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·Ho. 10.-R.P.A. CHEAP REPRINTS.
Famous Belfast Address 6.
LECTURES
AND
ESSAYS
By PROFESSOR TYNDALL
COVO
Story
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·LECTURES AND ESSAYS

·CONTENTS
PAGR
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR
5
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
13
APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS
43
SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM
54
SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION
61
SCIENCE AND MAN
76
VITALITY
94
REFLECTIONS ON PRAYER AND NATURAL LAV .
97
MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES
100
ON. PRAYER AS A FORM OF PHYSICAL ENERGY.
114
SCIENCE AND THE “SPIRITS"
117

·LECTURES
AND ESSAYS
MAJU PUBLIC LIBRARY
JOHN TYNDALL
(Cullings from "Fragments of Science ")
ESTD. 1902
61. b.,
HOWBAH
(ISSUED FOR THE RATIQA
I PRESS ASSOCIATION, LTD.]
WATTS & CO.,
17, JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C.
1906

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·MA), HOWPAH MAJU PUBLIC LIBRARY. ESTD. 1902 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH* as JOHN TYNDALL, natural philosopher, and surveying. Mr. (afterwards Sir son of John Tyndall and his wife Sarah Edward) Frankland was lecturer on (Macassey), was born at Leighlin Bridge chemistry, and the two young men co. Carlow, Ireland, on August 2nd, agreed respectively to instruct each other 1820. The Tyndalls, who claired rela in chemistry and mathematics. But tionship with the family of William Queenwood did not yield all the oppor- Tyndale the martyr, had crossed from tunities they wished for, and they Gloucestershire to Ireland in the seven presently resolved to take advantage of teenth century. The elder John Tyndall, the excellent instruction to be enjoyed son of a small landowner, although poor, at the university of Marburg in Hessewas a man of superior intellect, and he Cassel. The decision was for Tyndall a gave his son the best education which momentous one. He had nothing but his circumstances could afford. At the his own work and slender savings to local national school young Tyndall depend on, and his friends thought him acquired a thorough knowledge of mad for abandoning the brilliant possielementary mathematics, which quali bilities then open to a railway engineer. fied him to enter civil assistant In October, 1848, Tyndall and Frank- (in 1839) the ordnance survey of Ireland. land settled at Marburg. Tyndall at- In 1842 he was selected, as one of the tended Bunsen's lectures on experimental best draughtsmen in his department, for and practical chemistry, and studied employment on the English survey. mathematics and physics in the classes While quartered at Preston in Lanca and laboratories of Stegmann, Gerling, shire he joined the mechanics' institute, and Knoblauch. By intense application and attended its lectures. He was at he accomplished in less than two years this time much impressed by Carlyle's the work usually extended over three, Past and Present, and to the stimula and thus became doctor of philosophy ting influence of Carlyle's works was in early in 1850.. Thenceforward he was part due, his later resolve to follow a free to devote himself entirely to original scientific career. On quitting the survey research. Tyndall was employed for three years as His first scientific paper was a mathea railway engineer. matical essay on screw surfaces" Die In 1847 he accepted an offer from Schraubenfläche mit geneigter Erzeu- George Edmondson, principal of Queen- gungslinie und die Bedingungen des wood College, Hampshire, to join the Gleichgewichts für solche Schrauben”- college staff as teacher of mathematics which formed his inaugural dissertation * This memoir is reprinted with the consent of Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co., given on behalf of the proprietor of The Dictionary of National Biography.

·BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH » 1 was when he took his degree. His first At Easter; 1851, Tyndall finally left physical paper, published in the Philo Marburg and went to Berlin, where he sophical Magazine for February, 1851, became acquainted with many eminent was on "The Phenomena of a Water Jet." men of science. In the laboratory of a subject comparatively simple, but not Professor Magnus he conducted a second without scientific interest. investigation on “Diamagnetism and In conjunction with Knoblauch, Tyn- Magne-crystallic Action," which formed dall executed and published an impor a sequel to that previously undertaken tant investigation “On the Magneto with Knoblauch. A paper describing his optic Properties of Crystals and the resulfs was read at the Ipswich meeting Relation of Magnetism and Diamag of the British Association. He showed netism to Molecular Arrangement." that the antithesis of the two forces They claimed to have discovered the was absolute : diamagnetism resembling existence of a relation between the maguetism as to polarity and all other density of matter and the manifestation characteristics, differing from it only by of the magnetic force. Their funda the substitution of repulsion for attratmental idea was that the component tion and vice versa. molecules of crystals, and other sub The question of diamagnetic polarity stances, are not in every direction at the much discussed. Its existence, same distance from each other, The originally asserted by Faraday, and superior magnetic energy of a crystal in reaffirmed by Weber in 1848, had been a given direction, when suspended suspended subsequently denied by Faraday, who between the poles, they attributed still continued doubtful. To meet all to the greater closeness of its mole objections, Tyndall, at a later date, again cules in that direction. In support took up the subject, and in three conof their assumption they showed that, by clusive investigations, the second of pressure, the magnetic axis of a bismuth which formed the subject of the Bakerian crystal could be shifted 90° in azimuth, lecture delivered before the Royal Society che line of pressure always setting itself in 1855, he put the polarity of bismuth parallel with, or at right angles to, the and other diamagnetic bodies beyond line joining the two magnetic poles, ac question. Five years were devoted by cording as the crystal was magnetic or him to the investigation of diamagnetism diamagnetic. This explanation differed and the influence of crystalline strucessentially from that of Faraday and ture and mechanical pressure upon the Plücker. In June, 1850, Tyndall went manifestations of magnetic force. The to England, and at the meeting of the original papers (with a few omissions in British Association of that year in Edin the last edition) are collected in his book burgh he read an account of his investiga on Diamagnetism (see p. 12). tion, which excited considerable interest. Before leaving Marburg in 1851, He afterwards returned to Marburg for Tyndall had agreed to return to Queensix months, and carried out a lengthy wood ; this time as lecturer on matheinquiry into electro-magnetic attractions matics and natural philosophy. Here at short distances. · Phil. Mag., September, 1851. • Ib., November, 1851 ; Phil Transa, 1855. Phil Mag, July, 1850. * Ib., April, 1851. ib.; 1856, pt. i.

·BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH he remained two years. The first of first to last resembled that of father and the three investigations just alluded to son. Tyndall's Faraday as a Discoverer was carried out at Queenwood, as was bears striking testimony to their attachalso a series of experiments on "The ment. Other sketches of Faraday by Conduction of Heat through Wood.". Tyndall are in his Fragments of Science On June 3rd, 1852, Tyndall was elected and in the life of Faraday in the fellow of the Royal Society. Dictionary of National Biography. While at Queenwood he applied for Tyndall's career was now definitely: several positions which offered a wider marked out. To the end of his active scope for his abilities. On his way to life his best energies were devoted to the Ipswich in 1851 he had made the service of the Royal Institution." In acquaintance of T. H. Huxleys and a 1867, when Faraday died, Tyndall suc. warm and enduring friendshig resulted. ceeded him in his position as superin- They made joint applications for the tendent of the Institution. On his own chairs respectively of natural history retirement in the autumn of 1887 he and physics then vacant at Toronto; was elected honorary professor. but, in spite of high testimonials, they In 1854, after attending the British were unsuccessful. They also failed Association meeting at Liverpool, Tyndall in candidatures for chairs in the newly visited the slate quarries of Penrhyn. founded university of Sydney, New His familiarity with the effects of pres- South Wales. Meanwhile, soon after sure upon the structure of crystals led Tyndall's departure from Berlin, Dr. him to give special attention to the Henry Bence Jones visited that city, problem of slaty cleavage. By careful and, hearing much of Tyndall's labours observation and experiments with white and personality, caused him to be wax and many other substances which invited to give a Friday evening lecture develop cleavage in planes perpendicular at the Royal Institution. The lecture, to pressure, he satisfied himself that "On the Influence of Material Aggregation pressure alone was sufficient to produce upon the Manifestations of Force,” the cleavage of slate rocks. On June 6th, delivered on February 11th, 1853. It 1856, he lectured on the subject at the produced an extraordinary impression, Royal Institution. Huxley, who was, and Tyndall, hitherto known only among present, suggested afterwards that the physicists, became famous beyond the same cause might possibly explain the limits of scientific society. In May, 1853, laminated structure of glacier ice recently he was unanimously chosen as professor described in Forbes's Travels in the of natural philosophy in the Royal Alps. The friends agreed to take a Institution, The appointment had the holiday and inspect the glaciers together. special charm of making him the colleague The results of the observations made of Faraday. Seldoni have two men during this and two subsequent visits to worked together so harmoniously as did Switzerland are given in Tyndall's classi- Faraday and Tyndall during the years cal work, The Glaciers of the Alps that followed. Their relationship from (see p. 12). The original memoirs are in the Philosophical Transactions for See "Molecular Influences," Phil. Trans., January, 1853. Roy. Inst. Proc., i. 185. Lo See appendix to Glacierstof the Alps. 772 was ·8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 1857 and 1859. Tyndall, assisted by his The very important series of researches friend, Dr. Thomas Archer Hirst, made on “Radiant Heat in its Relation to many measurements upon the glaciers in Gases and Vapours," which occupied him continuation of the work of Agassiz and on and off for twelve years, and with J.D. Forbes. He discussed, in particular, which his name will be always especially the question as to the conditions which associated, were begun in 1859. He enable a rigid body like ice to move like was led from the consideration of glacier a river. He showed very clearly the problems to study the part played by defects of former theories, proving by aqueous vapour and other constituents repeated observations on the structure of the atmosphere in producing the and properties of ice the inefficacy of the remarkable conditions of temperature generally admitted plastic theory to ac which prevail in mountainous regions. count for the phenomena. Through the The inquiry was one of exceptional diffidirect application of the doctrine of doctrine of culty. Prior to 1859 no means had been regelation, he arrived at a satisfactory found of determining by experiment, as explanation of the nature of glacier Melloni had done for solids and liquids," motion. The veined structure he as the absorption, radiation, and transcribed to mechanical pressure, and the mission of heat by gases and vapours. formation of crevasses to strains and By the invention of new and more delipressures occurring in the body of the cate methods Tyndall succeeded in glacier. In assigning to Rendu his controlling the refractory gases, He position in the history of glacier theories, found unsuspected differences to exist in Tyndall gave offence to Professor their respective powers of absorption. Forbes. A controversy followed, in While elementary gases offered practiwhich the fairness of Tyndall's attitude cally no obstacle to the passage of heat was fully vindicated. rays, some of the compound gases The expedition to Switzerland, under absorbed more than eighty per cent. of taken for a scientific purpose, had a the incident radiation. Allotropic forms secondary outcome. Tyndall was fasci came under the same rule ; ozone, for nated by the mountains, and from that example, being a much better absorbent time forward yearly sought refreshment The temperature of the in the Alps when his labours in London source of heat was found to be of were over. He became an accomplished importance: heat of a higher temperamountaineer. In company with Mr. ture was much more penetrative than Vaughan Hawkins he made one of the heat of a lower temperature. earliest assaults upon the Matterhorn in The power to absorb and the power to 1860. He crossed over its summit from radiate Tyndall showed to be perfectly Breuil to Zermatt in 1868. The first reciprocal. He also established that, as ascent of the Weisshorn was made by him, regards their powers of absorption and in 1861. Tyndall's descriptions of his radiation, liquids and their vapours res- Alpine adventures are notonlygraphicand pectively follow the same order. Thus characterised by his keen interest in scien he was able to determine the position of tific problems, but show a poetical appre aqueous vapour, which, on account of ciation of mountain beauties in which he condensation, could not be experimented is approached by few Alpine travellers. upon directly. Experiments made with than oxygen.

·BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH I dry and humid air corroborated the Physics in the Domain of Radiant Heat inference that, as water transcends all (see p. 12). This volume also includes other liquids, so aqueous vapour is a series of striking experiments on the powerful above all other vapours as a decomposition of vapours by light, radiator and absorber. These results, wherein the blue of the firmament and questioned by Magnus and by a few the polarisation of sky-light-illustrated later experimenters, but fully established on skies artificially produced were by. Tyndall, explained a number of shown to be due to excessively fine phenomena previously unaccounted for. particles floating in our atmosphere. Since Wells's researches on dewe no fact Whileengaged upon the last-mentioned has been established of greater impor- inquiry, Tyndall observed that a lumitance to the science of meteorology than nous beam, passing through the moteless the high absorptive and radiative power air of his experimental tube, was invisible. of aqueous vapour. Many years later It occurred to him that such a beam an experiment made in his presence by might be utilised to detect the presence Mr. Graham Bell suggested to Tyndall of germs in the atmosphere : air incoma novel and interesting method of indi petent to scatter light, through the rectly confirming his former results. absence of all floating particles; must be Using a dark solution of iodine in free from bacteria and their germs. bisulphide of carbon as a ray-filter, Numerous experiments showed "opti- Tyndall was able approximately to cally pure” air to be incapable of determine the proportion of luminous developing bacterial life. In properly to non-luminous rays in the electric and protected vessels infusions of fish, flesh, other lights. He also found that the and vegetable, freely exposed after boiling obscure rays collected by means of a to air rendered moteless by subsidence, rock-salt lens would ignite combustible and declared to be so by the invisible materials at the invisible focus; while passage of a powerful electric beam, some non-combustible bodies, exposed at remained permanently pure and un-- the same dark focus, became luminous altered; whereas the identical liquids, or calorescent. The astounding change exposed afterwards to ordinary dustin the deportment of matter towards heat laden air, soon swarmed with bacteria. radiated from an obscure source which Three extensive investigations into the accompanies the act of chemical com behaviour of putrefactive organisms were bination, and many other points of equal made by Tyndall, mainly with the view importance, were first established by of removing such vagueness as still linthese researches, for which Tyndall gered in the public mind in 1875-6, received the Rumford medal in 1869. regarding the once widely-received doc- Nine memoirs on these subjects were trine of spontancous generation. Among published in the Philosophical Transac the new results arrived at the following tions, and many additional papers in are noteworthy. Bacteria are killed other journals. They have been gathered below 100° C.; but their desiccated together in Contributions to Molecular germs--those of the hay bacillus in particular--may retain their vitality after See “Action of Free Molecules on Radiant several hours' boiling. By a process Ileat, and its Conversion thereby into Sound," Phil. Trans., 1882, pt. i. which he called " discontinuous heating;

·BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH p. 12), whereby the germs, in the order of their sometimes of the longer, sometimes of developments were successively destroyed the shorter, sonorous waves. Tyndall before starting into active life, he suc recommended the steam siren used in ceeded in sterilising nutritive liquids the South Foreland experiments as, upon containing the most resistant germs. the whole, the most powerful fog "signal This method, since universally adopted yet tried in England. His memoir on by.. bacteriologists, has proved of great the subject, presented to the Royal practical value. The medical faculty of Society on February 5th, 1874, is sum- Tübingen gave Tyndall the degree of marised in the book on Sound (see M.D. in recognition of these researches. P: 12). Passing mention should be The original essays, written for the made of the beautiful experiments on Philosophical Transactions, are collected sensitive flames described in the same in Floating Matter of the Air (see volume. It was likewise in his capacity of In 1866 Tyndall had succeeded scientific adviser that Tyndall was called Faraday as scientific adviser to the upon, in 1869 and on many subsequent Trinity House and Board of Trade. He occasions, to report upon the gas system held the post for seventeen years, and it introduced by Mr. John Wigham, of was in connection with the Elder Brethren Dublin, the originator of several importhat his chief investigations on sound tant steps in modern lighthouse illumina. were undertaken, with a view to the tion. Tyndall's inability, during a long establishment of fog signals upon our series of years, to secure what he concoasts. Many conflicting opinions were sidered justice towards Mr. Wigham led held as to the respective values of him eventually to sever himself from the various sound signals in use when colleagues to whom he was sincerely Tyndall began his experiments at the attached. He resigned his post on South Foreland (May 19th, 1873). Very March 28th, 1883.* discordant results appeared at first, but As a lecturer Tyndall was famed for all were eventually traced to variations the charm and animation of his language, of density in the atmosphere. Tyndall for lucidity of exposition, and singular discovered that non-homogeneity of the skill in devising and conducting beautiful atmosphere affects sound as cloudiness experimental illustrations. As a writer affects light. By streams of air differently he did perhaps more than any other heated, or saturated in different degrees person of his time for the diffusion of with aqueous vapour, "acoustic floccu scientific knowledge. By the publication lence is produced. Acoustic clouds, of his lectures and essays he aimed espeopaque enough to intercept sound cially at rendering intelligible to all, in altogether and to produce echoes of non-technical language, the dominant great intensity, may exist in air of perfect scientific ideas of the century. His visual transparency. Rain, hail, snow, work has borne abundant fruit in and fog were found not sensibly to inciting others to take up the great obstruct sound. The atmosphere was interests which possessed so powerful an also shown to exercise a selective and continually varying influence upon sounds, See Nineteenth Century, July, 1888; Forl nightly Review, December, 1888, and February, being favqurable to the transmission 1889 , New Review, 1892.*** .

·BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH : attraction for himself. In Heat as a execution of the many plans he had laid Móde of Motion (see p. 12), which has out for his years of retirement. In 1893 been regarded as the best of Tyndall's he returned greatly benefited from a books, that difficult subject was for the three months' sojourn in the Alps. But first time presented in a popular form. a dose of chloral, accidentally adminis The book on Light gives the substance tered, brought all to a close on December of lectures delivered in the United 4th, 1893. States in the winter of 1872-3. The proceeds of these lectures, which by Tyndall's single-hearted devotion to judicious investment amounted in a few science and indifference to worldly advanyears to between £6,000 and £7,000, tages were but one manifestation of a noble were devoted to the encouragement of and generous nature. A resolute will science in the United States. and lofty principles, always pointing to a His views upon the great question as high ideal, were in him associated with to the relation between science and great tenderness and consideration for theological opinions are best given in his others. His chivalrous sense of justicepresidential &ddress to the British Asso led him not unfrequently-irrespective ciation at Belfast in 1874, which occa of nationality or even of personal acsioned much controversy at the time quaintance, and often at great cost of (reprinted, with essays on kindred sub time and trouble to himself to take up jects, in Fragments of Science, vol. ii.). the cause of men whom he deemed to The main purpose of that address was have been unfairly treated or overlooked to maintain the claims of science to in respect to their scientific merits. He discuss all such questions fully and thus vindicated the claim of the unfortufreely in all their bearings. nate German physician, Dr. Julius On February 29th, 1876, Tyndall mar Robert Mayer, to have been the first to ried Louisa, eldest daughter of Lord lay down clearly the principle of the Claud Hamilton, who became his com conservation of energy and to point out panion in all things. In 1877 they built its universal application; and succeeded a cottage at Bel Alp, on the northern in obtaining his recognition by the side of the Valaise, above Brieg. There scientific world in spite of eminent they spent their summers amid his opposition. The same spirit appeared favourite haunts. In 1885 they built in his defence of Rendu's title to a share what Tyndall called "a retreat for his in the explanation of glacier movement, old age" upon the summit of Hind and of Wigham's services in regard to Head, on the Surrey moors, then a very lighthouses. retired district. Sleeplessness and weak Tyndall took a warm interest in some ness of digestion-ills from which he great political questions. He sided had suffered more or less all his life strongly with the Liberal Unionists in increased upon him in later years, and opposing Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule caused him to resign his post at the policy. Royal Institution in March, 1887. His Tyndall was of middle height, sparely later years were for the most part spent built, but with a strength, toughness, and . at Hind Head. Repeated attacks of flexibility of limb which qualified him severe illness, unhappily, prevented the to endure great fatigue and achieve the ·12: BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH . aus most difficult feats as a mountaineer. Related, 1860; reprinted in 1896; trans- His face was rather stern and strongly lated for the first time into German in marked, but the sharp features assumed 1898. 2. Mountaineering in 1861: A an exceedingly pleasing expression when Vacation Tour, 1862 (mostly repeated in his sympathy was touched ; and the effect Hours of Exercise). 3. Heat Corsidered was heightened by the quality of his a Mode of Motion, 1863; fresh voice. His eyes were grey-blue, and his editions, each altered and enlarged, in hair, light-brown in youth, was abundant 1865, 1868, 1870, 1875; the sixth and of very fine texture. He had generedition, 1880, was stereotyped. 4. On ally, like Faraday, to bespeak a hat on Sound,sa course of eight lectures, 1867; account of the unusual length of his 3d edit., with additions, 1875; 4th head. A medallion of Tyndall, executed edit., revised and augmented, 1883; 5th by Woolner in 1876, is, perhaps, the best edit., revised, 1893. 5. Faraday as a likeness that exists of him, Discoverer, 1868; 5th edit., revised 1894. 6. Researches on Diamagnetism Tyndall's works have been translated and Magne-crystallic Action, including into most European languages. In the Question of Diamagnetic Polarity, Germany (where Helmholtz and Wiede 1870; third and smaller edition, 1888. mann undertook the translations and 7. Fragments of Science for Unscientific wrote, prefaces) they are read almost as People: A Series of Detached Essays, much as in England. Some thousands of Lectures, and Reviews, 1871; augmented his books are sold yearly in America, and in the first five editions; from 6th edit., a few translations have been made into 1879, in two vols. 8. Hours of Exercise the languages of India, China, and Japan. in the Alps, 1871; 2nd edit., 1871; 3rd , In the Royal Society's catalogue of edit., 1873; reprinted in 1899. 9. scientific papers 145 entries appear' Contributions to Molecular Physics in under Tyndall's name between 1850 the Domain of Radiant Heat : A Series and 1883, indicating approximately the of Memoirs published in the Philosophical number of his contributions to the Transactions and Philosophical Magazine, Philosophical Transactions, the Philo with additions, 1872. 10. The Forms of sophical Magazine, the Proceedings of the Water in Clouds and Rivers, Ice, and Royal Society and of the Royal Institu Glaciers (International Scientific Series), tion, and other scientific journals. A 1872 ; 12th edit., 1897. 11. Six Lectures great variety of subjects besides those on Light, delivered in America in 1872-3, glanced at above occupied his attention. 1873; 5th edit., 1895. 12. Lessons in They are for the most part dealt with in Electricity, at the Royal Institution, 1876; the miscellaneous essays collected in 5th edit., 1892. 13. Essays on the Float- Fragments of Science and New Frag- ing Matter of the Air in Relation to Putrements. The essence of his teaching is faction and Infection, 1881; 2nd edit., contained in the following publications : 1883. 14. New Fragments, 1892; last i, The Glaciers of the Alps, being a edit., 1897. 15. Notes on Light: Nine Narrative of Excursions and Ascents, an Lectures delivered in 1869, 1870. 16. Account of the Origin and Phenomena Notes on Electrical Phenomena and of Glaciers, and an Exposition of the Theories : Seven Lectures delivered in Physical Principles to which they are 1870, 1870. L. C. T ·LECTURES AND ESSAYS THE BELFAST ADDRESS: race. § 1. to satisfy the more penetrating intellects of our Far in the depths of An impulse inherent in primeval man history we find men of exceptional turned his thoughts and questionings power differentiating themselves from betimes towards the sources of natural the crowd, rejecting these anthropophenomena. The same impulse, in morphic notions, and seeking to conherited and "intensified, is the spur of nect natural phenomena with their scientific action to-day. Determined by physical principles. But, long prior to it, by a process of abstraction from these purer efforts of the understanding, experience we form physical theories the merchant had been abroad, and which lie beyond the pale of experience, rendered the philosopher possible ; but which satisfy the desire of the mind commerce had been developed, wealth to see every natural occurrence resting amassed, leisure for travel and speculaupon a cause. In forming their notions tion secured, while races educated under of the origin of things, our earliest different conditions, and therefore differhistoric (and doubtless, we might add, ently informed and endowed, had been our prehistoric) ancestors pursued, as stimulated and sharpened by mutual far as their intelligence permitted, the contact, In those regions where the same course. They also fell back upon commercial aristocracy of ancient Greece experience; but with this difference mingled with their castern neighbours, that the particular experiences which the sciences were born, being nurtured furnished the warp and woof of their and developed by free-thinking and theories were drawn, not from the studý couragcous men. The state, of things of nature, but from what lay much to be displaced may be gathered from a closer to them the observation of men. passage of Euripides quoted by Hume: Their theories accordingly took an an "There is nothing in the world; no thropomorphic form. To supersensual glory, no prosperity. The gods toss all beings, which, “however potent and into confusion ; mix everything with its invisible, were nothing but a species of reverse, that all of us, from our ignorance human creatures, perhaps raised from and uncertainty, may pay them the more among mankind, and retaining all human worship and reverence." Now, as science passions and appetites," were handed demands the radical extirpation of caprice over the rule and governance of natural and the absolute reliance upon law in phenomena. nature, there grew, with the growth of Tested by observation and reflection, scientific notions, a desire and determinathese early notions failed in the long run tion to sweep from the field of theory * Delivered before the British Association on Wednesday, August 19th, 1874 * Hume, Natural History of Religion.

·LECTURES AND ESSAYS . this mob of gods and demons, and to human learning had suffered shipwreck, place natural phenomena on a basis more these planks of Aristotelian and Platonic congruent with themselves. philosophy, as being of a lighter and The problem, which had been pre more inflated substance, were preserved riously approached from above, was now and came down to us, while things attacked from below; theoretic effort more solid sank and almost passed into passed from the super- to the sub oblivion." sensible. It was felt that, to construct The son of a wealthy father, Demo the universe in idea, it was necessary to critus devoted the whole of his inherited have some notion of its constituent parts fortune to the culture of his mind. He of what Lucretius subsequently called travelled everywhere; visited Athens." the < First Beginnings." Abstracting when Socrates and Plato were there, but again from experience, the leaders of quitted the city without making himself scientific speculation reached at length known. Indeed, the dialectic strife in the pregnant doctrine of atoms and which Socrates so much delighted had molecules, the latest developments of no charm for Democritus, who held that which were set forth with such power "the man who readily contradicts, and and clearess at the last meeting of the uses many words, is unfit to learn any- British Association. Thought, no doubt, thing truly right." He is said to have had long hovered about this doctrine discovered and educated Protagoras the before it attained the precision and com Sophist, being struck as much by the pleteness which it assumed in the mind manner in which he, being a hewer of of Democritus,' a philosopher who may wood, tied up his faggots as by the well for a moment arrest our attention. sagacity of his conversation. Democritus "Few great men," says Lange, a non returned poor from his travels, was supmaterialist, in his excellent History of ported by his brother, and at length Materialism, to the spirit and to the wrote his great work entitled "Diakosmos," letter of which I am equally indebted, which he read publicly before the people " have been so despitefully used by of his native town. He was honoured history as Democritus. In the distorted by his countrymen in various ways, and Images sent down to us through unscien died serenely at a great age. tific traditions there remains of him The principles enunciated by Demoalmost nothing but the name of the critus reveal his uncompromising antago laughing philosopher,' while figures of im nism to those who deduced the phenomena measurably smaller significance spread of nature from the caprices of the gods. themselves out at full length before us.” They are briefly these: 1. From nothing Lange speaks of Bacon's high apprecia comes nothing. Nothing that exists can tion of Democritus--for ample illustra be destroyed. All changes are due to tions of which I am indebted to my the combination and separation of moleexcellent friend Mr. Spedding, the learned cules. 2. Nothing happens by chance; editor and biographer of Bacon. It is every occurrence' has its cause, from cvident, indeed, that Bacon considered which it follows by necessity 3. The Democritus to be a man of weightier only existing things are the atoms and metal than either Plato or Aristotle, empty space; all else is mere opinion. though their philosophy "was noised 4. The atoms are infinite in number and and celebrated in the schools, amid the infinitely various in form; they strike din and pomp of professors." It was not together, and the lateral motions and they, but Genseric and Attila and the whirlings which thus arise are the beginbarbarians, who destroyed the atomic nings of worlds. 5. The varieties of all philosophy. “For, at a time when all things depend upon the varieties of their atoms, in number, size, and aggregation, Born 460 B.C. 6. The soul consists of fine, smooth, .

·THE BELFAST ADDRESS 15 round atoms, like those of fire. These where he bought a garden and surare the most mobile of all: they inter rounded himself by pupils, in the midst penetrate the whole body, and in their of whom he lived a pure and serene life, motions the phenomena of life arise. and died a peaceful death. Democritus The first five propositions are a fair looked to the soul as the ennobling part": general Statement of the atomit philo of man; even beauty, without undersophy, as now held. As regards the standing, partook of animalism. Episixth, Democritus made his finer atoms curus also rated the spirit above the do duty for the nervous system, whose body; the pleasure of the body being functions were then unknown. The that of the moment, while the spirit atoms of Democritus are individually could draw upon the future and the past. without sensation; they combine in His philosophy was almost identical obedience to mechanical laws; and not with that of Democritus ; but he never only organic forms, but the phenomena quoted either friend or foe. One main of sensation and thought, are the result object of Epicurus was to free the world of their combination. from superstition and the fear of death. That great enigma, “the exquisite Death he treated with indifference. It adaptation of one part of an organism merely robs us of sensation. As long as to another part, and to the conditions of we are, death is not; and when death life," more especially the construction of is, we are not. Life has no more evil the human body, Democritus made no for him who has made up his mind that attempt to solve. Empedocles, a man it is no evil not to live. He adored the of more fiery and poetic nature, intro gods, but not in the ordinary fashion. duced the notion of love and hate The idea of Divine power, properly among the atoms to account for their purified, he thought an elevating one. combination and separation; and, bolder Still he taught : "Not he is godless who than Democritus, he struck in with the rejects the gods of the crowd, but rather penetrating thought, linked, however, he who accepts them." The gods were with some wild speculation, that it lay to him eternal and immortal beings, in the very nature of those combinations whose blessedness excluded every thought which were suited to their ends (in of care or occupation of any kind. Nature other words, in harmony with their pursues her course in accordance with environment) to maintain themselves, everlasting laws, the gods never interwhile unfit combinations, having no fering. They haunt proper habitat, must rapidly disappear. “ The lucid interspace of world and world Thus, more than 2,000 years ago, the Where never creeps a cloud or moves a wind, doctrine of the "survival of the fittest," Nor ever falls the least white star of snow, which in our day, not on the basis of Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans, Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to max vague conjecture, but of positive know- Their sacred everlasting calm.' ledge, has been raised to such extraordinary significance, had received at all Lange considers the relation of Epievents partial enunciation." curus to the gods subjective; the indica- Epicurus," said to be the son of a poor tion, probably, of an ethical requirement schoolmaster at Samos, is the next of his own nature. We cannot read dominant figure in the history of the history with open eyes, or study human atomic philosophy. He mastered the nature to its depths, and fail to discern writings of Democritus, heard lectures such a requirement. Man never has in Athens, went back to Samos, and been, and he never will be, satisfied with subsequently wandered through various the operations and products of the countries. He finally returned to Athens, Understanding alone; hence physical 1 1. Sec Langs, and editi, pa ! Born 342 B.C. *Tennyson's Lucretius.

·TO LECTURES AND ESSAYS tive good. science cannot cover all the demands of although his object appears to be a purely his nature. But the history of the efforts negative one, he addresses his friend with made to satisfy these demands might be the heat of an apostle. His object, like broadly described as a history of errors that of his great forerunner, is the destructhe error, in great part, consisting in tion of superstition; and considering that ascribing fixity to that which is fluent, men in his day trembled before every which varies as we vary, being gross when natural event as a direct monition from we are groșs, and becoming, as our capa the gods, and that everlasting torture cities widen, more abstract and sublime. was also in prospect, the freedom aimed On one great point the mind of Epicurus at by Lucretius might be deemed a posiwas at peace. He neither sought nor “This terror," he says, "and expected, here or hereafter, any personal darkness of mind, must be dispelled, not profit from his relation to the gods. And by the rays of the sun and glittering it is assuredly a fact that loftiness and shafts of day, but by the aspect and the serenity of thought may be promoted by law of nature." He refutes the notion conceptions which involve no idea of that anything can come out of nothing, profit of this kind. "Did I not believe," or that what is once begotten can be said a great man' to me once, "that an recalled to nothing. The first beginnings, Intelligence is at the heart of things, my the atoms, are indestructible, and into life on earth would be intolerable." The them all things can be resolved at last. utterer of these words is not, in my Bodies are partly atoms and partly conopinion, rendered less but more noble binations of atoms; but the atoms by the fact that it was the need of ethical nothing can quench. They are strong harmony here, and not the thought in solid singleness, and, by their denser of personal happiness hereafter, that combination, all things can be closely prompted his observation. packed and exhibit enduring strength. There are persons, not belonging to He denies that matter is infinitely divisithe highest intellectual zone, nor yet,to ble. We come at length to the atoms, the lowest, to whom perfect clearness of without which, as an imperishable subexposition suggests want of depth. They stratum, all order in the generation and find comfort and edification in an abstract development of things would be des.. and learned phraseology. To such people troyed. Epicurus, who spared no pains to rid his The mechanical shock of the atoms style of every trace of haze and turbidity, being, in his view, the all-sufficient cause appeared, on this very account, super of things, he combats the notion that the ficial. He had, however, a disciple who constitution of nature has been in any thought it no unworthy occupation to way determined by intelligent design. spend his days and nights in the effort The interaction of the atoms throughout to reach the clearness of his master, and infinite time rendered all manner of to whom the Greek philosopher is mainly combinations possible. Of these, the indebted for the extension and perpetua fit ones persisted, while the unfit ones tion of his fame. Some two centuries disappeared. Not after sage deliberation after the death of Epicurus, Lucretiusa did the atoms station themselves in their wrote his great poem, 'On the Nature of right places, nor did they bargain what Things, in which he, à Roman, developed motions they should From all with extraordinary ardour the philosophy eternity they have been driven together, of his Greek predecessor. lie wishes to and, after trying motions and unions of | win over his friend Memnius to the every kind, they fell at length into the school of Epicurus; and although he has arrangements, out of which this system no rewards in a future life to offer, of things has been evolved. will apprehend and keep in mind these * Carlyle. Born 99 B.C. things, Nature, free at once and rid of ume. "If you.'

·THE BELFAST ADDRESS 17 ܀ her" haughty lords, is seen to do all things spontaneously of herself, without the meddling of the gods.". 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 waterdrop 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. 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. $ 2. Still earlier than these three philosophers, and during the centuries between the first of them and the last, the human intellect was active in other fields than theirs. Pythagoras had founded a school of mathematics, and made his experiments on the harmonic intervals. The Sophists had run through their career. At Athens liad 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. Astronomy was immensely enriched by the discoveries of Hipparchus, who was followed by the historically celebrated Ptolemy, Anatomy had been made the basis of scientific medicine; and it is said by Draper that vivisection had begun. 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 trapiscend experience, and to reach a knowledge of ultimate causes. Ivstead of accidental observation, it had introduced observation with a purpose; instruments were employed to aid the senses, and scientific 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. ' History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, p. 295. с ·was seekers after natural knowl Spirit 18 LECTURES AND ESSAYS method was rendered in a great measure political and theological strife between complete by the union of Induction and the Church and civil governments, 80 Experiment. powerfully depicted by: Draper, must What, then, stopped its victorious have done much to stiffe investigation. advance Why the scientific Whewell makes many wise and brave intellect compelled, like an exhausted remarks regarding the spirit of the Middle soil, to lie fallow for nearly two millen Ages. It was a menial The niums, before it could regather the elements necessary to its fertility and saken the fountain of living waters, the strength ? Bacon has already let us direct appeal to nature by observation know one cause; Whewell ascribes this and experiment, and given themselves stationary period to four causes--obscu up to the remanipulation of the notions rity of thought, servility, intolerance of of their predecessors. It was a time disposition, enthusiasm of temper; and when thought had become abject, and he gives striking examples of each. But when the acceptance of mere authority these characteristics must have had their led, as it always does in science, to antecedents in the circumstances of the intellectual death. Natural events, in time. Roire, and the other cities of the stead of being traced to physical, were Empire, had fallen into moral putrefac referred to moral, causes; while an tion: Christianity had appeared, offer exercise of the phantasy, almost as degra. ing the Gospel to the poor, and by ding as the spiritualism of the present moderation, if not asceticism of life, day, took the place of scientific specula. practically protesting against the pro tion. Then came the mysticism of the fligacy of the age. The sufferings of the Middle Ages, Magic, Alchemy, the Neoearly Christians, and the extraordinary platonic philosophy, with its visionary exaltation of mind which enabled them though sublime abstractions, which caused to triumph over the diabolical tortures to men to look with shame upon their own which they were subjected, must have bodies, as hindrances to the absorption left traces not easily effaced. They of the creature in the blessedness of the scorned the earth, in view of that "build Creator. Finally came the scholastic ing of God, that house not made with philosophy, a fusion, according to Lange, hands, eternal in the heavens." The of the least mature notions of Aristotle Scriptures which ministered to their with the Christianity of the West. Intelspiritual needs were also the measure of lectual immobility was the result. As a their science. When, for example, the traveller without a compass in a fog may celebrated question of Antipodes came wander long, imagining he is making to be discussed, the Bible was with many way, and find himself after hours of toil the ultimate court of appeal. Augustine, at his starting-point, so the schoolmen, who flourished A.D. 400, would not deny having "tied and untied the same knots, the rotundity of the earth; but he would and formed and dissipated the same deny the possible existence of inhabi- clouds,”: found themselves at the end of tants at the other side, " because no centuries in their old position. such race is recorded in Scripture among With regard to the influence wielded the descendants of Adam." Archbishop by Aristotle in the Middle Ages, and Boniface was shocked at the assumption which, to a less extent, he still wields, I of a "world of human beings out of would ask permission to make one the reach of the means of salvation." remark. When the human mind has Thus reined in, Science was not likely to achieved greatness and given evidence make much progress. Later on, the of extraordinary power in one domain, there is a tendency to credit it with History of the Inductive Sciences, vol. i. Described with terrible vividness in Renan's • Whewell ·19 + not the THE BELFAST ADDRESS similar power in all other domains. Thus on that side of the mind in respect to theologians have found comfort and as which incompleteness has been just surance in the thought that Newton dealt ascribed to Goethe. Whewell refers the with the question of revelation--forgetful errors of Aristotle not to a neglect of of the fact that the very devotion of his facts, but to "a neglect of the idea powers, through all the best years of his appropriate to the facts; the idea of life, to a totally different class of ideas, Mechanical cause, which is Force, and the substitution of vague or inapplicable tion, tended to render him less, instead notions, involving only relations of space of more, competent to deal with theo or emotions of wonder." . This is doubt. logical and historic questions. Goethe, less true; but the word "neglect " starting from his established greatness as "implies mere, intellectual misdirection, a poet, and indeed from his positive dis whereas in Aristotle, as in Goethe, it coveries in Natural History, produced a was not, I believe, misdirection, but profound impression among the painters sheer natural incapacity, which lay at the of Germany, when he published his root of his mistakes. As a physicist, Farbenlehre," in which he endeavoured Aristotle displayed what we should conto overthrow Newton's theory of colours. sider some of the worst of attributes in This theory he deemed so obviously a modern physical investigator-indisabsurd that he considered its author a tinctness of ideas, confusion of mind, charlatan, and attacked him with a corre and a confident use of language which sponding vehemence of language. In led to the delusive notion that he had the domain of Natural History Goethe really mastered his subject, while he had made really considerable discoveries; had, as yet, failed to grasp even the and we have high authority for assuming elements of it. He put words in the that, had he devoted himself wholly to place of things, subject in the place o that side of science, he might have object. He preached Induction without reached an eminence comparable with practising it, inverting the true order of that which he attained as a poet. In inquiry by passing from the general to sharpness of observation, in the detection the particular, instead of from the parof analogies apparently remote, in the ticular to the general. He made of the classification and organisation of facts universe a closed sphere, in the centre according to the analogies discerned, of which he fixed the earth, proving from Goethe possessed extraordinary powers. general principles, to his own satisfaction These elements of scientific inquiry fall and to that of the world for near 2,000 in with the disciplines of the poet. But, years, that no other universe was possible. on the other hand, a mind thus richly His notions of motion were entirely endowed in the direction of Natural His unphysical. It was natural or unnatural, tory may be almost shorn of endowment better or worse, calm or violent.no as regards the physical and mechanical real mechanical conception regarding it sciences. Goethe was in this condition. lying at the bottom of his mind. He He could not formulate distinct mecha affirmed that a vacuum could not exist, nical conceptions; he could not see the and proved that if it did motion in it force of mechanical reasoning; and, in would be impossible. He determined regions where such reasoning reigns à priori how many species of animals supreme, he became a mere ignis fatuus must exist, and showed on general printo those who followed him. ciples why animals must have such and I have sometimes permitted myself to such parts. When an eminent contemcompare Aristotle with Goethe-to credit porary philosopher, who is far removed the Stagirite with an almost superhuman from errors of this kind, remembers power of amassing and systematising these abuses of the à priori method, he facts, but to consider him fatally defective will be able to make allowance for the ·LECTURES AND ESSAYS jealousy of physicists as to the accep Greek poets. They turned in disgust tance of so-called d priori truths. Aris " from the lewdness of our classical totle's errors of detail, as shown by mythology, and denounced as an un- Eucken and Lange, were grave and pardonable blasphemy all connection numerous. He affirmed that only in between the impure Olympian Jove and man we had the beating of the heart, the Most High God.” Draper traces that the left side of the body was colder still farther than Whewell the Arab than the right, that men have more teeth elements in our scientific terms. Не. than women, and that there is an empty gives examples of what Arabian men of space at the back of every man's head. science accomplished, dwelling particu- There is one essential quality in physical larly on Alhazen, who was the first to conceptions which was entirely wanting correct the Platonic notion that rays of in those of Aristotle and his followers light are emitted by the eye. Alhazen a capability of being placed as coherent discovered atmospheric refraction, and pictures before the mind. The Germans showed that we see the sun and the express the act of picturing by the word moon after they have set. He explained vorstellen, and the picture they call the enlargement of the sun and moon, a Vorstellung We have no word in and the shortening of the vertical English which comes nearer to our diameters of both these bodies when requirements than Imagination; and, near the horizon. He was aware that taken with its proper limitations, the the atmosphere decreases in density with word answers very well. But it is tainted increase of elevation, and actually fixed by its associations, and therefore objec its height at 5872 miles. In the Book of tionable to some minds. Compare, with the Balance of Wisdom he sets forth the reference to this capacity of mental connection between the weight of the presentation, the case of the Aristotelian, atmosphere and its increasing density. who refers the ascent of water in a pump He shows that a body will weigh differto Nature's abhorrence of a vacuum, ently in a rare and dense atmosphere, with that of Pascal when he proposed and he considers the force with which to solve the question of atmospheric plunged bodies rise through heavier pressure by the ascent of the Puy de media. He understood the doctrine of Dôme. In the one case the terms of the centre of gravity, and applied it to the explanation refuse to fall into place the investigation of balances and steelas a physical image; in the other the yards. He recognised gravity as a force, image is distinct, the descent and rise though he fell into the error of assuming of the barometer being clearly figured it to diminish simply as the distance, and beforehand as the balancing of two of making it purely terrestrial. He knew varying and opposing pressures. the relation between the velocities, spaces, and times of falling bodies, and had distinct ideas of capillary attraction, He improved the hydrometer. The deter- DURING the drought of the Middle minations of the densities of bodies, as Ages in Christendom, the Arabian in given by Alhazen, approach very closely tellect; as forcibly shown by Draper, was to our own. "I join," says Draper, "in active. With the intrusion of the Moors the pious prayer of Alhazen, that in the into Spain, order, learning, and refine day of judgment the All-Merciful will ment took the place of their opposites. take pity on the soul of Abur-Raihan, When smitten with disease, the Christian because he was the first of the race of peasant resorted to a shrine, the Moorish men to construct a table of specific one to an instructed physician. The gravities." If all this be historic truth Arabs encouraged translations from the (and I have entire confidence in Dr. Greek philosophers, but not from the Draper), well may he, “deplore the $ 3.

·THE BELFAST ADDRESS 21 systematic manner in which the litera issue, but left the intellect in everlasting ture of Europe has contrived to put out haze. Here and there was heard the of sight our scientific obligations to the voice of one impatiently crying in the Mohammedans." wilderness: "Not unto Aristotle, not unto The strain upon the mind during the subtle hypothesis, not unto church, Bible, stationary period towards ultra-terrestrial or blind tradition, must we turn for a things, to the neglect of problems close knowledge of the universe, but to the at hand, was sure to provoke reaction. direct investigation of nature by obser- But the reaction was gradual; for the vation and experiment." In 1543 the ground was dangerous, and a power was epoch-marking work of Copernicus on at hand competent to crush the critic the paths of the heavenly bodies appeared. who went too far. To elude this power, •The total crash of Aristotle's closed and still allow opportunity for the ex universe, with the earth at its centre, pression of opinion, the doctrine of "two followed as a consequence, and "The fold truth" was invented, according to earth inoves !" became a kind of watchwhich an opinion might be held “theo word among intellectual freemen, Coperlogically," and the opposite opinion nicus was Canon of the church of "philosophically." Thus, in the thir Frauenburg in the diocese of Ermeland, teenth century, the creation of the world For three-and-thirty years he had within six days, and the unchangeableness drawn himself from the world, and of the individual soul, which had been devoted himself to the consolidation of So distinctly affirmed by St. Thomas his great scheme of the solar system. Aquinas, were both denied philoso He made its blocks eternal; and even to phically, but admitted to be true as those who feared it, and desired its overarticles of the Catholic faith. When throw, it was so obviously strong that Protagoras uttered the maxim which they refrained for a time from meddling brought upon him so much vituperation, with it. In the last year of the life of that opposite assertions are equally Copernicus his book appeared ; it is said true," he simply meant to affirm men's that the old man received a copy of it a differences to be so great that what was few days before his death, and then subjectively true to the one might be departed in peace. subjectively untrue to the other. The The Italian philosopher, Giordano great Sophist never meant to play fast Bruno, was one of the earliest converts and loose with the truth by saying that to the new astronomy. Taking Lucretius one of two opposite assertions, made by as his exemplar, he revived the notion of the same individual, could possibly the infinity of worlds; and, combining escape being a lie. It was not "sophis with it the doctrine of Copernicus, try," but the dread of theologic ven reached the sublime generalisation that geance, that generated this double deal the fixed stars are suns, scattered numbering with conviction; and it is astonishing less through space, and accompanied by to notice what-lengths were allowed to satellites, which bear the same relation men who were adroit in the use of to them that our earth does to our sun, artifices of this kind. or our moon to our earth. This was an Towards the close of the stationary expansion of transcendent import; but period a word-weariness, if I may 30 Bruno came closer than this to express it, took more and more possession present line of thought. * Struck with of men's minds. Christendom had the problem of the generation and become sick of the School Philosophy maintenance of organisms, and duly and its verbal wastes, which led to no pondering it, he came to the conclusion that Nature, in her productions, does Her 5. Intellectual Development of Europe, p. 359. not imitate the technic. of man. Lange, 2nd edit., pp. 181, 182. process is oneof unravelling and unfolding. our ·LECTURES AND ESSAYS . The infinity of forms under" which his own identity was sure to him, and matter appears was not imposed upon it the full development of this system by an external artificer; by its own would have led to an idealism, in which intrinsic force and virtue it brings these the outer world would have been reforms forth. Matter is not the mere solved into a mere phenomenon of connaked empty capacity which philosophers sciousness. Gassendi, one of Descartes's have pictured her to be, but the universal contemporaries, of whom we shall hear mother, who brings forth all things as more presently, quickly pointed out that the fruit of her own womb. the fact of personal existence would be This outspoken man was originally a proved as well by reference to any other Dominican monk. He was accused of act as to the act of thinking. I eat, heresy and had to fly, seeking refuge in therefore I am, or I love, therefore I am, Geneva, Paris, England, and Germany. would be quite as conclusive. Lichten: In 1592 he fell into the hands of the berg, indeed, showed that the very thing Inquisition at Venice. He was imto be proved was inevitably postulated in prisoned for many years, tried, degraded, the first two words, "I think"; and it is excommunicated, and handed over to plain that no inference from the postulaté the civil power, with the request that he could, by any possibility, be stronger should be treated gently, and "without than the postulate itself. the shedding of blood." This meant But Descartes deviated strangely from that he was to be burnt ; and burnt the idealism implied in his fundamental accordingly he was, on February 16th, principle. principle. He was the first to reduce, 1600. To escape a similar fate Galileo, in a manner eminently capable of bearing thirty-three years afterwards, abjured the test of mental presentation, vital upon his knees, with his hands upon the phenomena to purely mechanical prin. holy Gospels, the heliocentric doctrine, ciples. Through fear or love, Descartes which he knew to bě true. After Galileo was a good Churchman; he accordingly came Kepler, who from his German rejected the notion of an atom, because home defied the ultramontane power. He it was absurd to suppose that God, if He'. traced out from pre-existing observations so pleased, could not divide an atom; he the laws of planetary motion. Materials puts in the place of the atoms small were thus prepared for Newton, who round particles, and light splinters, out bound those empirical laws together by of which he builds the organism. He the principle of gravitation. 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 In the seventeenth century Bacon and a machine would be competent to carry Descartes, the restorers of philosophy, on the processes of digestion, nutrition, appeared in succession. Differently edu growth, respiration, and the beating of cated and endowed, their philosophic the heart. It would be competent to tendencies were different. Bacon held accept impressions from the external. fast to Induction, believing firmly in the sense, to store them up in imagination existence of an external world, and and memory, to go through the internal making collected experiences the basis movements of the appetites and passions, of all knowledge. The mathematical and the external movements of the limbs. studies of Descartes gave him a bias He deduces these functions of his towards Deduction, and his fundamental machine from the mere arrangement of principle was much the same as that of its organs, as the movement of a clock, Protagoras, who made the individual man or other automaton, is deduced from its the measure of all things. I think, weights and wheels As far as those therefore I am," said Descartes. Only functions are concerned," he says, “it is . 4. .

·THE BELFAST ADDRESS 23 not necessary to conceive any other power by contemplatiou of the works of vegetative or sensitive soul, nor any other Nature, they could never possibly enterprincipleof motionor of life, than the blood tain any conception" but of one single: and the spirits agitated by the fire which Being, who bestowed existence and order burns continually in the heart, and which on this vast machine, and adjusted all is in nowise different from the fires exist. its parts to one regular system." Refering in inanimate bodies." Had Descartes ting to the condition of the heathen, who Leen acquainted with the steam-engine, sees a god behind every natural event, he would have taken it, instead of a fall thus peopling the world with thousands of water, as his motive power. He would of beings whose caprices are incalculable, have shown the perfect analogy which Lange shows the impossibility of any exists between the oxidation of the food compromise between such notions and in the body and that of the coal in those of science, which proceeds on the the furnace. He would assuredly assumption of never-changing law and have anticipated Mayer in calling the causality. “But," he continues, with blood, which the heart diffuses, "the oil characteristic penetration, “when the of the lanip of life," deducing all animal great thought of one God, acting as a motions from the combustion of this oil, unit upon the universe, has been seized, as the motions of a steam-engine are the connection of things in accordance deduced from the combustion of its coal. with the law of cause and effect is not As the matter stands, however, and con only thinkable, but it is a necessary considering the circumstances of the time, sequence of the assumption. For when the boldness, clearness, and precision I see ten thousand wheels in motion, with which Descartes grasped the prob and know, or believe, that they are all lem of vital dynamics constitute a driven by one motive power, then I marvellous illustration of intellectual know that I have before 'me a mechapower." nism, the action of every part of which During the Middle Ages the doctrine is determined by the plan of the whole. of atoms had to all appearance vanished So much being assumed, it follows that from discussion. It probably held its I may investigate the structure of that ground among sober-minded and thought machine, and the various motions of its ful men, though neither the church nor parts. For the time being, therefore, the world was prepared to hear of it with this conception renders scientific action tolerance. Once, in the year 1348, it free." In other words, were a capricious received distinct expression. god at the circumference of every wheel tractation by compulsion immediately and at the end of every lever, the action followed; and, thus discouraged, it of the machine would be incalculable by slumbered till the seventeenth century, the methods of science. But the actions when it was revived by a contemporary of all its parts being rigidly determined and friend of Hobbes of Malmesbury, by their connections and relations, and the orthodox Catholic provost of Digne, these being brought into play by a Gassendi. But, before stating his rela single motive power, then, though this tion to the Epicurean doctrine, it will be last prime nuover may elude me, I am few words on the effect, as still able to conprehend the machinery regards science, of the general introduc which it sets in motion. We have here tion of monotheism among European a conception of the relation of Nature nations. to its Author, which seems perfectly Were, men," says Hume, “led into acceptable to some minds, but perfectly the apprehension of invisible intelligent intolerable to others. Newton and Boyle lived and worked happily under Se Huxley's admirable Essay on Descartes. the influence of this conception; Goethe Lay Şirinons, pp. 364, 365." rejected it with vehemence, and the same But re- . well to say i ·LECTURES AND ESSAYS repugnance to accepting it is manifest in atoms, which constituted the seed of all Carlyle." things. Then began that series of com- The analytic and synthetie tendencies binations and decompositions which of the human mind are traceable through now goes on, and which will continue in out history, great writers ranging them future. The principle of every change selves sometimes on the one side, some resides in matter. In artificial productimes on the other. Men of warm tions the moving principle is different feelings, and minds open to the elevating froin the material worked upon; but in impressions produced by nature as a nature the agent works within, being the whole, whose satisfaction, therefore, is most active and mobile part of the rather. ethical than logical, lean to the material itself. Thus this bold ecclesiastic, synthetic side; while the analytic har without incurring the censure of the monises best with the more precise and Church or the world, contrives to outstrip more mechanical bias which seeks the Mr. Darwin. The same cast of mind satisfaction of the understanding. Some which caused him to detach the Creator form of pantheism was usually adopted from his universe led him also to detach by the one, while a detached Creator, the soul from the body, though to the working more or less after the manner of body he ascribes an influence so large as men, was often assumed by the other. to render the soul almost unnecessary. Gassendi, as sketched by Lange, is The aberrations of reason were, in his hardly to be ranked with either. Having view, an affair of the material brain. formally acknowledged God as the great Mental disease is brain-disease; but then first cause, he immediately dropped the the immortal reason sits apart, and canidea, applied the known laws of mechanics not be touched by the disease. The to the atoms, and deduced from them errors of madness are those of the instruall vital phenomena. He defended ment, not of the performer. Epicurus, and dwelt upon his purity, It may be more than a mere result of both of doctrine and of life. True he education, connecting itself, probably, a heathen, but so was Aristotle. with the deeper mental structure of the Epicurus assailed superstition and re two men, that the idea of Gassendi, ligion, and rightly, because he did not above enunciated, is substantially the know the true religion. He thought same as that expressed by Professor that the gods neither rewarded nor Clerk Maxwell, at the close of the very punished, and he adored them purely in able lecture delivered by him at Bradford consequence of their completeness: here in 1873. According to both philosowe see, says Gassendi, the reverence of phers, the atoms, if I understand aright, the child, instead of the fear of the slave. *are prepared materials, which, formed The errors of Epicurus shall be corrected, once for all by the Eternal, produce by and the body of his truth retained. their subsequent interaction all the Gassendi then proceeds, as any heathen phenomena of the material world. There might have done, to build up the world, seems to be this difference, however, and all that therein is, of atoms and between Gassendi and Maxwell. The one molecules. God, who created earth and postulates, the other infers, his first cause. water, plants and animals, produced in In his “manufactured articles," as he the first place a definite number of calls the atoms, Professor Maxwell finds the basis of an induction which enables him to scale philosophic heights con- * Boyle's model of the universe was the Stras. burg clock with an outside Artificer. Goethe, sidered inaccessible by. Kant, and to on the other hand, sang take the logical step from the atoms, to "Ihm ziemt's die Welt im Innern zu bewegen, their Maker. Natur in sich, sich in Natur zu begen." Accepting, here the leadership of Kant, See also Carlyle, Past and Present, chap. v. I doubt the legitimacy of Maxwell's. was ·THE BELFAST ADDRESS 25 logic; but it is impossible not to feel the ethic glow with which bis 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 the discourses of Williamson and Maxwell delivered in Bradford in 1873 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. 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 organised 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 66 $ 5. 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 many superior minds; and it will repay us to dwell for a moment on his views. He ·20 LECTURES AND ESSAYS to try the strength of the Bishop's posi pressures and relaxations of pressure be tion, and then allow the Bishop to applied to the soft substance. At every retaliate, with the view of rolling back, pressure the faculties of perception and if he can, the difficulty upon Lucretius. of action' vanish; at every relaxation of The argument might proceed in this pressure they are restored. Where durfashion : ing the intervals of pressure, is the per- Subjected to the test of mental pre ceiving power? I once had the discharge sentation (Vorstellung), your views, most of a large Leyden battery passed unexhonoured prelate, would offer to many pectedly through me: I felt nothing, but minds a great, if not an insuperable, was simply blotted out of conscious difficulty. You speak of living powers,'. existence for a sensible interval. Where percipient or perceiving powers,' *and was my true self during that interval? Men ourselves'; but can you form a mental who have recovered from lightning-stroke picture of any of these, apart from the have been much longer in the same state ; organism through which it is supposed and, indeed, in cases of ordinary conto act ? Test yourself honestly, and see cussion of the brain, days mây elapse whether you possess any faculty that during which no experience is registered would enable you to form such a concep in consciousness. Where is the man tion. The true self has a local habitation himself during the period of insensibility ? in each of us; thus localised, must it not You may say that I beg the question possess a form? If so, what form? when I assume the man to have been Have you ever for a moment realised it? unconscious, that he was really conscious When a leg is amputated the body is all the time, and has simply forgotten divided into two parts; is the true self what had occurred to him. In reply to in both of them or in one? Thomas this, I can only say that no one need Aquinas might say in both; but not shrink from the worst tortures that superyou, for you appeal to the consciousness stition ever invented, if only so felt and associated with one of the two parts, to so remembered. I do not think your prove that the other is foreign matter. theory of instruments goes at all to the Is consciousness, then, a necessary ele bottom of the matter. A telegraphment of the true self? If so, what do you operator has his instruments, by means say to the case of the whole body being of which he converses with the world ; deprived of consciousness? If not, thenon our bodies possess a nervous system, what grounds do you deny any portion of which plays which plays a similar part between the the true self to the severed limb? It seems perceiving power and external things very singular that, from the beginning to Gut the wires of the operator, break his the end of your admirable book (and no battery, demagnetise his needle; by this : one admires its sober strength more than means you certainly sever his connection I do), you never once mention the brain with the world; but, inasmuch as these or nervous system. You begin at one are 'real instruments, their destruction end of the body, and show that its parts does not touch the man who uses them, may be removed without prejudice to the The operator survives, and he knows that perceiving power. What if you begin at he survives. What is there, I would ask, the other end, and remove, instead of the in the human system that answers to leg, the brain? The body, as before, is this conscious survival of the operator divided into two parts; but both are when the battery of the brain is so now in the same predicament, and neither disturbed as to produce insensibility, or can be appealed to to prove that the when it is destroyed altogether? other is foreign matter. Or, instead of "Another consideration, which you going so far as to remove the brain itself, may regard as slight, presses upon me let a certain portion of its bony covering with some force. The brain may change be rerpoved, and let a rhythmic series of from health to disease, and through such ·THE BELFAST ADDRESS 27 a change the most exemplary man may the desire to give even adverse reasonings be converted into a debauchee or a mur their due weight, I can suppose the derer. My very noble and approved Bishop, to proceed, thus : " You will good master had, as you know, threaten remember that in the Analogy of Religion, ings of lewdness introduced into his of which you have so kindly spoken, I brain by his jealous wife's philter; and did not profess to prove anything absosooner than permit himself to run even lutely, and that I over and over again the risk of yielding to these base prompt acknowledged and insisted on the smallings he slew himself. How could the ness of our knowledge, or rather the hand of Lucretius have been thus turned depth of our ignorance, as regards the against himself if the real Lucretius whole system of the universe. My object remained as before? Can the brain or was to show my deistical friends, who can it not act in this distempered way set forth so eloquently the beauty and without the intervention of the immortal beneficence of Nature and the Ruler reason? If it can, then it is a prime thereof, while they had nothing but scorn mover which requires only healthy regu for the so-called absurdities of the Chrislation to render it reasonably self-acting, tian scheme, that they were in no better and there is no apparent need of your condition than we were, and that, for immortal reason at all. If it cannot, every difficulty found upon our side, then the immortal reason, by its mis quite as great a difficulty was to be found chievous activity in operating upon a upon theirs. I will now, with your perbroken instrument, must have the credit mission, adopt a similar line of argument. of committing every imaginable extrava You are a Lucretian, and from the comgance and crime. I think, if you will bination and separation of insensate allow me to say so, that the gravest atoms deduce all terrestrial things, includconsequences are likely to flow from ing organic forms and their phenomena. your estimate of the body. To regard Let me tell you in the first instance how the brain as you would a staff or an far I am prepared to go with you. I eyeglass-to shut your eyes to all its admit that you can build crystalline unystery, to the perfect correlation of its forms out of this play of molecular force; condition and our consciousness, to the that the diamond, amethyst, and snowfact that a slight excess or defect of star are truly wonderful structures which blood in it produces the very swoon to are thus produced. I will go farther, and which you refer, and that in relation to acknowledge that even a tree or flower it our meat, and drink, and air, and might in this way be organised. Nay, if 'exercise have a perfectly transcendental you can show me an animal without value and significance-to forget all sensation, I will concede to you that it this does, I think, open a way to innu also might be put together by the merable errors in our habits of life, and suitable play of molecular force. may possibly, in some cases, initiate and “ Thus far our way iş clear, but now foster that very disease, and consequent comes my difficulty. Your atoms are mental ruin, which a wiser appreciation individually without sensation ; much of this mysterious organ would have more are they without intelligence. May avoided.” I ask you, then, to try your hand upon I can imagine the Bishop thoughtful this problema? Take your dead hydrogen after hearing this argument. He was atoms, your dead oxygen atoms, your not the man to allow anger to mingle dead carbon atoms, your dead nitrogen with the consideration of a point of this atoms, your dead phosphorus atoms, and kind. After due reflection, and having all the other atoms, dead as grains of strengthened himself by that honest shot, of which the brain is formed. contemplation of the facts which was Imagine them separate and sensationless; habitual with him, and which includes observe them running together and ·28 LECTURES AND ESSAYS. forming all imaginable combinations. phenomena of life-sentient, intellectual, This, as a purely mechanical process, is and emotional-to arise. seeable by the mind. But can you see, or * Your difficulty then, as I see you dream, or in any way imagine, how out are ready to admit, is quite as great as of that mechanical act, and from these mine. You cannot satisfy the human individually dead atoms, sensation,. understanding in its demand for logical thought, and emotion are to rise? Are continuity between molecular processes you likely to extract Homer out of the and the phenomena of consciousness. rattling of dice, or the Differential Cal This is a rock on which Materialism culus out of the clash of billiard-balls ? must inevitably split whenever it pre- I am not all bereft of this. Vorstellungs tends to be a complete philosophy of life. Kraft of which you speak, nor am I, ļike' What is the moral, my Lucretian? You so many of my brethren, a mere vacuum and I are not likely to indulge in illas regards scientific knowledge. I can temper in the discussion of these great follow a particle of musk until it reaches topics, where we see so much room for the olfactory nerve; I can follow the honest differences of opinion. But there waves of sound until their tremors reach are people of less wit or more bigotry (I the water of the labyrinth, and set the say it with humility), on both sides, who otoliths and Corti's fibres in motion ; I are ever ready to mingle anger and vitucan also visualise the waves of ether as peration with such discussions. There they cross the eye and hit the retina. are, for example, writers of note and in- Nay more, I am able to pursue to the fluence at the present day who are not central organ the motion thus imparted ashamed publicly to assume the 'deep at the periphery, and to see in idea the personal sin' of a great logician to be very molecules of the brain thrown into the cause of his unbelief in a theologic tremors. My insight is not baffled by dogma." And there are others who hold these physical processes. What baffles that we, who cherish our noble Bible, and bewilders me is the notion that from wrought as it has been into the constituthose physical tremors things so utterly tion of our forefathers, and by inheritincongruous with them as sensation, ance into us, must necessarily be hypothought, and emotion can be derived. critical and insincere. Let us disavow You may say, or think, that this issue of and discountenace such people, cherishconsciousness from the clash of atoms is ing the unswerving faith that what is not more incongruous than the flash of good and true in both our arguments light from the union of oxygen and will be preserved for the benefit af hydrogen. But I beg to say that it is. humanity, while all that is bad or false For such incongruity as the flash possesses will disappear." is that which I now force upon your I hold the Bishop's reasoning to be attention. The 'flash' is an afiair of unanswerable, and his liberality to be consciousness, the objective counterpart worthy of imitation. of which is a vibration. It is a flash It is worth remarking that in one reonly by your interpretation. You are spect the Bishop was a product of his the cause of the apparent incongruity; age. Long previous to his day the nature and you are the thing that puzzles me. I need not remind you that the great Leibnitz felt the difficulty which I feel; * This is the aspect under which the late Editor of the Dublin Review presented to his and that to get rid of this monstrous readers the memory of John Stuart Mill. I can deduction of life from death he displaced only say that I would as soon take my chance in your atoms by his monads, which were the other world, in the company of the '" un. more or less perfect mirrors of the believer," as in that of his Jesuit detractor. In Dr. Ward we have an example of a wholesome universe, and out of the summation and and vigorous nature soured and perverted by a integration of which he supposed all the poisonous creed.

·THE BELFAST ADDRESS 29 NA of the soul had been so favourite and The lode of discovery once struck, general a topic of discussion that, when those petrified forms in which life was at the students of the Italian Universities one time active increased to multitudes wished to know the leanings of a new and demanded classification. They were Professor, they at once requested him to grouped in genera, species, and varie lecture upon the soul. About the time ties, according to the degree of similarity of Bishop Butler the question was not subsisting between them. Thus confuonly agitated but extended. It was seen sion was avoided, each object being by the clear-witted men who entered this found in the pigeon-hole appropriated to arena that many of their best arguments it and to its fellows of similar morphoapplied equally to brutes and men. The logical or physiological character. The Bishop's arguments were of this character. general fact soon became evident that He saw it, admitted it, took the conse none but the simplest forms of life lie quence, and boldly embraced the whole lowest down; that, as we climb higher animal world in his scheme of immor among the superimposed strata, more pertality. fect forms appear. The change, however, § 6. from form to form was not continuous, but by steps-some small, some great. Bishop BUTLER accepted with unwaver section," says Mr. Huxley, "a hundred ing trust the chronology of the Old Tes feet thick will exhibit at different heights tament, describing it as "confirmed by a dozen species of Ammonite, none of the natural and civil history of the world, which passes beyond the particular zone collected from common historians, from of limestone, or clay, into the zone below the state of the earth, and from the late it, or into that above it." In the inventions of arts and sciences." These presence of such facts it was not possible words mark progress; and they must to avoid the question: Have these forms, seem somewhat hoary to the Bishop's showing, though in broken stages, and successors of to-day. It is hardly neces with many irregularities, this unmistaksary to inform you that since his time the able general advance, been subjected to domain of the naturalist has been im no continuous law of growth or variation ? mensely extended--the whole science of Had our education been purely scientific, geology, with its astounding revelations or had it been sufficiently detached from regarding the life of the ancient earth, influences which, however ennobling in having been created. The rigidity of old another domain, have always proved conceptions has been relaxed, the public hindrances and delusions when intromind being rendered gradually tolerant duced as factors into the domain of of the idea that not for six thousand, nor physics, the scientific mind never could for sixty thousand, nor for six thousand have swerved from the search for a law thousand, but for æons embracing untold of growth, or allowed itself to accept the millions of years, this carth has been the anthropomorphism which regarded each theatre of life and death. The riddle of successive stratuin as a kind of mechanic's the rocks has been read by the geologist bench for the manufacture of new species and palæontologist from subcambrian out of all relation to the old. depths to the deposits thickening over Biassed, however, by their previous the sea-bottoms of to-day. And upon education, the great majority of naturalthe leaves of that stone book are, as you ists invoked a special creative act to know, stamped the characters, plainer account for the appearance of each new and surer than those formed by the ink group of organisms. Doubtless numbers of history, which carry the mind back of them were clear-headed enough to see into abysses of past time, compared with that this was no explanation at all--that, which the periods which satisfied Bishop in point of fact, it was an attempt, by the Butler cease to have a visual angle. introduction of a greater difficulty, to ·work for thirty-three years. Newton LECTURES AND ESSAYS account for a less. But, having nothing These papers were followed in 1859 to offer in the way of explanation, they by the publication "of the first edition of for the most part held their peace. Still, the Origin of Species. All great things the thoughts of reflecting men naturally come slowly to the birth. Copernicus, and necessarily simmered round the as I informed you, pondered his great question. * De Maillet, a contemporary of Newton, has been brought into notice nearly twenty years kept the idea of by Professor Huxley as one who "had a Gravitation before his mind; for twenty notion of the modifiability of living years also he dwelt upon his discovery of forms." The late Sir Benjamin Brodie, Fluxions, and doubtless would have a man of highly philosophic mind, often continued to make it the object of his drew my attention to the fact that, as private thought had he not found early as 1794, Charles Darwin's grand- Leibnitz upon his track. Darwin for father was the pioneer of Charles Darwin." two-and-twenty years pondered the In 1801, and in subsequent years, the problem of the origin of species, and celebrated Lamarck, who, through the doubtless he would have continued to vigorous exposition of his views by the do so had he not found Wallace upon author of the Vestiges of Creation, ren his track.' A concentrated, but full and dered the public mind perfectly familiar powerful, epitome of his labours was the with the idea of evolution, endeavoured consequence. The book was by no to show the development of species out means an easy one; and probably not of changes of habit and external con one in every score of those who then dition, In 1813 Dr. Wells, the founder attacked it had read its pages through, of our present theory of Dew, read before or were competent to grasp their signifithe Royal Society a paper in which, to cance if they had. I do not say this use the words of Mr. Darwin, "he dis merely to discredit them; for there were tinctly recognises the principle of natural in those days some really eminent selection; and this is the first recognition scientific men, entirely raised above the that has been indicated." The thorough heat of popular prejudice, and willing to ness and skill with which Wells pursued accept any conclusion that science bad his work, and the obvious independence to offer, provided it was duly backed by of his character, rendered him long ago a fact and argument, who entirely mistook favourite with me; and it gave me the Mr. Darwin's views. In fact, the work liveliest pleasure to alight upon this needed an expounder, and it found one additional testimony to his penetration. in Mr. Huxley. I know. nothing more · Professor Grant, Mr. Patrick Matthew, admirable in the way of scientific exposi- Von Buch, the author of the Vestiges, tion than those early articles of his on D'Halloy, and others, by the enunciation the origin of species. He swept the of opinions more or less clear and correct, curve of discussion through the really showed that the question had been fer significant points of the subject, enmenting long prior to the year 1858, riched his exposition with profound when Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace original remarks and reflections, often simultaneously, but independently, placed summing up in a single pithy sentence: their closely concurrent views before the an argument which a less compact mind Linnean Society. would have spread over pages. But there is one impression made by the Zoonomia, vol. 1., pp. 500-510. book itself which no exposition of it, * In 1855 Mr. Herbert Spencer (Principles of however luminous, can convey, and Psychology, and edit., vol. 1., p. 465) expressed the belief that life under all its forms has Ariseri by an unbroken evolution, and through * The behaviour of Mr. Wallace in relation to the instrumentality of what are called natural this sabject has been dignified in the highest This was my belief also at that time.. degree. . .

·THE BELFAST ADDRESS 31 . man. 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, or 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. 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 welldefined 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 re-appears 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 ob tained. "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 indu. bitable facts that the organisation 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 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 goes to the wall. But the triumphant fraction again breeds to over-production, 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 triumph as before. It is easy to see that we have here the addition of increments favourable to the individual, still more rigorously carried Oui than in the case of domestication; The first step only towards experimental demonstration has been taken. Experiments now begun might, a couple of centuries hence, fømnish date of incalculable vakie, which ought to be supplied to the science of the future.

·LECTURES AND ESSAYS: 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 descrip tion. Take the marvellous observation which he cites from Dr. Krüger, where a bucket with an aperture serving as a spout is fornied 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 back's against the viscid stigma of the flower and obtain glue; then against the pollenmasses, 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 fertilised. 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 causes. They illustrate, according to him, the method of nature, not the "technic" of a manlike 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 byinsects, most often fertilised, and hence inost 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 cellmaking 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 in-. stinct--from the hive-bee to the humblebee, 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 ·THE RELFAST ADDRESS . of wax is a direct profit to the insect's against him not always with the view life. The time that would otherwise be of fairly weighing his theory, but with devoted to the making of wax is devoted the express intention of exposing its to the gathering and storing of honey for weak points only. This does not irritate winter food; Mr. Darwin passes from him. He treats every objection with a the humble bee, with its nude cells,, soberness and thoroughness which even through the Melipona, with its more Bishop Butler might be proud to imitate, artistic cells, to the hive-bee with its surrounding each fact with its appropriate astonishing architecture. The bees place detail , placing it in its proper relations, themselves at equal distances apart upon and usually giving it a significarice which, the wax, sweep and excavate equal as long as it was kept isolated, failed to spheres round the selected points. The appear. This is done witlrout a trace of spheres intersect, and the planes of inter ill-temper. He moves over the subject section are built up with thin laminæ. with the passionless strength of a glacier; Hexagonal cells are thus formed. This and the grinding of the rocks is not mode of treating such questions is, as I always without a counterpart in the have said, representative. The expositor logical pulverisation of the objector. habitually retires from the more perfect But though in handling this mighty and complex, to the less perfect and theme all passion has been stilled, there simple, and carries you with him through is an emotion of the intellect, incident stages of perfecting--adds increment to to the discernment of new truth, which increment of infinitesimal change, and in often colours and warms the pages of this way gradually breaks down your Mr. Darwin. His success has been reluctance to admit that the exquisite great; and this implies not only the climax of the whole could be a result of solidity of his work, but the preparedness natural selection.. of the public mind for such a revelation. Mr. Darwin shirks no difficulty; and, On this head a remark of Agassiz saturated as the subject was with his impressed me more than anything else. own thought, he must-have known, Sprung from a race of theologians, this better than his critics, the weakness as celebrated man combated to the last the well as the strength of his theory. This theory of natural selection. One of the of course would be of little avail were many times I had the pleasure of meeting his object a temporary dialectic victory, him in the United States was at Mr. instead of the establishment of a truth Winthrop's beautiful residence at Brookwhich he means to be everlasting. But line, near Boston. Rising from luncheon, he takes no pains to disguise the weak we all halted as if by common consent ness, he has discerned; nay, he takes in front of a window, and continued every pains to bring it into the strongest there a discussion which had been started light. His vast resources enable him to at table. The maple was in its autumn cope with objections started by himself glory, and the exquisite beauty of the and others, so as" to leave the final scene outside seemed, in my case, to impression upon the reader's mind that, interpenetrate without disturbance the if they be not completely answered, they intellectual action., Earnestly, almost certainly are not fatal. Their negative sadly, Agassiz turned, and said to the force being thus destroyed, you are free 1 gentlemen standing round: "I confess to be influenced by the vast positive that I was not prepared to see this mass of evidence he is able to bring theory received as it has been by the before you. This largeness of know best intellects of our time. Its success ledge and readiness of resource render is greater than I could have thought Mr. Darwin the most-terrible of antago possible. nists.. Accomplished naturalists have tevelled heavy and sustained criticisms ..

·LECTURES AND ESSAYS equal to that of light or electricity, but less than the speed of sound -less even than that of an eağle. In our day grand generalisations have been reached. The theory of the origin This was the work of the physicist: of species is but one of them. * * Another, then came the conquests of the comof still wider grasp and more radical parative anatomist and physiologist, resignificance, is the doctrine of the Con vealing the structure of every animal and servation of Energy, the ultimate philothe function of every organ in the whole sophical issues of which are as yet biological series, from the lowest 200- but dimly seen—that doctrine which plyte up to man. The nervous system "binds nature fast in fate," to an extent had been made the object of profound not, hitherto recognised, exacting from and continued study, the wonderful, and, every antecedent its equivalent conseat bottom, entirely mysterious controlling quent, from every consequent its equivapower which it exercises over the whole lent antecedent, and bringing vital as organism, physical and mental, being well as physical phenomena under the recognised more and more. Thought dominion of that law of causal concould not be kept back from a subject nection which, so far as the human so profoundly suggestive. Besides the understanding has yet pierced, asserts physical life dealt with by Mr. Darwin, itself everywhere in nature. Long in there is a psychical life presenting similar advance of all definite experiment upon gradations, and asking equally for a the subject, the constancy and insolution. How are the different grades destructibility of matter had been and orders of Mind to be accounted for? affirmed; and all subsequent experi- What is the principle of growth of that ence justified the affirmation. Mayer mysterious power which on our planet extended the attribute of indestructiculminates in Reason? These are questions which, though not thrusting bility to energy, applying it in the first instance to inorganic, and afterwards themselves so forcibly upon the attention with profound insight to organic nature. of the general public, had not only The vegetable world, though drawing occupied many reflecting minds, but had all its nutriment from invisible sources, been formally broached by one of them was proved incompetent to generate before the Origin of Species appeared. anew either matter or force. Its matter With the mass of materials furnished is for the most part transmuted gas ; its by the physicist and physiologist in his force transformed solar force. The hands, Mr. Herbert Spencer, twenty animal world was proved to be equally years ago, sought to graft upon this basis uncreative, all its inotive energies being a system of psychology; and two years referred to the combustion of its food.. ago a second and greatly amplified The activity of each animal, as a whole, edition of his work appeared. Those was proved to be the transferred activity who have occupied themselves with the of its molecules. The muscles were beautiful experiments of Plateau will shown to be stores of mechanical energy, remember that when two spherules of potential until unlocked by the nerves, olive-oil, suspended in a mixture of alcohol and then resulting in muscular conand water of the same density as the oil, tractions. The spced at which messages are brought together, they do not immefly to and fro along the nerves was deterdiately unite. Something like a pellicle mined by Helmholtz, and found to be, appears to be ſorined around the drops, not, as had been previously supposed, the rupture of which is immediately followed by the coalescence of the globules into one. There are organisms Dr. Berthold has shown that Leibnitz had sound views regarding the conservation of energy whose vital actions are almost as purely in inorganic hature. physical as the coalescence of such drops ·THE BELFAST ADDRESS 35 of oil. They come into contact and fuse differentiations of a tissue which was themselves thus together. From such originally vaguely sensitive all over. organisms to others a shade higher, from With the development of the senses, these to others' a shade higher still, and the adjustments between the organism on through an ever-ascending series, Mr. and its environment gradually extend in Spencer conducts his argument. There space, a multiplication of experiences and are two obvious factors to be here taken a corresponding modification of conduct into account the creature and the being the result. The adjustments also medium in which it lives, or, as it is extend in time, covering continually. often expressed, the organism and its greater intervals. Along with this extenenvironment. Mr. Spencer's funda sion in space and time the adjustments mental principle is, that between these also increase in speciality and complexity, two factors there is incessant interaction. passing through the various grades of The organism is played upon by the brute life, and prolonging themselves. environment, and is modified to meet into the domain of reason, Very striking, the requirements of the environment. are Mr. Spencer's remarks regarding the Life he defines to be "a continuous influence of the sense of touch upon the adjustment of internal relations to external development of intelligence. This is, so relations." to say, the mother-tongue of all the In the lowest organisms we have a senses, into which they must be transkind of tactual sense diffused over the lated to be of service to the organism. entire body; then, through impressions Hence its importance. The parrot is from without and their corresponding the most intelligent of birds, and its adjustments, special portions of the sur tactual power is also greatest. From this face become more responsive to stimuli sense it gets kriowledge, unattainable by than others. The senses are nascent, birds which cannot employ their feet as the basis of all of them being that simple hands. The elephant is the most saga. Lactual sense which the sage Democritus cious of quadrupedsmits tactual range recognised 2,300 years ago as their and skill, and the consequent multiplicacommon progenitor. The action of light, tion of experiences, which it owes to its in the first instance, appears to be a wonderfully adaptable trunk, being the mere disturbance of the chemical pro basis of its sagacity. Feline animals, cesses in the animal organism, similar to for a similar cause, are more sagacious that which occurs in the leaves of plants. than hoofed animals--atonement being By degrees the action becomes localised to sonte extent made in the case of the in a few pigment-cells, more sensitive to horse by the possession of sensitive light than the surrounding tissue. The prehensile lips. In the Primates the eye is incipient. At first it is merely evolution of intellect and the evolution capable of revealing differences of light of tactual appendages go hand in hand. and shade produced by bodies close at In the most intelligent anthropoid apes hand. Followed, as the interception of we find the tactual range and delicacy the light commonly is, by the contact of greatly augmented, new avenues of knowthe closely adjacent opaque body, sight ledge being thus opened to the animal. in this condition becomes a kind of Man crowns the edifice here, not only in "anticipatory touch." The adjustment virtue of his own manipulatory power, continues; a slight bulging out of the but through the enormous extension of epidermis over the pigment-granules his range of experience, by the invention supervenes. A lens is incipient, and, of instrumeñits of precision, which serve through the operation of infinite adjust as supplemental senses and supplemental ments, at length reaches the perfection limbs. The reciprocal action of these is that it displays in the hawk and eagle. finely described and illustrated. That So of the other senses ; they are special chastened intellectual emotion, to which ·LECTURES AND ESSAYS I have referred in connection with Mr. period necessary for completion varies Darwin, is not absent in Mr, Spencer. with the race and with the individual. His illustrations possess at times exceed As a round shot outstrips the rifled bolt ing vividness and force; and from his on quitting the muzzle of the gun, so the style on such occasions it is to be in. lower race, in childhood, may outstrip ferred that the ganglia of this Apostle of the higher. But the higher eventually the Understanding are sometimes the overtakes the lower, and surpasses it in seat of a nascent poetic thrill. range. As regards individuals, we do It is a fact of supreme importance that not always find the precocity of youth actions, the performance of which at first prolonged to mental power in maturity; requires even painful effort and delibera while the dulness of boyhood is sometion, may, 'by habit, be rendered auto times strikingly contrasted with the intelmagic. Witness the slow learning of its lectual energy of after years. Newton, letters by a child, and the subsequent when a boy, was weakly, and he showed facility of reading in a man, when each no particular aptitude at school; but in group of letters which forms a word is his eighteenth year he went to Cam. instantly, and without effort, fused to a bridge, and soon afterwards astonished single perception. Instance the billiard his teachers by his power of dealing with player, whose muscles of hand and eye, geometrical problems. During his quiet when he reaches the perfection of his art, youth his brain was slowly preparing are unconsciously co-ordinated. Instance itself to be the organ of those energies the musician, who, by practice, is enabled which he subsequently displayed. to fuse a multitude of arrangements, By myriad blows (to use a Lucretian -auditory, tactual, and muscular, into a phrase) the image and superscription of process of automatic manipulation. Com the external world are stamped as states bining such facts with the doctrine of of consciousness upon the organism, the *hereditary transmission, we reach a theory depth of the impression depending on of Instinct. A chick, after coming out the number of the blows. When two or of the egg, balances itself correctly, runs: more phenomena occur in the environabout, picks up food, thus showing that ment invariably together, they are stamped it possesses a power of directing its move to the same depth or to the same relief, ments to definite ends. How did the and indissolubly connected. . And here chick learn this very complex co-ordina we come to the threshold of a great question of eyes, muscles, and beak? It has tion. Seeing that he could in no way not been individually taught; its per rid himself of the consciousness of Space sonal experience is nil; but it has the and Time, Kant assumed them to be benefit of ancestral experience. In its necessary "forms of intuition," the moulds inherited organisation are registered the and shapes into which our intuitions are powers which it displays at birth. So thrown belonging to ourselves, and with - also as regards the instinct of the hive out objective existence. With unexpected bee, already referred to. The distance power and sucess, Mr. Spencer brings at which the insects stand apart when the hereditary experience theory, as he they sweep their hemispheres and build holds it, to bear upon this question. their cells is "organically remembered." If there exist certain external relations Man also carries with him the physical which are experienced by all organisms texture of his ancestry, as well as the at all instants of their waking lives-- inherited intellect bound up with it. relations which are absolutely constant The defects of intelligence during in. and universal-there will be established fancy and youth are probably less due to answering internal relations, that are a lack of individual experience than to absolutely constant and universal. Such the fact that in early life the cerebral relations we have in those of Space and organisation is still incomplete. The Time: As the substratum of all other ·THE BELFAST ADDRESS 37 relations of the Non-Ego, they must be responded to by conceptions that are the $ 8. substrata of all other relations in the Ego. Being the constant and infinitely At the outset of this Address it was repeated elements of thought, they must stated that physical theories which lie become the automatic elements of beyond experience are derived by a pro thought the elements of thought which cess of abstraction from experience. It it is impossible to get rid of-the" forms is instructive to note from this point of of intuition." view the successive introduction of new:: Throughout this application and ex conceptions. The idea of the attraction tension of Hartley's and Mill's "Law of of gravitation was preceded by the obser. Inseparable Association," Mr. Spencer vation of the attraction of iron by a stands upon his own ground, invoking, magnet, and of light bodies by rubbed instead of the experiences of the indi amber. The polarity of magnetism and vidual, the registered experiences of the electricity also appealed to the senses. race His overthrow of the restriction of It thus became the substratum of the experience to the individual is, I think, conception that atoms and molecules are complete. That restriction ignores the endowed with attractive and repellent power of organising experience, furnished poles, by the play of which definite forms at the outset to each individual; it ignores of crystalline architecture are produced. the different degrees of this power pos Thus molecular force becomes structural." sessed by different races, and by different It required no great boldness of thought individuals of the same race. Were there to extend its play into organic nature, not in the human brain a potency ante and to recognise ini' molecular force the cedent to all experience, a dog or a cat agency by which both plants and animals ought to be as capable of education as a are built up. In this way, out of expe." man: These predetermined internal re rience arise conceptions which are wholly. lations are independent of the experi ultra-experiential. None of the atomists ences of the individual. The human of antiquity had any notion of this play brain is the " organised register of infi of molecular polar force, but they had nitely "numerous experiences received experience of gravity, as manifested by during the evolution of life, or rather falling bodies. Abstracting from this, during the evolution of that scries of they permitted their atons to fall eterorganisms through which the human nally through empty space. Democritus organism has been reached. The effects assuined that the larger atorns moved of the most uniform and frequent of more rapidly than the smaller ones, which these experiences have been successively they therefore could overtake, and with bequeathed, principal and interest, and which they could combine. Epicurus, have slowly mounted to that high intelli holding that empty space could Öffer no gence which lies latent in the brain of resistance to motion, ascribed to all the the infant. "Thus it happens that the atoms the same velocity; but he seems European inherits from twenty to thirty to have overlooked the consequence cubic inches more of brain than the that under such circumstances the atoms Papuan. Thus it happens that faculties, could never combine. Lucretius cut the as of music, which scarcely exist in som knot by quitting the domain of physics inferior races, become congenital in altogether, and causing the atoms to superior ones. Thus it happens that out move together by a kind of volition. of savages unable to count up to the Was the instinct utterly at fault which number of their fingers, and speaking a "language containing only nouns and verbs, arise at length our Newtons and See Fragments of Science, vol. ii., article op " Matter and Force"; or Lectures on Light, No. Shakespeare's. III.

·38. LECTURES AND ESSAYS caused Lucretius thus to swerve from indissolubly joined. Every meal we eat; his own principles ? Diminishing gradu every cup we drink, illustrates the ally the number of progenitors, Mr. mysterious control of mind by matter. Darwin comes at length to one "primor On tracing the line of life backwards, dial form"; but he does not say, so far we see it approaching more and more to as I remember, how he supposes this what we call the purely physical conform to have been introduced. He dition. We come at length to those quotes with satisfaction the words of a organisms which I have compared to celebrated author and divine who had drops of oil suspended in a mixture of gradually learnt to see that it was just alcohol and water. We reach the proas noble a conception of the Deity to togenes of Haeckel, in which we have "a believe He created a few original forms, type distinguishable from a fragment of capable of self-development into other albumen only by its finely granular and needful forms, as to believe He character." Can we pause here? We required a fresh act of creation to supply break a magnet, and find two poles in the voids caused by the action of His each of its fragments. We continue the laws." What Mr. Darwin thinks of this process of breaking ; but, however small view of the introduction of life I do the parts, each carries with it, though not know. But the anthropomorphism, enfeebled, the polarity of the whole. which it seemed his object to set aside, And when we can break no longer, we is as firmly associated with the creation prolong the intellectual vision to the of a few forms as with the creation of a polar molecules. Are we not urged to multitude. We need clearness and do something similar in the case of life? thoroughness here. Two courses, and Is there not a temptation to close to two only, are possible. Either let us some extent with Lucretius, when he open our doors freely to the conception affirms that “Nature is seen to do all of creative acts, or, abandoning them, let things spontaneously of herself without us radically change our notions of matter. the meddling of the gods"? or with If we look at matter as pictured by Bruno, when he declares that matter is Democritus, and as defined for genera not "that mere empty capacity which tions in our scientific text-books, the philosophers have pictured her to be, notion of conscious life coming out of it but the universal mother who brings cannot be formed by the mind. The forth all things as the fruit of her own argument placed in the mouth of Bishop womb"? Believing, as I do, in the con- Butler suffices, in my opinion, to crush tinuity of nature, I cannot stop abruptly all such materialism as this. Those, where our microscopes cease to be of however, who framed these definitions of Here the vision of the mind matter were but partial students. They authoritatively supplements the vision of were not biologists, but mathematicians, the eye. By a necessity engendered and whose labours referred only to such justified by science I cross the boundary accidents and properties of matter as of the experimental evidence, and dis. could be expressed in their formulæ. cern in that matter which we, in our Their science was mechanical science, ignorance of its latent powers, and notnot the science of life. With matter in withstanding our professed reverence for its wholeness they never dealt; and, its Creator, have hitherto covered with denuded by their imperfect definitions, opprobrium, the promise and potency of "the gentle mother of all” became the all terrestrial life. object of her children's dread. If you ask me whether there exists the reverently, but honestly, look the ques least evidence to prove that any form of tion in the face.. Divorced from matter, life can be developed out of matter, where is life? Whatever our faith may without demonstrable antecedent life, say, our knowledge shows them to be my reply is that evidence considered use. Let us ·THE BELFAST ADDRESS 39 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 desire stronger than the wish to have his beliefs upheld -namely, the desire to have them true. And this stronger wish causes him to reject the most plausible support, if ke 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 crystallisation. 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." 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 J. S. Mill, "is the great battle-ground of metaphysics." Mr. Mill himself reduces external phenomena to "possibilities of sensation.” Kant, as 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 the mind." And it is by no means easy to combat such notions. For when I say "I see you," and that there is not the least doubt about it, the obvious reply is, that what I am really conscious of is an affection of my own retina. And if I urge that my sight can be checked 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.2 In fact, the whole process of evolution is the manifestation of a power absolutely inscrutable to the Bestimmung des Menschen, * 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 Bruno was a "Pantheist," not an " Atheist " Materialist.”. Examination of. Hamilton, p. 154.

·LECTURES AND ESSAYS $ 9. intellect of man. As little in our day as between them. An Archimedean fulcrum in the days of Job can man by searching is here required which the human mind find this Power out. Considered funda cannot command; and the effort to mentally, then, it is by the operation of solve the problem--to borrow a coman insoluble mystery that life on earth is parison from an illustrious friend of evolved, species differentiated, and mind mine-is like that of a man trying to lift unfolded, from their prepotent elements himself by his own waistband. All that. in the immeasurable past. has been said in this discourse is to be The strength of the doctrine of Evolu taken in connection with this fundation consists, not in an experimental mental truth. When "nascent senses." demonstration (for the subject is hardly are spoken of, when the differentiation accessible to this mode of proof), but of a tissue at first vaguely sensitive all in its general harmony with scientific Over " is spoken of, and when these thought. From contrast, moreover, it possessions and processes are associated derives enormous relative cogency. On with "the modification of an organism the one side we have a theory (if it could by its environment," the same parallelism, with any propriety be so called) derived, without contact, or even approach to as were the theories referred to at the contact, is implied. Man the object is beginning of this Address, not from the separated by an impassable gulf from study of nature, but from the observaman the subject. There is no motor tion of men-a theory which converts energy in the human intellect to carry the Power whose garment is seen in it, without logical rupture, from the one the visible universe into an Artificer, to the other. fashioned after the buman 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, The doctrine of Evolution derives man, and all we feel within us--the phenomena in his totality, from the interaction of of physical nature as well as those of the organism and environment through human mind-have their unsearchable countless ages past. The Human Uniderroots in a cosmical life, if I dare apply standing, for example--that faculty which the term, an infinitesimal span of which Mr. Spencer has turned so skilfully round is offered to the investigation of man. upon its own antecedents-is itself a And even this span is only knowable in result of the play between organism and part. We can trace the development of environment through cosmic ranges of a nervous system, and correlate with it time. Never, surely, did prescription the parallel phenomena of sensation and plead so irresistible a claim. But then thought. We see with undoubting cer it comes to pass that, 'over and above tainty that they go hand in hand. But his understanding, there are many other we try to soar in a vacuum the moment things appertaining to man whose pre- We seek to comprehend the connection scriptive rights are quite as strong as those of the understanding itself. It is he evidently doubts. the power of the chick to a result, for example, of the play of pick up grains of com without preliminary organism and environment that sugar is lessons. On this point; he says, further experi- sweet; and that aloes are bitter; that the ments are needed. Such experiments have been since made by Mr. Spalding, and they smell of henbane differs from the perfume of a rose. seem to prove conclusively that the chick does Such facts of consciousness not need a single moment's tuition to enable it. (for which, by the way, no adequate to stand, run, govern the muscles of its eyes, reason has ever been rendered) are quite and peck Helmholtz, however, is contending as old as the understanding; and many against the notion of pre-established harmony; and I am not aware of his views as to the other things can boast an equally ancient organisation of experiences of race or breed. origin. Mr. Spencer at one place refers 6 ·THE BELFAST ADDRESS . to that most powerful of passions--the some extent leavened the world; it will amatory passion as one which, when it leaven it niore and more. I should look first occurs, is, antecedent to all relative upon the mild light of science breaking experience whatever; and we may press in upon the minds of the youthof Ireland, its claim as being at least as ancient, and and strengthening gradually to the peras, valid, as that of the understanding fect day, as a surer check to any intelitself. Then there are such things woven lectual or spiritual tyranny which may into the texture of man as the feeling of threaten this island than the laws of Awe, Reverence, Wonder and not alone princes or the swords of emperors. We the sexual love just referred to, but the fought and won our battle even in the love of the beautiful, physical, and morals Middle Ages: should we doubt the issue in Nature, Poetry, and Art. There is of another conflict with our broken foe? also that deep-set feeling, which, since The impregnable position of science the earliest dawn of history, and pro may be described in a few words. We bably for ages prior to all history, incor claim, and we shall wrest from theology, porated itself in the religions of the the entire domain of cosmological theory. world. You, who have escaped from All schemes and systems which thus these religions into the high-and-dry light infringe upon the domain of science must, of the intellect, may deride them; but in so far as they do this, submit to its in so doing you deride accidents of form control, and relinquish all thought of merely, and fail to touch the immovable controlling it. Acting otherwise proved basis of the religious sentiment in the always disastrous, in the past, and it is nature of man. To yield this sentiment simply fatuous to-day. Every system reasonable satisfaction is the problem of which would escape the fate of an problems at the present hour. And organism too rigid to adjust itself to its grotesque in relation to scientific culture environment must be plastic to the as many of the religions of the world extent that the growth of knowledge have been and are-dangerous, nay, demands. When this truth has been destructive, to the dearest privileges of thoroughly taken in, rigidity will be freemen as some of them undoubtedly relaxed, exclusiveness diminished, things have been, and would, if they could, be now deemed essential will be dropped, again- it will be wise to recognise them and elements now rejected will be assimias the forms of a force, mischievous if lated. The liſting of the life is the permitted to intrude on the region of essential point, and as long as dogmaobjective knowledge, over which it holds tism, fanaticism, and intolerance are kept no command, but capable of adding, in out, various modes of leverage may be the region of poetry and emotion, inward employed to raise life to a higher level. completeness and dignity to man. Science itself not unfrequently derives Feeling, I say again, dates from as old motive power from an ultra-scientific an origin and as high a source as intellisource. Some of its greatest discoveries gence, and it equally demands its range have been inade under the stimulus of a of play. The wise teacher of humanity non-scientific ideal. This was the case will recognise the necessity of meeting among the ancients, and it has been so this demand, rather than of resisting it among ourselves. Mayer, Joule, and ön account of errors and absurdities of "Colding, whose names are associated form. What we should resist, at all with the greatest of modern generalisahazards, is the attempt made in the past, tions, were thus influenced. With his and now repeated, to found upon this usual insight, Enge at one place remarks 'elemental bias of man's nature a system that "it is not always the objectively which should exercise despotic sway over correct and intelligible that helps man his intellect. I have no fear of such a most, or leads most quickly to the consummation. Science has already to fullest and truest knowledge. As the ·42 LECTURES AND ESSAYS sliding body upon the brachystochrone scorn to-day. And here I am reminded reaches its end sooner than by the of one among us, hoary, but still strong, straighter road of the inclined plane, so, whose prophet-voice some thirty years through the swing of the ideal, we often ago, far more than any other of this age; arrive at the naked truth more rapidly unlocked whatever of life and nobleness than by the processes of the understand lay latent in its most gifted minds-one ing." Whewell speaks of enthusiasm of fit to stand beside Socrätes or the tentper as a hindrance to seience; but Maccabean Eleazar, and to dare and he means the enthusiasm of weak heads. suffer all that they suffered and dared There is a strong and resolute enthu fit, as he once said of Fichte, “to have siasm in which science finds an ally; and been the teacher of the Stoa, and to it is to the lowering of this fire, rather have discoursed of Beauty and Virtue in than to the diminution of intellectual the groves of Academe." With a capacity insight, that the lessening productiveness to grasp physical principles which his of men of science, in their mature years, friend Goethe did not possess, and which is to be ascribed. Mr. Buckle sought to even total lack of exercise has not been detach intellectual achievement from able to reduce to atrophy, it is the moral force. He gravely erred; for with world's loss that he, in the vigour of his out moral force to whip it into action years, did not open his mind and symthe achievement of the intellect would pathies to science, and make its conclube poor indeed. sions a portion of his message to mankind. It has been said by its opponents that Marvellously endowed as he was-equally science divorces itself from literature; equipped on the side of the Heart and but the statement, like so many others, of the Understanding he might have arises from lack of knowledge. A glance done much towards teaching us how to at the less technical writings of its leaders reconcile the claims of both, and to -of its Helmholtz, its Huxley, and its enable them in coming times to dwell Du Bois-Reymond-would show what together, in unity of spirit and in the breadth of literary culture they combond of peace. mand. Where among modern writers can you find their superiors in clearness And now the end is come. With and vigour of literary style? Science more time, or greater strength and knowdesires not isolation, but freely combines ledge, what has been here said might with every effort towards the bettering of have been better said, while worthy man's estate. Single-handed, and sup matters, here omitted, might have reported, not by outward sympathy, but by ceived fit expression. But there would inward force, it has built at least one have been no material deviation from great wing of the many-mansioned home the views set forth. As regards myself, which man in his totality demands. And they are not the growth of a day; and if rough walls and protruding rafter-ends as regards you, I thought you ought to indicate that on one side the edifice is know the environment which, with or still incomplete, it is only by wise com without your consent, is rapidly surroundbination of the parts required, with those ing you, and in relation to which some already irrevocably built, that we can adjustment on your part may be neceshope for completeness. There is no sary. A hint of Hamlet's, however, necessary incongruity between what has teaches us how the troubles of common been accomplished and what remains to life may be ended; and it is perfectly be done. The moral glow of Socrates, possible for you and me to purchase which we all feel by ignition, has in it intellectual peace at the price of intelnothing incompatible with the physics lectual death. The world is not without of Anaxagoras which he so* much refuges of this description; nor is it scorned, but which he would hardly wanting in persons who seek their ·APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS 43 shelter, and try to persuade others to do the same. The unstable and the weak have yielded and 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 breezy leap of the torrent before the foetid 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 claim the right to discuss them. For science, however, no exclusive claim is here made; you are not urged to erect it into 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 Beethovennot only a Darwin, but a Carlyle Not in each of these, but in all, is human nature whole. They are not opposed, but supplementary-pot mutually exclusive, but reconcilable. And if, unsatisfied with them all, the human mind, with the yearning of a pilgrim for his distant home, will still 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 rithout intolerance or bigotry of any kind, but with the enlightened recogni. tion 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. Here, however, I touch a theme too great for me to handle, but which will assuredly be handled by the loftiest minds, when you and I, like streaks of morning cloud, shall have melted into the infinite azure of the past. an idol. APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS 1874 The world has been frequently informed the reflection of Diogenes, transmitted of late that I have raised up against to us by Plutarch, that "he who would myself a host of enemies; and consider be saved must have good friends or ing, with few exceptions, the deliverances violent enemies; and that he is best of of the Press, and more particularly of the who possesses both." This "best" conreligious Press, I am forced to admit dition, I have reason to believe, is mine. that the statement is only too true. Reflecting on the fraction I have derive some comfort, nevertheless, from read of recent remonstrances, appeals, The word " Apologyens is here used in its original sense, as signifying." Vindication" or Defence "s" no retractation is implied.--ED. I ·as have evoked, I am now trying to retreat. LECTURES AND ESSAYS menaces, and judgmentscovering not has himself told us how and where this only the world that now is, but that Address of his was composed. It was which is tá come I have noticed with written among the glaciers and the soli mournful interest how trivially men seem tudes of the Swiss mountains. It was to be influenced by what they call their no hasty, hurried, crude production; its religion and how potently by that every sentence bore marks of thought "nature,” which it is the alleged province and care. of religion to eradicate or subdue. From My critic intends to be severe: he is fair and manly argument, from the ten simply just. In the solitudes" to derest and holiest sympathy on the part which he refers I worked with deliberaof those who desire my eternal good, I tion, endeavouring even to purify my pass by many gradations, through deli intellect by disciplines similar to those berate unfairness, to a spirit of bitter enjoined by his own Church for the ness, which desires with a fervour inex sanctification of the soul. I tried, morepressible in words my eternal ill. Now, over, in my ponderings to realise not were religion the potent factor, we might only the lawful, but the expedient; and expect a homogeneoós utterance from to permit no fear to act upon my mind, those professing a common creed, while, save that of uttering a single word on if human nature be the really potent which I could not take my stand, either factor, we may expecte utterances in this or in any other world. heterogeneous as the characters of men. Still my time was so brief, the diffi- As a matter of fact, we have the latter ; culties arising from my isolated position suggesting to my mind that the common were so numerous, and my thought and religion, professed and defended by expression so slow, that, in a literary these different people, is merely the point of view, I halted, not only behind accidental conduit through which they the ideal, but behind the possible. pour their own tempers, lofty or low, Hence, after the delivery of the Address, courteous or vulgar, mild or ferocious, I went over it with the desire, not to as the case may be. * Pure abuse, how revoke its principles, but to improve it ever, as serving no good end, I have, verbally, and above all to renove any wherever possible, deliberately avoided word which might give colour to the reading, wishing, indeed, to keep, not notion of "crudeness, hurry, or haste." only hatred, malice, and uncharitable In connection with the charge of ness, but even every trace of irritation, Atheisın my critic refers to the Preface far away from my side of a discussion to the second issue of the Belfast which demands not only good-temper, Address. “Christian men," I there say, but largeness, clearness, and many-sided "are proved by their writings to have ness of mind, if it is to guide us to even their hours of weakness and of doubt, as Profisiorral solutions, well as their hours of strength and of It has been stated, with many varia conviction; and' men like myself share, tions of note and comment, that in in their own way, these variations of the Address as subsequently published mood and tense. Were the religious by Messrs. Longman I have retracted moods of many of my assailants the only opinions uttered at Belfast. A Roman alternative ones, I do not know how Catholic writer is specially strong upon strong the claims of the doctrine of this point. Startled by the deep chorus Material Atheism' upon my allegiance of dissert which my" dazzling fallacies” might be. Probably, they would be very strong. But, as it is, I have noticed This he will by no means tolerate, " It during years of self-observation that it is is too late now ta seek to hide from not in hours of clearness and vigour the eyes of niankind one foul blest one than this doctrine commends. itself to my ghastly deformity. Professor Tyndall mind; that in the presence of stronger ·APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS me. But my and healthier thought it ever dissolves matters at an end the weightier allegation and disappears, as offering, no solution remains, that at Belfast I misused my of the mystery in which we dwell, and position by quitting the domain of of which we form a part.”. science, and making an unjustifiable raid With referencer to this honest and into the domain of theology. This I reasonable utterance my censor exclaims ». fail to see. Laying aside abuse, I hope. "This is a most remarkable passage. my accusers will consent to reason with Much as we dislike seasoning polemics Is it not lawful for a scientific man with strong words, we'assert that this to speculate on the antecedents of the apology only tends to affix with links solar system? Did Kant, Laplace, and of steel, to the name of Professor Tyndall . William Herschel quit their legitimate the dread imputation against which he spheres when they prolonged the intellecstruggles." tual vision beyond the boundary of Here we have a very fair example of experience, and propounded the nebular subjective religious vigour. theory? Accepting that theory as probquarrel with such exhibitions is that they able, is it not permitted to a scientific do not always represent objective fact. man to follow up; in idea, the series of: No atheistic reasoning can, I hold, dis changes associated with the condensation lodge religion from the human heart. of the nebulæ; to picture the successive Logic cannot deprive us of life, and detachment of planets and moons, and religion is life to the religious. As an the relation of all of them to the sun? experience of consciousness it is beyond If I look upon our earth, with its orbital the assaults of logic. But the religious revolution and axial rotation, as one .. life is often projected in external forms small issue of the process which made I use the word in its widest sense the solar system what it is, will any theo and this embodiment of the religious logian deny my right to entertain and sentiment will have to bear more and express this theoretic view ? Time was .. more, as the world becomes more en when a multitude of theologians would lightened, the stress of scientific tests. have been found to do so when that We must be careful of projecting into arch-enemy of science which now vaunts - external nature that which belongs to its tolerance would have made a speedy ourselves. My critic commits this mis end of the man who might venture to.. take: he feels, and takes delight in publish any opinion of the kindBut feeling, that I am struggling, and, he that time, unless the world is , caught obviously experiences the inost exquisite strangely slumbering, is for ever past. pleasures of the muscular sense” in As regards inorganic nature, then, we holding me down. His feelings are as may traverse, without let or hindrance, real as if his imagination of what mine the whole distance which separates the are were equally real. His picture of nebulæ from the worlds of to-day. But my: struggles" is, however, a only a few years ago this now conceded delusion. I do not struggle. I do not ground of science was theological ground. fear the charge of Atheism ; nor should I could by no means regard this as the. I even disavow it, in reference to any final and sufficient concession of theo definition of the Supreme which he, or logy; and, at Belfast, I thought it not his order, would be likely to frame. His only my right but my duty to state that, Il links, and his "steel" and his "dread as regards the organic world, we must imputations" are, therefore, even more enjoy the freedom which we have already unsubstantial than inly "streaks of morn won in regard to the inorganic. I could ing cloud," and they may be permitted not discern the shred of a title-deed to vanish together. which gave any, njäny. or any class of men, the right to open the door of one of these These niinor and more purely personal worlds to the scientific searcher and to mere ·LECTURES AND ESSAYS . ; i close the other against him. And I con promise and potency of every form and sidered it frankest, wisest, and in the quality of life." To call it a "chorus of long run most conducive to permanent dissent," as my Catholic critic does, is a peace, to indicate, without evasion or mild way of describing the storm of reserve, the ground that belongs to opprobrium with which this statement Science, and to which she will assuredly has been assailed. But the first blast of make good her claim. passion being past, I hope I may again I have been reminded that an eminent ask my opponents to consent to reason. predecessor of nine in the Presidential Firs: of all, I am blamed for crossing the chair expressed a totally different view of bou idary of the experimental evidence. the Cause of things from that enunciated This, I reply, is the habitual action of by me. In doing so he transgressed the the scientific mind-at least of that por: bounds of science at least as much as I tion of it which applies itself to physical - did; but nobody raised an outcry against investigation. Our theories of light, heat, him. The freedom he took I claim. magnetism, and electricity, all imply the And looking at what I must regard as crossing of this boundary. My paper on the extravagances of the religious world; the “ Scientific Use of the Imagination," at the very inadequate and foolish notions and my “Lectures on Light," illustrate concerning this universe which are enter this point in the amplest manner; and in tained by the majority of our authorised the article entitled “Matter and Force"I religious teachers; at the waste of energy have sought, incidentally, to make clear on the part of good men over things that in physics the experiential incessantly Unworthy, if I may say it without dis leads to the ultra-experiential; that out courtesy, of the attention of enlightened of experience there always grows someheathens; the fight about the fripperies thing finer than mere experience, and of Ritualism, and the verbal quibbles of that in their different powers of ideal the Athanasian Creed; the forcing on the extension consists, for the most part, the public view of Pontigny Pilgrimages; the difference between the great and the dating of historic epochs from the defini mediocre investigator. The kingdom of stion of the Immaculate Conception; the science, then, cometh not by observation proclamation of the Divine Glories of the and experiment alone, but is completed Sacred Heart-standing in the midst of by fixing the roots of observation and these chimeras, which astound all think experiment in a region inaccessible to Ang men, it did not appear to me extra both, and in dealing with which we are vagant to claim the public tolerance for forced to fall back upon the picturing hour and a half, for the statement of power of the mind. more reasonable views, views more in Passing the boundary of experience, accordance with the verities which science therefore, does not, in the abstract, conhas brought to light, and which many stitute a sufficient ground for censure. weary souls would, I thought, welcome There must hate been something in my with gratification and relief. particular mode of crossing. it which pro- But to come to closer quarters. The yoked this tremendous "chorus of disexpression to which the most violent ex sent." ception has been taken is this: “Aban Let us calmly reason the point out. doning all disguise, the confession I feel I hold the nebular theory as it was held bound to make before you is that I pro by Kant, Laplace, and William Herschel, long the vision backward across the and as it is held by the best scientific boundary of the experimental evidence, intellects of to-day. According to it, our and discern in that Matter which we, in sun and planets were once diffused our ignorance, and notwithstanding our through space as an impalpable haze, out professed reverence for its Creator, have of which, by "condensation, came the hitherto covered with opprobrium, the solar system. What caused the haze to an 1 .

·APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS 47 condense? Loss of heat. What rounded the claim to which is the source of per. the sun and planets ? That which rounds petual confusion upon earth. With a a tearmolecular force. For æons, the mind open to conviction he asks his immensity of which overwhelms man's opponents to show him an authority for conceptions, the earth was unfit to main the belief they so strenuously and so tain what we call life. It is now covered fiercely uphold. They can do no more with visible living things. They are not : than point to the Book of Genesis, or formed of matter different from that of some other portion of the Bible. Pro... the earth around them." They are, on foundly interesting, and indeed pathetic... the contrary, bone of its bone, and flesh to me are those attempts of the opening of its flesh. How were they introduced? mind of man to appease its hunger for a Was life implicated in the nebula-as Cause. But the Book of Genesis has no part, it may be, of a vaster and wholly voice in scientific questions. To the Unfathomable Life; or is it the work of grasp of geology, which it resisted for a a Being standing outside the nebula, time, it at length yielded like potter's who fashioned it, and vitalised it; but clay; its authority as a system of cosmowhose own origin and ways are equally gony being discredited on all hands by past finding out? As far as the eye of the abandonment of the obvious meaning science has hitherto ranged through of its writer. It is a poein, not a sciennature, no intrusion of purely creative tific treatise. In the former aspect it is power into any series of phenomena has for ever beautiful : in the latter aspect it. ever been observed. The assumption has been, and it will continue to be, of such a power to account for special purely obstructive and hurtful. Το. phenomena, though often made, has knowledge its value has been negative, always proved a failure. It is opposed leading, in rougher ages than ours, ty to the very spirit of science; and I there physical, and even in our own “free fore assumed the responsibility of holding age to moral, violence. up, in contrast with it, that method of nature which it has been the vocation No incident connected with the pri and triumph of science to disclose, and ceedings at Belfast is more instructive! in the application of which we can alone than the deportment of the Catholic hope for further light. Holding, then, hierarchy of Ireland; a body usually too that the nebulæ and the solar system, wise to confer notoriety upon an adverlife included, stand to each other in the sary by imprudently denouncing him. relation of the germ to the finished The Times, to which I owe a great deal organism, I reaffirm here, not arrogantly on the score of fair play, where so much or defiantly, but without a shade of indis has been unfair, thinks that the Irish tinctness, the position laid down at Cardinal, Archbishops, and Bishops, in Belfast. a recent manifesto, adroitly employed a Not with the vagueness belonging to weapon which I, at an unlucky moment, the emotions, but with the definiteness placed in their hands. The antecedents belonging to the understanding, the of their action cause mne to regard it in scientific man has to put to himself these a different light; and a brief reference questions regarding the introduction of to these antecedents will, I think, illulife upon the earth. He will be the last minate not only their proceedings regardto dogmatise upon the subject, for he ing Belfast, but other doings which have knows best that certainty is here for the been recently noised abroad. present unattainable: His refusal of the Before me lies a document bearing creative hypothesis is less an assertion of the date of November, 1873, which, after knowledge than a protest against the appearing for a moment, unaccountably assumption of knowledge which must vanished from public view. It is a long, if not for ever, lie beyond us, and Memorial addressed by seventy of the ·. to the fact that "the name of no Irish 48 LECTURES AND ESSA YS Students and Ex-students of the Catholic not long continue; and so, if scientific University in Ireland to the Episcopal training be unattainable at our University, Board of the University, and it consti- they will seek it at Trinity or at the tutes the plainest and bravest remon Queen's Colleges, in not one of which i$ strance ever addressed by Irish laymen there a Catholic Professor of Science." to their spiritual pastors and masters. It Those who imagined the Catholic expresses the profoundest dissatisfaction University at Kensington to be due to, with the curriculum marked out for the the spontaneous recognition, on the part students of the University, setting forth of the Roman hierarchy, of the intelthe extraordinary fact that the lecture lectual needs of the age will derive list for the faculty of Science, published enlightenment from this, and still more & month before they wrote, did not from what follows: for the most formidcontain the name of a single Professor able threat remains. To the picture of of the Physical or Natural Sciences. Catholic students seceding to Trinity The memorialists forcibly deprecate and the Queen's Colleges the memothis, and dwell upon the necessity of rialists add this darkest stroke of all : education in science: “The distinguish "They will, in the solitude of their own ing mark of this age is its ardour for homes, unaided by any guiding advice, science. The natural sciences have, devour the works of Haeckel, Darwin, within the last fifty years, become the Huxley, Tyndall, and Lyell: works inchiefest study in the world; they nocuous if studied under a professor are in our time pursued with an activity who would point out the difference unparalleled in the history of mankind. between established facts and erroneous Scarce a year now passes without some inferences, but which are calculated discovery being made in these sciences to sap the faith of a solitary student which, as with the touch of the magician's deprived of a discriminating judgment to wand, shivers to atoms theories formerly which he could refer for a solution of his deemed unassailable. It is through the difficulties." physical and natural sciences that the In the light of the knowledge given by fiercest assaults are now made on our this courageous memorial, and of similar i religion. No more deadly weapon is knowledge otherwise derived, the recent used against our faith than the facts Catholic manifesto did not at all strike incontestably proved by modern re me as a chuckle over the mistake of a searches in science." maladroit adversary, but rather as an Such statements must be the reverse evidence of profound uneasiness on the of comfortable to a number of gentle part of the Cardinal, the Archbishops, men who, trained in the philosophy of and the Bishops who signed it. They "Thomas Aquinas, liaye been accustomed acted towards the Students' Memorial, to the unquestioning submission of all however, with their accustomed practical other sciences to their divine science of wisdom. As one concession to the spirit Theology. But this is not all: “One thing which it embodied, the Catholic Universeems certain," say the memorialists, sity at Kensington was brought forth, "viz.y that if chairs for the physical and apparently as the effect of spontaneous natural sciences be not soon founded in inward force, and not of outward pressure the Catholic University, very many young becoming too formidable to be success men will have their faith exposed to fully opposed dangers which the creation of a school The memorialists point with bitterness of science in the University would defend them from. For our generation of Irish Catholic is known in connection with the Catholics are writhing under the sense physical and natural sciences." But this, of their inferiority, in science; and are they ought to know, is the complaint determined that such inferiority shall of free and cultivated minds wherever .. 7 .....

·them away. , , APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS à Priesthood exercises dominant power. whose form was terrible; but the gold, Precisely the same complaint has been and silver, and brass, and iron of which made with respect to the Catholics rested upon feet of clay. And a stone of Germany. The great national litera smote the feet of clay; and the iron, and ture, and the scientific achievements of that country, in modern times, are were broken in pieces together, and almost wholly the work of Protestants. became like the chaff of the summer A vanishingly small fraction of it only is threshing floors, and the wind carried derived from members of the Roman Church, although the number of these in Monsignor Capel has recently been Germany is at least as great as that of the good enough to proclaim at once the Protestants. "The question arises," says friendliness of his Church towards true a writer in an able German periodical, science, and her right to determine what "what is the cause of a phenomenon so true science is. Let us dwell for a humiliậting to the Catholics? It cannot moment on the proofs of her scientific be referred to want of natural endowment competence. When Halley's comet due to climate (for the Protestants of appeared in 1456 it was regarded as Southern Germany have contributed the harbinger of God's vengeance, the powerfully to the creations of the German dispenser of war, pestilence, and famine, intellect), but purely to outward circum and by order of the Pope the church stances. And these are readily discovered bells of Europe were rung to scare the in the pressure exercised for centuries by monster away. An additional daily the Jesuitical system, which has crushed prayer was added to the supplications of out of Catholics every tendency to free the faithful. The comet in due time mental productiveness." It is, indeed, disappeared, and the faithful were comin Catholic countries that the weight of forted by the assurance that, as in. Ultramontanism has been most severely previous instances relating to eclipses, felt. It is in such countries that the very droughts, and rains, so also as regards finest spirits, who have dared, without this "nefarious" comet, victory had been quitting their faith, to plead for freedom vouchsafed to the Church. of reform, have suffered extinction. The Both Pythagoras and Copernicus had extinction, however, was more apparent taught the heliocentric doctrine that than real, and Hermes, Hirscher, and the earth revolves round the sun. In Günther, though individually broken and the exercise of her right to determine subdued, prepared the way, in Bavaria, what true science is, the Church, in the for the persecuted but unflinching Pontificate of Paul V., stepped in and; by the mouth of the Holy Congregation the remarkable liberal movement of of the Index, delivered, on March 5th, which Döllinger is the head and guide. 1616, the following decree :- Though moulded fo> centuries to an And whereas it hat, also come to the obedience unparalleled in any other knowledge of the said Holy Congregation country, except Spain, the Irish intellect that the false Pythagorean doctrine of the is beginning to show signs of indepen. mobility of the earth and the immobility dence, demanding a diet more suited of the sun, entirely opposed to Holy writ, to its years than the pabulum of the which is taught by Nicolas Copernicus, is Middle Ages. As for the recent mani now published abroad and received by festo in which Pope, Cardinal, Arch many. In ander that this opinion may not bishops, and Bishops are united in one further spread, to the damage of Catholic grand anathema, its character and faith truth, it is ordered that this and all other are shadowed forth by the Vision of books teaching the like doctrina be sus- Nebuchadnezzar recorded in the Book pended, and by this decree they are all respeo of " Dahiél. It resembles the image tively suspended, forbidden; and condemnedha .

·.50 LECTURES AND ESSAYS But why go back to 1456 and 1616 ? vous. Personne, au temoignage de Far be it from me to charge bygone sins saint Paul, ne s'attribue à soi-même un upon Monsignor Capel, were it not for pareil honneur ; il y faut être appelé de the practices he upholds to-day. The Dieu, comme Aaron.' Et pourquoi en most applauded dogmatist and champion est-il ainsi ? C'est parce que, selon le of the Jesuits is, I am informed, Perrone. même Apôtre, nous devons être les No less than thirty editions of a work of ambassadeurs de Dieu ; et il n'est pas his have been scattered abroad for the dans les usages, pas plus qu'il n'est dans healing of the nations. His notions of la raison et le droit, qu'un envoyé physical astronomy are virtually those of s'accrédite lui-meme. Mais, si j'ai reçu 1456. He teaches boldly that "God d'En-Haut une mission; si l'Eglise, au does not rule by universal law......that, nom de Dieu lui-même, a souscrit mes when God orders a given planet to stand lettres de créance, me sierait-il de manstill He does not detract from any law quer aux instructions qu'elle m'a donpassed by Himself, but orders that nées et d'entendre, en un sens différent planet to move round the sun for such du sien, le rôle qu'elle m'a confié ? and such a time, then to stand still, and “Or, Messieurs, la sainte Eglise se then again to move, as His pleasure may croit investie du droit absolu d'enseigner be.” Jesuitism proscribed Frohschammer les hommes ; elle se croit dépositaire de for questioning its favourite dogma, that la vérité, non pas de la vérité fragmenevery human soul was created by a taire, incomplète, mêlée de certitude et direct supernatural act of God, and for d'hésitation, mais de la vérité totale, asserting that man, body and soul, came complète, au point de vue religieux. from his parents. This is the system Bien plus, elle est sûre de l'infaillithat now strives for universal power ; it bilité que son Fondateur divin lui a is from it, as Monsignor Capel graciously communiquée, comme la dot magnifique informs us, that we are to learn what is de leur indissoluble alliance, que, même allowable in science, and what is not ! dans l'ordre naturel, scientifique ou In the face of such facts, which might philosophique, moral ou politique, elle be multiplied at will, it requires extra n'admet pas qu'un système puisse être ordinary bravery of mind, or a reliance soutenu et adopté par des chrétiens, s'il upon public ignorance almost as extra contredit à des dogmes définis. Elle ordinary, to make the claims made by considère que la négation volontaire et Monsignor Capel for his Church. opiniâtre d'un seul point de sa doctrine Before me is a very remarkable letter rend coupable du péché d'hérésie; et addressed in 1875' by the Bishop of elle pense que toute hérésie formelle, si Montpellier to the Deans and Professors on ne la rejette pas courageusement of Faculties of Montpellier, in which the avant de paraître devant Dieu, entraîne writer very clearly lays down the claims avec soi la perte certaine de la grâce et of his Church. He had been startled de l'éternité." by an incident occurring in a course of The Bishop recalls those whom he lectures on Physiology given by a pro addresses from the false philosophy of fessor, of whose scientific capacity there the present to the philosophy of the past, was no doubt, but who, it was alleged, and foresees the triumph of the latter. rightly or wrongly, had made his course "Avant que le dix-neuvième siècle the vehicle of materialism. "Je ne me s'achève, la vieille philosophie scolassuis point donné," says the Bishop, "la tique aura repris sa place dans la juste mission que je remplis au milieu de admiration du monde. Il lui faudra pourtant bien du temps pour guérir les maux de tout genre, causés par son The next four paragraphs, as this date indi. cates, were inserted only in the subsequent indigne rivale; et pendant de longues reprints. ED. années encore, ce nom de philosophic, le ·APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS Les error. plus grand de la langue humaine après celui de religion, sera suspect aux âmes qui se souviendront de la science impie et matérialiste de Locke, de Condillac ou" d'Helvétius. L'heure actuelle est aux sciences naturelles : c'est maintenant l'instrument de combat contre l'Eglise et contre toute foi religieuse. Nous ne les redoutons pas." Further on the Bishop warns his readers that everything can be abused. Poetry is good, but in excess it may injure practical conduct. mathématiques sont excellentes : et Bossuet les a louées comme étant ce qui sert le plus à la justesse du raisonnement?; mais si on s'accoutume exclusivement à leur méthode, rien de ce qui appartient à l'ordre moral ne paraît plus pouvoir être démontré ; et Fénelon a pu parler de l'ensorcellement et des attraits diaboliques de la géométrie." The learned Bishop thus finally accentuates the claims of the Church : “Comme le définissait le Pape Léon X, au, cinquième concile cecuménique de Latran, Le vrai ne peut pas être contraire à lui-même : par conséquent, toute assertion contraire à une vérité de foi révélée est nécessairement et absolument fausse.' Il suit de là que, sans entrer dans l'examen scientifique de telle ou telle question de physiologie, mais par la seule certitude de nos dogmes, nous pouvons juger du sort de telle ou telle hypothèse, qui est une machine de guerre anti-chrétienne plutôt qu'une conquête sérieuse sur les secrets et les mystères de la nature....... C'est un dogme que l'homme a été formé et façonné des mains de Dieu. Donc il est faux, hérétique, contraire à la dignité du Créateur et offensant pour son chef-d'æuvre, de dire que l'homine constitue la septième espèce des singes. .... Hérésie encore de dire que le genre humain n'est pas sorti d'un seul couple, et qu'on y peut compter jusqu'à douse : races distinctes !" continued effort of animated nature is to improve its condition and raise itself to a loftier level. In man improyement and amelioration depend largely upon the growth of conscious knowledge, by which the errors of ignorance are continually moulted, and truth is organised. It is the advance of knowledge that has given a materialistic colour to the philosophy of this age. Materialism is therefore not a thing to be mourned over, but to be honestly considered-accepted if it be wholly true, rejected if it be wholly false, wisely sifted and turned to account if it embrace a mixture of truth and Of late years the study of the nervous system, and its relation to thought and feeling, have profoundly occupied inquiring minds. It is our duty not to shirk-it ought rather to be our privilege to accept--the established results of such inquiries, for here assuredly our ultimate weal depends upon our loyalty to the truth. Instructed as to the control which the nervous system exercises over man's moral and intellectual nature, we shall be better prepared, not only to mend their manifold defects, but also to strengthen and purify both. Is mind degraded by this recognition of its dependence? Assuredly not. Matter, on the contrary, is raised to the level it ought to occupy, and from which timid ignorance would remove it. But the light is dawning, and it will become stronger as time goes on. Even the Brighton "Church Congress "affords evidence of this. From the manifold confusions of that assemblage my memory has rescued two items, which it would fain preserve; the recognition of a relation between Health and Religion, and the address of the Rev. Harry Jones. Out of the conflict of vanities his words emerge wholesome and strong, because undrugged by dogma, coming directly from the warm brain of one who knows what practical truth means, and who has faith in its vitality and inherent power of propagation. I wonder whether he is less effectual in his ministry than his more embroidered colleagues? It surely . The course of life upon earth, as far as Science can see, has been one of amelioration-a steady advance on the whole from the lower to the higher. The ·. . Plotinus änd 52 LECTURES AND ESSAYS behoves our teachers to come to .sonie condition of ecstasy. 'Porphyry.com definite understanding as to this question plains of having been only once united of health to see how, by inattention to to God in eighty-six years, while his it, we are defrauded, negatively and master Plotinus had been so united six positively; negatively, by the privation of times in sixty years. A friend who that." sweetness and light” which is the knew Wordsworth informs me that the natural concomitant of good health; poet, in some of his moods, was accus positively, by the insertion into life of tomed to seize hold of an external object cynicism, ill-temper, and a thousand to assure himself of his own bodily existcorroding anxieties which good health ence. As states of consciousness such would dissipate. We fear and scorn phenomena have an undisputed reality " materialism." But he who knew alt and a substantial identity ; but they are about it, and could apply his knowledge, connected with the most heterogeneous might become the preacher of a new objective conceptions. The subjective gospel. Not, however, through the experiences are similar, because of the ecstatic moments of the individual does similarity of the underlying organisations. such knowledge come, but through the But for those who wish to look beyond revelations of science, in connection with the practical facts there will always the history of mankind. remain ample toom for speculation, Why should the Roman Catholic Take the argument of the Lucretian in- Church call gluttony a mortal sin? Why troduced in the Belfast Address. As ' should fasting occupy a place in the dis far as I am aware, not one of my ciplines of religion? What is the mean assailants has attempted to answer it. ing of Luther's advice to the young Some of them, indeed, rejoice over the clergyman who came to him, perplexed ability displayed by Bishop Butler in with the difficulties of predestination and rolling back the difficulty on his oppoelection, if it be not that, in virtue of its nent; and they even imagine that it is action upon the brain, when wisely the Bishop's own argument that is there applied, there is moral and religious employed. But the raising of a nĆw virtue even in a hydro-carbon ? difficulty does not abolish-does not the old language, food and drink are even lessen---the old one, and the argucreatures of God, and have therefore a ment of the Lucretian remains untouched spiritual value. Through our neglect of by anything the Bishop has said or can the monitions of a reasonable materialism say. we sin and suffer daily. I might here point to the train of deadly disorders And here it may be permitted me to over which science has given modem add a word to an important controversy society such control-disclosing the lair now going on: and which turns on the of the material enemy, ensuring his question : Do states of consciousness destruction, and thus preventing that enter as links into the chain of antemoral squalor and hopelessness which cedence and sequence, which give rise habitually tread on the heels of epidemics to bodily actions, and to other states of in the case of the poor. consciousness; or are they merely bya Rising to higher spheres, the visions products, which are not essential to the of Swedenborg, and the ecstasy of physical processes going on in the brain? Speaking for myself , it is certain that I that psychical condition, obviously con have no power of imagining states of nected with the nervous system and state of health, on which is based the Vedic doctrine of the absorption of the indi- I recommend to the reader's particular vidual into the universal soul. Plotinus History of the Conflict between Religion and attention Dr. Draper's important work entitled taught the devout how to pass into a Science (Messrs.: 11. S. King and Co.) To use .

·APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS . *. consciousness, interposed between the conscious strength and pleasure derived molecules of the brain, and influencing from moral and religious feeling which, the transference of motion among the I may add, was mine without the intermolecules The thought "eludes all vention of dogma. «The error was not mental presentation"; and hence the an ignoble one, but this did not save it logic seems of iron strength which claims from the penalty attached to error. for the brain an automatic action, unin Saner knowledge taught me that the Aluenced by states of consciousness. body is no weed, and that, treated as But it is, I believe, admitted by those such, it would infallibly avenge itself. who hold the automaton-theory, that Am I personally lowered by this change states of consciousness are produced by of front? Not so. Give me their health, the marshalling of the molecules of the and there is no spiritual experience of brain: and this production of conscious those earlier years-no resolve of duty, ness by molecular motion is to me quite or work of inercy, no work of selfas inconceivable on mechanical princi renouncement, no solemnity of thought, ples as the production of molecular no joy in the life and aspects of nature motion by consciousness. If, therefore, —that would not still be mine; and this I reject one result, I must reject both. without the least reference or regard to 1, however, reject neither, and thus stand any purely personal reward or punishin the presenceof two Incomprehensibles, ment looming in the future. instead of one Incomprehensible. While And now I have to utter a “farewell accepting fearlessly the facts of mate free from bitterness to all my readers; rialism dwelt upon in these pages, I bow thanking my friends for a sympathy my head in the dust before that mystery more steadfast, I would fain believe, if of mind which has hitherto defied its less noisy, than the antipathy of my foes ; own penetrative power, and which may and commending to these a passage ultimately resolve itself into a demon from Bishop Butler, which they have strable impossibility of self-penetration, either not read or failed to lay to heart. But the secret is an open one-the " It seems," saith the Bishop. " that men practical monitions are plain enough, would be strangely headstrong and selfwhich declare that on our dealings with willed, and disposed to exert themselves matter depend our weal and woe, phy with an impetuosity which would render sical and moral. The state of mind society insupportable, and the living in which rebels against the recognition of it impracticable, were it not for some the claims of materialism" is not un acquired moderation and self-governknown to me. I can remember a time ment, some aptitude and readiness in when I regarded my body as a weed, so restraining themselves, and concealing much more highly did I prize the their sense of things."

·-54 -LECTURES AND ESSAYS: SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM'. 1868 : we THE celebrated Fichte, in his lectures on pushes knowledge centrifugally outwards, the" Vocation of the Scholar," insisted the sum of its labours constituting what on a culture which should be not one Fichte might call the sphere of natural sided, but all-sided. The scholar's in- | knowledge. In the meetings of the tellect was to expand spherically, and Association it is found necessary to not in a single direction only. In one resolve this sphere into its component direction, however, Fichte required that parts, which take concrete form under the scholar should apply himself directly the respective letters of our Sections, to nature, become a creator of know Mathematics and Physics have been ledge, and thus repay, by original labours long accustomed to coalesce, and here of his own, the immense debt he owed they form a single section. No matter to the labours of others. It was these how subtle a natural phenomenon may which enabled him to supplement the be, whether observe it in the knowledge derived from his own re region of sense or follow it into that of searches, so as to render his culture imagination, it is in the long run reducible rounded and not one-sided. to mechanical laws. But the mechanical As regards science, Fichte's idea is to data once guessed or given, mathematics some extent illustrated by the constitu are all-powerful as an instrument of tion and labours of the British Associa deduction. The command of Geometry tion. We have here a body of men over the relations of space, and the farengaged in the pursuit of Natural Know reaching power which Analysis confers, ledge, but variously engaged. While are potent both as means of physical sympathising with each of its departments, discovery and of reaping the entire fruits and supplementing his culture by know of discovery. Indeed, without matheledge drawn from all of them, each matics, expressed or implied, our knowstudent amongst us selects one subject ledge of physical science would be both for the exercise of his own original faculty friable and incomplete. -one line, along which he may carry Side by side with the mathematical the light of his private intelligence a method we have the method of experilittle way into the darkness by which all ment. Here, from a starting-point furknowledge is surrounded. Thus, the nished by his own researches or those of geologist deals with the rocks; the biolo others, the investigator proceeds by gist with the conditions and phenomena combining intuition and verification. of life; the astronomer with stellar He ponders the knowledge he possesses, masses and motions; the mathematician and tries to push it further; he guesses, with the relations of space and number; and checks his guess; he conjectures, the chemist pursues his atoms; while and confirms or explodes his conjecture. the physical investigator has his own These guesses and conjectures are by no large field in optical, thermal, electrical, means leaps in the dark; for knowledge acoustical, and other phenomena. The once gained casts a faint light. beyond British Association then, as a whole, its own immediate boundaries. There faces physical nature on all sides, and is no discovery so limited as not to * President's Address to the Mathematical and Physical Section of the British Association, at Norwich ·SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM 55 illuminate something beyond itself. The The relationship to each other. When this force of intellectual penetration into this is done, we find that the observed penumbral region which surrounds actual mộtion of the hands follows of necessity knowledge is not, as some seem to think, from the inner mechanism of the watch dependent upon method, but upon the when acted upon by the force invested genius of the investigator. There is, in the spring. The motion of the hands however, no genius so gifted as not to. may be called a phenomenon of art, but need control and verification. The pro the case is similar with the phenomena foundest minds know best that Nature's of nature. These also have their inner ways are not at all times their ways, and mechanism and their store of force to that the brightest flashes in the world of, set that mechanism going. The ultimate thought are incomplete until they have problem of physical science is to reveal been proved to have their counterparts this mechanism, to discern this store, in the world of fact. Thus the vocation: and to show that, from the combined of the true experimentalist may be action of both, the phenomena of which defined as the continued exercise of they constitute the basis must, of necesspiritual insight, and its incessant cor sity, flow. rection and realisation. His experiments I thought an attempt to give you even constitute a body, of which his purified a brief and sketchy illustration of the intuitions are, as it were, the soul. manner in which scientific thinkers Partly through mathematical and regard this problem would not be unpartly through experimental research, interesting to you on the present occaphysical science has, of late years, sion; more especially as it will give me assumed a momentous position in the occasion to say a word or two on the world. Both in material and in an tendencies and limits of modern science; intellectual point of view it has produced, to point out the region which men of and it is destined to produce, immense science claim as their own, and where it changes-vast social ameliorations, and is futile to oppose their advance; and vast alterations in the popular conception also to define, if possible, the bourne of the origin, rule, and governance of between this and that other region to natural things. By science, in the which the questionings and yearnings of physical world, miracles are wrought, the scientific intellect are directed in vain. while philosophy is forsaking its ancient But here your tolerance will be needed. metaphysical channels, and pursuing It was the American Emerson, I think, others which have been opened or who said that it is hardly possible to state indicated by scientific research. This any truth strongly, without apparent inmust become more and more the case as justice to some other truth. Truth is philosophical writers become more deeply often of a dual character, taking the form imbued with the methods of science, of a magnet with two poles; and many better acquainted with the facts which of the differences which agitate the thinkscientific men have established, and with ing part of mankind are to be traced to the great theories which they have elabo the exclusiveness with which partisan rated. reasoners dwell upon one half of the If you look at the face of a watch, you duality, in forgetfulness of the other. see the hour and minute-hands, and The proper course appears to be to state possibly also a second-hand, moving both halves strongly, and allow each its over the graduated dial. Why do these fair share in the formation of the resulhands move; and why are their relative tant conviction. But this waiting for the motions such as they are observed to be? statement of the two sides of a question These questions cannot be answered implies patience. It implies a resolution without opening the watch, mastering its to suppress indignation, if the statement various parts, and ascertaining their of the one half should clash with our ·$6 . for the LECTURES AND ESSAYS convictions, and to repress equally undue at these pyramidal talt-crystals as to elation, if the half-statement should look at the pyramids of Egypt, without happen to chime in with our views. It inquiring whence they came. . How, implies a determination to wait calmly then, are those salt-pyramids built up? of the whole before we "Guided by analogy, you may, if you pronounce judgment in the form of either like, suppose that, swarming among the acquiescence or dissent. constituent molecules of the salt, there is This premised, and I trust accepted, ån invisible population, controlled and let us enter upon our task. There have coerced by some invisible master, placing been writers who affirmed that the Pyra the atomic blocks in their positions, mids of Egypt were natural productions; This, however, is not the scientific idea, and in his early youth Alexander von hor do I think your good sense will Humboldt wrote a learned essay with the accept it as a likely one. The scientific express object of refuting this notion. idea is that the molecules act upon each We noy regard the pyramids as the work other without the intervention of slave of men's hands, aided probably by labour; that they attract each other, and machinery of which no record remains. repel each other, at certain definite We picture to ourselves the swarming points or poles, and in certain definite workers toiling at those vast erections, directions, and that the pyramidal form lifting the inert stones, and, guided by is the result of this play of attraction and the volition, the skill, and possibly at repulsion. While, then, the blocks of times by the whip of the architect, placing Egypt were laid down by a power external them in their proper positions. The to themselves, these molecular blocks of blocks, in this case, were moved and salt are self-posited, being fixed in their posited by a power external to them places by the inherent forces with which selves, and the final form of the pyramid they act upon each other. expressed the thought of its human I take common salt as an illustration, builder. because it is so familiar to us all; but Let us pass from this illustration of any other crystalline substance would constructive power to another of a dif answer my purpose equally well. Everyferent kind. When a solution of common where, in fact, throughout inorganic salt is slowly evaporated, the water which nature, we have this formative power, as holds the salt in solution disappears, but Fichte would call it--this structural the salt itself remains behind. At a energy ready to come into play, and certain stage of concentration the salt build the ultimate particles' of matter can no longer retain the liquid forin; its into definite shapes. The ice of our particles, or molecules, as they are called, winters and of our polar regions is its begin to deposit themselves as minute handiwork, and so also are the quartz, solids-SO minute, indeed, as to defy all felspar, and mica of our rocks. Our microscopic power. As evaporation con chalk-beds are fordhemost part composed tinues, solidification goes on, and we of minutt shells, which are also the profinally obtain, through the clustering duct of structural energy; but behind together of innumerable molecules, a the shell, as a whole, lies a more remote finite crystalline mass of a definite form. and subtle formative act. These shells What is this form? It sometimes seems are built up of little crystals of calc-spar, a mimicry of the architecture of Egypt. and, to form these crystals, the structural We have little pyramids built by the salt, force had to deal with the intangible terrace above terrace from base to apex, molecules of carbonate of line, This forming a sertes of steps resembling those tendency on the part of matter to organise up which the traveller in Egypt is dragged itself, to grow into shape, to assume defiby his guides The human mind is as nite forms in obedience to the definite.. little disposed to look without question action of force, is, as I have said, all : .

·. . you now. But if in the case of crystals SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM pervading. It is in the ground on which to reject it in the case of the grain, and you tread, in the water you drink, in the to conclude that the molecules of the air you breathe. Incipient life, as it corn, also, are posited by the forces with were, manifests, itself throughout the which they act upon each other. It. whole of what we call inorganic nature. would be poor philosophy to invoke an The forms of the minerals resulting external agent in the one case, and to from this play of polar forces are various, reject it in the other. and exhibit different degrees of com Instead of cutting our grain of corn plexity, Men of science avail themselves into slices and subjecting it to the action of all possible means of exploring their of polarised light, let us place it in the molecular architecture. For this purpose earth, and subject it to a certain degree they employ in turn, as agents of explora of warmth. In other words, let the tion, light, heat, magnetism, electricity, molecules, both of the corn and of the and sound. Polarised light is especially surrounding earth, be kept in that state useful and powerful here. A beam of of agitation which we call heat. Under such light, when sent in among the these circumstances, the grain and the molecules of a crystal, is acted on by substances which surround it interact them, and from this action we infer with and a definite molecular architecture is more or less clearness the manner in the result. A bud is formed; this bud which the molecules are arranged. That reaches the surface, where it is exposed differences, for example, exist between to the sun's rays, which are also to be the inner structure of rock-salt and that regarded as a kind of vibrātory motion. of crystallised sugar or sugar-candy is And as the motion of common heat, thus strikingly revealed. These actions with which the grain and the substances often display themselves in chromatic surrounding it were first endowed, enabled phenomena of great splendour, the play the grain and these substances to exerof molecular force being so regulated as cise their mutual attractions and repulto cause the removal of some of the sions, and thus to coalesce in definite coloured constituents of white light, forms, so the specific motion of the sun's while others are left with increased rays now enables the green bud to feed intensity behind. upon the carbonic acid and the aqueous And now let us pass from what we vapour of the air. The bud appropriates are accustomed to regard as a dead those constituents of both for which it mineral, to a living grain of corn. When has an elective attraction, and permits this is examined by polarised light, the other constituent to return to the chromatic phenomena similar to those atmosphere. Thus the architecture is noticed in crystals are observed. And carried on. Forces are active at the why? Because the architecture of the root, forces are active in the blade, the grain resembles that of the crystal. In matter of the air and the matter of the the grain also the molecules are set in atmosphere are drawn upon, and the definite positions, and in accordance plant augments in size. We have in with their arrangement they act upon succession the stalk, the ear, the full the light. But what has built together corn in the ear; the cycle of molecular the molecules of the corn? Regarding action being completed by the produccrystalline architecture, I have already tion of grains similar to that with which said that you may, if you please, consider the process began. the atoms and molecules to be placed Now there is nothing in this process in position by a Power external to them which necessarily eludes the conceptive selves. The same hypothesis is open to or imagining power of the human mind. An intellect the same in kind as our you have rejected this notion of an own would, if only sufficiently expanded, external architect, I think you are bound be able to follow the whole process from ·58 LECTURES AND ESSAYS beginning to end. It would see every tion in the body might be determined molecule placed in its position by the mathematically. Our difficulty is not specific attractions and repulsions exerted with the quality of the problem, but with between it and other molecules, the its complexity; and this difficulty might whole process, and its consummation, be met by the simple expansion of the being an instance of the play of molecular faculties we now possess. Given this force. Given the grain and its environ expansion, with the necessary molecular ment, with their respective forces, the data, and the chick might be deduced purely human intellect might, if suffi as rigorously and as logically from the ciently expanded, trace out a priori egg as the existence of Neptune from every step of the process of growth, and, the disturbances of Uranus, or as conical by the application of purely mechanical refraction from the undulatory theory of principles, demonstrate that the cycle light. must end, as it is seen to end, in the You see I am not mincing matters, but reproduction of forms like that with avowing nakedly what many scientific which it began. A necessity rules here, thinkers more or less distinctly believe. similar to that which rules the planets The formation of a crystal, a plant, or in their circuits round the sun. an animal is, in their eyes, a purely You will notice that I am stating the mechanical problem, which differs from truth strongly, as at the beginning we the problems of ordinary mechanics, in agreed it should be stated. But I must the smallness of the masses, and the go still further, and affirm that in the complexity of the processes involved. eye of science the animal body is just as Here you have one half of our dual much the product of molecular force as truth; let us now glance at the other the chalk and the ear of corn, or as half. Associated with this wonderful the crystal of salt or sugar. Many of mechanism of the animal body we have the parts of the body are obviously phenomena no less certain than those of mechanical. Take the human heart, for physics, but between which and the example, with its system of valves, or mechanism we discern no necessary contake the exquisite mechanism of the eye nection. A man, for example, can say or hand. Animal heat, moreover, is "I feel,” “I think,” “I love", but how the same in kind as the heat of a fire, does consciousness infuse itself into the being produced by the same chemical problem? The human brain is said to process. Animal motion, too, is as cer be the organ of thought and feeling: tainly derived from the food of the when we are hurt, the brain feels it; animal as the motion of Trevethyck's when we ponder, or when our passions walking-engine from the fuel in its fur or affections are excited, it is through nace. As regards matter, the animal the instrumentality of the brain. Let us body creates nothing; as regards force, endeavour to be a little more precise it creates nothing. Which of you by here. I hardly imagine there exists a taking thought can add one cubit to his profound scientific thinker, who has stature? All that has been said, then, reflected upon the subject, unwilling to regarding the plant may be restated with admit the extreme probability of the regard to the animal. Every particle hypothesis, that for every fact of conthat enters into the composition of a sciousness, whether in the domain of nerve, a muscle, or a bone has been sense, thought, or emotion, a definite placed in its position by molecular force. molecular condition, of motion or struc- And unless the existence of law, in these ture, is set up in the brain; or who matters be, denied, and the element of would be disposed even to deny that, if caprice introduced, we must conclude the motion, or structure, be induced by that, given the relation of any molecule internal causes instead of external, the of the body to its environment, its posi effect on consciousness will be the samer ·SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM 59 Let any nerve, for example, be thrown Were our minds and senses so expanded, by morbid action into the precise state strengthened, and illuminated, as to of motion which would be communicated enable us to see and feel the very moleto it by the pulses of a heated body, cules of the brain; were we capable of surely that nerve will declare itself hot following all their motions, all their the mind will accept the subjective inti groupings, all their electric discharges, if mation exactly as if it were objective. such there be; and were we intimately The "retina may be excited by purely acquainted with the corresponding states mechanical means.. A blow on the eye of thought and feeling ; we should be as causes a luminous flash, and the mere far as ever from the solution of the probpressure of the finger on the external lem, "How are these physical processes ball produces a star of light, which connected with the facts of conscious- Newton compared to the circles on a ness ?" The chasm between the two peacock's tail. Disease makes people classes of phenomena would still remain see visions and dream dreams; but, in intellectually impassable. Let the conall such cases, could we examine the sciousness of love, for example, be assoorgans implicated, we should, on philo ciated with a right-handed spiral motion sophical grounds, expect to find them in of the molecules of the brain, and the that precise molecular condition which consciousness of hate with a left-handed the real objects, if present, would super spiral motion. We should then know, induce. when we love, that the motion is in one The relation of physics to conscious direction, and, when we hate, that the ness being thus invariable, it follows that, motion is in the other; but the " WHY )" given the state of the brain, the corres would remain as unanswerable as before. ponding thought or feeling might be In affirming that the growth of the inferred : or, given the thought or feel body is mechanical, and that thought, as ing, the corresponding state of the brain exercised by us, has its correlative in the might be inferred. But how inferred ? physics of the brain, I think the position It would be at bottom not a case of of the “Materialist " is stated, as far as logical inference at all, but of empi that position is a tenable one. I think rical association. You may reply that the materialist will be able finally to many of the inferences of science are of maintain this position against all attacks; this character--the inference, for ex but I do not think, in the present condiample, that an electric current, of a given tion of the human mind, that he can pass direction, will deflect a magnetic needle beyond this position. I do not think he in a definite way. But the cases differ is entitled to say that his molecular in this, that the passage from the current groupings and motions explain every. to the needle, if not demonstrable, is thing. In reality they explain nothing. conceivable, and that we entertain no The utmost he can affirm is the associa. doubt as to the final mechanical solution tion of two classes of phenomena, of of the problem. But the passage from whose real bond of union he is in abso the physics of the brain to the corre lute ignorance. The problem of the consponding facts of consciousness is in nection of body and soul is as insoluble conceivable as a result of mechanics. in its modern form as it was in the pre- Granted that a definite thought and a scientific ages. Phosphorus is known to definite molecular action in the brain enter into the composition of the human occur simultaneously, we do not possess brain, and a trenchant German writer the intellectual organ, nor apparently any has exclaimed, “Ohne Phosphor, kein rudiment of the organ, which would Gedanke!" That may or may not be the enable us to pass, by a process of reason case; but even if we knew it to be the ing, from the one to the other. They case, the knowledge would not lighten appear together, but we do not know why. our darkness. On both sides of the zone ·littleness to 602 LECTURKS AND ESSAYS bere assigned to the materialist he is ing the intellect, and in rescuing man equally helpless, If you ask him whence is this " Matter” of which we have been struggle for existence, or for precedence discoursing, who or what divided it into in the world, he is continally prone. molecules, who or what impressed upon them this necessity of running into organic forms, he has no answer. Science is mute in reply to these questions. But if the materialist is confounded and Musings on the Matterhorn, science rendered dumb, who else is pre- July 27th, 1868. pared with a solution? To whom has this arm of the Lord been revealed? Let HACKED and hurt by time, the aspect us lower our heads and acknowledge our of the mountain from its higher crags ignorance, priest and philosopher, one saddened me. Hitherto the impression and all. it made was that of savage strength; Perhaps the mystery may resolve itself here we had inexorable decay. But this into knowledge at some future day. The notion of decay implied a reference to a process of things upon this earth has period when the Matterhorn was in the been one of amelioration. It is a long full strength of mountainhood. Thought way from the Iguanodon and his contem naturally ran back to its remoter origin poraries to the President and Members and sculpture. Nor did thought halt of the British Association. And whether there, but wandered on through molter wę regard the improvement from the worlds to that nebulous haze which scientific or from the theological point of philosophers have regarded, and with view-as the result of progressive deve good reason, as the proximate source of lopment, or of successive exhibitions of all material things. I tried to look at creative energy--neither view entitles us this universal cloud, containing within to assume that man's present faculties itself the prediction of all that has since end the series, that the process of occurred; I tried to imagine it as the amelioration ends with him. A time seat of those forces whose action was to may therefore come when this ultra-scien issue in solar and stellar systems, and all tific region, by which we are that they involve. Did that formless enfolded, may offer itself to terrestrial, if fog contain potentially the sadness with not to human, investigation. Two-thirds which I regarded the Matterhorn? Did of the rays emitted by the sun fail to the thought which now ran back to it arouse the sense of vision. The rays simply return to its primeval home? If exist, but the visual organ requisite for so, had we not better recast our definitheir translation into light does not exist. tions of matter and force; for, if life and And so, from this region of darkness and thought be the very flower of both, any mystery which surrounds us, rays, may definition which omits life and thought now be darting, which require but the must be inadequate, if not untrue. Are development of the proper intellectual questions like these warranted? Why organs to translate them into knowledge not? If the final goal of man has not as far surpassing ours as ours surpasses been yet attained ; if his development that of the wallowing reptiles which once has not been yet arrested, who can say held possession of this planet. Mean that such yearnings and questionings are while the mystery is not without its uses. not necessary to the opening of a finer It certainly may be made a power in the vision, to the budding and the growth of human soul but it is a power which has diviner powers ? When I look at the feeling not knowledge, for its base. It heavens and the earth, at my own body, may be, will be, and I hope is turned to at my strength and weakness, even at account, both in steadying and strengthen these ponderings, and ask myself, Is now *- ·* SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION there no being of thing in the universe that knows more about these matters. than I do; what is my answer? Supposing dur theologic schemes of creation, condemnation, and redemption to be dissipated; and the warmth of denial which they excite, and which, as a motive force, can match the warmth of affirmation, dissipated at the same time; would the undeflected human mind return to the meridian of absolute neutrality as regards these ultra-physical questions? Is such a position one of stable equilibrium? The channels of thought being already formed, such are the questions, without replies, which could run athwart consciousness during a ten minutes' halt upon the weathered crest of the Matters horn. SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION" "Lastly, physical investigation, more than anything besides, helps to teach us the actral value and right use of the Imagination of that wondrous faculty which, left to ramble uncontrolled, leads us astray into a wilderness of perplexities and errors, a land of mists and shadows ; but which, properly controlled by experience and reflection, becomes the noblest attribute of man; the source of poetic genius, the instrument of discovery, in Science, without the aid of which Newton would never have invented Anxions, nor Davy have decomposed the earths and alkalies, nor would Corumbus have found another Continent."- Address to the Royal Society by its President, Sir Benjamin Brodie, Nov. 301h, 1859. I CARRIED with me to the Alps this year bome when we find that they have been the burden of this evening's work. Save experienced by another. From certain from memory I had no direct aid upon passages in his book I could infer that the mountains; but to spur up the Mr. Bain was no stranger to such emotions, on which so much depends, as sorrows. Speaking, for example, of the well as to nourish indirectly the intellect ebb of intellectual force, which we all and will, I took with me four works, from time to time experience, Mr. Bain comprising two volumes of poetry, says: "The uncertainty where to look for Goethe's Farbenlehre, and the work on the next opening of discovery brings the Logic recently published by Mr. Alex pain of conflict and debility of inander Bain. In Goethe, so noble other decision." These words have in them wise, I chiefly noticed the self-inflicted the true ring of personal experience. hurts of genius, as it broke itself in vain The action of the investigator is periodic. against the philosophy of Newton. . Mr. He grapples with a subject of inquiry, Bain I found for the most part, learned wrestles with it, and exhausts, it may be, and practical, shining generally with a both himself and it for the time being. dry light, but exhibiting at times a flush He breathes a space, and then renews. of emotional strength, which proved that the struggle in another field, Now this even logicians share the common fire of period of halting between two investihumanity. He interested me most when gations is not always one of pure repose. he became the mirror of my own condi It is often a period of doubt and distion. Neither intellectually nor socially comfort-of gloom and ennui. “The is it good for man to be alone, and the uncertainty where to look for the next sorrows of thought are more patiently opening of discovery brings the pain of Discourse delivered before the British Association at Liverpool, September 16th, 1870.

·LECTURES AND ESSAYS conflict and the debility of indecision." accompanying, and guiding all his experi- It was under such conditions that I had ments. His strength and fertility as a to equip myself for the hour and the discoverer is to be referred in great part ordeal that are now..come. to the stimulus of his imagination. Scientific men fight shy of the word The disciplines of common life are, in because of its ultra-scientific connotagreat part, exercises in the relations of tions; but the fact is that without the space, or in the mental grouping of exercise of this power our knowledge of bodies in space; and by such exercises nature would be a mere tabulation of the public mind is, to some extent, co-existences and sequences. We should prepared for the reception of physical still believe in the succession of day and conceptions. Assuming this preparation night, of summer and winter; but the on your part, the wish gradually grew conception of Force would vanish from within me to trace, and to enable you to our universe; causal relations would trace, some of the more occult features disappear, and with them that science and operations of Light and Colour. I which is now binding the parts of nature wished, if possible, to take you beyond to an organic whole. the boundary of mere observation, into I should like to illustrate by a few a region where things are intellectually simple instances the use that scientific discerned, and to show you there the men have already made of this power of hidden mechanism of optical action. imagination, and to indicate afterwards But how are those hidden things to some of the further uses that they are be revealed? Philosophers may be right likely to make of it. Let us begin with in affirming that we cannot transcend the rudimentary experiences. Observe experience: we can, at all events, carry the falling of heavy rain-drops into a it a long way from its origin. We can tranquil pond. Each drop as it strikes magnify, diminish, qualify, and combine the water becomes a centre of disturexperiences, so as to render them fit for bance, from which a series of ring-ripples purposes entirely new, In explaining expand outwards. Gravity and inertia sensible phenomena, we habitually form are the agents by which this wave-motion mental images of the ultra-sensible. is produced, and a rough experiment There are Tories even in science who will suffice to show that the rate of regard Imagination as a faculty to be propagation does not amount to a foot feared and avoided rather than employed. a second. A series of slight mechanical They have observed its action in weak shocks is experienced by a body plunged vessels, and are unduly impressed by its in the water, as the wavelets reach it in disasters. But they might with equal succession. But a finer motion is at the justice point to exploded boilers as an same time set up and propagated. If argument against the use of steam. the head and ears be immersed in the With: accurate experiment and observa water, as in an experiment of Franklin's, tion to work upon, Imagination becomes the tick of the drop is heard. Now, this the architect of physical theory. Newton's sonorous impulse is propagated, not at passage from a falling apple to a falling the rate of a foot, but at the rate of 4,700 moon was an act of the prepared imagina feet a second. In this case it is not the tion, without which the "laws of Kepler" gravity but the elasticity of the water could never have been traced to their that comes into play. Every liquid foundations. Out of the facts of particle pushed against its neighbour chemistry the constructive imagination delivers up its motion with extreme of Dalton formed the atomic theory. rapidity, and the pulse is propagated as Davy was richly endowed with the a thrill. The incompressibility of water, imaginative faculty, while with Faraday as illustrated by the famous Florentine its exercise was incessant, preceding, experiment, is a measure of its elasticity;

·scientiFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION 63 this power. and to the possession of this property, in so high a degree, the rapid transa mission of a sound-pulse through water is to be ascribed. But water, as you know, is not necessary to the conduction of sound; air is its most common vehicle. And you know that when the air possesses the particular density and elasticity corresponding to the temperature of freezing water, the velocity of sound in it is 1,090 feet a second. It is almost exactly one-fourth of the velocity in water; the reason being that, though the greater weight of the water tends to diminish the velocity, the enormous molecular elasticity of the liquid far more than atones for the disadvantage due to weight. By various contrivances we can compel the vibrations of the air to declare thenselves; we know the length and frequency of the sonorous waves, and we have also obtained great mastery over the various methods by which the air is thrown into vibration. We know the phenomena and laws of vibrating rods, of organ-pipes, strings, membranes, plates, and bells. We can abolish one sound by another. We know the physical meaning of music and noise, of harmony and discord. In short, as regards sound in general, we have a very clear notion of the external physical processes which correspond to our sensations. In the phenomena of sound, we travel a very little way from downright sensible experience. Still the imagination is to some extent exercised. The bodily eye, for example, cannot see the condensations and rarefactions of the waves of sound. We construct them in thought and we believe as firmly in their existence as that of the air itself. But now our experience is to be carried into a new region, where a new use is to be made of it. Having mastered the cause and mechanism of sound, we desire to know the cause and mechanism of light. We wish to extend our inquiries from the auditory to the optic nerve. There is in the human intellect a power of expansion-I might almost all it a power of creation-which is brought into play by the simple brooding upon facts. The legend of the spirit brooding over chaos may have originated in experience of In the case now before us it has manifested itself by transplanting into space, for the purposes of light, an adequately modified form of the mechanism of sound. We know intimately whereon the velocity of sound depends. When' we lessen the density of the aërial medium, and preserve its elasticity constant, we augment the velocity. When we heighten the elasticity and keep the density constant we also augment the velocity. A small density, therefore, and a great elasticity, are the two things necessary to rapid propagation. Now light is known to move with the astounding velocity of 186,000 miles a second. How is such a velocity to be obtained ? By boldly diffusing in space a medium of the requisite tenuity and elasticity. Let us make such a medium our starting-point, and, endowing it with one or two other necessary qualities, let us handle it in accordance with strict mechanical laws. Let us then carry our results from the world of theory into the world of sense, and see whether our deductions do not issue in the very phenomena of light which ordinary knowledge and skilled experiment reveal. If in all the multiplied varieties of these phenomena, including those of the most remote and entangled description, this fundamental conception always brings us face to face with the truth; if no contradiction to our deductions from it be found in external nature, but on all sides agreement and verification; if, moreover, as in the case of Conical Refraction and in other cases, it actually forces upon our attention phenomena which eye had previously seen, and which no mind had previously imagined-such a conception must, we think, be something more than a mere figment of the scientific fancy. In forming it, that composite and creative power, in which reason and imagination are united, has, We believe, led us into a world not less no :

·64 LECTURES AND ESSAYS, You may, You are, real than that of the senses, and of which of the atoms or molecules of the lumin the world of sense itself is the suggestion ous body. But here a certain reserve is and, to a great extent, the outcome. necessary. Many chemists of the pre- Far be it from me, however, to wish sent day refuse to speak of atoms and to fix you immovably in this or in any molecules as real things." Their caution other theoretic conception. With all leads them to stop short of the clear, our beliefs of it, it will be well to keep 'sharp, mechanically intelligible atomic the theory of a luminiferous ether plastic theory enunciated by Dalton, or any and capable of change. form of that theory, and to make the moreover, urge that, although the phe doctrine of " multiple proportions, their: nomena occur as if the medium existed, intellectual bourne. I respect the the absolute demonstration of its exist 'caution, though I think it is here misence is still wanting. Far be it from me placed. The chemists who recoil from to deny to this reasoning such validity these notions of atoms and molecules as it may fairly claim. Let us endeavour accept, without hesitation, the Undula** by means of analogy to form a fair tory Theory of Light. Like you and me , estimate of its force. You believe that they one and all believe in an ether and in society you are surrounded by reason its light-producing waves. Let us consider : able beings like yourself. what this belief involves. Bring your perhaps, as firmly convinced of this as of imaginations once more into play, and anything. What is your warrant for this figure a series of sound-waves passing - conviction? Simply and solely this: your through air. Follow them up to their fellow-creatures behave as if they were origin, and what do you' there find? A reasonable; the hypothesis, for it is definite, tangible, vibrating body. It may nothing more, accounts for the facts. To be the vocal chords of a human being, it take an eminent example : you believe may be an organ-pipe, or it may be a that our President is a reasonable being. stretched string. Follow in the same Why? There is no known method of manner a train of ether-waves to their superposition by which any one of us source, remembering at the same time can apply himself intellectually. to any that your ether is matter, dense, elastic, other, so as to demonstrate coincidence and capable of motions subject to, and as regards the possession of reason, If, determined by, mechanical laws. What therefore, you hold our President to be then do you expect to find as the source reasonable, it is because he behaves as if of a series of ether-waves ? Ask your he were reasonable. As in the case of imagination if it will accept a vibrating the ether, beyond the "as if" you can multiple proportion-a numerical ratio not go, Nay, I should not wonder if in a state of oscillation? I do not think a close comparison of the data on which it will. You cannot crown the edifice both inferences rest caused many rewith this abstraction. The scientific spectable persons to conclude that the imagination, which is here authoritative, ether had the best of it. demands, as the origin and cause of a This universal medium, this light-ether series of ether-waves, a particle of vibratas it is called, is the vehicle, not the ing matter quite as definite, though it origin, of wave-motion. It receives and may be excessively minute, as that which transmits, but it does not create. Whence gives origin to a musical sound. Such a does it derive the motions it conveys ? particle we name an atom or a molecule. For the most part from luminous bodies. I think the intellect, when focussed so as By the motion of a luminous body I do to give definition without penumbral nor mean its sensible motion, such as haze, is sure to realise this image at the the flicker of a candle, or the shooting last. out of red prominences from the limb of the sun. I mean an intestine motion With the view of preserving thought .. :- .

·65 I the force, or energy, of the largest wave SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION continuous throughout this discourse, highly refracting substance, such'as glass and of preventing either failure of know or water, or the sulphide of carbon, all ledge or of memoty from causing any the waves are retarded, but the smallest ones most. This furnishes a means of rapidly over a bit of ground which is separating the different classes of waves probably familiar to most of you, but from each other; in other words, of wbich I am anxious to make familiar to analysing the light. Sent through reyou all. The waves generated in the fracting prism, the waves of the sun are cther by the swinging atoms of luminous turned aside in different degrees froin bodies are of different lengths and ampli their direct course, the red least, the tudes. The amplitude is 'the width of violet most. They are virtually pulled swing of the individual particles of the' asunder, and they paint upon a white waves. In water-waves it is the vertical screen placed to receive thein " the solar height of the crest above the trough, spectrum." Strictly speaking, the specwhile the length of the wave is the hori trum embraces an infinity of colours ; zontal distance between two consecutive but the limits of language, and of our crests. The aggregate of waves emitted powers of distinction, cause it to be by the sun may be broadly divided into divided into seven segments: red, orange, two classes: the one class competent, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. These the other incompetent, to excite vision. are the seven primaryor prismatic colours. But the light-producing waves differ Separately, or mixed in various promarkedly among themselves in size, form, portions, the solar waves yield all the and force. The length of the largest of colours observed in nature and employed these waves is about twice that of the in art. Collectively, they give us the smallest, but the amplitude of the largest impression of whiteness. Pure unsifted is probably a hundred times that of the solar light is white; and, if all the wavesmallest. Now the force or energy of constituents of such light be reduced in the wave, which, expressed with reference the same proportion, the light, though to sensation, means the intensity of the diminished in intensity, will still be white. light, is proportional to the square of the The whiteness of snow with the sun amplitude. Hence the amplitude being shining upon it is barely tolerable to the one-hundred-fold, the energy of the eye. The same snow under an overcast largest light-giving waves would be ten firmament is still white. Such a firmathousand-fold that of the smallest. This ment enfeebles the light by reflecting it is not improbable. I use these figures upwards : and when we stand above a not with a view to numerical accuracy, cloud-field-on an Alpine summit, for but to give you definite ideas of the dif instance, or on the top of Snowdonferences that probably exist among the and see, in the proper direction, the light-giving waves. And if we take the sun shining on the clouds below us, they whole range of solar, radiation into appear dazzlingly white. Ordinary clouds, account-mits non-visual as well as its in fact, divide the solar light impinging, visual waves.I think it probable that on them into two parts--a reflected part and a transmitted part-in each of which is more than a million times that of the the proportions of wave-inotion which smallest. produce the impression of whiteness are Turned into their equivalents of sensa sensibly preserved. tion, the different light-waves produce It will be understood that the condifferent colours. Red, for example, is dition of whiteness would fail if all the produced by the largest waves, violet by waves were diminished equally, or by the the smallest, while green is produced by same absolute quantity. They must a wave of intermediate length and ampli be reduced proportionately, instead of tude: On entering from air into a more equally. If by the act of reflection the .

·66 LECTURES AND ESSAYS . waves of red light are split into exact solar rays, and even against the direction halves, then, to preserve the light white, of the solar rays; and this lateral and the waves of yellow, orange, green, and opposing rush of wave-motion can only blue must also be split into exact halves. be due to the rebound of the waves from In short, the reduction must take place, the air itself, or from something susnot by absolutely equal quantities, but pended in the air. It is also evident by equal fractional parts. In white light that, unlike the action of clouds, the the preponderance, as regards energy, of solar light is not reflected by the sky in the larger over the smaller waves must the proportions which produce white. always be immense. Were the case The sky is blue, which indicates an otherwise, the visual correlative, blue, of excess of the shorter waves. In accountthe smaller waves would have the upper ing for the colour of the sky, the first hand in our sensations. question suggested by analogy would Not only are the waves of ether re undoubtedly be, Is not the air blue? flected by clouds, by solids, and by The blueness of the air has, in fact, been liquids, but when they pass from light given as a solution of the blueness of the air to dense, or from dense air to light, sky. But how, if the air be blue, can a portion of the wave-motion is always the light of sunrise and sunset, which reflected. Now, our atmosphere changes travels through vast distances of air, be continually in density from top to bottom. yellow, orange, or even red ? The It will help our conception if we regard passage of white solar light through a it as made up of a series of thin con blue medium could by no possibility centric layers, or shells of air, each shell redden the light. The hypothesis of a being of the same density throughout, a blue air is therefore untenable. In fact, small and sudden change of density the agent, whatever it is, which sends us occurring in passing from shell to sheli. the light of the sky, exercises in so Light would be reflected at the limiting doing a dichroitic action. The light surfaces of all these shells, and their reflected is blụe, the light transmitted is action would be practically the same as orange or red. A marked distinction is that of the real atmosphere. And now thus exhibited between the matter of the I would ask your imagination to picture sky and that of an ordinary cloud, which this act of reflection. What must become exercises no such dichroitic action. of the reflected light? The atmospheric By the scientific use of the imaginalayers turn their convex surfaces towards tion we may hope to penetrate this the sun; they are So many convex mystery. The cloud takes no note of mirrors of feeble power; and you will size on the part of the waves of ether, immediately perceive that the light regu but reflects them all alike. It exercises larly reflected from these surfaces cannot no selective action. Now, the cause of reach the earth at all, but is dispersed in this may be that the cloud particles are space. Light thus reflected cannot, there so large, in comparison with the waves of fore, be the light of the sky. ether, aş to reflect them all indifferently: But, though the sun's light is not A broad cliff reflects an Atlantic roller is reflected in this fashion from the aërial easily as a ripple produced by a sea-bird's layers to the earth, there is indubitable wing; and in the presence of large evidence to show that the light of our reflecting surfaces the existing differences firmament is scattered light. Proofs of of magnitude among the waves of ether the most cogent description could be may disappear. But supposing the re here adduced; but we need only con flecting particles, instead of being very sider that we receive light at the same large,' to be very small in comparison time from all parts of the hemisphere of with the size of the waves. heaven. The light of the firmament instead of the whole wave being fronted comes to us across the direction of the and thrown back, a small portion only is : In this case, ·SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION 67 shivered" off. The great mass of the wave passes over such a particle without reflection. Scatter, then, a handful of such minute foreign particles in our atmosphere, and set imagination to watch their action upon the solar waves. Waves of all sizes impinge upon the particles, and you see at every collision a portion of the impinging wave struck off ; all the waves of the spectrum, from the extreme red to the extreme violet, bcing thus 'acted upon. Remembering that the red waves stand to the blue much in the relation of billows to ripples, we have to consider whether those extremely small particles are competent to scatter all the waves in the same proportion. If they be notand a little reflection will make it clear that they are not--the production of colour must be an incident of the scattering. Largeness is a thing of relation; and the smaller the wave, the greater is the relative size of any particle on which the wave impinges, and the greater also the ratio of the portion scattered to the total wave. A pebble, placed in the way of the ring-ripples produced by heavy rain-drops.on a tranquil pond, will scatter a large fraction of each ripple, while the fractional part of a larger wave thrown back by the same pebble might be infinitesimal. Now we have already made it clear to our minds that, to preserve the solar light white, its constituent proportions must not be altered ; but in the act of division performed by these very small particles the proportions are altered; an undue fraction of the smaller waves is scattered by the particles, and, as a consequence, in the scattered light blue will be the predominant colour. The other colours of the spectrum must, to some extent, be associated with the blue. They are not absent, but deficient. We ought, in fact, to have them all, but in diminishing proportions, from the violet to the red. We have here presented a case to the imagination, and, assuming the undulatory theory to be a reality, we have, I think, fairly reasoned our way to the conclusion, that were particles, small in comparison to the sizes of the ether waves, sown in our atmosphere, the light scattered by those particles would be exactly such as we observe in our azure skies. When this light is analysed, all the colours of the spectrum are found, and they are found in the proportions indicated by our conclusion. Blue is not the sole, but it is the predominant colour, Let us now turn our attention to the light which passes unscattered among the particles. How must it be finally affected? By its successive collisions with the particles the white light is more and more robbed of its shorter waves ; it therefore loses more and more of its due proportion of blue. The result may be anticipated. The transmitted light, where short distances are involved, will appear yellowish. But as the sun sinks towards the horizon the atmospheric distances increase, and consequently the number of the scattering particles. They abstract in succession the violet, the indigo, the blue, and even disturb the proportions of green. The transmitted light under such circumstances must pass from yellow through orange to red. This also is exactly what we find in nature. Thus, while the reflected light gives us at noon the deep azure of the Alpine skies, the transmitted light gives us at sunset the warm crimson of the Alpine The phenomena certainly occur as if our atmosphere were a medium rendered slightly turbid by the mechanical suspension of exceedingly small foreign particles. Here, as before, we encounter our sceptical "as if." It is one of the parasites of science, ever at hand, and ready to plant itself and sprout, if it can, on the weak points of our philosophy. But a strong constitution defies the parasite, and in our case, as we question the phenomena, probability grows like growing health, until in the end the malady of doubt is completely extirpated. The first question that naturally arises is this: Can small particles be really proved snows.

·LECTURES, AND ESSAYS: ܀ .. to act in the manner indicated No describes a glass of a similar kind. doubt of it. Each one of you can Capital specimens of such glass are to submit the question to an experimental be found at Salviati's, in St. James's test. Water will not dissolve resin, but Street. What artists call " chill" is no spirit will dissolve. it'; and when spirit doubt an effect of this description. holding Tesin in solution is dropped into Through the action of minute particles, water, the resin immediately separates the browns of a picture often present in solid particles, which render the water the appearance of the bloom of a plum. milky The coarseness of this precipitate By rubbing the varnish with a silk handdepends on the quantity of the dissolved kerchief optical continuity is established resin. You can cause it to separate and the chill disappears. Some years either in thick clots or in exceedingly ago I witnessed Mr. Hirst experimenting fine particles. Professor Brücke has at Zermatt on the turbid water of the given us the proportions which produce Visp. When kept still for a day or so, particles particularly suited to our present the grosser matter sank, but the finer purpose. One gramme of clean mastic particles remained suspended, and gave is dissolved in eighty-seven grammes of a distinctly blue tinge to the water. The absolute alcohol, and the transparent blueness of certain Alpine lakes has solution is allowed to drop into a beaker been shown to be in part due to this containing clear water, kept briskly Cause. Professor Roscoe has noticed stirred. An exceedingly fine precipitate several striking cases of a similar kind. is thus formed, which declares its pre In a very remarkable paper the late sence by its action upon light. Placing Principal Forbes showed that steam a dark surface behind the beaker, and issuing from the safety-valve of a locomo: permitting the light to fall into it from tive, when favourably observed, exhibits the top or front, the medium is seen to at a certain stage of its condensation be distinctly blue. It is not perhaps so the colours of the sky. It is blue by perfect a blue as may be seen on excep reflected light, and orange or red By tional days among the Alps, but it is a transmitted light. The same effect, as very fair sky-blue. A trace of soap in pointed out by Goethe, is to some extent water gives a tint of blue. London, and exhibited by peat-smoke. More than 1 fear Liverpool, milk makes an approxi ten years ago, I amused myself by mation to the same colour, through the observing, on a calm day at Killarney, the operation of the same cause; and Helmstraight smoke-columns rising from the holtz has irreverently disclosed the fact cabin-chimneys. It was easy to project that the deepest blue eye is simply a the lower portion of a column against a turbid medium. dark pine, and its upper portion against a bright cloud. The smoke in the The action of turbid media upon light former case was blue, being seen mainly: was illustrated by Goethe, who, though by reflected light ; in the latter case it unacquainted with the undulatory theory, was reddish, being seen mainly by transwas led by his experiments to regard mitted light. Such 'smoke was not in the firmament as an illuminated turbid medịum, with the darkness of space not aware that Professor Stokes has published behind it. He describes glasses showing anything upon the subject. a bright yellow by transmitted, and a í This glass, by reflected light, had a colour “strongly resembling that of a decoction of beautiful blue by reflected, light. Pro horse-chesnut bark.' Curiously enough, Goetlie fessor Stokes, who was probably the first refers to this very decoction : : "Man nehine to discern the real nature of the action einen Streifen frischer Rinde von der Rosskasof small particles on the waves of ether, tanie, man stecke denselben in ein Glas Wasser, und in der kürzesten Zeit werden wir das vollkom. menste Himmelblat entstehen sehen." Goethe's This is inferred from conversation. I am Werke, B. xxix., p. 24. ..- ·SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION 69 exactly the condition to give us the glow. they could not have escaped detection: of the Alps, but it was a step in this But no particles were seen. Under the direction. Brücke's fine precipitate, above microscope the turbid liquid was not to referred to looks yellowish by transmitted be distinguished from distilled water.! light; but, by duly strengthening the But we have it in our power to imitate; precipitate, you may render the white far more closely than we have hitherto light of noon as ruby-coloured as the done, the natural conditions of this probsun, when seen through Liverpool smoke lem. We can generate, in air, artificial or upon Alpine horizons. I do not, skies, and prove their perfect identity however, point to the gross smoke arising with the natural one, as regards the exhifrom coal as an illustration of the action bition of a number of wholly unexpected of small particles, because such smoke phenomena. By.a continuous process of soon absorbs and destroys the waves of growth, moreover, we are able to connect blue, instead of sending them to the eyes sky-matter, if I may use the term, with of the observer. molecular matter on the one side, and These multifarious facts, and number with molar ter, or matter in sensible less others which cannot now be referred masses, on the other. In illustration of to, are explained by reference to the this, I will take an experiment suggested single principle, that, where the scatter by some of my own researches, and ing particles are small in comparison described by M. Morren of Marseilles at to the ethereal waves, we have in the the Exeter meeting of the British Asso reflected light a greater proportion of ciation. Sulphur and oxygen combine the smaller waves, and in the trans to form sulphurous acid gas, two atoms. mitted light a greater proportion of of oxygen and one of sulphur constitui. the larger waves, than existed in the ing the molecule of sulphurous acid. It Original white light. The consequence, as has been recently shown that waves of regards sensation, is that in the one case ether issuing from a strong source, such blue is predominant, and in the other as the sun or the electric light, are com- , orange or red. Our best microscopes petent to shake asunder the atoms of can readily reveal objects not more than gaseous molecules. A chemist would fotooth of an inch in diameter. This call this "decomposition" by light; bui is less than the length of a wave of red it behoves us, who are examining the light. Indeed, a first-rate microscope power and function of the imagination, would enable us to discern objects not to keep constantly before us the physical exceeding in diameter the length of the images which underlie our terms. There. smallest waves of the visible spectrum." fore I say, sharply and definitely, thai By the microscope, therefore, we can the components of the molecules of test our particles. If they be as large as sulphurous acid are shaken asunder by the light-waves, they will infallibly be the ether-waves. Enclosing sulphurous seen; and if they be not so seen, it is acid in a suitable vessel, placing it in a because they are smaller. Some months dark room, and sending through it a ago I placed in the hands of our Presi powerful beam of light, we ar first see dent a liquid containing Brücke's pre nothing: the vessel containing the gas cipitate. The liquid was milky blue, and seems as empty as a vacuum. Soon, Mr. Huxley applied to it his highest microscopic power. He satisfied me that, · Like Dı. Burdon Sanderson's "pyrogen," had particles of even noobooth of an the particles of mastic passed, without sensible. inch in diameter existed in the liquid; hindrance, through filtering-paper. By such filtering no freedom from suspended particles.is secured. The application of a condensed beam Dallinger and Drysdale have recently. to the filtrate renders this at once evident. measured cilia corrorth of an inch in diameter. a See article on “New Chemical Reactions 1878. Produced by Light," Fragments of Science, vol. I.

·70 LECTURES AND ESSAY'S however, along the track of the beam a matter in the firmamental condition for beautiful sky-blue colour is observed, fifteen or twenty minutes under the conwhich is due to light scattered by the tinual operation of the light. During liberated particles of sulphur. For a these fifteen or twenty minutes the time the blue grows more intense; it particles constantly grow larger, without then becomes whitish, and ends in a ever exceeding the size requisite to the more or less perfect white. When the production of the celestial blue. Now, action is continued long enough, the when two vessels are placed before us, tube is filled with a dense cloud of sul each containing sky-matter, it is possible phur particles, which by the application to state with great distinctness which of proper means may be rendered indi vessel contains the largest particles. vidually visible.' The eye is very sensitive to differences Here, then, our ether-waves untie the of light, when, as in our experiments, it bond of chemical affinity, and liberate a is placed in comparative darkness, and bodysulphur-which at ordinary ten the wave-motion thrown against the peratures is a solid, and which therefore retina is small. The larger particles soon becomes an object of the senses. declare themselves by the greater white- We have first of all the free atoms of ness of their scattered light. Call now sulphur, which are incompetent to stir to mind the observation, or effort at thé retina sensibly with scattered light. observation, made by our President, But these atoms gradually coalesce and when he failed to distinguish the particles form particles, which grow larger by con of mastic in Brücke's medium, and when tinual accretion, until after a minute or you have done this, please follow me. two they appear as sky-matter. In this A beam of light is permitted to act upon condition they are individually invisible; a certain vapour. In two minutes the but collectively they send an amount of azure appears, but at the end of fifteen wave-motion to the retina, sufficient to minutes it has not ceased to be azure. · produce the firmamental blue. The After fifteen minutes its colour, and some particles continue, or may be caused to other phenomena, pronounce it to be a continue, in this condition for a con blue of distinctly smaller particles than siderable time, during which no micro those sought for in vain by Mr. Huxley. · scope can cope with them. But they These particles, as already stated, must grow slowly larger, and pass by in have been less than robooth of an inch sensible gradations into the state of cloud, in diameter. And now I want you to when they can no longer elude the armed consider the following question : Here eye. Thus, without solution of con are particles which have been growing tinuity, we start with matter in the atom, continually for fifteen minutes, and at and end with matter in the mass ; sky the end of that time are demonstrably matter being the middle term of the smaller than those which defied the series of transformations. microscope of Mr. Huxley--What must Instead of sulphurous acid, we might have been the size of these particles at the choose a dozen other substances, and beginning of their growth? What notion produce the same effect with all of them. can you form of the magnitude of such In the case of some-probably in the particles ? The distances of stellar case of all--it is possible to preserve space give us simply a bewildering sense of vastness, without leaving any distinct * M. Morren was mistaken in supposing that impression on the mind; and the mag. A modicum of sulphurous acid, in the drying nitudes with which we have here to do, tubites, had any share in the production of the bewilder us equally in the opposite direc- " actinic clouds" described by me. A beautiful tion. We are dealing with infinitesimals, case of molecular instability in the presence of light is furnished by peroxide of chlorine, as compared with which the test objects of proved by Professor Dewar. 1878. the microscope are literally immense.

·SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION 71 Small in mass, the vastness in point of cient to reduce to insignificance the number of the particles of our sky may be Israelitish hyperbole regarding the sands inferred from the continuity of its light. upon the sea-shore. It is not in broken patches, nor at scattered points, that the heavenly azure is The varying judgments of men on revealed. To the observer on the. these and other questions may perhaps summit of Mont Blanc, the blue is as be, to some extent, accounted for by that uniform and coherent as if it formed the doctrine of Relativity which plays so imsurface of the most close-grained solid. portant a part in philosophy. This doc- A marble dome would not exhibit a trine affirms that the impressions made stricter continuity. And Mr. Glaisher upon us by any circumstance, or comwill inform you that, if our hypothetical bination of circumstances, depend upon shell were lifted to twice the height of our previous state. Two travellers upon Mont Blanc above the earth's surface, the same height, the one having ascended : we should still have the azure overhead. to it from the plain, the other having By day this light quenches the stars; descended to it from a higher elevation, cven by moonlight it is able to exclude will be differently affected by the scene from vision all stars between the fifth around them. To the ono nature is and the eleventh magnitude. It may be expanding, to the other it is contracting; likened to a noise, and the feebler stellar and impressions which have two such radiance to a whisper drowned by the different antecedent states are sure to noise. differ. In our scientific judgments the What is the nature of the particles law of relativity may also play an imporwhich shed this light? The celebrated tant part. To two men, one educated De la Rive ascribes the haze of the Alps in the school of the senses, having mainly in fine weather to floating organic germs. occupied himself with observation; the Now the possible existence of germs in other educated in the school of imaginasuch profusion has been held up as an tion as well, and exercised in the conabsurdity. It has been affirmed that ceptions of atoms and molecules to which they would darken the air, and on the we have so frequently referred, a bit of assumed impossibility of their existence matter, say sobooth of an inch in diain the requisite numbers, without invasion meter, will present itself differently. The of the solar light, an apparently powerful one descends to it from his molar heights, argument has been based by believers in the other climbs to it from his molecular spontaneous generation. lowlands. To the one it appears small, ments have been used by the opponents to the other large. So, also, as regards of the germ theory of epidemic disease, the appreciation of the most minute who have triumphantly challenged an forms of life revealed by the microscope. appeal to the microscope and the To one of the men these naturally appear chemist's balance to decide the question. conterminous with the ultimate particles Such arguments, however, are founded of matter; there is but a step froin on a defective acquaintance with the the atom to the organism. The other powers and properties of matter. Without discerns numberless organic gradations committing myself in the least to De la between both. Compared with his atoms, Rive's notion, to the doctrine of spon the smallest vibrios and bacteria of the taneous generation, or to the germ theory microscopic field are as behemoth and of disease, I would simply draw attention leviathan. The law of relativity may lo to the demonstrable fact, that in the some extent explain the different attiatmosphere we have particles which defy tudes of two such persons with regard to both the microscope and the balance, the question of spontaneous generation, which do not darken the air, and which An amount of evidence which satisfies exist, nevertheless, in multitudes suffi the one entirely fails to satisfy the other;. Similar argu·by the LECTURES AND ESSAYS and while to the one the last bold defence the laboratories of nature and of man no and startling expansion of the doctrine structure ? Assuredly they have butby Dr. Bastian will appear perfectly con what can the microscope make of at clusive, to the other it will present itself Nothing. It cannot be too distinctly as merely imposing a labour of demo borne in mind that between the microlition on subsequent investigators. scopic limit and the true molecular limit Let me say here that many of our there is room for infinite permutations physiological observers appear to form a and combinations. It is in this region very inadequate estimate of the distance that the poles of the atoms are arranged, which separates the microscopic from that tendency is given to their powers; the molecular limit, and that, as a con so that when these poles and powers sequence, they sometimes employ a have free action, proper stimulus, and a phraseology calculated to mislead. When, suitable environment, they deternine, for example, the contents of a cell are first the germ, and afterwards the comdescribed as perfectly homogeneous or plete organism. This first marshalling as absolutely structureless, because the of the atoms, on which all subsequent microscope fails to discover any struc action depends, baffles a keener power ture; or when two structures are pro than that of the microscope. When nounced to be without difference, because duly pondered, the complexity of the the microscope can discover none, then, problem raises the doubt, not of the I think, the microscope begins to play a power of our instrument, for that is nit, mischievous part. A little consideration but whether we ourselves possess the will make it plain that the microscope intellectual elements which will ever can have no voice in the question of enable us to grapple with the ultimate germ structure. Distilled water is more structural energies of nature." perfectly homogeneous than any possible In more senses than one Mr. Darwin organic germ. What is it that causes has drawn 'heavily upon the scientific the liquid to cease contracting at 39* tolerance of his age. He has drawn Fahr., and to expand until it freezes? heavily upon time in his development of We haye here a structural process of species, and he has drawn adventurously which the microscope can take no note, upon matter in his theory of pangenesis. nor is it likely to do so by any con According to this theory, a germ, already ceivable extension of its powers. Place microscopic, is a world of minor germs. distilled water in the field of an electro Not only is the organism as a whole. magnet, and bring a microscope to bear wrapped up in the germ, but every organ upon it. Will any change be observed of the organism has there its special seed. when the magnet is excited ? Absolutely This, I say, is an adventurous draft on none; and, still, profound and complex the power of matter to divide itself, and changes have occurred. First of all, the distribute its forces. But, unless we are particles of water have been rendered perfectly sure that he is overstepping the diamagnetically polar; and secondly, in bounds of reason, that he is unwittingly virtue of the structure impressed upon it * "In using the expression, one sort of living the liquid twists a ray of light in a fashion substance, I must guard against being supposed perfectly determinate both as to quantity to mean that any kind of living protoplasm įs and direction, homogeneous. Hyaline though it may appear, we are not at present able to assign any Have the diamond, the amethyst, and limit to its complexity of structure "Burdon the countless other crystals formed in Sanderson, in the British Medical Journal January 16th, 1875. We have here scientific insight, and its correlative caution. In fact, When these words were uttered I did not Dr. Sanderson's important researches are a imagine that the chief labour of dermolition would continued illustration of the position laid down fall apon myself, 1878. above ·SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION .:73. .. . sirining against observed fact or demon that finally the chief portion of the hot strated law-for a mind, like that of cloud reached, by self-compression, the Darwin can never sin wittingly against magnitude and density of our sun. The either fact or lawwe ought, I think, to earth itself. Offers evidence of a fiery be cautious in limiting his intellectual origin; and in our day the hypothesis of horizon. If there be the least doubt in Kant and Laplace receives the indepen, the matter, it ought to be given in favour dent countenance of spectrum analysis, of the freedom of such a mind. To it a which proves the same substances to be vast possibility is in itself a dynamic common to the earth and sun. power, though the possibility may nevur Accepting some such view of the conbe drawn upon. It gives me pleasure to struction of our system as probable, a think that the facts and reasonings of desire immediately arises to connect the this discourse tend rather towards the present life of our planet with the past. justification of Mr. Darwin than towards We wish to know something of our his condemnation; for they seem to show remotest ancestry, On its first detachthe perfect competence of matter and ment from the central mass, life, as we force, as regards divisibility and distribu understand it, could not have been tion, to bear the heaviest strain that he present on the earth. How, then, did has hitherto imposed upon them. it come there? The thing to be encou- In the case of Mr. Darwin, observa raged here is a reverent freedom-a freetión, imagination, and reason combined dom preceded by the hard discipline have run back with wonderful sagacity which checks licentiousness in speculaand success over a certain length of the tion--while the thing to be repressed, line of biological succession. Guided by both in science and out of it, is dog. analogy, in his Origin of Species he placed matism. And here I am in the hands at the root of life a primordial germ, from of the meeting-willing to end, but ready 'which he conceived the amazing variety to go on. I have no right to intrude of the organisms now upon the carth's upon you, unasked, the unformed notions surface might be deduced. If this hypo which are floating like clouds, or gatherthesis were even true, it would not be ing to more solid consistency, in the final. The human mind would infallibly modem speculative scientific mind. But look behind the germ, and, however if you wish me to speak plainly, honestly, hopeless the attempt, would inquire into and undisputatiously, I am willing to do the history of its genesis. In this dim so.: On the present occasion twilight of conjecture the searcher wel- " You are-ordained io call, and I to come." comes every glean, and seeks to augment his light by indirect incidences. He Well, your answer is given, and I obey studies the methods of nature in the ages and the worlds within his reach, in Two or three years ago, in an ancient order to shape the couree of speculation London College, I listened to a discusin antecedent ages and worlds. And sion at the end of a lecture by a very though the certainty possessed by experi remarkable nan. Three or four hundred mental inquiry is here shut out, we are clergymen were present at the lecture. not left entirely without guidance. From The orator began with the civilisation of the examination of the solar system, Kant Egypt in the time of Joseph; pointing and Laplace came to the conclusion that out the very perfect organisation of the its various bodies once formed parts of kingdom, and the possession of chariots, the same undislocated mass; that matter in one of which Joseph rode, as proving in a nebulous form preceded matter in a long antecedent period of civilisation. its present form; that, as the ages rolled He then passed on to the mud of the away, heat was wasted, condensation Nile, its rate of augmentation, its present : followed, planets were detached, and thickness, and the remains of human . your call.

·74 LECTURES AND ESSAYS the age no handiwork found therein ; thence to the its side. Our question is this: Did rocks which bound the Nile valley, and creative energy pause until the nebulous which teem with organic remains. Thus matter had condensed, until the efrth in his own clear way he caused the idea had been detached, until the solar fire of the world's age to expand itself indefi had so far withdrawn from the earth's nitely before the minds of his audience, vicinity as to permit a crust to gather and he contrasted this with round the planet? Did it wait until the usually assigned to the world. During air was isolated; until the seas were his discourse he seemed to be swimming formed; until evaporation, condensation, against a stream; he manifestly thought and the descent of rain had begun; until that he was opposing a general conyic the eroding forces of the atmosphere tion. He expected resistance in the had weathered and decomposed the subsequent discussion; so did I. But molten rocks so as to form soils; until it was all a mistake; there was the sun's rays had become so tempered adverse current, no opposing conviction, by distance, and by waste, as to be no resistance; merely here and there a chemically fit for the decomposition half-humorous but unsuccessful attempt necessary to vegetable life? Having to entangle him in his talk. The meeting waited through these æons until the agreed with all that had been said proper conditions had set in, did it send regarding the antiquity of the earth and the fiat forth, “Let there be Life!”? of its life. They had, indeed, known it These questions define a hypothesis not all long ago, and they rallied the lecturer without its difficulties, but the dignity of for coming among them with so stale a which in relation to the world's knowstory. It was quite plain that this large ledge was demonstrated by the nobleness body of clergymen, who were, I should of the men whom it sustained. "say, to be ranked among the finest Modern scientific thought is called samples of their class, had entirely given upon to decide between this hypothesis up the ancient landmarks, and trans and another; and public thought geneported the conception of life's origin to rally will afterwards be called upon to an indefinitely distant past. do the same. But, however the convic- This leads us to the gist of our present tions of individuals here and there may inquiry, which is this: Does life belong be influenced, the process must be slow to what we call matter, or is it an inde and secular which commends the hypopendent principke inserted into matter thesis of Natural Evolution to the public at some suitable epoch-say when the mind. For what are the core and essence physical conditions became such as to of this hypothesis ? Strip it naked, and permit of the development of life? Let you stand face to face with the notion us put the question with the reverence that not alone the more ignoble forms of due to a faith and culture in which we animalcular or animal life, not alone the all were cradled, and which are the nobler forms of the horse and lion, not undeniable historic antecedents of our alone the exquisite and wonderful mechapresent enlightenment. 'I say, let us put nism of the human body, but that the the question reverently, but let us also human mind itself-emotion, intellect, put it clearly and definitely. There are will, and all their phenomena-were once the strongest grounds for believing that latent in a fiery cloud. Surely the mere during a certain period of its history the statement of such a notion is more than earth was not, nor was it fit to be, the a refutation. But the hypothesis would theatre of life. Whether this was ever a probably go even farther than this. nebulous periods or merely a molten Many who hold it would probably period, does not signify much; and if assent to the position that, at the present we revert to the nebulous condition, it moment, all Qur" philosophy, all our is because the probabilities are really on poetry, all our science, and all our art.

·SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION : 75 Plato, Shakespeare, Newton, and Raphael are potential in the fires of the sun. Welong to learn something of our origin. If the Evolution hypothesis be correct, even this unsatisfied yearning must have come to us across the ages which separate the primeval mist from the consciousness of to-day. I do not think that any holder of the Evolution hypothesis would say that I overstate or overstrain it in any way. I merely strip it of all vagueness, and bring before you, unclothed and unvarnished, the notions by which it must stand or fall. Surely these notions represent an absurdity too monstrous to be entertained by any sane mind. But why are such notions absurd, and why should sanity reject them ? The law of Relativity, of which we have previously spoken, may find its application here. These Evolution notions are absurd, monstrous, and fit only for the intellectual gibbet, in relation to the ideas concerning matter which were drilled into us when young. Spirit and matter have ever been presented to us in the rudest contrast, the one as all-noble, the other as all-vile. But is this correct? Upon the answer to this question all depends. Supposing that, instead of having the foregoing antithesis of spirit and matter presented to our youthful minds, we had been taught to regard them as equally worthy, and equally wonderful; to consider them, in fact, as two opposite faces of the self-same mystery. Supposing that in youth we had been impregnated with the notion of the poet Goethe, instead of the notion of the poet Young, and taught to look upon matter, not as “brute matter," but as the "living garment of God"; do you not think that under these altered circumstances the law of Relativity might have had an outcome different from its present one? Is it not probable that our repugnance to the idea of primeval union between spirit and matter might be considerably abated? Without this total revolution of the notions now prevalent, the Evolution hypothesis must stand condemned; but in many profoundly thoughtful minds such a revolution has already taken place. They degrade neither member of the mysterious duality referred to; but they exalt one of them from its abasement, and repeal the divorce hitherto existing between them. In substance, if not in words, their position as regards the relation of spirit and matter is :: “What God hath joined together, let nok *man put asunder." You have been thus led to the outer rim of speculative science, for beyond the nebulæ scientific thought has never hitherto ventured. I have tried to state that which I considered ought, in fairness, to be outspoken. I neither think this Evolution hypothesis is to be fiouted away contemptuously, nor that it ought to be denounced as wicked. It is to be brought before the bar of disciplined reason, and there justified or condemned. Let us hearken to those who wisely support it, and to those who wisely oppose it; and let us tolerate those, whose name is legion, who try foolishly to do. either of these things. The only thing out of place in the discussion is dogmatism on either side. Fear not the Evolution hypothesis. Steady yourselves, in its presence, upon that faith in the ultimate triumph of truth which was expressed by old Gamaliel when he said: “If it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; if it be of man, it will come to nought." Under the fierce light of scientific inquiry, it is sure to be dissipated if it possess not a core of truth. Trust me, its existence as a hypothesis is quite compatible with the simultaneous existence of all those virtues to which the term “Christian " has been applied. It does not solve---it does not profess, to solve-the ultimate mystery of this universe. It leaves, in fact, that mystery untouched. For, granting the nebula and its potential life, the question, whence they came, would still remain to baffle and bewilder us. At bottom, the hypothesis does nothing more than "transport the conception of life's origin to an indefinitely distant past."

·«Two this 78 LECTURES AND ESSAYS Those who hold the doctrine of Evo that is. This they explore with a courage lution are, by no means ignorant of the not unmixed with reverence, and accorduncertainty of their data, and they only ing to methods which, like the quajitý yield to it a provisional assent. They of a tree, are tested by their fruits. They regard the nebular hypothesis as pro have but one desire to know the truth. bable, and, in the utter absence of any They have but one-fear-to believe a evidence to prove the act illegal, they lie.. And if they know the strength of "extend the method of nature from the science, and rely upon it with unswerving present into the past. Here the observed trust, they also know the liinits beyond uniformity of nature is their only guide. which science ceases to be strong. They Within the long range of physical best know that questions offer themselves inquiry they have never discerned in to thought which science, as now prosenature the insertion of caprice. Through cuted, has not even the tendency to out this range the laws of physical and solve. They have as little fellowship intellectual continuity have run side by with the atheist who says there is no -side Having thus determined the God as with the theist who professes elements of their curve in a world of to know the mind of God. observation and experiment, they prolong things," said Immanuel Kant, "fill me that curve into an antecedent world, with awe: the starry heavens, and the and accept as probable the unbroken sense of moral responsibility in man. sequence of development from the nebula And in his hours of health and strength to the present time. You never hear and sanity, when the stroke of action the really philosophical defenders of the has ceased, and the pause of reflection doctrine of Uniformity speaking of has set in the scientific investigator impossibilities in nature. They never finds himself overshadowed by the same say, what they are constantly charged awe. Breaking contact with the hamperwith saying, that it is impossible for the ing details of earth, it associates him Builder of the universe to alter His with a Power which gives fulness, and work. Their business is not with the tone to his existence, but which he can possible, but the actual not with a neither analyse nor comprehend. world which might be, but with a world SCIENCE AND MAN" A MAGNET attracts iron; but when we every amelioration is associated more or analyse the effect we learn that the less with deterioration. No great mechametal is not only attracted but repelled, nical improvement, for example, is intro the final approach to the magnet being duced for the benefit of society at large due to the difference of two unequal that does not bear hardly upon indiviand opposing forces. Social progress is duals. Science, like other things, is or polar action. Asa general rule, every law, what is good for it under one aspect . advance is balanced by a partial retreat, being bad for it under another, . . * Presidential Address, delivered before the Birmingham and Midland Institute, October $877 with additions.

·SCIENCE AND MAN 77: Own. His Science demands above all things per science no higher samples of intellectual sonal concentration. Its home is the conquest are recorded than those which stody of the mathematician, the quiet this age has made its One of the laboratory of the experimenter, and the most salient of these I propose, with cabinet of the meditative observer of your permission to make the subject of nature. Different atmospheres are re: our consideration during the coming quired by the man of science, as such, hour. and the man of action. Thus the It is now generally admitted that the facilities of social and international inter man of to-day is the child and product course, the railway, the telegraph, and of incalculable antecedent time. the post-office, which are such undoubted physical and intellectual textures have boons to the man of action, re-act, to been woven for him during his passage some extent injuriously, on the man of through phases of history and forms of science, Their tendency is to break up existence which lead the mind back to that concentrativeness which, as I have an abysmal past. One of the qualities said, is an absolute necessity to the which he has derived from that past is scientific investigator. the yearning to let in the light of prin- The men who have most profoundly ciples on the otherwise bewildering flux influenced the world from the scientific of phenomena. He has been described side have habitually sought isolation. by the German Lichtenberg as "das Faraday, at a certain period of his career, rastlose Ursachenthier' the restless formally renounced dining out. Darwin cause-seeking animal-in whom facts lives apart from the bustle of the world excite a kind of hunger to know the in his quiet home in Kent. Mayer and sources from which they spring. Never, Joule dealt in unobtrusive retirement I venture to say, in the history of the with the weightiest scientific questions. orld has this longing been more liberally There is, however, one motive power in responded to, both among men of science the world which no nian, be he a scien and the general public, than during the tific student or otherwise, can afford to last thirty or forty years. I say treat with indifference; and that is, the general public," because it is a feature of cultivation of right relations with his our time that the man of science no fellow-men-the performance of his duty, longer limits his labours to the society of not as an isolated individual, but as a his colleagues and his peers, but shares, member of society. It is duty in this as far as it is possible to share, with the aspect, overcoming alike the sense of world at large the fruits of inquiry. possible danger and the desire for repose, The celebrated Robert Boyle regarded that has placed me in your presence here the universe as a machine; Mr. Carlyle to-night. prefers regarding it as a tree. He loves To look at his picture as a whole, a the image of the umbrageous Igdrasil painter requires distance; and to judge better than that of the Strasburg clock. A of the total scientific achievement of any machine may be defined as an organism age, the standpoint of a succeeding age with life and direction outside; a tree is desirable... We may, however, trans may be defined as an organism with life port ourselves in idea into the future, and direction within. In the light of and thus survey with more or less com these definitions, I close with the con.. pleteness the science of our time. We ception of Carlyle. The order and sometimes hear it decried, and contrasted energy of the universe I hold to be to its disadvantage with the science of inherent, and not imposed from without, other times. I do not think that this the expression of fixed law and not of will be the verdict of posterity. I think, arbitrary will, exercised by what Carlyle on the contrary, that posterity, will would call an Almighty Clockmaker. But mcknowledge that in the history of the two conceptions are not so much is the te ·78, LECTURES AND ESSAYS opposed to each other after all. In one of either the error or the truth. Per fundamental particular they at all events petual motion was discarded before it agree. They equally imply the "inter was proved to be opposed to natual, dependence and harmonious interaction law; and, as regards the connection and of parts, and the subordination of the in interaction of natural forces, intimations dividual powers of tħe universal organism of modern discoveries are strewn through to the working of the whole. the writings of Leibnitz, Boyle, Hooke, Never were the harmony and inter Locke, and others. dependence just referred to so clearly Confining ourselves to recent times, recognised as now. Our insight regard Dr. Ingleby has pointed out to me some ing them is not that vague and general singularly sagacious remarks bearing insight to which our fathers had attained, upon this question, which were published and which, in early times, was more by an anonymous writer in 1820. Roget's frequently affirmed by the synthetic poet penetration was conspicuous in 1829, than by the scientific man. The inter Mohr had grasped in 1837 some deep: dependence of our day has become lying truth. The writings of Faraday quantitative--expressible by numbers furnish frequent illustrations of his proleading, it must be added, directly into found belief in the unity of nature. "I that inexorable reign of law which so have long," he writes in 1845, "held an many gentle people regard with dread. opinion almost amounting to conviction, In the domain now under review men of in common, I believe, with other lovers science had first to work their way from of natural knowledge, that the various darkness into twilight, and from twilight forms under which the forces of matter into day. There is no solution of con are made manifest have one common tinuity in science. It is not given to origin, or, in other words, are so directly any man, however endowed, to rise related and mutually dependent that spontaneously into intellectual splendour they are convertible, as it were, one without the parentage of antecedent into another, and possess equivalence thought. Great discoveries grow. Here, of power in their action." His own as in other cases, we have first the seed, researches on magneto-electricity, on then the eat, then the full corn in the electro-chemistry, and on the "magnetiear, the last member of the series imply sation of light,” led him directly to this ing the first. Thus, as regards the dis belief. At an early date Mr. Justice covery of gravitation with which the Grove made his mark upon this question. name of Newton, is identified, notions Colding, though starting from a metamore or less clear 'concerning it had physical basis, grasped eventually the entered many minds before Newton's relation between heat and mechanical transcendent mathematical genius raised work, and sought to determine it experiit to the level of a demonstration. The mentally. And here let me say, that whole of his deductions, moreover, rested to him who has ouly the truth at heart, upon the inductions of Kepler. Newton and who ie: his dealings with scientific shot beyond his predecessors; but his history keeps his soul unwarped by envy, thoughts were rooted in their thoughts, hatred, or malice, personal or national, and a just distribution of merit would every fresh accession to historic knowassign to them a fair portion of the ledge must be welcome. honour of discovery. new-comer of proved merit, more espe... Scientific theories sometimes float like cially if that merit should have been rumours in the air before they receive previously overlooked, he makes ready complete expression. The-doom of a room in his recognition or his reverence. doctrine is often practically sealed, and But no retrospect of scientific literature the truth of one'is often practically ac has as yet brought to light a claim which cepted, long prior to the demonstration can sensibly affect the positions accorded For every ·SCIENCE AND MAN 79 to two great Path-hewers, as the Germans them, whose names in relation to The sun warms the tropical ocean, subject are linked in indissoluble converting a portion of its liquid into association. These names are Julius vapour, which rises in the air and is Robert Mayer and James Prescott Joule. recondensed on mountain heights, retum- In his essay on "Circles" Mr. Emerson, ing in rivers to the ocean from which it if. I remember rightly, pictured intel came. Up to the point where condensalectual progress as rhythmic. At a tion begins, an amount of heat exactly given moment knowledge is surrounded equivalent to the molecular work of by a barrier which marks its limit. Ito vaporisation and the mechanical work gradually gathers clearness and strength of lifting the vapour to the mountainuntil by-and-by some thinker of excep tops has disappeared from the universe. tional power bursts the barrier and wins What is the gain corresponding to this a wider circle, within which thought loss? It will seem when mentioned to once more entrenches itself. But the be expressed in a foreign currency. “The internal force again accumulates, the loss is a loss of heat; the gain is a gain new barrier is in its turn broken, and the of distance, both as regards masses and mind finds itself surrounded by a still molecules. Water which was formerly wider horizon. Thus, according to at the sea-level has been lifted to a Emerson, knowledge spreads by inter position from which it can fall; molemittent victories instead of progressing cules which have been locked together at a uniform rate. as a liquid are now separate as vapour When Dr. Joule first proved that a which can recondense. After condensaweight of one pound, falling through a tion gravity comes into effectual play, height of 772 feet, generated an amount of pulling the showers down upon the hills, heat competent to warm a pound of water and the rivers thus created through their one degree Fahrenheit, and that in lifting gorges to the sea. Every raindrop which the weight so much heat exactly dis smites the mountain produces its definite appeared, he broke an Emersonian amount of heat ; every river in its course circle," releasing by the act an amount developes heat by the clash of its cataracts of scientific energy which rapidly overran and the friction of its bed. "In the act a vast domain, and embodied itself in of condensation, moreover, the molecular the great doctrine known as the "Con work of vaporisation is accurately resérvation of Erergy." This doctrine versed. Compare, then, the primitive recognises in the material universe a loss of solar warmth with the heat geneconstant sum of power made up of items rated by the condensation of the vapour, among which the most Protean fluctua and by the subsequent fall of the water tions are incessantly going on. It is as from cloud to sea. They are mathematiif the body of Nature were alive, the cally equal to each other. No particle thrill and interchange of its energies of vapour was formed and liſted without resembling those of an organism. The being paid for in the currency of solar parts of the "stupendous whole" shift and heat; no particle returns as water to the change, augment and diminish, appear sea without the exact quantitative restiand disappear, while the total of which tution of that heat : There is nothing they are the parts remains quantitatively gratuitous in physical nature, no expenimmutable. Immutable, because when diture without equivalent gain, no gain change occurs it is always polar---plus without equivalent expenditure. With accompanies minus, gain accompanies inexorable constancy 'the one accomloss, no item varying in the slightest panies the other, leaving no nook or degree without an absolutely equal change crevice between them for spontaneity to of some other item in the opposite direc mingle with the pure and necessary play. tion. of natural force. Has this uniformity ·4 F . 80 LECTURES AND ESSAYS of nature ever been broken? The reply blood-heat, then to redness, and anally is: "Not to the knowledge of science." to a white heat. The heat under these What has been here stated regarding circumstances generated in the battery beat and gravity applies to the whole of by the combustion of a fixed quantity of Let' us take an illus zinc is no longer constant, but it varies tration from chemistry. The metal zinc «inversely as the heat generated outside. may be burnt in oxygen, a perfectly If the outside heat be nil, the inside heat definite amount of heat being produced is a maximum, if the external wire be by the combustion of a given weight of raised to a blood-heat, the internal heat the metal. But zinc may also be burnted falls slightly short of the maximum: If in a liquid which contains a supply of the wire be rendered red-hot, the quantity oxygen-in water, for estample. It does of missing heat within the battery is : not in this case produce flame or fire, greater, and if the external wire be ren: but it does produce heat which is capable dered white-hot the defect is greater of accurate measurement. But the heat still. Add together the internal and of zinc burnt in water falls short of that external heat produced by the combusproduced in pure oxygen, the reason tion of a given weight of zinc, and being that to obtain its oxygen from the you have an absolutely constant total water the zinc must first dislodge the The heat generated without is so much hydrogen. It is in the performance of lost within the heat generated within is this molecular work that the missing heat so much lost without, the polar changes iş absorbed. Mix the liberated hydrogen already adverted to coming here conwith oxygen and cause them to recom spicuously into play. Thus in a variety bine, the heat developed is mathemati of ways we can distribute the items of a cally equal to the missing heat. Thus, in never-varying sum, but even the subtle pulling the oxygen and hydrogen asunder agency of the electric current places no an amount of heat is consumed which is creative power in our hands. accurately restored by their reunion. Instead of generating external heat, - This leads up to a few remarks upon we may cause the current to effect the Voltaic battery. It is not my design chemical decomposition at a distance to dwell upon the technical features of from the battery. Let it, for example, this wonderful instrüment, but simply, decompose water into oxygen and hydroby means of it, to show what varying gen. The heat generated in the battery shapes a given amount of energy can under these circumstances by the comassume while maintaining unvarying bustion of a given weight of zinc falls quantitative stability. When that form short of what is produced when there is of power which we call an electric cur no decomposition. How far short ? The rent passes through Grove's battery, zinc question admits of a perfectly exact is consumed in acidulated water; and in When the oxygen and hydrogen the battery we are able so to arrange recombine, the heat absorbed in the dem. matters that when no current passes no composition is accurately restored, and it zine shall be consumed. Now the cur is exactly equal in amount to that missing rent, whatever it may be, possesses the in the battery. We may, if we like, power of generating heat outside the bottle up the gases, carry in this form battery. We can fuse with it iridium, the heat of the battery to the polar the most refractory of metals, or we can regions, and liberate it there. The produce with it the dazzling electric light, battery, in fact, is a hearth on which and that at any terrestrial distance from fuel is consumed; but the heat of the the battery itself. combustion, instead of being confined We will now, however, content our in the usual manner to the hearth itself selves with causing the current to raise a may be first liberated at the other side of given length of platinum wire; first to a the world. answer. .

·SCIENCE AND MAN 81 And here we are able to solve an :-a direction in which it cannot possibly enigma which long perplexed scientific establish itself without consuming the mert, and which could not be solved heat imparted to the junction. This until the bearing of the mechanical heat is the nutriment of the current. theory of heat upon the phenomena of Thus the heat generated by the thermo the Voltaic battery was understood. The current in a distant wire is simply that puzzle was, that a single cell could not originally imparted to the pile which has decompose water: The reason is now been first transmuted into electricity, and plain enough. The solution of an equi- then retransmuted into its first form at a valent of zinc in a single cell developes distance from its origin. "As water in not much more than half the amount of a state of vapour passes from a boiler heat required to decompose an equivalent to a distant condenser, and there assumes of water, and the single cell cannot cede its primitive form without gain or loss, an amount of force which it does not so the heat communicated to the thermopossess. But by forming a battery of pile distils into the subtler electric two cells instead of one, we develop an current, which is, as it were, recondensed amount of heat slightly in excess of that into heat in the distant platinum wire. needed for the decomposition of the In my youth I thought an electro water. The two-celled battery is there magnetic engine which was shown to me fore rich enough to pay for that decom a veritable perpetual motion--a machine, position, and to maintain the excess that is to say, which performed work referred to within its own cells. without the expenditure of power. Let Similar reflections apply to the thermo us consider the action of such a machine. electric pile, an instrument usually com Suppose it to be employed to pump posed of small bars of bismuth and water from a lower to a higher level. antimony soldered alternately together. On examining the battery which works The electric current is here evoked by the engine we find that the zinc consumed warming the soldered junctions of one does not yield its full amount of heat. face of the pile. Like the Voltaic current, The quantity of heat thus missing within the thermo-electric current can heat is the exact thermal equivalent of the wires, produce decomposition, magnetise mechanical work performed without. . iron, and deflect a magnetic needle at Let the water fall again to the lower any distance from its origin. You will level; it is warmed by the fall. Add be disposed, and rightly disposed, to the heat thus produced to that generated refer those distant manifestations of by the friction, mechanical and mag. power to the heat communicated to the netical, of the engine; we thus obtain face of the pile, but the case is worthy the precise amount of heat missing in of closer examination. In 1826 Thomas the battery All the effects obtained Seebeck discovered thermo-electricity, from the machine are thus strictly paid and six years subsequently Peltier made for ; this "payment for results" being, an observation which comes with singular would repeat, the inexorable method felicity to our aid in determining the of nature. inaterial used up in the formation of the No engine, however subtly devised, thermo-electric current. He found that can evade this law of equivalence, or when a weak: extraneous current was perform on its own account the smallest sent from antimony to bismuth the modicum of work. The machine distrijunction of the two metals was always butes, but it cannot create. Is the heated, but that when the direction was animal body, then, to be classed among from bismuth to antimony the junction machines ? When I lift a weight, or was chilled. Now the current in the throw a stone, or climb a mountain, or thermo-pile itself is always from bismuth wrestle with my comrade, am I not conto antimony, across the beated junction scious of actually creating and expending ·82 LECTURES AND EŞSAYS force? Let us look at the antecedents be caused to produce them. By turning of this force. We derive the muscle the handle of a magneto-electric machine and fat of our bodies from what we eat. a coil of wire may be caused to rotate Animal heat you know to be due to the between the poles of a magnet. As long slow combustion of this fuel. My arm as the two ends of the coil are unconis now inactive, and the ordinary slow nected we have simply to overcome combustion of my blood and tissue is the ordinary inertia and friction of the going on... For every grain of fuel thus machine in turning the handle. But the burnt a perfectly definite amount of heat moment the two ends of the coil are has been produced. I now contract my united by a thin platinum wire a sudden biceps muscle without causing it to** addition of labour is thrown upon the perform external work. The combustion 'turning arm. When the necessary labour is quickened, and the heat is increased; is expended, its equivalent immediately this additional heat being liberated in appears. The platinum wire glows. You the muscle itself. I lay hold of a 56 lb. can readily maintain it at a white heat, · weight, and by the contraction of my or even fuse it. This is a very remarkbiceps lift it through the vertical space able result. From the muscles of the of a foot. The blood and tissue con arm, with a temperature of 100°, we sumed during this contraction have not extract the temperature of molten platideveloped in the muscle their due num, which is nearly four thousand amount of heat. A quantity of heat is degrees. The miracle here is the reverse at this moment missing in my muscle of that of the burning bush mentioned which would raise the temperature of an in Exodus. There the bush burned, ounce of water somewhat more than one but was not consumed : here the body degree Fahrenheit. I liberate the weight: is consumed, but does not burn. The it falls to the earth, and by its collision similarity of the action with that of generates the precise amount of heat the Voltaic battery when it heats, an missing in the muscle. My muscular external wire is too obvious to need heat is thus transferred from its local pointing out When the machine is hearth to external space. The fuel is used to decompose water, the heat of consumed in my body, but the heat of the muscle, like that of the battery, is combustion is produced outside my consumed in molecular work, being fully body. The case is substantially the restored when the gases recombine. As same as that of the Voltaic battery when before, also, the transmuted heat of the it performs external work, or produces muscles may be bottled up, carried to external heat. All this points to the the polar regions, and there restored to conclusion that the force we employ in its pristine form. muscular exertion is the force of burning fuel and not of creative will. In the The matter of the human body is the light of these facts the body is seen to same as that ofe the world around us; be as incapable of generating energy and here we find the forces of the without expenditure, as the solids and human body identical with those of liquids of the Voltaic battery. The inorganic nature. Just as little as the body, in other words, falls into the Voltaic battery is the animal body a category of machines. creator of force. It is an apparatus ex- We can do with the body all that we quisite and effectual beyond all others in have already done with the battery transforming and distributing the entergy heat platinum wires, decompose water, with which it is supplied, but it possesses magnetise iron, and deflect à magnetic no creative power. Compared with the needle. The combustion of muscle notions previously entertained regarding may be made to produce all these the play of vital force" this is a great effects, as the combustion of zinc may resuit. The problem of vital dynamios ·SCIENCE AND MAN 83 2 น has been described by a competent day-labourer's ordinary work exerted on authority, as "the grandest of all." I the muscles alone, they would be wholly subscribe to this opinion, and honour consumed in 80 days. Were the oxida ." correspondingly the man who first suc tion necessary to sustain the heart's cessfully grappled with the problem. action concentrated on the heart itself, He was no pope, in the sense of being it would be consumed in 8 days. And infallible, but he was a man of genius of we confine our attention to the two whose work will be held in honour as ventricles, their action would consume long as science endures. I have already the associated muscular tissue in 374 named him in connection with our days. With a fulness and precision of illustrious countryman Dr. Joule. Other which this is but a sample did Mayer, eminent men took up this subject subse- ', between 1842 and 1845, deal with the quently and independently, but all that great question of vital dynamics. has been done hitherto enhances instead In direct opposition, moreover, to the of diminishing the merits of Dr. Mayer. foremost scientific authorities of that day, Consider the vigour of his reasoning. with Liebig at their head, this solitary "Beyond the power of generating in Heilbronn worker was led by his calcuternal heat, the animal organism can lations to maintain that the muscles, in: generate heat external to itself. A the main, played the part of machinery, blacksmith by hammering can warm a converting the fat, which had been nail, and a savage by friction can heat previously considered a mere heat-prowood to its point of ignition. Unless, ducer, into the motive power of the then, we abandon the physiological organism. Mayer's prevision has been axiom that the animal body cannot create justified by events, for the scientific heat out of nothing, we are driven to the world is now upon his side. conclusion that it is the total heat, within We place, then, food in our stomachs and without, that ought to be regarded as as so much combustible matter. It is the real calorific effect of the oxidation first dissolved by purely chemical prowithin the body." Mayer, however, not cesses, and the nutritive fluid is poured only states the principle, but illustrates into the blood. Here it comes into connumerically the transfer of muscular heat tact with atmospheric oxygen admitted by to external space. A bowler who imparts the lungs. It unites with the oxygen as a velocity of 30 feet to an 8-1b. ball con wood or coal might unite with it in a sumes in the act one-tenth of a grain of furnace. The matter-products of the carbon. The heat of the muscle is here union, if I may use the term, are the distributed over the track of the ball, same in both cases, viz. carbonic acid being developed there by mechanical and water. The force-products are also friction. A man weighing 150 lbs. con the same-heat within the body, or heat sumes in lifting his own body to a height and work outside the body. Thus far of 8 feet the heat of a grain of carbon. every action of the organism belongs to Jumping from this height the heat is the domain either of physics or of restored. The consumption of 2 ozs. chemistry. But you saw me contract 4 drs. 30 grs. of carbon would place the the muscle of my arm. What enabled same man on the summit of a mountain me to do so? Was it or was it not the 10,000 feet high. In descending the direct action of my will? The answer mountain an amount of heat equal to is, the action of the will is mediate, not that produced by the combustion of direct. Over and above the muscles the the foregoing amount of carbon is human organism is provided with long restored. The muscles of a labourer whitish filaments of medullary matter, whose weight is 150 lbs. weigh 64 lbs. which issue from the spinal column, When dried they are reduced to 15 lbs. being connected by it on the one side Were the oxidation corresponding to a with the brain, and on the other side ..

·70 who was the first clearly to formulate theorie cular condition that when you scratch or LECTURES AND ESSAYS losing themselves in the muscles. Those same rate** But the nerves transmit filaments or cords are the nerves, which you know are divided into two kinds, a second, à progress which in these sensor ånd motor, or, if you like the quick times might well be regarded as terms better, afferent and efferent nerves. inordinately slow.:: The former carry impressions from the Your townsman, Mr. Gore, has proexternal world to the brain; the latter duced by electrolysis a kind of antimony convey the behests of the brain to the which exhibits an action strikingly analomuscles. Here, as elsewhere, we find gous to that of nervous propagation, ourselves aided by the sagacity of Mayer, rod of this antimony is in such a moles part played by the nerves in the organism. Mayer saw that neither nerves nor brain, nor both together, possessed the energy necessary to animal motion; but he also saw that the nerve could lift a latch and open a door, by which floods of energy tre let loose. " As an engineer," he says with admirable lucidity, "by the motion of his finger in opening a valve or loosening a detent, can liberate an amount of mechanical energy almost infinite compared with its exciting cause; so the nerves, acting on the muscles, can unlock an amount of power out of all proportion to the work done by the nerves themselves." The nerves, according to Mayer, pull the trigger, but the gunpowder which they ignite is stored in the muscles. This is the view now universally entertained. The quickness of thought has passed into a proverb, and the notion that any measurable time elapsed between the infiction of a wound and the feeling of the injury would have been rejected as preposterous thirty years ago. Nervous impressions, notwithstanding the results of Haller, were thought to be transmitted, if not instantaneously, at all events with the rapidity of electricity. Hence, when Helmholtz, in, 1851, affirmed, as the result of experiment, nervous transmis* sion to be a comparatively sluggish process, very few believed him. His experiments may now be made in the lectute-room. Sound in air moves at the rate of 1,100 feet a second ; sound in water moves at the rate of 5,000 feet * second ; light in ether moves at the rate of 186,000 miles a second, and electricity in free wires moves probably at the heat one end of the rod the disturbance propagates itself before your eyes to the other end, the opward march of the dist. turbance being announced by the develop ment of heat and fumes along the line of propagation. In some such way the molecules of the nerves are successively overthrown; and if Mr. Gore could only devise some means of winding up his exhausted antimony, as the nutritive blood winds up exhausted nerves, the comparison would be complete. The subject may be summed up, as Du Bois- Reymond has summed it up, by reference to the case of a whale struck by a harpoon in the tail. If the animal were seventy feet long, a second would elapse before the disturbance could reach the brain, But the impression after its arrival has to diffuse itself and throw the brain into the molecular condition necessary to consciousness. Then, and not till then, the command to the tail to defend itself is shot though the motor nerves. Another second must elapse before the command can reach the tail, so that more than two seconds transpire between the infliction of the wound and the muscular response of the part wounded The interval required for the kindling of consciousness would probably more than suffice for the destruction of the brain by lightning, or even by a rifie-bullet Before the organ can arrange itself it may, therer fore, be destroyed, and in such a case we may safely conclude that death is pain less. .. The experiences of common life supply us with copious instances of the liberation of yast stores of muscular power ·SCIENCE AND MAN 85 . by an infinitesimal priming" of the how did it originate there? This is the muscles by the nerves. We all know the Critical question, to which some will effect produced on a "nervous" organi reply that it had its origin in the hurdan sation by a slight sound which causes soul. affright An aërial waye, the energy of The aim and effort of science is to which would not reach a minute fraction explain the unknown in terms of the of that necessary to raise the thousandth known. Explanation, therefore, is con. of a grain through the thousandth of an ditioned by knowledge, You have proinch, can throw the whole human frame bably heard the story of the German into a powerful mechanical spasm, fol. peasant who, in early railway days, was lowed by violent respiration and palpita- taken to see the performance of a locotion: The eye, of course, may be motive. He had never known carriages appealed to as well as the ear. of this to be moved except by animal power. the lamented Lange gives the following Every explanation outside of this concepvivid illustration: tion lay beyond his experience, and could A merchant sits complacently in his not be invoked. After long reflection, easy chair, not knowing whether smoking, therefore, and seeing no possible escape sleeping, newspaper reading, or the diges from the conclusion, he exclaimed contion of food occupies the largest portion fidently to his companion, "Es müssen of his personality. A servant enters the doch Pferde darin sein"-"There must be room with a telegram, bearing the words, horses inside." Amusing as this locomo- Antwerp, etc. ...... Jonas and Co. have tive theory may seem, it illustrates a failed." "Tell James to harness the deep-lying truth horses 1" The servant flies. Up starts With reference to our present question, the merchant, wide awake, makes a dozen some may be disposed to press upon me paces through the room, descends to the such considerations as these :-Your counting-house, dictates letters, and for motor-nerves are so many speakingwards despatches. He jumps into his tubes, through which messages are sent carriage, the horses snort, and their from the man to the world; and your driver is immediately at the Bank, on the are so many conduits Bourse, and among his commercial through which the whispers of the world friends. Before an hour has elapsed he are sent back to the man. But you have is again at home, where he throws him not told us where is the man. Who or self once more into his easy chair with a what is it that sends and receives those deep-drawn sigh : " Thank God I am pro messages through the bodily organism? tected against the worst, and now for Do not the phenomena point to the further reflection." existence of a self within the self, which This complex mass of action, emo acts through the body as through a tional; intellectual, and mechanical, is skilfully constructed instrument? You evoked by the impact upon the retina of picture the muscles as hearkening to the the infinitesimal waves of light coming commands sent through the motor nerves, from a few pencil marks on a bit of paper. and you picture the sensor nerves as the We haye, as Lange says, terror, hope, Vehicles of incoming intelligence; are sensation, calculation, possible ruin, and you not bound to supplement this victory.compressed into a moment. What mechanism by the assumption of an caused the merchant to spring out of his entity which uses it? In other words, chair? The contraction of his muscles. are you not forced by your own exposition, What made his muscles contract? An into the hypothesis of a free human soul? impulse of the nerves, which lifted the This is fair reasoning now, and at a proper latch, and liberated the muscular certain stage of the world's knowledge power. Whence this impulse ? From it might well have been deemed conthe centre of the nervous system. But clusive. Adequate reflection, however, sensor nerves ·86 LECTURES AND ESSAYS shows that, instead of introducing light ness. The reverse process of the prointo our minds, this hypothesis con duction of motion by consciousness is sidered scientifically increases our dark equally unpresentable to the mind. We ness. You do not in this case explain are here, in fact, upon the boundary line the unknown in terms of the known, of the intellect, where the ordinary which, as stated above, is the method of canons of science : fail to extricate us science, but you explain the unknown 'from our difficulties. If we are true to in ternis of the more unknown. Try these canons, we must deny to subjective to mentally visualise this soul as an phenomena all influence on physical entity distinct from the body, and the processes. Observation proves that they difficulty immediately appears. Fromma interact, but in passing from one to the the side of science all that we are war other we meet a blank which mechanical ranted in stating is that the terror, hope, deduction is uñable to fill. Frankly sensation, and calculation of Lange's stated, we have here to deal with facts merchant are psychical phenomena proalmost as difficult to seize mentally as duced by, or associated with, the mole the idea of a soul. And if you are: cular processes set up by waves of light content to make your "soul” á poetic in a previously prepared brain. rendering of a phenomenon which refuses When facts present themselves let us the yoke of ordinary physical laws, I, dare to face them, but let the man of for one, would not object to this exercise science equally dare to confess ignorance of ideality. Amid all our speculative where it prevails. What then is the uncertainty, however, there is one praccausal connection, if any, between the tical point as clear as the day; namely, objective and subjective---between mole that the brightness and the usefulness of cular motions and states of conscious life, as well as its darkness and disaster, ness? My answer is: I do not see the depend to a great extent upon our own connection, nor have I as yet met anyuse or abuse of this miraculous organ. body who does. It is no explanation to Accustomed as I am to harsh lansay that the objective and subjective guage, I am quite prepared to hear my effects are two sides of one and the same "poetic rendering " branded as a "false; phenomenon. Why should the pheno hood" and a "fib." The vituperation is menon have two sides? This is the very unmerited, for poetry or ideality and core of the difficulty. There are plenty untruth are assuredly very different of molecular motions which do not things. The one may vivify, while the exhibit this two-sidedness. Does water other kills. When St. John extends the think or feel when it runs into frost-ferns notion of a soul to " souls washed in upon a window-pane? If not, why the blood of Christ” does he “fib"? should the molecular motion of the brain Indeed, if the appeal to ideality is cenbe' yoked to this mysterious companion surable, Christ himself ought not to. --consciousness? We can form a cohe. have escaped censure. Nor did he rent picture of the physical processes- " How can this man give us :: the stirring of the brain, the thrilling his flesh to eat ?" expressed the sceptical of the nerves, the discharging of the fouting of unpoetic natures. Such are: muscles, and all the subsequent mecha still among us. ; Cardinal Manning nical motions of the organism. But we would doubtless tell any Protestant who can present to our minds no picture rejects the doctrine of transubstantiation of the process whereby consciousness that he "fibs" away the plain words of emerges, either as a necessary link or as his Saviour when he reduces "the Body an accidental by-product of this series of of the Lord." in the sacrament to a mere actions. Yet it certainly does emerge figure of speech. the prick of a pín suffices to prove that Though misuse may render it grotesque molecular motton can produce conscious or insincere, the idealisation of ancient escape it.

·SCIENCE AND MAN 87 a new conceptions, when done consciously and ing, the great German thinker Fichte above board, has, in my opinion, an im recoiled. You will find the record of portant future. We are not radically this struggle between head and heart in different from our historic ancestors, and his book, entitled Die Bestimmung des any feeling which affected them pro Menschen The Vocation of Man. foundly requires only appropriate cloth Fichte was determined at all hazards to ing to affect us. The world will not maintain his freedom, but the price he lightly relinquish its heritage of poetic paid for it indicates the difficulty of the feeling, and metaphysic will be welcomed task. To escape from the iron necessity when it abandons its pretensions to seen everywhere reigning in physical scientific discovery and consents to be ***hature, he turned defiantly round upon ranked as a kind of poetry. "A good nature and law, and affirmed both of symbol," says Emerson, "is a missionary them to be the products of his own mind. to persuade thousands. The Vedas, the He was not going to be the slave of a Edda, the Koran, are each remembered thing which he had himself created. by its happiest figure. There is no more There is a good deal to be said in welcome gift to men than a new symbol favour of this vicw, but few of us prob- They assimilate themselves to it , deal ably would be able to bring into play the with it in all ways, and it will last a solvent transcendentalism whereby Fichte hundred years. Then comes inelted his chains. genius and brings another." Our ideas Why do some regard this notion of of God and the soul are obviously sub necessity with terror, while others do not ject to this symbolic mutation. They fear it at all? Has not Carlyle someare not now what they were a century where said that a belief in destiny is the ago. They will not be a century hence bias of all earnest minds? “It is not what they are now. Such ideas consti Nature," says Fichte, “it is Freedom tute a kind of central energy in the itself, by which the greatest and most human mind, capable, like the energy of terrible disorders incident to our race are the physical universe, of assuming various produced. Man is the cruellest enemy shapes and undergoing various trans of man." But the question of moral formations. They baffle and elude the responsibility here emerges, and it is the theological mechanic who would carve possible loosening of this responsibility them to dogmatic forms. They offer that so many of us dread. The notion themselves freely to the poet who under of necessity certainly failed to frighten stands his vocation, and whose function Bishop Butler. He thought it untrue is, or ought to be, to find "local habita even absurd-but he did not fear its tion" for thoughts woven into our sub practical consequences. He showed, on jective life, but which refuse to be the contrary, in the Analogy, that as mechanically defined. far as human conduct is concerned the two theories of free-will and necessity We now stand face to face with the would come to the same in the end. final problem. It is this : Are the brain, What is meant by free-will? Does it and the moral and intellectual processes imply the power of producing events known to be associated with the brain without antecedents --of starting, as it and, as far as our experience goes, in were, upon a creative, tour of occurrences dissolubly : associated subject to the without any impulse from within or from laws which we find paramount in physical without? Let us consider the point. nature? Is the will of man, in other If there be absolutely or relatively no words, free, or are it and nature equally reason why a tree should fall, it will not "bound fast in fate"? From this latter conclusion, after he had established it to Translated by Dr. William Smith, of Edin. the entire satisfaction of his understandburgh; Trubner, 1873. P.

·88 LECTURES AND ESSAYS 1.14 fall; and if there be absolutely or rela because the experience of life has taught: fively no reason why a man should act, both judge and jury that insanity is frem he will aot act. It is true that the quently transmitted from parent to child: united voice of this assembly could not I met, some years ago, in a railway persuade me that I have not, at this carriage the governor of one of our largest moment, the power to lift my arm if I prisons. He was evidently an observant wished to do so. Within this range the and reflective man, possessed of wide conscious freedom of my will cannot be experience gathered in various parts of questioned. But what about the origin the world, and a thorough student of the of the wish"? Are we, or are we not, duties of his vocation. He told me that complete masters of the circumstances the prisoners in his charge might be which create our wishes, motives, and divided into three distinct classes. The tendencies to action ? Adequate reflec first class consisted of persons who ought tion will, I think, prove that we are not. never to have been in prison. External What, for example, have I had to do accident, and not internal tainty had with the generation and development of brought them within the grasp of the that which some will consider my total law, and what had happened to them being, and others a most potent factor of might happen to most of us. They ny total being the living, speaking were essentially men of sound moral organism which now addresses you? stamina, though wearing the prison garb. As stated at the beginning of this dis Then came the largest class, formed of course, my physical and intellectual individuals possessing no strong bias, textures were woven for me, not by me. moral or immoral, plastic to the touch of Processes in the conduct or regulation circumstances, which could mould them of which I had no share have made me into either good or evil members of what I am. Here, surely, if anywhere, society. Thirdly came a class----happily we are as clay in the hands of the potter. not a large one-whom no kindness It is the greatest of delusions to supposc could conciliate and no discipline tame. that we come into this world as sheets of They were sent into this world labelled white paper, on which the age can write "incorrigible," wickedness being stamped, anything it likes, making us good or bad, as it were, upon their organisations. It nable or mean, as the age pleases. The was an unpleasant truth, but, as a truth, age can stunt, promote, or pervert pre it ought to be faced. For such criminals existent capacities, but it cannot create the prison over which he ruled was them. The worthy Robert Owen, who certainly not the proper place. If consaw in external circumstances the great fined at all, their prison should be on moulders of human character, desert island, where the deadly contagium obliged to supplement his doctrine by of their example could not taint the making the man himself one of the moral air. But the sea itself he was circumstances. It is as fatal as it is disposed to regard as a cheap and approcowardly to blink facts because they are priate sibstitute for the island. It not to our taste. How many disorders seemed to him evident that the State "ghostly and bodily, are transmitted to us would benefit if prisoners of the first by inheritance? In our courts of law, class were liberated; prisoners of the whenever it is a question whether a crime second class educated; and prisoners of has been committed under the influence the third class put compendiously under of insanity, the best guidance the judge water. and jury can have is derived from the It is not, however, from the observa. parental antecedents of the accused. If tion of individuals that the argument among these insanity be exhibited in any against'" free-will," as commonly under marked degree, the presumption in the stood, derives its principal force. It is; as prisoner's favour is enormously enhanced, already hinted, indefinitely strengthened was .

·89 of its and the SCIENCE AND MAN when extended to the race. Most of and wishes originate, if, finally, our you have been forced to listen to the motives and wishes determine our actions outeries and denunciations which rang: in what. sense cani these actions be discordant through the land for some said to be the result of free-will? yearşafter the publication of Mr. Darwin's Origin of Species. Well, the world-even Here, again, we are confronted with the clerical world has for the most part | the moral responsibility, which, as it has settled down in the belief that Mr. been much talked of lately, it is desirable Darwin's book simply reflects the truth to meet. With the view of removing of nature : that we who are now fore the fear of our falling back into the conmost in the files of time” have come to edition of the ape and tiger," so seduthe front through almost endless stages lously excited by certain writers, I propose of promotion from lower to higher forms to grapple with this question in its of life. rudest form, and in the most uncom- If to any one of us were given the promising way. “If,” says the robber, privilege of looking back through the the ravisher, or the murderer, “I act æons across which life has crept towards because I must act, what right have you its present outcome, his vision, according to hold me responsible for my deeds ?" to Darwin, would ultimately reach a The reply is, " The right of society to point when the progenitors of this protect itself against aggressive and assembly could not be called human. injurious forces, whether they be bond From that humble society, through the or free, forces of nature or forces of man." “Then," retorts the criminal, storing up of their best qualities, a better * you punish me for what I cannot help.” one emerged; from this again a better “Let it be granted," says society;"but still; until at length, by the integration had you known that the treadmill or the of infinitesimals through ages of ameliora gallows was certainly in store for you, tion, we came to be what we are to-day. you might have 'helped. Let us reason We of this generation had no conscious the matter fully and frankly out. We share in the production of this grand may entertain no malice or hatred against and beneficent result. Any and every you; it is enough that with a view to generation which preceded us had just our own safety and purification we are as little share. The favoured organisms determined that you and such as you whose garnered excellence constitutes shall not enjoy liberty of evil action in our present store owed their advantages, our midst. You, who have behaved as first, to what we in our ignorance are a wild beast, we claim the right to cage obliged to call "accidental variation "; or kill as we should a wild beast. The and, secondly, to a law of heredity in public safety is a matter of more importhe passing of which our suffrages were tance than the very limited chance of not collected. With characteristic felicity your moral renovation, while the knowand precision Mr. Matthew Arnold lifts ledge that you have been hanged by the this question into the free air of poetry, peck may furnish to others about to do but not out of the atmosphere of truth, as you have done the precise motive when he ascribes the process of ameliora which will hold them back. If your act tion to "a power not ourselves which be such as to invoke a minor penalty, then makes for righteousness." If, then, our not only others, but yourself, may profit organisms, with all their tendencies and by the punishment which we inflict. On capacities, are given to us without our the homely principle that a burnt child being consulted ; and if, while capable dreads the fire,' it will make you think of acting within certain limits in accord twice before venturing on a repetition of ance with our wishes, we are not masters your crime. :. Observe, finally, the con of the circumstances in which motives sistency of our conduct. You offend;

·90 LECTURES AND ESSAYS you say, because you cannot help offend equal at night, and that one rises at six, ing, to the public detriment: We punish, while the other sleeps till nine next is our reply, because we cannot help morning, what becomes of your"levelpunishing, for the public good. Practi ling? And, in so speaking, he made cally, then, as Bishop Butler predicted, himself the mouthpiece of Nature, which, we act as the world acted when it sup as we have seen, secures advance, not by posed the evil deeds of its criminals to the reduction of all to a common lëvel, be the products of free-will.". but by the encouragement and conserva- "What," I have heard it argued, "is tion of what is best. the use of preaching about duty if a It may be urged that, in dealing as man's predetermined position in the above with my hypothetical criminal, I moral world renders him incapable of! am assuming a state of things brought profiting by advice?” Who knows that about by the influence of religions which he is incapable? The preacher's last include the dogmas of theology and the word is a factor in the man's conduct, belief in free-will-a state, namely, in and it may be a most important factor, which a moral majority control and keep unlocking moral energies which might in awe an immoral minority. The heart otherwise remain imprisoned and unused. of man is deceitful above all things, and If the preacher thoroughly feel that words desperately wicked. Withdraw, then, our of enlightenment, courage, and admoni theologic sanctions, including the belief tion enter into the list of forces employed in free-will, and the condition of the race by Nature herself for man's amelioration, will be typified by the samples of indisince she gifted man with speech, he vidual wickedness which have been will suffer no paralysis to fall upon his above adduced. We shall, that is, become tongue. Dung the fig tree hopefully, robbers, and ravishers, and murderers. and not until its barrenness has been From much that has been written of late demonstrated beyond a doubt let the it would seem that this astounding infesentence go forth, “Cut it down, why rence finds house-room in many minds. cumbereth it the ground?” Possibly, the people who hold such views I remember when a youth in the town might be able to illustrate them by indiof Halifax, some two and thirty years vidual instances. ago, attending a lecture given by a young man to a small but select audience. The “ The fear of hell's a hanginan's whip, aspect of the lecturer was earnest and To keep the wretch in order." practical, and his voice soon rivetted Remove the fear, and the wretch, followattention. He spoke of duty, defining ing his natural instinct, may become it as a debt owed, and there was a kind disorderly; but I refuse to accept him as ling vigour in his words which must have a sample of humanity. "Let us eat and strengthened the sense of duty in the drink, for to-morrow we die” is by no minds of those who heard him. No means the ethical consequence of a speculations regarding the freedom of the rejection, of dogma. To many of you will could alter the fact that the words of the name of George Jacob Holyoake is that young man did me good. His doubtless familiar, and you are probably name was George Dawson. He also aware that at no man in England has the spoke, if you will allow me to allude to term "atheist” been more frequently it, of a social subject much discussed at pelted. There are, moreover, really few the time the Chartist subject of "level who have more completely liberated ling." Suppose, he says, two men to be themselves from theologic notions. Among working-class politicians Mn Holyoake is a leader. Does he exhort * An eminent Church dignitary describes all this, not unkindly, as " truculent logic.". I think his followers to “Eat and drink, for it worthy of his Grace's graver consideration. to-morrow we die? Not so. In the ·SCIENCE AND MÀN Its pro- August number of the Nineteenth Cen in death-seen them approaching with tury you will find these words from his open eyes the inexorable goal, with no pen: "The gospel of dirt is bad enough, dread of a “bangman's whip," with no but the gospel of mere material comfort hope of a heavenly crown, and still as is much worse." He contemptuously mindful of their duties, and as faithful in cails 'the Comtist championship of the the discharge of them, as if their eternal working man "the championship of the future depended upon their latest deeds. trencher." He would place "the leanest In letters addressed to myself, and in liberty which brought with it the dignity utterances addressed to the public, Faraand power of self-help" higher than day is often referred to as a sample of "any prospect of a full plate without it.”. the association of religious faith with Such is the moral doctrine taught by moral elevation. I was locally intimate this "atheistic" leader; and no Christian, with him for fourteen or fifteen years of I apprehend, need be ashamed of it. my life, and had thus occasion to observe Most heartily do I recognise and how nearly his character approached admire the spiritual radiance, if I may what might, without extravagance, be use the term, shed by religion on called perfection. He was strong, but the minds and lives of many personally gentle, impetuous but self-restrained; a known to me. At the same time I can sweet and lofty courtesy marked his not but observe how signally, as regards dealings with men and women; and the production of anything beautiful, though he sprang from the body of the religion fails in other cases. people, a nature so fine might well have fessor and defender is sometimes at been distilled from the flower of antecebottom a brawler and a clown. These dent chivalry. Not only in its broader differences depend upon primary dis sense was the Christian religion necessary tinctions of character which teligion does to Faraday's spiritual peace, but in what not remove. It may confort some to many would call the narrow sense held know that there are among us many by those described by Faraday himself whom the gladiators of the pulpit would as "a very small and despised sect of call “atheists" and "materialists," whose Christians, known, if known at all, as lives, nevertheless, as tested by any ac Sandemanians," it constituted the light cessible standard of morality, would con and comfort of his days. trast more than favourably with the Were our experience confined to such lives of those who seek to stamp them cases, it would furnish an irresistible with this offensive brand. When I say argument in favour of the association of "offensive," I refer simply to the inten dogmatic religion with moral purity and tion of those who use such terms, and grace. But, as already intimated, our not because atheism or materialismi, experience is not thus confined. In when compared with many of the notions further illustration of this point, we may ventilated in the columns of religious compare with Faraday a philosopher of newspapers, has any particular Offensive equal magnitude, whose character, inness for me. If I wished to find men cluding gentleness and strength, candour who are scrupulous in their adherence to and simplicity, intellectual power and engagements, whose words are their bond, moral clevation, singularly resembles that and to whom moral shiftiness of any kind of the great Sandemanian, but who has is subjectively unknown; if I wanted a neither shared the theologic views nor loving father, a faithful husband, an the religious emotions which formed so honourable neighbour, and a just citizen dominant a factor in Faraday's life. I should seek him, and find him, among allude to Mr. Charles Darwin, the Abrathe band of “atheists" to which I refer. ham of scientific men--searcher as I have known some of the most pro obedient to the command of truth as was nounced among them not only in life but the patriarch to the command of God.

·bitter and sugar sweet.' That power les 92 LECTURES AND ESSAYS I cannot, therefore, as so many desire, was equally distinct. I have no inten look upon Faraday's religious belief as tion;" he says, " of substituting anything the exclusive source of qualities shared for religion, but I wish to take that part so conspicuously by one uninfluenced by of humán iiature which is independent that belief. To a deeper virtue belonging* of it. Morality, philosophy, conimerce, to human nature in its purer forms I am · the various institutions and habits of disposed to refer the excellence of both. society, are independent of religion and Superstition may be defined as con may exist without it." These were the structive religion, which has głown incon words of his youth, but they expressed gruous with intelligence. We may admit.. his latest convictions. I would add that with Fichte, “that superstition has un the muse of Tennyson never reached a questionably constrained its subjects to higher strain than when it embodied the abandon many pernicious practices and sentiment of duty in Ænone :- to adopt many useful ones"; the real loss accompanying its decay at the present “And, because right is right, to follow right Were wisdoin in the scorn of consequence.! day has been thus clearly stated by the same philosopher : "In so far as these Not in the way assumed by our doglamentations do not proceed from the matic teachers has the morality of human priests themselves-whose grief at the nature been built up. The power which loss of their dominion over the human has moulded us thus far has worked mind we can well understand --but from with stern tools upon a very rigid stuff. the politicians, the whole matter resolves What it has done cannot be so readily itself into this, that government has undone; and, it has endowed us with thereby become more difficult and expen moral constitutions which take pleasure sive. The judge was spared the exercise in the noble, the beautiful, and the true, of his own sagacity and penetration just as surely as it has endowed us with when, by threats of relentless damnation, sentient organisms, which find aloes he could compel the accused to make did confession. The evil spirit formerly per not work with delusions, nor will it stay formed without reward services for which its hand when such are removed. "Facts, in later times judges and policemen have rather than dogmas, have been its to be paid." ministers-hunger and thirst, heat and No man ever felt the need of a high cold, pleasure and pain, fervour, symand ennobling religion more thoroughly pathy, aspiration, shame, pride, love, than this powerful and fervid teacher, hate, terror, awe-such were the forces who, by the way, did not escape the whose interaction and adjustmentthrough. brand of "atheist." But Fichte asserted out an immeasurable past wove the triplex emphatically the power and sufficiency web of man's physical, intellectual, and of morality in its own sphere. "Let us moral nature, and such are the forces consider," he says, "the highest which that will be effectual to the end. mnan cán possess in the absence of You inay retort that even on my own religion- I mean pure morality. The showing "the power which makes for moral man' obeys the law of duty in his righteousness” has dealt in delusions; breast absolutely, because it is a law unto for it cannot be denied that the beliefs him; and he does whatever reveals itself of religion, including the dogmas of to him as his duty simply because it is theology and the freedom of the will, duty. Let not the impudent assertion have had some effect in moulding the be repeated that such an obedience, moral world. Granted, but I do not without regard to consequences, and think that this goes to the root of the without desire for consequences, is in matter. Are you quite sure that those itself impossible and opposed to human beliefs and dogmas are primary, and not nature." So much for Fichte Faraday derived ?-that they are not the products, ·.. If th SCIENCE AND ATAN 93 nštead of being the creators, of man's wrecked by non-fulfilment. Look to the moral nature? I think it is in one of East at the present moment as a comche Latter-Day Pamphlets that Carlyle ment, on the promise of peace on earth. corrects a reasoner, who deduced the and goodwill toward men. That promise nobility of man from a belief in heaven, is a dream ruined by the experience of by telling him that he puts the cart. eighteen centuries, and in that ruin is before the horse, the real truth being involved the .claim of the heavenly that the belief in heaven is derived from host" to prophetic vision. But though the nobility of man. The bird's instinct the mechanical theory proves untenable, to weave its nest is referred to by Emerson the immortal song and the feelings it as typical of the force which built cathe expresses are still ours, to be incorporated, drals, temples, and pyramids :- let us hope, in purer and less shadowy Knowest thou what wove yon woodbird's nest forms in the poetry, philosophy, and Of leaves and feathers from her breast, practice of the future. Or how the fish outbuilt its shell, Thus, following the lead of physical Painting with morn each annual cell? Such and so grew these holy piles science, we are brought without solution While love and terror laid the tiles ; continuity into the presence. of pro- Earth proudly wears the Parthenon blems which, as usually classified, lie As the best gem upon her zone; entirely outside the domain of physics. And Morning opes with haste her lids To these problems thoughtful and pene- To gaze upon the Pyramids; O'er England's abbeys bends the sky trative minds are now applying those is on its friends with kindred eye; methods of research which in physical For 'ut of Thought's interior sphere science have proved their truth by their These wonders rose to upper air, fruits. There is on all hands a growing And nature gladly gave them place, -Ada ed then into her race, repugnance to invoke the supernatural And granted them an equal date in accounting for the phenomena of With Andes and with Ararat." human life; and the thoughtful minds Surely, many utterances which have been just referred to, finding no trace of accepted as descriptions ought to be evidence in favour of any other origin, interpreted as aspirations, or as having are driven to seek in the interaction of their roots in aspiration instead of in social forces the genesis and development objective knowledge. Does the song of of man's moral nature. If they succeed the herald angels, “Glory to God in the in their search and I think they are highest, and on earth peace, goodwill sure to succeed ---social duty will be toward men," express the exaltation and raised to a higher level of significance, ihe yearning of a human soul? or does and the deepening sense of social duty it describe an optical and acoustical fact will, it is to be hoped, lessen, if not La visible host and an audible song? obliterate, the strifes and heartburnings which now beset and disfigure our social yearning are man's imperishable posses life. Towards this great end it behoves sion--a ferment long confined indivi us one and all to work; and devoutly duals, but which may by-and-by become wishing its consummation, I have the the leaven of the race. If the latter, honour, ladies and gentlemen, to bid you then belief in the entire transaction is a friendly farewell.

·94 LECTURES AND ESSAYS VITALITY (1863) THE origin, growth, and energies of as that which we develop by the combusliving things are subjects which have tion of wood or coal, has been produced always engaged the attention of thinking at the sun's expense. The sun is so much men. : To account for them it was usual the colder that we may have our fires; he to assume a special agent, free to a great is also so much the colder that we may extent from the limitations observed" have our horse-racing and Alpine climb among the powers of inorganic nature. ing. It is, for example, certain that the This agent was called vital force; and, sun has been chilled to an extent capable under its influence, plants and animals of being accurately expressed in numwere supposed to collect their materials bers, in order to furnish the power which and to assume determinate forms. Within lifted this year a tain number of the last few years, however, our ideas of tourists from the vale of Chamouni to vital processes have undergone profound the summit of Mont Blanc, modifications; and the interest, and To most minds, however, the energy even disquietude, which the change has of light and heat presents itself as a excited are amply evidenced by the dis- thing totally distinct from ordinary cussions and protests which are now mechanical energy. Either of them can common regarding the phenomena of nevertheless be derived from the other. vitality. In tracing these phenomena Wood can be raised by friction to the through all their modifications, the most temperature of ignition; while by properly advanced philosophers of the present striking a piece of iron a skilful blackday declare that they ultimately arrive - smith can cause it to glow. Thus, by at a single source of power, from which the rude agency of his hammer, he geneall vital energy is derived ; and the dis rates light and heat. This action, if quieting circumstance is that this source carried far enough, would produce the is not the direct fiat of a supernatural light and heat of the sun. In fact, the agent, but a reservoir of what, if we do sun's light and heat have actually been not accept the creed of Zoroaster, must referred to the fall of meteoric matter be regarded as inorganic force. In short, upon his surface; and, whether the sun it is considered as proved that all the is thus supported or not, it is perfectly energy which we derive from plants and certain that he might be thus supported. animals is drawn from the sun. Whether, moreover, the whilom molten A few years ago, when the sun was condition of our planet was, as supposed affirmed to be the source of life, nine by eminent men, due to the collision of out of ten of those who are alarmed by cosmic masses or not, it is perfectly the form which this assertion has latterly certain that the molten condition might, assumed would have assented, in a general be thus brought about. If, then, solar way, to its correctness. Their assent, light and heat can be produced by the however, was more poetic than scientific, impact of dead matter, and if from the and they were by no means prepared to light and heat thus produced we can see a rigid mechanical signification derive the energies which we have been attached to their words. This, however, accustomed to call vital, it indubitably is the peculiarity of modern conclusions: follows that vital energy may have a that there is no creative energy whatever proximately mechanical origin, have a in the vegetable or animal organism, but In what sense, then, is the sun to be that all the power which we obtain from regarded as the origin of the energy dethe muscles of man and animals, as much rivable from plants and animals? Let ·VITALITY .95 It may, --- a oxygen this us try to give an intelligible answer to lifted from the carbon and hydrogen this question. Water may be raised from by the action of the sun, again falls the sea-level to a high elevation, and towards them, producing animal heat and then permitted to descend. In descend developing animal forms. Through the ing it may be made to assume various most complicated phenomena of vitality forms-to fall in cascades, to spurt in this law runs: the vegetable is profountains, to boil in eddies, or to flow duced while a weight rises; the animal is tranquilly along a uniform bed. produced while a weight falls. But the moreover, be caused to set complex question is not exhausted here. The machinery in motion, to turn millstones, water employed in our first illustration, throw shuttles, work saws and hammers, generates all the motion displayed in its and drive piles. But every form of descent, but the form of the motion power here indicated would be derived depends on the character of the machinery from the original power expended in interposed in the path of the water. In raising the water to the height from which similar way the primary action of the it fell. There is no energy generated by sun's rays is qualified by the atoms and the machinery; the work performed by molecules among which their energy is the water in descending is merely the distributed. Molecular forces determine parcelling out and distribution of the the form which the solar energy will work expended in raising it. In precisely assume. In the separation of the carbon this sense is all the energy of plants and and energy may be so conanimals the parcelling out and distribu ditioned as to result in one case in the tion of a power originally exerted by the formation of a cabbage and in another sun. In the case of the water, the source case in the formation of an oak. So also, of the power consists in the forcible as regards the reunion of the carbon and separation of a quantity of the liquid the oxygen, the molecular machinery from a low level of the earth's surface through which the combining energy and its elevation to a higher position, the acts may in one case weave the texture power thus expended being returned by of a frog, while in another it may weave the water in its descent. In the case of the texture of a man. vital phenomena, the source of power The matter of the animal body is that consists in the forcible separation of the of inorganic nature. There is no subatoms of compound substances by the stance in the animal tissues which is not sun. We name the force which draws primarily derived from the rocks, the the water earthward "gravity," and that water, and the air. Are the forces of which draws atoms together “ chemical organic matter, then, different in kind affinity "; but these different names must from those of inorganic matter? The not mislead us regarding the qualitative philosophy of the present day negatives identity of the two forces. They are the question. It is the compounding, both attractions, and to the intellect the in the organic world, of forces belonging falling of carbon atoms against oxygen equally to the inorganic that constitutes atoms is not more difficult of concep the mystery and the miracle of vitality. tion than the falling of water to the Every portion of every animal body may earth. be reduced to purely inorganic matter. The building up of the vegetable, then, A perfect reversal of this process of is effected by the sun, through the reduc reduction would carry us from the inortion of chemical compounds. The phe ganic to the organic; and such a reversal nomena of animal life are more or less is at least conceivable. The tendency, complicated reversals of these processes indeed, of modern science is to break of reduction. We eat the vegetable and down the wall of partition between we breathe the oxygen of the air ; and in organic and inorganic, and to reduce our bodies the oxygen, which has been both to the operation of forces which ·96 .. present interest in great part from their of science, but who LECTURES AND ESSAYS are the same in kind, but which are earth, would one of the consequences differently compounded. of its refrigeration be the development Consider the question of personal of organic forms? I lean to the affirmaidentity in relation to that of molecular tive. Structural forces are certainly in form. Thirty-four years ago Mayer, of the mass, whether or not those forces. Heilbronn, with that power of genius reach to the extent of forming a plant which breathes large meanings into or an animal. In an amorphous drop scanty facts, pointed out that the blood of water lie latent all the marvels of was "the oil of the lamp of life," the crystalline force; and who will set limits combustion of which sustains muscular to the possible play of molecules in a action. The muscles are the machinery 'cooling planet? If these statements by which the dynamic power of the startle, it is because matter has been blood is brought into play. Thus the defined and maligned by philosophers blood is consumed. But the whole body, and theologians who were equally though more slowly than the blood, unaware that it is, at bottom, essentially wastes also, so that after a certain number mystical and transcendental, of years it is entirely renewed. How is Questions such as these derive their the sense of personal identity maintained across this flight of molecules ? To man, audacity, which is sure, in due time, to as we know hin, matter is necessary to disappear. And the sooner the public consciousness; but the matter of any dread is abolished with reference to such period may be all changed, while con questions the better for the cause of truth. sciousness exhibits no solution of con- As regards knowledge, physical science tinuity. Like changing sentinels, the is polar. In one sense it knows, or oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon that depart is destined to know, everything. In seem to whisper their secret to their another sense it knows nothing. Science comrades that arrive, and thus, while the understands much of this intermediate Non-ego shifts, the Ego remains the phase of things that we call nature, of Constancy of form in the which it is the product; but science grouping of the molecules, and not con knows nothing of the origin or destiny stancy of the molecules themselves, is of nature. Who or what made the the correlative of this constancy of per sun and gave his rays their alleged ception. Life is a wave which in no power? Who or what made and bestowed two consecutive moments of its existence upon the ultimate particles of matter is composed of the same particles. their wondrous power of varied inter- Supposing, then, the molecules of the action? Science does not know the human body, instead of replacing others, mystery, though pushed back, remains and thus renewing a pre-existing form, unaltered. To many of us who feel to be gathered first hand from nature that there are more things in heaven and put together in the same relative and earth than are dreamt of in the positions as those which they occupy in the body. Supposing them to have the have been also taught, by baffled efforts, self-same forces and distribution of forces, how vain is the attempt to grapple with the self-same motions and distribution the Inscrutable, the ultimate frame of of motions--would this organised con mind is that of Goethe: course of molecules stand before us as a sentient thinking being? There seems 4.Who dares to name His name, po valid reason to believe that it would Or belief in Him proclaim, not. Or, supposing a planet carved Veiled in mystery as He is, the All-enfolder? from the sun, set spinning round an Gleams across the mind His light, Feels the lifted spul His might; axis, and revolving round the sun at a Dare it then deny His reign, the All-up. distance from him equal to that of our holder ?" sanie. واته ·::..!! o pon REFLECTIONS ON PRAYER AND NATURAL LAW 97 REFLECTIONS ON PRAYER AND NATURAL LAW Amid the apparent confusion and caprice conceded that the age of miracles is of natural phenomena, *which roused past. emotions hostile to calm investigation, it At an auberge near the foot of the must for ages have seemed hopeless to Rhone glacier I met, in the summer of seek for law, or orderly relation; and 1858, an athletic young priest, who, after before the thought of law dawned upon a solid breakfast, including a bottle of. the urffolding human mind these other wine, informed me that he had come up wise inexplicable effects were referred to to "bless the mountains.”. This was the personal agency. In the fall of a cataract annual custom of the place. Year by the savage saw the leap of a spirit, and year the Highest was entreated, by official the echoed thunder-peal was to him the intercessors, to make such meteorological hammer-clang of an exasperated god. arrangements as should ensure food and Propitiation of these terrible powers was shelter for the flocks and herds of the the consequence, and sacrifice was offered Valaisians. A diversion of the Rhone, to the demons of earth and air. or a deepening of the river's bed, would, But observation tends to chasten the at the time I now mention, have been of emotions and to check those structural incalculable benefit to the inhabitants of efforts of the intellect which have emotion the valley. But the priest would have for their base. One by one natural shrunk from the idea of asking the phenomena came to be associated with Omnipotent to open a new channel for their proximate causes; the idea of direct the river, or to cause a portion of it to personal volition mixing itself with the flow over the Grimsel pass, and down the economy of nature retreating more and valley of Oberhasli to Brientz. This he more. Many of us fear this change. Our would have deemed a miracle, and he religious feelings are dear to us, and we did not come to ask the Creator to perlook with suspicion and dislike on any form miracles, but to do something which philosophy the apparent tendency of he nianifestly thought lay quite within which is to dry them up. Probably every the bounds of the natural and nonchange from ancient savagery to our miraculous. A Protestant gentleman present enlightenment has excited, in a who was present at the time smiled at greater or less degree, fears of this this recital. He had no faith in the kind, But the fact is, that we have not priest's blessing; still, he deemed his yet determined whether its present form prayer different in kind from a request is necessary to the life and warmth of to open a new river-cut, or to cause the religious feeling. We may err in linking water to flow up-hill. the imperishable with the transitory, and In a similar manner the same Proconfound the living plant with the decay testant gentleman would doubtless smile ing pole to which it clings. My object, at the honest Tyrolese priest who, when however, at present is not to argue, but he feared the bursting of a glacier dam, to mark a tendency. We have ceased to propitiate the powers of nature the ice as a means of averting the ceased even to pray for things in manifest calamity. That poor man did not expect contradiction to natural laws, In Pro to convert the ice into adanant; or to tęstant countries, at least, I think it is strengthen its texture, so as to enable it ·98 LECTURES AND ESSAYS to withstand the pressure of the water; nor did he expect that his sacrifice would cause the stream to roll back upon its source and relieve him, by a miracle, of its presence. But beyond the boundaries of his knowledge lay a region where rain was generated, he knew not how. He was not so presumptuous as to expect a miracle, but he firmly believed that in yonder cloud-land matters could be so arranged, without trespass on the miraculous, that the stream which threatened him and his people should be caused to shrink within its proper bounds. Both these priests fashioned that which they did not understand to their respective wants and wishes. In their case imagination came into play, uncontrolled by a knowledge of law. A similar state of mind was long prevalent among mechanicians. Many of these, among whom were to be reckoned men of consummate skill, were occupied a century ago with the question of perpetual motion. They aimed at constructing a machine which should cxecute work without the expenditure of power; and some of them went mad in the pursuit of this object. The faith in such a consummation, involving, as it did, immense personal profit to the inventor, was extremely exciting, and every attempt to destroy this faith was met by bitter resentment on the part of those who held it. Gradually, however, as men became more and more acquainted with the true functions of machinery, the dream dissolved. The hope of getting work out of mere mechanical combinations disappeared; but still there remained for the speculator a cloudland"denser than that which filled the imagination of the Tyrolese priest, and out of which he still hoped to evolve perpetual motion. There was the mystic store of chemic force, which nobody understood; there were heat and light, electricity and magnetism, all competent to produce mechanical motion. Here, then, was the mine in which our gem must be sought. A modified and more refined form of the ancient faith revived ; and, for aught I know, a remnant of sanguine designers may at the present moment be engaged on the problem which like-minded men in former ages left unsolved. And why should a perpetual motion, even under modern conditions, be impossible? The answer to this question is the statement of that great generalisation of modern science which is known under the name of the Conservation of Energy. This principle asserts that no power can make its appearance in nature without an equivalent expenditure of some other power; that natural agents are so related to each other as to be mutually convertible, but that no new agency is created. Light runs into heat; heat into electricity; electricity into magnetism; magnetism into mechanical force; and mechanical force again into light and heat. The Proteus changes, but he is ever the same; and his changes in nature, supposing no miracle to supervene, are the expression, not of spontaneity, but of physical necessity. A perpetual motion, then, is deemed impossible because it demands the creation of energy, whereas the principle of Conservation is--no creation, but infinite conversion. It is an old remark that the law which moulds a tear also rounds a planet. In the application of law in nature the terms "great" and "small" are unknown. Thus the principle referred to teaches us that the Italian wind, gliding over the crest of the Matterhorn, is as firmly ruled as the earth in its orbital revolution round the sun; and that the fall of its vapour into clouds is exactly as much a matter of necessity as the return of the seasons. The dispersion, therefore, of the slightest mist by the special volition of the Eternal would be as much a miracle as the rolling of the Rhone over the Grimsel precipices, down the valley of Hasli to Meyringen and Brientź." It seems to me quite beyond the 3 See Helmholtz, Wechselwirkung der Natur kräfte.

·REFLECTIONS ON PRAYER AND NATURAL LAW 99 present power of science to demonstrate public character by encouraging a manly that the Tyrolese priest, or his colleague and intelligent conflict with the real of the Rhone valley, asked for an "im causes of disease and scarcity, instead of possibility” in praying for good weather; a delusive reliance on supernatural aid. but Science can demonstrate the incom But they have also a value beyond this pleteness of the knowledge of nature bocal and temporary one. They prepare which limited their prayers to this narrow the public mind for changes which, ground, and she may lessen the number though inevitable, could hardly, without of instances in which we "ask amiss" by such preparation, be wrought without showing that we sometimes pray for the violence. Iron is strong; still, water in performance of a miracle when we do crystallising will shiver an iron envelope, not intend it. She docs assert, for and the more unyielding the metal is example, that without a disturbance of the worse for its safety. There are in the natural law, quite as serious as the stop world men who would encompass philopage of an eclipse or the rolling of the sophic speculation by a rigid envelope, river Niagara up the Falls, no act of hoping thereby to restrain it, but in humiliation, individual or national, could reality giving it explosive force. In call one shower from heaven or deflect England, thanks to men of the stamp to towards us a single beam of the sun. which I have alluded, scope is gradually Those, therefore, who believe that the given to thought for changes of aggregamiraculous is still active in nature may, tion, and the envelope slowly alters its with perfect consistency, join in our form, in accordance with the necessities periodic prayers for fair weather and for of the time. rain; while those who hold that the age of miracles is past will, if they be con The proximate origin of the foregoing slight sistent, refuse to join in these petitions. article, and probably the remoter origin of the next following one, was this. Some years ago And these latter, if they wish to fall back a day of prayer and humiliation, on account of upon such a justification, may fairly urge a bad harvest, was appointed by the proper that the latest conclusions of science are religious authorities; but certain clergymen of in perfect accordance with the doctrine the Church of England, doubting the wisdom of the Master himself, which manifestly of the demonstration, declined to join in the services of the day. For this act of noncon. was that the distribution of natural formity, they were severely censured by some phenomena is not affected by moral or of their brethren. Rightly or wrongly, my religious causes. “ He maketh His sun sympathies were on the side of these men; and, to lend them a helping hand in their struggle to rise on the evil and on the good, against odds, I inserted the foregoing chapter and sendeth rain on the just and on the in a little book entitled Mountaineering in unjust." Granting" the power of Free Will 1861. Some time subsequently I received from a in man," so strongly claimed by Professor gentleman of great weight and distinction in the scientific world, and, I believe, of perfect ortho- Mansel in his admirable defence of the doxy in the religious one, a note directing my belief in miracles, and assuming the attention to an exceedingly thoughtſul article on efficacy of free prayer to produce Prayer and Cholera in the Pall Mall Gazette. changes in external nature, it necessarily My eminent correspondent deemed the article a fair answer to the remarks made by me in follows that natural laws are more or less 1861. I, also, was struck by the temper and at the mercy of man's volition, and no ability of the article ; but I could not deein its conclusion founded on the assumed per arguments satisfactory, and in a short note to the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette I ventured manence of those laws would be worthy to state so inuch. The letter elicited some very of confidence. áble replies, and a second leading article was It is a wholesome sign for England also devoted to the subject. In answer to all, that she numbers’among her clergy inen I risked the publication of a second letter, and wise enough to understand all this, and soon afterwards, by an extremely courteous note from the editor, the discussion was closed. courageous enough to act up to their Though thus stopped locally, the discussion knowledge. Such men do service to Alowed in other directions. Sermons were > ·LECTURES AND ESSAYS preuched, essays were published, articles were written, while a copious correspondence occupied the pages of some of the religious newspapers. It gave me sincere pleasure to notice that the discussion; såve in a few cases where natural coarseness had the upper hånd, was conducted with a minimum of vituperation. The severity shown. was hardly more than sufficient to demonstrate earnestness, while gentlemanly feeling was too predominant to permit that earnestness to contract itself to bigotry to clothe itself in abuse. It was probably the memory of this discussion which caused another excellent friend of mine to recommend to my perusal the exceedingly able work which in the next article I have endeavoured to review, MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 1867 It is my privilege to enjoy the friendship down thoughts regarding it, intending of a select number of religious men, afterwards to work them up into a with whom I converse freely upon theo coherent whole. Other duties, however, logical subjects, expressing without dis interfered with the complete carrying out guise the notions and opinions I enter of this intention, and what I wrote last tain regarding their tenets, and hearing summer I now publish, not hoping to in return these notions and opinions be able, within any reasonable time, to subjected to criticism. I have thus far render my defence of scientific method found them liberal and loving men, more complete. patient in hearing, tolerant in reply, who Mr. Mozley refers at the outset of his know how to reconcile the duties of task to the movement against miracles courtesy with the earnestness of debate. which of late years has taken place, and From one of these, nearly a year ago, I which determined his choice of a subject. received a note, recommending strongly He acquits modern science of having had to my attention the volume of Bampton any great share in the production of Lectures for 1865, in which the question this movement. The objection against of miracles is treated by Mr. Mozley. miracles, he says, does not arise from Previous to receiving this note, I had in any minute knowledge of the law of part made the acquaintance of the work nature, but simply because they are through an able and claborate review of opposed to that plain and obvious order it in the Times. The combined effect of nature which everybody sees. The of the letter and the review was to make present movement is, he thinks, to be the book the companion of my summer ascribed to the greater earnestress and tour in the Alps. There, during the wet penetratfon of the present age. Forand snowy days which were only too merly miracles were accepted without prevalent in 1866, and during the days question, because without reflection but of rest interpolated between days of toil, the exercise of the "historic imagina: I made myself . more thoroughly con. tion," is a characteristic of our own time... versant with Mr. Mozley's volume. I Men are now accustomed to place before: found it clear and strong--an intellectual themselves vivid images of historic facts; tonic as bracing and pleasant to my mind and when a miracle rises to view, they as the keen air of the mountains was to halt before the astounding occurrence, my body. From time to time I jotted and realising it with the same clearness - Fortnightly Review, New Series, vol. I, p. 645 ·MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES as if it were now passing before their advantageous to the orthodox faith.. eyes they ask themselves, "Can this was not such as to compel the inference have taken place ?" In some instances of extraordinary Divine agency; but it the effort to answer this question has led was a special providence, because it to a disbelief in miracles, in others to a carried a reasonable appearance of it. strengthening. of belief. The aim of The miracle of the Thundering Legion Mr, Mozley's lectures is to show that the was a special providence, but not a strengthening of belief is the logical miracle, for the same reason, because result which ought to follow from the the coincidence of an instantaneous fall examination of the facts. of rain, in answer to prayer, carried Attempts have been made by religious some appearance, but not proof, of men to bring the Scripture miracles preternatural agency." The eminent within the scope of the order of nature, lecturer's remarks on this head brought but all such attempts are rejected by Mr. to my recollection certain narratives Mozley as utterly futile and wide of the published in Methodist magagincs, which mark. Regarding miracles as a necessary I used to read with avidity when a accompaniment of a revelation, their boy. The general title of these exciting evidential value in his eyes depends stories, if I remember right, was “The entirely upon their deviation from the Providence of God Asserted," and in order of nature. Thus, deviating, they them the most extraordinary escapes suggest and illustrate a power higher from peril were recounted and ascribed than nature, a "personal will ”; and they to prayer, while equally wonderful commend the person in whom this power instances of calamity were adduced as is, vested as a messenger from on high. illustrations of Divine retribution. In Without these credentials such a mes such magazines, or elsewhere, I found senger would have no right to demand recorded the case of the celebrated belief, even were his assertions regarding Samuel Hick, which, as it illustrates a his Divine mission backed by a holy life. whole class of special providences ap- Nor is it by miracles alone that the order proaching in conclusiveness to miracles , of nature is, or may be, disturbed. The is worthy of mention here. It is related material universe is also the arena of of this holy man that, on one occasion, "special providences." Under these two flour was lacking to make the sacra. heads Mr. Mozley distributes the total mental bread. Grain was present, and preternatural. One form of the pre a windmill was present, but there was ternatural may shade into the other, as no wind to grind the corn. With faith one colour passes into another in the undoubting, Samuel Hick prayed to the rainbow : but while the line which Lord of the winds: the sails turned, the divides the specially providential from corn was ground, after which the wind the miraculous cannot be sharply drawn, ceased. According to the canon of the their distinction broadly expressed is this: Bampton Lecturer, this, though carrying that while a special providence can only a strong appearance of an immediate excite surmise more or less probable, it exertion of Divine energy, lacks by a is the nature of a miracle to give proof, hair's-breadth the quality of a miracle. distinguished from mere surmise, of For the wind might have arisen, and Divine design." might have ceased, in the ordinary Mr. Mozley adduces various illustra course of nature. Hence the occurrence tions of what he regards to be special did not "compel the inference of extraprovidences as distinguished from ordinary Divine agency." In like manner miracles. "The death of Arius," he Mr. Mozley considers that the appear says, " was not miraculous, because the ance of the cross to Constantine was coincidence of the death of a heresiarch - miracle, or a special providence, according taking place when it was peculiarly* to what account of it we adopt. As as ·102 LECTURES AND ESSAYS: same. only a meteoric appearance in the shape dist and the Tyrolese peasant than in the of a cross, it gave some token of preter heart of Mr. Mozley. Indeed, those natural agency, bui not full evidence." feelings belong to the primal powers of In the Catholic canton of Switzerland man's nature. A "sceptic" may have where I now write, and still more among thein. They find vent in the battle-cry of the pious Tyrolese, the mountains are 4 the Moslem. They take hue and form in dotted with shrines, containing offerings the hunting-grounds of the Red Indian; of all kinds, in acknowledgment of and raise all of them, as they raise the special mercies-legs, feet, arms, and Christian, upon a wave of victory, above hands-of gold, silver, brass, and wood, the terrors of the grave. according as worldly possessions enabled The character then of a miracle, as the grateful heart to express its indebted distinguished from a special providence, ness. Most of these offerings are made is that the former furnishes proof, while to the Virgin Mary. They are recogni in the case of the latter we have only tions of "special providences," wrought surmise. Dissolve the element of doubt, through the instrumentality of the Mother and the alleged fact passes from the one of God. Mr. Mozley's belief, that of the class of the preternatural into the other. Methodist chronicler, and that of the In other words, if a special providence Tyrolese peasant, are substantially the could be proved to be a special provi- Each of them assunies that dence, it would cease to be a special nature, instead of flowing ever onward providence and become a miracle. There in the uninterrupted rhythm of cause is not the least cloudiness about Mr. and effect, is mediately ruled by the free Mozley's meaning here. A special prohuman will. As regards direct action vidence is a doubtful miracle. Why, upon natural phenomena, man's wish then, not call it so? The term employed and will, as expressed in prayer, are by Mr. Mozley conveys no negative sugconfessedly powerless; but prayer is the gestion, whereas the negation of certainty trigger which liberates the Divine power, is the peculiar characteristic of the thing and to this extent, if the will be free, man, intended to be expressed. There is an of course, commands nature. apparent unwillingness on the part of Did the existence of this belief depend the lecturer to call a special providence solely upon the material benefits derived what his own definition makes it to be. fron it, it could not, in my opinion, last Instead of speaking of it as a doubtful a decade. As a purely objective fact, miracle, he calls it "an invisible miracle." we should soon see that the distribution He speaks of the point of contact of of natural phenomena is unaffected by supernatural power with the chain of the merits or the demerits of men; that causation being so high up as to be the law of gravitation crushes the simple wholly, or in part, out of sight; whereas worshippers of Ottery St. Mary, while the essence of a special providence is singing their hymns, just as surely as if the uncertainty whether there is any conthey were engaged in a midnight brawl. tact at all , either high or low, By the The hold of this belief upon the human use of an incorrect term, however, a mind is not due to outward verification, grave danger is avoided. For the idea but to the inner warmth, force, and of doubt, if kept systematically before elevation with which it is commonly the mind, would soon be fatal to the associated. It is plain, however, that special providence, considered as a means these feelings may exist under the most of edification. The term employed, on various forms. They are not limited to the contrary, invites and encourages the Church of England Protestantism--they trust which is necessary to supplement the are not even limited to Christianity. evidence. Though less refined, they are certainly This inner trust, though at first rejected not less strong in the heart of the Metho- by Mr. Mozley in favour of external proof, .

·MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 103 is subsequently called upon to do momen elevate the mind, to quicken the moral tous duty in regard to miracles. When sense, to kindle the fire of religion in ever the evidence of the miraculous seems the soul, let the affections by all means incommensurate with the fact which it be invoked ; but they must not be perhas to establish, or rather when the fact mitted to colour our reports, or to influis so amazing that hardly any evidence ence our acceptance of reports, of occuris sufficient to establish it, Mr. Mozley rences in external nature. Testimony invokes "the affections." They must as to natural facts is worthless when urge the reason to accept the conclusion, wrapped in this atmosphere of the affecfrom which unaided it recoils. The tions, the most earnest subjective truth affections and emotions are eminently. being thus rendered perfectly compatible the court of appeal in matters of real with the most astounding objective error. religion, which is an affair of the heart; There are questions in judging of but they are not, I submit, the court in which the affections or sympathies are which to weigh allegations regarding the often our best guides, the estimation of credibility of physical facts. These must moral goodness being one of these. be judged by the dry light of the intellect But at this precise point, where they are alone, appeals to the affections being really of use, Mr. Mozley excludes the reserved for cases where moral elevation, affections and demands a miracle as a and not historic conviction, is the aim. certificate of character. He will not It is, moreover, because the result, in accept any other evidence of the perfect the case under consideration, is deemed goodness of Christ. "No outward life desirable that the affections are called and conduct,” he says, “however irreupon to back it. If undesirable, they proachable, could prove His perfect sinwould, with equal right, be called upon to lessness, because goodness depends act the other way. Even to the disciplined upon the inward motive, and the perscientific mind this would be a dangerous fection of the inward motive is not doctrine. A favourite theory--the desire proved by the outward act." But surely to establish or avoid a certain result the miracle is an outward act, and to can so warp the mind as to destroy its pass from it to the inner motive imposes powers of estimating facts. I have a greater strain upon logic than that known men to work for years under a involved in our ordinary methods of fascination of this kind, unable to extri. estimating men. There is, at least, cate themselves from its fatal influence. moral congruity between the outward They had certain data, but not, as it goodness and the inner life, but there is happened, enough. By a process exactly no such congruity between the miracle analogous to that invoked by Mr. and the life within, The test of moral Mozley, they supplemented the data, goodness laid down by Mr. Mozley is and went wrong. From that hour their not the test of John, who says : intellects were so blinded to the percep that doeth righteousness is righteous"; tion of adverse phenomena that they nor is it the test of Jesus: “By their never reached truth. If, then, to the fruits ye shall know them; do nen disciplined scientific mind this incon gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles 2" gruous mixture of proof and trust be But it is the test of another: fraught with danger, what must it be to be the Son of God, con mand that these the indiscriminate audience which Mr. stones be made bread.” For my own Mozley addresses? In calling upon part, I prefer the attitude of Fichte to this agency he acts the part of Franken that of Mr. Mozley. "The Jesus of stein. It is a monster thus evoked that John," says this noble and mighty we see stalking abroad in the degrading thinker, "knows no other God than spiritualistic phenomena, of the present the true God, in whom we all are, and day. Again, I say, where the aim is to live, and may be blessed, and out of « Не “ If thou 4 ·104 LECTURES AND ESSA KS sys, . whom there is only death and nothing accept the works of those who, in His ness. And;" continues Fichte, he name, had cast out devils, as demonappeals, and rightly appeals, in support strating a proportionate goodness on of this truth, not to reasoning, but to their part. But it is people of this class the inward practical sense of truth in who are consigned to everlasting fire man, not even knowing any other proof prepared for the devil and his angels: than this inward testimony: If any Such zeal as that of Mr. Mộzley for man will do the will of Him who sent miracles tends, I fear, to eat his religion Me he shall know of the doctrine up. The logical threatens to stifle the whether it be of God.'» spiritual. The truly religious soul needs Accepting Mr. Mozley's test, with no miraculous proof of the goodness of which alone I am now dealing, it is Christ. The words addressed to Matthew evident that, in the demonstration of at the receipt of custom required no moral goodness, the quantity of the miracle to produce obedience. It was miraculous comes into play. Had Christ, by no stroke of the supernatural that for example, limited himself to the con Jesus caused those sent to seize Him to version of water into wine, He would go backward and fall to the ground. It : have fallen short of the performance of was the sublime and holy effluence from Jannes and Jambres; for it is a smaller within, which needed no prodigy to thing to convert one liquid into another commend it to the reverence even of than to convert a dead rod into a living his foes. serpent. But Jannes and Jambres, we As regards the function of miracles in are informed, were not good. Hence, the founding of a religion, Mr. Mozley if Mr. Mozley's test be a true one, a institutes a comparison between the point must exist on the one side of religion of Christ and that of Mohammed; which miraculous power demonstrates and he derides the latter as "irrational " goodness, while on the other side it does because it does not profess to adduce not. How is this point of contrary miracles in proof of its supernatural flexure to be determined ? It must origin. But the religion of Mohammed, lie somewhere between the magicians notwithstanding this drawback, has; and Moses, for within this space the thriven in the world, and at one time it power passed from the diabolical to the held sway over larger populations than Divine. But how to mark the point of Christianity itself. The spread and passage-how, out of a purely quantita influence of Christianity are, however, tive difference in the visible manifestation brought forward by Mr. Mozley as a of power, we are to infer a total inversion permanent, enormous, and incalculable of quality=it is extremely difficult to practical result” of Christian miracles; see. Moses, we are informed, produced and he makes use of this result to a large reptile; Jannes and Jambres strengthen his plea for the miraculous. produced a small one. I do not possess His logical warant for this proceeding the intellectual faculty which would is not clear. It is the method of science enable me to infer, from those data, either when a phenomenon presents itself to the goodness of the one or the badness wards the production of which several of the other; and in the highest recorded elements may contribute, to "exclude manifestations of the miraculous I am them one by one, so as to arrive at length equally at a loss. Let us not play fast at the truly effective cause. Heat, for and loose with the miraculous; either it example, is associated with a phenome is a demonstration of goodness in all non; we exclude heat, but the phenome cases or in none. If Mr. Mozley accepts non remains: hence, heat is not its cause, Christ's goodness as transcendent be Magnetism is associated with a pheno cause He did such works as no other menon; we exclude magnetism but the man did, he ought, logically speaking, to phenomenon remains: hence, magnetism ·. without iniracle, MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES ros is not its cause. Thus, also, when we "Assuredly not," must be Mr. Mozley's seek the cause of the diffusion of a religion reply; " for this would be pushing ex- Whether it be due to miracles or to perience beyond the limit it has now the spiritual force of its founders-We reached--which I pronounce unlawful." exclude the miracles, and, finding the Then a period may come when man will - Tesult unchanged, we infer that miracles be able to raise the dead. If this be are not the efféctive cause. This impor conceded-and" I do not see how Mr. tant experiment Mohammedanism has Mozley can avoid the concessionit made for us has lived and spread destroys the necessity of inferring Christ's . face of this, that Christianity has spread be contended, antedated the humanity because of miracles is, I submit, opposed of the future; as a mighty tidal wave both to the spirit of science and the leaves high upon the beach a mark which coinmon sense of mankind. by-and-by becomes the general level of The incongruity of inferring moral the ocean. Turn the matter as you will, goodness from miraculous power has no other warrant will be found for the". been dwelt upon above; in another all-important conclusion that Christ's particular also the strain put by Mr. miracles demonstrate Divine power than Mozley upon miracles is, I think, more an argument which has been stigmatised than they can bear. In consistency by Mr. Mozley as a "rope of sand "the with his principles, it is difficult to see arguinent from experience. how he is to draw from the miracles of The learned Bampton Lecturer would Christ any certain conclusion as to His be in this position, even had he seen Divine nature. He dwells very forcibly with his own eyes every miracle recorded on what he calls “the argument from in the New Testament. But he has not experience," in the demolition of which seen these miracles; and his intellectual he takes obvious delight. He destroys plight is, therefore, worse. He accepts the argument, and repeats it, for the these miracles on testimony. Why does mere pleasure of again and again knock he believe that testimony? How does ing the breath out of it. Experience, he he know that it is not delusion; how is. urges, can only deal with the past; and he sure that it is not even fraud ? He the moment we attempt to project expe will answer that the writing bears the rience a hair's-breadth beyond the point marks of sobriety and truth; and that in it has at any moment reached we are many cases the bearers of this message condemned by reason. It appears to to mankind sealed it with their blood. me that, when he infers from Christ's Granted with all my heart, but whence miracles a Divine and altogether super the value of all this? Is it not solely human energy, Mr. Mozley places himself derived from the fact that men, as we precisely under this condemnation. For know them, do not sacrifice their lives in what is his logical ground for concluding the attestation of that which they know that the miracles of the New Testament to be untrue? Does not the entire value illustrate Divine power? May they not of the testimony of the Apostles depend be the result of expanded human power ? ultimately upon our experience of human A miracle he defines as something impos nature? It appears, then, that those said sible to man. But how does he know to have seen the miracles based their that the miracles of the New Testament inferences from what they saw on the are impossible to man? Seek as he may, argument from experience, and that Mr. he has absolutely no reason to adduce Mozley bases his belief in their testimony save this that man has never hitherto on the same argument. The weakness accomplished such things. But does the of his conclusion is quadrupled by this fact that man has never rajsed the dead double insertion of a principle of belief prove that he can never raise the dead? to which he fatly denies rationality. His. .

·106 LECTURES AND ESSAYS reasoning, in fact, cuts two ways--if it d'estroys our trust in the order of nature, 'it far more effectually abolishes the basis on which Mr. Mozley seeks to found the Christian religion. ܕܐ Over this argument from experience, which at bottom is his argument, Mr. Mozley rides rough-shod. There is a dish of scorn in the energy with which he tramples on it. Probably some previous writer had made too much of it, and thus invited his powerful assault. Finding the difficulty of belief in miracles to rise from their being in contradiction to the order of nature, he sets himself to examine the grounds of our belief in that order. With a vigour of logic rarely equalled, and with a confidence in its conclusions never surpassed, he disposes of this belief in a manner calculated to startle those who, without due examination, had come to the conclusion that the order of nature was secure. What we mean, he says, by our belief in th: order of nature is the belief that the future will be like the past. There is not, according to Mr. Mozley, the slightest rational basis for this belief :- That any cause in nature is more permanent than its existing and known effects, extending further, and about to produce other and more instances besides what it has produced already, we have no evidence. Let us imagine che continues) the occurrence of a particular physical phenomenon for the first time. Upon that single Occurrence we should have but the very faintest expectation of another. If it did occur again, once or twice, so far from counting on another occurrence, a cessation would occur as the most natural event to us. But let it continue one hundred times, and we should find no hesitation in inviting persons from a distance to see it ; and if it orcurred every day for years, its occurrence would be a certainty to us, its cessation a marvel. What ground of reason can we assign for an expectation that any part of the course of nature will be the next moment what it has been up to this moment.i.C., for our belief in the uniformity of nature ? None. No demonstrative reason can be given, for the contrary to the recurrence of a fact of nature is no contradiction. No pro. bable reason can be given ; for all probable reasoning respecting the course of nature is founded upon this presamption of likeness, and thierefore cannot be the foundation of it. No reason can be given for this belief. It is without a reason. It rests upon no rational grounds, and can be traced to no rational principle. Everything," Mr, Mozley, however, adds, " depends upon this belief; every provision we make for the future, every safeguard and caution we employ against it, all calculation, all adjustment of means to ends, supposes this belief; and yet this belief häs no more producible reason for it than a speculation of fancy....... It is necessary, all-important for the purposes of life, but solely practical, and possesses no intellectual character........ The proper function," continues Mr. Mozley, " of the inductive principle, the argument from experience, the belief in the order of nature-by whatever phrase we designate the sanie instinct-is to operate as a practical basis for the affairs of life and the carrying on of human society." To sum up, the belief in the order of nature is general, but it is "an unintelligent impulse, of which we can give no rational account.” It is inserted into our constitution solely to induce us to till our fields, to raise our winter fuel, and thus to meet the future on the perfectly gratuitous supposition that it will be like the past. "Thus, step by step,” says Mr. Mozley, with the emphasis of a man who feels his position to be a strong one, has philosophy loosened the connection of the order of nature with the ground of reason, befriending in exact proportion as it has done this the principle of miracles." For this belief not having itself a foundation in reason, the ground is gone upon which it could be maintained that miracles, as opposed to the order of«nature, are opposed to reason." When we regard this belief in connection with science, "in which connection it receives a more imposing name, and is called the inductive principle," the result is the same. "The inductive principle is only this unreasoning impulse applied to a scientifically, ascertained fact....... Science has led up to the fact; but there it stops, and for converting this fact into a law a totally unscientific principle comes into play the same as ·MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 107 was that which generalises the commonest pressure of the atmosphere in equili observation of nature." brium. The eloquent pleader of the cause of There is much in this process of miracles passes over without a word the pondering and its results which it is results of scientific investigation, as impossible to analyse. It is by a kind proving anything rational regarding the. of inspiration that we rise from the wise principles or method by which such and sedulous contemplation of facts to results have been achieved. Here, as the principles on which they depend. elsewhere, he declines the test : “By The mind is, as it were, a photographic their fruits shall ye know them.” Perhaps plate, which is gradually cleansed by the our best way of proceeding will be to effort to think rightly, and which, when give one or two examples of the mode in. so cleansed, and not before, receives which men of science apply the unintel impressions from the light of truth. ligent inipulse with which Mr. Mozley This passage from facts to principles is. credits them, and which shall show, by called induction; and induction, in its illustration, the surreptitious method highest form, is, as I have just stated, a whereby they climb from the region of kind of inspiration. But, to make it facts to that of laws. sure, the inward sight must be shown to Before the sixteenth century it was be in accordance with outward fact. To known that water rises in a pump, the prove or disprove the induction, we must effect being then explained by the resort to deduction and experiment. maxim that “Nature abhors a vacuum." Torricelli reasoned thus: If a column It was not known that there of water thirty-two feet high holds the any limit to the height to which the pressure of the atmosphere in equiliwater would ascend, until, on one occa brium, a shorter column of a heavier sion, the gardeners of Florence, while liquid ought to do the same. Now, attempting to raise water to a very great mercury is thirteen times heavier than elevation, found that the coluinn ceased water; hence, if my induction be correct, at a height of thirty-two feet. Beyond the atmosphere ought to be able to susthis all the skill of the pump-maker tain only thirty inches of mercury. Here, could not get it to rise. The fact was then, is a deduction which can be immebrought to the notice of Galileo, and he, diately submitted to experiment. Torrisoured by a world which had not treated celli took a glass tube a yard or so in his science over kindly, is said to have length, closed at one end and open at twitted the philosophy of the time by the other, and, filling it with mercury, he remarking that nature evidently abhorred stopped, the open end with his thumb, a vacuum only to a height of thirty-two and inverted it into a basin filled with feet. Galileo, however, did not solve the liquid metal. One can imagine the the problem. It was taken up by his feeling with which Torricelli removed his pupil Torricelli, to whom, after' due thumb, and the delight he experienced pondering, the thought occurred that on finding that his thought had forestalled the water might be forced into the tube a fact never before revealed to human by a pressure applied to the surface of eyes. The column sank, but it ceased the liquid outside. But where, under to sink at a height of thirty inches, leavthe actual circumstances, was such a ing the Torricellian vacuum over head. pressure to be found ? After much From that hour the theory of the pump reflection, it flashed upon Torricelli that was established. the atmosphere might possibly exert this The celebrated Pascal followed Torpressure ; that the impalpable.air might ricelli with another deduction. Fle possess weight; and that a column of reasoned thus: If the mercurial column water thirty-two' feet high might be of be supported by the atmosphere, the the exact weight necessary to hold the higher we ascend in the air, the lower ·1 pondering is a process chis arise. 108 LECTURES AND ESSAY'S the column ought to sink, for the less in the particular, it had been inferred will be the weight of the air over head., that the force by which bodies fallito : He caused a friend to ascend the Puy the earth might also be an attraction, de Dôme, carrying with him a barometric Newton pondered all these things. He column; and it was found that during looked, as was his wont, into the darkthe ascent the column sank, and that ness until it became entirely luminous. during the subsequent descent the column How this light arises we cannot explain rose. but, as a matter of fact, it does arise. Between the time here referred to and Let me remark here, that this kind of the present, millions of experiments have been made upon this subject. Every "ancients could have been but imperfectly village pump is an apparatus for such acquainted. They, for the most part, experiments., In thousands of instances, found the exercise of fantasy more moreover, pumps have refused to work ; pleasant than careful observation and but on examination it has infallibly been subsequent brooding over facts. Hence found that the well was dry, that the it is that, when those whose education pump required priming, or that some has been derived from the ancients speak other defect in the apparatus aecounted of the reason of man, they are apt to for the anomalous action. In every case omit from their conception of reason one of the kind the skill of the pump-maker of its most important factors. Well, has been found to be the true remedy. Newton slowly marshalled his thoughts, In no case has the pressure of the or, rather, they came to him while he atmosphere ceased; constancy, as re "intended his mind," rising like a series gards the lifting of pump-water, has been of intellectual births out of chaos. He hitherto the demonstrated rule of nature. made this idea of attraction his own. So also as regards Pascal's experiment. But, to apply the idea to the solar system, His experience has been the universal it was necessary to know the magnitude experience ever since. Men have climbed of the attraction, and the law of its mountains, and gone up in balloons ; variation with the distance. His con. but no deviation from Pascal's result has ceptions first of all passed from the ever been observed. . Barometers, like action of the earth as a whole to that of pumps, have refused to act; but instead its constituent particles. And persistent of indicating any suspension of the thought brought more and more clearly operations of nature, or any interference out the final conclusion, that every par. on the part of its author with atmospheric ticle of matter attracts every other particle pressure, examination has in every in with a force varying inversely as the stance fixed the anomaly upon the square of the distance between the instruments themselves. It is this weld particles. ing, then, of rigid logic to verifying fact Here we have the flower and outcome that Mr. Mozley refers to an "unreasoning of Newton's induction; and how to impulse. verify it, or to disprove it, was the next Let us now briefly consider the case question. The first step of the philoof Newton. Before his time men had sopher in this direction was to prove, occupied themselves with the problem of mathematically, that if this law of attrac the solar system. Kepler had deduced, tion be the true one, if the earth be confrom a vast mass of observations, those stituted of particles which obey this law, general expressions of planetary motion then the action of a sphere equal to the known as Kepler's laws." It had earth in size on a body outside of it is been observed that a magnet attracts the same as that which would be exerted iron; and by one of those Aashes of if the whole mass of the sphere were inspiration which reveal to the human contracted to a point at its centre Prac mind the vast in the minute, the general tically speaking, then, the centre of the ·MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 109. i earth is the point from which distances tions extended, the planetary motions must be measured to bodies attracted by had obeyed these laws; and neither the earth. Kepler nor Newton entertained a doubt From experiments executed before his as to their continuing to obey them. time Newton knew the amount of the Year after year, as the ages rolled, they earth's attraction at the earth's surfaces. believed that those laws would continue or at a distance of 4,000 miles from its to illustrate themselves in the heavens. centre, His' object now was to measure But this was not sufficient. The scien. the attraction at a greater distance, and tific mind can find no repose in the mere thus to determine the law of its diminu registration of sequence in nature. The tion. But how was he to find a body further question intrudes itself with: at a sufficient distance? He had no resistless might, Whence comes the balloon, and, even if he had, he knew sequence? What is it that binds the that any height to which he could attain consequent to its antecedent in nature ? would be too small to enable hiin fo The truly scientific intellect never can solve his problem. What did he do? attain rest until it reaches the forces by : He fixed his thoughts upon the moon, a which the observed succession is probody 240,000 miles, or sixty times the duced. It was thus with Torricelli ; it earth's radius, from the earth's centre. was thus with Newton; it is thus pre- He virtually weighed the moon, and eminently with the scientific man of found that weight to be sepoth of what to-day. In common with the most it would be at the earth's surface. This ignorant, he shares the belief that spring is exactly what his theory required. I will succeed winter, that summer will will not dwell here upon the pause of succeed spring, that autumn will succeed Newton after his first calculations, or summer, and that winter will succeed speak of his self-denial in withholding autumn. * But he knows still further them because they did not quite agree and this knowledge is essential to his with the observations then at his com intellectual repose--that this succession, mand. Newton's action in this matter is besides being permanent, is, under the the normal action of the scientific mind. circumstancesi necessary; that the gravi. If it were otherwise-if scientific men tating force exerted between the sun and were not accustomed to demand verifica a revolving sphere with an axis inclined tion--if they were satisfied with the im to the plane of its orbit must produce perfect while the perfect is attainable, the observed succession of the seasons. their science, instead of being, as it is, a Not until this relation between forces fortress of adamant, would be a house of and phenomena has been established is clay, ill-fitted to bear the buffetings of the law of reason rendered concentric the theologic storms to which it is with the law of nature; and not until periodically exposed. this is effected does the mind of the Thus we see that Newton, like Torri scientific philosopher rest in peace. celli, first pondered his facts, illuminated The expectation of likeness, then, in them with persistent thought, and finally the procession of phenomena is not that divined the character of the force of on which the scientific mind founds its graviration. But, having thus travelled belief in the order of nature. If the inward to the principle, he reversed his force be permanent, the phenomena are steps, carried the principle outwards, and necessary, whether they resemble or do justified it by demonstrating its fitness to not resemble anything that has gone external nature. before. Hence, in judging of the order And here, in passing, I would notice a of nature, our inquiries eventually relate point which is well worthy of attention. to the permanence of force. From Kepler had deduced his laws from obser Galileo to Newton, from Newton to our vation.::As far back as those observa- | own time, eager eyes have been scanning ·*TIO. LECTURES AND ESSAYS. the heavens, and clear heads have been hasi uprooted from "the ground of pondering the phenomena of the solar reason, and fixed in that "large irrasystem. The same eyes and minds have tional department discovered for it, by been also observing, experimenting, and Mr. Mozley, in the hitherto unexplored reflecting on the action of gravity at wilderness of the human mind. the surface of the earth. Nothing has The proper function of the inductive occurred to indicate that the operation principle, or the belief in the order of of the law has for a moment been sus nature, says Mr. Mozley, is to act as a pended; nothing has ever intimated practical basis for the affairs of life and that nature has been crossed by spon the carrying on of human society.” But taneous action, or that a state of things what, it may be asked, has the planet at any time existed which could not be "Neptune, or the belts of Jupiter; or the rigorously deduced from the preceding whiteness about the poles of Mars, to state. | do with the affairs of society? How is Given the distribution of matter, and society affected by the fact that the sun's the forces in operation, in the time of atmosphere contains sodium, or that the Galileo, the competent mathematician nebula of Orion contains hydrogen gas? of that day could predict what is now Nineteen-twentieths of the force employed occurring in our own. IVe calculate in the exercise of the inductive principle, eclipses in advance, and find our calcu which, reiterates Mr, Mozley, is "purely lations true to the second. We deter practical," have been expended upon mine the dates of those that have subjects as unpractical as these. What occurred in the early times of history, practical interest has society in the fact and find calculation and history in that the spots on the sun have a harmony. Anomalies and perturbations decennial period, and that, when a magnet in the planets have been oyer and over is closely watched for half a century, it again observed; but these, instead of is found to perforin small notions which demonstrating any inconstancy on the synchronise with the appearance and part of natural law, have invariably disappearance of the solar spots? And been reduced to consequences of that yet, I doubt not, Sir Edward Sabine law. Instead of referring the perturbawould deem a life of intellectual toil tions of Uranus to any interference on amply rewarded by being privileged to the part of the author of nature with the solve, at its close, these infinitesimal law of gravitation, the question which motions. the astronomer proposed to himself was : The inductive principle is founded in "How, in accordance with this law, can man's desire to know-a desire arising the perturbation be produced ?" Guided from his position among phenomena by a principle, he was enabled to fix the which are reducible to order by his point of space in which, if a mass of intellect. The material universe is the matter were placed, the observed per complement of the intellect; and, without turbations would follow. We know the the study wyf its laws, reason could never result. The practical astronomer turned have awakened to the higher forms of his telescope towards the region which self-consciousness at all. It is the Nonthe intellect of the theoretic astronomer ego through and by which the Ego is had already explored, and the planet endowed with self-discernment. We hold now named Neptune was found in its it to be an exercise of reason to explore predicted. place. A very respectable the meaning of a universe to which we outcoine, it will be admitted, of an stand in this relation, and the work we impulse which "rests upon no rational have accomplished is the proper.com grounds, and can be traced to no rational mentary on the methods we have pursued. principle," which possesses "no intel Before these methods were adopted the lectual character," which "philosophy" unbridled imagination roamed through *** ·MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES nature, putting in the place of law the Mr. Mozley concedes that it would be figments of superstitious dread. For no great result if miracles were only thousands of years witchcraft , and magic, accepted by the ignorant and superand miracles, and special providences, stitious, “because it is easy to satisfy and Mr. Mözley's “ distinctive reason of those who do not inquire." But he man," had the world to themselves. does consider it "a great result" that They made worse than nothing of it they have been accepted by the eduworse, I say, because they let and cated. In what sense educated ? Like hindered those who might have made those statesmen, jurists, and Church something of it. Hence it is that during dignitaries whose education was unable a single "lifetime of this era of “unintel to save them from the frightſul errors ligent impulse" the progress in know. glanced at above? Not even in this ledge is all but infinite, as compared with sense; for the great mașs of Mr. Mozley's that of the ages which preceded ours. educated people had no legal training, The believers in magic and miracles and must have been absolutely defenceof a couple of centuries ago had all the less against delusions which could set strength of Mr. Mozley's present logic even that training at naught. Like nineon their side. They had done for them tenths of our clergy at the present day, selves what he rejoices in having so they were versed in the literature of effectually done for us ---cleared the Greece, Roine, and Judea; but as ground of the belief in the order of regards a knowledge of nature, which is nature, and declared magic, miracles, here the one thing needful, they were and witchcraft to be matters for “ordi "noble savages," and nothing more. In nary evidence" to decide. "The principle the case of miracles, then, it behoves us of miracles thus “befriended” had to understand the weight of the negative free scope, and we know the result. before we assign a value to the positive; Lacking that rock-barrier of natural to comprehend the depositions of nature knowledge which we now possess, keen before we attempt to measure, with them, jurists and cultivated men were hurried the evidence of men. We have only to on to deeds the bare recital of which open our eyes to see what honest and makes the blood run cold. Skilled in even intellectual men and women all the rules of human evidence, and capable of, as to judging evidence, in versed in all the arts of cross-examination, this nineteenth century of the Christhese men, nevertheless, went systemati tian era, and in latitude fifty-two cally astray, and committed the deadliest degrees north. The experience thus wrongs against humanity. And why? gained ought, I imagine, to influence Because they could not put Nature into our opinion regarding the testimony of the witness-box, and question her-of people inhabiting a sunnier clime, with her voiceless "testimony" they knew a richer imagination and without a nothing. In all cases between man and particle of that restraint which the disman their judgment was to be relied coveries of physical science have imposed on; but in all cases between man and nature they were blind leaders of the blind. Having thus submitted Mt. Mozley's views to the examination which they chal- ! "In 1664 two women were hung in Suffolk, lenged at the hands of a student of nature, under a sentence of Sir Matthew Hale, who 1 am unwilling to quit his book without took the opportunity of declaring that the reality of witchcraft was'unquestionable; 'for expressing my admiration of his genius first, the Scriptures had affirmed so much; and secondly, the wisdom of all nations had pro. as well as a great writer, was called as a witness, vided laws against such persons, which is an and swore that he was clearly of opinion that argument of their confidende of such a crime.' the persons were bewitched." "Lecky's History Sir Thomas Browne, who was a great physician of lotionalism, vol. i., p. 120. are upon mankind.

·.." us that of a LECTURES AND ESSAYS and my respect for his character Though than it can be now. In the very magnk barely known to him personally, his tude which is assigns to natural phenorecent death affected me mena, science has augmented the disfriend. With regard to the style of his tance between them and man, and in book, I heartily subscribe to the descrip creased the popular belief in their orderly tion with which the Times winds up its progression, able and appreciative review : "It is As a natural consequence, the demand marked throughout with the most serious for evidence is more exacting than it and earnest conviction, but is without a used to be wherever it is affirmed that single word from first to last of asperity the order of nature has been disturbed or insinuation against opponents; and Let us take as an illustration the miracle this not from any deficiency of feeling as by which the victory of Joshua over the to the inportance of the issue, but from Amorites was rendered coinplete. In a deliberate and resolutely maintained this case the suri is reported to have self-control, and from an over-ruling, stood still for "about a whole day. upon ever-present sense of the duty, on themes Gibcon, and the moon in the valley of like these, of a more than judicial calm Ajalon. An Englishman of average eduness. cation at the present day would risturally demand a greater amount of evidence to prove that this occurrence took place ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON than would have satisfied an Israelite in MIRACLES the age succeeding that of Joshua. For to the one the miracle probably con- AMONG the scraps of manuscripts, sisted in the stoppage of a fiery ball less written at the time when Mr.-Mozley's than a yard in diameter, while to the other work occupied my attention, I find the it would be the stoppage of an orb fourteen following reflections - hundred thousand times the earth in size. With regard to the influence of modern And even accepting the interpretation science, which Mr. Mozley rates so low, that Joshua dealt with what was apparent one obvious effect of it is to enhance the merely, but that what really occurred was magnitude of many of the recorded the suspension of the earth's rotation, I miracles, and to increase proportionably think the right to exercise a greater the difficulties of belief. The ancients reserve in accepting the miracle, and to knew but little of the vastness of the demand stronger evidence in support of universe. The Rev. Mr. Kirkman, for it than that which would have satisfied example, has shown what inadequate an ancient Israelite, will still be connotions the Jews entertained regarding ceded to a man of science. the "firmament of heaven"; and Sir There is a scientific as well as an George Airy refers to the case of a Greek historic imagination; and when, by the philosopher who was persecuted for exercise of the former, the stoppage of hazarding the assertion, then deemed the earth's rotation is clearly realised, nionstrous, that the sun might be as large the event assumes proportions so vast, in as the whole country of Greece. The comparison with the result to be obtained concerns of a universe, regarded from by it, that belief reels under the refleethis point of view, were much more com tion. The energy here involved is equal mensurate with man and his concerns to that of six trillions of horses working than those of the universe which science for the whole of the time employed by now reveals to us.; and hence that to Joshua in the destruction of his 'foes. suit man's purposes, or that in compli. The amount of power thus expended ance with his prayers, changes should would be sufficient to supply every indioccur in the order of the universe, was vidual of an army a thousand times the more easy of belief in the ancient world strength of that of Joshua, with a thousand.

·therefore, we MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES times the fighting power of each of If you ask me who is to limit the out- Joshua's soldiers, not for the few hours goings of Almighty power, my answer is, necessary to the extinction of a handful Not I. If you should urge that, if the of Amorites, but for millions of years. Builder and Maker of this universe chose All this wonder is silently passed over by to stop the rotation of the earth, or to the sacred historian, manifestly because take the form of a burning bush, there is he knew nothing about it. Whether,' nothing to prevent Him from doing so, I am not prepared to contradict you. I purely evidential, or as a practical means neither agree with you nor differ from of vengeance, the same lavish squander you, for it is a subject of which I know. ing of energy stares us in the face. If nothing. But I observe that in such evidential, the energy was wasted because questions regarding Almighty power your the Israelites knew nothing of its amount; inquiries relate, not to that power as if simply destructive, then the ratio of it is actually displayed in the universe, the quantity lost to the quantity em but to the power of your own imaginaployed may be inferred from the fore tion. Your question is, not Has the going figures. Omnipotent done so and so? or Is it in To other miracles similar remarks the least degree likely that the Omniapply. Transferring our thoughts from potent should do so and so ? but, Is my this little sand-grain of an earth to the imagination competent to picture a Being immeasurable heavens, where countless able and willing to do so and so? I am worlds with freights of life probably not prepared to deny your competence. revolve unseen, the very suns which To the human mind belongs the faculty warm them being barely visible across of enlarging and diminishing, of distortabysınal space, reflecting that beyond ing and combining, indefinitely the these sparks of solar fire suns innumer objects revealed by the senses. able may burn, whose light can never imagine a mouse as large as an elephant, stir the optic nerve at all, and bringing an elephant as large as a mountain, and these reflections face to face with the a mountain as high as the stars. idea of the Builder and Sustainer of it separate congruities and unite inconall showing Himself in a burning bush, gruities. We see a fish and we see a exhibiting His hinder parts, or behaving woman; we can drop one half of each, in other familiar ways ascribed to Him in and unite in idea the other two halves to the Jewish Scriptures, the incongruity a mermaid. We see a horse and we see must appear. Did this credulous prattic a man; we are able to drop one half of of the ancients about miracles stand each, and unite the other two halves to. alone; were it not associated with words a centaur. Thus also the pictorial repreof imperishable wisdom, and with ex sentations of the Deity, the bodies and amples of moral grandeur unmatched wings of cherubs and seraphs, the hoofs, elsewhere in the history of the human horns, and tail of the Evil One, the joys race, both the miracles and their “evi of the blessed, and the torments of the dences would have long since ceased to damned, have been elaborated from be the transmitted inheritance of intelli materials furnished to the imagination gent men.. Influenced by the thoughts by the senses. It behoves you and me which this universe inspires, well may we to take care that our notions of the exclaim in David's spirit, if not in David's Power which rules the universe are not words: “When I consider the heavens, mere fanciful or ignorant enlargements the work of thy fingers, the moon, and of human power. The capabilities of the stars, which thou hast ordained, call your reason are not denied. what is man that thou shouldst be mind By the exercise of the faculty here adful of him, or the son of man that thou verted to, you can picture to yourself a shouldst so regard him ?" Being able and willing to do any and It can It can what you ·114 LECTURES AND ESSAYS every conceivable thing. You are right would probably reverse its application, in saying that in opposition to this Power thinking it is not science which is here science is of no avail that it is "a the thing of air, but that unsubstantial weapon of air." The man of science, pageant of the imagination to which the however, while accepting the figure, solidity of science is opposed. ON PRAYER AS A FORM OF PHYSICAL ENERGY (1872] THE Editor of the Contemporary Review abandonment of the Mosaic account of is liberal enough to grant me space the Creation. Look, finally, at the for some remarks upon a subject which, excitement caused by the publication of though my relation to it was simply the Origin of Species, and compare it that of a vehicle of transmission, has with the calm attendant on the appearbrought down upon me a consider ance of the far more outspoken and, able amount of animadversion. from the old point of view, more impious It may be interesting to some of my Descent of Man. readers if I glance at a few cases illustra Thus religion survives after the removal tive of the history of the human mind of what had been long considered essen in relation to this and kindred questions. tial to it. In our day the Antipodes are In the fourth century the belief in accepted; the fixity of the earth is given Antipodes was deemed unscriptural and up; the period of Creation and the heretical. The pious Lactantius was as reputed age of the world are alike dissi-- angry with the people who held this pated; Evolution is looked upon withnotion as my censors are now with me, out terror; and other changes have and quite as unsparing in his denuncia occurred in the same direction too tions of their “Monstrosities." Lactan numerous to be dwelt upon here. In tius was irritated because, in his mind, fact, from the earliest times to the preby education and habit, cosmogony and sent, religion has been undergoing a religion were indissolubly associated, and, process of purification, freeing itself therefore, simultaneously disturbed. In slowly and painfully from the physical the early part of the seventeenth century errors which the active but uninformed the notion that the earth was fixed, and intellect mingled with the aspirations of that the sun and stars revolved round the soul. Some of us think that a final it daily, was interwoven with religious act of purification is needed; while others feeling, the separation then attempted oppose this notion with the confidence by Galileo rousing the aniinosity and and the warmth of ancient times. The kindling the persecution of the Church. bone of contention at present is the Men still living can remember the indig. physical value of prayer. It is not my nation excited by the first revelations of wish to excite surprise, much less to geology regarding the age of the earth, draw forth protest, by the employment the association between chronology and of this phrase. I would simply ask any religion being for the time indissoluble. intelligent person to look the problem In our day, however, the best informed honestly in the face, and then to say. theologians are prepared to admit that whether, in the estimation of the great our views of the Universe and its Author body of those who sincerely resort to it, are not impaired, but improved, by the prayer does not, at all events upon speciai ·ON PRAYER AS A FORM OF PHYSICAL ENERGY 115 occasions, invoke a Power which checks certain limits, of the current of events and augments the descent of rain, which on earth. With this suggestion offered changes the force and direction of by experience, it is no departure from winds, which affects the growth of corn scientific method to place behind natural and the health of men and cattle phenomena a Universal Father, who, in Power, in short, which, when appealed. answer to the prayers of his children, to under pressing circumstances, pro alters the currents of those phenomena. duces the precise effects caused by Thus far theology and science go hand physical energy in the ordinary course in hand. The conception of an æther, of things. To any person who deals for example, trembling with the waves of sincerely with the subject, and refuses to light, is suggested by the ordinary pheblur his moral vision by intellectual sub nomena of wave-motion in water and in tleties, this, I think, will appear a true air; and in like manner the conception statement of the case. of personal volition in nature is suggested It is under this aspect alone that the by the ordinary action of man upon scientific student, so far as I represent earth. I, therefore, urge no impossihim, has any wish to meddle with prayer. bilities, though I am constantly charged Forced upon his attention as a form of with doing so. I do not even urge physical energy, or as the equivalent of inconsistency, but, on the contrary, such energy, he claims the right of sub frankly admit that the theologian has as jecting it to those methods of examina good a right to place his conception at tion from which all our present knowledge the root of phenomena as I have to of the physical universe is derived. And place mine. if his researches lead him to a conclusion But without verification a theoretic adverse to its claims-if his inquiries conception is a mere figment of the rivet him still closer to the philosophy intellect, and I am sorry to find us implied in the words, "He maketh His parting company at this point. The sun to shine on the evil and on the good, region of theory, both in science and and sendeth rain upon the just and upon theology, lies behind the world of the the unjust"-he contends only for the senses, but the verification of theory displacement of prayer, not for its occurs in the sensible world. To check extinction. He simply says, physical the theory, we have simply to compare nature is not its legitimate domain. the deductions from it with the facts of This conclusion, moreover, must be observation. If the deductions be in based on pure physical evidence, and not accordance with the facts, we accept the on any inherent unreasonableness in the theory; if in opposition, the theory is act of prayer. The theory that the given up. A single experiment is system of nature is under the control of frequently devised by which the theory a Being who changes phenoinena in must stand or fall. of this character compliance with the prayers of men is, was the determination of the velocity of in my opinion, a perfectly legitimate one. light in liquids as a crucial test of the It may, of course, be rendered futile by Emission l'heory. According to it, light being associated with conceptions which travelled faster in water than in air; contradict it; but such conceptions form according to the Undulatory Theory, it no necessary part of the theory. It is a travelled faster in air than in water, matter of experience that an earthly An experiment suggested by Arago, and father, who is at the same time both executed by Fizeau and Foucault, was wise and tender, listens to the requests conclusive against Newton's theory. of his children, and, if they do not ask But while science cheerfully submits to amiss, takes pleasure in granting their this ordeal, it seems impossible to devise -requests. We know also that this com a mode of verification of their theories pliance extends to the alteration, within which does not rouse resentment in ·. 1 . 116 LECTURES AND ESSAYS: which I should like to see guided, not pleasure of the scientific man culminates extinguished - devoted to practicable in the demonstrated harmony between objects instead of wasted upon air. In theory and fact, the highest pleasure of some form or other, not yet evident, it the religious man has been already tasted mạy, as alleged, be necessary to man's in the very act of praying prior to verifi highest culture, Certain it is that, cation, any further effort in this direction while I rank many persons who resort being a mere disturbance of his peace? to prayer low in the scale of being- Or is it that we have before us a residue natural foolishness, bigotry, and intolerof that mysticism of the Middle Ages, ance being in their case intensified by so "admirably described by Whewell the notion that they have access to the that “practice of referring things and ear of God- I regard others who employ events, not to clear and distinct notions, it as forming part of the very cream of not to general rules capable of direct the earth. The faith that adds to the verification, but to notions vague, distant, folly and ferocity of the one is turned to and 'vast, which we cannot bring into enduring sweetness, holiness, abounding contact with facts, as when we connect charity, and self-sacrifice by the other. natural events with moral and historic Religion, in fact, varies with the nature causes”? “Thus," he continues, "the upon which it falls. Often unreasonable, character of mysticism is that it refers if not contemptible, prayer, in its purer particulars not to generalisations homo forms, hints at disciplines which few of geneous and immediate, but to such as us can neglect without moral loss. But are heterogeneous and remote; to which no good can come of giving it a delusive we must add, that the process of this value, by claiming for it a power in reference is not a calm act of the intellect, physical nature. It may strengthen the but is accompanied with a glow of enthu heart to meet life's losses, and thus siastic feeling." indirectly promote physical well-beings Every feature here depicted, and some as the digging of Æsop's orchard brought more questionable ones, have shown a treasure of fertility greater than the themselves of late; most conspicuously, golden treasure sought. Such indirect I regret to say, in the "leaders issues we all adnit; but it would be weekly journal of considerable influence, simply dishonest to affirm that it is such and one, on many grounds, entitled issues that are always in view, Here, to the respect of thoughtful men. In for the present, I must end. I ask no the correspondence, however, published space to reply to those ráilers who make by the same journal, are to be found two such free use of the terms "insolence," or three letters well calculated to correct "outrage," "profanity,"and" blasphemy." the temporary flightiness of the journal They obviously lack the sobriety of mind . itself. necessary to give accuracy to their state: It is not my habit of mind to think ments, or to render their charges worthy otherwise than solemnly of the feeling of serious cefutation. which prompts prayer. It is a power of a ·SCIENCE AND THE “SPIRITS» SCIENCE AND THE “SPIRITS" [1864) . THtir refusal to investigate "spiritual appearance; that she was sensitive, and Pheriomena” is often urged as a reproach might resent suspicion. It was therefore against scientific men. I here propose requested that the tables and chairs to give a sketch of an attempt to apply should be examined before her arrival, to the phenomena" those methods of in order to be assured that there was no inquiry which are found available in trickery in the furniture. This was dealing with natural truth. done; and I then first learned that my Some years ago, when the spirits hospitable host had "arranged that the were particularly active in this country, séance should be a dinner-party. This Faraday was invited, or rather entreated, was to me an unusual form of investigaby one of his friends to meet and ques tion ; but I accepted it, as one of the tion them. He had, however, already accidents of the occasion. made their acquaintance, and did not The "medium" arrived a delicatewish to renew it. I had not been so looking young lady, who appeared to privileged, and he therefore kindly have suffered much from ill-health. I arranged a transfer of the invitation to took her to dinner and sat close beside me. The spirits themselves named the her. Facts were absent for a considertime of meeting, and I was conducted to able time, a series of very wonderful the place at the day and hour appointed. narratives supplying their place. The Absolute unbelief in the facts was by duty of belief on the testimony of witno means my condition of mind. On nesses was frequently insisted on. X. the contrary, I thought it probable that appeared to be a chosen spiritual agent, some physical principle, not evident to and told us many surprising things. He the spiritualists themselves, might under affirmed that, when he took a pen in his lie their manifestations. Extraordinary hand, an influence ran from his shoulder effects are produced by the accumulation downwards, and impelled him to write of small impulses. Galileo set a heavy oracular sentences. I listened for a pendulum in motion by the well-timed time, offering no observation. "And puffs of his breath, Ellicot set one now," continued X., "this power has so clock going by the ticks of another, even risen as to reveal to me the thoughts of when the two clocks were separated by others. Only this morning I told a a wall. Preconceived notions can, more friend what he was thinking of, and what oyer, vitiate, to an extraordinary degree, he intended to do during the day." the testimony of even veracious persons. Here, I thought, is something that can Henee my desire to witness those extra be at once tested. I said immediately ordinary phenomena, the existence of to X.: "If you wish to win to your cause which seemed placed beyond a doubt by an apostle, who will proclaim your.. the known veracity of those who had principles to the world from the house witnessed and described them. The top, tell me what I am now thinking of." meeting took place at a private résidence X, reddened, and did not tell me my in the neighbourhood of London. My thought. host, his intelligent wife, and a gentleman Some time previously I had visited who may be called X. were in the house Baron Reichenbach, in Vienna, and when I arrived. I was informed that now asked the young lady who sat beside the "medium" had root vet made her me whether she could see any of the .

·118 LECTURES AND ESSAYS curious things which he describes--the light emitted by crystals, for example ? Here is the conversation which followed, as extracted from my notes, written on the day following the séance : Medium.--"Oh, yes; but I see light around all bodies." 1,"Even in perfect darkness?" Medium.--"Yes; I see luminous atmospheres - round all people. The atmosphere which surrounds Mr. R. C. would fill this room with light." I." You are aware of the effects ascribed by Baron Reichenbach to magnets" Medium.-"Yes; but a magnet makes me terribly ill." d."Am I to understand that, if this room were perfectly dark, you could tell whetlier it contained a magnet, without being informed of the fact ?" Medium "I should know of its presence on entering the room." I." How?" Medium.-"I should be rendered instantly ill." "How do you feel to day?" Medium.--"Particularly well; I have not been so well for months." I." Then, may I ask you whether there is, at the present moment, a magnet in my possession ?” - The young lady looked at me, blushed, and stammered : "No; I am not en rapport with you." I sat at her right hand, and a lefthand pocket, within six inches of her person, contained a magnet. Our host here deprecated discussion, as it "exhausted the medium." The wonderful narratives were resumed; but I had narratives of my own quite as wonderful. These spirits, indeed, seemed clumsy creations, compared with those with which my own work had made me familiar. I therefore began to match the wonders related to me by other wonders. A lady present discoursed on spiritual atmospheres, which she could see as beautiful colours when she closed her eyes. I professed myself able to see similar colours, and, more than that, to be able to see the interior of my own eyes. The medium affirmed that she could see actual waves of light coming from the sun. I retorted that men of science could tell the exact number of waves emitted in a second, and also their exact length The medium spoke of the performances of the spirits on musical instruments. I said that such performance was gross, in comparison with a kind of music which had been discovered some time previously by a scientific man. Standing at a distance of twenty feet from a jet of gas, he could command the flame to emit a melodious. note; it would obey, and continue its song for hours. So loud was the music emitted by the gas-flame that it might be heard by an assembly of a thousand people. These were acknowledged to be as great marvels as any of those of spiritdom. The spirits were then consulted, and I was pronounced to be a first-class medium. During this conversation a low knocking was heard from time to time under the table. These, I was told, were the spirits' knocks. I was informed that one knock, in answer to a question, mcant "No"; that two knocks meant "Not yet"; and that three knocks meant “Yes." In answer to a question whether I was a medium, the response was three brisk and vigorous knocks. I noticed that the knocks issued from a particular locality, and therefore requested the spirits to be good enough to answer from another corner of the table. They did not comply; but I was assured that they would do it, and much more, byand-by. The knocks continuing I turned a wine-glass upside down and placed my ear upon it, as upon a stetho. scope. The spirits seemed disconcerted by the act; they lost their playfulness, and did not recover it for a consideralele time. Somewhat weary of the proceedings, I once threw myself back against my chair and "gazed listlessly out of the window. While thus engaged, the table was rudely. pushed Attention was drawn to the ·SCIENCE TENCE AND THE "SPIRITS”.. rig wine, still oscillating in the glasses, and rendered me familiar, was employed to I was asked whether that was not con figure the changes and distribution of vincing. I readily granted the fact of spiritual power. The spirits, it was motion, and began to feel the delicacy of alleged, were provided with atmospheres, my position. There were several pairs which combined with and interpenetrated of arms upon the table, and several pairs each other, and considerable ingenuity of legs under it; but how was I, without was shown in demonstrating the necesoffence, to express the conviction which sity of time in effecting the adjustment I really entertained? To ward off the of the atmospheres. A re-arrange: difficulty, I again turned a wine-glass ment of our positions was proposed upside down and rested my ear upon it. and carried out; and soon afterwards The rim of the glass was not level, and my attention was drawn to a scarcely my hair, on touching it, caused it to sensible vibration on the part of the vibrate, and produce a peculiar buzzing table. Several persons were leaning on sound. A perfectly candid and warm the table at the time, and I asked perhearted old gentleman åt the opposite mission to touch the mediuin's hand. side of the table, whom I may call A., “Oh! I know I tremble," was her reply. drew attention to the sound, and ex Throwing one leg across the other, I pressed his entire belief that it was accidentally nipped a muscle, and prospiritual. I, however, informed him that duced thereby an involuntary vibration it was the moving hair acting on the of the free leg. This vibration, I knew, glass. The explanation was not well must be communicated to the floor, and received; and X., in a tone of severe thence to the chairs of all present. I pleasantry, demanded whether it was the therefore intentionally promoted it. Aly hair that had moved the table. The attention was promptly drawn to the promptness of my negative probably motion; and a gentleman beside me, satisfied him that iny notion was a very whose value as a witness I was particudifferent one. larly desirous to test, expressed his beliet The superhuman power of the spirits that it was out of the compass of human was next dwelt upon. The strength of power to produce so strange a tremor. man, it was stated, was unavailing in “I believe," he added, earnestly, “that opposition to theirs. No human power it is entirely the spirits' work." “So do could prevent the table from moving I," added, with heat, the candid and when they pulled it. During the evening warm-hearted old gentleman. A. "Why, this pulling of the table occurred, or sir," he continued, "I feel them at this rather was attempted, three times. moment shaking my chair.". I stopped Twice the table moved when my atten the motion of the leg. Now, sir," A. tion was withdrawn from it; on a third exclaimed, "they are gone." I began occasion, I tried whether the act could again, and A. once more affirmed their be provoked by an assumed air of presence. I could, however, notice that inattention. Grasping the table firmly there were doubters present, who did not between my knees, I threw myself back quite know what to think of the maniin the chair, and waited, with eyes fixed festations. I saw their perplexity; and, on vacancy, for the pull. It came. For as there was sufficient reason to believe some seconds it was pull spirit, hold that the disclosure of the secret would muscle; the muscle, however, prevailed, simply provoke anger, I kept it to myself, and the table remained at rest. Up to Again a period of conversation interthe present moment, this interesting fact vened, during which the spirits became is known only to the particular spirit in animated. The evening was confessedly question and myself. a dull one, but matters. appeared to A species of mental scene-painting, brighten towards its close. The spirits with which my own pursuits had long were requested to spell the name by 66 ·120 LECTURES AND ESSAYS which I was known in the heavenly present promoters of spiritual phenom world. Our host commenced repeating mena divide themselves into two classes, the alphabet, and when he reached the one of which needs no demonstration, letter "Po knock was heard. He while the other is beyond the reach of began again, and the spirits knocked at proof. * The victims like to believe, and the letter "0." 0." I was puzzled, but they do not like to be undeceived. waited for the end. The next letter Science is perfectly powerless in the knocked down was "E." I laughed, and presence of this frame of mind. It is, remarked that the spirits were going to moreover, a state perfectly compatible make a poet of me. Admonished for with extreme intellectual subtlety and a my levity, I was informed that the frame capacity for devising hypotheses which of mind proper for the occasion ought to only require the hardihood engendered haye been superinduced by a perusal of by strong conviction, or by callous the Bible immediately before the séance. mendacity, to render them impregnablë. The spelling, however, went on, and The logical feebleness of science is not sure enough I came out à poet. But sufficiently borne in mind. It keeps matters did not end here. Our host down the weed of superstition, not by continued his repetition of the alphabet, logic, but by slowly rendering the mental and the next letter of the name proved soil unfit for its cultivation. When to be "0." Here was manifestly an science appeals to uniform experience, unfinished word; and the spirits were the spiritualist will retort : " How do you apparently in their most communicative know that a uniform experience will mood. The knocks came from under continue uniform ? You tell me that the table, but no person present evinced the sun has risen for six thousand years : the slightest desire to look under it. I that is no proof that it will rise toasked whether I might go underneath; morrow; within the next twelve hours it the permission was granted; so I crept may be puffed out by the Almighty." under the table. Some tittered; but the Taking this ground, a man may maintain candid old A. exclaimed: "He has a the story of " Jack and the Beanstalk" in right to look into the very dregs of it, to the face of all the science in the world. convince himself." Having pretty well You urge, in vain, that science has given assured myself that no sound could be us all the knowledge of the universe produced under the table without its which we now possess, while spiritualism origin being revealed, I requested our has added nothing to that knowledge. host to continue his questions. He did The drugged soul is beyond the reach of so, but in vain. He adopted a tone of It is in vain that impostors are tender entreaty; but the "dear spirits exposed, and the special demon cast out. had become dumb dogs, and refused to He has but slightly to change his shape, be entreated. I continued under that return to his house, and find it "empty, table for at least a quarter of an hour, swept, and garnisheti.". after which, with a feeling of despair as regards the prospects of humanity never before experienced, I regained my chair. Once there, the spirits resumed their Since the time when the foregoing loquacity, and dubbed me " Poet of reniarks were written I have been more Science? than once among the spirits, at their own This, then, is the result of an attempt invitation, They do not improve on made by a scientific man to look into acquaintance. Surely no baser delusion these spiritual phenomena. It is not ever obtained dominance over the weak encouraging; and for this reason. The mind of man. reason.

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·R. P. A. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS GOULD, F. J.-Tales from the New Testament. 176 pp.; cloth, Is. net, by post is. 3d. Rationalist parents and teachers will find this rendering of the New Testament myths and parables a judicious means by which children may be taught both the unhistorical character of the Christian gospel and the value of the moral teaching which it enshrines. The incidents are picturesquely presented, and dialogue is frequently interspersed. Will Women Help? 100 pp.; 6d. net, by post 8d. A stirring appeal to assist in the work of mental emancipation and moral reform. The book is written under the conviction that progress is seriously hindered by the reluctance of women to join the Rationalistic movement. The Agnostic Island. 124 pp.; boards, Is., by post is. 2d.; cloth, 25., by post 25. 3d. A tale of an Agnostic Settlement in the remote waters of New Guinea visited by three missionaries from Exeter Hall. The Children's Book of Moral Legsons. First Series. Cheap Edition. (With design by Walter Crane.) 128 pp.; paper covers, 6d.; cloth 15., by post is. 3d. Second Series (" Kindness” and “Work and Duty"), 204 pp.; cloth, 25., by post 25, 3d. Third Series ("The Family”; “ People of Other Lands”; History of Industry, Art, Science, and Religion”), 203 pp.; cloth, 25., by post 2s. 3d. While theology is strictly excluded from the lessons here reproduced, they are constructed on such a humanitarian basis as to fit them for use in honies and schools of all classes and creeds. The Religion of the First Christians. Beautifully bound, gold lettered, 25. 6d. “ Absorbingly interesting...... We strongly recommend the perusal of this enlightening book. Mr. Gould's style is characterised by lucidity and logic. He achieves the chief end of all literature to make your subject interesting."-Reynolds's. The New Conversion. 14 pp.; 2d., by post 22d. In this lecture the author translates the doctrine of Conversion into terms which harmonise with Rationalist modes of thought. The pamphlet is not so much an argument as an appeal, and may be appropriately placed in the hands of earnest persons whose faith in the Christian system is beginning to waver, and who are looking for a new moral basis. The Ethical Riches. 14 pp.; 2d., by post 272d. This pamphlet is of the same character as The New Conversion. It serves both as an exhortation to personal and social effort after a higher moral life and as a plain exposition of the general teaching of the Ethical Movement. The Building of the Bible. Showing the Chronological Order in which the Books of the Old and New Testaments appeared according to Recent Biblical Criticism; with Notes on Contemporary Events. 24 pp.; 3d., by post 4d. In a succession of clearly-arranged paragraphs, each devoted to a particular century, Mr. Gould exhibits a scheme which i represents in a general way the manner in which the component parts of the Bibie followed one after the other, from the eleventh century B.c. to the second C. E. (Christian Era)." Plan of Moral Instruction. 15 pp. No price is marked on this publication, as it is intended for free disưibution. The publishers will send single copies gratis to any applicants, and quantities will be supplied on the following terms: One dozen, 8d.; a hundred, ss.; a thousand, Er ios. The “ Plan" sums up the leading arguments in favour of secular moral WATTS & co., 17, JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C. w .

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·Cloth, 2 vols. Royal 8vo, 948 pp. 512 Illustrations, so Genetic Tables, with 38 Plates," Price: £2:28. net (carriage is., extra to foreign parts) THE EVOLUTION OF MAN By ERNST HAECKEL. The fifth edition of Professor Haeckel's monumental work, Mr. McCabe's translation of which is now on sale, is virtually a new work, and it entailed the better part of a year's arduous labour from its author. The text has been considerably augmented, the number of full-page coloured plates has grown to thirty, the number of engravings (many full-page size) to 512, and the number of genetic tables to sixty. These illustrations have all been designed and painted afresh by the author on a larger and finer scale, and are splendid examples of the artistic skill which Professor Haeckel counts among his many attainments. It is now, both in the scientific text and the illustrations, a superb manual of human development. The first voluipe deals with the history of the subject, and presents a compendium of modern embryology. The second volume discusses the evolution of the race in the light of comparative anatomy and palæontology, and has also a series of interesting chapters on the evolution of particular organs--organs of sense, reproduction, nerves, etc. There is a full Index, and also an adequate Glossary, FROM THE KEVIEW IN THE DAILY TELEGRAPH." Translator and publishers are alike to be congratulated on this really handsome edition of Ilaeckel's monumental work, The Evolution of Man. Mr. Joseph McCabe's English rendering is in every way admirable, while paper, print, and illustrations, of which there are nearly six hundred in the two volumes, are all that the most exigeant can desire. It is an issue worthy of the subject and of the author, a record beſitting one of the inost important investigations in the domain of Nature ever undertaken in the history of scientific research......We doubt whether those even who are well acquainted with Darwin's Origin of Man and the main facts of evolution understand clearly the special discovery associated with the famous Jena Profesşor, or the magnificent theory be. so marvellously grasped and so triumphantly proved. ..... It is a grand conception, this of the great physiologist what every man, in the brief term of his pre-natal development, should go through these successive changes, by which man has, in countless ages, been evolved from the primitive germ-cell; and it is triumphantly vindicated in The Evolution of Man. It is impossible to do jastice in words to the patience, the labour, the specialised skill and industry involved in the preparation of this monumental work. And it is a further tribute to the genius of the author that, while his work is characterised by German: profundity and thoroughness, the results of his investigations into some of the obscurest problems of embryology and physiology are so given and summarised 25 to make the book the popular sciendfic,study that Haeckef himself terms it and intended it to be." Agents for the Rationalist Press Association Limited WATTS & CO., 17, JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C.

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