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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 *** |