander long, imagining he is making way, and +find himself after hours of toil at his starting-point, so the +schoolmen, having 'tied and untied the same knots and formed and +dissipated the same clouds,' found themselves at the end of centuries +in their old position. + +With regard to the influence wielded by Aristotle in the Middle Ages, +and which, though to a less extent, he still wields, I would ask +permission to make one remark. When the human mind has achieved +greatness and given evidence of extraordinary power in any domain, +there is a tendency to credit it with similar power in all other +domains. Thus theologians have found comfort and assurance in the +thought that Newton dealt with the question of revelation, forgetful +of the fact that the very devotion of his powers, through all the +best years of his life, to a totally different class of ideas, not to +speak of any natural disqualification, tended to render him less +instead of more competent to deal with theological and historic +questions. Goethe, starting from his established greatness as a +poet, and indeed from his positive discoveries in Natural History, +produced a profound impression among the painters of Germany when he +published his 'Farbenlehre,' in which he endeavoured to overthrow +Newton's theory of colours. This theory he deemed so obviously +absurd that he considered its author a charlatan, and attacked him +with a corresponding vehemence of language. In the domain of Natural +History Goethe had made really considerable discoveries; and we have +high authority for assuming that, had he devoted himself wholly to +that side of science, he might have reached in it an eminence +comparable with that which he attained as a poet. In sharpness of +observation, in the detection of analogies, however apparently +remote, in the classification and organization of facts according to +the analogies discerned, Goethe possessed extraordinary powers. +These elements of scientific inquiry fall in with the discipline of +the poet. But, on the other hand, a mind thus richly endowed in the +direction of natural history may be almost shorn of endowment as +regards the more strictly called physical and mechanical sciences. +Goethe was in this condition. He could not formulate distinct +mechanical conceptions; he could not see the force of mechanical +reasoning; and in regions where such reasoning reigns supreme he +became a mere _ignis fatuus_ to those who followed him. + +I have sometimes permitted myself to compare Aristotle with Goethe, +to credit the Stagirite with an almost superhuman power of amassing +and systematizing facts, but to consider him fatally defective on +that side of the mind in respect to which incompleteness has been +just ascribed to Goethe. Whewell refers the errors of Aristotle, not +to a neglect of facts, but to 'a neglect of the idea appropriate to +the facts; the idea of Mechanical cause, which is Force, and the +substitution of vague or inapplicable notions, involving only +relations of space or emotions of wonder.' This is doubtless true; +but the word 'neglect' implies mere intellectual misdirection, +whereas in Aristotle, as in Goethe, it was not, I believe, +misdirection, but sheer natural incapacity which lay at the root of +his mistakes. As a physicist, Aristotle displayed what we should +consider some of the worst attributes of a modern physical +investigator--indistinctness of ideas, confusion of mind, and a +confident use of language, which led to the delusive notion that he +had really mastered his subject, while he had as yet failed to grasp +even the elements of it. He put words in the place of things, +subject in the place of object. He preached Induction without +practising it, inverting the true order of inquiry by passing from +the general to the particular, instead of from the particular to the +general. He made of the universe a closed sphere, in the centre of +which he fixed the earth, proving from general principles, to his own +satisfaction and to that of the world for near 2,000 years, that no +other universe was possible. His notions of motion were entirely +unphysical. It was natural or unnatural, better or worse, calm or +violent--no real mechanical conception regarding it lying at the +bottom of his mind. He affirmed that a vacuum could not exist, and +proved that if it did exist motion in it would be impossible. He +determined _à priori_ how many species of animals must exist, and +shows on general principles why animals must have such and such +parts. When an eminent contemporary philosopher, who is far removed +from errors of this kind, remembers these abuses of the _à priori_ +method, he will be able to make allowance for the jealousy of +physicists as to the acceptance of so-called _à priori_ truths. +Aristotle's errors of detail, as shown by Eucken and Lange, were +grave and numerous. He affirmed that only in man we had the beating +of the heart, that the left side of the body was colder than the +right, that men have more teeth than women, and that there is an +empty space at the back of every man's head. + +There is one essential quality in physical conceptions which was +entirely wanting in those of Aristotle and his followers. I wish it +could be expressed by a word untainted by its associations; it +signifies a capability of being placed as a coherent picture before +the mind. The Germans express the act of picturing by the word +_vorstellen_, and the picture they call a _Vorstellung_. We have no +word in English which comes nearer to our requirements than +_Imagination_, and, taken with its proper limitations, the word +answers very well; but, as just intimated, it is tainted by its +associations, and therefore objectionable to some minds. Compare, +with reference to this capacity of mental presentation, the case of +the Aristotelian who refers the ascent of water in a pump to Nature's +abhorrence of a vacuum, with that of Pascal when he proposed to solve +the question of atmospheric pressure by the ascent of the Puy de +Dome. In the one case the terms of the explanation refuse to fall +into place as a physical image; in the other the image is distinct, +the fall and rise of the barometer being clearly figured as the +balancing of two varying and opposing pressures. + +During the drought of the Middle Ages in Christendom, the Arabian +intellect, as forcibly shown by Draper, was active. With the +intrusion of the Moors into Spain, he says, order, learning, and +refinement took the place of their opposites. When smitten with +disease, the Christian peasant resorted to a shrine, the Moorish one +to an instructed physician. The Arabs encouraged translations from +the Greek philosophers, but not from the Greek poets. They turned in +disgust 'from the lewdness of our classical mythology, and denounced +as an unpardonable blasphemy all connexion between the impure +Olympian Jove and the Most High God.' Draper traces still further +than Whewell the Arab elements in our scientific terms, and points +out that the under garment of ladies retains to this hour its Arab +name. He gives examples of what Arabian men of science accomplished, +dwelling particularly on Alhazen, who was the first to correct the +Platonic notion that rays of light are emitted by the eye. He +discovered atmospheric refraction, and points out that we see the sun +and the moon after they have set. He explains the enlargement of the +sun and moon, and the shortening of the vertical diameters of both +these bodies, when near the horizon. He is aware that the atmosphere +decreases in density with increase of elevation, and actually fixes +its height at 58½ miles. In the Book of the Balance Wisdom, he sets +forth the connexion between the weight of the atmosphere and its +increasing density. He shows that a body will weigh differently in a +rare and dense atmosphere: he considers the force with which plunged +bodies rise through heavier media. He understands the doctrine of +the centre of gravity, and applies it to the investigation of +balances and steelyards. He recognises gravity as a force, though he +falls into the error of making it diminish simply as the distance +increased, and of making it purely terrestrial. He knows the +relation between the velocities, spaces, and times of falling bodies, +and has distinct ideas of capillary attraction. He improved the +hydrometer. The determination of the densities of bodies as given by +Alhazen approach very closely to our own. 'I join,' says Draper, in +the pious prayer of Alhazen, 'that in the day of judgment the +All-Merciful will take pity on the soul of Abur-Raihân, because he +was the first of the race of men to construct a table of specific +gravities.' If all this be historic truth (and I have entire +confidence in Dr. Draper), well may he 'deplore the systematic manner +in which the literature of Europe has contrived to put out of sight +our scientific obligations to the Mahommedans.'[11] + +The strain upon the mind during the stationary period towards +ultra-terrestrial things, to the neglect of problems close at hand, +was sure to provoke reaction. But the reaction was gradual; for the +ground was dangerous, a power being at hand competent to crush the +critic who went too far. To elude this power and still allow +opportunity for the expression of opinion, the doctrine of 'twofold +truth' was invented, according to which an opinion might be held; +'theologically' and the opposite opinion 'philosophically.'[12] Thus +in the thirteenth century the creation of the world in six days, and +the unchangeableness of the individual soul which had been so +distinctly affirmed by St. Thomas Aquinas, were both denied +philosophically, but admitted to be true as articles of the Catholic +faith. When Protagoras uttered the maxim which brought upon him so +much vituperation, that' opposite assertions are equally true,' he +simply meant that human beings differed so much from each other that +what was subjectively true to the one might be subjectively untrue to +the other. The great Sophist never meant to play fast and loose with +the truth by saying that one of two opposite assertions, made by the +same individual, could possibly escape being a lie. It was not +'sophistry,' but the dread of theologic vengeance that generated this +double dealing with conviction; and it is astonishing to notice what +lengths were possible to men who were adroit in the use of artifices +of this kind. + +Towards the close of the stationary period a word-weariness, if I may +so express it, took more and more possession of men's minds. +Christendom had become sick of the School philosophy and its verbal +wastes, which led to no issue, but left the intellect in everlasting +haze. Here and there was heard the voice of one impatiently crying +in the wilderness, 'Not unto Aristotle, not unto subtle hypothesis, +not unto church, Bible, or blind tradition, must we turn for a +knowledge of the universe, but to the direct investigation of Nature +by observation and experiment.' In 1543 the epoch-making work of +Copernicus on the paths of the heavenly bodies appeared. The total +crash of Aristotle's closed universe with the earth at its centre +followed as a consequence, and 'the earth moves!' became a kind of +watchword among intellectual freemen. Copernicus was Canon of the +Church of Frauenburg, in the diocese of Ermeland. For +three-and-thirty years he had withdrawn himself from the world and +devoted himself to the consolidation of his great scheme of the solar +system. He made its blocks eternal; and even to those who feared it +and desired its overthrow it was so obviously strong that they +refrained for a time from meddling with it. In the last year of the +life of Copernicus his book appeared: it is said that the old man +received a copy of it a few days before his death, and then departed +in peace. + +The Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was one of the earliest +converts to the new astronomy. Taking Lucretius as his exemplar, he +revived the notion of the infinity of worlds; and, combining with it +the doctrine of Copernicus, reached the sublime generalization that +the fixed stars are suns, scattered numberless through space and +accompanied by satellites, which bear the same relation to them, that +our earth does to our sun, or our moon to our earth. This was an +expansion of transcendent import; but Bruno came closer than this to +our present line of thought. Struck with the problem of the +generation and maintenance of organisms, and duly pondering it, he +came to the conclusion that Nature in her productions does not +imitate the technic of man. Her process is one of unravelling and +unfolding. The infinity of forms under which matter appears were not +imposed upon it by an external artificer; by its own intrinsic force +and virtue it brings these forms forth. Matter is not the mere +naked, empty capacity which philosophers have pictured her to be, but +the universal mother who brings forth all things as the fruit of her +own womb. + +This outspoken man was originally a Dominican monk. He was accused +of heresy and had to fly, seeking refuge in Geneva, Paris, England, +and Germany. In 1592 he fell into the hands of the Inquisition at +Venice. He was imprisoned for many years, tried, degraded, +excommunicated, and handed over to the civil power, with the request +that he should be treated gently and 'without the shedding of blood.' +This meant that he was to be burnt; and burnt accordingly he was, on +the 16th of February, 1600. To escape a similar fate Galileo, +thirty-three years afterwards, abjured, upon his knees, and with his +hand upon the holy gospels, the heliocentric doctrine which he knew +to be true. After Galileo came Kepler, who from his German home +defied the power beyond the Alps. He traced out from pre-existing +observations the laws of planetary motion. Materials were thus +prepared for Newton, who bound those empirical laws together by the +principle of gravitation. + +In the seventeenth century Bacon and Descartes, the restorers of +philosophy, appeared in succession. Differently educated and +endowed, their philosophic tendencies were different. Bacon held +fast to Induction, believing firmly in the existence of an external +world, and making collected experiences the basis of all knowledge. +The mathematical studies of Descartes gave him a bias towards +Deduction; and his fundamental principle was much the same as that of +Protagoras, who made the individual man the measure of all things. +'I think, therefore I am,' said Descartes. Only his own identity was +sure to him; and the development of this system would have led to an +idealism in which the outer world would be resolved into a mere +phenomenon of consciousness. Gassendi, one of Descartes's +contemporaries, of whom we shall hear more presently, quickly pointed +out that the fact of personal existence would be proved as well by +reference to any other act as to the act of thinking. I eat, +therefore I am; or I love, therefore I am, would be quite as +conclusive. Lichtenberg showed that the very thing to be proved was +inevitably postulated in the first two words, 'I think;' and that no +inference from the postulate could by any possibility be stronger +than the postulate itself. + +But Descartes deviated strangely from the idealism implied in his +fundamental principle. He was the first to reduce, in a manner +eminently capable of bearing the test of mental presentation, vital +phenomena to purely mechanical principles. Through fear or love, +Descartes was a good churchman; he accordingly rejects the notion of +an atom, because it was absurd to suppose that God, if he so pleased, +could not divide an atom; he puts in the place of the atoms small +round particles and light splinters, out of which he builds the +organism. He sketches with marvellous physical insight a machine, +with water for its motive power, which shall illustrate vital +actions. He has made clear to his mind that such a machine would be +competent to carry on the processes of digestion, nutrition, growth, +respiration, and the beating of the heart. It would be competent to +accept impressions from the external sense, to store them up in +imagination and memory, to go through the internal movements of the +appetites and passions, the external movement of limbs. He deduces +these functions of his machine from the mere arrangement of its +organs, as the movement of a clock or other automaton is deduced from +its weights and wheels. 'As far as these functions are concerned,' +he says, 'it is not necessary to conceive any other vegetative or +sensitive soul, nor any other principle of motion or of life, than +the blood and the spirits agitated by the fire which burns +continually in the heart, and which is in no wise different from the +fires which exist in inanimate bodies.' Had Descartes been +acquainted with the steam-engine, he would have taken it, instead of +a fall of water, as his motive power, and shown the perfect analogy +which exists between the oxidation of the food in the body and that +of the coal in the furnace. He would assuredly have anticipated +Mayer in calling the blood which the heart diffuses 'the oil of the +lamp of life;' deducing all animal motions from the combustion of +this oil, as the motions of a steam-engine are deduced from the +combustion of its coal. As the matter stands, however, and +considering the circumstances of the time, the boldness, clearness, +and precision with which he grasped the problem of vital dynamics +constitute a marvellous illustration of intellectual power.[13] + +During the Middle Ages the doctrine of atoms had to all appearance +vanished from discussion. In all probability it held its ground +among sober-minded and thoughtful men, though neither the church nor +the world was prepared to hear of it with tolerance. Once, in the +year 1348, it received distinct expression. But retractation by +compulsion immediately followed, and, thus discouraged, it slumbered +till the seventeenth century, when it was revived by a contemporary +and friend of Hobbes and Malmesbury, the orthodox Catholic provost of +Digne, Gassendi. But before stating his relation to the Epicurean +doctrine, it will be well to say a few words on the effect, as +regards science, of the general introduction of monotheism among +European nations. + +'Were men,' says Hume, 'led into the apprehension of invisible +intelligent power by 'contemplation of the works of Nature, they +could never possibly entertain any conception but of one single +being, who bestowed existence and order on this vast machine, and +adjusted all its parts to one regular system.' Referring to the +condition of the heathen, who sees a god behind every natural event, +thus peopling the world with thousands of beings whose caprices are +incalculable, Lange shows the impossibility of any compromise between +such notions and those of science, which proceeds on the assumption +of never-changing law and causality. 'But,' he continues, with +characteristic penetration, 'when the great thought of one God, +acting as a unit upon the universe, has been seized, the connexion of +things in accordance with the law of cause and effect is not only +thinkable, but it is a necessary consequence of the assumption. For +when I see ten thousand wheels in motion, and know, or believe, that +they are all driven by one, then I know that I have before me a +mechanism the action of every part of which is determined by the plan +of the whole. So much being assumed, it follows that I may +investigate the structure of that machine, and the various motions of +its parts. For the time being, therefore, this conception renders +scientific action free.' In other words, were a capricious God at +the circumference of every wheel and at the end of every lever, the +action of the machine would be incalculable by the methods of +science. But the action of all its parts being rigidly determined by +their connexions and relations, and these being brought into play by +a single self-acting driving wheel, then, though this last prime +mover may elude me, I am still able to comprehend the machinery which +it sets in motion. We have here a conception of the relation of +Nature to its Author which seems perfectly acceptable to some minds, +but perfectly intolerable to others. Newton and Boyle lived and +worked happily under the influence of this conception; Goethe +rejected it with vehemence, and the same repugnance to accepting it +is manifest in Carlyle.[14] + +The analytic and synthetic tendencies of the human mind exhibit +themselves throughout history, great writers ranging themselves +sometimes on the one side, sometimes on the other. Men of warm +feelings and minds open to the elevating impressions produced by +Nature as a whole, whose satisfaction, therefore, is rather ethical +than logical, lean to the synthetic side; while the analytic +harmonizes best with the more precise and more mechanical bias which +seeks the satisfaction of the understanding. Some form of pantheism +was usually adopted by the one, while a detached Creator, working +more or less after the manner of men, was often assumed by the other. +Gassendi is hardly to be ranked with either. Having formally +acknowledged God as the great first cause, he immediately dropped the +idea, applied the known laws of mechanics to the atoms, deducing +thence all vital phenomena. He defended Epicurus, and dwelt upon his +purity, both of doctrine and of life. True he was a heathen, but so +was Aristotle. He assailed superstition and religion, and rightly, +because he did not know the true religion. He thought that the gods +neither rewarded nor punished, and adored them purely in consequence +of their completeness; here we see, says Gassendi, the reverence of +the child instead of the fear of the slave. The errors of Epicurus +shall be corrected, the body of his truth retained; and then Gassendi +proceeds, as any heathen might do, to build up the world, and all +that therein is, of atoms and molecules. God, who created earth and +water, plants and animals, produced in the first place a definite +number of atoms, which constituted the seed of all things. Then +began that series of combinations and decompositions which goes on at +present, and which will continue in future. The principle of every +change resides in matter. In artificial productions the moving +principle is different from the material worked upon; but in Nature +the agent works within, being the most active and mobile part of the +material itself. Thus, this bold ecclesiastic, without incurring the +censure of the church or the world, contrives to outstrip Mr. Darwin. +The same cast of mind which caused him to detach the Creator from his +universe led him also to detach the soul from the body, though to the +body he ascribes an influence so large as to render the soul almost +unnecessary. The aberrations of reason were in his view an affair of +the material brain. Mental disease is brain disease; but then the +immortal reason sits apart, and cannot be touched by the disease. +The errors of madness are errors of the instrument, not of the +performer. + +It may be more than a mere result of education, connecting itself +probably with the deeper mental structure of the two men, that the +idea of Gassendi above enunciated is substantially the same as that +expressed by Professor Clerk Maxwell at the close of the very able +lecture delivered by him at Bradford last year. According to both +philosophers, the atoms, if I understand aright, are the prepared +materials which, formed by the skill of the highest, produce by their +subsequent inter-action all the phenomena of the material world. +There seems to be this difference, however, between Gassendi and +Maxwell. The one _postulates_, the other _infers_ his first cause. +In his 'manufactured articles,' as he calls the atoms, Professor +Maxwell finds the basis of an induction which enables him to scale +philosophic heights considered inaccessible by Kant, and to take the +logical step from the atoms to their Maker. + +Accepting here the leadership of Kant, I doubt the legitimacy of +Maxwell's logic; but it is impossible not to feel the ethic glow with +which his lecture concludes. There is, moreover, a very noble strain +of eloquence in his description of the steadfastness of the +atoms:--'Natural causes, as we know, are at work, which tend to +modify, if they do not at length destroy, all the arrangements and +dimensions of the earth and the whole solar system. But though in +the course of ages catastrophes have occurred and may yet occur in +the heavens, though ancient systems may be dissolved and new systems +evolved out of their ruins, the molecules out of which these systems +are built--the foundation stones of the material universe--remain +unbroken and unworn.' + +The atomic doctrine, in whole or in part, was entertained by Bacon, +Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Newton, Boyle, and their successors, until +the chemical law of multiple proportions enabled Dalton to confer +upon it an entirely new significance. In our day there are +secessions from the theory, but it still stands firm. Loschmidt, +Stoney, and Sir William Thomson have sought to determine the sizes of +the atoms, or rather to fix the limits between which their sizes lie; +while only last year the discourses of Williamson and Maxwell +illustrate the present hold of the doctrine upon the foremost +scientific minds. In fact, it may be doubted whether, wanting this +fundamental conception, a theory of the material universe is capable +of scientific statement. + + +Ninety years subsequent to Gassendi the doctrine of bodily +instruments, as it may be called, assumed immense importance in the +hands of Bishop Butler, who, in his famous 'Analogy of Religion,' +developed, from his own point of view, and with consummate sagacity, +a similar idea. The Bishop still influences superior minds; and it +will repay us to dwell for a moment on his views. He draws the +sharpest distinction between our real selves and our bodily +instruments. He does not, as far as I remember, use the word soul, +possibly because the term was so hackneyed in his day as it had been +for many generations previously. But he speaks of 'living powers,' +'perceiving' or 'percipient powers,' 'moving agents,' 'ourselves,' in +the same sense as we should employ the term soul. He dwells upon the +fact that limbs may be removed, and mortal diseases assail the body, +the mind, almost up to the moment of death, remaining clear. He +refers to sleep and to swoon, where the 'living powers' are suspended +but not destroyed. He considers it quite as easy to conceive of +existence out of our bodies as in them: that we may animate a +succession of bodies, the dissolution of all of them having no more +tendency to dissolve our real selves, or 'deprive us of living +faculties--the faculties of perception and action--than the +dissolution of any foreign matter which we are capable of receiving +impressions from, or making use of for the common occasions of life.' +This is the key of the Bishop's position; 'our organized bodies are +no more a part of ourselves than any other matter around us.' In +proof of this he calls attention to the use of glasses, which +'prepare objects' for the 'percipient power' exactly as the eye does. +The eye itself is no more percipient than the glass; is quite as much +the instrument of the true self, and also as foreign to the true +self, as the glass is. 'And if we see with our eyes only in the same +manner as we do with glasses, the like may justly be concluded from +analogy of all our senses.' + +Lucretius, as you are aware, reached a precisely opposite conclusion; +and it certainly would be interesting, if not profitable, to us all, +to hear what he would or could urge in opposition to the reasoning of +the Bishop. As a brief discussion of the point will enable us to see +the bearings of an important question, I will here permit a disciple +of Lucretius to try the strength of the Bishop's position, and then +allow the Bishop to retaliate, with the view of rolling back, if he +can, the difficulty upon Lucretius. + +The argument might proceed in this fashion:-- + +'Subjected to the test of mental presentation (_Vorstellung_), your +views, most honoured prelate, would present to many minds a great, if +not an insuperable difficulty. You speak of "living powers," +"percipient or perceiving powers," and "ourselves;" but can you form +a mental picture of any one of these apart from the organism through +which it is supposed to act? Test yourself honestly, and see whether +you possess any faculty that would enable you to form such a +conception. The true self has a local habitation in each of us; thus +localized, must it not possess a form? If so, what form? Have you +ever for a moment realized it? When a leg is amputated the body is +divided into two parts; is the true self in both of them or in one? +Thomas Aquinas might say in both; but not you, for you appeal to the +consciousness associated with one of the two parts to prove that the +other is foreign matter. Is consciousness, then, a necessary element +of the true self? If so, what do you say to the case of the whole +body being deprived of consciousness? If not, then on what grounds +do you deny any portion of the true self to the severed limb? It +seems very singular that, from the beginning to the end of your +admirable book (and no one admires its sober strength more than I +do), you never once mention the brain or nervous system. You begin +at one end of the body, and show that its parts may be removed +without prejudice to the perceiving power. What if you begin at the +other end, and remove, instead of the leg, the brain? The body, as +before, is divided into two parts; but both are now in the same +predicament, and neither can be appealed to to prove that the other +is foreign matter. Or, instead of going so far as to remove the +brain itself, let a certain portion of its bony covering be removed, +and let a rhythmic series of pressures and relaxations of pressure be +applied to the soft substance. At every pressure "the faculties of +perception and of action" vanish; at every relaxation of pressure +they are restored. Where, during the intervals of pressure, is the +perceiving power? I once had the discharge of a large Leyden battery +passed unexpectedly through me: I felt nothing, but was simply +blotted out of conscious existence for a sensible interval. Where +was my true self during that interval? Men who have recovered from +lightning-stroke have been much longer in the same state; and indeed +in cases of ordinary concussion of the brain, days may elapse during +which no experience is registered in consciousness. Where is the man +himself during the period of insensibility? You may say that I beg +the question when I assume the man to have been unconscious, that he +was really conscious all the time, and has simply forgotten what had +occurred to him. In reply to this, I can only say that no one need +shrink from the worst tortures that superstition ever invented if +only so felt and so remembered. I do not think your theory of +instruments goes at all to the bottom of the matter. A +telegraph-operator has his instruments, by means of which he +converses with the world; our bodies possess a nervous system, which +plays a similar part between the perceiving power and external +things. Cut the wires of the operator, break his battery, +demagnetize his needle: by this means you certainly sever his +connexion with the world; but inasmuch as these are real instruments, +their destruction does not touch the man who uses them. The operator +survives, _and he knows that he survives_. What is it, I would ask, +in the human system that answers to this conscious survival of the +operator when the battery of the brain is so disturbed as to produce +insensibility, or when it is destroyed altogether? + +'Another consideration, which you may consider slight, presses upon +me with some force. The brain may change from health to disease, and +through such a change the most exemplary man may be converted into a +debauchee or a murderer. My very noble and approved good master had, +as you know, threatenings of lewdness introduced into his brain by +his jealous wife's philter; and sooner than permit himself to run +even the risk of yielding to these base promptings he slew himself. +How could the hand of Lucretius have been thus turned against himself +if the real Lucretius remained as before? Can the brain or can it +not act in this distempered way without the intervention of the +immortal reason? If it can, then it is a prime mover which requires +only healthy regulation to render it reasonably self-acting, and +there is no apparent need of your immortal reason at all. If it +cannot, then the immortal reason, by its mischievous activity in +operating upon a broken instrument, must have the credit of +committing every imaginable extravagance and crime. I think, if you +will allow me to say so, that the gravest consequences are likely to +flow from your estimate of the body. To regard the brain as you +would a staff or an eyeglass--to shut your eyes to all its mystery, +to the perfect correlation of its condition and our consciousness, to +the fact that a slight excess or defect of blood in it produces the +very swoon to which you refer, and that in relation to it our meat +and drink and air and exercise have a perfectly transcendental value +and significance--to forget all this does, I think, open a way to +innumerable errors in our habits of life, and may possibly in some +cases initiate and foster that very disease, and consequent mental +ruin, which a wiser appreciation of this mysterious organ would have +avoided.' + +I can imagine the Bishop thoughtful after hearing this argument. He +was not the man to allow anger to mingle with the consideration of a +point of this kind. After due reflection, and having strengthened +himself by that honest contemplation of the facts which was habitual +with him, and which includes the desire to give even adverse facts +their due weight, I can suppose the Bishop to proceed thus:--'You +will remember that in the "Analogy of Religion," of which you have so +kindly spoken, I did not profess to prove anything absolutely, and +that I over and over again acknowledged and insisted on the smallness +of our knowledge, or rather the depth of our ignorance, as regards +the whole system of the universe. My object was to show my deistical +friends, who set forth so eloquently the beauty and beneficence of +Nature and the Ruler thereof, while they had nothing but scorn for +the so-called absurdities of the Christian scheme, that they were in +no better condition than we were, and that, for every difficulty +found upon our side, quite as great a difficulty was to be found upon +theirs. I will now, with your permission, adopt a similar line of +argument. You are a Lucretian, and from the combination and +separation of insensate atoms deduce all terrestrial things, +including organic forms and their phenomena. Let me tell you, in the +first instance, how far I am prepared to go with you. I admit that +you can build crystalline forms out of this play of molecular force; +that the diamond, amethyst, and snow-star are truly wonderful +structures which are thus produced. I will go further and +acknowledge that even a tree or flower might in this way be +organized. Nay, if you can show me an animal without sensation, I +will concede to you that it also might be put together by the +suitable play of molecular force. + +'Thus far our way is clear; but now comes my difficulty. Your atoms +are individually without sensation, much more are they without +intelligence. May I ask you, then, to try your hand upon this +problem? Take your dead hydrogen atoms, your dead oxygen atoms, your +dead carbon atoms, your dead nitrogen atoms, your dead phosphorus +atoms, and all the other atoms, dead as grains of shot, of which the +brain is formed. Imagine them separate and sensationless, observe +them running together and forming all imaginable combinations. This, +as a purely mechanical process, is seeable by the mind. But can you +see, or dream, or in any way imagine, how out of that mechanical act, +and from these individually dead atoms, sensation, thought, and +emotion are to arise? Are you likely to extract Homer out of the +rattling of dice, or the Differential Calculus out of the clash of +billiard-balls? I am not all bereft of this Vorstellungs-Kraft of +which you speak, nor am I, like so many of my brethren, a mere vacuum +as regards scientific knowledge. I can follow a particle of musk +until it reaches the olfactory nerve; I can follow the waves of sound +until their tremors reach the water of the labyrinth and set the +otoliths and Corti's fibres in motion; I can also visualize the waves +of ether as they cross the eye and hit the retina. Nay more, I am +able to pursue to the central organ the motion thus imparted at the +periphery, and to see in idea the very molecules of the brain thrown +into tremors. My insight is not baffled by these physical processes. +What baffles and bewilders me, is the notion that from those physical +tremors things so utterly incongruous with them as sensation, +thought, and emotion can be derived. You may say, or think, that +this issue of consciousness from the clash of atoms is not more +incongruous than the flash of light from the union of oxygen and +hydrogen. But I beg to say that it is. For such incongruity as the +flash possesses is that which I now force upon your attention. The +flash is an affair of consciousness, the objective counterpart of +which is a vibration. It is a flash only by your interpretation. +You are the cause of the apparent incongruity, and you are the thing +that puzzles me. I need not remind you that the great Leibnitz felt +the difficulty which I feel, and that to get rid of this monstrous +deduction of life from death he displaced your atoms by his monads, +which were more or less perfect mirrors of the universe, and out of +the summation and integration of which he supposed all the phenomena +of life--sentient, intellectual, and emotional--to arise. + +'Your difficulty, then, as I see you are ready to admit, is quite as +great as mine. You cannot satisfy the human understanding in its +demand for logical continuity between molecular processes and the +phenomena of consciousness. This is a rock on which materialism must +inevitably split whenever it pretends to be a complete philosophy of +life. What is the moral, my Lucretian? You and I are not likely to +indulge in ill-temper in the discussion of these great topics, where +we see so much room for honest differences of opinion. But there are +people of less wit or more bigotry (I say it with humility) on both +sides, who are ever ready to mingle anger and vituperation with such +discussions. There are, for example, writers of note and influence +at the present day who are not ashamed to assume the "deep personal +sin" of a great logician to be the cause of his unbelief in a +theologic dogma. And there are others who hold that we, who cherish +our noble Bible, wrought as it has been into the constitution of our +forefathers, and by inheritance into us, must necessarily be +hypocritical and insincere. Let us disavow and discountenance such +people, cherishing the unswerving faith that what is good and true in +both our arguments will be preserved for the benefit of humanity, +while all that is bad or false will disappear.' + +I hold the Bishop's reasoning to be unanswerable, and his liberality +to be worthy of imitation. + +It is worth remarking that in one respect the Bishop was a product of +his age. Long previous to his day the nature of the soul had been so +favourite and general a topic of discussion, that, when the students +of the University of Paris wished to know the leanings of a new +Professor, they at once requested him to lecture upon the soul. +About the time of Bishop Butler the question was not only agitated +but extended. It was seen by the clear-witted men who entered this +arena that many of their best arguments applied equally to brutes and +men. The Bishop's arguments were of this character. He saw it, +admitted it, accepted the consequences, and boldly embraced the whole +animal world in his scheme of immortality. + +Bishop Butler accepted with unwavering trust the chronology of the +Old Testament, describing it as 'confirmed by the natural and civil +history of the world, collected from common historians, from the +state of the earth, and from the late inventions of arts and +sciences.' These words mark progress; and they must seem somewhat +hoary to the Bishop's successors of to-day.[15] It is hardly +necessary to inform you that since his time the domain of the +naturalist has been immensely extended--the whole science of geology, +with its astounding revelations regarding the life of the ancient +earth, having been created. The rigidity of old conceptions has been +relaxed, the public mind being rendered gradually tolerant of the +idea that not for six thousand, nor for sixty thousand, nor for six +thousand thousand thousand, but for æons embracing untold millions of +years, this earth has been the theatre of life and death. The riddle +of the rocks has been read by the geologist and palæontologist, from +subcambrian depths to the deposits thickening over the sea-bottoms of +to-day. And upon the leaves of that stone book are, as you know, +stamped the characters, plainer and surer than those formed by the +ink of history, which carry the mind back into abysses of past time +compared with which the periods which satisfied Bishop Butler cease +to have a visual angle. The lode of discovery once struck, those +petrified forms in which life was at one time active increased to +multitudes and demanded classification. They were grouped in genera, +species, and varieties, according to the degree of similarity +subsisting between them. Thus confusion was avoided, each object +being found in the pigeon-hole appropriated to it and to its fellows +of similar morphological or physiological character. The general +fact soon became evident that none but the simplest forms of life lie +lowest down, that as we climb higher among the super-imposed strata +more perfect forms appear. The change, however, from form to form +was not continuous, but by steps--some small, some great. 'A +section,' says Mr. Huxley, 'a hundred feet thick will exhibit at +different heights a dozen species of Ammonite, none of which passes +beyond its particular zone of limestone, or clay, into the zone below +it, or into that above it.' In the presence of such facts it was not +possible to avoid the question:--Have these forms, showing, though in +broken stages and with many irregularities, this unmistakable general +advance, been subjected to no continuous law of growth or variation? +Had our education been purely scientific, or had it been sufficiently +detached from influences which, however ennobling in another domain, +have always proved hindrances and delusions when introduced as +factors into the domain of physics, the scientific mind never could +have swerved from the search for a law of growth, or allowed itself +to accept the anthropomorphism which regarded each successive stratum +as a kind of mechanic's bench for the manufacture of new species out +of all relation to the old. + +Biassed, however, by their previous education, the great majority of +naturalists invoked a special creative act to account for the +appearance of each new group of organisms. Doubtless there were +numbers who were clear-headed enough to see that this was no +explanation at all, that in point of fact it was an attempt, by the +introduction of a greater difficulty, to account for a less. But +having nothing to offer in the way of explanation, they for the most +part held their peace. Still the thoughts of reflecting men +naturally and necessarily simmered round the question. De Maillet, a +contemporary of Newton, has been brought into notice by Professor +Huxley as one who 'had a notion of the modifiability of living +forms.' In my frequent conversations with him, the late Sir Benjamin +Brodie, a man of highly philosophic mind, often drew my attention to +the fact that, as early as 1794, Charles Darwin's grandfather was the +pioneer of Charles Darwin.[16] In 1801, and in subsequent years, the +celebrated Lamarck, who produced so profound an impression on the +public mind through the vigorous exposition of his views by the +author of the 'Vestiges of Creation,' endeavoured to show the +development of species out of changes of habit and external +condition. In 1813 Dr. Wells, the founder of our present theory of +Dew, read before the Royal Society a paper in which, to use the words +of Mr. Darwin, 'he distinctly recognises the principle of natural +selection; and this is the first recognition that has been +indicated.' The thoroughness and skill with which Wells pursued his +work, and the obvious independence of his character, rendered him +long ago a favourite with me; and it gave me the liveliest pleasure +to alight upon this additional testimony to his penetration. +Professor Grant, Mr. Patrick Matthew, Von Buch, the author of the +'Vestiges,' D'Halloy, and others,[17] by the enunciation of opinions +more or less clear and correct, showed that the question had been +fermenting long prior to the year 1858, when Mr. Darwin and Mr. +Wallace simultaneously but independently placed their closely +concurrent views upon the subject before the Linnean Society. + +These papers were followed in 1859 by the publication of the first +edition of 'The Origin of Species.' All great things come slowly to +the birth. Copernicus, as I informed you, pondered his great work +for thirty-three years. Newton for nearly twenty years kept the idea +of Gravitation before his mind; for twenty years also he dwelt upon +his discovery of Fluxions, and doubtless would have continued to make +it the object of his private thought had he not found that Leibnitz +was upon his track. Darwin for two and twenty years pondered the +problem of the origin of species, and doubtless he would have +continued to do so had he not found Wallace upon his track.[18] A +concentrated but full and powerful epitome of his labours was the +consequence. The book was by no means an easy one; and probably not +one in every score of those who then attacked it had read its pages +through, or were competent to grasp their significance if they had. +I do not say this merely to discredit them; for there were in those +days some really eminent scientific men, entirely raised above the +heat of popular prejudice, willing to accept any conclusion that +science had to offer, provided it was duly backed by fact and +argument, and who entirely mistook Mr. Darwin's views. In fact, the +work needed an expounder; and it found one in Mr. Huxley. I know +nothing more admirable in the way of scientific exposition than those +early articles of his on the origin of species. He swept the curve +of discussion through the really significant points of the subject, +enriched his exposition with profound original remarks and +reflections, often summing up in a single pithy sentence an argument +which a less compact mind would have spread over pages. But there is +one impression made by the book itself which no exposition of it, +however luminous, can convey; and that is the impression of the vast +amount of labour, both of observation and of thought, implied in its +production. Let us glance at its principles. + +It is conceded on all hands that what are called varieties are +continually produced. The rule is probably without exception. No +chick and no child is in all respects and particulars the counterpart +of its brother and sister; and in such differences we have 'variety' +incipient. No naturalist could tell how far this variation could be +carried; but the great mass of them held that never by any amount of +internal or external change, nor by the mixture of both, could the +offspring of the same progenitor so far deviate from each other as to +constitute different species. The function of the experimental +philosopher is to combine the conditions of nature and to produce her +results; and this was the method of Darwin.[19] He made himself +acquainted with what could, without any manner of doubt, be done in +the way of producing variation. He associated himself with +pigeon-fanciers--bought, begged, kept, and observed every breed that +he could obtain. Though derived from a common stock, the diversities +of these pigeons were such that 'a score of them might be chosen +which, if shown to an ornithologist, and he were told that they were +wild birds, would certainly be ranked by him as well-defined +species.' The simple principle which guides the pigeon-fancier, as +it does the cattle-breeder, is the selection of some variety that +strikes his fancy, and the propagation of this variety by +inheritance. With his eye still directed to the particular +appearance which he wishes to exaggerate, he selects it as it +reappears in successive broods, and thus adds increment to increment +until an astonishing amount of divergence from the parent type is +effected. The breeder in this case does not produce the elements of +the variation. He simply observes them, and by selection adds them +together until the required result has been obtained. 'No man,' says +Mr. Darwin, 'would ever try to make a fantail till he saw a pigeon +with a tail developed in some slight degree in an unusual manner, or +a pouter until he saw a pigeon with a crop of unusual size.' Thus +nature gives the hint, man acts upon it, and by the law of +inheritance exaggerates the deviation. + +Having thus satisfied himself by indubitable facts that the +organization of an animal or of a plant (for precisely the same +treatment applies to plants) is to some extent plastic, he passes +from variation under domestication to variation under nature. +Hitherto we have dealt with the adding together of small changes by +the conscious selection of man. Can Nature thus select? Mr. +Darwin's answer is, 'Assuredly she can.' The number of living things +produced is far in excess of the number that can be supported; hence +at some period or other of their lives there must be a struggle for +existence; and what is the infallible result? If one organism were a +perfect copy of the other in regard to strength, skill, and agility, +external conditions would decide. But this is not the case. Here we +have the fact of variety offering itself to nature, as in the former +instance it offered itself to man; and those varieties which are +least competent to cope with surrounding conditions will infallibly +give way to those that are most competent. To use a familiar +proverb, the weakest comes to the wall. But the triumphant fraction +again breeds to overproduction, transmitting the qualities which +secured its maintenance, but transmitting them in different degrees. +The struggle for food again supervenes, and those to whom the +favourable quality has been transmitted in excess will assuredly +triumph. It is easy to see that we have here the addition of +increments favourable to the individual still more rigorously carried +out than in the case of domestication; for not only are unfavourable +specimens not selected by nature, but they are destroyed. This is +what Mr. Darwin calls 'Natural Selection,' which 'acts by the +preservation and accumulation of small inherited modifications, each +profitable to the preserved being.' With this idea he +interpenetrates and leavens the vast store of facts that he and +others have collected. We cannot, without shutting our eyes through +fear or prejudice, fail to see that Darwin is here dealing, not with +imaginary, but with true causes; nor can we fail to discern what vast +modifications may be produced by natural selection in periods +sufficiently long. Each individual increment may resemble what +mathematicians call a 'differential' (a quantity indefinitely small); +but definite and great changes may obviously be produced by the +integration of these infinitesimal quantities through practically +infinite time. + +If Darwin, like Bruno, rejects the notion of creative power acting +after human fashion, it certainly is not because he is unacquainted +with the numberless exquisite adaptations on which this notion of a +supernatural artificer has been founded. His book is a repository of +the most startling facts of this description. Take the marvellous +observation which he cites from Dr. Crüger, where a bucket with an +aperture, serving as a spout, is formed in an orchid. Bees visit the +flower: in eager search of material for their combs they push each +other into the bucket, the drenched ones escaping from their +involuntary bath by the spout. Here they rub their backs against the +viscid stigma of the flower and obtain glue; then against the +pollen-masses, which are thus stuck to the back of the bee and +carried away. 'When the bee, so provided, flies to another flower, +or to the same flower a second time, and is pushed by its comrades +into the bucket, and then crawls out by the passage, the pollen-mass +upon its back necessarily comes first into contact with the viscid +stigma,' which takes up the pollen; and this is how that orchid is +fertilized. Or take this other case of the _Catasetum_. 'Bees visit +these flowers in order to gnaw the labellum; in doing this they +inevitably touch a long, tapering, sensitive projection. This, when +touched, transmits a sensation or vibration to a certain membrane, +which is instantly ruptured, setting free a spring, by which the +pollen-mass is shot forth like an arrow in the right direction, and +adheres by its viscid extremity to the back of the bee.' In this way +the fertilising pollen is spread abroad. + +It is the mind thus stored with the choicest materials of the +teleologist that rejects teleology, seeking to refer these wonders to +natural cases. They illustrate, according to him, the method of +nature, not the 'technic' of a man-like Artificer. The beauty of +flowers is due to natural selection. Those that distinguish +themselves by vividly contrasting colours from the surrounding green +leaves are most readily seen, most frequently visited by insects, +most often fertilized, and hence most favoured by natural selection. +Coloured berries also readily attract the attention of birds and +beasts, which feed upon them, spread their manured seeds abroad, thus +giving trees and shrubs possessing such berries a greater chance in +the struggle for existence. + +With profound analytic and synthetic skill, Mr. Darwin investigates +the cell-making instinct of the hive-bee. His method of dealing with +it is representative. He falls back from the more perfectly to the +less perfectly developed instinct--from the hive-bee to the humble +bee, which uses its own cocoon as a comb, and to classes of bees of +intermediate skill, endeavouring to show how the passage might be +gradually made from the lowest to the highest. The saving of wax is +the most important point in the economy of bees. Twelve to fifteen +pounds of dry sugar are said to be needed for the secretion of a +single pound of wax. The quantities of nectar necessary for the wax +must therefore be vast; and every improvement of constructive +instinct which results in the saving of wax is a direct profit to the +insect's life. The time that would otherwise be devoted to the +making of wax is now devoted to the gathering and storing of honey +for winter food. He passes from the humble bee with its rude cells, +through the Melipona with its more artistic cells, to the hive-bee +with its astonishing architecture. The bees place themselves at +equal distances apart upon the wax, sweep and excavate equal spheres +round the selected points. The spheres intersect, and the planes of +intersection are built up with thin laminæ. Hexagonal cells are thus +formed. This mode of treating such questions is, as I have said, +representative. He habitually retires from the more perfect and +complex to the less perfect and simple, and carries you with him +through stages of perfecting, adds increment to increment of +infinitesimal change, and in this way gradually breaks down your +reluctance to admit that the exquisite climax of the whole could be a +result of natural selection. + +Mr. Darwin shirks no difficulty; and, saturated as the subject was +with his own thought, he must have known better than his critics the +weakness as well as the strength of his theory. This of course would +be of little avail were his object a temporary dialectic victory +instead of the establishment of a truth which he means to be +ever-lasting. But he takes no pains to disguise the weakness he has +discerned; nay, he takes every pains to bring it into the strongest +light. His vast resources enable him to cope with objections started +by himself and others, so as to leave the final impression upon the +reader's mind that, if they be not completely answered, they +certainly are not fatal. Their negative force being thus destroyed, +you are free to be influenced by the vast positive mass of evidence +he is able to bring before you. This largeness of knowledge and +readiness of resource render Mr. Darwin the most terrible of +antagonists. Accomplished naturalists have levelled heavy and +sustained criticisms against him--not always with the view of fairly +weighing his theory, but with the express intention of exposing its +weak points only. This does not irritate him. He treats every +objection with a soberness and thoroughness which even Bishop Butler +might be proud to imitate, surrounding each fact with its appropriate +detail, placing it in its proper relations, and usually giving it a +significance which, as long as it was kept isolated, failed to +appear. This is done without a trace of ill-temper. He moves over +the subject with the passionless strength of a glacier; and the +grinding of the rocks is not always without a counterpart in the +logical pulverization of the objector. + +But though in handling this mighty theme all passion has been +stilled, there is an emotion of the intellect incident to the +discernment of new truth which often colours and warms the pages of +Mr. Darwin. His success has been great; and this implies not only +the solidity of his work, but the preparedness of the public mind for +such a revelation. On this head a remark of Agassiz impressed me +more than anything else. Sprung from a race of theologians, this +celebrated man combated to the last the theory of natural selection. +One of the many times I had the pleasure of meeting him in the United +States was at Mr. Winthrop's beautiful residence at Brookline, near +Boston. Rising from luncheon, we all halted as if by a common +impulse in front of a window, and continued there a discussion which +had been started at table. The maple was in its autumn glory; and +the exquisite beauty of the scene outside seemed, in my case, to +interpenetrate without disturbance the intellectual action. +Earnestly, almost sadly, Agassiz turned, and said to the gentlemen +standing round, 'I confess that I was not prepared to see this theory +received as it has been by the best intellects of our time. Its +success is greater than I could have thought possible.' + +In our day grand generalizations have been reached. The theory of +the origin of species is but one of them. Another, of still wider +grasp and more radical significance, is the doctrine of the +Conservation of Energy, the ultimate philosophical issues of which +are as yet but dimly seen--that doctrine which 'binds nature fast in +fate' to an extent not hitherto recognized, exacting from every +antecedent its equivalent consequent, from every consequent its +equivalent antecedent, and bringing vital as well as physical +phenomena under the dominion of that law of causal connexion which, +so far as the human understanding has yet pierced, asserts itself +everywhere in nature. Long in advance of all definite experiment +upon the subject, the constancy and indestructibility of matter had +been affirmed; and all subsequent experience justified the +affirmation. Later researches extended the attribute of +indestructibility to force. This idea, applied in the first instance +to inorganic, rapidly embraced organic nature. The vegetable world, +though drawing almost all its nutriment from invisible sources, was +proved incompetent to generate anew either matter or force. Its +matter is for the most part transmuted gas; its force transformed +solar force. The animal world was proved to be equally uncreative, +all its motive energies being referred to the combustion of its food. +The activity of each animal as a whole was proved to be the +transferred activity of its molecules. The muscles were shown to be +stores of mechanical force, potential until unlocked by the nerves, +and then resulting in muscular contractions. The speed at which +messages fly to and fro along the nerves was determined, and found to +be, not as had been previously supposed, equal to that of light or +electricity, but less than the speed of a flying eagle. + +This was the work of the physicist: then came the conquests of the +comparative anatomist and physiologist, revealing the structure of +every animal, and the function of every organ in the whole biological +series, from the lowest zoophyte up to man. The nervous system had +been made the object of profound and continued study, the wonderful +and, at bottom, entirely mysterious, controlling power which it +exercises over the whole organism, physical and mental, being +recognized more and more. Thought could not be kept back from a +subject so profoundly suggestive. Besides the physical life dealt +with by Mr. Darwin, there is a psychical life presenting similar +gradations, and asking equally for a solution. How are the different +grades and order of Mind to be accounted for? What is the principle +of growth of that mysterious power which on our planet culminates in +Reason? These are questions which, though not thrusting themselves +so forcibly upon the attention of the general public, had not only +occupied many reflecting minds, but had been formally broached by one +of them before the 'Origin of Species' appeared. + +With the mass of materials furnished by the physicist and +physiologist in his hands, Mr. Herbert Spencer, twenty years ago, +sought to graft upon this basis a system of psychology; and two years +ago a second and greatly amplified edition of his work appeared. +Those who have occupied themselves with the beautiful experiments of +Plateau will remember that when two spherules of olive-oil, suspended +in a mixture of alcohol and water of the same density as the oil, are +brought together, they do not immediately unite. Something like a +pellicle appears to be formed around the drops, the rupture of which +is immediately followed by the coalescence of the globules into one. +There are organisms whose vital actions are almost as purely physical +as that of these drops of oil. They come into contact and fuse +themselves thus together. From such organisms to others a shade +higher, and from these to others a shade higher still, and on through +an ever-ascending series, Mr. Spencer conducts his argument. There +are two obvious factors to be here taken into account--the creature +and the medium in which it lives, or, as it is often expressed, the +organism and its environment. Mr. Spencer's fundamental principle is +that between these two factors there is incessant interaction. The +organism is played upon by the environment, and is modified to meet +the requirements of the environment. Life he defines to be 'a +continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations.' + +In the lowest organisms we have a kind of tactual sense diffused over +the entire body; then, through impressions from without and their +corresponding adjustments, special portions of the surface become +more responsive to stimuli than others. The senses are nascent, the +basis of all of them being that simple tactual sense which the sage +Democritus recognised 2,300 years ago as their common progenitor. +The action of light, in the first instance, appears to be a mere +disturbance of the chemical processes in the animal organism, similar +to that which occurs in the leaves of plants. By degrees the action +becomes localized in a few pigment-cells, more sensitive to light +than the surrounding tissue. The eye is here incipient. At first it +is merely capable of revealing differences of light and shade +produced by bodies close at hand. Followed as the interception of +the light is in almost all cases by the contact of the closely +adjacent opaque body, sight in this condition becomes a kind of +'anticipatory touch.' The adjustment continues; a slight bulging out +of the epidermis over the pigment-granules supervenes. A lens is +incipient, and, through the operation of infinite adjustments, at +length reaches the perfection that it displays in the hawk and eagle. +So of the other senses; they are special differentiations of a tissue +which was originally vaguely sensitive all over. + +With the development of the senses the adjustments between the +organism and its environment gradually extend in _space_, a +multiplication of experiences and a corresponding modification of +conduct being the result. The adjustments also extend in _time_, +covering continually greater intervals. Along with this extension in +space and time the adjustments also increase in specialty and +complexity, passing through the various grades of brute life, and +prolonging themselves into the domain of reason. Very striking are +Mr. Spencer's remarks regarding the influence of the sense of touch +upon the development of intelligence. This is, so to say, the +mother-tongue of all the senses, into which they must be translated +to be of service to the organism. Hence its importance. The parrot +is the most intelligent of birds, and its tactual power is also +greatest. From this sense it gets knowledge unattainable by birds +which cannot employ their feet as hands. The elephant is the most +sagacious of quadrupeds--its tactual range and skill, and the +consequent multiplication of experiences, which it owes to its +wonderfully adaptable trunk, being the basis of its sagacity. Feline +animals, for a similar cause, are more sagacious than hoofed +animals--atonement being to some extent made, in the case of the +horse, by the possession of sensitive prehensile lips. In the +Primates the evolution of intellect and the evolution of tactual +appendages go hand in hand. In the most intelligent anthropoid apes +we find the tactual range and delicacy greatly augmented, new avenues +of knowledge being thus open to the animal. Man crowns the edifice +here, not only in virtue of his own manipulatory power, but through +the enormous extension of his range of experience, by the invention +of instruments of precision, which serve as supplemental senses and +supplemental limbs. The reciprocal action of these is finely +described and illustrated. That chastened intellectual emotion to +which I have referred in connexion with Mr. Darwin is not absent in +Mr. Spencer. His illustrations possess at times exceeding vividness +and force; and from his style on such occasions it is to be inferred +that the ganglia of this Apostle of the Understanding are sometimes +the seat of a nascent poetic thrill. + +It is a fact of supreme importance that actions the performance of +which at first requires even painful effort and deliberation may by +habit be rendered automatic. Witness the slow learning of its +letters by a child, and the subsequent facility of reading in a man, +when each group of letters which forms a word is instantly, and +without effort, fused to a single perception. Instance the +billiard-player, whose muscles of hand and eye, when he reaches the +perfection of his art, are unconsciously coördinated. Instance the +musician, who, by practice, is enabled to fuse a multitude of +arrangements, auditory, tactual, and muscular, into a process of +automatic manipulation. Combining such facts with the doctrine of +hereditary transmission, we reach a theory of Instinct. A chick, +after coming out of the egg, balances itself correctly, runs about, +picks up food, thus showing that it possesses a power of directing +its movements to definite ends. How did the chick learn this very +complex coördination of eye, muscles, and beak? It has not been +individually taught; its personal experience is _nil_; but it has the +benefit of ancestral experience. In its inherited organization are +registered all the powers which it displays at birth. So also as +regards the instinct of the hive-bee, already referred to. The +distance at which the insects stand apart when they sweep their +hemispheres and build their cells is 'organically remembered.' + +Man also carries with him the physical texture of his ancestry, as +well as the inherited intellect bound up with it. The defects of +intelligence during infancy and youth are probably less due to a lack +of individual experience than to the fact that in early life the +cerebral organization is still incomplete. The period necessary for +completion varies with the race and with the individual. As a round +shot outstrips a rifled one on quitting the muzzle of the gun, so the +lower race in childhood may outstrip the higher. But the higher +eventually overtakes the lower, and surpasses it in range. As +regards individuals, we do not always find the precocity of youth +prolonged to mental power in maturity; while the dulness of boyhood +is sometimes strikingly contrasted with the intellectual energy of +after years. Newton, when a boy, was weakly, and he showed no +particular aptitude at school; but in his eighteenth year he went to +Cambridge, and soon afterwards astonished his teachers by his power +of dealing with geometrical problems. During his quiet youth his +brain was slowly preparing itself to be the organ of those energies +which he subsequently displayed. + +By myriad blows (to use a Lucretian phrase) the image and +superscription of the external world are stamped as states of +consciousness upon the organism, the depth of the impression +depending upon the number of the blows. When two or more phenomena +occur in the environment invariably together, they are stamped to the +same depth or to the same relief, and indissolubly connected. And +here we come to the threshold of a great question. Seeing that he +could in no way rid himself of the consciousness of Space and Time, +Kant assumed them to be necessary 'forms of intuition,' the moulds +and shapes into which our intuitions are thrown, belonging to +ourselves solely and without objective existence. With unexpected +power and success Mr. Spencer brings the hereditary experience +theory, as he holds it, to bear upon this question. 'If there exist +certain external relations which are experienced by all organisms at +all instants of their waking lives--relations which are absolutely +constant and universal--there will be established answering internal +relations that are absolutely constant and universal. Such relations +we have in those of Space and Time. As the substratum of all other +relations of the Non-Ego, they must be responded to by conceptions +that are the substrata of all other relations in the Ego. Being the +constant and infinitely repeated elements of thought, they must +become the automatic elements of thought--the elements of thought +which it is impossible to get rid of--the "forms of intuition." + +Throughout this application and extension of the 'Law of Inseparable +Association,' Mr. Spencer stands upon his own ground, invoking, +instead of the experiences of the individual, the registered +experiences of the race. His overthrow of the restriction of +experience to the individual is, I think, complete. That restriction +ignores the power of organizing experience furnished at the outset to +each individual; it ignores the different degrees of this power +possessed by different races and by different individuals of the same +race. Were there not in the human brain a potency antecedent to all +experience, a dog or cat ought to be as capable of education as a +man. These predetermined internal relations are independent of the +experiences of the individual. The human brain is the 'organised +register of infinitely numerous experiences received during the +evolution of life, or rather during the evolution of that series of +organisms through which the human organism has been reached. The +effects of the most uniform and frequent of these experiences have +been successively bequeathed, principal and interest, and have slowly +mounted to that high intelligence which lies latent in the brain of +the infant. Thus it happens that the European inherits from twenty +to thirty cubic inches more of brain than the Papuan. Thus it +happens that faculties, as of music, which scarcely exist in some +inferior races, become congenital in superior ones. Thus it happens +that out of savages unable to count up to the number of their +fingers, and speaking a language containing only nouns and verbs, +arise at length our Newtons and Shakespeares.' + + +At the outset of this Address it was stated that physical theories +which lie beyond experience are derived by a process of abstraction +from experience. It is instructive to note from this point of view +the successive introduction of new conceptions. The idea of the +attraction of gravitation was preceded by the observation of the +attraction of iron by a magnet, and of light bodies by rubbed amber. +The polarity of magnetism and electricity appealed to the senses; and +thus became the substratum of the conception that atoms and molecules +are endowed with definite, attractive, and repellent poles, by the +play of which definite forms of crystalline architecture are +produced. Thus molecular force becomes _structural_. It required no +great boldness of thought to extend its play into organic nature, and +to recognize in molecular force the agency by which both plants and +animals are built up. In this way out of experience arise +conceptions which are wholly ultra-experiential. None of the +atomists of antiquity had any notion of this play of molecular polar +force, but they had experience of gravity as manifested by falling +bodies. Abstracting from this, they permitted their atoms to fall +eternally through empty space. Democritus assumed that the larger +atoms moved more rapidly than the smaller ones, which they therefore +could overtake, and with which they could combine. Epicurus, holding +that empty space could offer no resistance to motion, ascribed to all +the atoms the same velocity; but he seems to have overlooked the +consequence that under such circumstances the atoms could never +combine. Lucretius cut the knot by quitting the domain of physics +altogether, and causing the atoms to move together by a kind of +volition. + +Was the instinct utterly at fault which caused Lucretius thus to +swerve from his own principles? Diminishing gradually the number of +progenitors, Mr. Darwin comes at length to one 'primordial form;' but +he does not say, as far as I remember, how he supposes this form to +have been introduced. He quotes with satisfaction the words of a +celebrated author and divine who had 'gradually learnt to see that it +is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe He created a +few original forms, capable of self-development into other and +needful forms, as to believe that He required a fresh act of creation +to supply the voids caused by the action of His laws.' What Mr. +Darwin thinks of this view of the introduction of life I do not know. +But the anthropomorphism, which it seemed his object to set aside, is +as firmly associated with the creation of a few forms as with the +creation of a multitude. We need clearness and thoroughness here. +Two courses and two only, are possible. Either let us open our doors +freely to the conception of creative acts, or, abandoning them, let +us radically change our notions of Matter. If we look at matter as +pictured by Democritus, and as defined for generations in our +scientific text-books, the notion of any form of life whatever coming +out of it is utterly unimaginable. The argument placed in the mouth +of Bishop Butler suffices, in my opinion, to crush all such +materialism as this. But those who framed these definitions of +matter were not biologists but mathematicians, whose labours referred +only to such accidents and properties of matter as could be expressed +in their formulæ. The very intentness with which they pursued +mechanical science turned their thoughts aside from the science of +life. May not their imperfect definitions be the real cause of our +present dread? Let us reverently, but honestly, look the question in +the face. Divorced from matter, where is life to be found? Whatever +our _faith_ may say, our _knowledge_ shows them to be indissolubly +joined. Every meal we eat, and every cup we drink, illustrates the +mysterious control of Mind by Matter. + +Trace the line of life backwards, and see it approaching more and +more to what we call the purely physical condition. We come at +length to those organisms which I have compared to drops of oil +suspended in a mixture of alcohol and water. We reach the +_protogenes_ of Haeckel, in which we have 'a type distinguishable +from a fragment of albumen only by its finely granular character.' +Can we pause here? We break a magnet and find two poles in each of +its fragments. We continue the process of breaking, but, however +small the parts, each carries with it, though enfeebled, the polarity +of the whole. And when we can break no longer, we prolong the +intellectual vision to the polar molecules. Are we not urged to do +_something_ similar in the case of life? Is there not a temptation +to close to some extent with Lucretius, when he affirms that 'nature +is seen to do all things spontaneously of herself without the +meddling of the gods?' or with Bruno, when he declares that Matter is +not 'that mere empty capacity which philosophers have pictured her to +be, but the universal mother who brings forth all things as the fruit +of her own womb?' Believing as I do in the continuity of Nature, I +cannot stop abruptly where our microscopes cease to be of use. Here +the vision of the mind authoritatively supplements the vision of the +eye. By an intellectual necessity I cross the boundary of the +experimental evidence, and discern in that Matter which we, in our +ignorance of its latent powers, and notwithstanding our professed +reverence for its Creator, have hitherto covered with opprobrium, the +promise and potency of all terrestial Life. + +If you ask me whether there exists the least evidence to prove that +any form of life can be developed out of matter, without demonstrable +antecedent life, my reply is that evidence considered perfectly +conclusive by many has been adduced; and that were some of us who +have pondered this question to follow a very common example, and +accept testimony because it falls in with our belief, we also should +eagerly close with the evidence referred to. But there is in the +true man of science a wish stronger than the wish to have his beliefs +upheld; namely, the wish to have them true. And this stronger wish +causes him to reject the most plausible support if he has reason to +suspect that it is vitiated by error. Those to whom I refer as +having studied this question, believing the evidence offered in +favour of 'spontaneous generation' to be thus vitiated, cannot accept +it. They know full well that the chemist now prepares from inorganic +matter a vast array of substances which were some time ago regarded +as the sole products of vitality. They are intimately acquainted +with the structural power of matter as evidenced in the phenomena of +crystallization. They can justify scientifically their _belief_ in +its potency, under the proper conditions, to produce organisms. But +in reply to your question they will frankly admit their inability to +point to any satisfactory experimental proof that life can be +developed save from demonstrable antecedent life. As already +indicated, they draw the line from the highest organisms through +lower ones down to the lowest, and it is the prolongation of this +line by the intellect beyond the range of the senses that leads them +to the conclusion which Bruno so boldly enunciated.[20] + +The 'materialism' here professed may be vastly different from what +you suppose, and I therefore crave your gracious patience to the end. +'The question of an external world,' says Mr. J. S. Mill, 'is the +great battleground of metaphysics.'[21] Mr. Mill himself reduces +external phenomena to 'possibilities of sensation.' Kant, as we have +seen, made time and space 'forms' of our own intuitions. Fichte, +having first by the inexorable logic of his understanding proved +himself to be a mere link in that chain of eternal causation which +holds so rigidly in Nature, violently broke the chain by making +Nature, and all that it inherits, an apparition of his own mind.[22] +And it is by no means easy to combat such notions. For when I say I +see you, and that I have not the least doubt about it, the reply is, +that what I am really conscious of is an affection of my own retina. +And if I urge that I can check my sight of you by touching you, the +retort would be that I am equally transgressing the limits of fact; +for what I am really conscious of is, not that you are there, but +that the nerves of my hand have undergone a change. All we hear, and +see, and touch, and taste, and smell, are, it would be urged, mere +variations of our own condition, beyond which, even to the extent of +a hair's breadth, we cannot go. That anything answering to our +impressions exists outside of ourselves is not a _fact_, but an +_inference_, to which all validity would be denied by an idealist +like Berkeley, or by a sceptic like Hume. Mr. Spencer takes another +line. With him, as with the uneducated man, there is no doubt or +question as to the existence of an external world. But he differs +from the uneducated, who think that the world really is what +consciousness represents it to be. Our states of consciousness are +mere _symbols_ of an outside entity which produces them and +determines the order of their succession, but the real nature of +which we can never know.[23] In fact, the whole process of evolution +is the manifestation of a Power absolutely inscrutable to the +intellect of man. As little in our day as in the days of Job can man +by searching find this Power out. Considered fundamentally, then, it +is by the operation of an insoluble mystery that life on earth is +evolved, species differentiated, and mind unfolded from their +prepotent elements in the immeasurable past. There is, you will +observe, no very rank materialism here. + +The strength of the doctrine of evolution consists, not in an +experimental demonstration (for the subject is hardly accessible to +this mode of proof), but in its general harmony with scientific +thought. From contrast, moreover, it derives enormous relative +strength. On the one side we have a theory (if it could with any +propriety be so called) derived, as were the theories referred to at +the beginning of this Address, not from the study of Nature, but from +the observation of men--a theory which converts the Power whose +garment is seen in the visible universe into an Artificer, fashioned +after the human model, and acting by broken efforts, as man is seen +to act. On the other side, we have the conception that all we see +around us, and all we feel within us--the phenomena of physical +nature as well as those of the human mind--have their unsearchable +roots in a cosmical life, if I dare apply the term, an infinitesimal +span of which is offered to the investigation of man. And even this +span is only knowable in part. We can trace the development of a +nervous system, and correlate with it the parallel phenomena of +sensation and thought. We see with undoubting certainty that they go +hand in hand. But we try to soar in a vacuum the moment we seek to +comprehend the connexion between them. An Archimedean fulcrum is +here required which the human mind cannot command; and the effort to +solve the problem, to borrow a comparison from an illustrious friend +of mine, is like the effort of a man trying to lift himself by his +own waistband. All that has been here said is to be taken in +connexion with this fundamental truth. When 'nascent senses' are +spoken of, when 'the differentiation of a tissue at first vaguely +sensitive all over' is spoken of, and when these processes are +associated with 'the modification of an organism by its environment,' +the same parallelism, without contact, or even approach to contact, +is implied. Man the _object_ is separated by an impassable gulf from +man the _subject_. There is no motor energy in intellect to carry it +without logical rupture from the one to the other. + +Further, the doctrine of evolution derives man in his totality from +the inter-action of organism and environment through countless ages +past. The Human Understanding, for example--that faculty which Mr. +Spencer has turned so skilfully round upon its own antecedents--is +itself a result of the play between organism and environment through +cosmic ranges of time. Never surely did prescription plead so +irresistible a claim. But then it comes to pass that, over and above +his understanding, there are many other things appertaining to man +whose perspective rights are quite as strong as those of the +understanding itself. It is a result, for example, of the play of +organism and environment that sugar is sweet and that aloes are +bitter, that the smell of henbane differs from the perfume of a rose. +Such facts of consciousness (for which, by the way, no adequate +reason has yet been rendered) are quite as old as the understanding; +and many other things can boast an equally ancient origin. Mr. +Spencer at one place refers to that most powerful of passions--the +amatory passion--as one which, when it first occurs, is antecedent to +all relative experience whatever; and we may pass its claim as being +at least as ancient and valid as that of the understanding. Then +there are such things woven into the texture of man as the feeling of +Awe, Reverence, Wonder--and not alone the sexual love just referred +to, but the love of the beautiful, physical, and moral, in Nature, +Poetry, and Art. There is also that deep-set feeling which, since +the earliest dawn of history, and probably for ages prior to all +history, incorporated itself in the Religions of the world. You who +have escaped from these religions into the high-and-dry light of the +intellect may deride them; but in so doing you deride accidents of +form merely, and fail to touch the immovable basis of the religious +sentiment in the nature of man. To yield this sentiment reasonable +satisfaction is the problem of problems at the present hour. And +grotesque in relation to scientific culture as many of the religions +of the world have been and are--dangerous, nay destructive, to the +dearest privileges of free-men as some of them undoubtedly have been, +and would, if they could, be again--it will be wise to recognize them +as the forms of a force, mischievous, if permitted to intrude on the +region of knowledge, over which it holds no command, but capable of +being guided to noble issues in the region of emotion, which is its +proper and elevated sphere. + +All religious theories, schemes and systems, which embrace notions of +cosmogony, or which otherwise reach into the domain of science, must, +_in so far as they do this_, submit to the control of science, and +relinquish all thought of controlling it. Acting otherwise proved +disastrous in the past, and it is simply fatuous to-day. Every +system which would escape the fate of an organism too rigid to adjust +itself to its environment must be plastic to the extent that the +growth of knowledge demands. When this truth has been thoroughly +taken in, rigidity will be relaxed, exclusiveness diminished, things +now deemed essential will be dropped, and elements now rejected will +be assimilated. The lifting of the life is the essential point; and +as long as dogmatism, fanaticism, and intolerance are kept out, +various modes of leverage may be employed to raise life to a higher +level. Science itself not unfrequently derives motive power from an +ultra-scientific source. Whewell speaks of enthusiasm of temper as a +hindrance to science; but he means the enthusiasm of weak heads. +There is a strong and resolute enthusiasm in which science finds an +ally; and it is to the lowering of this fire, rather than to the +diminution of intellectual insight, that the lessening productiveness +of men of science in their mature years is to be ascribed. Mr. +Buckle sought to detach intellectual achievement from moral force. +He gravely erred; for without moral force to whip it into action, the +achievements of the intellect would be poor indeed. + +It has been said that science divorces itself from literature; but +the statement, like so many others, arises from lack of knowledge. A +glance at the less technical writings of its leaders--of its +Helmholtz, its Huxley, and its Du Bois-Reymond--would show what +breadth of literary culture they command. Where among modern writers +can you find their superiors in clearness and vigour of literary +style? Science desires not isolation, but freely combines with every +effort towards the bettering of man's estate. Single-handed, and +supported not by outward sympathy, but by inward force, it has built +at least one great wing of the many-mansioned home which man in his +totality demands. And if rough walls and protruding rafter-ends +indicate that on one side the edifice is still incomplete, it is only +by wise combination of the parts required with those already +irrevocably built that we can hope for completeness. There is no +necessary incongruity between what has been accomplished and what +remains to be done. The moral glow of Socrates, which we all feel by +ignition, has in it nothing incompatible with the physics of +Anaxagoras which he so much scorned, but which he would hardly scorn +to-day. + +And here I am reminded of one amongst us, hoary, but still strong, +whose prophet-voice some thirty years ago, far more than any other of +this age, unlocked whatever of life and nobleness lay latent in its +most gifted minds--one fit to stand beside Socrates or the Maccabean +Eleazar, and to dare and suffer all that they suffered and +dared--fit, as he once said of Fichte, 'to have been the teacher of +the Stoa, and to have discoursed of Beauty and Virtue in the groves +of Academe.' With a capacity to grasp physical principles which his +friend Goethe did not possess, and which even total lack of exercise +has not been able to reduce to atrophy, it is the world's loss that +he, in the vigour of his years, did not open his mind and sympathies +to science, and make its conclusions a portion of his message to +mankind. Marvellously endowed as he was--equally equipped on the +side of the Heart and of the Understanding--he might have done much +towards teaching us how to reconcile the claims of both, and to +enable them in coming times to dwell together in unity of spirit and +in the bond of peace. + +And now the end is come. With more time, or greater strength and +knowledge, what has been here said might have been better said, while +worthy matters here omitted might have received fit expression. But +there would have been no material deviation from the views set forth. +As regards myself, they are not the growth of a day; and as regards +you, I thought you ought to know the environment which, with or +without your consent, is rapidly surrounding you, and in relation to +which some adjustment on your part may be necessary. A hint of +Hamlet's, however, teaches us all how the troubles of common life may +be ended; and it is perfectly possible for you and me to purchase +intellectual peace at the price of intellectual death. The world is +not without refuges of this description; nor is it wanting in persons +who seek their shelter and try to persuade others to do the same. +The unstable and the weak will yield to this persuasion, and they to +whom repose is sweeter than the truth. But I would exhort you to +refuse the offered shelter and to scorn the base repose--to accept, +if the choice be forced upon you, commotion before stagnation, the +leap of the torrent before the stillness of the swamp. + +In the course of this Address I have touched on debatable questions +and led you over what will be deemed dangerous ground--and this +partly with the view of telling you that as regards these questions +science claims unrestricted right of search. It is not to the point +to say that the views of Lucretius and Bruno, of Darwin and Spencer, +may be wrong. Here I should agree with you, deeming it indeed +certain that these views will undergo modification. But the point +is, that, whether right or wrong, we ask the freedom to discuss them. +For science, however, no exclusive claim is here made; you are not +urged to erect it into an idol. The inexorable advance of man's +understanding in the path of knowledge, and those unquenchable claims +of his moral and emotional nature which the understanding can never +satisfy, are here equally set forth. The world embraces not only a +Newton, but a Shakespeare--not only a Boyle, but a Raphael--not only +a Kant, but a Beethoven--not only a Darwin, but a Carlyle. Not in +each of these, but in all, is human nature whole. They are not +opposed, but supplementary--not mutually exclusive, but reconcilable. +And if, unsatisfied with them all, the human mind, with the yearning +of a pilgrim for his distant home, will turn to the Mystery from +which it has emerged, seeking so to fashion it as to give unity to +thought and faith; so long as this is done, not only without +intolerance or bigotry of any kind, but with the enlightened +recognition that ultimate fixity of conception is here unattainable, +and that each succeeding age must be held free to fashion the Mystery +in accordance with its own needs--then, casting aside all the +restrictions of Materialism, I would affirm this to be a field for +the noblest exercise of what, in contrast with the _knowing_ +faculties, may be called the _creative_ faculties of man. + +'Fill thy heart with it,' said Goethe, 'and then name it as thou +wilt.' Goethe himself did this in untranslateable language.[24] +Wordsworth did it in words known to all Englishmen, and which may be +regarded as a forecast and religious vitalization of the latest and +deepest scientific truth,-- + + 'For I have learned + To look on nature; not as in the hour + Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes + The still, sad music of humanity, + Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power + To chasten and subdue. _And I have felt + A presence that disturbs me with the joy + Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime + Of something far more deeply interfused, + Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, + And the round ocean, and the living air, + And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: + A motion and a spirit, that impels + All thinking things, all objects of all thought, + And rolls through all things_.'[25] + + + + +[1] Hume, _Natural History of Religion_. + +[2] Born 460 B.C. + +[3] Lange, 2nd edit., p. 23. + +[4] Born 342 B.C. + +[5] Tennyson's Lucretius. + +[6] Born 99 B.C. + +[7] Monro's translation. In his criticism of this work, +_Contemporary Review_, 1867, Dr. Hayman does not appear to be aware +of the really sound and subtile observations on which the reasoning +of Lucretius, though erroneous, sometimes rests. + +[8] _History of the Intellectual Development of Europe_, p. 295. + +[9] _History of the Inductive Sciences_, vol. i. + +[10] Depicted with terrible vividness in _Renan's Antichrist_. + +[11] _Intellectual Development of Europe_, p. 359. + +[12] Lange, 2nd edit. pp. 181, 182. + +[13] See Huxley's admirable Essay on Descartes. _Lay Sermons_, pp. +864, 365. + +[14] Boyle's model of the universe was the Strasburg clock with an +outside Artificer. Goethe, on the other hand, sang + + 'Ihm ziemt's die Welt im Innern zu bewegen, + Natur in sich, sich in Natur zu hegen.' + +See also Carlyle, _Past and Present_, Chap. V. + +[15] Only to some; for there are dignitaries who even now speak of +the earth's rocky crust as so much building material prepared for man +at the Creation. Surely it is time that this loose language should +cease. + +[16] _Zoonomia_, vol. i. pp. 500-510. + +[17] In 1855 Mr. Herbert Spencer (Principles of Psychology, 2nd edit. +vol. i. p. 465) expressed 'the belief that life under all its forms +has arisen by an unbroken evolution, and through the instrumentality +of what are called natural causes.' + +[18] The behaviour of Mr. Wallace in relation to this subject has +been dignified in the highest desgree. + +[19] The first step only towards experimental demonstration has been +taken. Experiments now begun might, a couple of centuries hence, +furnish data of incalculable value, which ought to be supplied to the +science of the future. + +[20] Bruno was a 'Pantheist,' not an 'Atheist' or a 'Materialist.' + +[21] _Examination of Hamilton_, p. 154. + +[22] _Bestimmung des Menschen_. + +[23] In a paper, at once popular and profound, entitled _Recent +Progress in the Theory of Vision_, contained in the volume of +Lectures by Helmholtz, published by Longmans, this symbolism of our +states of consciousness is also dwelt upon. The impressions of sense +are the mere signs of external things. In this paper Helmholtz +contends strongly against the view that the consciousness of space is +inborn; and he evidently doubts the power of the chick to pick up +grains of corn without preliminary lessons. On this point, he says, +further experiments are needed. Such experiments have been since +made by Mr. Spalding, aided, I believe, in some of his observations +by the accomplished and deeply lamented Lady Amberly; and they seem +to prove conclusively that the chick does not need a single moment's +tuition to enable it to stand, run, govern the muscles of its eyes, +and to peck. Helmholtz, however, is contending against the notion of +pre-established harmony; and I am not aware of his views as to the +organisation of experiences of race or breed. + +[24] Proœmium to 'Gott und Welt.' + +[25] Tintern Abbey. + + + + LONDON: PRINTED BY + SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE + AND PARLIAMENT STREET + + + + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75664 *** diff --git a/75664-h/75664-h.htm b/75664-h/75664-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ce3f5d --- /dev/null +++ b/75664-h/75664-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2874 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + +<head> + +<link rel="icon" href="images/img-cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + +<meta charset="utf-8"> + +<title> +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Address, by John Tyndall +</title> + +<style> + +body { color: black; + background: white; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +p {text-indent: 1.5em } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 200%; + text-align: center } + +p.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center } + +p.t2b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center } + +p.t4b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 60%; + text-align: center } + +h1 { text-align: center } +h2 { text-align: center } +h3 { text-align: center } +h4 { text-align: center } +h5 { text-align: center } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +p.thought {text-indent: 0% ; + letter-spacing: 2em ; + text-align: center } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.footnote {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 85%; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +.smcap { font-variant: small-caps } + +p.transnote {text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.quote {text-indent: 4% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75664 ***</div> + +<h1> +<br><br> + ADDRESS<br> + <span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal">DELIVERED BEFORE</span><br> + THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION<br> + <span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal">ASSEMBLED AT</span><br> + BELFAST<br> +</h1> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> + <i>WITH ADDITIONS</i><br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> + BY<br> + JOHN TYNDALL, F.R.S.<br> + PRESIDENT<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> + FIFTH THOUSAND<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> + LONDON<br> + LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.<br> + 1874<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="poem"> + 'There is one God supreme over all gods, diviner than mortals,<br> + Whose form is not like unto man's, and as unlike his nature;<br> + But vain mortals imagine that gods like themselves are begotten,<br> + With human sensations and voice and corporeal members;<br> + So, if oxen or lions had hands and could work in man's fashion,<br> + And trace out with chisel or brush their conception of Godhead,<br> + Then would horses depict gods like horses, and oxen like oxen,<br> + Each kind the divine with its own form and nature endowing.'<br> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +XENOPHANES of Colophon (six centuries B.C.), 'Supernatural Religion,' +Vol. I. p. 76. +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +'It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such +an opinion as is unworthy of Him; for the one is unbelief, the +other is contumely.' BACON. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<h3> +PREFACE. +</h3> + +<p> +At the request of my Publishers, strengthened by the +expressed desire of many Correspondents, I reprint, with +a few slight alterations, this Address. +</p> + +<p> +It was written under some disadvantages this year in +the Alps, and sent by instalments to the printer. When +read subsequently it proved too long for its purpose, and +several of its passages were accordingly struck out. Some +of them are here restored. +</p> + +<p> +It has provoked an unexpected amount of criticism. +This, in due time, will subside; and I confidently look +forward to a calmer future for a verdict, founded not on +imaginary sins, but on the real facts of the case. +</p> + +<p> +Of the numberless strictures and accusations, some of +them exceeding fierce, of which I have been, and continue +to be, the object, I refrain from speaking at any +length. To one or two of them, however, out of respect +for their sources, I would ask permission briefly to refer. +</p> + +<p> +An evening paper of the first rank, after the +ascription of various more or less questionable aims and +motives, proceeds to the imputation, that I permitted the +cheers of my audience to 'stimulate' me to the utterance +of words which no right-minded man, without a sense +of the gravest responsibility, could employ. I trust the +author of this charge will allow me in all courtesy to assure +him that the words ascribed by him to the spur of the +moment were written in Switzerland; that they stood in +the printed copy of the Address from which I read; that +they evoked no 'cheers,' but a silence far more impressive +than cheers; and that, finally, as regards both approbation +and the reverse, my course had been thought over +and decided long before I ventured to address a Belfast audience. +</p> + +<p> +A writer in a most able theological journal represents me +as 'patting religion on the back.' The thought of +doing so is certainly his, not mine. The facts of religious +feeling are to me as certain as the facts of physics. But +the world, I hold, will have to distinguish between the +feeling and its forms, and to vary the latter in accordance +with the intellectual condition of the age. +</p> + +<p> +I am unwilling to dwell upon statements ascribed +to eminent men, which may be imperfectly reported in +the newspapers, and I therefore pass over a recent +sermon attributed to the Bishop of Manchester with the +remark, that one engaged so much as he is in busy +and, I doubt not on the whole, beneficent outward life, +is not likely to be among the earliest to discern the more +inward and spiritual signs of the times, or to prepare +for the condition which they foreshadow. +</p> + +<p> +In a recent speech at Dewsbury, the Dean of Manchester +is reported to have expressed himself thus:—'The +Professor (myself) ended a most remarkable and +eloquent speech by terming himself a material Atheist.' My +attention was drawn to Dean Cowie's statement +by a correspondent, who described it as standing +'conspicuous among the strange calumnies' with which my +words have been assailed. For myself I use no language +which could imply that I am hurt by such attacks. They +have lost their power to wound or injure. So likewise as +regards a resolution recently passed by the Presbytery +of Belfast, in which Professor Huxley and myself are +spoken of as 'ignoring the existence of God, and advocating +pure and simple materialism;' had the possessive +pronoun 'our' preceded 'God,' and had the words 'what +we consider' preceded 'pure,' this statement would have +been objectively true; but to make it so this qualification +is required. +</p> + +<p> +Cardinal Cullen, I am told, is also actively engaged +in erecting spiritual barriers against the intrusion of +'Infidelity' into Ireland. His Eminence, I believe, has +reason to suspect that the Catholic youth around him are +not proof to the seductions of science. Strong as he is, +I believe him to be impotent here. The youth of Ireland +will imbibe science, however slowly; they will be leavened +by it, however gradually. And to its inward modifying +power among Catholics themselves, rather than to any +Protestant propagandism, or other external influence, I +look for the abatement of various incongruities; among +them, of those mediæval proceedings which, to the +scandal and amazement of our nineteenth century +intelligence, have been revived among us during the last +two years. +</p> + +<p> +In connexion with the charge of Atheism, I would +make one remark. Christian men are proved by their +writings to have their hours of weakness and of doubt, as +well as their hours of strength and of conviction; and +men like myself share, in their own way, these variations +of mood and tense. Were the religious views of many +of my assailants the only alternative ones, I do not know +how strong the claims of the doctrine of 'Material +Atheism' upon my allegiance might be. Probably they +would be very strong. But, as it is, I have noticed +during years of self-observation that it is not in hours +of clearness and vigour that this doctrine commends +itself to my mind; that in the presence of stronger and +healthier thought it ever dissolves and disappears, as +offering no solution of the mystery in which we dwell, +and of which we form a part. +</p> + +<p> +To coarser attacks and denunciations I pay no attention; +nor have I any real reason to complain of revilings +addressed to me, which professing Christians, as could +readily be proved, do not scruple to use towards each +other. The more agreeable task remains to me of +thanking those who have tried, however hopelessly, to +keep accusation within the bounds of justice, and who, +privately, and at some risk in public, have honoured me +with the expression of their sympathy and approval. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +JOHN TYNDALL. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + Athenæum Club.<br> + <i>September</i> 16, 1874.<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap01"></a></p> + +<h3> +ADDRESS, +</h3> + +<p class="t3"> +ETC. +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +An impulse inherent in primeval man turned his thoughts +and questionings betimes towards the sources of natural +phenomena. The same impulse, inherited and intensified, +is the spur of scientific action to-day. Determined by +it, by a process of abstraction from experience we form +physical theories which lie beyond the pale of experience, +but which satisfy the desire of the mind to see every natural +occurrence resting upon a cause. In forming their notions +of the origin of things, our earliest historic (and doubtless, +we might add, our prehistoric) ancestors pursued, as far as +their intelligence permitted, the same course. They also +fell back upon experience, but with this difference—that +the particular experiences which furnished the weft and +woof of their theories were drawn, not from the study of +nature, but from what lay much closer to them, the observation +of men. Their theories accordingly took an anthropomorphic +form. To supersensual beings, which, 'however +potent and invisible, were nothing but a species of human +creatures, perhaps raised from among mankind, and retaining +all human passions and appetites,'[<a id="chap01fn1text"></a><a href="#chap01fn1">1</a>] were handed over +the rule and governance of natural phenomena. +</p> + +<p> +Tested by observation and reflection, these early notions +failed in the long run to satisfy the more penetrating +intellects of our race. Far in the depths of history we find +men of exceptional power differentiating themselves from +the crowd, rejecting these anthropomorphic notions, and +seeking to connect natural phenomena with their physical +principles. But long prior to these purer efforts of the +understanding the merchant had been abroad, and rendered +the philosopher possible; commerce had been developed, +wealth amassed, leisure for travel and speculation secured, +while races educated under different conditions, and therefore +differently informed and endowed, had been stimulated +and sharpened by mutual contact. In those regions where +the commercial aristocracy of ancient Greece mingled with +its eastern neighbours the sciences were born, being +nurtured and developed by free-thinking and courageous men. +The state of things to be displaced may be gathered from +a passage of Euripides quoted by Hume. 'There is +nothing in the world; no glory, no prosperity. The gods +toss all into confusion; mix everything with its reverse, +that all of us, from our ignorance and uncertainty, may +pay them the more worship and reverence.' Now, as +science demands the radical extirpation of caprice and +the absolute reliance upon law in nature, there grew with +the growth of scientific notions a desire and determination +to sweep from the field of theory this mob of gods and +demons, and to place natural phenomena on a basis more +congruent with themselves. +</p> + +<p> +The problem which had been previously approached +from above was now attacked from below; theoretic effort +passed from the super- to the sub-sensible. It was felt +that to construct the universe in idea it was necessary to +have some notion of its constituent parts—of what Lucretius +subsequently called the 'First Beginnings.' Abstracting +again from experience, the leaders of scientific speculation +reached at length the pregnant doctrine of atoms and +molecules, the latest developments of which were set +forth with such power and clearness at the last meeting +of the British Association. Thought, no doubt, had +long hovered about this doctrine before it attained the +precision and completeness which it assumed in the +mind of Democritus,[<a id="chap01fn2text"></a><a href="#chap01fn2">2</a>] a philosopher who may well for a +moment arrest our attention. 'Few great men,' says +Lange, a non-materialist, in his excellent 'History of +Materialism,' to the spirit and to the letter of which I +am equally indebted, 'have been so despitefully used by +history as Democritus. In the distorted images sent +down to us through unscientific traditions there remains +of him almost nothing but the name of "the laughing +philosopher," while figures of immeasurably smaller +significance spread themselves out at full length before +us.' Lange speaks of Bacon's high appreciation of +Democritus—for ample illustrations of which I am indebted to my +excellent friend Mr. Spedding, the learned editor and +biographer of Bacon. It is evident, indeed, that Bacon +considered Democritus to be a man of weightier metal than +either Plato or Aristotle, though their philosophy 'was +noised and celebrated in the schools, amid the din and +pomp of professors.' It was not they, but Genseric and +Attila and the barbarians, who destroyed the atomic +philosophy. 'For at a time when all human learning had +suffered shipwreck these planks of Aristotelian and +Platonic philosophy, as being of a lighter and more inflated +substance, were preserved and came down to us, while +things more solid sank and almost passed into oblivion.' +</p> + +<p> +The son of a wealthy father, Democritus devoted the +whole of his inherited fortune to the culture of his mind. +He travelled everywhere; visited Athens when Socrates +and Plato were there, but quitted the city without making +himself known. Indeed, the dialectic strife in which +Socrates so much delighted had no charms for Democritus, +who held that 'the man who readily contradicts and uses +many words is unfit to learn anything truly right.' He +is said to have discovered and educated Protagoras the +sophist, being struck as much by the manner in which +he, being a hewer of wood, tied up his faggots as by the +sagacity of his conversation. Democritus returned poor +from his travels, was supported by his brother, and at +length wrote his great work entitled 'Diakosmos,' which +he read publicly before the people of his native town. He +was honoured by his countrymen in various ways, and +died serenely at a great age. +</p> + +<p> +The principles enunciated by Democritus reveal his +uncompromising antagonism to those who deduced the +phenomena of nature from the caprices of the gods. +They are briefly these:—1. From nothing comes nothing. +Nothing that exists can be destroyed. All changes are +due to the combination and separation of molecules. +2. Nothing happens by chance. Every occurrence has its +cause from which it follows by necessity. 3. The only +existing things are the atoms and empty space; all else +is mere opinion. 4. The atoms are infinite in number +and infinitely various in form; they strike together, and +the lateral motions and whirlings which thus arise are the +beginnings of worlds. 5. The varieties of all things +depend upon the varieties of their atoms, in number, size, +and aggregation. 6. The soul consists of fine, smooth, +round atoms, like those of fire. These are the most +mobile of all. They interpenetrate the whole body, and +in their motions the phenomena of life arise. The first +five propositions are a fair general statement of the atomic +philosophy, as now held. As regards the sixth, Democritus +made his fine smooth atoms do duty for the nervous +system, whose functions were then unknown. The atoms +of Democritus are individually without sensation; they +combine in obedience to mechanical laws; and not only +organic forms, but the phenomena of sensation and thought +are the result of their combination. +</p> + +<p> +That great enigma, 'the exquisite adaptation of one +part of an organism to another part, and to the +conditions of life,' more especially the construction of the +human body, Democritus made no attempt to solve. +Empedocles, a man of more fiery and poetic nature, +introduced the notion of love and hate among the atoms to +account for their combination and separation. Noticing +this gap in the doctrine of Democritus, he struck in with +the penetrating thought, linked, however, with some wild +speculation, that it lay in the very nature of those +combinations which were suited to their ends (in other words, +in harmony with their environment) to maintain +themselves, while unfit combinations, having no proper +habitat, must rapidly disappear. Thus more than 2,000 +years ago the doctrine of the 'survival of the fittest,' +which in our day, not on the basis of vague conjecture, +but of positive knowledge, has been raised to such +extraordinary significance, had received at all events partial +enunciation.[<a id="chap01fn3text"></a><a href="#chap01fn3">3</a>] +</p> + +<p> +Epicurus,[<a id="chap01fn4text"></a><a href="#chap01fn4">4</a>] said to be the son of a poor schoolmaster +at Samos, is the next dominant figure in the history of +the atomic philosophy. He mastered the writings of +Democritus, heard lectures in Athens, went back to Sarnos, +and subsequently wandered through various countries. +He finally returned to Athens, where he bought a garden, +and surrounded himself by pupils, in the midst of whom +he lived a pure and serene life, and died a peaceful death. +Democritus looked to the soul as the ennobling part of +man; even beauty without understanding partook of +animalism. Epicurus also rated the spirit above the +body; the pleasure of the body was that of the moment, +while the spirit could draw upon the future and the +past. His philosophy was almost identical with that of +Democritus; but he never quoted either friend or foe. +One main object of Epicurus was to free the world from +superstition and the fear of death. Death he treated +with indifference. It merely robs us of sensation. As +long as we are, death is not; and when death is, we are +not. Life has no more evil for him who has made up his +mind that it is no evil not to live. He adored the gods, +but not in the ordinary fashion. The idea of divine +power, properly purified, he thought an elevating one. +Still he taught, 'Not he is godless who rejects the gods of +the crowd, but rather he who accepts them.' The gods +were to him eternal and immortal beings, whose +blessedness excluded every thought of care or occupation of +any kind. Nature pursues her course in accordance with +everlasting laws, the gods never interfering. They haunt +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + 'The lucid interspace of world and world<br> + Where never creeps a cloud or moves a wind,<br> + Nor ever falls the least white star of snow,<br> + Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans,<br> + Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar<br> + Their sacred everlasting calm.'[<a id="chap01fn5text"></a><a href="#chap01fn5">5</a>]<br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +Lange considers the relation of Epicurus to the gods +subjective; the indication probably of an ethical +requirement of his own nature. We cannot read history with +open eyes, or study human nature to its depths, and fail +to discern such a requirement. Man never has been, and +he never will be, satisfied with the operations and products +of the Understanding alone; hence physical science cannot +cover all the demands of his nature. But the history of the +efforts made to satisfy these demands might be broadly +described as a history of errors—the error, in great +part, consisting in ascribing fixity to that which is fluent, +which varies as we vary, being gross when we are gross, +and becoming, as our capacities widen, more abstract and +sublime. On one great point the mind of Epicurus was +at peace. He neither sought nor expected, here or +hereafter, any personal profit from his relation to the gods. +And it is assuredly a fact that loftiness and serenity of +thought may be promoted by conceptions which involve +no idea of profit of this kind. 'Did I not believe,' said +a great man to me once, 'that an Intelligence is at the +heart of things, my life on earth would be intolerable.' The +utterer of these words is not, in my opinion, rendered +less noble but more noble by the fact that it was +the need of ethical harmony here, and not the thought +of personal profit hereafter, that prompted his observation. +</p> + +<p> +There are persons, not belonging to the highest +intellectual zone, nor yet to the lowest, to whom perfect +clearness of exposition suggests want of depth. They +find comfort and edification in an abstract and learned +phraseology. To some such people Epicurus, who spared +no pains to rid his style of every trace of haze and +turbidity, appeared, on this very account, superficial. He +had, however, a disciple who thought it no unworthy +occupation to spend his days and nights in the effort to +reach the clearness of his master, and to whom the Greek +philosopher is mainly indebted for the extension and +perpetuation of his fame. A century and a half after +the death of Epicurus, Lucretius[<a id="chap01fn6text"></a><a href="#chap01fn6">6</a>] wrote his great poem, +'On the Nature of Things,' in which he, a Roman, +developed with extraordinary ardour the philosophy of +his Greek predecessor. He wishes to win over his friend +Memnius to the school of Epicurus; and although he has +no rewards in a future life to offer, although his object +appears to be a purely negative one, he addresses his +friend with the heat of an apostle. His object, like that +of his great forerunner, is the destruction of superstition; +and considering that men trembled before every natural +event as a direct monition from the gods, and that +ever-lasting torture was also in prospect, the freedom aimed at +by Lucretius might perhaps be deemed a positive good. +'This terror,' he says, 'and darkness of mind must be +dispelled, not by the rays of the sun and glittering shafts +of day, but by the aspect and the law of nature.' He +refutes the notion that anything can come out of nothing, +or that that which is once begotten can be recalled to +nothing. The first beginnings, the atoms, are indestructible, +and into them all things can be resolved at last. +Bodies are partly atoms, and partly combinations of +atoms; but the atoms nothing can quench. They are +strong in solid singleness, and by their denser combination +all things can be closely packed and exhibit enduring +strength. He denies that matter is infinitely divisible. +We come at length to the atoms, without which, as an +imperishable substratum, all order in the generation and +development of things would be destroyed. +</p> + +<p> +The mechanical shock of the atoms being in his view +the all-sufficient cause of things, he combats the notion +that the constitution of nature has been in any way determined +by intelligent design. The inter-action of the atoms +throughout infinite time rendered all manner of +combinations possible. Of these the fit ones persisted, while +the unfit ones disappeared. Not after sage deliberation +did the atoms station themselves in their right places, nor +did they bargain what motions they should assume. From +all eternity they have been driven together, and after +trying motions and unions of every kind, they fell at +length into the arrangements out of which this system of +things has been formed. 'If you will apprehend and +keep in mind these things, nature, free at once, and rid of +her haughty lords, is seen to do all things spontaneously +of herself, without the meddling of the gods.'[<a id="chap01fn7text"></a><a href="#chap01fn7">7</a>] +</p> + +<p> +To meet the objection that his atoms cannot be seen, +Lucretius describes a violent storm, and shows that the +invisible particles of air act in the same way as the +visible particles of water. We perceive, moreover, the +different smells of things, yet never see them coming to +our nostrils. Again, clothes hung up on a shore which +waves break upon become moist, and then get dry if +spread out in the sun, though no eye can see either the +approach or the escape of the water particles. A ring, +worn long on the finger, becomes thinner; a water-drop +hollows out a stone; the ploughshare is rubbed away in +the field; the street pavement is worn by the feet; but +the particles that disappear at any moment we cannot +see. Nature acts through invisible particles. That +Lucretius had a strong scientific imagination the foregoing +references prove. A fine illustration of his power +in this respect is his explanation of the apparent rest of +bodies whose atoms are in motion. He employs the +image of a flock of sheep with skipping lambs, which, +seen from a distance, presents simply a white patch upon +the green hill, the jumping of the individual lambs being +quite invisible. +</p> + +<p> +His vaguely-grand conception of the atoms falling +eternally through space suggested the nebular hypothesis +to Kant, its first propounder. Far beyond the limits of our +visible world are to be found atoms innumerable, which +have never been united to form bodies, or which, if once +united, have been again dispersed, falling silently through +immeasurable intervals of time and space. As everywhere +throughout the All the same conditions are repeated, +so must the phenomena be repeated also. Above +us, below us, beside us, therefore, are worlds without +end; and this, when considered, must dissipate every +thought of a deflection of the universe by the gods. The +worlds come and go, attracting new atoms out of limitless +space, or dispersing their own particles. The reputed +death of Lucretius, which forms the basis of Mr. Tennyson's +noble poem, is in strict accordance with his philosophy, +which was severe and pure. +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +During the centuries lying between the first of these +three philosophers and the last, the human intellect was +active in other fields than theirs. The sophists had run +through their career. At Athens had appeared Socrates, +Plato, and Aristotle, who ruined the sophists, and whose +yoke remains to some extent unbroken to the present hour. +Within this period also the School of Alexandria was +founded, Euclid wrote his 'Elements,' and made some +advance in optics. Archimedes had propounded the theory +of the lever and the principles of hydrostatics. +Pythagoras had made his experiments on the harmonic +intervals, while astronomy was immensely enriched by the +discoveries of Hipparchus, who was followed by the +historically more celebrated Ptolemy. Anatomy had been +made the basis of Scientific medicine; and it is said by +Draper[<a id="chap01fn8text"></a><a href="#chap01fn8">8</a>] that vivisection then began. In fact, the science +of ancient Greece had already cleared the world of the +fantastic images of divinities operating capriciously through +natural phenomena. It had shaken itself free from that +fruitless scrutiny 'by the internal light of the mind +alone,' which had vainly sought to transcend experience +and reach a knowledge of ultimate causes. Instead of +accidental observation, it had introduced observation with +a purpose; instruments were employed to aid the senses; +and scientific method was rendered in a great measure +complete by the union of Induction and Experiment. +</p> + +<p> +What, then, stopped its victorious advance? Why +was the scientific intellect compelled, like an exhausted +soil, to lie fallow for nearly two millenniums before it +could regather the elements necessary to its fertility and +strength? Bacon has already let us know one cause; +Whewell ascribes this stationary period to four +causes—obscurity of thought, servility, intolerance of disposition, +enthusiasm of temper—and he gives striking examples of +each.[<a id="chap01fn9text"></a><a href="#chap01fn9">9</a>] But these characteristics must have had their +antecedents in the circumstances of the time. Rome +and the other cities of the Empire had fallen into moral +putrefaction. Christianity had appeared, offering the +gospel to the poor, and, by moderation if not asceticism +of life, practically protesting against the profligacy of the +age. The sufferings of the early Christians, and the +extraordinary exaltation of mind which enabled them to +triumph over the diabolical tortures to which they were +subjected,[<a id="chap01fn10text"></a><a href="#chap01fn10">10</a>] must have left traces not easily effaced. They +scorned the earth, in view of that 'building of God, that +house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.' The +Scriptures which ministered to their spiritual needs were +also the measure of their Science. When, for example, +the celebrated question of antipodes came to be discussed, +the Bible was with many the ultimate court of appeal. +Augustin, who flourished A.D. 400, would not deny the +rotundity of the earth; but he would deny the possible +existence of inhabitants at the other side, 'because no +such race is recorded in Scripture among the descendants +of Adam.' Archbishop Boniface was shocked at the +assumption of a 'world of human beings out of the reach +of the means of salvation.' Thus reined in, Science was +not likely to make much progress. Later on the political +and theological strife between the Church and civil +governments, so powerfully depicted by Draper, must +have done much to stifle investigation. +</p> + +<p> +Whewell makes many wise and brave remarks regarding +the spirit of the Middle Ages. It was a menial spirit. +The seekers after natural knowledge had forsaken that +fountain of living waters, the direct appeal to nature by +observation and experiment, and had given themselves +up to the remanipulation of the notions of their +predecessors. It was a time when thought had become abject, +and when the acceptance of mere authority led, as it +always does in science, to intellectual death. Natural +events, instead of being traced to physical, were referred +to moral causes; while an exercise of the phantasy, almost +as degrading as the spiritualism of the present day, took +the place of scientific speculation. Then came the +mysticism of the Middle Ages, Magic, Alchemy, the +Neo-platonic philosophy, with its visionary though sublime +abstractions, which caused men to look with shame upon +their own bodies as hindrances to the absorption of the +creature in the blessedness of the Creator. Finally came +the Scholastic philosophy, a fusion, according to Lange, +of the least-mature notions of Aristotle with the Christianity +of the West. Intellectual immobility was the result. +As a traveller without a compass in a fog may wander +long, imagining he is making way, and find himself after +hours of toil at his starting-point, so the schoolmen, +having 'tied and untied the same knots and formed and +dissipated the same clouds,' found themselves at the end +of centuries in their old position. +</p> + +<p> +With regard to the influence wielded by Aristotle in +the Middle Ages, and which, though to a less extent, he +still wields, I would ask permission to make one remark. +When the human mind has achieved greatness and given +evidence of extraordinary power in any domain, there is +a tendency to credit it with similar power in all other +domains. Thus theologians have found comfort and +assurance in the thought that Newton dealt with the +question of revelation, forgetful of the fact that the very +devotion of his powers, through all the best years of his +life, to a totally different class of ideas, not to speak of any +natural disqualification, tended to render him less instead +of more competent to deal with theological and historic +questions. Goethe, starting from his established greatness +as a poet, and indeed from his positive discoveries +in Natural History, produced a profound impression +among the painters of Germany when he published his +'Farbenlehre,' in which he endeavoured to overthrow +Newton's theory of colours. This theory he deemed so +obviously absurd that he considered its author a +charlatan, and attacked him with a corresponding vehemence +of language. In the domain of Natural History Goethe +had made really considerable discoveries; and we have +high authority for assuming that, had he devoted himself +wholly to that side of science, he might have reached in +it an eminence comparable with that which he attained +as a poet. In sharpness of observation, in the detection +of analogies, however apparently remote, in the classification +and organization of facts according to the analogies +discerned, Goethe possessed extraordinary powers. These +elements of scientific inquiry fall in with the discipline of +the poet. But, on the other hand, a mind thus richly +endowed in the direction of natural history may be +almost shorn of endowment as regards the more strictly +called physical and mechanical sciences. Goethe was in +this condition. He could not formulate distinct mechanical +conceptions; he could not see the force of mechanical +reasoning; and in regions where such reasoning reigns +supreme he became a mere <i>ignis fatuus</i> to those who +followed him. +</p> + +<p> +I have sometimes permitted myself to compare Aristotle +with Goethe, to credit the Stagirite with an almost +superhuman power of amassing and systematizing facts, but +to consider him fatally defective on that side of the mind +in respect to which incompleteness has been just ascribed +to Goethe. Whewell refers the errors of Aristotle, not +to a neglect of facts, but to 'a neglect of the idea +appropriate to the facts; the idea of Mechanical cause, +which is Force, and the substitution of vague or +inapplicable notions, involving only relations of space or +emotions of wonder.' This is doubtless true; but the +word 'neglect' implies mere intellectual misdirection, +whereas in Aristotle, as in Goethe, it was not, I believe, +misdirection, but sheer natural incapacity which lay at +the root of his mistakes. As a physicist, Aristotle +displayed what we should consider some of the worst +attributes of a modern physical investigator—indistinctness +of ideas, confusion of mind, and a confident use of +language, which led to the delusive notion that he had really +mastered his subject, while he had as yet failed to grasp even +the elements of it. He put words in the place of things, +subject in the place of object. He preached Induction +without practising it, inverting the true order of inquiry +by passing from the general to the particular, instead of +from the particular to the general. He made of the +universe a closed sphere, in the centre of which he fixed +the earth, proving from general principles, to his own +satisfaction and to that of the world for near 2,000 years, +that no other universe was possible. His notions of motion +were entirely unphysical. It was natural or unnatural, +better or worse, calm or violent—no real mechanical +conception regarding it lying at the bottom of his mind. +He affirmed that a vacuum could not exist, and proved +that if it did exist motion in it would be impossible. He +determined <i>à priori</i> how many species of animals must +exist, and shows on general principles why animals must +have such and such parts. When an eminent contemporary +philosopher, who is far removed from errors of +this kind, remembers these abuses of the <i>à priori</i> method, +he will be able to make allowance for the jealousy of +physicists as to the acceptance of so-called <i>à priori</i> truths. +Aristotle's errors of detail, as shown by Eucken and +Lange, were grave and numerous. He affirmed that only +in man we had the beating of the heart, that the left +side of the body was colder than the right, that men +have more teeth than women, and that there is an empty +space at the back of every man's head. +</p> + +<p> +There is one essential quality in physical conceptions +which was entirely wanting in those of Aristotle and his +followers. I wish it could be expressed by a word untainted +by its associations; it signifies a capability of being placed +as a coherent picture before the mind. The Germans +express the act of picturing by the word <i>vorstellen</i>, and the +picture they call a <i>Vorstellung</i>. We have no word in +English which comes nearer to our requirements than +<i>Imagination</i>, and, taken with its proper limitations, the word +answers very well; but, as just intimated, it is tainted +by its associations, and therefore objectionable to some +minds. Compare, with reference to this capacity of +mental presentation, the case of the Aristotelian who +refers the ascent of water in a pump to Nature's +abhorrence of a vacuum, with that of Pascal when he proposed +to solve the question of atmospheric pressure by the +ascent of the Puy de Dome. In the one case the terms +of the explanation refuse to fall into place as a physical +image; in the other the image is distinct, the fall and +rise of the barometer being clearly figured as the +balancing of two varying and opposing pressures. +</p> + +<p> +During the drought of the Middle Ages in Christendom, +the Arabian intellect, as forcibly shown by Draper, +was active. With the intrusion of the Moors into Spain, +he says, order, learning, and refinement took the place +of their opposites. When smitten with disease, the +Christian peasant resorted to a shrine, the Moorish one +to an instructed physician. The Arabs encouraged +translations from the Greek philosophers, but not from the +Greek poets. They turned in disgust 'from the lewdness +of our classical mythology, and denounced as an +unpardonable blasphemy all connexion between the impure +Olympian Jove and the Most High God.' Draper traces +still further than Whewell the Arab elements in our +scientific terms, and points out that the under garment of +ladies retains to this hour its Arab name. He gives +examples of what Arabian men of science accomplished, +dwelling particularly on Alhazen, who was the first to +correct the Platonic notion that rays of light are emitted +by the eye. He discovered atmospheric refraction, and +points out that we see the sun and the moon after they +have set. He explains the enlargement of the sun and +moon, and the shortening of the vertical diameters of +both these bodies, when near the horizon. He is aware +that the atmosphere decreases in density with increase of +elevation, and actually fixes its height at 58½ miles. In the +Book of the Balance Wisdom, he sets forth the connexion +between the weight of the atmosphere and its increasing +density. He shows that a body will weigh differently in +a rare and dense atmosphere: he considers the force with +which plunged bodies rise through heavier media. He +understands the doctrine of the centre of gravity, and +applies it to the investigation of balances and steelyards. +He recognises gravity as a force, though he falls into the +error of making it diminish simply as the distance +increased, and of making it purely terrestrial. He knows the +relation between the velocities, spaces, and times of falling +bodies, and has distinct ideas of capillary attraction. He +improved the hydrometer. The determination of the densities +of bodies as given by Alhazen approach very closely +to our own. 'I join,' says Draper, in the pious prayer +of Alhazen, 'that in the day of judgment the All-Merciful +will take pity on the soul of Abur-Raihân, because +he was the first of the race of men to construct a table of +specific gravities.' If all this be historic truth (and I +have entire confidence in Dr. Draper), well may he +'deplore the systematic manner in which the literature +of Europe has contrived to put out of sight our scientific +obligations to the Mahommedans.'[<a id="chap01fn11text"></a><a href="#chap01fn11">11</a>] +</p> + +<p> +The strain upon the mind during the stationary period +towards ultra-terrestrial things, to the neglect of problems +close at hand, was sure to provoke reaction. But the +reaction was gradual; for the ground was dangerous, a +power being at hand competent to crush the critic who +went too far. To elude this power and still allow +opportunity for the expression of opinion, the doctrine of +'twofold truth' was invented, according to which an +opinion might be held; 'theologically' and the opposite +opinion 'philosophically.'[<a id="chap01fn12text"></a><a href="#chap01fn12">12</a>] Thus in the thirteenth +century the creation of the world in six days, and the +unchangeableness of the individual soul which had been +so distinctly affirmed by St. Thomas Aquinas, were both +denied philosophically, but admitted to be true as articles +of the Catholic faith. When Protagoras uttered the +maxim which brought upon him so much vituperation, +that' opposite assertions are equally true,' he simply meant +that human beings differed so much from each other that +what was subjectively true to the one might be +subjectively untrue to the other. The great Sophist never +meant to play fast and loose with the truth by saying +that one of two opposite assertions, made by the same +individual, could possibly escape being a lie. It was not +'sophistry,' but the dread of theologic vengeance that +generated this double dealing with conviction; and it is +astonishing to notice what lengths were possible to men +who were adroit in the use of artifices of this kind. +</p> + +<p> +Towards the close of the stationary period a +word-weariness, if I may so express it, took more and more +possession of men's minds. Christendom had become +sick of the School philosophy and its verbal wastes, which +led to no issue, but left the intellect in everlasting haze. +Here and there was heard the voice of one impatiently +crying in the wilderness, 'Not unto Aristotle, not unto +subtle hypothesis, not unto church, Bible, or blind +tradition, must we turn for a knowledge of the universe, but +to the direct investigation of Nature by observation and +experiment.' In 1543 the epoch-making work of Copernicus +on the paths of the heavenly bodies appeared. The +total crash of Aristotle's closed universe with the earth +at its centre followed as a consequence, and 'the earth +moves!' became a kind of watchword among intellectual +freemen. Copernicus was Canon of the Church of Frauenburg, +in the diocese of Ermeland. For three-and-thirty +years he had withdrawn himself from the world and +devoted himself to the consolidation of his great scheme +of the solar system. He made its blocks eternal; and +even to those who feared it and desired its overthrow it +was so obviously strong that they refrained for a time +from meddling with it. In the last year of the life of +Copernicus his book appeared: it is said that the old +man received a copy of it a few days before his death, +and then departed in peace. +</p> + +<p> +The Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was one of +the earliest converts to the new astronomy. Taking +Lucretius as his exemplar, he revived the notion of the +infinity of worlds; and, combining with it the doctrine +of Copernicus, reached the sublime generalization that +the fixed stars are suns, scattered numberless through +space and accompanied by satellites, which bear the +same relation to them, that our earth does to our sun, or +our moon to our earth. This was an expansion of +transcendent import; but Bruno came closer than this +to our present line of thought. Struck with the problem +of the generation and maintenance of organisms, and duly +pondering it, he came to the conclusion that Nature in +her productions does not imitate the technic of man. +Her process is one of unravelling and unfolding. The +infinity of forms under which matter appears were not +imposed upon it by an external artificer; by its own +intrinsic force and virtue it brings these forms forth. +Matter is not the mere naked, empty capacity which +philosophers have pictured her to be, but the universal +mother who brings forth all things as the fruit of her +own womb. +</p> + +<p> +This outspoken man was originally a Dominican +monk. He was accused of heresy and had to fly, seeking +refuge in Geneva, Paris, England, and Germany. In +1592 he fell into the hands of the Inquisition at Venice. +He was imprisoned for many years, tried, degraded, +excommunicated, and handed over to the civil power, with +the request that he should be treated gently and 'without +the shedding of blood.' This meant that he was to be +burnt; and burnt accordingly he was, on the 16th of +February, 1600. To escape a similar fate Galileo, thirty-three +years afterwards, abjured, upon his knees, and with his +hand upon the holy gospels, the heliocentric doctrine +which he knew to be true. After Galileo came Kepler, +who from his German home defied the power beyond +the Alps. He traced out from pre-existing observations +the laws of planetary motion. Materials were thus +prepared for Newton, who bound those empirical laws +together by the principle of gravitation. +</p> + +<p> +In the seventeenth century Bacon and Descartes, the +restorers of philosophy, appeared in succession. Differently +educated and endowed, their philosophic tendencies were +different. Bacon held fast to Induction, believing firmly +in the existence of an external world, and making collected +experiences the basis of all knowledge. The mathematical +studies of Descartes gave him a bias towards Deduction; +and his fundamental principle was much the same as that +of Protagoras, who made the individual man the measure +of all things. 'I think, therefore I am,' said Descartes. +Only his own identity was sure to him; and the development +of this system would have led to an idealism in +which the outer world would be resolved into a mere +phenomenon of consciousness. Gassendi, one of Descartes's +contemporaries, of whom we shall hear more presently, +quickly pointed out that the fact of personal existence +would be proved as well by reference to any other act as +to the act of thinking. I eat, therefore I am; or I love, +therefore I am, would be quite as conclusive. Lichtenberg +showed that the very thing to be proved was inevitably +postulated in the first two words, 'I think;' and that no +inference from the postulate could by any possibility be +stronger than the postulate itself. +</p> + +<p> +But Descartes deviated strangely from the idealism +implied in his fundamental principle. He was the first +to reduce, in a manner eminently capable of bearing the +test of mental presentation, vital phenomena to purely +mechanical principles. Through fear or love, Descartes +was a good churchman; he accordingly rejects the +notion of an atom, because it was absurd to suppose that +God, if he so pleased, could not divide an atom; he puts +in the place of the atoms small round particles and light +splinters, out of which he builds the organism. He +sketches with marvellous physical insight a machine, with +water for its motive power, which shall illustrate vital +actions. He has made clear to his mind that such a +machine would be competent to carry on the processes of +digestion, nutrition, growth, respiration, and the beating of +the heart. It would be competent to accept impressions +from the external sense, to store them up in imagination +and memory, to go through the internal movements of +the appetites and passions, the external movement of +limbs. He deduces these functions of his machine from +the mere arrangement of its organs, as the movement of a +clock or other automaton is deduced from its weights and +wheels. 'As far as these functions are concerned,' he +says, 'it is not necessary to conceive any other vegetative +or sensitive soul, nor any other principle of motion or of +life, than the blood and the spirits agitated by the fire +which burns continually in the heart, and which is in no +wise different from the fires which exist in inanimate +bodies.' Had Descartes been acquainted with the steam-engine, +he would have taken it, instead of a fall of water, +as his motive power, and shown the perfect analogy which +exists between the oxidation of the food in the body and +that of the coal in the furnace. He would assuredly +have anticipated Mayer in calling the blood which the +heart diffuses 'the oil of the lamp of life;' deducing all +animal motions from the combustion of this oil, as the +motions of a steam-engine are deduced from the combustion +of its coal. As the matter stands, however, and +considering the circumstances of the time, the boldness, +clearness, and precision with which he grasped the problem +of vital dynamics constitute a marvellous illustration of +intellectual power.[<a id="chap01fn13text"></a><a href="#chap01fn13">13</a>] +</p> + +<p> +During the Middle Ages the doctrine of atoms had to +all appearance vanished from discussion. In all +probability it held its ground among sober-minded and +thoughtful men, though neither the church nor the +world was prepared to hear of it with tolerance. Once, +in the year 1348, it received distinct expression. But +retractation by compulsion immediately followed, and, thus +discouraged, it slumbered till the seventeenth century, when +it was revived by a contemporary and friend of Hobbes +and Malmesbury, the orthodox Catholic provost of Digne, +Gassendi. But before stating his relation to the Epicurean +doctrine, it will be well to say a few words on the effect, +as regards science, of the general introduction of +monotheism among European nations. +</p> + +<p> +'Were men,' says Hume, 'led into the apprehension of +invisible intelligent power by 'contemplation of the works +of Nature, they could never possibly entertain any conception +but of one single being, who bestowed existence and +order on this vast machine, and adjusted all its parts to +one regular system.' Referring to the condition of the +heathen, who sees a god behind every natural event, thus +peopling the world with thousands of beings whose +caprices are incalculable, Lange shows the impossibility +of any compromise between such notions and those of +science, which proceeds on the assumption of never-changing +law and causality. 'But,' he continues, with +characteristic penetration, 'when the great thought of +one God, acting as a unit upon the universe, has been +seized, the connexion of things in accordance with the +law of cause and effect is not only thinkable, but it is a +necessary consequence of the assumption. For when I +see ten thousand wheels in motion, and know, or believe, +that they are all driven by one, then I know that I have +before me a mechanism the action of every part of which +is determined by the plan of the whole. So much being +assumed, it follows that I may investigate the structure +of that machine, and the various motions of its parts. +For the time being, therefore, this conception renders +scientific action free.' In other words, were a capricious +God at the circumference of every wheel and at the end +of every lever, the action of the machine would be +incalculable by the methods of science. But the action of all +its parts being rigidly determined by their connexions +and relations, and these being brought into play by a +single self-acting driving wheel, then, though this last prime +mover may elude me, I am still able to comprehend the +machinery which it sets in motion. We have here a +conception of the relation of Nature to its Author which +seems perfectly acceptable to some minds, but perfectly +intolerable to others. Newton and Boyle lived and worked +happily under the influence of this conception; Goethe +rejected it with vehemence, and the same repugnance to +accepting it is manifest in Carlyle.[<a id="chap01fn14text"></a><a href="#chap01fn14">14</a>] +</p> + +<p> +The analytic and synthetic tendencies of the human +mind exhibit themselves throughout history, great writers +ranging themselves sometimes on the one side, sometimes +on the other. Men of warm feelings and minds open to the +elevating impressions produced by Nature as a whole, +whose satisfaction, therefore, is rather ethical than logical, +lean to the synthetic side; while the analytic +harmonizes best with the more precise and more mechanical +bias which seeks the satisfaction of the understanding. +Some form of pantheism was usually adopted by the one, +while a detached Creator, working more or less after +the manner of men, was often assumed by the other. +Gassendi is hardly to be ranked with either. Having +formally acknowledged God as the great first cause, he +immediately dropped the idea, applied the known laws of +mechanics to the atoms, deducing thence all vital +phenomena. He defended Epicurus, and dwelt upon his +purity, both of doctrine and of life. True he was a heathen, +but so was Aristotle. He assailed superstition and +religion, and rightly, because he did not know the true +religion. He thought that the gods neither rewarded nor +punished, and adored them purely in consequence of their +completeness; here we see, says Gassendi, the reverence +of the child instead of the fear of the slave. The errors +of Epicurus shall be corrected, the body of his truth +retained; and then Gassendi proceeds, as any heathen might +do, to build up the world, and all that therein is, of atoms +and molecules. God, who created earth and water, plants +and animals, produced in the first place a definite number +of atoms, which constituted the seed of all things. Then +began that series of combinations and decompositions +which goes on at present, and which will continue +in future. The principle of every change resides in +matter. In artificial productions the moving principle is +different from the material worked upon; but in Nature +the agent works within, being the most active and mobile +part of the material itself. Thus, this bold ecclesiastic, +without incurring the censure of the church or the +world, contrives to outstrip Mr. Darwin. The same cast +of mind which caused him to detach the Creator from his +universe led him also to detach the soul from the body, +though to the body he ascribes an influence so large as to +render the soul almost unnecessary. The aberrations of +reason were in his view an affair of the material brain. +Mental disease is brain disease; but then the immortal +reason sits apart, and cannot be touched by the disease. +The errors of madness are errors of the instrument, not of +the performer. +</p> + +<p> +It may be more than a mere result of education, +connecting itself probably with the deeper mental structure +of the two men, that the idea of Gassendi above enunciated +is substantially the same as that expressed by Professor +Clerk Maxwell at the close of the very able lecture +delivered by him at Bradford last year. According to +both philosophers, the atoms, if I understand aright, are +the prepared materials which, formed by the skill of the +highest, produce by their subsequent inter-action all the +phenomena of the material world. There seems to be +this difference, however, between Gassendi and Maxwell. +The one <i>postulates</i>, the other <i>infers</i> his first cause. In his +'manufactured articles,' as he calls the atoms, Professor +Maxwell finds the basis of an induction which enables +him to scale philosophic heights considered inaccessible +by Kant, and to take the logical step from the atoms to +their Maker. +</p> + +<p> +Accepting here the leadership of Kant, I doubt +the legitimacy of Maxwell's logic; but it is impossible +not to feel the ethic glow with which his lecture +concludes. There is, moreover, a very noble strain of +eloquence in his description of the steadfastness of the +atoms:—'Natural causes, as we know, are at work, which +tend to modify, if they do not at length destroy, all the +arrangements and dimensions of the earth and the whole +solar system. But though in the course of ages +catastrophes have occurred and may yet occur in the heavens, +though ancient systems may be dissolved and new systems +evolved out of their ruins, the molecules out of which +these systems are built—the foundation stones of the +material universe—remain unbroken and unworn.' +</p> + +<p> +The atomic doctrine, in whole or in part, was +entertained by Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Newton, +Boyle, and their successors, until the chemical law of +multiple proportions enabled Dalton to confer upon it an +entirely new significance. In our day there are secessions +from the theory, but it still stands firm. Loschmidt, +Stoney, and Sir William Thomson have sought to determine +the sizes of the atoms, or rather to fix the limits +between which their sizes lie; while only last year the +discourses of Williamson and Maxwell illustrate the +present hold of the doctrine upon the foremost scientific +minds. In fact, it may be doubted whether, wanting this +fundamental conception, a theory of the material universe +is capable of scientific statement. +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +Ninety years subsequent to Gassendi the doctrine of +bodily instruments, as it may be called, assumed immense +importance in the hands of Bishop Butler, who, in his +famous 'Analogy of Religion,' developed, from his own +point of view, and with consummate sagacity, a similar +idea. The Bishop still influences superior minds; and it +will repay us to dwell for a moment on his views. He +draws the sharpest distinction between our real selves and +our bodily instruments. He does not, as far as I remember, +use the word soul, possibly because the term was so +hackneyed in his day as it had been for many generations +previously. But he speaks of 'living powers,' 'perceiving' +or 'percipient powers,' 'moving agents,' 'ourselves,' in the +same sense as we should employ the term soul. He +dwells upon the fact that limbs may be removed, and +mortal diseases assail the body, the mind, almost up +to the moment of death, remaining clear. He refers to +sleep and to swoon, where the 'living powers' are +suspended but not destroyed. He considers it quite as easy +to conceive of existence out of our bodies as in them: +that we may animate a succession of bodies, the dissolution +of all of them having no more tendency to dissolve +our real selves, or 'deprive us of living faculties—the +faculties of perception and action—than the dissolution of +any foreign matter which we are capable of receiving +impressions from, or making use of for the common +occasions of life.' This is the key of the Bishop's position; +'our organized bodies are no more a part of ourselves +than any other matter around us.' In proof of this he +calls attention to the use of glasses, which 'prepare objects' +for the 'percipient power' exactly as the eye does. The +eye itself is no more percipient than the glass; is quite +as much the instrument of the true self, and also as foreign +to the true self, as the glass is. 'And if we see with our +eyes only in the same manner as we do with glasses, the like +may justly be concluded from analogy of all our senses.' +</p> + +<p> +Lucretius, as you are aware, reached a precisely opposite +conclusion; and it certainly would be interesting, +if not profitable, to us all, to hear what he would or could +urge in opposition to the reasoning of the Bishop. As a +brief discussion of the point will enable us to see the +bearings of an important question, I will here permit a +disciple of Lucretius to try the strength of the Bishop's +position, and then allow the Bishop to retaliate, with the +view of rolling back, if he can, the difficulty upon +Lucretius. +</p> + +<p> +The argument might proceed in this fashion:— +</p> + +<p> +'Subjected to the test of mental presentation (<i>Vorstellung</i>), +your views, most honoured prelate, would present +to many minds a great, if not an insuperable difficulty. +You speak of "living powers," "percipient or perceiving +powers," and "ourselves;" but can you form a mental +picture of any one of these apart from the organism +through which it is supposed to act? Test yourself +honestly, and see whether you possess any faculty that +would enable you to form such a conception. The true +self has a local habitation in each of us; thus localized, +must it not possess a form? If so, what form? Have +you ever for a moment realized it? When a leg is amputated +the body is divided into two parts; is the true self +in both of them or in one? Thomas Aquinas might say in +both; but not you, for you appeal to the consciousness +associated with one of the two parts to prove that the +other is foreign matter. Is consciousness, then, a necessary +element of the true self? If so, what do you say to the +case of the whole body being deprived of consciousness? +If not, then on what grounds do you deny any portion of +the true self to the severed limb? It seems very singular +that, from the beginning to the end of your admirable +book (and no one admires its sober strength more than I +do), you never once mention the brain or nervous system. +You begin at one end of the body, and show that its parts +may be removed without prejudice to the perceiving +power. What if you begin at the other end, and remove, +instead of the leg, the brain? The body, as before, is +divided into two parts; but both are now in the same +predicament, and neither can be appealed to to prove that +the other is foreign matter. Or, instead of going so far +as to remove the brain itself, let a certain portion of its +bony covering be removed, and let a rhythmic series of +pressures and relaxations of pressure be applied to the +soft substance. At every pressure "the faculties of +perception and of action" vanish; at every relaxation of +pressure they are restored. Where, during the intervals +of pressure, is the perceiving power? I once had the +discharge of a large Leyden battery passed unexpectedly +through me: I felt nothing, but was simply blotted out of +conscious existence for a sensible interval. Where was +my true self during that interval? Men who have +recovered from lightning-stroke have been much longer in +the same state; and indeed in cases of ordinary concussion +of the brain, days may elapse during which no experience +is registered in consciousness. Where is the man himself +during the period of insensibility? You may say that I +beg the question when I assume the man to have been +unconscious, that he was really conscious all the time, +and has simply forgotten what had occurred to him. In +reply to this, I can only say that no one need shrink from +the worst tortures that superstition ever invented if only +so felt and so remembered. I do not think your theory +of instruments goes at all to the bottom of the matter. A +telegraph-operator has his instruments, by means of which +he converses with the world; our bodies possess a nervous +system, which plays a similar part between the perceiving +power and external things. Cut the wires of the operator, +break his battery, demagnetize his needle: by this means +you certainly sever his connexion with the world; but +inasmuch as these are real instruments, their destruction +does not touch the man who uses them. The operator +survives, <i>and he knows that he survives</i>. What is it, I +would ask, in the human system that answers to this +conscious survival of the operator when the battery of the +brain is so disturbed as to produce insensibility, or when +it is destroyed altogether? +</p> + +<p> +'Another consideration, which you may consider +slight, presses upon me with some force. The brain may +change from health to disease, and through such a change +the most exemplary man may be converted into a +debauchee or a murderer. My very noble and approved +good master had, as you know, threatenings of lewdness +introduced into his brain by his jealous wife's philter; +and sooner than permit himself to run even the risk of +yielding to these base promptings he slew himself. How +could the hand of Lucretius have been thus turned against +himself if the real Lucretius remained as before? Can +the brain or can it not act in this distempered way without +the intervention of the immortal reason? If it can, then +it is a prime mover which requires only healthy regulation +to render it reasonably self-acting, and there is no +apparent need of your immortal reason at all. If it cannot, +then the immortal reason, by its mischievous activity in +operating upon a broken instrument, must have the credit +of committing every imaginable extravagance and crime. +I think, if you will allow me to say so, that the gravest +consequences are likely to flow from your estimate of the +body. To regard the brain as you would a staff or an +eyeglass—to shut your eyes to all its mystery, to the +perfect correlation of its condition and our consciousness, +to the fact that a slight excess or defect of blood in +it produces the very swoon to which you refer, and +that in relation to it our meat and drink and air and +exercise have a perfectly transcendental value and +significance—to forget all this does, I think, open a way to +innumerable errors in our habits of life, and may possibly +in some cases initiate and foster that very disease, and +consequent mental ruin, which a wiser appreciation of +this mysterious organ would have avoided.' +</p> + +<p> +I can imagine the Bishop thoughtful after hearing this +argument. He was not the man to allow anger to +mingle with the consideration of a point of this kind. After +due reflection, and having strengthened himself by that +honest contemplation of the facts which was habitual +with him, and which includes the desire to give even +adverse facts their due weight, I can suppose the Bishop +to proceed thus:—'You will remember that in the +"Analogy of Religion," of which you have so kindly +spoken, I did not profess to prove anything absolutely, +and that I over and over again acknowledged and +insisted on the smallness of our knowledge, or rather the +depth of our ignorance, as regards the whole system of +the universe. My object was to show my deistical friends, +who set forth so eloquently the beauty and beneficence +of Nature and the Ruler thereof, while they had nothing +but scorn for the so-called absurdities of the Christian +scheme, that they were in no better condition than we +were, and that, for every difficulty found upon our side, +quite as great a difficulty was to be found upon theirs. I +will now, with your permission, adopt a similar line of +argument. You are a Lucretian, and from the combination and +separation of insensate atoms deduce all terrestrial things, +including organic forms and their phenomena. Let me +tell you, in the first instance, how far I am prepared to go +with you. I admit that you can build crystalline forms +out of this play of molecular force; that the diamond, +amethyst, and snow-star are truly wonderful structures +which are thus produced. I will go further +and acknowledge that even a tree or flower might in +this way be organized. Nay, if you can show me an +animal without sensation, I will concede to you that it +also might be put together by the suitable play of +molecular force. +</p> + +<p> +'Thus far our way is clear; but now comes my difficulty. +Your atoms are individually without sensation, +much more are they without intelligence. May I ask +you, then, to try your hand upon this problem? Take +your dead hydrogen atoms, your dead oxygen atoms, +your dead carbon atoms, your dead nitrogen atoms, your +dead phosphorus atoms, and all the other atoms, dead +as grains of shot, of which the brain is formed. Imagine +them separate and sensationless, observe them running +together and forming all imaginable combinations. This, +as a purely mechanical process, is seeable by the mind. +But can you see, or dream, or in any way imagine, how +out of that mechanical act, and from these individually +dead atoms, sensation, thought, and emotion are to arise? +Are you likely to extract Homer out of the rattling of dice, +or the Differential Calculus out of the clash of billiard-balls? +I am not all bereft of this Vorstellungs-Kraft of which you +speak, nor am I, like so many of my brethren, a mere +vacuum as regards scientific knowledge. I can follow a +particle of musk until it reaches the olfactory nerve; I can +follow the waves of sound until their tremors reach the +water of the labyrinth and set the otoliths and Corti's +fibres in motion; I can also visualize the waves of ether +as they cross the eye and hit the retina. Nay more, I +am able to pursue to the central organ the motion thus +imparted at the periphery, and to see in idea the very +molecules of the brain thrown into tremors. My insight +is not baffled by these physical processes. What baffles +and bewilders me, is the notion that from those physical +tremors things so utterly incongruous with them as +sensation, thought, and emotion can be derived. You may +say, or think, that this issue of consciousness from the +clash of atoms is not more incongruous than the flash of +light from the union of oxygen and hydrogen. But I beg +to say that it is. For such incongruity as the flash +possesses is that which I now force upon your attention. +The flash is an affair of consciousness, the objective +counterpart of which is a vibration. It is a flash only by +your interpretation. You are the cause of the apparent +incongruity, and you are the thing that puzzles me. I +need not remind you that the great Leibnitz felt the +difficulty which I feel, and that to get rid of this monstrous +deduction of life from death he displaced your atoms by +his monads, which were more or less perfect mirrors of the +universe, and out of the summation and integration of +which he supposed all the phenomena of life—sentient, +intellectual, and emotional—to arise. +</p> + +<p> +'Your difficulty, then, as I see you are ready to +admit, is quite as great as mine. You cannot satisfy the +human understanding in its demand for logical continuity +between molecular processes and the phenomena of +consciousness. This is a rock on which materialism must +inevitably split whenever it pretends to be a complete +philosophy of life. What is the moral, my Lucretian? +You and I are not likely to indulge in ill-temper in the +discussion of these great topics, where we see so much +room for honest differences of opinion. But there are +people of less wit or more bigotry (I say it with humility) +on both sides, who are ever ready to mingle anger and +vituperation with such discussions. There are, for +example, writers of note and influence at the present day +who are not ashamed to assume the "deep personal sin" +of a great logician to be the cause of his unbelief in a +theologic dogma. And there are others who hold that +we, who cherish our noble Bible, wrought as it has been +into the constitution of our forefathers, and by inheritance +into us, must necessarily be hypocritical and insincere. +Let us disavow and discountenance such people, cherishing +the unswerving faith that what is good and true in +both our arguments will be preserved for the benefit of +humanity, while all that is bad or false will disappear.' +</p> + +<p> +I hold the Bishop's reasoning to be unanswerable, and +his liberality to be worthy of imitation. +</p> + +<p> +It is worth remarking that in one respect the Bishop +was a product of his age. Long previous to his day the +nature of the soul had been so favourite and general a +topic of discussion, that, when the students of the +University of Paris wished to know the leanings of a new +Professor, they at once requested him to lecture upon the +soul. About the time of Bishop Butler the question was +not only agitated but extended. It was seen by the +clear-witted men who entered this arena that many of their +best arguments applied equally to brutes and men. The +Bishop's arguments were of this character. He saw it, +admitted it, accepted the consequences, and boldly embraced +the whole animal world in his scheme of immortality. +</p> + +<p> +Bishop Butler accepted with unwavering trust the +chronology of the Old Testament, describing it as +'confirmed by the natural and civil history of the world, +collected from common historians, from the state of the +earth, and from the late inventions of arts and sciences.' These +words mark progress; and they must seem somewhat +hoary to the Bishop's successors of to-day.[<a id="chap01fn15text"></a><a href="#chap01fn15">15</a>] It is hardly +necessary to inform you that since his time the domain of +the naturalist has been immensely extended—the whole +science of geology, with its astounding revelations regarding +the life of the ancient earth, having been created. The +rigidity of old conceptions has been relaxed, the public +mind being rendered gradually tolerant of the idea that +not for six thousand, nor for sixty thousand, nor for six +thousand thousand thousand, but for æons embracing +untold millions of years, this earth has been the theatre of +life and death. The riddle of the rocks has been read by +the geologist and palæontologist, from subcambrian depths +to the deposits thickening over the sea-bottoms of to-day. +And upon the leaves of that stone book are, as you know, +stamped the characters, plainer and surer than those +formed by the ink of history, which carry the mind back +into abysses of past time compared with which the periods +which satisfied Bishop Butler cease to have a visual angle. +The lode of discovery once struck, those petrified +forms in which life was at one time active increased to +multitudes and demanded classification. They were +grouped in genera, species, and varieties, according to +the degree of similarity subsisting between them. Thus +confusion was avoided, each object being found in the +pigeon-hole appropriated to it and to its fellows of similar +morphological or physiological character. The general +fact soon became evident that none but the simplest +forms of life lie lowest down, that as we climb higher +among the super-imposed strata more perfect forms +appear. The change, however, from form to form +was not continuous, but by steps—some small, some +great. 'A section,' says Mr. Huxley, 'a hundred feet +thick will exhibit at different heights a dozen species of +Ammonite, none of which passes beyond its particular +zone of limestone, or clay, into the zone below it, or into +that above it.' In the presence of such facts it was not +possible to avoid the question:—Have these forms, +showing, though in broken stages and with many +irregularities, this unmistakable general advance, been +subjected to no continuous law of growth or variation? +Had our education been purely scientific, or had it been +sufficiently detached from influences which, however +ennobling in another domain, have always proved +hindrances and delusions when introduced as factors into +the domain of physics, the scientific mind never could +have swerved from the search for a law of growth, or +allowed itself to accept the anthropomorphism which +regarded each successive stratum as a kind of mechanic's +bench for the manufacture of new species out of all +relation to the old. +</p> + +<p> +Biassed, however, by their previous education, the +great majority of naturalists invoked a special creative +act to account for the appearance of each new group of +organisms. Doubtless there were numbers who were +clear-headed enough to see that this was no explanation +at all, that in point of fact it was an attempt, by the +introduction of a greater difficulty, to account for a less. But +having nothing to offer in the way of explanation, they +for the most part held their peace. Still the thoughts of +reflecting men naturally and necessarily simmered round +the question. De Maillet, a contemporary of Newton, +has been brought into notice by Professor Huxley as one +who 'had a notion of the modifiability of living forms.' In +my frequent conversations with him, the late Sir +Benjamin Brodie, a man of highly philosophic mind, often +drew my attention to the fact that, as early as 1794, +Charles Darwin's grandfather was the pioneer of Charles +Darwin.[<a id="chap01fn16text"></a><a href="#chap01fn16">16</a>] In 1801, and in subsequent years, the +celebrated Lamarck, who produced so profound an impression +on the public mind through the vigorous exposition of his +views by the author of the 'Vestiges of Creation,' +endeavoured to show the development of species out of changes +of habit and external condition. In 1813 Dr. Wells, the +founder of our present theory of Dew, read before the +Royal Society a paper in which, to use the words of +Mr. Darwin, 'he distinctly recognises the principle of +natural selection; and this is the first recognition that +has been indicated.' The thoroughness and skill with +which Wells pursued his work, and the obvious independence +of his character, rendered him long ago a favourite +with me; and it gave me the liveliest pleasure to alight +upon this additional testimony to his penetration. +Professor Grant, Mr. Patrick Matthew, Von Buch, the author +of the 'Vestiges,' D'Halloy, and others,[<a id="chap01fn17text"></a><a href="#chap01fn17">17</a>] by the enunciation +of opinions more or less clear and correct, showed that the +question had been fermenting long prior to the year 1858, +when Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace simultaneously but +independently placed their closely concurrent views upon +the subject before the Linnean Society. +</p> + +<p> +These papers were followed in 1859 by the publication +of the first edition of 'The Origin of Species.' All great +things come slowly to the birth. Copernicus, as I informed +you, pondered his great work for thirty-three years. +Newton for nearly twenty years kept the idea of Gravitation +before his mind; for twenty years also he dwelt upon his +discovery of Fluxions, and doubtless would have continued +to make it the object of his private thought had he not +found that Leibnitz was upon his track. Darwin for two +and twenty years pondered the problem of the origin of +species, and doubtless he would have continued to do so +had he not found Wallace upon his track.[<a id="chap01fn18text"></a><a href="#chap01fn18">18</a>] A concentrated +but full and powerful epitome of his labours was +the consequence. The book was by no means an easy one; +and probably not one in every score of those who then +attacked it had read its pages through, or were competent +to grasp their significance if they had. I do not say this +merely to discredit them; for there were in those days +some really eminent scientific men, entirely raised above +the heat of popular prejudice, willing to accept any +conclusion that science had to offer, provided it was duly +backed by fact and argument, and who entirely mistook +Mr. Darwin's views. In fact, the work needed an expounder; +and it found one in Mr. Huxley. I know nothing more +admirable in the way of scientific exposition than those +early articles of his on the origin of species. He swept +the curve of discussion through the really significant points +of the subject, enriched his exposition with profound +original remarks and reflections, often summing up in a +single pithy sentence an argument which a less compact +mind would have spread over pages. But there is one +impression made by the book itself which no exposition of +it, however luminous, can convey; and that is the impression +of the vast amount of labour, both of observation and +of thought, implied in its production. Let us glance at its +principles. +</p> + +<p> +It is conceded on all hands that what are called varieties +are continually produced. The rule is probably without +exception. No chick and no child is in all respects +and particulars the counterpart of its brother and sister; +and in such differences we have 'variety' incipient. No +naturalist could tell how far this variation could be carried; +but the great mass of them held that never by any amount +of internal or external change, nor by the mixture of both, +could the offspring of the same progenitor so far deviate +from each other as to constitute different species. The +function of the experimental philosopher is to combine +the conditions of nature and to produce her results; and +this was the method of Darwin.[<a id="chap01fn19text"></a><a href="#chap01fn19">19</a>] He made himself +acquainted with what could, without any manner of doubt, +be done in the way of producing variation. He associated +himself with pigeon-fanciers—bought, begged, kept, and +observed every breed that he could obtain. Though derived +from a common stock, the diversities of these pigeons were +such that 'a score of them might be chosen which, if +shown to an ornithologist, and he were told that they were +wild birds, would certainly be ranked by him as well-defined +species.' The simple principle which guides the +pigeon-fancier, as it does the cattle-breeder, is the selection +of some variety that strikes his fancy, and the propagation +of this variety by inheritance. With his eye still directed to +the particular appearance which he wishes to exaggerate, +he selects it as it reappears in successive broods, and thus +adds increment to increment until an astonishing amount of +divergence from the parent type is effected. The breeder in +this case does not produce the elements of the variation. He +simply observes them, and by selection adds them together +until the required result has been obtained. 'No man,' +says Mr. Darwin, 'would ever try to make a fantail till he +saw a pigeon with a tail developed in some slight degree +in an unusual manner, or a pouter until he saw a pigeon +with a crop of unusual size.' Thus nature gives the hint, +man acts upon it, and by the law of inheritance exaggerates +the deviation. +</p> + +<p> +Having thus satisfied himself by indubitable facts that +the organization of an animal or of a plant (for precisely +the same treatment applies to plants) is to some extent +plastic, he passes from variation under domestication to +variation under nature. Hitherto we have dealt with the +adding together of small changes by the conscious selection +of man. Can Nature thus select? Mr. Darwin's answer +is, 'Assuredly she can.' The number of living things +produced is far in excess of the number that can be supported; +hence at some period or other of their lives there must be +a struggle for existence; and what is the infallible result? +If one organism were a perfect copy of the other in regard +to strength, skill, and agility, external conditions would +decide. But this is not the case. Here we have the fact +of variety offering itself to nature, as in the former instance +it offered itself to man; and those varieties which are least +competent to cope with surrounding conditions will infallibly +give way to those that are most competent. To use +a familiar proverb, the weakest comes to the wall. But +the triumphant fraction again breeds to overproduction, +transmitting the qualities which secured its maintenance, +but transmitting them in different degrees. The struggle +for food again supervenes, and those to whom the favourable +quality has been transmitted in excess will assuredly +triumph. It is easy to see that we have here the addition +of increments favourable to the individual still more +rigorously carried out than in the case of domestication; for +not only are unfavourable specimens not selected by nature, +but they are destroyed. This is what Mr. Darwin calls +'Natural Selection,' which 'acts by the preservation and +accumulation of small inherited modifications, each +profitable to the preserved being.' With this idea he +interpenetrates and leavens the vast store of facts that he and +others have collected. We cannot, without shutting our +eyes through fear or prejudice, fail to see that Darwin is +here dealing, not with imaginary, but with true causes; +nor can we fail to discern what vast modifications may be +produced by natural selection in periods sufficiently long. +Each individual increment may resemble what mathematicians +call a 'differential' (a quantity indefinitely small); +but definite and great changes may obviously be produced +by the integration of these infinitesimal quantities through +practically infinite time. +</p> + +<p> +If Darwin, like Bruno, rejects the notion of creative +power acting after human fashion, it certainly is not +because he is unacquainted with the numberless exquisite +adaptations on which this notion of a supernatural artificer +has been founded. His book is a repository of the most +startling facts of this description. Take the marvellous +observation which he cites from Dr. Crüger, where a +bucket with an aperture, serving as a spout, is formed in +an orchid. Bees visit the flower: in eager search of +material for their combs they push each other into the +bucket, the drenched ones escaping from their involuntary +bath by the spout. Here they rub their backs against the +viscid stigma of the flower and obtain glue; then against the +pollen-masses, which are thus stuck to the back of the bee +and carried away. 'When the bee, so provided, flies +to another flower, or to the same flower a second time, +and is pushed by its comrades into the bucket, and then +crawls out by the passage, the pollen-mass upon its back +necessarily comes first into contact with the viscid stigma,' +which takes up the pollen; and this is how that orchid +is fertilized. Or take this other case of the <i>Catasetum</i>. +'Bees visit these flowers in order to gnaw the labellum; +in doing this they inevitably touch a long, tapering, +sensitive projection. This, when touched, transmits a sensation +or vibration to a certain membrane, which is instantly +ruptured, setting free a spring, by which the pollen-mass +is shot forth like an arrow in the right direction, and +adheres by its viscid extremity to the back of the bee.' In +this way the fertilising pollen is spread abroad. +</p> + +<p> +It is the mind thus stored with the choicest materials +of the teleologist that rejects teleology, seeking to refer +these wonders to natural cases. They illustrate, according +to him, the method of nature, not the 'technic' of a +man-like Artificer. The beauty of flowers is due to natural +selection. Those that distinguish themselves by vividly +contrasting colours from the surrounding green leaves are +most readily seen, most frequently visited by insects, most +often fertilized, and hence most favoured by natural +selection. Coloured berries also readily attract the attention +of birds and beasts, which feed upon them, spread their +manured seeds abroad, thus giving trees and shrubs +possessing such berries a greater chance in the struggle +for existence. +</p> + +<p> +With profound analytic and synthetic skill, Mr. Darwin +investigates the cell-making instinct of the hive-bee. His +method of dealing with it is representative. He falls back +from the more perfectly to the less perfectly developed +instinct—from the hive-bee to the humble bee, which +uses its own cocoon as a comb, and to classes of bees of +intermediate skill, endeavouring to show how the passage +might be gradually made from the lowest to the highest. +The saving of wax is the most important point in the +economy of bees. Twelve to fifteen pounds of dry sugar +are said to be needed for the secretion of a single pound of +wax. The quantities of nectar necessary for the wax must +therefore be vast; and every improvement of constructive +instinct which results in the saving of wax is a direct +profit to the insect's life. The time that would otherwise +be devoted to the making of wax is now devoted to the +gathering and storing of honey for winter food. He passes +from the humble bee with its rude cells, through the +Melipona with its more artistic cells, to the hive-bee with +its astonishing architecture. The bees place themselves +at equal distances apart upon the wax, sweep and excavate +equal spheres round the selected points. The spheres +intersect, and the planes of intersection are built up with +thin laminæ. Hexagonal cells are thus formed. This +mode of treating such questions is, as I have said, +representative. He habitually retires from the more perfect +and complex to the less perfect and simple, and carries +you with him through stages of perfecting, adds increment +to increment of infinitesimal change, and in this way +gradually breaks down your reluctance to admit that +the exquisite climax of the whole could be a result of +natural selection. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Darwin shirks no difficulty; and, saturated as the +subject was with his own thought, he must have known +better than his critics the weakness as well as the strength +of his theory. This of course would be of little avail +were his object a temporary dialectic victory instead of +the establishment of a truth which he means to be +ever-lasting. But he takes no pains to disguise the weakness +he has discerned; nay, he takes every pains to bring it +into the strongest light. His vast resources enable him to +cope with objections started by himself and others, so as +to leave the final impression upon the reader's mind that, +if they be not completely answered, they certainly are not +fatal. Their negative force being thus destroyed, you are +free to be influenced by the vast positive mass of evidence +he is able to bring before you. This largeness of +knowledge and readiness of resource render Mr. Darwin the +most terrible of antagonists. Accomplished naturalists +have levelled heavy and sustained criticisms against +him—not always with the view of fairly weighing his +theory, but with the express intention of exposing its weak +points only. This does not irritate him. He treats every +objection with a soberness and thoroughness which even +Bishop Butler might be proud to imitate, surrounding +each fact with its appropriate detail, placing it in its proper +relations, and usually giving it a significance which, as +long as it was kept isolated, failed to appear. This is done +without a trace of ill-temper. He moves over the subject +with the passionless strength of a glacier; and the grinding +of the rocks is not always without a counterpart in +the logical pulverization of the objector. +</p> + +<p> +But though in handling this mighty theme all passion +has been stilled, there is an emotion of the intellect incident +to the discernment of new truth which often colours and +warms the pages of Mr. Darwin. His success has been +great; and this implies not only the solidity of his work, +but the preparedness of the public mind for such a revelation. +On this head a remark of Agassiz impressed me more +than anything else. Sprung from a race of theologians, +this celebrated man combated to the last the theory of +natural selection. One of the many times I had the +pleasure of meeting him in the United States was at +Mr. Winthrop's beautiful residence at Brookline, near Boston. +Rising from luncheon, we all halted as if by a common +impulse in front of a window, and continued there a +discussion which had been started at table. The maple was +in its autumn glory; and the exquisite beauty of the +scene outside seemed, in my case, to interpenetrate without +disturbance the intellectual action. Earnestly, almost +sadly, Agassiz turned, and said to the gentlemen standing +round, 'I confess that I was not prepared to see this +theory received as it has been by the best intellects of our +time. Its success is greater than I could have thought +possible.' +</p> + +<p> +In our day grand generalizations have been reached. +The theory of the origin of species is but one of them. +Another, of still wider grasp and more radical significance, +is the doctrine of the Conservation of Energy, the ultimate +philosophical issues of which are as yet but dimly seen—that +doctrine which 'binds nature fast in fate' to an +extent not hitherto recognized, exacting from every +antecedent its equivalent consequent, from every +consequent its equivalent antecedent, and bringing vital as +well as physical phenomena under the dominion of that +law of causal connexion which, so far as the human +understanding has yet pierced, asserts itself everywhere in +nature. Long in advance of all definite experiment upon +the subject, the constancy and indestructibility of matter +had been affirmed; and all subsequent experience justified +the affirmation. Later researches extended the attribute +of indestructibility to force. This idea, applied in the +first instance to inorganic, rapidly embraced organic +nature. The vegetable world, though drawing almost all its +nutriment from invisible sources, was proved incompetent +to generate anew either matter or force. Its matter is +for the most part transmuted gas; its force transformed +solar force. The animal world was proved to be equally +uncreative, all its motive energies being referred to the +combustion of its food. The activity of each animal as +a whole was proved to be the transferred activity of its +molecules. The muscles were shown to be stores of +mechanical force, potential until unlocked by the nerves, +and then resulting in muscular contractions. The speed +at which messages fly to and fro along the nerves was +determined, and found to be, not as had been previously +supposed, equal to that of light or electricity, but less +than the speed of a flying eagle. +</p> + +<p> +This was the work of the physicist: then came the +conquests of the comparative anatomist and physiologist, +revealing the structure of every animal, and the function +of every organ in the whole biological series, from the +lowest zoophyte up to man. The nervous system had +been made the object of profound and continued study, +the wonderful and, at bottom, entirely mysterious, +controlling power which it exercises over the whole organism, +physical and mental, being recognized more and more. +Thought could not be kept back from a subject so +profoundly suggestive. Besides the physical life dealt with +by Mr. Darwin, there is a psychical life presenting similar +gradations, and asking equally for a solution. How are +the different grades and order of Mind to be accounted +for? What is the principle of growth of that mysterious +power which on our planet culminates in Reason? These +are questions which, though not thrusting themselves so +forcibly upon the attention of the general public, had not +only occupied many reflecting minds, but had been +formally broached by one of them before the 'Origin of +Species' appeared. +</p> + +<p> +With the mass of materials furnished by the physicist +and physiologist in his hands, Mr. Herbert Spencer, +twenty years ago, sought to graft upon this basis a system +of psychology; and two years ago a second and greatly +amplified edition of his work appeared. Those who have +occupied themselves with the beautiful experiments of +Plateau will remember that when two spherules of olive-oil, +suspended in a mixture of alcohol and water of the +same density as the oil, are brought together, they do not +immediately unite. Something like a pellicle appears to +be formed around the drops, the rupture of which is +immediately followed by the coalescence of the globules +into one. There are organisms whose vital actions are +almost as purely physical as that of these drops of oil. +They come into contact and fuse themselves thus together. +From such organisms to others a shade higher, and from +these to others a shade higher still, and on through an +ever-ascending series, Mr. Spencer conducts his argument. +There are two obvious factors to be here taken into +account—the creature and the medium in which it lives, +or, as it is often expressed, the organism and its +environment. Mr. Spencer's fundamental principle is that +between these two factors there is incessant interaction. +The organism is played upon by the environment, and is +modified to meet the requirements of the environment. +Life he defines to be 'a continuous adjustment of internal +relations to external relations.' +</p> + +<p> +In the lowest organisms we have a kind of tactual +sense diffused over the entire body; then, through +impressions from without and their corresponding +adjustments, special portions of the surface become more +responsive to stimuli than others. The senses are +nascent, the basis of all of them being that simple tactual +sense which the sage Democritus recognised 2,300 years +ago as their common progenitor. The action of light, in +the first instance, appears to be a mere disturbance of the +chemical processes in the animal organism, similar to that +which occurs in the leaves of plants. By degrees the +action becomes localized in a few pigment-cells, more +sensitive to light than the surrounding tissue. The eye +is here incipient. At first it is merely capable of +revealing differences of light and shade produced by bodies +close at hand. Followed as the interception of the light +is in almost all cases by the contact of the closely adjacent +opaque body, sight in this condition becomes a kind of +'anticipatory touch.' The adjustment continues; a slight +bulging out of the epidermis over the pigment-granules +supervenes. A lens is incipient, and, through the operation +of infinite adjustments, at length reaches the perfection +that it displays in the hawk and eagle. So of the +other senses; they are special differentiations of a tissue +which was originally vaguely sensitive all over. +</p> + +<p> +With the development of the senses the adjustments +between the organism and its environment gradually +extend in <i>space</i>, a multiplication of experiences and a +corresponding modification of conduct being the result. +The adjustments also extend in <i>time</i>, covering continually +greater intervals. Along with this extension in space +and time the adjustments also increase in specialty and +complexity, passing through the various grades of brute +life, and prolonging themselves into the domain of reason. +Very striking are Mr. Spencer's remarks regarding the +influence of the sense of touch upon the development of +intelligence. This is, so to say, the mother-tongue of all +the senses, into which they must be translated to be of +service to the organism. Hence its importance. The +parrot is the most intelligent of birds, and its tactual +power is also greatest. From this sense it gets +knowledge unattainable by birds which cannot employ their +feet as hands. The elephant is the most sagacious of +quadrupeds—its tactual range and skill, and the consequent +multiplication of experiences, which it owes to its +wonderfully adaptable trunk, being the basis of its +sagacity. Feline animals, for a similar cause, are more +sagacious than hoofed animals—atonement being to some +extent made, in the case of the horse, by the possession +of sensitive prehensile lips. In the Primates the evolution +of intellect and the evolution of tactual appendages go +hand in hand. In the most intelligent anthropoid apes we +find the tactual range and delicacy greatly augmented, new +avenues of knowledge being thus open to the animal. Man +crowns the edifice here, not only in virtue of his own +manipulatory power, but through the enormous extension +of his range of experience, by the invention of instruments +of precision, which serve as supplemental senses and +supplemental limbs. The reciprocal action of these is finely +described and illustrated. That chastened intellectual +emotion to which I have referred in connexion with +Mr. Darwin is not absent in Mr. Spencer. His illustrations +possess at times exceeding vividness and force; +and from his style on such occasions it is to be inferred +that the ganglia of this Apostle of the Understanding +are sometimes the seat of a nascent poetic thrill. +</p> + +<p> +It is a fact of supreme importance that actions the +performance of which at first requires even painful effort +and deliberation may by habit be rendered automatic. +Witness the slow learning of its letters by a child, and +the subsequent facility of reading in a man, when each +group of letters which forms a word is instantly, and +without effort, fused to a single perception. Instance the +billiard-player, whose muscles of hand and eye, when +he reaches the perfection of his art, are unconsciously +coördinated. Instance the musician, who, by practice, is +enabled to fuse a multitude of arrangements, auditory, +tactual, and muscular, into a process of automatic +manipulation. Combining such facts with the doctrine of +hereditary transmission, we reach a theory of Instinct. A +chick, after coming out of the egg, balances itself correctly, +runs about, picks up food, thus showing that it possesses +a power of directing its movements to definite ends. How +did the chick learn this very complex coördination of eye, +muscles, and beak? It has not been individually taught; +its personal experience is <i>nil</i>; but it has the benefit of +ancestral experience. In its inherited organization are +registered all the powers which it displays at birth. So +also as regards the instinct of the hive-bee, already +referred to. The distance at which the insects stand apart +when they sweep their hemispheres and build their cells +is 'organically remembered.' +</p> + +<p> +Man also carries with him the physical texture of his +ancestry, as well as the inherited intellect bound up with it. +The defects of intelligence during infancy and youth are +probably less due to a lack of individual experience than to +the fact that in early life the cerebral organization is still +incomplete. The period necessary for completion varies +with the race and with the individual. As a round shot +outstrips a rifled one on quitting the muzzle of the gun, so +the lower race in childhood may outstrip the higher. But +the higher eventually overtakes the lower, and surpasses it +in range. As regards individuals, we do not always find +the precocity of youth prolonged to mental power in +maturity; while the dulness of boyhood is sometimes +strikingly contrasted with the intellectual energy of after +years. Newton, when a boy, was weakly, and he showed +no particular aptitude at school; but in his eighteenth +year he went to Cambridge, and soon afterwards +astonished his teachers by his power of dealing with +geometrical problems. During his quiet youth his brain was +slowly preparing itself to be the organ of those energies +which he subsequently displayed. +</p> + +<p> +By myriad blows (to use a Lucretian phrase) the +image and superscription of the external world are +stamped as states of consciousness upon the organism, +the depth of the impression depending upon the number +of the blows. When two or more phenomena occur in +the environment invariably together, they are stamped +to the same depth or to the same relief, and indissolubly +connected. And here we come to the threshold of a +great question. Seeing that he could in no way rid himself +of the consciousness of Space and Time, Kant assumed +them to be necessary 'forms of intuition,' the moulds and +shapes into which our intuitions are thrown, belonging to +ourselves solely and without objective existence. With +unexpected power and success Mr. Spencer brings the +hereditary experience theory, as he holds it, to bear upon +this question. 'If there exist certain external relations +which are experienced by all organisms at all instants of +their waking lives—relations which are absolutely +constant and universal—there will be established +answering internal relations that are absolutely constant and +universal. Such relations we have in those of Space and +Time. As the substratum of all other relations of the +Non-Ego, they must be responded to by conceptions that +are the substrata of all other relations in the Ego. Being +the constant and infinitely repeated elements of thought, +they must become the automatic elements of thought—the +elements of thought which it is impossible to get rid +of—the "forms of intuition." +</p> + +<p> +Throughout this application and extension of the 'Law +of Inseparable Association,' Mr. Spencer stands upon his +own ground, invoking, instead of the experiences of the +individual, the registered experiences of the race. His +overthrow of the restriction of experience to the individual +is, I think, complete. That restriction ignores the +power of organizing experience furnished at the outset to +each individual; it ignores the different degrees of this +power possessed by different races and by different +individuals of the same race. Were there not in the human +brain a potency antecedent to all experience, a dog or +cat ought to be as capable of education as a man. These +predetermined internal relations are independent of the +experiences of the individual. The human brain is the +'organised register of infinitely numerous experiences +received during the evolution of life, or rather during the +evolution of that series of organisms through which the +human organism has been reached. The effects of the +most uniform and frequent of these experiences have been +successively bequeathed, principal and interest, and have +slowly mounted to that high intelligence which lies latent +in the brain of the infant. Thus it happens that the +European inherits from twenty to thirty cubic inches more +of brain than the Papuan. Thus it happens that faculties, +as of music, which scarcely exist in some inferior races, +become congenital in superior ones. Thus it happens +that out of savages unable to count up to the number +of their fingers, and speaking a language containing +only nouns and verbs, arise at length our Newtons and +Shakespeares.' +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +At the outset of this Address it was stated that +physical theories which lie beyond experience are derived +by a process of abstraction from experience. It is +instructive to note from this point of view the successive +introduction of new conceptions. The idea of the +attraction of gravitation was preceded by the observation of the +attraction of iron by a magnet, and of light bodies by +rubbed amber. The polarity of magnetism and electricity +appealed to the senses; and thus became the substratum +of the conception that atoms and molecules are endowed +with definite, attractive, and repellent poles, by the play of +which definite forms of crystalline architecture are +produced. Thus molecular force becomes <i>structural</i>. It +required no great boldness of thought to extend its play into +organic nature, and to recognize in molecular force the +agency by which both plants and animals are built up. In +this way out of experience arise conceptions which are +wholly ultra-experiential. None of the atomists of +antiquity had any notion of this play of molecular polar +force, but they had experience of gravity as manifested +by falling bodies. Abstracting from this, they permitted +their atoms to fall eternally through empty space. +Democritus assumed that the larger atoms moved more +rapidly than the smaller ones, which they therefore +could overtake, and with which they could combine. +Epicurus, holding that empty space could offer no +resistance to motion, ascribed to all the atoms the same +velocity; but he seems to have overlooked the +consequence that under such circumstances the atoms could +never combine. Lucretius cut the knot by quitting the +domain of physics altogether, and causing the atoms to +move together by a kind of volition. +</p> + +<p> +Was the instinct utterly at fault which caused Lucretius +thus to swerve from his own principles? Diminishing +gradually the number of progenitors, Mr. Darwin comes +at length to one 'primordial form;' but he does not say, +as far as I remember, how he supposes this form to have +been introduced. He quotes with satisfaction the words +of a celebrated author and divine who had 'gradually +learnt to see that it is just as noble a conception of the +Deity to believe He created a few original forms, capable +of self-development into other and needful forms, as to +believe that He required a fresh act of creation to supply +the voids caused by the action of His laws.' What +Mr. Darwin thinks of this view of the introduction of life I +do not know. But the anthropomorphism, which it +seemed his object to set aside, is as firmly associated +with the creation of a few forms as with the creation of +a multitude. We need clearness and thoroughness here. +Two courses and two only, are possible. Either let us +open our doors freely to the conception of creative +acts, or, abandoning them, let us radically change our +notions of Matter. If we look at matter as pictured +by Democritus, and as defined for generations in our +scientific text-books, the notion of any form of life +whatever coming out of it is utterly unimaginable. The +argument placed in the mouth of Bishop Butler suffices, +in my opinion, to crush all such materialism as this. But +those who framed these definitions of matter were not +biologists but mathematicians, whose labours referred only +to such accidents and properties of matter as could be +expressed in their formulæ. The very intentness with +which they pursued mechanical science turned their +thoughts aside from the science of life. May not their +imperfect definitions be the real cause of our present +dread? Let us reverently, but honestly, look the question +in the face. Divorced from matter, where is life to +be found? Whatever our <i>faith</i> may say, our <i>knowledge</i> +shows them to be indissolubly joined. Every meal we +eat, and every cup we drink, illustrates the mysterious +control of Mind by Matter. +</p> + +<p> +Trace the line of life backwards, and see it approaching +more and more to what we call the purely physical +condition. We come at length to those organisms which +I have compared to drops of oil suspended in a mixture +of alcohol and water. We reach the <i>protogenes</i> of +Haeckel, in which we have 'a type distinguishable +from a fragment of albumen only by its finely granular +character.' Can we pause here? We break a magnet +and find two poles in each of its fragments. We +continue the process of breaking, but, however small the +parts, each carries with it, though enfeebled, the polarity +of the whole. And when we can break no longer, we +prolong the intellectual vision to the polar molecules. Are +we not urged to do <i>something</i> similar in the case of life? +Is there not a temptation to close to some extent with +Lucretius, when he affirms that 'nature is seen to do all +things spontaneously of herself without the meddling of +the gods?' or with Bruno, when he declares that Matter +is not 'that mere empty capacity which philosophers +have pictured her to be, but the universal mother who +brings forth all things as the fruit of her own +womb?' Believing as I do in the continuity of Nature, I cannot +stop abruptly where our microscopes cease to be of use. +Here the vision of the mind authoritatively supplements +the vision of the eye. By an intellectual necessity I cross +the boundary of the experimental evidence, and discern +in that Matter which we, in our ignorance of its latent +powers, and notwithstanding our professed reverence for +its Creator, have hitherto covered with opprobrium, the +promise and potency of all terrestial Life. +</p> + +<p> +If you ask me whether there exists the least evidence +to prove that any form of life can be developed out of +matter, without demonstrable antecedent life, my reply is +that evidence considered perfectly conclusive by many has +been adduced; and that were some of us who have pondered +this question to follow a very common example, and +accept testimony because it falls in with our belief, we +also should eagerly close with the evidence referred to. +But there is in the true man of science a wish stronger +than the wish to have his beliefs upheld; namely, the +wish to have them true. And this stronger wish causes +him to reject the most plausible support if he has reason +to suspect that it is vitiated by error. Those to whom I +refer as having studied this question, believing the +evidence offered in favour of 'spontaneous generation' to be +thus vitiated, cannot accept it. They know full well that +the chemist now prepares from inorganic matter a vast +array of substances which were some time ago regarded +as the sole products of vitality. They are intimately +acquainted with the structural power of matter as +evidenced in the phenomena of crystallization. They +can justify scientifically their <i>belief</i> in its potency, under +the proper conditions, to produce organisms. But in +reply to your question they will frankly admit their +inability to point to any satisfactory experimental proof +that life can be developed save from demonstrable +antecedent life. As already indicated, they draw the line +from the highest organisms through lower ones down to +the lowest, and it is the prolongation of this line by the +intellect beyond the range of the senses that leads them to +the conclusion which Bruno so boldly enunciated.[<a id="chap01fn20text"></a><a href="#chap01fn20">20</a>] +</p> + +<p> +The 'materialism' here professed may be vastly +different from what you suppose, and I therefore crave +your gracious patience to the end. 'The question of an +external world,' says Mr. J. S. Mill, 'is the great +battleground of metaphysics.'[<a id="chap01fn21text"></a><a href="#chap01fn21">21</a>] Mr. Mill himself reduces +external phenomena to 'possibilities of sensation.' Kant, +as we have seen, made time and space 'forms' of our +own intuitions. Fichte, having first by the inexorable +logic of his understanding proved himself to be a mere +link in that chain of eternal causation which holds so +rigidly in Nature, violently broke the chain by making +Nature, and all that it inherits, an apparition of his own +mind.[<a id="chap01fn22text"></a><a href="#chap01fn22">22</a>] And it is by no means easy to combat such +notions. For when I say I see you, and that I have not +the least doubt about it, the reply is, that what I am +really conscious of is an affection of my own retina. And +if I urge that I can check my sight of you by touching +you, the retort would be that I am equally transgressing +the limits of fact; for what I am really conscious of is, +not that you are there, but that the nerves of my hand +have undergone a change. All we hear, and see, and +touch, and taste, and smell, are, it would be urged, mere +variations of our own condition, beyond which, even to +the extent of a hair's breadth, we cannot go. That +anything answering to our impressions exists outside of +ourselves is not a <i>fact</i>, but an <i>inference</i>, to which all +validity would be denied by an idealist like Berkeley, or +by a sceptic like Hume. Mr. Spencer takes another line. +With him, as with the uneducated man, there is no +doubt or question as to the existence of an external +world. But he differs from the uneducated, who think +that the world really is what consciousness represents it +to be. Our states of consciousness are mere <i>symbols</i> of +an outside entity which produces them and determines +the order of their succession, but the real nature of which +we can never know.[<a id="chap01fn23text"></a><a href="#chap01fn23">23</a>] In fact, the whole process of evolution +is the manifestation of a Power absolutely inscrutable +to the intellect of man. As little in our day as in the +days of Job can man by searching find this Power out. +Considered fundamentally, then, it is by the operation of +an insoluble mystery that life on earth is evolved, species +differentiated, and mind unfolded from their prepotent +elements in the immeasurable past. There is, you will +observe, no very rank materialism here. +</p> + +<p> +The strength of the doctrine of evolution consists, not +in an experimental demonstration (for the subject is hardly +accessible to this mode of proof), but in its general +harmony with scientific thought. From contrast, moreover, +it derives enormous relative strength. On the one side +we have a theory (if it could with any propriety be so +called) derived, as were the theories referred to at the +beginning of this Address, not from the study of Nature, +but from the observation of men—a theory which +converts the Power whose garment is seen in the visible +universe into an Artificer, fashioned after the human +model, and acting by broken efforts, as man is seen to +act. On the other side, we have the conception that all +we see around us, and all we feel within us—the phenomena +of physical nature as well as those of the human +mind—have their unsearchable roots in a cosmical life, if +I dare apply the term, an infinitesimal span of which +is offered to the investigation of man. And even +this span is only knowable in part. We can trace the +development of a nervous system, and correlate with it +the parallel phenomena of sensation and thought. We +see with undoubting certainty that they go hand in hand. +But we try to soar in a vacuum the moment we seek to +comprehend the connexion between them. An Archimedean +fulcrum is here required which the human mind +cannot command; and the effort to solve the problem, to +borrow a comparison from an illustrious friend of mine, +is like the effort of a man trying to lift himself by his own +waistband. All that has been here said is to be taken +in connexion with this fundamental truth. When 'nascent +senses' are spoken of, when 'the differentiation of a tissue +at first vaguely sensitive all over' is spoken of, and when +these processes are associated with 'the modification of +an organism by its environment,' the same parallelism, +without contact, or even approach to contact, is implied. +Man the <i>object</i> is separated by an impassable gulf from +man the <i>subject</i>. There is no motor energy in intellect +to carry it without logical rupture from the one to +the other. +</p> + +<p> +Further, the doctrine of evolution derives man in his +totality from the inter-action of organism and environment +through countless ages past. The Human Understanding, +for example—that faculty which Mr. Spencer +has turned so skilfully round upon its own antecedents—is +itself a result of the play between organism and +environment through cosmic ranges of time. Never surely +did prescription plead so irresistible a claim. But then +it comes to pass that, over and above his understanding, +there are many other things appertaining to man whose +perspective rights are quite as strong as those of the +understanding itself. It is a result, for example, of the +play of organism and environment that sugar is sweet +and that aloes are bitter, that the smell of henbane +differs from the perfume of a rose. Such facts of +consciousness (for which, by the way, no adequate reason +has yet been rendered) are quite as old as the +understanding; and many other things can boast an equally +ancient origin. Mr. Spencer at one place refers to that +most powerful of passions—the amatory passion—as one +which, when it first occurs, is antecedent to all relative +experience whatever; and we may pass its claim as being +at least as ancient and valid as that of the understanding. +Then there are such things woven into the texture +of man as the feeling of Awe, Reverence, Wonder—and +not alone the sexual love just referred to, +but the love of the beautiful, physical, and moral, in +Nature, Poetry, and Art. There is also that deep-set +feeling which, since the earliest dawn of history, and +probably for ages prior to all history, incorporated itself +in the Religions of the world. You who have escaped +from these religions into the high-and-dry light of the +intellect may deride them; but in so doing you +deride accidents of form merely, and fail to touch the +immovable basis of the religious sentiment in the +nature of man. To yield this sentiment reasonable +satisfaction is the problem of problems at the present +hour. And grotesque in relation to scientific culture as +many of the religions of the world have been and are—dangerous, +nay destructive, to the dearest privileges of free-men +as some of them undoubtedly have been, and would, +if they could, be again—it will be wise to recognize them +as the forms of a force, mischievous, if permitted to +intrude on the region of knowledge, over which it holds +no command, but capable of being guided to noble +issues in the region of emotion, which is its proper and +elevated sphere. +</p> + +<p> +All religious theories, schemes and systems, which +embrace notions of cosmogony, or which otherwise +reach into the domain of science, must, <i>in so far +as they do this</i>, submit to the control of science, and +relinquish all thought of controlling it. Acting otherwise +proved disastrous in the past, and it is simply fatuous +to-day. Every system which would escape the fate of +an organism too rigid to adjust itself to its environment +must be plastic to the extent that the growth of +knowledge demands. When this truth has been thoroughly +taken in, rigidity will be relaxed, exclusiveness +diminished, things now deemed essential will be dropped, and +elements now rejected will be assimilated. The lifting of +the life is the essential point; and as long as dogmatism, +fanaticism, and intolerance are kept out, various modes +of leverage may be employed to raise life to a higher +level. Science itself not unfrequently derives motive +power from an ultra-scientific source. Whewell speaks +of enthusiasm of temper as a hindrance to science; but +he means the enthusiasm of weak heads. There is a +strong and resolute enthusiasm in which science finds +an ally; and it is to the lowering of this fire, rather +than to the diminution of intellectual insight, that the +lessening productiveness of men of science in their mature +years is to be ascribed. Mr. Buckle sought to detach +intellectual achievement from moral force. He gravely +erred; for without moral force to whip it into action, the +achievements of the intellect would be poor indeed. +</p> + +<p> +It has been said that science divorces itself from +literature; but the statement, like so many others, arises from +lack of knowledge. A glance at the less technical +writings of its leaders—of its Helmholtz, its Huxley, and its +Du Bois-Reymond—would show what breadth of literary +culture they command. Where among modern writers +can you find their superiors in clearness and vigour of +literary style? Science desires not isolation, but freely +combines with every effort towards the bettering of man's +estate. Single-handed, and supported not by outward +sympathy, but by inward force, it has built at least one +great wing of the many-mansioned home which man in his +totality demands. And if rough walls and protruding +rafter-ends indicate that on one side the edifice is still +incomplete, it is only by wise combination of the parts +required with those already irrevocably built that we can +hope for completeness. There is no necessary incongruity +between what has been accomplished and what +remains to be done. The moral glow of Socrates, which +we all feel by ignition, has in it nothing incompatible +with the physics of Anaxagoras which he so much +scorned, but which he would hardly scorn to-day. +</p> + +<p> +And here I am reminded of one amongst us, hoary, but +still strong, whose prophet-voice some thirty years ago, far +more than any other of this age, unlocked whatever of +life and nobleness lay latent in its most gifted minds—one +fit to stand beside Socrates or the Maccabean Eleazar, and +to dare and suffer all that they suffered and dared—fit, +as he once said of Fichte, 'to have been the teacher of +the Stoa, and to have discoursed of Beauty and Virtue +in the groves of Academe.' With a capacity to grasp +physical principles which his friend Goethe did not possess, +and which even total lack of exercise has not been able to +reduce to atrophy, it is the world's loss that he, in the +vigour of his years, did not open his mind and sympathies +to science, and make its conclusions a portion of his +message to mankind. Marvellously endowed as he +was—equally equipped on the side of the Heart and of the +Understanding—he might have done much towards teaching +us how to reconcile the claims of both, and to enable +them in coming times to dwell together in unity of spirit +and in the bond of peace. +</p> + +<p> +And now the end is come. With more time, or +greater strength and knowledge, what has been here said +might have been better said, while worthy matters here +omitted might have received fit expression. But there +would have been no material deviation from the views set +forth. As regards myself, they are not the growth of a +day; and as regards you, I thought you ought to know +the environment which, with or without your consent, is +rapidly surrounding you, and in relation to which some +adjustment on your part may be necessary. A hint of +Hamlet's, however, teaches us all how the troubles of +common life may be ended; and it is perfectly possible for +you and me to purchase intellectual peace at the price of +intellectual death. The world is not without refuges of +this description; nor is it wanting in persons who seek +their shelter and try to persuade others to do the same. +The unstable and the weak will yield to this persuasion, +and they to whom repose is sweeter than the truth. But I +would exhort you to refuse the offered shelter and to scorn +the base repose—to accept, if the choice be forced upon +you, commotion before stagnation, the leap of the torrent +before the stillness of the swamp. +</p> + +<p> +In the course of this Address I have touched on debatable +questions and led you over what will be deemed dangerous +ground—and this partly with the view of telling you +that as regards these questions science claims unrestricted +right of search. It is not to the point to say that the +views of Lucretius and Bruno, of Darwin and Spencer, +may be wrong. Here I should agree with you, deeming +it indeed certain that these views will undergo modification. +But the point is, that, whether right or wrong, we +ask the freedom to discuss them. For science, +however, no exclusive claim is here made; you are not +urged to erect it into an idol. The inexorable advance of +man's understanding in the path of knowledge, and those +unquenchable claims of his moral and emotional nature +which the understanding can never satisfy, are here equally +set forth. The world embraces not only a Newton, but +a Shakespeare—not only a Boyle, but a Raphael—not +only a Kant, but a Beethoven—not only a Darwin, but a +Carlyle. Not in each of these, but in all, is human nature +whole. They are not opposed, but supplementary—not +mutually exclusive, but reconcilable. And if, unsatisfied +with them all, the human mind, with the yearning +of a pilgrim for his distant home, will turn to the Mystery +from which it has emerged, seeking so to fashion it as to +give unity to thought and faith; so long as this is done, +not only without intolerance or bigotry of any kind, but +with the enlightened recognition that ultimate fixity of +conception is here unattainable, and that each succeeding +age must be held free to fashion the Mystery in accordance +with its own needs—then, casting aside all the +restrictions of Materialism, I would affirm this to be a field +for the noblest exercise of what, in contrast with the +<i>knowing</i> faculties, may be called the <i>creative</i> faculties of +man. +</p> + +<p> +'Fill thy heart with it,' said Goethe, 'and then name +it as thou wilt.' Goethe himself did this in untranslateable +language.[<a id="chap01fn24text"></a><a href="#chap01fn24">24</a>] Wordsworth did it in words known to +all Englishmen, and which may be regarded as a forecast +and religious vitalization of the latest and deepest scientific +truth,— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + 'For I have learned<br> + To look on nature; not as in the hour<br> + Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes<br> + The still, sad music of humanity,<br> + Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power<br> + To chasten and subdue. <i>And I have felt<br> + A presence that disturbs me with the joy<br> + Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime<br> + Of something far more deeply interfused,<br> + Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,<br> + And the round ocean, and the living air,<br> + And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:<br> + A motion and a spirit, that impels<br> + All thinking things, all objects of all thought,<br> + And rolls through all things</i>.'[<a id="chap01fn25text"></a><a href="#chap01fn25">25</a>]<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn1"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn1text">1</a>] Hume, <i>Natural History of Religion</i>. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn2"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn2text">2</a>] Born 460 B.C. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn3"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn3text">3</a>] Lange, 2nd edit., p. 23. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn4"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn4text">4</a>] Born 342 B.C. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn5"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn5text">5</a>] Tennyson's Lucretius. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn6"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn6text">6</a>] Born 99 B.C. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn7"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn7text">7</a>] Monro's translation. In his criticism of this work, <i>Contemporary +Review</i>, 1867, Dr. Hayman does not appear to be aware of the really +sound and subtile observations on which the reasoning of Lucretius, +though erroneous, sometimes rests. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn8"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn8text">8</a>] <i>History of the Intellectual Development of Europe</i>, p. 295. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn9"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn9text">9</a>] <i>History of the Inductive Sciences</i>, vol. i. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn10"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn10text">10</a>] Depicted with terrible vividness in <i>Renan's Antichrist</i>. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn11"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn11text">11</a>] <i>Intellectual Development of Europe</i>, p. 359. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn12"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn12text">12</a>] Lange, 2nd edit. pp. 181, 182. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn13"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn13text">13</a>] See Huxley's admirable Essay on Descartes. <i>Lay Sermons</i>, +pp. 864, 365. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn14"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn14text">14</a>] Boyle's model of the universe was the Strasburg clock with an +outside Artificer. Goethe, on the other hand, sang +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> + 'Ihm ziemt's die Welt im Innern zu bewegen,<br> + Natur in sich, sich in Natur zu hegen.'<br> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +See also Carlyle, <i>Past and Present</i>, Chap. V. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn15"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn15text">15</a>] Only to some; for there are dignitaries who +even now speak of +the earth's rocky crust as so much building material +prepared for man +at the Creation. Surely it is time that this loose +language should cease. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn16"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn16text">16</a>] <i>Zoonomia</i>, vol. i. pp. 500-510. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn17"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn17text">17</a>] In 1855 Mr. Herbert Spencer (Principles of Psychology, +2nd edit. vol. i. p. 465) expressed 'the belief that life +under all its forms has +arisen by an unbroken evolution, +and through the instrumentality of +what are called natural causes.' +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn18"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn18text">18</a>] The behaviour of Mr. Wallace in relation +to this subject has been +dignified in the highest desgree. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn19"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn19text">19</a>] The first step only towards experimental +demonstration has been +taken. Experiments now begun might, +a couple of centuries hence, +furnish data of incalculable value, +which ought to be supplied to the +science of the future. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn20"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn20text">20</a>] Bruno was a 'Pantheist,' not an 'Atheist' or a 'Materialist.' +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn21"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn21text">21</a>] <i>Examination of Hamilton</i>, p. 154. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn22"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn22text">22</a>] <i>Bestimmung des Menschen</i>. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn23"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn23text">23</a>] In a paper, at once popular and profound, +entitled <i>Recent Progress in the Theory of Vision</i>, +contained in the volume of Lectures by +Helmholtz, published by Longmans, +this symbolism of our states of +consciousness is also dwelt upon. The impressions of sense are the +mere signs of external things. In this paper Helmholtz contends +strongly against the view that the consciousness of space is inborn; +and he evidently doubts the power of the chick to pick up grains of +corn without preliminary lessons. On this point, he says, further +experiments are needed. Such experiments have been since made by +Mr. Spalding, aided, I believe, in some of his observations by the +accomplished and deeply lamented Lady Amberly; and they seem to +prove conclusively that the chick does not need a single moment's +tuition to enable it to stand, run, govern the muscles of its eyes, and +to peck. Helmholtz, however, is contending against the notion of +pre-established harmony; and I am not aware of his views as to the +organisation of experiences of race or breed. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn24"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn24text">24</a>] Proœmium to 'Gott und Welt.' +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap01fn25"></a> +[<a href="#chap01fn25text">25</a>] Tintern Abbey. +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> + LONDON: PRINTED BY<br> + SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE<br> + AND PARLIAMENT STREET<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br><br></p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75664 ***</div> +</body> + +</html> + + diff --git a/75664-h/images/img-cover.jpg b/75664-h/images/img-cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a37b2ec --- /dev/null +++ b/75664-h/images/img-cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5dba15 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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