Fragments of Science

JOHN TYNDALL
Vol.
Science^ Frontis
FRAGMENTS OF
SCIENCE
BY
JOHN TYNDALL,
F.R.S.
PART TWO
NEW YORK
P.
F.
COLLIER
M C M
6
&
SON
6?
7i
(1
or
SCIENCE
?iV^^
CONTENTS
OF
FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE
VOLUME TWO
PAOB
iQBAP.
I.
II.
III.
Reflections on Prayer and Natural Law
Miracles and Special Providences
....
On Prayer as a Form op Physical ENEBaY
.12
c
V. Matter and Force

VI. Scientific Materialism
<
X.
XI.
Use of the Imagination
The Belfast Address

Apology for the Belfast Address
.....
The Rev. James Martineau and the Belfast Address
XII. Fermentation,
and
its
82
.99
Vn. An Address to Students
IX.
44
.61
.58
IV. Vitality
VIII. Scientific
Bearings
on
109
145
213
238
Surgery and
266
Medicine
XIII. Spontaneous
Generation
XIV. Science and
Man
306
XV. Professor Virchow and Evolution

XVI. The Electric Light
352
392
440
(3)
In the bright sky they perceived an iUuminator; in the all-encircling firma-
ment an embracer
felt
in the roar of
thunder and in the violence of the storm they
the presence of a shouter and of furious strikers
created an ludra, or giver of rain.
and out
of the rain they
Max Muller.
REFLECTIONS ON PRAYER AND NATURAL
LAW
1861
the apparent confusion and caprice

AMID
phenomena, which roused emotions
of natural
hostile to
investigation,
less to
it
must
for ages
calm
have seemed hope-
seek for law or orderly relation;
and before the
thought of law dawned upon the unfolding
human mind
these otherwise inexplicable effects were referred to per-
sonal agency.
the leap of a
In the
spirit,
fall of a cataract the savage saw

and the echoed thunder-peal was to
him the hammer- clang

tion of
of
an exasperated god.
Propitia-
these terrible powers was the consequence, and
was offered to the demons of earth and air.

But observation tends to chasten the emotions and to
check those structural efforts of the intellect which have
emotion for their base.
One by one natural phenomena
came to be associated with their proximate causes; the
idea of direct personal volition mixing itself with the
economy of nature retreating more and more.
Many of
us fear this change.
Our religious feelings are dear to
sacrifice
(5)
and we look with suspicion and
US,
on any phidry them
dislike
losophy, the apparent tendency of which
to
is
Probably every change from ancient savagery
up.
our
to
present enlightenment has excited, in a greater or less degree,
But
fears of this kind.
not yet determined whether
and warmth
to the life
its
the fact
we have
that
is,
present form
is
necessary
We
of religious feeling.
may
err
with the transitory, and con-
in linking the imperishable
found the living plant with the decaying pole to which

clings.
My
but to
mark
however, at present
object,
the powers of nature
manifest
ceased
contradiction
countries, at least, I
of miracles
We
a tendency.
think
not to argue,
is
have ceased
to propitiate
even to pray for things in
natural
to
it
it
is
In
laws.
Protestant
conceded that the age
is past.
At an auberge
met, in the
near the foot of the Khone glacier, I
summer
of
1858,
an
athletic
young
priest,
who, after a solid breakfast, including a bottle of wine,
me
informed
tains/'
that he had
come up
to
*'
bless the
This was the annual custom of the place.
mounYear
by year the Highest was entreated, by official intercessors,

to make such meteorological arrangements as should insure food and
Valaisians.
shelter
for
the
flocks
and herds
of
the
diversion of the Ehone, or a deepening of
the river's bed, would, at the time I
now
mention, have
been of incalculable benefit to the inhabitants of the val-
But
would have shrunk from the idea of

asking the Omnipotent to open a new channel for the
ley.
the priest
river, or to cause a portion of it to flow over the
pass,
and down the valley
Grimsel
of Oberhasli to Brientz.
This
he would have deemed a miracle, and he did not come

to ask the Creator to
perform miracles, but to do some-
ON PRAYER AND NATURAL LAW
thing which he manifestly thought lay quite within the
bounds
of the natural
gentleman who was
He had no
cital.
deemed
his
to open a
Protestant
faith in the priest's blessing;
prayer
new
and non-miraculous.
present at the time smiled at this re-
different
river-cut,
in
kind
from
still,
he
request
or to cause the water to flow
up-hill.
In a similar manner the same Protestant gentleman

would doubtless smile at the honest Tyrolese priest, who,
when he feared the bursting of a glacier dam, offered the
Mass upon the
sacrifice of the
ice as a
That poor man did not expect
the calamity.
the ice into adamant, or to strengthen

to enable
it
means
its
of averting
to convert
texture, so as
to withstand the pressure of the water;
nor
did he expect that his sacrifice would cause the stream to

source and relieve him, by a miracle,
But beyond the boundaries of his knowl-
back upon
roll
its
of its presence.
edge lay a region where rain was generated, he knew not
how.
He was
not so presumptuous as to expect a mira-
cle,
but he firmly believed that in yonder cloud-land mat
ters
could be so arranged, without trespass on the miracu-
lous, that the stream
which threatened him and
should be caused to shrink within
Both these
priests
its
his people
proper bounds.
fashioned that which they did not
understand to their respective wants and wishes.
In their
by a knowlmind 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
case imagination
edge of law.
aimed
at
came
constructing
work without
into play, uncontrolled
similar state of
the
machine which should execute
expenditure
of
power; and some of
them went mad
in the pursuit of this object.
in such a consummation, involving, as
personal profit
to the
inventor,
The faith
did, immense
it
was extremely
exciting,
and every attempt to destroy this faith was met by bitter
who held it. Gradually,

men became more and more acquainted with
resentment on the part of those
however, as
machinery,
functions of
the true
The hope
work out
of getting
but
binations diaappeared:
still
of
dream
the
dissolved.
mere mechanical comremained for the
there
speculator a cloud-land denser than that which filled the
imagination of the Tyrolese priest, and out of which he
hoped
still
evolve perpetual motion.
to
There was the
mystic store of chemic force, which nobody understood;

there were heat and light,
competent
electricity
and magnetism,
produce mechanical motion.'
to
Here,
was the mine in which our gem must be sought.

and more refined form
ified
all
then,
A mod-
of the ancient faith revived;
and, for aught I know, a remnant of sanguine designers
may
at the present
which like-minded
And why
moment be engaged on
men in former ages left
should a perpetual motion, even under mod-
ern conditions, be impossible?

tion
is
The answer
to this ques-
the statement of that great generalization of
science,
which
is
tion of Energy.
make
the problem
unsolved.
known under the name
modern
of the Conserva-
This principle asserts that no power can
appearance in nature without an equivalent ex-
its
penditure of some other power;
that natural agents are
so related to each other as to be mutually convertible,
but that no new agency

heat into electricity;
See Helmholtz
is
created.
Light runs into heat;
electricity into
magnetism; magne-
'*Wechselwirkung der Naturkrafte."

tism into mechanical
and
into light
heat.
and mechanical force again
force;
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
A perpetual motion,
of physical necessity.
impossible,
because
demands the
it
conversion.
It is
is
no
tion of law in nature the terms great
Thus the
energy,
creation, but
an old remark that the
which molds a tear also rounds a planet.
known.
deemed
is
creation of
whereas the principle of Conservation

infinite
then,
law
In the applica-
and small are un-
referred to teaches us that
principle
the Italian wind, gliding over the crest of the Matterhorn,

is
round
as firmly ruled as the earth in its orbital revolution
and that the
the sun;
much a matter
The dispersion,
actly as
sons.
fall of
its
vapor into clouds
therefore, of the slightest mist
miracle as the rolling of the
It
down
science
to
bility"
in
me
quite
demonstrate
of
Ehone over
by
the Grimsel pre-
the valley of Hasli to Meyringen
seems to
colleague
ex-
much a
the special volition of the Eternal, would be as
cipices,
is
of necessity as the return of the sea-
the
and Brientz.
beyond the present power of
that
Rhone
the Tyrolese
valley,
praying for good weather;
or his
priest,
asked for an
'impossi-
but Science
can
demonstrate the incompleteness of the knowledge of nature which limited their prayers to this narrow ground;
and she may lessen the number

*'ask amiss,"
by showing
that
of instances in
which we
we sometimes pray
performance of a miracle when we do not intend

does assert, for example, that without a
for the
it.
She
disturbance of
natural law, quite as serious as the stoppage of an eclipse,

or the rolling of the river Niagara
up
the Falls,
no
act of
humiliation, individual or national, could call one shower
10
from heaven, or
who
Those, therefore,
sun.
is
toward us a single beam of the
deflect
still
believe that the miraculous
active in nature, may, with perfect consistency,
join in our periodic prayers for fair weather
and for
while those who hold that the age of miracles

if
they be consistent,
And
these latter,
justification,
if
may
is
rain:
past will,
refuse to join in these petitions.
they wish to
fairly
fall
back upon such a
urge that the latest conclusions
of science are in perfect accordance with the doctrine of
the Master Himself, which manifestly was that the distribution of natural
or religious causes.
evil
phenomena is not affected by moral

"He maketh His sun to rise on the
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on

Granting "the power of Free Will in man,'*
the unjust."
so strongly claimed by Professor Mansel in his admirable
defence of the belief in miracles, and assuming the efficacy

of free prayer to
produce changes in external nature,
it
more or less at
no
conclusion
and
founded
mercy
man's
volition,
the
of
on the assumed permanence of those laws would be worthy
necessarily follows that natural laws are
of confidence.
It is a
wholesome sign
among her
clergy
men
and courageous enough
Such men do
a manly and
disease
and
England that she numbers
to
act
up
to
their
service to public character,

intelligent
conflict
all this,
knowledge.
by encouraging
with the real causes of
scarcity, instead of a delusive reliance
pernatural aid.
local
for
wise enough to understand
su-
But they have also a value beyond this

They prepare the public mind
and temporary one.
for changes which,
though inevitable, could hardly, with-
out such preparation, be wrought without violence.

is
on
strong;
stilly
Iron
water in crystallizing will shiver an iron

envelope, and the more unyielding the metal
for
its
safety.
is,
11
the worse
There are in the world men who would
encompass philosophic speculation by a rigid envelope,

hoping thereby
plosive force.
to restrain
which I have alluded, scope

for changes of aggregation,
its
but in reality giving
it,
it
ex-
In England, thanks to men of the stamp to

is
gradually given to thought
and the envelope slowly
alters
form, in accordance with the necessities of the time.
The proximate origin of the foregoing slight article, and probably the remoter origin of the next following one, was this. Some years ago, a day
of prayer and humiliation, on account of a bad harvest, was appointed by the
proper religious authorities ; but certain clergymen of the Church of England,
doubting the wisdom of the demonstration, dechned to Join in the services of
the day. For this act of nonconformity they were severely censured by some
my sympathies were on the side of

them a helping hand in their struggle against odds,
I inserted the foregoing chapter in a little book entitled "Mountaineering in
1861." Some time subsequently I received from a gentleman of great weight
and distinction in the scientific world, and, I believe, of perfect orthodoxy in
of their brethren.
men
these
Rightly or wrongly,
and, to lend
my attention to an exceedingly thoughtful

on Prayer and Cholera, in the "Pall Mall Gazette." My eminent correspondent deemed the article a fair answer to the remarks made by me in 1861.
I, also, was struck by the temper and ability of the article, but I could not
deem its arguments satisfactory, and in a short note to the editor of the "Pall
Mall G-azette" I ventured to state so much.
This letter elicited some very able
In answer
replies, and a second leading article was also devoted to the subject.
to all, I risked the publication of a second letter, and soon afterward, by an
the religious one, a note directing

article
extremely courteous note from the editor, the discussion was closed.
Though thus stopped locally, the discussion flowed in other directions.
mons were preached, essays were
published,
articles
Ser-
were written, while a
copious correspondence occupied the pages of some of the religious newspapers.
gave me sincere pleasure to notice that the discussion, save in a few cases
where natural coarseness had the upper hand, was conducted with a minimum
of vituperation.
The severity shown was hardly more than sufficient to demon-
It
strate
earnestness, while gentlemanly feeling
was
too predominant to permit
that earnestness to contract itself to bigotry or to clothe itself in abuse.
memory of this discussion which caused another excellent

recommend to my perusal the exceedingly able work which
probably the
of mine to
next
article I
have endeavored
to review.
It
was
friend
in the
'
Mr. Mozley'e book belongs to that class of writing of which Butler may be
It is strong, genuine argument about difficult matters, fairly
taken as the type.
tracing what is difficult, fairly trying to grapple, not with what appears the gist
and strong point of a question, but with what really at bottom is the knot of
it.
It is a book the reasoning of which may not satisfy every one.
But
we think it is a book for people who wish to see a great subject handled on a
scale which befits it, and with a perception of its real elements.
It is a book
which will have attractions for those who like to see a powerful mind applying
.
itself,
without shrinking or holding back, without trick or reserve or show of
any kind, as a wrestler closes body to body with his antagonist, to the strength
Times, Tuesday, June 5, 1866.
of an adverse and powerful argument.
"We should add, that the faults of the work are whoUy on the surface and in
the arrangement; that the matter is as solid and as logical as that of any book
within recent memory, and that it abounds in striking passages, of which we
have scarcely been able even to give a sample. No future arguer against
Saturday Review, September J.5. 1866.
miracles can afford to pass it over.
II
MIKACLES AND SPECIAL PBOVIDElf CES

1867
my
is
privilege to enjoy the friendship of a select
IT number
of
religious
men,
with
whom
converse
frankly upon theological subjects, expressing without

the
disguise
notions
and opinions I entertain regarding
and hearing in return these notions and opinI have thus far found them
ions subjected to criticism.
their tenets,
liberal
reply,
and loving men, patient in hearing, tolerant in
who know how
to reconcile the duties of courtesy
with the earnestness of debate.
From one
of these, nearly
a year ago, I received a note, recommending strongly to
my attention
(12)
the volume of
"B amp ton
"Fortnightly Review,"
New
Series,
Lectures" for 1865,

voL i
p. 645.
MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES

in whicli the question of miracles
is
treated
13
by Mr. Mozlej.
Previous to receiving this note, I had in part made the

acquaintance of the work through an able and elaborate
review of
letter
it
in the
"Times."
The combined
effect of the
and the review was to make the book the companion
of my summer tour in the Alps.

There, during the wet
and snowy days which were only too prevalent in 1866,
and during the days of rest interpolated between days of
toil, I made myself more thoroughly conversant with Mr.
Mozley's volume.
found
lectual tonic, as bracing
keen
it
clear
an
and strong
and pleasant
to
my mind
intel-
as the
to my body.
From time
down thoughts regarding it, intending
work them up into a coherent whole. Other
air of the
mountains was
to time I jotted
afterward to
duties,
however,
interfered with
the
out of this intention, and what I wrote
complete
last
carrying
summer
now
publish, not hoping to be able, within any reasonable time,

to render
my
defence of scientific method more complete.
Mr. Mozley refers at the outset of his task to the move-
ment against miracles which of late years has taken place,

and which determined his choice of a subject. He acquits
modern science of having had any great share in the production of this movement.
The objection against miracles,
lie says, does not arise from any minute knowledge of the
laws of nature, but simply because they are opposed to
that plain and obvious order of nature which everybody
sees.
The present movement
to the greater earnestness

age.
is,
he thinks, to be ascribed
and penetration
of the present
Formerly miracles were accepted without question,
because without reflection; but the exercise of the "historic
Men
imagination'*
are
is
a characteristic of oar
now accustomed
own
time.
to place before themselves vivid
14
images of historic facts
and when a miracle
rises to view,
they halt before the astounding occurrence, and, realizing

it
with the same clearness as
In some instances the
place?"
has led to a
show
sult
*'Can
effort to
The aim
of
have taken
this
answer
in miracles,
disbelief
strengthening of belief.
is to
were now passing before
they ask themselves,
their eyes,
tion
if it
in
this ques-
others to a
Mr. Mozley's lectures
that the strengthening of belief is the logical re-
which ought
to follow
from the examination
of the facts.
Attempts have been made by religious men
to bring
the Scripture miracles within the scope of the order of
by Mr. Mozley
nature, but all such attempts are rejected

as utterly futile
acles as
and wide
Kegarding mir-
of the mark.
a necessary accompaniment of a revelation, their
evidential value in his eyes depends
entirely
Thus
deviation from the order of nature.
upon
their
deviating, they
suggest and illustrate a power higher than nature, a "personal will";
power
belief,
even were
his
alone that the order of
turbed.
cial
Without
would have no right to
assertions
Divine mission backed by a holy

acles
this
vested as a messenger from on high.
is
these credentials such a messenger
demand
whom
and they commend the person in
The
nature
material universe
providences."
Under
is
may shade
into another in the
is,
or
his
is it
by mir-
may
be,
dis-
also the arena of "spe-
these two heads Mr.
distributes the total preternatural.
ternatural
regarding
Nor
life.
One form
of
Mozley
the pre-
into the other, as one color passes
rainbow;
but,
while the line which
divides the specially providential from the miraculous can-
not be sharply drawn, their distinction broadly expressed

is this:
that,
while a special providence can only excite
surmise more or less probable,
it is
*'the nature of a mir-
15
give proof, as distinguished from mere surmise,
acle to
of Divine design."
Mozley adduces various
Mr.
illustrations
what he
of
regards to be special providences, as distinguished from
"The death
miracles.
he says, "was not mi-
of Arius,"
raculous, because the coincidence of the death of a heresiarch taking place

to
when
the orthodox faith
it
.
was peculiarly advantageous
was not such
compel
as to
the inference of extraordinary Divine agency; but

a special providence, because
pearance of
it
The miracle
it.
it
was
carried a reasonable ap-
of the
was a special providence, but not
Thundering Legion
same
a miracle, for the
reason, because the coincidence of an instantaneous fall of

rain,
in answer to prayer,
not proof,
of
some appearance, but
carried
preternatural agency."
The eminent
remarks on this head brought to
turer's
my
recollection
certain narratives published in Methodist magazines,
when
of these
exciting stories,
"The Providence
of
which
The general
remember right, was
God Asserted," and in them the most
I used to read with avidity

title
if
a boy.
extraordinary escapes from peril were recounted and

cribed
to
prayer,
lec-
as-
while equally wonderful instances of
calamity were adduced as illustrations of Divine retribution.
In such magazines, or elsewhere, I found recorded
the case of the celebrated Samuel Hick, which, as

trates a
whole
class of special providences
conclusiveness to miracles,
is
related of this holy
lacking to
ent,
make
man
is
it illus-
approaching in
worthy of mention
here.
It
on one occasion,
flour
was
that,
the sacramental bread.
Grain was pres-
and a windmill was present, but there was no wind
to grind the corn.
With
faith undoubting,
prayed to the Lord of the winds: the
Samuel Hick
sails
turned,
the
16
corn was ground, after which the wind ceased.

ing to the canon of the
Bampton
Accord-
Lecturer, this, though
carrying a strong appearance of an immediate exertion of
Divine energy, lacks by a hair-breadth the quality of a
For the wind might have
miracle.
arisen,
ceased, in the ordinary course of nature.
and might have
Hence
the oc-
currence did not "compel the inference of extraordinary
In like manner Mr.
Divine agency."
that "the appearance
of
count of
we
it
As
adopt.
the shape of a cross
it
Ccnstantine was a
the cross to
according to what ac-
or a special, providence,
miracle,
Mozley considers
only a meteoric appearance in
gave some token of preternatural
agency, but not full evidence."
In the Catholic canton of Switzerland where I now

w^rite,
and
still
more among the pious Tyrolese, the mouncontaining offerings of
tains are dotted with shrines,
kinds,
in
acknowledgment
arms, and hands
of
special mercies
of
legs,
all
[eet,
and wood, accord-
gold, silver, brass,
ing as worldly possessions enabled the grateful heart to
express
to the
its
Most
indebtedness.
They
Virgin Mary.
of these offerings are
providences," wrought through, the instrumentality
Mother
of
Mr. Mozley' s
God.
odist chronicler,
Each
ever
instead
of
flowing
rhythm
of
cause and
human
belief,
will.
As
of
is
in
of course,
the
nature,
uninterrupted
regards direct action upon natural
liberates the Divine power,
man,
the
mediately ruled by the
will, as
are confessedly powerless; but prayer
free,
ol;
the Meth-
them assumes that
onward
effect,
phenomena, man's wish and
be
that of
and that of the Tyrolese peasant, are sub-
stantially the same.
free
made
are recognitions of "special
and
expressed in prayer,
is
the trigger which
to this extent,
commands
nature.
if
the will

Did the existence of
this
As
a decade.
last
depend solely npon
belief
could not, in
my
a purely objective fact,
we
the material benefits derived from

opinion,
17
it,
it
should soon see that the distribution of natural phenomena
is
unaffected by the merits or the demerits of men;
that the law of gravitation crushes the simple worshippers

of
Ottery St.
surely as
if
Mary, while singing their hymns, just as
outward
human mind
plain,
with which
commonly
is
it
however, that these feelings
They
most various forms.
England Protestantism
Christianity.
Though
may
exist
they
even
not
are
less refined,
cry of the Moslem.
They
them.
is
under the
Church
of
limited
to
Methodist and the Tyrol ese
feelings belong to the primal powers of
may have
It
they are certainly not
peasant than in the heart of Mr. Mozley.
sceptic"
and
force,
associated.
are not limited to
less strong in the heart of the
*'
not due to
is
but to the inner warmth,
verification,
elevation
The
they were engaged in a midnight brawl.
hold of this belief upon the
Indeed, those
man's nature.
find vent in the battle-
They take hue and form
ing-grounds of the Eed Indian; and raise
in the huntof them, as
all
they raise the Christian, upon a wave of victory, above

the terrors of the grave.
The
character, then, of a miracle, as distinguished
a special providence,
is
from
that the former furnishes proofs
while in the case of the latter
we have only
surmise.
Dissolve the element of doubt, and the alleged fact passes
from the one

other words,
class of the preternatural into the other.

if
In
a special providence could be proved to
be a special providence,
it
would cease
providence and become a miracle.
There
to be a special
is
not the least
cloudiness about Mr. Mozley 's meaning here.
special
18
providence
Why,
a doubtful miracle.
is
then, not call it
The term employed by Mr. Mozley conveys no nega-
eo ?
whereas the negation of certainty
tive suggestion,
peculiar characteristic
There
pressed.
thing
the
of
makes
the
an apparent unwillingness on the part
is
his
own
it
as a
invisible miracle."
He
of the lecturer to call a special providence

definition
is
intended to be ex-
it
what
Instead of speaking of
to be.
doubtful miracle, he calls
it
"an
speaks of the point of contact of supernatural power with

the chain of causation being so high
up
as to be wholly,
or in part, out of sight, whereas the essence of a special
providence
the uncertainty whether there
is
idea
doubt,
of
would soon be
as
By
high or low.
tact at all, either
a grave danger
rect term, however,

if
is
any con-
the use of an incoris
For the
avoided.
kept systematically before the mind,
fatal to the special providence, considered
The term employed, on
a means of edification.
contrary, invites and encourages the trust which
is
the
neces-
sary to supplement the evidence.
by Mr. Mozley
in favor of external proof, is subsequently called upon to
do momentous duty in regard to miracles. Whenever the
This inner
though
at first rejected
the miraculous
evidence of
the fact which

is
trust,
it
seems incommensurate with
has to establish, or rather
so amazing that hardly any evidence
tablish
it,
it
recoils.
is
sufl5.cient to es-
to accept the conclusion,
The
affections
an
affair of
mit, the court in
credibilitv of
the heart;
which
to
They
from which
and emotions are emi-
nently the court of appeal in matters
which
the fact
Mr. Mozley invokes "the affections."
must urge the reason

unaided
is
when
of
real
religion,
but they are not, I sub-
weigh allegations regarding the
phvsical facts.
These must be iudered bv
19
the dry light of the intellect alone, appeals to the affections being reserved for cases
not historic conviction,

cause
the
deemed
back
the
in
result,
case
under consideration,
is
upon
to
be called upon to act the other way.
mind
plined scientific
this
the
to the disci-
can so warp the mind as to destroy
under a fascination of
from
but not, as
fatal
its
known men
I have
of estimating facts.
selves
Even
would be a dangerous doctrine.
desire to establish or avoid a cer-
favorite theory
tain result
moreover, be-
is,
they would, with equal right,
undesirable,
If
It
the affections are called
desirable that
it.
where moral elevation, and
the aim.
is
this kind,
work
powers
for years
unable to extricate them-
They had
influence.
happened, enough.
it
to
its
By
certain
data,
a process exactly
analogous to that invoked by Mr. Mozley, they supple-
mented the
intellects
and went wrong.
data,
From
that hour their
were so blinded to the perception of adverse
phenomena
that they never reached truth.
If,
then, to
the disciplined scientific mind, this incongruous mixture

of proof
and
trust
be fraught with danger, what must
it
be to the indiscriminate audience which Mr. Mozley ad-
In calling upon
dresses?
of
see
Frankenstein.
nomena
is
to
all
fire
of
agency he acts the part
a monster thus evoked that
in the
of the present day.
elevate the
kindle the
by
It is
stalking abroad,
this
we
degrading spiritualistic phe-
Again, I say, where the aim
mind, to quicken the moral sense, to

religion in the soul, let the affections
means be invoked; but they must not be permitted
to color our reports, or to influence our acceptance of re-
ports of occurrences in external nature.
natural
facts
is
worthless
phere of the affections;
when wrapped
Testimony as to
in this atmos-
the most earnest subjective truth
20
being thus rendered perfectly compatible with tbe most
astounding objective
error.
There are questions in judging of which the affections

or sympathies are often our best guides, the estimation of
But
moral goodness being one of these.
where
point,
they are really of use,
at this precise
Mr. Mozley excludes
the affections and demands a miracle as a certificate of
He
character.
any other evidence of the
will not accept
perfect goodness of
"No outward
Christ.
life
and con-
duct," he says, "however irreproachable, could prove His
goodness depends upon the
because
sinlessness,
perfect
inward motive, and the perfection of the inward motive

is
not proved by the outward
an outward
cle is
'
act.
'
But surely the mira-
and to pass from
act,
to the inner
it
motive imposes a greater strain upon logic than that

volved in our ordinary methods of estimating men.
is,
at least,
moral congruity between the outward goodness
and the inner
life,
but there
the miracle and the
who
nor
"He
says,
is
life
is
no such congruity between
within.
down by Mr. Mozley
ness laid
the
it
in-
There
test
But
is
test of
moral good-
not the test of John,
that doeth righteousness is righteous";

of
know them: do men

thistles?"
The
it is
Jesus:
'*By their
fruits
gather grapes of thorns,
ye
shall
or figs of
the test of another: "If thou be the
Son
of God,
command
For
my own
part, I prefer the attitude of Fichte to that of
that these stones be
made bread."
"The Jesus of John," says this noble and

mighty thinker, "knows no other God than the True God,
in whom we all are, and live, and may be blessed, and
Mr. Mozley.
out
of
whom
there
And," continues
peals,
is
Fichte,
in support of
only
"he
this truth,
Death and
appeals,
Nothingness.
and rightly ap-
not to reasoning, but to

inward
the
sense
practical
21
man, not even

inward testimony, 'If
truth
of
in
knowing any other proof than this

will do the will of Him who sent Me, he
any man
know
of the doctrine whether
Accepting Mr. Mozley's
now
dealing,
is
it
it
shall
be of God.' "
test,
with which alone I
am
evident that, in the demonstration of
moral goodness, the quantity of the miraculous comes into
Had
play.
Christ,
for example,
conversion of water into wine,

of the
limited himself
He would have
to the
fallen short
performance of Jannes and Jambres; for
it
is
smaller thing to convert one liquid into another than to
But Jannes and
convert a dead rod into a living serpent.
Jambres, we are informed, were not good.
Mozley's
Hence,
be a true one, a point must
test
if
Mr.
on the
exist,
one side of which miraculous power demonstrates goodness,
while on the other side
it
How
does not.
"point of contrary flexure'' to be determined?

lie
somewhere between
magicians
the
this
is
It
must
and Moses,
for
within this space the power passed from the diabolical
But how
to the Divine.
to
mark the point
of passage
how, out of a purely quantitative difference in the visible

manifestation of power,
of quality
it is
we
extremely
are to infer a total inversion
produced a small one.

faculty which
Moses,
difficult to see.
informed, produced a large reptile;
do not possess the
would enable me
to infer,
goodness of the one
the
other;
and in the highest recorded manifestations
miraculous I
am
equally at a
loss.
are
intellectual
from those
either
or
we
Jannes and Jambres
the
data,
badness of the
of
the
Let us not play fast
and loose with the miraculous; either
it
tion of goodness in all cases or in none.
is
a demonstra-
If
Mr. Mozley
accepts Christ's goodness as transcendent, because
He
did
22
works as no other man
such
he ought, logically
did,
speaking, to accept the works of those who, in His name,
had
cast out devils, as demonstrating a proportionate good-
But
ness on their part.
it
consigned to everlasting
Such
his angels.
people of this class
is
Mozley
zeal as that of Mr.
The
tends, I fear, to eat his religion up.
The
to stifle the spiritual.
who
are
prepared for the devil and
fire
for miracles
logical threatens
truly religious soul needs no
The words
miraculous proof of the goodness of Christ.
addressed to Matthew at the receipt of custom required
no miracle
produce obedience.
to
It
was by no stroke of
the supernatural that Jesus caused those sent to seize

to
go backward and
fall
from
lime and holy effluence
command
prodigy to
As
it
to the ground.
It
which needed no
within,
to the reverence even of his foes.
regards the function of miracles in the founding of
Mozley
a religion, Mr.
religion of Christ
institutes a
and that
comparison between the
Mahomet; and he derides
of
the latter as "irrational" because
adduce miracles in proof of

the religion of
its
it
does not profess to
supernatural origin.
Mahomet, notwithstanding
this
has thriven in the world, and at one time

over
Him
was the sub-
larger
populations
than
Christianity
spread and influence of Christianity
are,
it
But
drawback,
held sway
itself.
The
however, brought
forward by Mr. Mozley as "a permanent, enormous, and

incalculable practical result" of Christian miracles; and he
makes use
miraculous.
not clear.
nomenon
of
this
It
is
presents
one, so
strengthen his plea for the
His logical warrant for
several elements
by
result to
as
to
the method
itself,
may
of
proceeding
when
is
a phe-
toward the production of which
contribute,
arrive
this
science,
at
to
exclude
them one
length at the truly effective

cause.
Heat,
we exclude
nomenon;
mains:
example,
for
hence,
heat
associated with a
but
heat,
not
is
associated
is
Thus,
cause.
diffusion of
when we seek
also,
whether
or to the spiritual force of

miracles,
and,
finding
the
its
is
founders
we
of
miracles,
exclude the
unchanged,
result
not
is
cause
the
be due to
it
that miracles are not the effective cause.

tant
re-
Magnetism
magnetism
hence,
religion
phenomenon
the
we exclude magnetism,
phenomenon;
but the phenomenon remains:

its
phe-
with,
cause.
its
23
we
This
experiment Mohammedanism has made for
infer
imporIt
us.
has lived and spread without miracles; and to assert, in

the
face
of
of miracles,
that
this,
is,
has
Christianity
spread
because
I submit, opposed both to the spirit of
science and the common-sense of mankind.
The incongruity
miraculous
of
moral
inferring
from
goodness
power has been dwelt upon
above;
in an-
by Mr. Mozley upon

more than they can bear. In con-
other particular also the strain put

miracles
is,
I think,
sistency with his principles,

is
to
draw from the miracles
it
sion as to His Divine nature.
on what he
calls
the demolition
of
"the
is
difficult to see
of Christ
He
how he
any certain conclu-
dwells very forcibly
argument from experience," in
which he takes obvious
destroys the argument, and repeats
it,
He
delight.
for the
mere
pleas-
ure of again and again knocking the breath out of
Experience, he urges, can only deal with the past;

the
moment we attempt
to
project
experience
it.
and
hair-
it has at any moment reached,

we are condemned by reason.
It appears to me that
when he infers from Christ's miracles a Divine and altogether superhuman energy, Mr. Mozley places himself
breadth beyond the point
24
precisely under this condemnation.
For what is his logground for concluding that the miracles of the New
Testament illustrate Divine power ? May they not be the
result of expanded human power?
A miracle he defines
ical
as something impossible to
that the miracles
But how does he know
man.
New
of the
Testament are impossible

Seek as he may, he has absolutely no reason
to
man?
to
adduce save
this
that
plished such things.
man
has never hitherto accom-
But does the
fact that man has

never raised the dead prove that he can never raise the
dead?
"Assuredly not," must be Mr. Mozley's reply;

would be pushing experience beyond the limit
has now reached which I pronounce unlawful.
Then
*'for this
it
'
'
a period
dead.
may come when man

be conceded
If this
will be able to raise the
and
Mozley can avoid the concession

sity
of
He,
it
inferring
may
be
level
the
of
contended,
destroys the neces-
it
from
Divinity
Christ's
antedated
the future; as a mighty tidal

the beach a
do not see how Mr.
wave
His
the
miracles.
humanity of
high
leaves
upon
mark which by-and-by becomes the general

ocean.
Turn the matter as you will, no
other warrant will
be
found for the all-important con-
clusion that Christ's miracles demonstrate Divine power
than
an
argument which has been stigmatized by Mr.

Mozley as a "rope of sand" the argument from expe-
rience.
The learned Bampton Lecturer would be in this posieven had he seen with his own eyes every miracle
recorded in the New Testament.
But he has not seen
tion,
these miracles;
worse.
He
and
accepts
his
these
intellectual
miracles
does he believe that testimony ?
pligfit
is
therefore
on testimony.
How
does he
know
Why
that

it
is
not delusion;
He
fraud ?
will
liow
he sure that
is
answer that the writing bears the marks
and truth; and that
of sobriety
in
many
message to mankind sealed
of this
Granted with
this?
Is
as ive
know
all
my
cases the bearers
with their blood.
it
but whence the value of
heart;
all
not solely derived from the fact that men,
it
them, do not sacrifice their lives in the attesta-
tion of that
which they know to be untrue
Does not the
entire value of the testimony of the Apostles
mately upon our experience of

pears,
not even
is
it
25
human
said to have
that those
then,
depend
nature
seen
ap-
It
the
ulti-
miracles
based their inferences from what they saw on the argu-
ment from experience;

belief
and that Mr. Mozley bases his

on the same argument.
The
in their testimony
weakness of his conclusion
is
quadrupled by
insertion of a principle of belief, to
His reasoning, in
rationality.
which he
fact,
ually abolishes the basis on which Mr.
found the Christian
Over
this
argument,
Mr.
Mozley
rides
a dash of scorn in the energy with

it.
more
at
rough- shod.
is
it,
far
if
it
effect-
Mozley seeks
argument from experience, which
his
of
it
to
religion.
is
on
flatly denies
two ways
cuts
destroys our trust in the order of nature,
double
this
bottom
There
which he tramples
Probably some previous writer had made too much
and thus invited
Finding the
his powerful assault.
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 vigor of logic rarely equalled, and with a confidence

in
its
conclusions
belief in a
never
surpassed,
manner calculated
Science
he disposes of
to startle those
Yl
this
who, with-
26
had come
out due examination,
the conclusion
to
that
the order of nature was secure.
What we
mean, he sajs, by our belief in the order of
nature, is the belief that the future will be like the past.
There
is
not,
according to Mr. Mozlej, the slightest ra-
tional basis for this belief.

*'That any cause in nature
effects,
more permanent than
is
its
existing
and known
extending further, and about to produce other and more instances
Let us imagine,"
besides what it has produced already, we have no evidence.
he continues, "the occurrence of a particular physical phenomenon for the first
Upon that single occurrence we should have but the very faintest extime.
If it did occur again, once or twice, so far from countpectation of another.
ing on another occurrence, a cessation would occur as the most natural event
But let it continue one hundred times, and we should find no hesitation
to us.
in inviting persons from a distance to see it and if it occurred every day for
;
years, its occurrence
would be a certainty
"What ground of reason can
we
assign for an expectation that any part of the
course of nature will be the next

i.e.
to us, its cessation a marvel.
moment what
for our belief in the uniformity of nature?
it
has been up to this moment,
None.
No demonstrative reason
can be given, for the contrary to the recurrence of a fact of nature is no contradiction. No probable reason can be given ; for all probable reasoning respecting the course of nature is founded upon this presumption of likeness, and
therefore cannot be the foundation of
It is
no
without a reason.
It rests
it.
upon no
No
reason can be given for this beliet
rational grounds,
and can be traced
to
rational principle."
"Everything/* Mr. Mozley, however, adds,
upon
**
depends
every provision we make for the future,
this belief,
and caution we employ against it,

means to ends, supposes
every safeguard
calculation, all adjustment of
and yet
belief;
this belief
has no more producible reason
for it than a speculation of fancy.
all-important for the purposes of
and possesses no
all
this
...
life,
It
is
necessary,
but solely practical,
intellectual character.
The proper
function," continues Mr. Mozley, "of the inductive principle,
the
order of
argument from experience, the
nature
^by
whatever phrase we
belief
in
the
designate the same
instinct
of
îs
to operate as a practical basis for the affairs
and the carrying on of human
life
up, the belief in the order of nature
impulse,
unintelligent
**an
rational
account."
and thus
our
till
To sum
society.*'
general, but
is
it is
which we can give no
of
It is inserted
solely to induce us to
fuel,
27
our constitution
into
fields, to
raise
our winter
meet the future on the perfectly gratui-
to
tous 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
For
it
**this belief
the ground
is
has done this the principle of miracles."

not having
itself
gone upon which
it
a foundation in reason,
coald be maintained that
miracles, as opposed to the order of nature, are opposed

to reason."
When we
with science,
**in
regard this belief in connection
which connection
posing name, and
receives a
more im-
called the inductive principle," the
is
result is the same.
it
"The
inductive principle
is
only this
unreasoning impulse applied to a scientifically ascertained

fact.
stops,
and
unscientific
Science has led up to the fact;

for converting
principle
this
but there
it
fact into a law, a totally
comes into play, the same as that
which generalizes the commonest observation of nature."
The eloquent pleader

over without a word the
of
the cause of miracles passes
results of scientific investigation,
as proving anything rational regarding the principles or
method by which such
results
as elsewhere, he declines the
ye know them."
have been achieved.

test,
"By
Perhaps our best way
Here,
their fruits shall

of proceeding will
be to give one or two examples of the mode in which men
28
of science apply the unintelligent impulse with
Mozley
tion,
credits
the
which Mr.
them, and which shall show, by
surreptitious
illustra-
method whereby they climb from
the region of facts to that of laws.
Before the sixteenth century

in a
pump;
that
**
there
it
was known that water rises
the effect being then explained by the
Nature abhors a vacuum.*'
was any
It
limit to the height to
maxim
was not known that
which the water would
ascend, until, on one occasion, the gardeners of Florence,
while attempting to raise water to a very great elevation,
found that the column ceased at a height of thirty-two

feet.
Beyond
not get
it
Galileo,
and
this all the skill of the
to rise.
The
he, soured
of
the time
to the notice of
a world which had not treated
by
his science over-kindly, is said to
ophy
pump-maker could
was brought
fact
by remarking
have twitted the philosthat Nature
evidently
abhorred a vacuum only to a height of thirty-two

Galileo, however, did not solve the problem.
up by
his pupil Torricelli, to
whom,
after
It
feet.
was taken
due pondering,
the thought occurred, that the water might be forced into
the tube
outside.
by a pressure applied to the surface of the liquid

But where, under the actual circumstances, was
such a pressure to be found?
After
much
reflection,
it
flashed upon Torricelli that the atmosphere might possibly exert this pressure; that the impalpable air might
possess weight, and that a
column
of water thirty-two feet
high might be of the exact weight necessary to nold the

pressure of the atmosphere in equilibrium.
There
results
of
is
which
much
it is
inspiration that
in this process of
pondering and
impossible to analyze.
we
contemplation of facts
rise
to
It is
its
by a kind
from the wise and sedulous

the principles on which they
29
depend.
The mind
which
gradually cleansed by the effort to think rightly,
is
is,
as
it
were,
a pliotographic plate,
and which, when so cleansed, and not

impressions from the light of truth.
highest form,
spiration.
as I
is,
But, to
make
have just
and induction, in
kind of
stated, a
the inward sight
sure,
it
receives
This passage from
facts to principles is called induction;

its
before,
be shown to be in accordance with outward
in-
must
To
fact.
prove or disprove the induction we must resort to deduc-
and experiment.
tion
Torricelli reasoned thus:
two
feet
If a
column
of water thirty-
high holds the pressure of the atmosphere in
equilibrium, a shorter column of a heavier liquid ought

to
Now, mercury
do the same.
than water; hence,
my
if
is
thirteen times heavier
induction be correct, the atmos-
phere ought to be able to sustain only thirty inches of

mercury.
Here, then,
is
a deduction which can be imme-
diately submitted to experiment.
Torricelli took a glass
tube a yard or so in length, closed at one end and open

at the other,
and
filling
it
with mercury, he stopped the
open end with his thumb, and inverted

filled
with the liquid metal.
his
it
on finding that his thought had
that hour the theory of the
eyes.
fore-
The
vacuum overhead.
pump was
From
established.
celebrated Pascal followed Torricelli with another
deduction.
"supported
air,
human
de-
ceased to sink at a height of thirty
inches, leaving the Torricellian
The
feeling
thumb, and the
stalled a fact never before revealed to
column sank, but
into a basin
One can imagine the
with which Torricelli removed

light he experienced
it
He
reasoned thus: If the mercurial column be
by the atmosphere, the higher we ascend
in the
the lower the column ought to sink, for the less will
'
80
be the weight of the
air
overhead.
Puy de Dome,
to ascend the
metric column; and
He
caused a friend
carrying with
him
a baro-
was found that during the ascent
it
the column sank, and that during the subsequent descent
the column rose.
Between the time here referred to and the

lions of experiments have been made upon
Every
village
pump
present, milthis subject.
an apparatus for such experiments.
is
In thousands of instances, moreover, pumps have refused

to work; but on examination it has infallibly been found
that the well was dry,
pump
that the
required priming,
or that some other defect in the apparatus accounted for
In every case of the kind the
the anomalous action.

of the
pump -maker
skill
has been found to be the true remedy.

the atmosphere ceased;
In no case has the pressure of
constancy, as regards the lifting of pump-water, has been
So
hitherto the demonstrated rule of nature.
gards Pascal's experiment.
His experience has been the
universal experience ever since.

tains,
Men have
and gone up in balloons;

act;
climbed moun-
but no deviation from
Pascal's result has ever been observed.
pumps, have refused to
also as re-
Barometers, like
but instead of indicating any
suspension of the operations of Nature, or any interference
on the part of
its
Author with atmospheric
pressure, ex-
amination has in every instance fixed the anomaly upon

the instruments themselves.
It is this welding, then,
rigid logic to verifying fact that Mr.

'
'
unreasoning impulse.
Mozley
refers to
of
an
'
Let us now briefly consider the case of Newton. Before his time men had occupied themselves with the
problem
of the solar system.
Kepler had deduced, from
a vast mass of observations, those general expressions of

planetary motion
known
as
*'
Kepler's
81
laws/*
had
It
been observed that a magnet attracts iron; and by one

of those flashes of inspiration which reveal to the human
mind
the vast in the minute, the general in the particu-
had been inferred that the force by which bodies
lar,
it
fall
to
the earth might
pondered
darkness
until
into
the
How
this light arises
ter of
fact,
also be
these things.
all
it
does
kind of pondering
became
it
Let
Newton
an attraction.
looked, as was his wont,
we cannot
arise.
is
He
luminous.
entirely
explain; but, as a mat-
me remark
here that this
a process with which
the ancients
They, for
could have been but imperfectly acquainted.

the most part, found the exercise of fantasy
more
pleas-
ant than careful observation, and subsequent brooding

Hence it is that when those whose educaover facts.
tion has been derived
from the ancients speak of
*'the
reason of man,'* they are apt to omit from their conception of reason one of
its
most important
factors.
Well,
Newton slowly marshalled his thoughts, or rather they

came to him while he ** intended his mind," rising like
a series of intellectual births out of chaos. He made this
idea of attraction his own.
solar system,
it
But, to apply the idea to the
was necessary
the attraction, and the law of

tance.
His conceptions
first of
to
its
all
know
the magnitude of
variation with the dis-
passed from the action
of the earth as a whole to that of its constituent particles.
And
persistent thought brought
more and more
clearly
out the final conclusion that every particle of matter

tracts
at-
every other particle with a force varying inversely
as the square of the distance between the particles.
Here we have the

induction;
flower
and how to verify
and outcome
it,
of
Newton's
or to disprove
it,
was
32
The
the next question.

this direction
was
step of the philosopher in
first
mathematically, that
to prove,
law of attraction be the true one;

stituted of particles
which obey
if
it
the earth be con-
this law; then the action
of a sphere equal to the earth in size

of
on a body outside
the same as that which would be exerted
is
this
if
if
the
whole mass of the sphere were contracted to a point at

Practically speaking, then, the
its centre.
earth
centre of the
the point from which.^distances must be measured
is
by the
to bodies attracted
earth.
From experiments executed before his

knew the amount of the earth's attraction
at the earth's
or at a distance of 4,000 miles from
surface,
Newton
time,
centre.
its
His object now was to measure the attraction at a greater
and thus
distance,
to determine the law of
its
diminution.
But how was he to find a body at a sufficient distance?

He had no balloon? and even if he had, he knew that
any height to which he could attain would be too small
to
He
What
enable him to solve his problem.

fixed his thoughts
miles,
upon the moon
did he do ?
body 240,000
or sixty times the earth's radius, from the earth's
He
centre.
virtually weighed the
weight to be ôth of what

This
surface.
exactly
is
will not dwell here

first calculations,
moon, and found that
would be
it
what
his
upon the pause
at the earth's
theory
of
required.
Newton
after his
or speak of his self-denial in withhold-
ing them because they did not quite agree with the observations then at his
matter
is
command.
Newton's action
in this
the normal action of the scientific mind.
were otherwise
if
demand
verification
perfect
while
the
scientific
if
men were
If it
not accustomed to
they were satisfied with the im-
perfect
is
attainable,
their
science,

instead of being, as
be a house of clay,
it
Thus we
dered his
and
finally
he
outward,
and
like
Torricelli,
pon-
first
character of the
having
thus
reversed
his
justified
force of grav-
inward
travelled
carried
steps,
the
by demonstrating
it
the
to
principle
fitness
its
external nature.
to
And
is
periodically exposed.
Newton,
divined the
principle,
it is
illuminated them with persistent thought,
But,
itation.
bear the buffetings of the
ill-fitted to
that
see
facts,
a fortress of adamant, wonld
is,
theologic storms to which
33
here,
would notice a point which

attention.
Kepler had deduced his
in passing,
well worthy
of
As
laws from observation.
far
back as those
observa-
the planetary motions had obeyed these
tions extended,
laws; and neither Kepler nor

as to their continuing to
Newton
obey them.
entertained a doubt
Year
after year, as
the ages rolled, they believed that those laws would con-
But
tinue to illustrate themselves in the heavens.
was not
The
sufficient.
scientific
mind can
pose in the mere registration of sequence in nature.

further
question
Whence comes
intrudes
the consequent to
scientific
the forces
intellect
itself
its
with
is
until
by which the observed succession
It
was thus with
is
thus pre-eminently with the scientific
In
common
Torricelli;
it
will
this
is
it
truly
reaches
produced.
was thus with Newton;
man
it
of to-day.
with the most ignorant, he shares the belief
that spring will succeed winter, that

spring, that
The
antecedent in nature?
never can attain rest
binds
that
it
re-
The
might,
resistless
What
sequence?
the
this
no
find
autumn
will succeed
succeed autumn.
knowledge
summer
will succeed
summer, and that winter
But he knows
still
is essential to his intellectual
and
that
further
repose
84
this
besides being permanent,
succession,
circumstances,
necessary;
erted between the sun
is
must produce the
orbit,
its
Not
observed succession of the seasons.

tion between
force ex-
and a revolving sphere with an
axis inclined to the plane of
forces
under the
is,
that the gravitating
until this rela-
and phenomena has been established
the law of reason rendered concentric with the law of
nature;
and not
until
this
is
does the mind of
effected
the scientific philosopher rest in peace.
The expectation
of
phenomena,
is
likeness,
of
then,
the procession
in
not that on which the scientific mind

If the force
be
whether thej
re-
founds its belief in the order of nature.
permanent the phenomena are
necessary^
semble or do not resemble anything that has gone before.

Hence, in judging of the order of nature, our inquiries
eventually
Galileo
to
relate
to
the
permanence
Newton, from
Newton
of
to
eager eyes have been scanning the
force.
own
our
From
time,
and clear
heavens,
heads have been pondering the phenomena of the solar

system.
The same eyes and minds have been
serving,
experimenting,
and
reflecting
gravity at the surface of the earth.

to
on the
also
action
ment been
of
Nothing has occurred
indicate that the operation of the law has for a
suspended;
ob-
mo-
nothing has ever intimated that
nature has been crossed by spontaneous action, or that

a state of things at any time existed which could not be
rigorously deduced from the preceding state.

Griven the
operation,
in
distribution of matter,
and the forces
in
the time of Galileo, the competent mathe-
matician of that day

ring in our own.
could predict what
is
now
occur-
"We calculate eclipses in advance, and
find our calculations true to the second.
We
determine
35
the dates of those that have occurred in the early times

of history,
and
Anomalies
and perturbations in the planets
over
and over again observed;
to
cordance with
duced?"
of
natural
of
the
can
toward
The
practical
"How,
in
be
ac-
pro-
a mass of matter were
would
We
follow.
astronomer
which the
turned
his
of
the
intellect
had already explored, and the planet
now named Keptune was found

very respectable outcome,
pulse which "rests
of
he was enabled to fix
perturbiitions
the region
theoretic astronomer
if
Author
perturbation
the
principle,
space in which,
observed
the result.
telescope
the
question which
the
gravitation,
law,
this
Guided by a
the point of
part of
proposed to himself was,
the astronomer
know
instead
Instead of referring the perturbations of Ura-
any interference on the
nature with the law of
placed,
have been
consequences of
have invariably been reduced to
that law.
nus
but these,
any inconstancy on the part
demonstrating
law,
and history in harmony.
find calculation
it
upon no
in
will
predicted place.
its
be admitted, of an imgrounds,
rational
and can
be traced to no rational principle"; which possesses "no

intellectual character";
which "philosophy" has uprooted
from "the ground of reason," and fixed in that "large

irrational
department" discovered, for
by Mr. Mozley,
it,
in the hitherto unexplored wilderness of the
The proper function
belief in the order of nature, says
Mr. Mozley,
as a practical basis for the affairs of
ing on of
human
human mind.
of the inductive principle, or the
society."
life,
But what,
it
is
"to act
and the carry-
may be
asked,
has the planet Neptune, or the belts of Jupiter, or the

whiteness about the poles of Mars, to do with the affairs
of society?
How
is
society affected
by
the fact that the

38
sun's atmospliere contains sodium, or that the nebula of
Orion contains hydrogen gas?
Nineteen-twentieths of the
employed in the exercise
force
which, reiterates Mr. Mozley,
of the inductive principle,

is
expended upon subjects
been
What
interest has
practical
"purely practical," have

as
unpractical
as
these.
society in the fact that the
on the sun have a decennial period, and that when

a magnet is closely watched for half a century it is
spots
found
and disappearance
appearance
the
And
a
perform small motions which synchronize with
to
doubt
yet,
The inductive
know
principle
is
the
to
privi-
is
founded in man's desire to
intellect.
The
the complement of the intellect; and,
without the study of
awakened
spots?
from his position among phenom-
ena which are reducible to order by his

material universe
solar
these infinitesimal motions.
its close,
desire arising
the
amply rewarded by being
of intellectual toil
life
leged to solve, at
of
Edward Sabine would deem
Sir
not,
its
higher
laws, reason could
forms
of
never have
self-consciousness
at
It is the Non-ego through and by which the Ego

endowed with self -discernment. We hold it to be an
exercise of reason to explore the meaning of a universe to
which we stand in this relation, and the work we have
accomplished is the proper commentary on the methods
all.
is
we have
pursued.
the unbridled
ting
in
dread.
the
Before
imagination
place of
For thousands
these methods were adopted
roamed through
law the
of
figments of
years witchcraft,
nature,
put-
superstitious
and magic,
and miracles, and special providences, and Mr. Mozley's
man," had
They made worse than nothing
"distinctive reason of
cause they
let
the world to themselves.

of
it
worse^ I say, be-
and hindered those who might have made

something of
Hence
it.
it
that,
is
37
during a single
life-
time of this era of "unintelligent impulse," the progress

in
knowledge
is
all
but
compared with that
of
and miracles of a couple
of
infinite as
the ages which preceded ours.
The
believers in magic
centuries ago had all the strength of Mr. Mozley's present

logic
on their
side.
They had done
for themselves
he rejoices in having so effectually done for us
what
cleared
the ground of the belief in the order of nature, and declared magic, miracles,
"ordinary evidence"
and witchcraft to be matters
to
"The
decide.
had
acles" thus "befriended"
free
scope,
and we know
Lacking that rock- barrier of natural knowl-
the result.
edge which we now possess, keen
men were
for
principle of mir-
jurists
and cultivated
hurried on to deeds, the bare recital of which
makes the blood run cold. Skilled in all the rules of human evidence, and versed in all the arts of cross-examination,
these men, nevertheless, went systematically astray,
and committed the deadliest wrongs against hiimanity.
And why?
Because they could not put Nature into the
witness-box,
and question
her
of
mony' they knew nothing.
In
all cases
between
man and
man, their judgment was
be relied on; but in
all cases
'
to
her voiceless
"testi-
between man and nature, they were blind leaders of the

blind.*
* *'In
1664 two -women were hung in Suffolk, under a sentence of Sir
Matthew Hale, who took the opportunity of declaring that the reality of witchcraft was unquestionable
'for first, the Scriptures had affirmed so much
and
secondly, the wisdom of all nations had provided laws against such persons,
Sir Thomas Browne,
which is an argument of their confidence of such a crime.
who was a great physician as well as a great writer, was called as a witness,
and swore 'that he was clearly of opinion that the persons were bewitched.' "
;
'
Lecky's "History of Rationalism,"
vol.
i.
p. 120.
38
Mr. Mozley concedes that

if
it
would be no great
result
miracles were only accepted by the ignorant and super-
"because
stitious,
it
is
who do
easy to satisfy those
not
But he does consider it *'a great result" that

they have been accepted by the educated. In what sense
inquire."
Like those statesmen,
educated?
nitaries
jurists
whose education was unable
to
the frightful errors glanced at above?
and church
dig-
save them from
Not even
in this
sense; for the great mass of Mr. Mozley 's educated people
had no
legal training,
and must have been absolutely
de-
fenceless against delusions which could set even that train-
ing at naught.
Like nine-tenths of our clergy
ent day, they were versed in the
Eome and Judea;

which
is
literature
at the pres-
Greece,
of
but as regards a knowledge of nature,
here the one thing needful, they were "noble
In the case of
savages," and nothing more.
miracles,
behooves us to understand the weight of the nega-
then,
it
tive,
before
we
assign a value to the positive
hend the depositions of nature, before

ure, with them, the evidence of
men.
We
to meas-
have only to
open our eyes to see what honest and even
men and women
to compre-
we attempt
intellectual
are capable of, as to judging evidence,
in this nineteenth century of the Christian era,
tude fifty-two degrees north.
and
in lati-
The experience thus gained
ought, I imagine, to influence our opinion regarding the
testimony of people inhabiting a sunnier clime, with a

richer imagination,
and without a
which the discoveries

upon mankind.
of
physical
particle of that restraint
science
have imposed
Having thus submitted Mr. Mozley 's views to the examination which they challenged at the hands of a student
ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON MIRACLES
am
of nature, I
pressing
my
unwilling to quit his book without ex-
my
respect for
him
personally,
admiration of his genius, and
Though
his character.
his recent death
89
barely
affected
me
known
to
With
as that of a friend.
regard to the style of his book, I heartily subscribe to the
Times" winds up its able and

"It is marked throughout with the
description with which the
appreciative review.
*'
most serious and earnest conviction, but
is
without a
sin-
word from first to last of asperity or insinuation against

opponents; and this not from any deficiency of feeling as
to the importance of the issue, but from a deliberate and
resolutely maintained self-control, and from an over-ruling,
ever-present sense of the duty, on themes like these, of a
more than judicial calmness."
[To the argument regarding the quantity of the miraculous, introduced at page 21, Mr. Mozley has done me
the honor of publishing a Beply in the seventh volume
of the *' Contemporary Review." J. T.]
gle

Among
the scraps of manuscript, written at the time
when Mr. Mozley's work occupied my
attention,
I find
the following reflections:
With regard
to the influence of
modern
Mr. Mozley rates so low, one obvious
enhance the magnitude of
and
to increase
The
ancients
many
science
effect
which
of it is to
of the recorded miracles,
proportionably the difficulties of belief.
knew but
little
of the vastness of the uni-
The Rev. Mr. Kirkman, for example, has shown

what inadequate notions the Jews entertained regarding
verse.
40
the "firmament of heaven";
and Sir George Airy
to the case of a Grreek philosopher
who was
refers
persecuted for
hazarding the assertion, then deemed monstrous, that the
sun might be as large as the whole country of Greece.
The
-concerns of a universe, regarded from this point of
view, were
much more commensurate
with
man and
now
his
concerns than those of the universe which science
re-
veals to us; and hence that to suit man's purposes, or that

in compliance with his prayers, changes should occur in the
order of the universe, was more easy of belief in the ancient world than
it
can be now.
In the very magnitude
which it assigns to natural phenomena, science has augmented the distance between them and man, and increased
the popular belief in their orderly progression.
As
a natural consequence the
more exacting than
it
demand
for evidence
used to be, whenever
it is
that the order of nature has been disturbed.
is
aQ.rmed
Let us take
as an illustration the miracle by which the victory of

In
Joshua over the Amorites was rendered complete.
**
this case the sun is reported to have stood still for about
upon Gibeon, and the moon in the valley

An Englishman of average education at the
of Ajalon.
present day would naturally demand a greater amount of
a whole day*'
evidence to prove that this occurrence took place, than
would have
satisfied
an
Israelite
in the age
succeeding
For, to the one, the miracle probably con-
that of Joshua.
sisted in the stoppage of a fiery ball less than a yard in
other it would be the stoppage

hundred thousand times the earth in
size.
And even accepting the interpretation that Joshua
dealt with what was apparent merely, but that what really
diameter,
while
to the
of an orb fourteen
occurred was
the
suspension of the earth's
rotation,
41
think the right to exercise a greater reserve in accepting

the miracle, and to
of
demand
stronger evidence in support
than that which would
it
be conceded
Israelite, will still
There
is
have
to a
a scientific as well as a
and when, by
satisfied
man
an
ancient
of science.
imagination;
historic
the exercise of the former, the stoppage of
the earth's rotation
is
clearly realized, the event assumes
proportions so vast, in comparison with the result to be
obtained by
it,
that belief reels under the reflection.
energy here involved
is
The
equal to that of six trillions of
horses working for the whole of the time employed
Joshua in the destruction of
his
The amount
foes.
by
of
power thus expended would be sufficient to supply every

individual of an army a thousand times the strength of
that of Joshua, with a thousand times the fighting power
of each of Joshua's soldiers, not for the
few hours neces-
sary to the extinction of a handful of Amorites, but for

millions of years.
by the sacred
ing about
it.
All this wonder
is silently
historian, manifestly because
passed over
he knew noth*
Whether, therefore, we consider the miracle
as purely evidential, or as a practical
means
of vengeance,
the same lavish squandering of energy stares us in the

If
face.
Israelites
tive,
evidential,
the energy
knew nothing
of its
then the ratio of the
was wasted, because the
amount;
if
simply destruc-
quantity lost to the quantity
employed may be inferred from the foregoing
To
other miracles similar remarks apply.
our thoughts from this
little
figures.
Transferring
sand -grain of an earth to the
immeasurable heavens, where countless worlds with freights

of life probably revolve unseen, the very suns
which warm
them being barely visible across abysmal space; reflecting

that beyond these sparks of solar fire* suns innumerable
42
may
all;
burn, whose light can never
and bringing these
stir
reflections
idea of the Builder and Sustainer of

self
in a burning
bush,
the optic nerve at
face to face with the
showing Him-
it all
exhibiting His hinder parts, or
behaving in other familiar ways ascribed
Him
to
Jewish Scriptures, the incongruity must appear.

credulous
prattle
were
alone;
of
the
about
ancients
in the
Did
this
stand
miracles
not associated with words of imperishable
it
wisdom, and with examples of moral grandeur unmatched

elsewhere in the history of the
acles
and
their
human
race,
both the mir-
"evidences" would have long since ceased
to be the transmitted inheritance of intelligent
men.
In-
fluenced by the thoughts which this universe inspires, well
may we
exclaim in David's
*'When
I consider the heavens, the
spirit, if
the moon, and the stars, which
not in David's words:
Thou
work
of
Thy
fingers,
hast ordained; what
Thou shouldst be mindful of him, or the son

that Thou shouldst so regard him?"
of
If you ask me who is to limit the outgoings of Almighty power, my answer is, Not I. If you should urge
that if the Builder and Maker of this universe chose to
is
man
man
that
stop the rotation of the earth, or to take the form of a
burning bush, there

so, I
am
is
nothing to prevent
not prepared to contradict you.
with you nor differ from you, for

I
know
nothing.
But
I observe
it is
Him
from doing
I neither agree
a subject of which
that in such questions
regarding Almighty power, your inquiries relate, not to

that
power
to the
as
power
it is
of
actually displayed in the universe, but
your own imagination.
Your question
not has the Omnipotent done so and so? or

least degree likely that the
so?
but, is
my
is
it
is,
in the
Omnipotent should do so and
imagination competent to picture a Being
43
?
I am not prepared to
human mind belongs the
able and willing to do so and so
deny your competence. To the

of enlarging and diminishing,
faculty
distorting
of
by
combining, indefinitely the objects revealed

It can imagine a
mouse
an elephant, an
as large as
and
the senses.
ele-
phant as large as a mountain, and a mountain as high as

the stars.
It
We
can separate congruities and unite incongru-
and we see a woman; we can drop

one half of each, and unite in idea the other two halves
We see a horse and we see a man; we are
to a mermaid.
ities.
see a fish
able to drop one half of each, and unite the other two
Thus
halves to a centaur.
also the pictorial representa-
tions of the Deity, the bodies
seraphs, the hoofs, horns,
and
and wings of cherubs and

tail
of
the Evil One, the
joys of the blessed, and the torments of the damned, have
been elaborated from materials furnished to the imagination
by the
senses.
It
that our notions of
behooves you and
the
Power which
me
rules
to take care
the universe
are not
mere fanciful or ignorant enlargements of human
power.
The
not denied.
to,
to
you can
capabilities of
By
what you
call
your reason are
the exercise of the faculty here adverted
picture to yourself a Being able and willing
do any and every conceivable thing.
You
are right
Power science is of no
The man of science,
avail ^that it is "a weapon of air."
however, while accepting the figure, would probably rein saying that in opposition to this
verse
its
application,
here the thing of
air,
thinking
it
is
not science which
is
but that unsubstantial pageant of the
imagination to which the solidity of science
is
opposed.
Prayer as a means
to effect
a private end
theft
is
Emerson.
and meanness.
Ill
ON PRAYER AS A FORM OF PHYSICAL ENERGY
THEenough
Editor of the "Contemporary Keview"
me
to grant
of a
down upon me
It
may be
my
though
a subject which,
simply that
vehicle
liberal
is
space for some remarks upon

relation
transmission,
of
a considerable
interesting to
amount
some of
to
has
was
it
brought
of animadversion.
my
readers
if
glance at a few cases illustrative of the history of the
human mind,
in relation
to
this
and kindred questions.
In the fourth century the belief in Antipodes was deemed

unscriptural and heretical.
The pious Lactantius was
angry with the people who held this notion as

are
now with me, and
my censors
quite as unsparing in his denunci-
ations of their "Monstrosities."
because, in his mind,
as
Lactantius was irritated
by education and
and religion were indissolubly

simultaneously disturbed.
habit,
cosmogony
and, therefore,
associated,
In the early part of the seven-
teenth century the notion that the earth was fixed, and
that the sun and stars revolved round
woven with
tempted by
religious
feeling,
the
it
daily,
separation
was
inter-
then
at-
Galileo rousing the animosity and kindling
the persecution of the Church.
Men
still
living can re-
PRAYER AS A FORM OF PHYSICAL ENERGY

member
excited
the indignation
by
the
first
45
revelations
of geology regarding the age of the earth, the association
between chronology and religion being for the time inIn our day, however, the best-informed the-
dissoluble.
ologians are prepared to admit that our views of the Uni-
verse and
its
Author
are not impaired, but improved,
by
the abandonment of the Mosaic account of the Creation.
excitement caused by the publication
finally, at the
Look,
of the "Origin of Species";
and compare
it
with the calm
attendant on the appearance of the far more outspoken,

and, from the old point of view, more impious, "Descent
of
Man."
Thus religion survives
been
long
considered
essential
Antipodes are accepted;

up;
removal of what had
after the
to
our day the
In
it.
the fixity of the earth
given
is
the period of Creation and the reputed age of the
world
are
without terror;
Evolution
dissipated;
alike
upon
looked
is
and other changes have occurred in the
same direction too numerous

fact, from the earliest times
to
to
be dwelt upon here.
In
the present, religion has
been undergoing a process of purification, freeing
itself
slowly and painfully from the physical errors which the

active but uninformed intellect mingled with the aspira-
Some
tions of the soul.
purification is needed,
with
of prayer.
less
to
phrase.
of contention
It
is
not
draw forth
I
would
others
oppose
and the warmth
the confidence
The bone
of us think that a final act of
while
at
my
present
is
notion
this
of
ancient
the
physical value
times.
wish to excite surprise,
protest,
by the employment
simply ask any
intelligent
much
of
this
person to
look the problem honestly in the face, and then to say

whether, in the estimation of the great body of those
who
46
sincerely resort to
it,
prayer does not, at
men and
when appealed
which changes the force and
rain,
direction of winds, which
the health of
growth of corn and
affects the
cattle
Power, in short, which,
under pressing circumstances, produces
to
the precise effects caused
by physical energy
nary course
of
To any
cerely with
the
by
vision
upon
Power which checks and aug-
special occasions, invoke a
ments the descent of
events
ail
things.
and
subject,
person
refuses
to
in the ordi-
who
deals sin-
blur his moral
intellectual subtleties, this, I think, will appear
a true statement of the case.

It is
under
this aspect alone that the scientific student,
so far as I represent him, has any wish to meddle with

prayer.
Forced upon his attention as a form of physical
energy,
or as the equivalent of such energy,
the right of subjecting

tion
from which
ical
universe
is
all
it
our present knowledge of the phys-
derived.
And
if
his researches lead
to a conclusion adverse to its claims
him
îf
him
his inquiries rivet
closer to the philosophy implied in
still
he claims
methods of examina-
to those
the words,
**He maketh His sun to shine on the evil and on the

good, and sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust"
he
not for
is
not
contends only for the displacement of prayer,
its
its
extinction.
He
simply says, physical nature
legitimate domain.
This conclusion, moreover, must be

physical
evidence,
of
nature
is
on pure
and not on any inherent unreason-
ableness in the act of prayer.
tem
based
under the
The theory
control
of
that the sys-
Being who
changes
phenomena in compliance with the prayers
men
may
is,
in
of
course
my
opinion,
be
a perfectly legitimate
rendered
futile
by being
one.
of
It
associated

with conceptions which contradict
form no necessary part
tions
ter of
his
and,
is
listens to the
they do not
if
It is a mat-
who
experience that an earthly father,
children,
such concep-
of the theory.
same time both wise and tender,

of
but
it;
ask
We
pleasure in granting their requests.
47
at the
requests
amiss,
know
takes
that
also
compliance extends to the alteration, within certain
this
limits, of the current of events
on
by experience,
it
gestion
offered
scientific
method
place
to
behind
With
earth.
is
this sug-
no departure from
phenomena a
natural
Universal Father, who, in answer to the prayers of His

children,
far
Thus
The concep-
the currents of those phenomena.
alters
Theology and Science go hand in hand.
tion of an ether, for example, trembling with the
waves
by the ordinary phenomena of wavewater and in air; and in like manner the con-
of light, is suggested
motion in
ception of personal volition in nature
ordinary action of
impossibilities^
is
suggested by the
man upon earth. I therefore urge no

am constantly charged with doing
though I
I do not even urge inconsistency, but, on the con-
so.
trary,
frankly admit that the theologian has as good a
right to place
as I
have
But without
mere figment
us parting
conception at the root of phenomena
his
to place mine.
verification
of
the
company
theoretic
intellect,
at this point.
both in science and theology,
conception
is
and I am sorry to find
lies
The region
of theory,
behind the world of the
senses, but the verification of theory occurs in the sensi-
ble world.
To check
the theory
pare the deductions from

If
it
we have simply
the deductions be in accordance with
accept the theory:
if
to
com-
with the facts of observation.

the
in opposition, the theory
facts,
is
we
given
'
48
up.
by whicli
was the
single experiment is frequently devised,
the theory must stand or
determination of
Emission
faster
An
it
as
to
a
it,
travelled faster in air than in
by
experiment suggested
cuted by Fizeau and
According
Theory.
in water than in air; according to
the Undulatory Theory,

water.
this character
the velocity of light in liquids,
crucial test of the

light travelled
Of
fall.
and exe-
Arago,
was conclusive against
Foucault,
Newton's theory.
But while
science cheerfully submits to this ordeal,
it
seems impossible to devise a mode of verification of their

theories
which does not rouse resentment
minds.
Is
man
theory and
man
that,
it
culminates in
fact,
while the
the
the
highest
we have
pleasure
of the
scientific
the
of
religious
the very act of pray-
in
any further
mere disturbance of
tion being a
theological
harmony between
demonstrated
has been already tasted
ing, prior to verification,
pleasure
in
effort in this direc-
his peace ?
Or
is it
before us a residue of that mysticism
of
Middle Ages, so admirably described by Whewell
that
the
that
"practice of referring things and events not to clear and

notions,
distinct
verification,
biit
not to general
to
notions
rules
vague,
capable of direct
distant,
which we cannot bring into contact with
we
connect
that
is
events
with
moral
and
"Thus," he continues, "the character
causes?"
ticism
natural
and
facts;
it
as
vast,
when
historic
of
mys-
refers particulars, not to generalizations,
homogeneous and immediate, but to such as are heterogeneous and remote; to which we must add that the
process
lect,
of.
but
feeling.
this reference is not

is
accompanied with
a calm act of the intel-
glow of enthusiastic

Every feature
here
and
depicted,
some more quesmost con-
shown themselves
tionable ones, have
49
of late;
spicuously, I regret to say, in the "leaders" of a weekly
journal
considerable
of
and
influence,
many
on
one,
grounds, entitled to the respect of thoughtful men.
In
the correspondence, however, published by the same journal,
are to be found
to correct the
It
my
not
is
two or three
letters well calculated
temporary flightiness of the journal
mind
habit of
to think otherwise than
solemnly of the feeling which prompts prayer.
power which
guished
upon
devoted
should
like
to
see
guided,
It
is
not extin-
to practicable objects instead of wasted
In some form or other, not yet
air.
itself.
evident,
it
may, as alleged, be necessary to man's highest culture.

Certain
it
to prayer
bigotry,
many
while I rank
that,
is
low in the scale of being
and intolerance being
persons
natural
who employ
cream of the
earth.
ferocity of the one

ness,
in
its
is
by
God
adds to the folly and
turned to enduring sweetness, holi-
varies
by the other.
with the nature upon which it
Often unreasonable,
if
self-sacrifice
not
contemptible,
prayer,
purer forms, hints at disciplines which few of us
can neglect without moral

of giving
it
losses,
may
It
But no good can come

by claiming for it a power
loss.
a delusive value,
in physical nature.
life's
ear of
forming part of the very
as
it
faith that
abounding charity, and
Keligion, in fact,
falls.
The
resort
in their case intensified
the notion that they have access to the
regard others
who
foolishness,
strengthen the heart to meet
and thus indirectly promote physical
well-
^sop's orchard brought a
treas-
being, as the digging of
ure of fertility greater than the golden treasure sought.
Such
indirect issues
we
all
SCIENCE
admit;
YI
but
it
would be sim-
50
ply dishonest
to
always in view.
affirm
Here,
that
it
is
such issues that are
for the present, I must end.
ask no space to reply to those
railers
who make such
free
use of the terms insolence, outrage, profanity, and blas-
phemy.
They obviously
lack the sobriety of
mind
nec-
essary to give accuracy to their statements, or to render

their charges
worthy of serious refutation.
IV
VITALITY
THE
origin, growth,
and energies of living things are
which have always engaged the attention

thinking men. To account for them it was usual
subjects
of
assume a special agent,
to
observed among the powers of inorganic nat-
limitations
ure.
This agent was
influence,
from the
free to a great extent
plants
their materials
called
and
under
and,
vital force;
animals were supposed to collect
Within
and to assume determinate forms.
the last few years,
its
however, our ideas of vital processes
have undergone profound modifications;
and the
interest,
and even disquietude, which the change has excited are

amply evidenced by the discussions and protests which
are
now common regarding
the
phenomena
In tracing these phenomena through
all
of vitality.
their modifica-
tions, the most advanced philosophers of the present day
declare that they ultimately arrive at a single source of
power, from which
all
disquieting circumstance
vital
is
energy
derived;
is
that this source
is
and the
not the
di-
rect fiat of a supernatural agent, but a reservoir of what,

if
we do not accept
garded as inorganic
proved that
all
the creed of Zoroaster, must be reforce.
In short,
the energy which
we
it
is
considered as
derive from plants
and animals is drawn from the sun.

A few years ago, when the sun was affirmed
to be the
(51)
52
source of
by
who
nine out of ten of those
life,
form which
the
are alarmed
has latterly assumed
assertion
this
would have assented, in a general way,
to its correctness.
was more poetic than
Their assent, however,
and they were by no means prepared
to see a rigid
modern conclusions
ever, is the peculiarity of
me-
This, how-
chanical signification attached to their words.
is
scientific,
that
there
no creative energy whatever in the vegetable or animal
we obtain from
much as that which
we develop by the combustion of wood or coal, has been
produced at the sun's expense. The sun is so much the
colder that we may have our fires; he is also so much
the colder that we may have our horse-racing and Alpine
organism, but that
climbing.
It
been chilled
the power which
all
man and
the muscles of
to
example, certain that the sun has
for
is,
animals, as
an extent capable of being accurately ex-
pressed in numbers, in order to furnish the power which

lifted this
of
year a certain number of tourists from the vale
Chamouni
to the
summit
To most minds, however,

presents itself
as
of
Mont
Blanc.
the energy of light and heat
a thing totally distinct from ordinary
Either of them can nevertheless be
mechanical energy.
Wood
can be raised by friction
ignition;
while by properly strik-
derived from the other.

to the temperature of
ing a piece of iron a skilful blacksmith can cause

glow.
it
to
Thus, by the rude agency of his hammer, he gen-
erates light
and
heat.
would produce the
This action,
light
and heat
if
of
carried far enough,
the sun.
In
fact,
the sun's light and heat have actually been referred to

the fall of meteoric matter
the sun
is
upon
his surface;
thus supported or not,
that he might be thus supported.
it
is
and whether
perfectly certain
Whether, moreover, the
VITALITY
SS
whilom molten condition of our planet was, as supposed

bj eminent men, due to the collision of cosmic masses or
not, it is perfectly certain that the
be
thus brought about.
If,
molten condition might
and heat can
then, solar light
be produced by the impact of dead matter, and

the light and heat thus produced
we can
which we have been accustomed to
gies
bitably follows that vital energy
if
from
derive the ener-
call vital, it indu-
may have
a proximately
mechanical origin.
In what sense, then,
the sun to be regarded as the
is
origin of the energy derivable from plants
and animals
Let us try to give an intelligible answer to this question.
Water may be
raised
from the sea-level to a high
and then permitted
tion,
may be made
to
to
descend.
eleva-
In descending
assume various forms
to
fall
in
it
cas-
cades, to spurt in fountains, to boil in eddies, or to flow
tranquilly
along a uniform bed.
It
may, moreover, be
caused to set complex machinery in motion, to turn millshuttles, work saws and hammers, and
But every form of power here indicated
would be derived from the original power expended in
raising the water to the height from which it fell.
There
is no energy generated by the machinery: the work performed by the water in descending is merely the parcelling out and distribution of the work expended in raising
throw
stones,
drive
it.
piles.
In precisely this sense
is all
the energy of plants and
animals the parcelling out
and distribution of a power

by the sun. In th case of the water,
the power consists in the forcible separation
originally exerted
the source of
of a quantity of the liquid

surface,
and
its
from a low level of the earth's
elevation to a higher position, the power
thus expended being returned by the water in
its
descent.
54
In the case of
sists in
phenomena, the source
vital
substances by the sun.
We
name
compound
the force which draws
earthward "gravity," and
water
the
power con-
of
the forcible separation of the atoms of
atoms together "chemical
names must
two
the
identity of
affinity";
mislead
not
us
but
these
regarding
They
forces.
which
that
are
the
draws
different
qualitative
both attractions;
and, to the intellect, the falling of carbon atoms against
oxygen atoms
is
not more difficult of conception than the
falling of water to the earth.
The building up
The phenomena
of
animal
life
of
are
chemical compounds.
more or
less compli-
cated reversals of these processes of reduction.

the vegetable,
and
in
and we breathe the
our bodies
by
of the vegetable, then, is effected
through the reduction
the sun,
oxygen
of
We
the
which had been
the oxygen,
eat
air;
lifted
from the carbon and hydrogen by the action of the sun,

again
toward them, producing animal heat and de-
falls
veloping animal
phenomena
of
Through
forms.
vitality
this
produced while a weight
the most complicated
law runs
the
rises,
the
animal
vegetable
is
produced
is
here.
But the question is not exhausted

The water employed in our first illustration gen-
erates
all
while a weight
form
the
of the
falls.
motion
displayed in
its
descent,
motion depends on the character of the ma-
chinery interposed in the path of the water.

lar
way, the primary action of the sun's rays
by the atoms and molecules among which

distributed.
but the
In a simiis
qualified
their energy is
Molecular forces determine the form which
the solar energy will assume.
In the separation of the
carbon and oxygen this .energy

as to result in one
may be
so conditioned
case in the formation of a cabbage,
VITALITY
55
an oakc So also,
and the oxygen, the
and in another case in the formation
of
as regards the reunion of the carbon
molecular machinery through which the combining energy
may, in one
acts
in another
it
The matter
which
is
water,
and the
then,
not
from
the
tissues
rocks,
the
organic matter,
of
kind from those of inorganic matter?
different in
of
the
present day negatives the ques-
compounding, in the organic world,
tion.
It is the
forces
belonging
the
animal
the
the forces
inorganic
that of
is
in
derived
Are
air.
body
substance
primarily
The philosophy
tutes
no
is
of a frog, while
the texture of a man.
the animal
of
There
nature.
weave the texture
case,
may weave
equally to the
mystery and
portion of every animal

inorganic matter.
inorganic,
the miracle of
that
Every
vitality.
body may be reduced
perfect reversal of
of
consti-
to purely
process of
this
reduction would carry us from the inorganic to the organic;
and such a reversal
is
at least conceivable.
tendency, indeed, of modern science

wall of partition
is
to break
down
The
the
between organic and inorganic, and to
reduce both to the operation of forces which are the same

in kind, but
which are differently compounded.
Consider the question of personal identity, in relation

to that of
of
molecular form.
large
meanings into scanty
blood was "the

of
Thirty-four years ago, Mayer
Heilbronn, with that power of genius which breathes
oil of
facts,
lamp
the
which sustains muscular
pointed
out
of life," the
action.
that
the
combustion
The muscles
are the
machinery by which the dynamic power of the blood is

brought into play.
Thus the blood is consumed. But
the
whole
body,
though
more slowly than the blood,

number of years it
wastes also, so that after a certain
156
is
How
entirely renewed.
the sense of personal iden-
To man,
maintained across this flight of molecules?
tity
as
is
we know him, matter
is
necessary to consciousness;
may
but the matter of any period

consciousness
changing
depart,
that
seem
of
the
the same.
Constancy of
molecules,
and
molecules themselves,
Life
of perception.
tive
moments
of
changed, while
Like
continuity.
carbon
and thus, while the Non-ego
Ego remains
the
all
whisper their secret to their com-
to
rades that arrive,
grouping
of
oxygen, hydrogen, and
the
sentinels,
be
no solution
exhibits
is
form in the
constancy of
the
the correlative of this constancy
a wave which in no two consecu-
is
existence
its
not
shifts,
is
composed
of
same
the
particles.
Supposing, then, the molecules of
human body,
the
and thus renewing a preexisting form, to be gathered first hand from nature and
put together in the same relative positions as those which
they occupy in the body. Supposing them to have the
replacing
instead of
self-same
others,
and distribution
forces
motions and distribution of
of
the self-same
forces,
motions
would
this
organ-
ized concourse of molecules stand before us as a sentient
thinking being?
that
it
would
There seems no valid reason
to believe
Or, supposing a planet carved from
not.
the sun, set spinning round an axis, and revolving round

the
sun,
earth,
be the
at a
distance
from him equal
would one of the consequences of

development of organic forms?
our
to
that of
its
refrigeration
I lean to
the
Structural forces are certainly in the mass,
affirmative.
whether or not those forces reach to the extent of forming a plant
water
lie
or
latent
an
all
animal.
the
In an amorphous drop of
marvels
of
crystalline
force;
VITALITY
and who
will
set
limits to
the
planet?
If
cules in a cooling
because
is
it
matter
bj philosophers and
aware
that
it
been
has
bottom,
play of
possible
these statements
and
defined
who were
theologians,
at
is,
57
essentially
molestartle,
maligned
equally un-
and
mystical
transcendental.
Questions such as these derive
time,
to
And
disappear.
their present interest
which
in great part from their audacity,
is
sure, in
due
sooner the public dread
the
is
abolished with reference to such questions the better for the
As
cause of truth.
is
regards knowledge,
In one sense
polar.
knows, or
it
everything.
In another sense
understands
much
that
we
call
this
of
nature,
it
physical science
destined to know,
knows nothing.
Science
intermediate phase of
which
of
is
the
is
it
things
product;
but
knows nothing of the origin or destiny of nature.

Who or what made the sun, and gave his rays their alWho or what made and bestowed upon
leged power?
science
the ultimate particles of matter their wondrous
varied interaction?
of
Science does not know: the mystery,
though pushed back, remains unaltered.
who
power
To many
of us
more things in heaven and earth
feel that there are
than are dreamed of in the present philosophy of science,
but
vain
who have been

is
taught,
also
by
baffled
efforts,
how
the attempt to grapple with the Inscrutable, the
ultimate frame of
mind
"Who dares
Or
belief in
to
is
that of Groethe:
name His name,
Him
proclaim,
Veiled in mystery as
He
is,
Gleams across the mind His
the All-enfolder?
light,
Feels the lifted soul His might.
Dare
it
then deny His reign, the
All-upliolder?
As
I rode through the Schwarzwald, I said to myself:
That
little fire
which
dark-growing moor, where the sooty smith bends over

his anvil, and thou hopest to replace thy lost horseshoe is it a detached, separated speck, cut off from the whole Universe; or indissolubly joined to the whole?
glows
Thou
star-like across the
smithy- fire
fool, that
was
primarily kindled at the
Sun
is
fed
by
air that
from before Noah's Deluge, from beyond the Dogstar; therein, with
Iron Force, and Coal Force, and the far stranger Force of Man, are cunning
affinities and battles and victories of Force brought about; it is a little ganglion,
Call it, if thou wilt,
or nervous centre, in the great vital system of Immensity.
Detached, sepaan unconscious Altar, kindled on the bosom of the All
circulates
no such separation: nothing hitherto was ever stranded,

were it only a withered leaf, works together with all ia
I say there is
rated!
cast aside ; but
all,
borne forward on the bottomless, shoreless flood of action, and lives through
Caeltle
perpetual metamorphoses.
V
MATTER AND FORCE
is
IT of
'
the custom of the Professors in the Royal School
Mines in London to give courses of evening
lect-
The lecture-room
holds 600 people; and tickets to this amount are disposed of as quickly as they can be handed to those who
So desirous are the working men of
apply for them.
London to attend these lectures that the persons who
ures every year to working men.
fail
to
those
obtain tickets always bear a large proportion to
who
hold 2,000
one of
*
its
Indeed,
succeed.
instead
of
600,
if
the
lecture-room
could
do not doubt that every
benches would be occupied on these occasions.
A Lecture
delivered to the working
with additions.
(58)
men
of Dundee, September 5, 1867$
MATTER AND FORCE

It
59
moreover, worthy of remark that the lectures are
is,
but rarely of a character which could help the working
man
a nature which admits of
hardly ever of
money.
into
The information acquired
in his daily pursuits.
It
edge, as a thing good in
being turned
a pure desire for knowl-
therefore,
is,
itself,
and without regard to
which animates the hearers
practical application,
is
its
of these
lectures.
my
It is also
in
privilege to lecture to another audience
London, composed in part
of the aristocracy of rank,
while the audience just referred to
As
the aristocracy of labor.
is
composed wholly
of
regards attention and court-
esy to the lecturer, neither of these audiences has anything to learn of the other; neither can claim superiority
over the other.

to take those
as
men
would
samples
average
picked
It
the
their
of
events,
all
that the essential qualities of
stand
by
of
all
classes,
some process
of.
they
class;
of
labor,
as
are
I
what we
my mind
have
artisans as well
the community, and caused to
England under-
in
and they
as
lords,
could,
men
of
of
London
to
give
Dundee,
my
an
know
each other better.
other
evening
lecture
of the
to
the
experience of the working
naturally rose to
heavily weighted with
by
from the general mass
"When pressed some months ago by the Council

working men
just
the wish that the gentle-
of selection, be sifted
British Association
Mines
probably
conduct demonstrates
their
a gentleman are confined to no class;
have often raised in
men
perhaps, be quite correct
flock to the School of
aristocracy
At
called them.
not,
who
persons
my
duties,
mind; and, though

I
could
myself to decline the request of the Council.
not
bring
Hitherto,
the evening discourses of the Association have been de-
60
before
livered
after
working men,
our
its
members and
own
at their
Professor Huxley,
friend.
ing with
all
is
were addressed by
my
by
and
excellent
incorporat-
the idea arose of
subsequent meetings of the Association an
address to the working
meeting
where the
last year,
request,
Grove,
Mr.
President,
late
But
alone.
associates
meeting at Nottingham,
the
held.
men
of the
town
which the
in
resolution to that effect
was sent
to
the Committee of Eecommendations; the Committee sup-
ported the resolution; the Council of the Association

fied
the decision of the Committee;
carry out to the best of
Whether
velopment,
man
at
his
it
my
of
am
to
long- continued de-
endowment conferred once for all on

we find him here gifted with a
creation,
mind curious to know the causes of

rounded by objects which excite its
raise
ability their united wishes.
be a consequence
or an
and here
rati-
the desire for an
explanation.
and
sur-
questionings,
and
things,
It
is
related of a
young Prince of one of the Pacific islands that when he

first saw himself in a looking-glass he ran round the glass
And thus it is
to see who was standing at the back.
with the general human intellect, as regards the phenomena of the external world.
learn the causes
What
if
is
What
rain,
selves
is
wishes to get behind and
and connections
the sun, what
we came
It
to the edge
is
of
these
phenomena.
what should we see

the earth and looked over?
the earth,
of
the meaning of thunder and lightning, of hail,
storm,
and snow?
to early
men,
Such questions presented themit was discovered
and by and by
that this desire for knowledge was not implanted in vain.
After
many
trials it
became evident that man's capacities
MATTER AND FORCE
61
complement
were, so to speak, the
and
of nature's facts,
within certain limits, the secret of the universe was
that,
open to the human understanding.
mind
man had
of
It
was found that the
the power of penetrating far beyond
the boundaries of his five senses; that the things which
world depend for their action
seen in the material
are
upon things unseen;
that besides the
in short,
phenom-
ena which address the senses, there are laws and prin-
and processes which do not address the senses at

but which must be, and can be, spiritually discerned.
ciples
all,
To the subjects which require this discernment belong

the phenomena of molecular force.
But to trace the
genesis of the notions now entertained upon this subject, we have to go a long way back.
In the drawing
bow, the darting of a javelin, the throwing of a
of
stone
bats
in
the
even
lifting
savage
Ages
operation of force.
him
He
foresight.
of
burdens,
and
man became
laid
in personal
acquainted
at
with
the
moreover, taught
of discipline,
by
com-
the proper season stores
thus obtaining time to look about him, and to

become an observer and inquirer. Two things which he
noticed must have profoundly stirred his curiosity. He
of food,
found that a kind of resin dropped from a certain tree

possessed,
when
rubbed,
bodies
itself,
and of causing them
and he
similar
of
to
found
power
the
of
drawing
to
light
cling to
it;
stone
exerted a
power over a particular kind of metal.
I allude,
also
course,
that
particular
to electrified amber,
natural magnet, and
its
power
Previous experience of his
and
to the loadstone,
or
to attract particles of iron.
own muscles had enabled our
early inquirer to distinguish between a
Augmented experience showed him
push and a
pull.
that in the case oi
62
the magnet and the amber, pulls and pushes
and repulsions
were
and,
exerted;
also
poetic transfer, he applied
âttractions
of
things external to himself
to
conceptions derived from himself.
The magnet and
the
and pulling,
rubbed amber were credited with pushing

with exerting force.
in other words,
or,
by a kind
In the time of the great Lord Bacon the margin of
by Dr.
these pushes and pulls was vastly extended

bert, a
man probably
Bacon
insight, than
titude of other
of firmer scientific fibre,
of finer
Gilbert proved that a mul-
himself.
bodies,
and
Gil-
when rubbed, exerted
power
the
which, thousands of years previously, had been observed
In this way the notion of attraction and
in amber.
experience
a matter of
visible
of
bodies,
that
was
between which
no
possessed
link or connection existed,
acting
upon each other;
technically called
But out
'*
the
and the action came
power
to
be
action at a distance."
there grows some-
experience in science
of
re-
It
pulsion in external nature was rendered familiar.
Experience furnishes
thing finer than mere experience.
and
the soil for plants of higher growth;
this
observa-
tion of action at a distance provided material for speculation
upon the
served to
The
the
fall
earth was
moon
do so?
the earth.
proved
to revolve
What
into space?
to
Why
revolve
Supposing
it
should they do so?
round
the
earth.
Why
them from
flying
round the
prevents
Bodies were ob-
problems.
largest of
to
and
sun;
should they
straight
off
were ascertained that from a
part of the earth's rocky crust a firmly fixed and tightly

stretched
chain
started
toward
the
inclined to conclude that the earth
by
the chain
that
sun,
is
we might be
held in
its
orbit
the sun twirls the earth around him,
MATTER AND FORCE

boy
as a
without
distance,
Why
should
other?
not
the
intervention
the
sun and earth
and why should not the
height be the
result of
their
Here then we reach one

which grow out of the
Having
It is
experience that bodies can attract each other
a fact of
a
round his head a bullet at the end of a
twirls
But why should the chain be needed?
string.
at
63
started
with
the
attraction
fruitful
by
the
earth?
speculations
observation.
of
soil
savage, and
each
attract
bodies from a
higher
those
of
so
of
fall
any chain.
of
his sensations of
muscular force, we pass on to the observation of force
between a magnet and rubbed
amber and the

bodies which they attract, rising, by an unbroken growth
of ideas, to a conception of the force by which sun and
exerted
planets are held together.
This idea of attraction between sun and planets had
become familiar
examine the
to
in the time of
He
Newton.
and
attraction;
here,
set himself
elsewhere,
as
#e
find the speculative mind falling back for its materials

upon experience. It had been observed, in the case of
magnetic and electric bodies, that the nearer they were
brought together the stronger was the force exerted between them; while, by increasing the distance, the force
diminished until
became
it
sun would
Guesses
had
be
made
as
their
to
which the force varied with the
the
distance
exact
distance;
test of
and
of the
a body close to
Comparing the pull

its
surface, with its pull
240,000 miles away,
Newton
the
asunder.
manner in
Newton
but
supplemented the guess by the severe

calculation.
infer-
between the earth and
by
influenced
been
Hence the
insensible.
ence that the assumed pull
experiment
upon
upon the moon,
earth
rigidly established the law
64
of variation with
result
of
which,
indeed,
other
for
constituted
the
his
way
the
attract
some
conceptions,
necessary
stepping-
and the
that not only does the sun attract the earth,
earth
to this
The one which here concerns us
stones to his result.

is,
But on
the distance.
Newton found room
sun,
as
wholes^
but every particle of
the san attracts every particle of the earth, and the reverse.
His
conclusion
masses was simply the
was
that
sum
of
the
attraction
of
the attractions of
the
their
constituent particles.
This
wonder
result
at
my
seems so obvious that you will perhaps

dwelling upon
it;
but
turning point in our notions of force.
it
really
marks a
You have
prob-
ably heard of certain philosophers of the ancient world
named Democritus, Epicurus, and

adopted,
developed,
Lucretius.
These men
and diffused the doctrine
of
atoms
its
consummation at the
But the Greek
John Dal ton.
and Eoman philosophers I have named, and their followers, up to the time of Newton, pictured their atoms
and molecules,
hands of the
as falling
which found
illustrious
and flying through space, hitting each
and clinging together by imaginary hooks and
other,
claws.
They missed the central idea that atoms and molecules

could come together, not by being fortuitously knocked
against each other, but by their own mutual attractions.
This is one of the great steps taken by Newton. He
familiarized the world
with the conception of
molecular
force.
Newton, you know, was preceded by a grand fellow

named John Kepler a true working man who, by analyzing the astronomical observations of his master, Tycho
Brahe, had actually found that the planets moved as they
MATTER AND FORCE

now known
are
to
65
Kepler knew as
move.
Newton
the motion of the ph\nets as
much about
did; in fact, Kepler
taught Newton and the world generally the facts of plan-
But
etary motion.
arose
Why
should the facts be so?
question for Newton, and
renders his
The question
was not enough.
this
This was the great
was the solution of
it
which
it
Starting from the
name and fame immortal.
principle that every particle of matter in the solar system

attracts
every other particle by a force which varies as
the inverse square of the distance between the particles,
he proved that the planetary motions must be what observation
makes them
toward the
fell
sun,
to be.
He showed
and that the planets
earth,
moon
that the
fell
toward the
through the operation of the same force that pulls
an apple from
its
This all-pervading force, which
tree.
forms the solder of the material universe, and the conception of which was necessary to Newton's intellectual
peace,
is
called the force of gravitation.
Gravitation
is
but in
a purely attractive force,
elec-
and magnetism, repulsion had been always seen

accompany attraction. Electricity and magnetism are
tricity
to
double or polar
In the case of magnetism, expe-
forces.
rience soon pushed the
mind beyond the bounds
perience, compelling
to
it
the magnet was resident in

netized strip of steel by
of the strip attracts,
dle,
find
netic needle,
of
its
is
which wholly
molecules.
and
entire
break the
which a
hold a mag-
find that one half
and the other half
that this half,
throughout
its
its centre,
end of a magnetic needle.
of ex-
conclude that the polarity of
repels, the north

strip in the
moment ago
mid-
attracted
length the north pole of a mag-
now divided
attracts,
into
two new halves, one
and the other
of
which wholly
FRAGMENTS Oi SCIENCE
66
The
repels, the north pole of the needle.
be as perfect a magnet as the whole.

this half
and go on
half proves to
You may
break
further breaking becomes impos-
till
through the very smallness of the fragments;
sible
smallest fragment
the
found endowed with two poles, and
is
But you cannot stop

here: you imagine where you cannot experiment; and
reach the conclusion entertained by all scientific men,
that the magnet which you see and feel is an assemblage of molecular magnets which you cannot see and
feel, but which, as before stated, must be intellectually
magnet.
a perfect
therefore,
is,
discerned.
Magnetism then
is
a polar force;
may
that a force of this kind
power.
It
called,
lines,
*
ers,
known,
is
for
round a magnet
strewn
'lines
by some,
of magnetic
example,
arrange
**
and experience hints
exert a certain structural

that
iron
themselves
in
filings
definite
magnetic curves," and, by oth-
Over two magnets now
force."
before
me
filings
over the paper, polar force comes into play, and
spread a sheet of
is
term
then
of
exerted
is
immediately,
architectural
on the part
of
fact
of
experience
furnishes
operate upon, rendering

clearness
Scattering iron
We
the iron responds to that force.
every particle of
have a kind
paper.
effort
the
iron
which,
may
îf
filings.
as
you
further material for the

it
use
the
Here
will
mind
see
to
possible to attain intellectual
and repose, while speculating upon apparently
remote phenomena.
The magnetic
ble to the eye.
force has here acted
upon
particles visi-
But, as already stated, there are numer-
ous processes in nature which entirely elude the eye of

the body, and
must be figured by the eye
of the mind.
MATTER AND FORCE

The
67
Long
processes of chemistry are examples of these.
thinking and experimenting has led philosophers to conclude
matter
that
composed
is
of
from which,
atoms
whether separate or in combination, the whole material

world
The
built up.
is
air
we
breathe, for example,
is
mainly a mechanical mixture of the atoms of oxygen and
The water we drink is also composed of oxyBut it differs from the air in this
particular, that in water the oxygen and hydrogen are
not mechanically mixed, but chemically combined. The
nitrogen.
gen and hydrogen.
atoms of oxygen and those of hydrogen exert enormous
on each
attractions
so
other,
proximity they rush
sufficient
force
incredible
powerful as
is
when brought
together with
force with
an
into
almost
But
compound.
form a chemical
to
the
that
which these atoms lock
themselves together, we have the means of tearing them

asunder, and the agent
by which we accomplish
this
may
here receive a few moments' attention.

Into a vessel containing acidulated water I dip two
metal, the one being zinc
strips of
num, not
permitting
them
to
touch
and the other

each
two upper ends
plati-
other in the
by
The wire is now the channel of
what, for want of a better name, we call an "electric curWhat the inner change of the wire is we do not
rent."
know, but we do know that a change has occurred, by
the external effects produced by the wire.
Let me show
you one or two of these effects. Before you is a series
liquid.
I connect the
of
the strips
a piece of copper wire.
of ten vessels,
to get the
each with
added force
of
called a voltaic battery.
among
its
these iron filings;
all
pair of metals,
ten.
and
wish
The arrangement
is
I plunge a piece of copper wire
they refuse to cling to
it.
68
employ the self-same wire to connect the two ends of

The iron
the battery, and subject it to the same test.
I
filings now crowd round the wire and cling to it.
interrupt the current, and the filings immediately fall;
the power
of
continues only so long as the
attraction
wire connects the two ends of the battery.
Here
is
a piece of similar wire, overspun with cotton,
to prevent the contact of
into a coil.
make
its
various parts, and formed
the coil part of the wire which con-
By
nects the two ends of the voltaic battery.

tive force with
it
now
which
it
the attrac-
has become suddenly endowed,
empties this tool-box of
covered copper wire round this
its
iron nails.
common
I twist a
poker; connect-
ing the wire with the two ends of the voltaic battery, the
poker
is
are
here suspended facing each other, about
Sending a current through both
inches apart.
six
they
rals,
Two
instantly transformed into a strong magnet.
flat spirals
clash
suddenly
reversing
together;
spi-
what
is
called the direction of the current in one of the spirals,
they
asunder.
fly
which we name an
All these
electric current,
as flowing through the wire
when
due
to the
power
and which we
figure
efiects are
the voltaic circuit
is
complete.
By
of a
the same agent
we
chemical compound.
tear asunder the locked atoms
Into this small
ing water, dip two thin wires.

cell is
cell,
contain-
magnified image of the
thrown upon the screen before you, and you see
plainly the images of the wires.
From
a small battery I
send an electric current from wire to wire.
Bubbles of
gas rise immediately from each of them, and these are

the two
oxygen
gases
is
of
which the water
is
composed.
The
always liberated on the one wire, the hydro-
MATTER AND FORCE

gen on the
other.
separately or
mixed.
bubble
with
filled
ing a taper
The
gases
may be
place
upon
mixture of
the
The atoms have rushed

without injury to
my
they were extracted
balls
Applyis
heard.
and
detonation,
of the rushing together of the atoms
What
this
is
They
point of
draw them thus apart
strings.
Here
heat?
from the same
suspended
them.
liberate
explosion
the result of their reunion.
support by two short
and then
hand a soap
and the water from which
the development of heat.
are two ivory
my
together with
hand,
is
One consequence
is
collected either
both gases.
a loud
the bubble,
to
69
clash together,
by
but,
virtue of their elasticity, they quickly recoil, and a sharp
This experiment
vibratory rattle succeeds their collision.
you
will enable
We
atoms.
to figure to
have, in the
atom toward the other

usually called
of
heat.
mind
with
then
To
vibration.
this
your mind a pair of clashing

place, a
first
motion of the one
motion of translation, as
a recoil,
we give
the
name
Thus, three things are to be kept before the
first,
atoms
the
which they
themselves;
each
attract
motion must be figured
and then
as
give the
name
first
a motion of
of
secondly,
and,
other;
molecules from coming
is
liquid.
loses
its
But
motion,
the
force
the
thirdly,
force.
This
motion of translation,
to
which
latter
we
after the act of
to
prevent the
the water
being main-
so violent as
together,
tained in a state of vapor.

in other, words,
as a
vibration,
For some time
heat.
combination this motion
form a
is
and afterward a motion of
vibratory motion
motion consequent upon the exertion of that
to
it
as
the vapor cools, or,
the molecules coalesce
70
And now we
As
of force.
or vaporous
approach a new and wonderful display
long as the substance remains in a liquid

condition,
the
withdrawn, the molecules
play of
But
gether masked and hidden.
this
force
as the heat
is
alto-
gradually
is
new arrangements
prepare for
and combinations. Solid crystals of water are at length

formed, to which we give the familiar name of ice.
Looking
at
these
beautiful
edifices
and
their
internal
mind has forced upon it the

they built up?
We have obtained
polar force; and we infer from our
pondering
structure,
the
question,
How
are
clear conceptions of
broken magnet that polar force may be resident in the

molecules or smallest
particles
matter,
of
and that by
the play of this force structural arrangement
What,
possible.
is
in relation to our present question, is the natural
action of a
mind furnished with
this
knowledge?
It is
compelled to transcend experience, and endow the atoms
and molecules of which
are built with
crystals
poles whence issue attractions and repulsions.

of
these
tously,
ance
to
molecule,
not
but silently and
with
human
are
laws
builder
more
symmetrically, and
rigid
when he
boisterously or fortui-
and
repelling,
places
structural power.
his
Hardly
less
materials
this
wonderful
is
town
of
accord-
guide a
together.
Dundee
Imagine them attracting
and arranging themselves
houses and Kinnaird Halls
in
those which
than
Imagine the bricks and stones of
endowed with
In virtue
drawn together, while

from each other; atom is added to atom,
forces
some retreat
and molecule
some poles
definite
would
into streets
and
not that be wonderful?
the play of force
by which
the
molecules of water build themselves into the sheets of ice
which every winter roof your ponds and
lakes.
MATTER AND FORCE

could show you the actual
If I
lecular architecture, its beauty
you.
progress of this mowould delight and astonish
The molecules
a piece of
of
beam
they separate, you
which
manner
infer the
is
may
some extent
to
When
which they go together.
in
sent from our electric
beam
the
glass, a portion of
ice
and from the man-
be taken asunder before your eyes;

in
may be
may
reversal of the process of crystallization
actually shown.
ner
71
is
lamp through a
plate of
and the
intercepted,
glass
warmed by the portion thus retained within it. When

beam is sent through a plate of ice, a portion of the
beam is also absorbed; but instead of warming the ice,
is
the
heat
the intercepted
delicate
action of this
silent
now wish
melts
to direct
it
internally.
beam within
your attention.
beam
ing
and enables us
is
it,
to the
work
silently,
to
the screen
is
the light
ice:
form the image; but the heat
intercepted,
and that heat now applies
of internal liquefaction.
tain points for attack,
works
the
to
passes freely through the ice without melt-
in great part
itself
of
is
the ice that I
Upon
thrown a magnified image of the slab

of the
It
Selecting cer-
round about those points the beam
undoing the crystalline architecture, and
reducing to the freedom of liquidity molecules which had
The
been previously locked in a solid embrace.

spaces are rendered visible
by strong
liquefied
illumination.
Ob-
serve those six-petalled flowers breaking out over the white

surface,
and expanding in
continues.
beam
Under the
size as the action of the
These flowers are liquefied
ice.
action of the heat the molecules of the crystals fall asunder,
We
so
as
to
leave behind them these
exquisite forms.
have here a process of demolition which clearly
veals the reverse process of construction.
In
re-
this fashion^
72
in strict accordance with this
and
moleciile takes
ice
place
its
To use
during the frosts of winter.
American
of
the language of an
"the atoms march in tune," moving to
poet,
music
the
hexangular type, every
upon our ponds and lakes
commonest
which thus renders the
law,
substance in nature a miracle of beauty.

as some think, to
wonder and mystery, but, as
in the case before us, to point out the wonder and the
mystery of common things. Those fern-like forms, which
on a frosty morning overspread your window-panes, illusBreathe upon such a
trate the action of the same force.
and
reduce the solid
pane before the fires are lighted,
It
is
the function of science, not,
divest this universe of
crystalline
film to the
its
liquid condition;
You
subsequent resolidification.
will see
then watch
it all
its
the better
you look at it through a common magnifying glass.

After you have ceased breathing, the film, abandoned
if
to
the action of
to be alive.
own
its
appears for a
Lines of motion run through
closes with molecule,
from the
forces,
through
moment
molecule
whole film passes
until finally the
state of liquidity,
it;
this state of motion,
to its final crystalline repose.

I can
show you something
Over a piece of
which cer-
similar.
perfectly clean glass I pour a little water in

tain
crystals
have been dissolved.
tion clings to the glass.
By means
The beam
glass, Îso heats it;
of the solu-
of a microscope
lamp, an image of the plate of glass

screen.
film
is
and a
thrown upon the
of the lamp, besides illuminating the
evaporation sets
in,
moment, when the solution has become
and
at a certain
supersaturated,
splendid branches of crystal shoot out over the screen.
dozen square fêt of surface are now covered by those
MATTER AND FORCE

solution
feathered right and
spears,
From
With another
forms.
beautiful
talline
73
left
we obtain crysbj other spears.
nuclei in the middle of the field of view
distant
the spears shoot with magical rapidity in all directions.
The
on a window-pane on a frosty morning
film of water
exhibits
quite as wonderful as these.
effects
these formless
latent
solutions,
in
every drop of water,
marvellous structural power, which only requires
lies this
the withdrawal of opposing forces to bring
The
it
into action.
now held up before you is a solution

silver a compound of silver and nitric acid.
clear liquid
of nitrate of
When
Latent in
an electric current
is
from the
silver is severed
sent through this liquid the
acid,
as the
hydrogen was
arated from the oxygen in a former experiment;
would ask you

its
how
observe
to
cell,
liquid
of
and
the
of
the
two wires which dip into the
are
now
through the liquid.

silver tree
clearly
circuit,
From one
of
shown upon the
and send the current

the wires a beautiful
Branches
commences immediately to sprout.
are thrown out, and umbrageous foliage
metal
of the
loads
free.
cell,
Let us close the
screen.
when
The image
the metal behaves
molecules are thus successively set
of the
sep-
and I
the
branches.
You have
ently as wonderful as that

in a
minute before your
trate
of
silver
acetate
of
eyes.
of lead,
here a growth,
appar-
any vegetable, perfected

Substituting for the ni-
which
is
compound
of
lead and acetic acid, the electric current severs the lead
from the
acid,
and you
see
the metal slowly branching
into exquisite metallic ferns, the fronds of which, as they
become too heavy, break from their roots and fall to the
bottom of the cell.
These experiments show that the common matter of
Science
VI
74
our earth
Thoughts,"
molecules
brute matter," as Dr. Young, in his
**
are
when
Night
atoms
and
permitted to bring their forces into
free
pleased
is
**
to
call
it
its
play, arranges itself, under the operation of these forces,
into forms
which
rival in
And what
world.
result of
is
the vegetable world itself but the
the complex play of
moves
force that
and
it,
if
table or mineral, is produced,
The
solid
matter moves
if
a certain structure, vege-
through the operation
it is
matter of which our lead and silver trees
formed was, in
transparent liquid;
and
forces?
exerted between the atoms and molecules.
of the forces
were
molecular
these
throughout nature,
Here, as elsewhere
it is
beauty those of the vegetable
the
the solid matter of which our
composed
forests are
disguised in a
instance,
first
guised in a transparent
for the
also,
is
gas,
which
is
most
mixed
quantities with the air of our atmosphere.
formed by the
called carbonic
union
carbon
of
and
small
in
This gas
and
oxygen,
The carbonic
acid gas.
woods
part, dis-
is
is
the air
acid of
being subjected to an action somewhat analogous to that
and
of the electric current in the case of our lead
solutions, has its carbon liberated

fibre.
The watery vapor
lar action;
down
its
hydrogen
and deposited
as
silver
woody
of the air is subjected to simi-
is
liberated
from
its
oxygen, and
by side with the carbon in the tissues of

the tree. The oxygen in both cases is permitted to wander away into the atmosphere. But what is it in nature
lies
side
that plays the part of the electric current in our experi-
ments, tearing asunder the locked atoms of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen?
of plants,
The rays
of
the sun.
The
leaves
which absord both the carbonic acid and the
aqueous vapor of the
air,
answer to the
cells
in which
MATTER AND FORCE

our decompositions took
in
And
place.
and
lar attractions of the silver
tlie
75
just as tlie molecu-
lead found expression
those beautiful branching forms seen in our experi-
do the molecular attractions of the liberated
ments, so
carbon and hydrogen find expression in the architecture

of grasses, plants,
In the
fall
and
trees.
and the rush of the wind we
of a cataract
have examples
of
tions of chemistry
mechanical
and
in
the formation of
vegetables
we have examples
have learned how the atoms
of
rush together to form water.
essary to dwell
of
to
You
oxygen
and
hydrogen
have not thought
form 9
lbs.
may
it
that the clashing together of 1
oxygen
and
crystals
molecular power.
nec-
it
upon the mighty mechanical energy
their act of combination; but
of
combina-
In the
power.
of
lb. of
be
said,
hydrogen and 8
aqueous
vapor
of
in passing,
is
lbs.
greater
than the shock of a weight of 1,000 tons falling from a

height of 20 feet against the earth.
Now,
in order that
the atoms of oxygen and hydrogen should rise
mutual attractions
to
enormous mechanical
between the
velocity
is
effect,
a certain distance
It is in
particles.
by
their
the velocity corresponding to this
must
exist
rushing over this that the
attained.
This idea of distance between the attracting atoms

of the highest
tem
importance in our conception of the
of the world.
classified
For the matter
under two distinct heads
of the
not
attractions,
yet
therefore,
combined,
sys-
may
be
atoms and molecules
which have already combined and thus

mutual
world
is
satisfied
their
and atoms and molecules which have

and whose
unsatisfied.
Now,
as
mutual attractions
regards
motive
are,
power,

76
we
on atoms and molecules of
are entirely dependent
the
Their attractions can produce motion,
kind.
latter
because sufficient distance intervenes between the attract-
atomic motion that we utilize in

Thus we can get power out of oxygen
and hydrogen by the act of their union; but once they
ing atoms, and
it is this
our machines.
and once the vibratory motion consequent
are combined,
on their combination
dynamic
agents
earth's
crust
whose
atoms
whose mutual
stance,
sists,
cium,
for
are
great part,
and
of
The
materials of
the
most
part
atoms
Limestone
for in-
but granite conpotassium,
united
long
composed
is
In
therefore finally at rest.
this
of
satisfy
ourselves
power in ages
past,
halt for a
and are
the
earth's
moment
turning
their
power
think,
use.
Those who entertain
an overweening
opinion of
tance in the system of nature.
men saw them, and the

man could utilize it is
to
power no longer. And here

to remark on that tendency,
so prevalent in the world, to regard everything as
human
crust,
and long before any creature ap-
account, they are sources of
we might
union,
that though they were sources of
peared on the earth capable of
car-
way we might go over
nearly the whole of the materials of
for
cal-
ago,
oxygen, and a metal called calcium, the atoms of
which have already closed in chemical
and
union
Granite,
oxygen,
silicon,
substances
of
chemical
in
satisfied.
whose
aluminium,
and are therefore dead.

bon,
As
already closed
attractions
further
attraction.
dead.
the
no
expended,
mutual
a widely diffused substance;
is
in
their
of
they are
consist
have
been
has
power can be got out
this notion,
their
made
hold,
own impor-
Flowers bloomed before
quantity of power wasted before

all
but
infinite
compared with
MATTER AND FORCE
We
what now remains.
men
but as honest
it
77
are truly heirs of all the ages;
behooves us to learn the extent of
our inheritance, and as brave ones not to whimper
if
it
than we had supposed.
The healthy
mind with reference to this subject is that
the poet, who, when asked whence came the rhodora,
should prove
less
attitude of
of
joyfully acknowledged his brotherhood with the flower
Why
I
thou wert there,
rival of the rose
never thought to ask,
But
in
my
never knew.
simple ignorance supposed
The self-same power
that brought
me
there
brought you.^
few exceptions to the general
molecules of the earth's crust
residue
remain.
still
these
are
They
power.
By
our beds of
coal.
sources of motive
of
vast
union of the
in relation to us, but
comparison to the total store of which they are
trivial in
the
state of
constitute
far
our
main
most important
the
Distance
still
intervenes
between the atoms of carbon and those of atmospheric

oxygen, across which the atoms may be urged by their
mutual
attractions;
produced.
and we can
utilize
the motion thus
Once the carbon and the oxygen have rushed

form carbonic acid, their mutual attrac-
together, so as to
tions are satisfied;

dition, as
and, while they continue in this con-
dynamic agents they
forests are also sources of
have the power
are dead.
Our woods and
mechanical energy, because they
of uniting with the atmospheric oxygen.
Passing from plants to animals, we find that the source

of motive
power
just referred to
Emerson.
is
also the
source
of
78
muscular power.
horse can perform work, and so can
but this work
a man;
bottom the molecular work of
is at
the transmuted food and the oxygen of the

hale
vital
this
and
gas,
bring
into
it
We
air.
in-
close
sufficiently
proximity with the carbon and the hydrogen of the body.
These unite in obedience to their mutual attractions; and

motion
their
toward each other, properly turned to
ac-
count by the wonderful mechanism of the body, becomes
muscular motion.
One fundamental
ments: there
This
ancient
the
is
comes;
thought
maxim
that
neither
there a creation of
men and
so do
separates the carbon from
and
thus
enables
they recombine
in the animal
duce
is
holtz,
the sun.
oxygen
the
them
to
of
In
of
we
carbonic
Whether
steam-engine
or
power they pro-
are all "souls of fire
But, as remarked by Helm-
the sun."
we must be content
the
recombine.
furnace of the
this sense
the sun that
It is
body, the origin of the
the same.
and children
the
in
we have new power

earth.
But its source,
here
upon the
is
is
Trees grow, and
motion.
and
stated,
of
plant nor in the animal
or
force
horses;
have already
acid,
state-
spring.
that out of nothing nothing
the
in
incessantly introduced
as I
all
power produced without the expenditure
is
power;
these
all
organic world nor in the in-
that neither in the
organic
pervades
one tap-root from which they
is
to share
our
celestial pedigree
with the meanest of living things.
Some
shrink
presses
persons,
from accepting
frightened
called
estimable
by
their
materialism
something
here
these
apparent
very possibly
they
statements;
may be
tendency toward what
word which,
very
present,
dreadful.
to
many
But
it
minds,
is
ex-
ought to be
MATTER AND FORCE

known and avowed
must be a pure
such,
physical
the
that
79
philosopher,
His
materialist.
inquiries
deal
alone.
And
them
whatever be the forms which matter and
matter
with
and
and. with
force,
as
force assume,
whether in the organic world or the inorganic, whether
and
in the coal-beds
forests of the earth, or in the brains
and muscles of men, the physical philosopher
good
his right to investigate
to
upon
a chemist,
if
it,
them.
inquiry in
to attempt
stop
It
this
will
make
perfectly vain
is
Depend
direction.
by bringing the proper materials

make a baby, he
together in a retort or crucible, could
would do
it.
There
ding him to do
no doubt,
is
no law, moral or physical, forbid-
At
it.
the present
moment
experimenting on the
persons
producing what we
call
possibility
out of inorganic
life
Let them pursue their studies in peace;

such
trials
that they will learn the
and the
powers
operation
there are,
their
own
matter
and
of
limits
laws
the
of
of
only by
is
it
of
materials.
force.
But while thus making the
dom
of investigation
while
largest
demand
for free-
I consider science to be alike
powerful as an instrument of intellectual culture and as a

ministrant to the material wants of men;
whether
it
has solved, or
is
the problem of this universe,
You remember
doubt.
when
savans
the
the
it
to their
own apparent
gentlemen;
remains
and
and
science
"It
is
head in
question,
Egypt
dis-
universe,
and
to
satisfaction.
said,
but who made these?"
unanswered,
the
to solve,
my
Napoleon's
who accompanied him
aloft to the starry heavens,
day
must shake
first
cussed in his presence the origin of

solved
you ask me
if
likely in our
all
He
looked
very well,
That question still

makes no attempt to
80
answer
As
it.
human
the
mind
problem.
man may
of
can
which
intellect
of the
lution
far as
there
see,
is
fit
no quality
transcends
The
ns.
be compared to a musical instrument
with a certain range of notes, beyond which in both
we have an
rections
we will at all hazards push our

But behind, and above, and around all, the
mystery of
we
this universe lies unsolved,
mystery as you
incapable of solution.
will,
with that I have
your conception
let
Invest
that
conception
but
thought,
be
than
about
it
above
all
and, as far as
is
are concerned,
But
within our intellectual range,
far as they reach
inquiries.
real
lie
di-
The phenom-
infinitude of silence.
ena of matter and force
and as
in
to be applied to the so-
entirely
It
is
of
is
of
given to
nothing to do.
not be an unworthy one.
it
with
careful
Fashion this
your highest and holiest

pretending
man
to
know more
Be careful,
to
know.
of professing to see in the
things,
phenomena
of the material world the evidences of Divine pleasure or
Doubt those who would deduce from the

fall of the tower of Siloam the anger of the Lord against
Doubt equally those who prethose who were crushed.
tend to see in cholera, cattle- plague, and bad harvests,
evidences of Divine anger. Doubt those spiritual guides
who in Scotland have lately propounded the monstrous
displeasure.
theory that the depreciation of railway scrip
quence of railway travelling on Sundays.

as
far
as
you
are
ing the
puerile
soul,
Let them not,
Looking from the

and
into this highest of questions,
attempts
might the mightiest
and earnest
a conse-
concerned, libel the system of nature
with their ignorant hypotheses.

tudes of thought
is
of
often
living
made
to
solve
Scotchmen
who has made every
that
it,
soli-
see-
well
strong
soul of like nat-
MATTER AND FORCE
81
ure in these islands his debtor well, I say, might

jour
noble old Carljle scornfully retort on such interpreters

of
the ways of God to men:
The Builder
He formed
of this universe
all
souls,
The plan he formed
all
was
his worlds
Wa8 Heavens ! was
wise,
systems, planets,
and
ôns
particles;
by,
thy small nine- and- thirty articles!
Here, indeed,
we arrive at
who seek
out; ahke to those
and
to those
who
the barrier which needs to be perpetually pointed

materialistic explanations of mental
by their fear, almost as much as the

they believe Mind may possibly be interpreted
class prove
many whom they

is
may be
are alarmed lest such explanations

first
in
phenomena,
The
found.
last
prove by their hope, that
terms of Matter; whereas
vituperate as materialists are profoundly convinced that there
Herbert Spencer.
not the remotest possibility of so interpreting them,
VI
SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM
1SG8
THE
celebrated Fichte, in Lis lectures on the "Voca-
tion of the Scholar," insisted
on a culture which
should be not one-sided, but all-sided.

ar's intellect
direction
gle
was
to
only.
expand
In
spherically,
one
The
and not
in a sin-
however,
direction,
schol-
Fichte
required that the scholar should apply himself directly

nature,
to
become
and thus
a creator of knowledge,
re-
pay, by original labors of his own, the immense debt he
owed to the labors of others. It was these which enabled

him to supplement the knowledge derived from his own
so as to render his culture rounded
researches,
and not
one-sided.
As
regards
illustrated
science,
by the
Association.
We
Fichte' s idea
constitution
is
to
and labors
some extent
of the British
have here a body of men engaged in
the pursuit of Natural Knowledge, but variously engaged.

'
President's Address to the Mathematical and Physical Section of the
British Association at Norwich.
(82)
88
While sympathizing with each of its departments, and

supplementing his culture bj knowledge drawn from all
of them, each student among us selects one subject for
the exercise of his
one
own
original faculty
which he may carry the

a
little
way
his private intelligence
light of
into the darkness
by which
all
knowledge
is
Thus, the geologist deals with the rocks;
surrounded.
the biologist with the conditions and
phenomena
the astronomer with stellar masses and motions
ematician with the relations of
chemist pursues his atoms;
own
tor has his
space and
of
life;
the math-
number;
the
while the physical investiga-
large field in optical, thermal, electrical,
and other phenomena.
acoustical,
along
line,
The
British Associa-
tion then, as a whole, faces physical nature on all sides,
and pushes knowledge centrifugally outward, the sum of

its labors constituting what Fichte might call the sphere
of
In the meetings of the Associa-
natural knowledge.
tion
it
is
found necessary to resolve
component
parts,
which take
this sphere into its
concrete
form under the
respective letters of our Sections.
Mathematics and Physics have been long accustomed
and
to coalesce,
how
we observe
matter
that of
subtle a natural
it
in
is
sense,
be,
or follow
No
whether
it
into
in the long run reducible to
But the mechanical data once guessed
mathematics are all-powerful as an instrument
The command
of deduction.
tions of space,
sis
it
section.
phenomenon may
the region of
imagination,
mechanical laws.
or given,
they form a single
here
confers,
of Greometry over the rela-
and the far-reaching power which Analy-
are
potent
of
reaping
both as means of
covery,
and
Indeed,
without mathematics,
the
entire
fruits
physical disof
discovery.
expressed or implied, our

84
knowledge
would be
of physical science
botli friable
and
incomplete.
we have
Side by side witli tbe mathematical method
method
the
own
He
ponders
push
to
tries
the
further;
it
guess; he conjectures,
leaps in the
faint light
he
this
he
guesses,
verifi-
and
possesses,
and
checks
and confirms or explodes
dark;
beyond
for
its
knowledge once gamed
own immediate
no discovery so limited as not
beyond
is
knowledge
his
his con-
These guesses and conjectures are by no means
jecture.
is
researches or those of others, the
proceeds by combining intuition and
investigator
cation.
Here from a starting-point
experiment.
of
furnished by his
itself.
The
casts
There
boundaries.
to illuminate
something
force of intellectual penetration
into
penumbral region which surrounds actual knowledge
not,
some seem
as
to think,
dependent upon method,
but upon the genius of the investigator.

ever,
no genius so gifted as not
fication.
to
at all times their ways,
est flashes in the
is,
need control and
The profoundest minds know
ways are not
There
howveri-
best that Nature's
and that the bright-
world of thought are incomplete until
they have been proved to have their counterparts in the
world of
talist
Thus the vocation
fact.
may be
of the true experimen-
defined as the continued exercise of spirit-
ual insight, and
its
incessant
correction
and
realization.
His experiments constitute a body, of which his purified

intuitions are, as
it
were, the soul.
Partly through mathematical
perimental research, physical
and partly through ex-
science has,
of
assumed a momentous position in the world.

material and in an intellectual point of view
duced, and
it
is
destined to produce,
late
years,
Both
it
in a
has pro-
immense changes
85
rast social ameliorations, and vast alterations in

ular conception
of
natural things.
By
acles are wrought,
the origin,
science,
pop-
tlie
and governance
rule,
in the
of
physical world, mir-
while philosophy
forsaking
is
its
an-
metaphysical channels, and pursuing others which
cient
have been opened,
or
by
indicated,
research.
scientific
This must become more and more the case as philosoph-
become more deeply imbued with the meth-
ical writers
ods of science,
scientific
better acquainted
men have
with the facts which

and with the great the-
established,
which they have elaborated.
ories
If
you look
you
at the face of a watch,
hour
see the
and minute hands, and possibly also a second hand, moving
Why
do these hands move
over the
graduated
and why
are their relative motions such as they are ob-
served to be
dial.
These questions cannot be answered with-
out opening the watch, mastering
its
various parts, and
When
ascertaining their relationship to each other.

is
done,
we
find that the observed motion of the
follows of necessity from the inner
mechanism
when acted upon by the force invested

The motion of the hands may be called
of
art,
nature.
their
but the case
These
store
ultimate
of
also
force
hands
watch
the spring.
a phenomcxion
similar with the
problem of physical
combined action
in
of the
this
phenomena of
have their inner mechanism and
to set that mechanism going.
The
is
mechanism, to discern
the
science
this store,
of both,
is
to
reveal
to show
phenomena
and
the
from
that,
of
this
which
they constitute the basis, must, of necessity, flow.

I thought an attempt to give
sketchy
illustration
of
the
you even
manner
in
which
brief
and
scientific
thinkers regard this problem would not be uninteresting.
86
you on the present occasion; more especially as it will

give me occasion to say a word or two on the tendencies
to
and
limits
which men
is
futile to
modern
of
science
science;
to
point out the region
claim as their own, and where
it
oppose their advance; and also to define,
if
the bourne between this and that other region,
possible,
to
of
which the questionings and yearnings
of the scientific
intellect are directed in vain.
But here your tolerance will be needed.

American Emerson, I think, who said that
possible to state
and many
was the
is
hardly
any truth strongly, without apparent

Truth
justice to some other truth.
character, taking
It
it
the form of
often of
magnet with two
which
of the differences
is
agitate
in-
a dual
poles;
the thinking
mankind are to be traced to the exclusiveness

with which partisan reasoners dwell upon one half of the
The proper course
duality in forgetfulness of the other.
part of
appears to be to state
each
its
both halves strongly, and allow
fair share in the
viction.
But
formation of the resultant con-
this waiting for the statement of the two
sides of a question implies patience.
tion to suppress indignation,
if
It implies a resolu-
the statement of the one
clash with our convictions; and to repress

undue
elation, if the half-statement should hapequally
pen to chime in with our views. It implies a determinahalf
should
tion to wait calmly for the statement of the whole, before
we pronounce judgment
in the
form
of either acquiescence
or dissent.
This premised, and I trust accepted,
our task.
Pyramids
let
us enter upon
There have been writers who affirmed that the

of
early youth
Egypt were natural productions; and in his

Alexander von Humboldt wrote a learned
essay with
We
now
the
express
regard
the
object of
87
refuting
notion.
this
Pyramids as the work
men's
of
hands, aided probably by machinery of which no record

remains.
We
picture to ourselves the
toiling at those
and,
vast erections,
swarming workers
the
lifting
guided by the volition, the
skill,
inert
stones,
and possibly
at
times by the whip of the architect, placing them in their
The
were moved
and posited by a power external to themselves, and the
proper positions.
final
form of the pyramid expressed the thought of
human
power
to
from
pass
this
illustration
salt
constructive
a solution
the water which
slowly evaporated,
is
of
When
another of a different kind.
common
holds the salt in solution disappears, but the salt
At
remains behind.
itself
a certain stage of concentration the
can no longer retain the liquid form;
salt
its
builder.
Let us
of
blocks, in this case,
particles,
its
or molecules, as they are called, begin to deposit them-
so
selves as minute solids
microscopic power.
tion goes on,
As
and we
minute, indeed, as to defy
through the cluster-
finally obtain,
ing together of innumerable molecules, a
mass of a
definite
form.
all
evaporation continues, solidifica-
What
is
this
finite
crystalline
form?
It
some-
times seems a mimicry of the architecture of Egypt.
We
have
ter-
little
pyramids built by the
salt,
terrace
above
race from base to apex, forming a series of steps resem-
bling those up which the traveller in Egypt
by
his guides.
The human mind
is
is
dragged
as little disposed to
look without questioning at these pyramidal salt-crystals,
Pyramids of Egypt, without inquiring

whence they came. How, then, are those salt-pyramids
built up?
as to look at the
88
by analogy, you may,
Gruided
you
if
suppose
like,
swarming among the constituent molecules
that,
there
salt,
the
of
an invisible population, controlled and co-
is
erced by some invisible master, placing the atomic blocks

in
however,
This,
their positions.
not the scientific
is
nor do I think your good sense will accept
idea,
The
a likely one.
idea
scientific
upon each other without the intervention
act
labor;
that they attract each other,
at certain definite points, or poles,
this
of
slave
other,
and
play of attraction and repulsion.
down by
blocks of Egypt were laid
as
and repel each
in certain definite
and that the pyramidal form
directions;
it
molecules
that the
is
is
the result of
While,
the
then,
a power external to
themselves, these molecular blocks of salt are self-posited,
being fixed in their places by the inherent forces with
which they
upon each
act
common
I take
familiar to us
would answer
fact,
salt as
but
all;
my
other.
an
because
illustration,
any other
it
is
so
substance
crystalline
Everywhere, in
purpose equally well.
throughout inorganic nature, we have this formative
power,
Fichte
as
ready to come
ticles
into
matter
of
would
into
call
it
this
and build the ultimate
play,
winters, and of our polar regions,
Our chalk-beds
shells,
but behind the
also
shell,
subtle formative act.

crystals
of
structural
calc-spar,
force
felspar,
are for the
which are
had
The
shapes.
definite
so also are the quartz,
energy
structural
is
its
par-
of
ice
our
handiwork, and
and mica
our rocks.
of
most part composed
minute
of
the product of structural energy;

as a whole, lies a
These
and,
to
form these
to
deal with
cules of carbonate of lime.
more remote and
shells are built
the
up
of
little
crystals,
intangible
the
mole-
This tendency on the part
grow
of matter to
organize
sume
forms in obedience to
definite
force,
have
as
is,
ground on which you
Incipient
life,
It
as
the
in
is
you
drink, in
were, manifests
it
what we
of
to as-
definite action of
in the water
tread,
throughout the whole
itself
shape,
into
tlie
all- pervading.
said,
the air you breathe.
to
itself,
89
inorganic
call
nature.
The forms
from
of the minerals resulting
this play of
polar forces are various, and exhibit different degrees of
Men
complexity.
means
sible
For
this
cules
heat,
light,
Polarized light
beam
magnetism,
light,
of a
crystal,
is
we
infer with
of
when
exist
among
less clearness the
That
differences,
strikingly revealed.
in
for
between the inner structure of rock-salt
and that of crystallized sugar or sugar- candy

selves
here.
the mole-
by them, and from this

manner in
acted on
more or
and sound.
and powerful
sent in
which the molecules are arranged.

example,
architecture.
electricity,
especially useful
is
such
action
molecular
their
purpose they employ in turn, as agents of ex-
ploration,
of science avail themselves of all pos-
exploring
of
These actions often
chromatic phenomena
of
great
thus
is
them-
display
splendor,
the
play of molecular force being so regulated as to cause

the removal of some of the colored constituents of white
light,
while
others
are
with
left
increased
intensity
behind.
And now
to regard as
"When this
phenomena
served.
let
us pass from what we are accustomed
a dead
is
mineral,
to a living grain of
examined by polarized
similar to
And why ?
light,
com.
chromatic
those noticed in crystals are ob-
Because
grain resembles that of
the
the crystal.
architecture
of
the
In the grain also
90
the molecules are set in definite positions, and in accord-
ance with
arrangement
their
But what has

Eegarding
built
architecture,
crystalline
you may,
that
you
if
upon the
they act
light.
together the molecules of the corn?
have
consider
please,
already said
atoms
the
and
molecules to be placed in position by a Power external

to themselves.
But
The same hypothesis
open
is
you now.
to
you have rejected this noI think you are bound to

reject it in the case of the grain, and to conclude that
the molecules of the corn, also, are posited by the forces
with which they act upon each other. It would be poor
in the case of crystals
if
tion of an external
architect,
philosophy to invoke an external agent in the one case,
and
to reject it in the other.
Instead of cutting our grain of corn into slices and

subjecting
it
it
to the action of polarized light, let us place
the earth,
in
and
subject
In other words,
warmth.
it
a certain degree of
to
the molecules, both of the
let
corn and of the surrounding earth, be kept in that state

agitation
of
stances,
which we
call
Under
heat.
interact,
sult.
where
it
and a
bud
is
definite
is
exposed
this
bud reaches
to the sun's
motion of
common
substances
surrounding
heat,
it
were
forms, so the specific motion
the
bud
aqueous vapor
of
the re-
the surface,
And
as the
with which the grain and the

first
and repulsions, and thus
enables the green
is
it
which are also to
rays,
endowed,
the grain and these substances to exercise

attractions
surround
molecular architecture
formed;
be regarded as a kind of vibratory motion.
nite
these circum-
the grain and the substances which
to feed
the
to
their
enabled
mutual
coalesce in
of the sun's rays
defi-
now
upon the carbonic acid and

The bud appropriates
air.
both for which
constituents of
those
has an elective
and permits the other constituent
attraction,
Thus the
the atmosphere.
Forces
it
91
are
active
at
architecture
carried on.
are
active in the
and the matter
of the atmos-
the root,
blade, the matter of the air
to return to
is
forces
phere are drawn upon, and the plant augments in
We
have in succession the
size.
the full corn
stalk, the ear,
in the ear; the cycle of molecular action being completed
by the production
which
similar to that with
of grains,
the process began.
Now
there
is
nothing in this process which necessarily
human
own would,
eludes the conceptive or imagining power of the
An
mind.
if
same in kind
intellect the
as our
only sufficiently expanded, be able to follow the whole
process from beginning to end.

cule placed in
its
position
by
between
exerted
repulsions
whole process, and
its
would see every mole-
It
the specific attractions and
and other molecules, the
it
consummation, being an instance
Given the grain and
of the play of molecular force.
environment, with their respective forces,
man
ci
intellect
might,
priori every step
the application of
strate that the cycle
if
of
sufficiently
expanded, trace
the process of growth,
purely mechanical principles,
must end,
as
it is
its
the purely hu-
and,
out
by
demon-
seen to end, in the
reproduction of forms like that with which
it
began.
necessity rules here, similar to that which rules the planets in their circuits
You
as at the
science
am
stating the truth strongly,
beginning we agreed
I must go
of
round the sun.
will notice that I
the
still
further,
animal
body
it
should be stated.
and
affirm
is
just as
that in the
muck
the
But
eye of
product
molecular force as the chalk and the ear of corn, or
FRAG 31ENTS OF SCIENCE
92
Many
as the crystal of salt or sugar.
body
Take the human
are obviously mechanical.
with
for example,
of the parts of the

heart,
system of valves, or take the ex-
its
mechanism of the eye or hand.

Animal heat,
is the same in kind as the heat of a fire, beAnimal
ing produced by the same chemical process.
quisite
moreover,
motion, too,
animal
from
motion
the
as
the
from the food
as certainly derived
is
fuel
in
of
Trevethyck's
As
furnace.
its
walking-engine
regards matter,
animal body creates nothing; as regards force,
Which
nothing.
of
the plant,
animal.
Every
of
All that has been
position
of
force.
introduced,
Our
and the element of
we must conclude
that,
to its
given
the
environment,
the body might be determined mathemat-
difficulty is not
lem, but with
in its
And, unless the existence
any molecule of the body
position
ically.
re-
composition
bone has been placed
law in these matters be denied,
caprice
then,
said,
particle that enters into the
by molecular
creates
be restated with regard to the
or a
relation of
its
may
muscle,
a nerve,
it
the
you by taking thought can add one
cubit to his stature ?
garding
of the
its
with the quality of the prob-
complexity ; and this difficulty might be
met by the simple expansion of the faculties we now posGiven this expansion, with the necessary molecusess.
lar data, and the chick might be deduced as rigorously
and as logically from the egg as the existence of Neptune
from the disturbances
of Uranus, or as conical refraction
from the undulatory theory of
You
see
am
nakedly what many
is,
light.
mincing
scientific
in
their
eyes,
matters,
but
avowing
thinkers more or less dis-
The formation
tinctly believe.
an animal,
not
of a crystal,
a purely
a plant,
or
mechanical prob-
93
lem, which differs from the problems of ordinary mechanin
ics,
of
the smallness of the masses, and the complexity
Here you have one
the processes involved.
our dual truth;

sociated with
let
this
now
us
mechanism
wonderful
body we have phenomena no

physics, but between which
"I
say,
infuse
brain
be the
said to
is
when we are
or when our
through
the
hurt, the
passions
deavor to be a
ine there exists
or
thought
the
a profound
and
are
excited,
here.
it
is
Let us en-
brain.
scientific
feeling:
when we ponder,
it;
affections
more precise
little
upon the
reflected
organ of
brain feels
instrumentality of
dis-
how does conThe human
but
the problem?
into
itself
those of
man, for example, can
"I think," "I love";
feel,"
As-
and the mechanism we
of
animal
the
of
certain than
less
cern no necessary connection.
sciousness
half
glance at the other half.
hardly imag-
who
thinker,
has
unwilling to admit the ex-
subject,
treme probability of the hypothesis, that for every fact

of
consciousness,
thought,
motion
or
or
whether
emotion,
structure,
is
would be disposed even

structure,
in
a definite
set
up
domain
the
molecular
in
the
deny that
to
if
of
sense,
condition,
brain;
or
who
the motion, or
be induced by internal causes instead of
ternal, the effect
of
on consciousness will be the same
ex-
Let
any nerve, for example, be thrown by morbid action into

the precise state of motion which would be communicated
to it
will
by
the pulses of a heated body, surely that nerve
declare itself hot
the
mind
will accept the subject-
were objective. The retina

by purely mechanical means. A blow on
the eye causes a luminous flash, and the mere pressure of
ive intimation exactly as
may be
if it
excited
the finger on the external ball produces a star of light,
't4
which Newton compared
makes
Disease
tail.
the
to
people
on a peacock's
circles
see
dream
and
visions
such cases, could we examine the

we should, on philosophical grounds,
them in that precise molecular condition
objects, if present, would superinduce.
dreams; but, in
all
organs, implicated,
expect to find
which the
The
real
relation
invariable,
of
physics to consciousness being thus
follows that,
it
given the state of the brain,
the corresponding thought or feeling might be inferred;

or,
given the thought or feeling, the corresponding state
of the brain
would be
at
might be
But how inferred?
It
of logical inference at
all,
inferred.
bottom not a case
You may
but of empirical association.
reply that
of the inferences of science are of this character
many
the
in-
ference, for example, that an electric current, of a given

direction, will deflect a
But the
cases differ in
current to the needle,
magnetic needle in a definite way.

that the
this,
if
and that we entertain no doubt as
able,
chanical solution of the problem.

the
passage from the
demonstrable,
not
physics of
consciousness
is
Granted that a
organ,
to the final
inconceivable as a result of mechanics.

definite thought,
and a
definite
molecular
we do not
but we do not
to
pass,
know why.
nated, as to enable us to see
tions,
all
and
we capable
feel the
by a
They
Were our
minds and senses so expanded, strengthened, and

of the brain; were
pos-
nor apparently any rudiment
which would enable us
process of reasoning, from the one to the other.
appear together,
me-
the brain to the corresponding facts of
sess the intellectual organ,
the
conceiv-
But the passage from
action in the brain, occur simultaneously;
of
is
illumi-
very molecules
of following all their
their groupings, all their electric
mo-
discharges,
if
95
and were we intimately acquainted with

corresponding states of thought and feeling, we
such there be;

the
should be as far as ever from the solution of the problem,
''How
are these physical processes connected with
facts
two
classes
The chasm between
consciousness?"
of
the
phenomena would
of
remain
still
Let the consciousness
ually impassable.
the
intellect-
for ex-
of love,
ample, be associated with a right-handed spiral motion of
and the consciousness
the molecules of the brain,
We
with a left-handed spiral motion.
when we
when we
of hate
should then know,
love, that the
motion
is
in one
direction, and,
hate, that the
motion
is
in the
other;
but the
*'WHY?'* would remain as unanswerable as before.
In affirming that the growth of the body

ical,
and that thought, as exercised by
is
mechan-
has
us,
its
cor-
relative in the physics of the brain, I think the position
the "Materialist"
of
a tenable one.
is
stated,
as far as that position
to maintain this position against all attacks; but I
he can pass beyond this position.
everything.
phenomena,
In
reality
that
do not think he
entitled to say that his molecular groupings,
The utmost he can
do not
human mind,
think, in the present condition of the
explain
is
I think the materialist will be able finally
they
is
and motions,
explain
affirm is the association of
nothing.
two
classes
whose
real bond of unioa he is in abThe problem of the connection of body

and soul is as insoluble, in its modern form, as it was in
the pre-scientific ages.
Phosphorus is known to enter
of
of
solute ignorance.
human brain, and a trench"Ohne Phosphor, kein

may not be the case; but even
into the composition of the
ant
German
Gedanke!"
if
we knew
writer has exclaimed,
That may or
it
to be the case, the
knowledge would not
^6
On both
lighten our darkness.
assigned to the materialist he
ask him whence

discoursing
who
is
is
of the zone here
sides
equally helpless.
If
you
"Matter" of which we have been
this
or what divided
who
into molecules,
it
what impressed upon them this necessity of running

Science is mute
into organic forms he has no answer.
or
But if the materialist is confounded and science rendered dumb, who else is prepared
with a solution ? To whom has this arm of the Lord
in reply to these questions.
and acknowl-
Let us lower our heads,
been revealed?
edge our ignorance, priest and philosopher, one and
Perhaps the mystery may resolve

at
The process
some future day.
itself into
knowledge
of things
upon
this
a long
way
has been one of amelioration.
earth
all.
It
is
from the Iguanodon and his contemporaries to the Presi-
and
dent
Members
the
of
or from the theological point of view

progressive development,
energy
creative
man's present
neither
faculties
And
Association.
British
whether we regard the improvement from the
as
scientific
the result of
or of successive exhibitions of
view
entitles us to
end the
series,
assume that
that the process of
amelioration ends with him.
when
by which we are now

terrestrial, if not to human,
enfolded,
may
investigation.
fail
time
may
therefore
come
this ultra- scientific region,
to
offer itself to
Two- thirds
of the rays emitted
arouse the sense of vision.
The
by the sun
rays exist, but
the visual organ requisite for their translation into light
does not exist.
And
so from this region of darkness
mystery which surrounds
us,
rays
may now
and
be darting
which require but the development of the proper intellectual organs to translate them into knowledge as far
surpassing oars, as ours surpasses that of the wallowing
8CIENTIFTO MATERIALISM
which once held possession
reptiles
while the mystery
may
is
not without
feeling,
may
and
will be,
be,
in steadying
soul;
but
intellect,
and
a
It
in rescu-
that littleness to which, in the struggle for
or for precedence in the world, he
existence,
is
it
base.
its
turned to account, both
and strengthening the
man from
ing
is
Mean-
It certainly
uses.
not knowledge, for
hope
of this planet.
its
human
be made a power in the
power which has
97
is
contin-
ually prone.
Musings on
Matierhorn, July 27, 1868
the
Hacked and hurt by

from
sion
its
higher crags saddened me.
made was
it
time, the aspect of the
inexorable
decay.
that of savage strength;
But
reference to a period
notion
this
when
the
mountain
Hitherto the impres-
of
here
we had
decay implied a
Matterhorn was in the
Thought naturally ran

sculpture.
Nor did
thought halt there, but wandered on through molten
worlds to that nebulous haze which philosophers have
full
strength
back
to
its
of
mountainhood.
remoter
origin
and
regarded, and with good reason, as the proximate source

of
all
cloud,
I tried to look at this universal
material things.
containing within
itself
the prediction of all that
has since occurred; I tried to imagine
it
as the seat of
those forces whose action was to issue in solar and stellar

systems,
and
all
that
they involve.
Did that formless
fog contain potentially the sadness with which I regarded
Did the thought which now ran back to

If so, had we
it simply return to its primeval home?
not better recast our definitions of matter and force; for,
the Matterhorn?
if
life
and thought be the very flower

Science
VI
of both,
any
defi-
98
which omits
nition
untrue.
not
if
Why
not?
Are
and thought must be inadequate,

questions
If the final goal of
his
if
who can
say that
necessary to
such
the
at
my
these
man
has not been yet
yearnings and questionings are
opening of
budding and the growth

look at the
warranted?
like
development has not been yet arrested,
attained;
not
life
and
heavens
a finer vision,
diviner
of
the
earth,
powers?
at
to
the
When
my own
body,
strength and weakness, even at these ponderings,
and ask myself,
Is
there no being or thing in the uni-
verse that knows more about these matters than I do;

Supposing our theologic schemes
what is my answer?
condemnation,
and redemption to be dissiof creation,
pated; and the warmth of denial which they excite, and
which, as a motive force, can match the warmth of affirmation, dissipated at the
flected
human mind
neutrality as regards
same time; would the unde-
return to the meridian of
absolute
these ultra-physical questions?
such a position one of stable equilibrium?
Is
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 Matterhorn.
Self -reverence, self -knowledge, self-control,
These three alone lead
life to
sovereign power.
Yet not for power (power of herself

Would come uncalled foi-), but to live by law,
Acting the law we live by without fear
And, because right is right, to follow right
Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence. TennysoK".
YII
THEEE
an
is
regarding
idea
the
nature
man
of
which modern philosophy has sought, and
is
still
seeking, to raise into clearness; the idea, namely,

of secular growth.
Man
do I imagine that the

ported
into
this
is
not a thing of yesterday; nor
slightest controversial tinge is im-
address
thing of 6,000 years ago.
when I say that he

Whether he came
is
from stocks or stones, from nebulous gas or solar
know
not;
if
he had any
transformation
is
not a
originally
fire,
such origin, the process of his
as inscrutable to
you and me
as that of
the grand old legend, according to which "the Lord God
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into

his nostrils the breath of life;
may
But, however obscure man's origin
soul."
be,
his
and there a
is
Here a
added through the ages have slowly transformed
growth
little
and man became a living
not to be denied.
him from what he was
into
little
what he
is.
has been held that the mind of the child

^
The
is
doctrine
like a sheet
Delivered at University College, London, Session 1868-G9.
(99)
100
on which by education we
white paper,
of
what
we
characters
This
please.
force
is
applied
sult,
if
we must know whether
assuredly
doctrine
a body with a view

we wish to predict the
to
affecting its inner texture,
and in bringing the influence
of
into account.
and
to the other
The
present time.
and
for
his
and he makes
may
How
is
or ought
is,
for his capacities,
exercise
tendencies,
and through
this
wise
exercise
mind with such knowl-
contribute to the usefulness, the beauty, and
the nobleness of his
imparted?
his transit
through the education of the
this direction to furnish his
edge as
the indefinite
''from
object of that education
to provide wise
direction
education to bear upon
labelled
tendencies,
past to the indefinite future";
to be,
itself;
man his inner powers also must be taken

He comes to us as a bundle of inherited
the new-born
from the one
of
re-
the external force conspires
with or opposes the internal forces of the body
capacities
write
In physics, when an
needs qualification and correction.

external
can
this
Two
life.
discipline to be
rival
secured, this knowledge
methods now
attention
solicit
the
one organized and equipped, the labor of centuries having been expended in bringing
perfection; the other,
daily less so,

as
a source of
knowledge and
These two methods

method.
more or
and giving signs
I wish they
are
it
to its present state of
of
enormous power, both
as a
means
is
of
the classical and
were not rivals;
it
and short-sightedness that make them

it
but becoming
less chaotic,
possible to give both
of
them
fair
only bigotry
is
so;
discipline.
the scientific
for assuredly
play.
Though
hardly authorized to express an opinion upon the subject,
nevertheless
hold
the
opinion
that
the
proper
AN ADDRESS
study of a language
highest kind.
tive
If
is
TO STUDENTS
101
an intellectual discipline of the
on the compara-
except discussions
merits of Popery and Protestantism,
mar was the most important discipline
English gram-
my
of
boyhood.
The piercing through the involved and inverted

'
tences of
'
Paradise Lost'
;
'
sen-
the linking of the verb to
often distant nominative, of the relative to
its
its
distant an-
tecedent, of the agent to the object of the transitive verb,

of the preposition to the
noun or pronoun which
mood and
the study of variations in
erned,
gov-
it
the
tense,
transpositions often necessary to bring out the true gram-
matical structure of a sentence
mind
all this
was
How
I rejoiced
my young
and a source of
a discipline of the highest value,
unflagging delight.
to
when
found a great
author tripping, and was fairly able to pin him to a cor-
As I speak, some
of the sentences which exercised me when a boy rise to
my recollection. For instance, "He that hath ears to
hear, let him hear"; where the "He" is left, as it were,
ner from which there was no escape!
floating
in
mid-air without
any verb to
speak thus of English because
it
was of
support
it.
real value to me.
I do not speak of other languages because their educational value for
me was
almost insensible.
the value of English so well,
should
But knowing
be the
last
to
deny, or even to doubt, the high discipline involved in

the proper study of Latin and Greek.
That study, moreover, has

mendations.
It
is,
as
have
other merits and recomsaid,
organized
and
sys-
by long- continued use. It is an instrument

by some of our best intellects in the education of
youth; and it can point to results in the achievements
of our foremost men.
What, then, has science to offer
tematized
"wielded
102
which
in the least degree likely to compete with such
is
by recurring
I cannot better reply than
a system?
grand old story from which I have already quoted.

ing of the world and
around
stars
body
behold
man.
prized and
the universe
cally with
is,
There
"And God saw
work as to call
stand him to mean?
offers to
theologians, in which
Let us deal practi-
Supposing a watch-maker,
having completed his instrument, to be so

his
all
It is
a very renowned argument
to a watch.
comparison.
this
Speak-
sky and the
which science
much quoted by
compared
is
is
of the
was very good."
it
of things thus described
the study of
much
therein
the ancient writer says,
it,
He had made, and
that
the
all that
to the
satisfied
with
very good, what would you under-
it
You would
not suppose that he
re-
ferred to the dial-plate in front and the chasing of the case
behind, so
much
as to the wheels
and jewelled pivots

ties
and powers, in
form
work
its
short,
and pinions, the springs
works within
of the
to
those quali-
which enable the watch
With regard
as a keeper of time.
to perto the
watch he would be a mere ignoramus
knowledge
of such a
who would
content himself with outward inspection.
do
not wish to say one severe word here to-day, but I fear
that
many
the works of the

superficial
who are very loud in their praise of

Lord know them only in this outside and
of those
way.
It is
the
inner works of
which science reverently uncovers;

that she
recommends
as a
it is
discipline
the
universe
the study of these
worthy of
all
accep-
tation.
The
ultimate problem of physics
analysis to its lowest condition of

to its
simplest manifestations,
is
by
to reduce matter
divisibility,
and force
and then by synthesis
construct from these elements the world as
it
stands.
to
We
AN ADDRESS
are
still
lem;
a long
way from
TO STUDENTS
103
the final solution of this prob-
and when the solution comes,
it
will
be more one of
But though
spiritual insight than of actual observation.
we
are
still
a long
way from
complete intellectual mas-
this
we have conquered
it,
have
learned their polities and the play of their powers.
We
tery of nature,
live
upon a
vast regions of
ball of 8,000 miles in diameter,
an atmosphere of unknown height.

molten by heat, chilled to a
It is
made up
some
intellect,
turns on
all
problems to the
offer
child,
others taxing the
Our
the philosopher.
and revolves in space.
axis,
its
which
action,
profitable to the
highest powers of
band which
This ball has been
and sculptured by water.
solid,
of substances possessing distinctive proper-
and modes of
ties
swathed by
do the same.
native
It is
It is illuminated
sphere
one of a
by a sun
which, though nearly a hundred millions of miles distant,
can be brought virtually into our closets and there subjected to examination.
rain
and
netism.
And
vegetables.
it
To
has
has
It
frost, its light,
its
winds and clouds,
heat, sound, electricity,
vast kingdoms of
its
a most amazing
extent the
its
and mag-
animals and
human mind
has conquered these things, and revealed the logic which
runs through them.
Were
they facts only, without logical
relationship, science might, as a
in
comparison with language.
phenomena
principles,
is
instinct with
and the value
of
of discipline consists in the
means
But
law;
of discipline, suffer
the whole
the facts are
body of
hung on
physical science as a means
motion of the
intellect,
inductively and deductively, along the lines of law
out by phenomena.
As
regards the discipline to which I
have already referred as derivable from the study of

guages
that,
and more,
both
marked
is
lan-
involved in the study of phys-
104
Indeed, I believe
ical science.
and arrange the study
limit
would be possible
it
of
so to
a portion of physics as
to render the mental exercise involved in
almost quali-
it
tatively tbe same as that involved in the unravelling of a
language.
I
have thus
far confined
But man
ual side of this question.
he were
is
not
intellect-
all intellect.
he
feels as well as thinks;
is
receptive of
the sublime and beautiful as well as of the true.
man
consciously or unconsciously, sustained
arate the moral and emotional from the
man but
by an un-
It is vain to attempt to sep-
dercurrent of the Amotions.
Indeed,
even the intellectual action of a complete
I believe that
is,
If
science would, I believe, be his proper nutri-
so,
But he
ment.
myself to the purely
observe himself, and he
intellectual.
Let
mistake not,
will, if I
find that, in nine cases out of ten, the emotions constitute
the motive force which pushes
The reading
of the
bued with the
works
spirit of
science
has
neither
me
placed
These men are the English Carlyle

Emerson.
action.
two men, neither of them im-
of
modern
indeed, friendly to that spirit
his intellect into
of them,
here to-day.
and the American
must ever gratefully remember that through
German winters Carlyle placed me in my

when
tub, even
ice was on its surface, at five o'clock
every morning not slavishly, but cheerfully, meeting each
three long cold
day's studies with a resolute will, determined whether victor or vanquished not to shrink
from
I never
difficulty.
should have gone through Analytical Geometry and the

Calculus had
it
not been for those men.
I never should
have become a physical investigator, and hence without
them
what
should not have been here to-day.
I ought to do in a
way
that caused
me
They
to
told
do
it,
me
and
AN ADDRESS
my
all
this
TO STUDENTS
consequent intellectual action
purely moral
To
source.
is
Carlyle
to
105
be traced to
and Emerson
ought to add Fichte, the greatest representative of pure

These three unscientific men made me a pracidealism.
They
worker.
tical scientific
called out *'Actr'
ened to the summons, taking the

termining for myself the
liberty,
direction
I heark-
however, of de-
which
effort
was to
take.
And
must be
may now cry "Act I" but the potency of action

yours. I may pull the trigger, but if the gun be
not charged there

intellectual
remove
obstacles,
no
is
world as
We
result.
and render
we cannot suddenly change
are creators in the
in the physical.
as
little
"We may
latent capacities active, but
the nature of man.
The "new
birth'' itself implies the pre-existence of a character
requires not to be created but brought forth.
by any amount
of missionary labor
You
which
cannot
suddenly transform the
The improvement of
an hour or of a day. But
savage into the civilized Christian.
man
not the work of
is secular
though indubitably bound by our organizations, no man

knows what the potentialities of any human mind may be,
requiring only release to be brought into action.
There are
certain
forms, for
in the mineral world certain

instance, of fluor-spar,
crystals
which have
lain darkly in the earth
which nevertheless have a potency of light

locked up within them.
In their case the potential has
for ages, but
never become actual

molecular detent.
detent
I
is lifted,
the
When
of
For aught
back by a
these crystals are warmed, the
and an outflow of
know not how many
this fluor-spar.
light is in fact held
light immediately begins.
you may be in the condition of

I know, every one of you may
be in this condition, requiring but the proper agent to be
106
applied
tent,
the proper
and
word
spoken
to be
to
remove a delight and warmtli
render you conscious of
to
within yourselves and soiirces of both, to others.
The
circle of
human
nature, then,
The
out the arc of the emotions.

a value for us beyond
their
not complete with-
is
the field have
lilies of
ones
botanical
pertain
lightening of the heart accompanies the declaration that

*'
Solomon
in
all
his
glory was not arrayed like one of
The sound of the village bell has a value beyond

The setting sun has a value beyond its
its acoustical one.
The starry heavens, as you know, had for
optical one.
Immanuel Kant a value beyond their astronomical one.
these.
'
'
I think it
very desirable to keep this horizon of the emo-
tions open,
to
and not to permit either
draw down
his shutters
priest or philosopher
between you and
Here the
it.
dead languages, which are sure to be beaten by science

in the purely intellectual fight,
have an
irresistible claim.
science
by exalting and
They supplement the work
of
refining the aesthetic faculty,
and must on
cherished by
all
who
desire to see
human
this
account be
culture complete.
There must be a reason for the fascination which these

languages have so long exercised upon powerful and
vated minds
for
men
of
Greek and Koman mold
In connection with
danger besets
the
ele-
fascination which will probably continue
many
this
of the
to the
question
one
more earnest
end of time.
obvious
very
spirits of
our day
danger of haste in endeavoring to give the feelings
repose.
We
are
distracted
by systems
philosophy which were taught to
which now excite
in us a
us
hunger and a
edge not proved to be attainable.
of
theology and
when young, and

thirst for
knowl-
There are periods when
the judgment ought to remain in suspense, the data on
AN ADDRESS
TO STUDENTS
a decision might be based being absent.
wliicli
suspending the judgment
cipline of
dis-
in
common as it ought to be elsewhere.

down Eegent Street some time ago with a man
gifts and acquirements, discussing with him vari-
of great
ous theological questions.
and destiny
of the origin
I could not accept his views

of the universe, nor
pared to enunciate any definite views of

turned to
me
at length
and
have
another
solved
"You
said,
That
a theory of the universe."
my
This
common one
is
but not so
science,
I walked
to
107
mysteries seemed
"I have not even a
We ought to learn
ought assuredly to pause before closing with
my
reply.
the advances of those expounders of the
men, who
one way or
mystery of
this
theory of magnetism" was
We
He
own.
surely must have
I should in
friend a matter of course.
to wait.
was I pre-
my
ofEer
ways
of
God
to
us intellectual peace at the modest cost
of intellectual life.
The
teachers of the world ought to be
events such
for the present at all
By
trust.
the
fulness
its
best men, and
men must
and freshness
of their
learn self-
own
lives
and utterances they must awaken life in others. The

hopes and terrors which influenced our fathers are passing
away, and our trust henceforth must rest on the innate
strength of man's moral nature.
And here, I think, the
poet will have a great part to play in the future culture
of the world.
To
him,
when he
mission,
and does not
which
assuredly demands,
that
it
fill
has
from the tonic
we have
heightening and brightening of
of us need.
to
flinch
rightly understands his
To him
it is
discipline
a right to look fgr

life
which so many
given for a long time to come
those shores which the recession of the theologic tide
left
exposed.
Void
of offence to science,
he
may
freely

108
and become
Power which, as
deal with conceptions whicli science shuns,
the illustrator and interpreter of
that
'Jehovah, Jove, or Lord,"
has hitherto
Let
care of
and strengthened the human
filled
me
utter
heart.
one practical word in conclusion
take
There have been men who by wise
your health.
might have
attention to this point
risen to
any eminence
might have made great discoveries, written great poems,
commanded
armies,
or ruled states, but
neglect of this point have
come
who by unwise
to nothing.
cules as oarsman in a rotten boat;
Imagine Her-
what can Le do there
but by the very force of his stroke expedite the ruin of

his craft?
and avoid
Take care then

all practices
dry rot among them.
put forth
its
habits.
your
boat,
likely to introduce either wet or
And
by desultory or intermittent
formation of
of the timbers of
The
this is not to be
accomplished
efforts of the will,
will
but by the
no doubt has sometimes
to
strength in order to crush the special temp-
But the formation of right habits is essential to

They diminish your chance
your permanent security.
of falling when assailed, and they augment your chance
tation.
of
recovery when overthrown.
thou would'st know the mystic song

Chauuted when the sphere was young.
Aloft, abroad, the peaa swells,
wise man hear'st thou half

To the open ear it sings
The early genesis of things
Of
Of
Of
Of
Of
Of
it
tells?
tendency through endless ages.

star-dust
and
star pilgrimages,
rounded worlds, of space and time.

the old floods' subsiding shme.
chemic matter, force and form.

poles
and powers,
cold, wet,
and warm.
The rushing metamorphosis

Dissolving
all
that fixture
is.
Melts things that be to things that seem.
And
solid nature xo a
dream. Emerson
Was war' ein Gott der nur von ausseu stiesae,

Im Kreis das All am Finger laufen liesse
Ihm
ziemt's, die
Natur
Welt im Innern zu bewegen,
ia Sich, Sich in ITatur
au h^gen. Gobthb
VIII
SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION'
'Lastly, physical investigation, more than anything besides, helps to teo<^
SB the actual 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 fluxions, nor Davy have decomposed the
earths and alkalies, nor would Columbus have found another Continent."
Address to the Royal Society by its Piêsident Sir Benjamin Brodie, Nov. SO, 1859
CAKEIED
with
me
to the
of this evening's work.
Alps
this year the
burden
Save from memory I had no
upon the mountains; but to spur up the emoon which so much depends, as well as to nourish
direct aid
tions,
Discourse delivered before the British Association at Liverpool, Septeml)^
13, 1870.
009)
110
indirectly
and
intellect
tlie
took with
will,
me
four
works, comprising two volumes of poetry, Goethe's "Farbenlehre," and
the
work on "Logic" recently published

In Goethe, so noble otherwise,
by Mr. Alexander Bain.

I chiefly noticed the
broke
it
vain against the philosophy of Newton.
in
itself
hurts of genius, as
self-inflicted
Mr. Bain I found, for the most part, learned and practical,
shining generallj with a dry light, but exhibiting at times
log!
common
ians share the
ested
me most when
patiently borne
perienced
when we
book I could
is
it
that they have
find
From
by another.
inter-
my own
con-
good
for
sorrows of thought are more
be alone, and the
to
He
humanity.
of
fire
he became the mirror of
Neither intellectually nor socially
dition.
man
which proved that even
emotional strength,
a flush of
certain
been ex-
passages
Bain was no stranger
infer that Mr.
in
his
to such
sorrows.
Speaking for example of the ebb of
which we
says:
from time to time
all
"The
intellectual force,
experience,
Mr. Bain
uncertainty where to look for the next open-
ing of discovery brings the pain of conflict and the debility

of indecision."
These words have in them the true ring
The
of personal experience.
periodic.
with
it,
He
action of the investigator
grapples with a subject of inquiry, wrestles
and exhausts,
He
the time being.
it
may
be,
both himself and
for
it
breathes a space, and then renews
the struggle in another field.
Now
between two investigations
not always one of pure
pose.
It is
is
is
this
period of halting
often a period of doubt and
gloom and ennui.
"The
re-
of
discomfort
uncertainty where to look for
the next opening of discovery brings the pain of conflict
and the debility
of indecision."
It
was under such con-
THE IMAGINATION
SCIENTIFIC USE OF
ditions
bad
tliat I
ordeal that are
The
to
equip myself for the hour and the
now come.
disciplines of
common
of bodies in space; and,

to
some
by such
mental grouping
exercises, the public
mind
extent, prepared for the reception of physical
conceptions.
Assuming
this preparation
me
wish gradually grew within
you
great part, exer-
life are, in
cises in the relations of space, or in the
is,
111
to trace,
some
tions of Light
on your
and
to trace,
part, the
to enable
more occult features and opera-
of the
and Color.
I wished,
if
possible, to take
you beyond the boundary of mere observation, into a

region where things are intellectually discerned, and to
show you there the hidden mechanism of optical action.
But how are those hidden things to be revealed ? Philosophers may be right in affirming that we cannot transcend experience:
way from
we
its origin.
can,
We
at all
and combine experiences, so as

poses entirely new.
we
events,
carry
it
a long
can magnify, diminish, qualify,

to render
them
fit
for pur-
In explaining sensible phenomena,
habitually form mental images of the ultra- sensible.
There are Tories even in science who regard Imagination

as
faculty to be feared and avoided rather than em-
ployed.
and are
They have observed its action in weak vessels,

unduly impressed by its disasters.
But they
might with equal
justice point to
argument against the use

periment
and
becomes
the
observation
architect
of
exploded boilers as an
With
accurate ex-
work upon,
Imagination
steam.
of
to
physical
theory.
passage from a falling apple to a falling

act of the prepared imagination, without
of
Kepler" could never have been traced
Newton's
moon was an
which the "laws

to their founda-
FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCS
112
Out
tions.
of
the
chemistry the
of
facts
constructive
Davy
imagination of Dalton formed the atomic theory.
was richly endowed with the imaginative faculty, while

with Faraday its exercise was incessant, preceding, acand
companying
and
strength
guiding
fertility
as
all
is
be referred
to
in great part to the stimulus of his imagination.

tific
men
fight
of
word
the
because of
connotations; but the fact
scientific
exercise
shy
of
this
power,
His
experiments.
his
a discoverer
is,
Scienultra-
its
without the
that,
our knowledge of nature would
We
be a mere tabulation of co-existences and sequences.
should
believe in the succession of day and night, of
still
summer and
winter;
but the conception of Force would
vanish from our universe; causal relations would disappear, and with them that science which is now binding
the parts of nature to an organic whole.
I should like to illustrate
the use
power
that scientific
by
a few simple instances
men have
already
made
make
us begin with the rudimentary experiences.

of
drop as
this
imagination, and to indicate afterward some of
of
the further uses that they are likely to
falling
of
it
of
it.
Observe the
heavy rain-drops into a tranquil pond.

strikes the water
ance, from which a
becomes a centre
series of ring-ripples
Let
Each
of disturb-
expand outward.
Gravity and inertia are the agents by which this wave-
motion
to
is
show
produced, and a rough experiment will suffice
amount
to
mechanical shocks
is
that the rate of propagation does not
a foot a second.
series of slight
experienced by a body plunged in the water, as the wavelets
reach
it
in succession.
But
a finer motion
is
at the
same time set up and propagated. If the head and ears

be immersed in the water, as in an experiment of Frai:k-
SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION
Now,
Hn's, tlie iick of the drop is heard.
impulse
is
but the
elasticity
Every liquid
up
this sonorous
propagated, not at the rate of a foot, but at the
In this case
rate of 4,700 feet a second.

ity,
particle
it is
pushed against
propagated as a
as illustrated
measure of
thrill.
The
not the grav-
comes into
of the water that
play.
neighbor delivers
its
motion with extreme rapidity, and
its
113
the pulse
is
incompressibility of water,
by the famous Florentine experiment,

elasticity; and to the possession of
its
is
this
property, in so high a degree, the rapid transmission of
a sound-pulse through water
But
water, as
you know,
duction of sound; air
is its
is
to be ascribed.
is
not necessary to the con-
most common
And
vehicle.
you know that when the air possesses the particular denand elasticity corresponding to the temperature of
"freezing water, the velocity of sound in it is 1,090 feet
B-'Xj
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 themselves; 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
tion.
We
know
the
thrown into vibra-
phenomena and laws
rods, of organ-pipes, strings,
We
is
membranes,
of
can abolish one sound by another.
plates,
We
vibrating
and
bells.
know
the
physical meaning of music and noise, of

cord.
In short, as regards sound in
harmony and disgeneral, we have a
very clear notion of the external physical processes which

correspond to our sensations.
114
In the phenomena of sound, we travel a very
from downright sensible experience.
some
tion is to
ample, cannot see the
we
condensations and
We
the waves of sound.
Still
them
construct
way
the imagina-
The bodily
extent exercised.
little
eye, for ex-
rarefactions of
and
in thought,
believe as firmly in their existence as in that of the
But now our experience
air itself.
new
where a new use
region,
is
is
to be
mastered the cause and mechanism

know the cause and mechanism of
to be carried into a
made
light.
it.
Having
we
desire to
of
of sound,
We wish
to ex-
tend our inquiries from the auditory to the optic nerve.
There
is
in the
human
call it a power
by the simple brooding upon
might almost
into play
power
intellect a
of creation
of the spirit brooding over chaos
In the
experience of this power.
manifested
itself
of expansion
which
is
brought
The legend
facts.
may have originated in

case now before us it has
by transplanting into space, for the pur-
poses of light, an adequately modified form of the mechan-
We
ism of sound.
ity of
know
When we
sound depends.
the aerial
intimately whereon the veloc-
medium, and preserve
augment the
velocity.
its
When we
lessen the
density of
elasticity constant,
heighten
we
the elasticity,
and keep the dcDsity constant, we also augment the velocity.
A small
density, therefore,
and a
great' elasticity, are
the two things necessary to rapid propagation.

is
known
move with
to
miles a second.
By
How
Now
light
the astounding velocity of 186,000

is
such a velocity to be obtained?
boldly diffusing in space a
medium
of
the requisite
tenuity and elasticity.
Let us make such a medium our starting-point, and,
endowing
us handle
it
with one or two other necessary qualities,
it
in
accordance with
strict
let
mechanical laws.
115
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.
the
multiplied varieties
of
these
If in all
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
our deductions from
to
be found in external nature, but on
and
verification;
if,
all
sides
it
agreement
moreover, as in the case of Conical
it actually forces upon our

phenomena which no eye had previously seen,
and which no mind had previously imagined such a conception must, we think, be something more than a mere
Eefraction and in other cases,

attention
In forming
figment of the scientific fancy.
it,
that com-
and creative power, in which reason and imagina-
posite
tion are united, has,

less real
we
believe, led us into a world not
than that of the senses, and of which the world
of sense itself is the suggestion and, to a great extent, the
outcome.
Far be it from me, however, to wish to fix you immovably in this or in any other theoretic conception.
With
our belief
all
theory of
You may,
change.
phenomena occur
demonstration of
from
me
deny
to
fairly claim.
form a
ciety
self.
of
it,
luminiferous
is still
You
and capable of
that,
existed,
although the
the absolute
wanting.
Far be
to this reasoning such validity as
it
it
may
Let us endeavor, by means of analogy, to
fair estimate of its force.
you
plastic
medium
existence
well to keep the
will be
moreover, urge
as if the
its
it
ether
are surrounded
are, perhaps,
You
believe that in so-
by reasonable beings
like your-
as firmly convinced of this as of
116
What
anything.
Simply and
if
your warrant for
is
your fellow-creatures behave as
solely this:
they were reasonable; the hypothesis, for
more, accounts for the
you believe
ple:
Why?
There
any
facts.
To
it
a reasonable being.
is
no known method
by
superposition
of
us can apply himseK intellectually to
of
other, so as to demonstrate coincidence as regards the
possession of reason.
If,
dent to be reasonable,
As
were reasonable.
**a5 ^/"
you cannot
it
caused
many
respectable
on which both inferences
persons
conclude
to
but
it
it
transmits,
By
luminous bodies.
do not mean
its
that
if
rest
the
it.
This universal medium, this light-ether, as
derive the motions
beyond the
Nay, I should not wonder
the vehicle, not the origin, of wave-motion.
and
Presi-
because he behaves as if he
in the case of the ether,
go.
ether had the best of
you hold our
therefore,
is
close comparison of the data
is
nothing
is
take an eminent exam-
that our President
is
which any one
conviction?
this
does
It receives
Whence
not create.
conveys?
called,
it is
does
it
For the most part from
the motion of a luminous
body
sensible motion, such as the flicker of a
candle, or the shooting out of red prominences from the
limb of the sun.
mean an
motion of the atoms
intestine
But here
or molecules of the luminous body.

reserve
is
necessary.
Many
a certain
chemists of the present day
refuse to speak of atoms and molecules as real
Their caution leads them to stop short of the
things.
clear, sharp,
mechanically intelligible atomic theory enunciated by Dalton, or

of
*'
any form of that theory, and
to
make
the doctrine
multiple proportions" their intellectual bourne.
spect the caution,
The chemists who
though I think
recoil
it
is
I re-
here misplaced.
from these notions of atoms and
117
molecules accept, without hesitation, the Undulatorj The-
Like you and me, they one and
ory of Light.
in
an ether and
what
sider
believe
all
Let us con-
light-producing waves.
its
Bring your imaginations
this belief involves.
once more into play, and figure a series of sound waves

passing through
Follow them
air.
and what do you there find

ing body.
it
may
It
may be an
up
A definite,
it
may
human
remembering
to their
same time that your ether
at the
and capable
matter, dense, elastic,
being,
be a stretched string.
Follow in the same manner a train of ether- waves

source;
origin,
tangible, vibrat-
be the vocal chords of a
organ-pipe, or
their
to
motions subject
of
What
and determined by, mechanical laws.
is
to,
then do you
expect to find as the source of a series of ether- waves?
Ask your
tiple
imagination
proportion
it
if
numerical ratio in a state of
do not think
tion?
edifice
with this abstraction.
which
is
will accept a vibrating mul-
it
will.
You
The
oscilla-
cannot crown the
scientific
imagination,
here authoritative, demands, as the origin and
cause of a series of ether-waves, a particle of vibrating
matter
quite as definite,
though
it
may
be excessively
minute, as that which gives origin to a musical sound.
Such a
we name an atom or a molecule. I think

when focused so as to give definition without
particle
the intellect,
penumbral haze,
With
is
view
the
sure to realize this image at the
of
preserving
thought
last.
continuous
throughout this discourse, and of preventing either
fail-
ure of knowledge or of memory, from causing any rent in
our picture, I here propose to run rapidly over a bit of
ground which
which I
am
is
probably familiar to most of you, but
anxious to make familiar to you
all.
The
FRAGMENTS OF SCIEyCE
118
waves generated
in
the ether by the swinging atoms of
luminous bodies are of different lengths and amplitudes.
The amplitude
the width of swing of the individual
is
In water-waves
particles of the waves.
it
is
the vertical
height of the crest above the trough, while the length of
wave
the
is
may
the horizontal distance between two consecu-
The aggregate
tive crests.
of
waves emitted by the sun
be broadly divided into two classes: the one class
But
competent, the other incompetent, to excite vision.

the ligbt-producing
selves
in size,
waves
of these
waves
The length
Now
probably a hundred times that
is
the force of energy of the wave,
of the
smallest.
which,
expressed with reference
intensity of the light,
is
means the
proportional to the square of the
energy of the largest
light- gi\dng
ten-thousandfold that of the
smallest.
waves would be
This
is
not
accuracy, but to give you definite ideas of the
among
ences that probably exist
And
we
if
account
think
it
its
im-
with a view to numer-
I use these figures not
probable.
est
sensation,
to
Hence, the amplitude being one-hundredfold,
amplitude.
ical
of the largest
about twice that of the smallest, but the
is
amplitude of the largest
the
markedly among them-
differ
form, and force.
differ-
the light-giving waves.
take the whole range of solar radiation into
non- visual
probable
as
well
as
that the force,
its
visual waves
or energy, of the larg-
wave is more than a million times that of the smallest.

Turned into their equivalents of sensation, the differ-
ent light-waves
ample,
is
smallest,
produce
different colors.
produced by the
while
green
is
largest waves,
Ked,
for ex-
violet
by the
produced by a wave of
mediate length and amplitude.
On
inter-
entering from air into
a more highly refracting substance, such as glass or water,
m
THE IMAGINATION
SCIENTIFIC USE OF
or the sulphide of carbon,
the smallest ones most.
119
the waves are retarded, but
all
This furnishes a means of sepa-
waves from each other; in
rating the different classes of
other words, of analyzing the light.
Sent through a
re-
waves of the sun are turned aside in

degrees from their direct course, the red least, the
fracting prism, the

different
They
violet most.
are virtually pulled asunder,
and they
paint upon a white screen placed to receive them **the

spectrum.'*
solar
Strictly
braces an infinity of colors;
and
of
into
speaking,
segments:
red,
em-
but the limits of language,
our powers of distinction, cause
seven
spectrum
the
orange,
to be divided
it
yellow,
green,
blue,
These are the seven primary or prismatic
indigo, violet.
colors.
mixed
Separately, or
waves yield
ployed in
of whiteness.
all
the colors observed in nature
all
art.
in various proportions, the solar
and em-
Collectively, they give us the impression
Pure unsifted
solar light is white;
and,
if
the wave-constituents of such light be reduced in the
same proportion, the

sity, will
still
light,
be white.
sun shining upon
it
is
though diminished in inten-
The whiteness
of
barely tolerable to
snow with the

the eye.
The
same snow under an overcast firmament is still white.

Such a firmament enfeebles the light by reflecting it upward; and when we stand above a cloud-field on an
Alpine summit, for instance, or on the top of Snowdon

and see, in the proper direction, the sun shining on the
clouds below us, they appear dazzlingly white.

clouds, in fact, divide the solar light impinging
into
two parts
reflected part
Ordinary
on them
and a transmitted part
each of which the proportions of wave-motion which pro-
duce the impression of whiteness are sensibly preserved.
FRAG:\IEyTS OF SCIENCE
120
be understood tlmt the condition of whiteness
It will
would fail if all the waves were diminished equally, or by

They must be reduced prothe same absolute quantity.
If by the act of reflecportionately, instead of equally.
tion
the waves
then, to
red light are split into exact halves,
of
preserve the light white, the waves of yellow,
and
must
be split into exact
orange,
green,
halves.
In short, the reduction must take place, not by
blue,
also
absolutely equal quantities, but by equal fractional parts.
In white light the preponderance, as regards energy, of

the
larger
over the smaller waves must always be im-
Were
mense.
the case otherwise,
the visual correlative,
the smaller waves would have the upper
blue, of
hand
in
our sensations.
by
Not only are the waves of ether reflected by clouds,

solids, and by liquids, but when they pass from light
air to
dense, or from dense air to light, a portion of the
wave-motion
is
always
reflected.
Now
our
atmosphere
changes continually in density from top to bottom.

will help our conceptions
if
we regard
it
as
a series of thin concentric layers, or shells of
to shell.
air,
of
each
same density throughout, a small and
shell being of the
sudden change
It
made up
of density occurring in passing
from shell
Light would be reflected at the limiting surfaces
of all these shells,
and
the same as that of
their action
would be
the real atmosphere.
practically
And now
would ask your imagination to picture this act of reflecWhat must become of the reflected light ? The attion.
mospheric layers turn their convex surfaces toward the
sun; they are so
and you
reflected
will
many convex
mirrors of feeble power;
immediately perceive that the light regularly
from these surfaces cannot reach the earth
at all,

but
Light thus reflected cannot,
dispersed in space.
is
121
therefore, be the light of the sky.
though the sun's
But,
light
fashion from the aerial layers
is
not reflected in this
the earth, there
to
is
in-
dubitable evidence to show that the light of our firmament

is
Proofs of the most cogent description
scattered light.
could be here adduced; but we need only consider that
we
same time from
receive light at the
The
hemisphere of heaven.
light of the
firmament comes
across the direction of the solar rays,
us
to
parts of the
all
and even
against the direction of the solar rays; and this lateral
and opposing rush
of
wave-motion can only be due to the
rebound of the waves from the

thinsj
suspended in the
from some-
air itself, or
It is also evident that, unlike
air.
the action of clouds, the solar light
is
not reflected bj the
The
sky in the proportions which produce white.

is
blue,
which indicates an excess
sky-
of the shorter waves.
In accounting for the color of the sky, the
first
question
suggested bj analogy would undoubtedly be. Is not the

air
blue ?
The blueness
of the air has, in fact,
as a solution of the blueness of the sky.

air
been given
But how,
if
the
be blue, can the light of sunrise and sunset, which
travels through vast distances of
or even red ?
The passage
air,
be yellow, orange,
of white solar light
through
medium could by no possibility redden the light.

The hypothesis of a blue air is therefore untenable. In
a blue
which sends us the
light
of the sky, exercises in so doing a dichroitic action.
The
fact the agent,
whatever
it
is,
light reflected is blue, the light transmitted

red.
marked
distinction is thus exhibited
is
orange or
between the
matter of the sky and that of an ordinary cloud, which

exercises no such dichroitic action.
Science YI
122
By
the scientific use of the imagination
The cloud
to penetrate this mystery.
on the part
size
It exercises
all alike.
of this
may be
waves
of the
no
broad
Now
the cause
cloud particles are so large, in
that the
them
of ether, but reflects
selective action.
comparison with the waves of ether, as to

indifferently.
we may hope
takes no note of
cliff
reflects
by
easily as a ripple produced
them
reflect
an Atlantic
all
roller as
a seabird's wing;
and in
the presence of large reflecting surfaces, the existing dif-
magnitude
ferences of
among
But supposing
disappear.
the waves of
may
ether
the reflecting particles, instead
of being very large, to be very small in comparison with
In this
the size of the waves.
case, instead of the
whole
wave being fronted and thrown back, a small portion only

is
shivered
The
off.
great mass of the
such a particle without reflection.
set imagination to
waves.
Waves
of
all
watch their action upon the solar

impinge upon the
sizes
and you see
at every collision a portion of the
wave struck
off;
all the
waves
extreme red to the extreme
Kemembering
much
hand-
minute foreign particles in our atmosphere,
ful of such
and
wave passes over
Scatter, then, a
in the
of the spectrum,
violet,
from the
being thus acted upon.
that the red waves
relation of
particles,
impinging
stand to the blue
billows to ripples,
we have
to
consider whether those extremely small particles are competent to scatter
all
and
the
the waves in the same proportion.
make
If
clear that
they be not
a little reflection will
they are not
production of color must be an incident
of the scattering.
Largeness
the smaller the wave, the
any
particle
is
it
a thing of relation;
greater
is
and
the relative size of
on which the wave impinges, and the greater
also the ratio of the portion scattered to the total wave.
way
pebble, placed in the
of the ring-ripples
by heavy raindrops on a tranquil pond,
123
prodnced
will scatter a large
fraction of each ripple, while the fractional part of a larger
wave thrown back by the same pebble might be infiniNow we have already made it clear to our minds
tesimal.
that to preserve the solar light white
portions must not be altered;
its
constituent pro-
but in the act of division
performed by these very small particles the proportions

are altered; an
tered
by the
undue
be
predominant
the
other colors of the spectrum must,

associated with the blue.
We
cient.
is scat-
particles, and, as a consequence, in the scat-
blue will
tered light,
waves
fraction of the smaller
ought, in
They
some
to
be
extent,
are not absent, but defi-
have them
fact, to
The
color.
all,
but in dimin-
ishing proportions, from the violet to the red.
We
have here presented a case to the imagination, and,
assuming the undulatory theory

I think, fairly reasoned our
were
particles, small in
waves,
sown
in
be a
to
way
reality,
to the conclusion,
our atmosphere, the light
skies.
When
this
light
is
by
scattered
we observe
analyzed,
the proportions indicated by our conclusion.

it is
that
in
the
all
and they are found
colors of the spectrum are found,
the sole, but
have,
comparison to the sizes of the ether
those particles would be exactly such as
our azure
we
Blue
is
in
not
the predominant color.
Let us now turn our attention to the light which passes

unscattered
affected?
the white
waves;
it
among
By
its
the particles.
How must
it
be finally
successive collisions with the particles
more and more robbed of its shorter

therefore loses more and more of its due prolight is
portion of blue.
The
result
may
be
anticipated.
The
transmitted light, where short distances are involved, will
124
appear yellowish.
But
sun sinks toward the hori-
as the
zon the atmospheric distances increase, and consequently
number
the
of
They
the scattering particles.
abstract in
succession the violet, the indigo, the blue, and even dis-
The
turb the proportions of green.
orange to red.
transmitted light un-
must pass from yellow through
der such circumstances
This also
is
exactly what
we
find in nat-
Thus, while the reflected light gives us at noon the
ure.
deep azure of the Alpine

us at sunset the
phenomena
skies, the transmitted light gives
warm crimson
Alpine snows.
of the
atmosphere were a
certainly occur as if our
medium rendered
slightly tarbid
by
The
the mechanical sus-
pension of exceedingly small foreign particles.

Here, as before, we encounter our sceptical "as
one of the parasites of science, ever
It is
ready to plant
itself
and sprout,
and
in
the end the malady of

first
at hand,
and
on the weak
constitution defies
our case, as we question the phe-
nomena, probability grows
The
can,
it
But a strong
points of our philosophy.
the parasite,
if
t/.'*
growing health, until in
like
doubt
is
completely extirpated.
question that naturally arises
is this:
Can small
manner indicated?
submit
the question
can
you
No
of it.
Each one
Water will not dissolve resin,
to an experimental test.
but spirit will dissolve it; and when spirit holding resin
particles be really
proved
doubt
in solution
to act in the
of
is
dropped into water, the resin immediately
separates in solid particles, which render the water milky.
The
coarseness of this precipitate depends on the quantity
of the dissolved resin.
You
can cause
it
to separate either
in thick clots or in exceedingly fine particles.
Professor
Brlicke has given us the proportions which produce particles
particularly
suited to
our
present
purpose.
One
THE IMAGINATION
SCIENTIFIC USE OF
gram
of clean mastic
of absolute alcohol,
125
dissolved in eighty-seven grams
is
and the transparent solution
is
allowed
drop into a beaker containing clear water, kept briskly
to
An
stirred.
exceedingly
precipitate
fine
is
thus formed,
upon light.
Placing a dark surface behind the beaker, and permitting
which
declares
its
the light to fall into

is
from the top or
it
seen to be distinctly blue.
may
a blue as
Alps, but
It is not
milk makes an approximation
medium
perhaps so perfect
A
to
among
the
trace of soap in
London, and
water gives a tint of blue.

pool,
front, the
be seen on exceptional days

a very fair sky-blue.
is
it
by
presence
action
its
fear
Liver-
the same color,
through the operation of the same cause; and Helmholtz

has irreverently disclosed the fact that the deepest blue
eye
is
simply a turbid medium.
The
action of turbid media
upon
light
was
illustrated
by Goethe, who, though unacquainted with the undulatory

was led by
theory,
ment
his experiments to regard the firma-
an illuminated turbid medium, with the darkness
as
of space behind
it.
He
describes glasses showing a bright
yellow by transmitted, and a beautiful blue by reflected,

Professor Stokes,
light.
who was probably
the
first to dis-
cern the real nature of the action of small particles on the
waves
^
of ether,
This
is
describes a glass of a similar kind.^
inferred from conversation.
am
Capi-
not aware that Professor Stokes
published anything upon the subject.
lias
2
This glass, by reflected
light,
decoction of horse-chestnut bark."
very decoction :
stanie,
werden
man
wir
"Werke,"
"Man nehme
had a
color "strongly resembling that of a
Curiously enough, Goethe refers to this
einen Streifen frischer Rinde von der Rosska-
und in der kiirzesten Zeit

voUkommenste Himmelblau entstehen sehen." Goethe's
stecke denselben in ein Glas Wasser,
das
B. xxix. p. 24.
126
tal
specimens of such glass are to be found
St.
James's Street.
an
effect of this
What
at Salviati's, in
artists call "chill" is
Through the
description.
no doubt
action of mi-
nute particles, the browns of a picture often present the
Bj
appearance of the bloom of a plum.
rubbing the var-
nish with a silk handkerchief optical continuity
and the
lished
Some
disappears.
chill
is
estab-
years ago I wit-
nessed Mr. Hirst experimenting at Zermatt on the turbid
When
water of the Yisp.
kept
still
for a
day or
the
so,
grosser matter sank, but the finer particles remained sus-
and gave a distinctly blue tinge
pended,
The blueness
be in part
several
due
Alpine lakes has been shown to
of certain
Professor Roscoe has noticed
to this cause.
a similar
striking cases of
markable
paper
the
the water.
to
In a very
kind.
Principal Forbes
late
re-
showed that
steam issuing from the safety-valve of a locomotive, when

favorably observed, exhibits at a certain stage of
It is blue
densation the colors of the sky.

light,
and orange or red by transmitted
light.
con-
its
by reflected
The same
by Groethe, is to some extent exby peat-smoke. More than ten years ago, I amused
myself by observing, on a calm day at Killarney, the
as pointed out
effect,
hibited
straight
It
was
smoke-columns rising from the cabin-chimneys.

easy to
The smoke
cloud.
the
project
against a dark pine, and
lower
in the
former case was blue,
seen mainly by reflected light;

reddish,
in the latter case
being seen mainly by transmitted
smoke was not

glow
portion of a column
upper portion against a bright
its
of the
in
light.
being
it
was
Such
exactly the condition to give us the
Alps, but
it
was a step in
this
direction.
Briicke's fine precipitate above referred to looks yellowish
by transmitted
light;
but,
by duly strengthening the
THE IMAGINATION
SCIENTIFIC USE OF
you may render the white
precipitate,
noon
of
as
when seen through Liverpool
ruby-colored as the sun,
upon Alpine
smoke
smoke, or
light
127
point to the gross
horizons.
arising
do
not,
from coal
as
however,
an
illustra-
smoke
tion of the action of small particles, because such
soon absorbs and destroys the waves of blue, instead of

sending them to the eyes of the observer.
These multifarious
cannot
now be
facts,
and numberless others which
referred to, are explained
by reference
to
the single principle that, where the scattering particles are
small in comparison to the ethereal waves,
we have
in the
reflected light a greater proportion of the smaller waves,
and
transmitted light a greater proportion of the
in the
than
larger waves,
The consequence,
case blue
Our
existed in the
original white
light.
as regards sensation, is that in the
one
predominant, and in the other orange or red.
is
best microscopes can readily reveal objects not
than yir^th of an inch in diameter.

length of a wave of red light.
This
Indeed a
is less
more
than the
first-rate
micro-
scope would enable us to discern objects not exceeding in
diameter the length of the smallest waves of the visible
By
spectrum.'
particles.
infallibly
the microscope, therefore,
we can
test
our
they be as large as the light-waves they will
If
be seen;
and
cause they are smaller.
if
they be not so seen,
Some months ago
it
is
be-
I placed in the
hands of our President a liquid containing Briicke's pre-
The
cipitate.
plied to
me
that
eter
'
it
had
liquid was milky blue,
his highest microscopic

particles of
even
and Mr. Huxley appower.
He
satisfied
lo^ôoo th of an inch in diam-
existed in the liquid, they could not have escaped

Dallinger and Drysdale have recently measured
in diameter.
1878.
cilia
^^nsWd*^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^
i28
But no
detection.
particles
Under the micro-
were seen.
scope the turbid liquid was not to be distinguished from

distilled water.*
But we have it
closely than we have
our power to imitate, far
can generate, in
By
phenomena.
term,
we
air,
artificial skies,
their perfect identity with the natural one, as
regards the exhibition of a
over,
more
hitherto done, the natural conditions
We
of this problem.
and prove
in
number
of wholly unexpected
a continuous process of growth, more-
are able to connect sky-matter,
if
may
with molecular matter on the one side,
use the
and with
molar matter, or matter in sensible masses, on the other.

In illustration of
by some
this, I will
my own
of
take an experiment suggested
researches,
and described by M. Mor-
ren of Marseilles at the Exeter meeting of the British Association.
Sulphur and oxygen combine
to
form sulphur-
ous acid gas, two atoms of oxygen and one of sulphur

constituting the molecule of sulphurous acid.
recently
shown
It has
been
that waves of ether issuing from a strong
source, such as the sun or the electric light, are competent
shake asunder the atoms of
to
chemist would
behooves
us,
call this
who
gaseous molecules.
"decomposition" by
light;
but
it
are examining the power and function
of the imagination, to keep constantly before us the physical
images which underlie our terms.
Therefore I say,
sharply and definitely, that the components of the molecules of sulphurous acid are shaken asunder
by the
Like Dr. Burdon Sanderson's ''pyrogen," the particles of mastic passed,
without sensible hinderance, through
dom from suspended
filtering- paper.
particles is secured.
The
By such
filtering
See
"New
no
application of a condensed
to the filtrate renders this at once evident.

^
ether-
Chemical Reactions produced by Light,"
vol.
i.
p. 103.
free-
beam
SCIENTIFIC USE OF
129
Enclosing sulphurous acid in a suitable vessel,
waves.
placing
erful
THE IMAGINATION
it
in a dark room,
beam
of
light,
we
and sending through
at
first
see nothing:
it
pow-
the vessel
containing the gas seems as empty as a vacuum.
Soon,
however, along the track of the beam a beautiful sky-blue

color
is
observed, which
is
due to
intense;
more or
then becomes whitish;
it
less perfect white.
long enough, the tube
phur
When
is filled
rendered individually
and ends in a
the action
is
continued
with a dense cloud of sul-
which by the application
particles,
may be
by the
For a time the blue grows
liberated particles of sulphur.
more
light scattered
of proper
means
visible.*
Here, then, our ether-waves untie the bond of chemical affinity,
and
nary temperatures
becomes an object
is
of
body sulphur which at ordisolid, and which therefore soon
liberate a
the
senses.
We
have
of
first
the free atoms of sulphur, which are incompetent to
But
the retina sensibly with scattered light.
all
stir
these atoms
gradually coalesce and form particles, which grow larger
by continual
accretion, until after a
appear as sky -matter.
In this condition they are individ-
but collectively they send an amount of
ually invisible;
wave-motion
to the retina sufficient to
The
mental blue.
minute or two they
produce the firma-
particles continue, or
may be
caused to
continue, in this condition for a considerable time, during
which no microscope can cope with them.
But they grow
Blowly larger, and pass by insensible gradations into the
when they can no longer elude
state of cloud,
the
armed
M. Morren was mistaken in supposing that a modicum of sulphurous acid,

had any share in the production of the "actinic clouds'*
in the drying tubes,
described by me.
light is furnished
beautiful case of molecular instability in the presence of
by peroxide of chlorine as proved by Professor Dewar.
1878.

130
Thus, without solution of continuity, we start with
eye.
atom, and end with matter in ihe mass;
matter in the
sky-matter being the middle term of the series of transformations.
Instead of sulphurous acid,
we might choose
a dozen
other substances, and produce the same effect with
In the case of some
them.
probably in the case of
all of
all
it is
possible to preserve matter in the firmamental condi-
tion
for
or twenty minutes under
fifteen
operation of the
During these
light.
continual
the
or twenty
fifteen
minutes the particles constantly grow larger, without ever

exceeding the
each containing sky-matter,
The eye
ticles.
it
is
possible to
is
state
us,
with
contains the largest par-
very sensitive to differences of
our experiments,
in
celes-
two vessels are placed before
great distinctness which vessel
when, as
production of the
size requisite to the
Now when
blue.
tial
is
it
light,
placed in comparative
darkness, and the wave-motion thrown against the retina

is
small.
The
larger particles declare themselves
greater whiteness of their scattered light.
mind the
Call
observation, or effort at observation,
by the
now to
made by
our President, when he failed to distinguish the particles

of mastic in Brucke's
please follow me.
this,
act
upon a
certain vapor.
pears, but at the

to
medium, and when you have done
be azure.
end of
beam
of light
is
permitted to
In two minutes the azure apfifteen
minutes
After fifteen minutes
other phenomena, pronounce
it
its
it
has not ceased
and some
color,
to be a blue of distinctly
smaller particles than those sought for in vain by Mr.
Huxley.
These
been
than -nnrWth of an inch in diameter.
less
want you
particles,
as
already stated,
must hafe
to consider the following question:
And now
Here are

SCIENTIFIC USE OF
THE IMAGINATION
131
which have been growiog continually for
particles
fifteen
minutes, and at the end of that time are demonstrably

smaller than those which
Huxley
defied the microscope
the
beginning of their growth?
of
the magnitude of
stellar
ness,
of
Mr.
Wliat must have been the size of these particles at
What
notion can you form
The
such particles?
distances of
space give us simply a bewildering sense of vast-
without leaving any distinct impression on the mind;
and the magnitudes with which we have here

der us equally in the opposite direction.
to
We
do bewil-
are dealing
with infinitesimals, compared with which the test objects

of the microscope are literally
immense.
Small in mass, the vastness in point of number of the

particles of our
that the heavenly azure is revealed.
server on the
summit
form and coherent as

close-grained solid.
stricter
continuity.
that
our
if
height of
still
broken patches, nor
It is not in
of its light.
points,
sky may be inferred from the continuity
of
Mont
if it
To
Blanc, the blue
is
the obas uni-
formed the surface of the most
marble dome would not exhibit a
And
hypothetical
Mr. Glaisher will inform you,
were
shell
Mont Blanc above
lifted
to
the earth's surface,
have the azure overhead.
the stars;
at scattered
even by moonlight
By day
it
is
this light
twice
the
we should
quenches
able to exclude from
vision all stars between the fifth and the eleventh magnitude.
It
may be
likened to a noise, and the feebler stellar
radiance to a whisper drowned
What
light?
is
The
by the
noise.
the nature of the particles which shed this
celebrated
De
la
Rive ascribes the haze of
the Alps in fine weather to floating organic germs.
Now
the possible existence of germs in such profusion has been
held up as an absurdity.
It has
been affirmed that they
182
would darken
tlie
and on the assumed impossibility
air,
of tlieir existence in the requisite numbers,
without inva-
sion of the solar light, an apparently powerful
argument
has been based by believers in spontaneous generation.

Similar arguments have been used by the opponents of
germ theory
the
who have triumph-
of epidemic disease,
antly challenged an appeal
chemist's balance
to
to
the
the
decide
and the
microscope
Such argu-
question.
ments, however, are founded on a defective acquaintance
Without com-
with the powers and properties of matter.
De
mitting myself in the least to
la Kive's notion, to the
doctrine of spontaneous generation, or to the

of disease, I
woukl simply draw attention
strable fact that,
atmosphere,
the
in
germ theory
demon-
to the
we have
particles
which defy both the microscope and the balance, which

do not darken the
air,
and which
exist,
nevertheless,
in
multitudes sufficient to reduce to insignificance the Israelitish
hyperbole regarding the sands upon the sea-shore.
The varying judgments

questions
may
by that doctrine
men on
these and
other
which plays so important a
of Relativity
part in philosoph}^
sions
of
perhaps be, to some extent, accounted for
This doctrine affirms that the impres-
made upon us by any circumstance, or combination

depend upon our previous state. Two
of circiimstances,
travellers
to
it
upon the same
from the
plain,
from a higher elevation,

the scene around them.
to the other
two such
it
is
height, the one having ascended
the other having

will
To
contracting,
different
descended to
it
be differently affected by
the one nature
is
expanding,
and impressions which have
antecedent states are
sure
In our scientihc judgments the law of relativity
to
differ.
may
also
To two men, one educated
play an important part.

the school of
senses,
tlie
in
Laving mainly occupied himself
the other educated in
with observation;
133
school
the
of
imagination as well, and exercised in the conceptions of
atoms and molecules to which we have so frequently

ferred, a bit of matter, say 50000th of
The one descends
will present itself differently.
his
molar heights, the other climbs to
To
lar lowlands.
the one
it
So,
minute
forms of life revealed
men
of the
also,
the
atoms,
between
both.
most
may
to
but a step from the
is
numberless
discerns
Compared with
and bacteria
smallest vibrios
some extent explain the
the
of
his
micro-
The law
behemoth and leviathan.
scopic field are as

relativity
from
To one
by the microscope.
The other
organism.
gradations
organic
it
these naturally appear conterminous with the
the
to
to
his molecu-
appears small, to the other
ultimate particles of matter; there
atom
from
it
as regards the appreciation of the
large.
re-
an inch in diameter,
of
different atti-
tudes of two such persons with regard to the question of
An
spontaneous generation.
amount
of evidence
which
the one entirely fails to satisfy the other; and
satisfies
while to the one the last bold defence and startling ex-
pansion of the doctrine by Dr. Bastian will appear perfectly
conclusive,
merely imposing
investigators.
Let
me
to
the other
labor
of
it
will
present
demolition
on
itself
as
subsequent
say here that
many
of our physiological ob-
servers appear to form a very inadequate estimate of the
distance
which separates the microscopic from
lecular limit,
'
When
and
that,
as a consequence, they
the
mo-
sometimes
these words were uttered I did not imagine that the chief labor
of demolition
would
fall
upon myself.
1878.
134
employ a phraseology calculated

example, the contents of a
homogeneous or
microscope
to
for
cell are described as perfectly
absolutely structureless, because
as
fails
discover any structure;
pronounced
are
structures
When,
mislead.
to
the
when two
or
be without difference, be-
to
cause the microscope can discover none, then, I think, the
microscope begins to play a mischievous part.
make
consideration will
plain that the microscope can
it
have no voice in the question of germ structure.

water
is
What
is
and
to
have here a structural process
can take no note, nor

able extension of
upon
is
that causes the liquid to cease
ilr
contracting at 39 Fahr.,
field of
its
expand
of
until
it
by any conceiv-
Place distilled water
an electro-magnet, and bring a microscope
it.
-in
the
to bear
Will any change be observed when the magnet

Absolutely
excited?
ticles of
freezes?
which the microscope
likely to do so
is it
powers.
none;
complex changes have occurred.
and
still
First of
profound
all,
and
the par-
water have been rendered diamagnetically polar;
and secondly, in virtue

it
Distilled
more perfectly homogeneous than any possible
organic germ.
We
little
by the magnetic whirl
of
the structure impressed
upon
of its molecules, the liquid twists
a ray of light in a fashion perfectly determinate both as

to quantity
Have
and
the
direction.
diamond, the
amethyst,
and the countless
other crystals formed in the laboratories of nature and of
man no
structure?
Assuredly they have; but what can
make of it? Nothing. It cannot be too

mind that between the microscopic limit,
molecular limit, there is room for infinite
the microscope
distinctly borne in
and the true
permutations and combinations.
It is in this region that
the poles of the atoms are arranged, that tendency
is
given
THE IMAGINATION
SCIENTIFIC USE OF
powers;
their
to
have
when
so that
poles and powers

and a suitable environ-
these
free action, proper stimulus,
ment, they determine,
on which
the germ, and afterward the
first
This
complete organism.
marshalling of the atoms,
first
subsequent action depends,
all
power than that
135
keener
baffles a
When
of the microscope.
duly pondered,
the complexity of the problem raises the doubt, not of the
power
of our instrument, for that is nil, but
whether we
ourselves possess the intellectual elements which will ever
enable us
grapple with the ultimate structural ener-
to
gies of nature.*
In more senses than one Mr. Darwin has drawn heavily

upon the scientific tolerance of his age. He has drawn
heavily upon time in his development of species, and he
has drawn adventurously upon matter in his theory of
According to
pangenesis.
microscopic,
this
theory,
a germ,
a world of minor germs.
is
already
Not only
is
the
organism as a whole wrapped up in the germ, but every

organ of the organism has there
I say, is
divide
its
an adventurous draft on the power of matter to
and distribute
itself
its forces.
But, unless
perfectly sure that he is overstepping the

son,
that he
is
for
or demonstrated law
bounds of
mind
the
any
Hyaline though
limit to its
rea-
ought.
expression *one sort of Kving substance' I must guard
against being supposed to
geneous.
are
Darwin can
like that of
we
**In using
we
unwittingly sinning against observed fact
never sin wittingly against either fact or law
This,
special seed.
mean
it
that
may
any kind of
appear,
complexity of structure."
we
living protoplasm is
homo-
are not at present able to assign
^Burden
Sanderson, in the "British
Medical Journal," January 16, 1875.
"We have here
scientific insight,
and
its
correlative caution.
In fact Dr.
Sanderson's important researches are a continued illustration of the position laid
do^n
above.
136
I think, to be cautious in limiting his intellectual horizon.
be the least doubt in the matter,
If there
ought
it
vast possibility
possibility
in itself a
is
may never
to
To
given in favor of the freedom of such a mind.
it
be
a
dynamic power, though the
be drawn upon.
me
It gives
pleas-
ure to think that the facts and reasonings of this discourse
tend rather toward the justification of Mr. Darwin, than
toward his condemnation;

fect
bility
and
distribution,
seem
for they
competence of matter and

to
bear the
to
show the
as regards
force,
heaviest
per-
divisi-
strain that
he has hitherto imposed upon them.

In the case of Mr. Darwin, observation, imagination,
and reason combined have run back with wonderful sagacity

ical
and success over a certain length

succession.
of the line of biolog-
Guided by analogy, in
Species" he placed at the root of
life
"Origin of
his
a primordial germ,
from which he conceived the amazing variety
now upon
ganisms
If this hypothesis
of the or-
the earth's surface might be deduced.
were even
The human mind would
true, it
would not be
infallibly look
final.
behind the germ,
and however hopeless the attempt, would inquire into the

history of
its
genesis.
In
this
dim
twilight of conjecture
the searcher welcomes every gleam, and seeks to

his light
by
He
indirect incidences.
of nature in the ages
studies the
and the worlds within
augment
methods
his reach, in
order to shape the course of speculation in antecedent ages
and worlds.
And
perimental inquiry
without
system,
guidance.
though the certainty possessed by exis
here shut out,
From
we
are not left entirely
the examination of
Kant and Laplace came
the
solar
to the conclusion that its
various bodies once formed parts of the same undislocated
mass;
that matter in a nebulous
form preceded matter in

present form;
its
137
was
that as the ages rolled away, heat
were
wasted,
condensation
and that
finally the chief portion of the hot cloud reached,
planets
followed,
by self-compression, the magnitude and

sun.
The
and
in our
earth
our
density of
evidence of a fiery origin;
offers
itself
detached;
day the hypothesis of Kant and Laplace
re-
ceives the independent countenance of spectrum analysis,
which proves the same substances
common
be
to
to
the
earth and sun.
Accepting some such view of the construction of our

system as probable, a desire immediately arises to connect the present
life
We
our planet with the past.
of
On
wish to know something of our remotest ancestry.
detachment
first
its
understand
How,
is
life,
as
we
could not have been present on the earth.
it,
then, did
aged here
from the central mass,
it
come there
The thing
a reverent freedom
to be encour-
freedom preceded by
the hard discipline which checks licentiousness in speculation
while
out of
it,
is
the meeting
thmg
the
to be repressed,
And
am
in the
to end, but ready to
go on.
dogmatism.
willing
both in science and
here I
hands of
have
no right to intrude upon you, unasked, the unformed notions

solid
which are
floating like clouds, or gathering to
consistency,
mind.
But
if
in
the
modern
you wish me
and undisputatiously,
am
to
speculative
more
scientific
speak plainly, honestly
willing
so.
On
obey your
call.
to
do
the
present occasion
You
"Well,
Two
are ordained to
your answer
is
call,
given,
and
and
I to
come.
or three years ago, in an ancient
I listened to a discussion at the end of a
London college,
lecture by a very
138
Three or four hundred clergymen were
remarkable man.
present at the lecture.
Egypt
tion of
in the
The
orator began with the civiliza-
time of Joseph;
pointing out the
very perfect organization of the kingdom, and the possession of chariots, in one of which Joseph rode, as proving
a long antecedent period of civilization.
on
mud
to the
of the Nile,
He
then passed
rate of augmentation, its
its
human handiwork
present thickness, and the remains of
found therein; thence to the rocks which bound the Nile
and which teem with organic remains.
valley,
his
to
own
clear
expand
ence,
way he caused
itself
indefinitely before the
and he contrasted
minds of
During his discourse he seemed

ming against a stream, he manifestly thought
opposing a general conviction.
the subsequent discussion;
viction,
in
his audi-
this with the age usually assigned
to the world.
mistake;
Thus
the idea of the world's age
He
so did
to be
swim-
that he
was
expected resistance in
I.
But
it
was
all
there was no adverse current, no opposing con-
no resistance; merely here and there a half -humor-
ous but unsuccessful attempt to entangle him in his talk.
The meeting agreed with
all
had been said regarding
that
They had, inits life.

known it all long ago, and they rallied the lecturer
It was quite
for coming among them with so stale a story.
plain that this large body of clergymen, who were, I should
say, to be ranked among the finest samples of their class,
the antiquity of the earth and of
deed,
had entirely given up the ancient landmarks, and

ported the
conception of
life's
trans-
origin to an indefinitely
distant past.
This leads us to the gist of our present inquiry, which

is
this
Does
life
belong to what we
call matter, or is it
an independent principle inserted into matter at some
suit-
SCIENTIFIC USE OF
nble epoch
say wlien
THE IMAGINATION
the physical conditions
the development of life?
as to permit of
139
became such
Let us put the
question with the reverence due to a faith and culture in
which we
all
were cradled, and which are the undeniable
historic antecedents of our present enlightenment.

let
I say,
us put the question reverently, but let us also put
clearly and
it
There are the strongest grounds
definitely.
for believing that during a certain period of its history the
earth was not, nor was
Whether
it
to be, the theatre of
fit
life.
was ever a nebulous period, or merely a
this
molten period, does not signify much; and

to the nebulous condition,
are really on its side.
it
we
if
revert
because the probabilities
is
Our question
is this:
Did
creative
energy pause until the nebulous matter had condensed,

until the earth
had been detached,
until the solar fire
had
so far withdrawn from the earth's vicinity as to permit
a crust to gather round the planet?

air
was
isolated;
until the seas
oration, condensation,
Did
it
were formed;
atmosphere had weathered
and decomposed the molten rocks so as
and by waste,
until evap-
and the descent of rain had begun;
until the eroding forces of the
until the sun's rays
wait until the
to
form
had become so tempered by
as to be chemically
tions necessary to vegetable life?
fit
soils;
distance,
for the decomposi-
Having waited through
these eons until the proper conditions had set in, did
send the
fiat forth,
"Let there be Life!"?
it
These ques-
tions define a hypothesis not without its difficulties,
but
the dignity of which in relation to the world's knowledge
was demonstrated by the nobleness of the men
whom
it
sustained.
Modern
between
upon to decide
hypothesis and another; and public thought
scientific
this
thought
is
called
140
generally will afterward be called upon to do
tlie
same.
But, however the convictions of individuals here and there
may
be influenced, the process must be slow and secular
which commends the hypothesis of Natural Evolution

For what are the core and essence
the public mind.
hypothesis
this
Strip
to face with the notion that not alone the
forms of animalcular or animal

forms of the horse and
lion,
wonderful mechanism of the
human mind
phenomena
itself
emotion,
were once
mere statement
of
of
and you stand face
naked,
it
to
life,
more ignoble
not alone the nobler
not alone the exquisite and
human
body, but that the

will,
intellect,
and
latent in a fiery cloud.
such a notion
is
more than a
all
their
Surely the
refutation.
But the hypothesis would probably go even further than

Many who hold it would probably assent to the
position that, at the present moment, all our philosophy,
this.
our poetry,
all
all
and
our science,
Shakespeare, Newton, and Raphael

fires of
gin.
the sun.
We
our art
all
are
potential in the
long to learn something of our
the Evolution hypothesis be correct,
If
Plato,
even
ori-
this
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 Evoluunsatisfied yearning
tion hypothesis
it
in
any way.
would say that

I
merely
I overstate
strip it of
all
or overstrain
vagueness, and
bring before you, unclothed and unvarnished, the notions
by which
it
must stand or
fall.
Surely these notions represent an absurdity too mon-
But why are

such notions absurd, and why should sanity reject them ?
The law of Relativity, of which we have previously
strous to be entertained by any sane mind.
spoken,
may
find its application
here.
These Evolution

notions are absurd, monstrous, and
lectual gibbet, in relation to
141
only for the
fit
intel-
the ideas concerning matter
which were drilled into us when young.
Spirit
and mat-
have ever been presented to us in the rudest contrast,
ter
the one as all-noble, the
Upon
correct?
Supposing
other
that, instead of
But
all-vile.
is
this
having the foregoing antithesis
and matter presented
of spirit
as
the answer to this question all depends.
to
our youthful minds, we
had been taught to regard them as equally worthy, and

equally wonderful
to consider
them, in
fact, as
two oppo-
Supposing that in
site faces of the self-same mystery.
youth we had been impregnated with the notion of the

poet Groethe, instead of the notion of the poet Young, and
taught to look upon matter, not as ''brute matter," but

as the "living
garment of Grod"; do you not think that
under these altered circumstances the law

might have had an outcome different from
Is
it
Relativity
present one ?
not probable that our repugnance to the idea of pri-
meval union between

ably abated?
now
of
its
spirit
Without
and matter might be consider-
this total revolution of the notions
must stand con-
prevalent, the Evolution hypothesis
demned; but in many profoundly thoughtful minds such

a
revolution
neither
has
member
already
the
of
taken
mysterious
but they exalt one of them from

the
divorce
stance,
if
hitherto
place.
existing
its
They degrade
duality referred
between
them.
In
not in words, their position as regards the
tion of spirit
gether, let
is:
"What
subrela-
Grod hath joined to-
no man put asunder."
You have
science, for
and matter
to;
abasement, and repeal
been thus led to the outer rim of speculative
beyond the nebulae
hitherto ventured.
scientific
thought has never
I have tried to state that which I con-
142
sidered
think
in
onglit,
this
Evolution
be outspoken.
to
fairness,
hypothesis
away
be flouted
to
is
I neither
ought to be denounced as
contemptuously,
nor that
wicked.
be brought before the bar of disciplined
It is to
and there
reason,
who
to those
oppose
who
it;
it
justified or
wisely support
and
condemned.
and
it,
Let us hearken
who wisely
name is legion,
things.
The only
to those
us tolerate those, whose
let
try foolishly to
do either of these
thing out of place in the discussion
is
dogmatism on either
Steady your-
Fear not the Evolution hypothesis.
side.
selves,
presence,
in its
upon that
in the
faith
ultimate
triumph of truth which was expressed by old Gamaliel
when he
if it
said:
*'If
be of man,
it
will
it
be of God, ye cannot overthrow
come
possess not a core of truth.
hypothesis
is
has been applied.

solve
leaves,
the
Trust me,
its
it
if
existence as a
which the term
It does not solve
ultimate
mystery
of
its
they came, would
potential
still
life,
remain to
this
the
baffle
*'
Christian'*
does not profess
it
that mystery untouched.
in fact,
the nebula and
At
the fierce
be dissipated
quite compatible with the simultaneous ex-
istence of all those virtues to
to
Under
naught."
to
scientific inquiry, it is sure to
light of
it;
universe.
It
granting
For,
question,
whence
and bewilder
us.
bottom, the hypothesis does nothing more than 'trans-
port the conception of
life's
origin to an indefinitely dis-
tant past."
Those who hold the doctrine
means ignorant
only yield to
of Evolution are
of the uncertainty of their data,
a provisional
it
assent.
by no
and they
They regard
the
nebular hypothesis as probable, and, in the utter absence

of
any evidence
method
to
of nature
prove the act
illegal,
they extend the
from the present into the
past.
Here

uniformity of
the observed
Within the long range

discerned
never
Throughout
nature
in
the
inquiry,
insertion
they have
of
caprice.
physical and intel-
have run side by
lectual continuity
only guide.
their
is
the laws of
range,
this
nature
physical
of
143
Having thus
side.
determined the elements of their curve in a world of observation
and experiment, they prolong that curve into
an antecedent world, and accept as probable the unbroken

sequence of development from the nebula to the present
time.
You
never hear the really philosophical defenders
of
the doctrine of
in
nature.
Uniformity speaking of
They never
say,
charged with saying, that

of the universe to alter
it
is
impossibilities
what they are constantly

impossible for the Builder
His work.
with the possible, but the actual
Their business
not
might be, but with a world that
is
not
with a world which
This they explore
is.
with a courage not unmixed with reverence, and according to methods which, like the quality of a tree, are tested
by
They have but one
their fruits.
They have but one

they know the strength
truth.
if
with unswerving
questions
no
mind
me
desire
to
believe a
science,
know
and rely upon
fellowship with the atheist
Grod, as with the theist

of
God.
with awe:
"Two
who
who
professes to
things," said
They
says there
know
Immanuel Kant,
the
"fill
the starry heavens, and the sense of moral
responsibility in
man."
strength and sanity,
and the pause
it
know the limits beyond

be strong. They best know that
themselves to thought, which science, as
offer
little
the
And
lie.
prosecuted, has not even the tendency to solve.
have as
is
of
^to
they also
trust,
which science ceases to
now
fear
of
when
And
in his hours of health
and
the stroke of action has ceased,
reflection
has set
in,
the scientific in-
144
vestigator finds himself overshadowed
by the same awe.
Breaking contact with the hampering
details of earth, it
associates
to
his
him with
existence,
comprehend.
Power which
gives fulness and tone
but which he can neither analyze nor
'
There is one God supreme over all gods, diviner than mortals,
"Whose form is not like unto man's, and as unlike his nature;
But vain mortals imagine that gods like themselves are begotten,
"With
human
So,
oxen or
if
And
sensations and voice and corporeal members;

lions
m man's fashion,
had hands and could work
trace out with chisel or brush their conception of Godhead,
Then would horses depict gods like horses, and oxen hke oxen.
Each kind the divine with its own form and nature endowing.
Xenophanes
of Colophon (six centuries b.o.X
Supernatural Eeligion, voL
i.
p. 76.
IX
THE BELFAST ADDEESS
1
AN
impulse
inherent
and
thoughts
in
Determined
to-day.
beyond the pale

resting
of
to
far
They
as their
also
diiference
fell
that
see
In
cause.
things,
physical
experience,
our
we might add, our
less,
as
upon a
origin
the
mind
the
of
of
the
which
lie
satisfy
the
occurrence
natural
forming
notions
their
(and
historic
of
doubt-
prehistoric) ancestors pursued,
intelligence
back
abstraction
theories
every
action
scientific
but which
earliest
the
The same impulse,
spur of
by a process of
it,
we form
from experience
desire
by
the
is
turned his
toward
betimes
sources of natural phenomena.

inherited and intensified,
man
primeval
questionings
permitted,
the
upon experience;
particular
same course.
but
experiences
with
this
which
fur-
nished the warp and woof of their theories were drawn,

*
Delivered before the British Association on
Wednesday evening, August
19, 1874.
Science
(145)
146
much
not from the study of nature, but from what lay
the
them
closer to
observation of men.
accordingly took an anthropomorphic

sensual
beings,
Their theories
To
form.
"however potent and
which,
super-
invisible,
were nothing but a species of human creatures, perhaps

raised
from
among mankind, and
retaining
all
human
passions and appetites,"' were handed over the rule and
governance of natural phenomena.

Tested
by observation and
reflection,
tions failed in the long run to satisfy the

intellects of
find
men
of
these early no-
more penetrating
Far in the depths of history we
our race.
exceptional power differentiating themselves
from the crowd, rejecting these anthropomorphic notions,
and seeking
to connect natural
phenomena with
But, long prior to
sical principles.
these
their phy-
purer efforts
merchant had been abroad, and
of the understanding, the
rendered the philosopher
possible;
commerce had been
developed, wealth amassed, leisure for travel and speculation secured, while races educated under different conditions,
and therefore
informed
differently
and endowed,
had been stimulated and sharpened by mutual

In
those
regions
where
the
commercial
contact.
aristocracy
of
ancient Grreece mingled with their Eastern neighbors, the

sciences were born, being nurtured and developed
thinking and courageous men.

displaced
may
free-
state of things to
be
be gathered from a passage of Euripides
quoted by Hume.
glory,
The
by
no prosperity.
mix everything with
"There
nothing in the world;
The gods
its
may pay them
Hume, "Natural History
no
toss all into confusion;
reverse, that all of us,
ignorance and uncertainty,
is
of Religion."
the
from our
more wor-
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
Now
ship and reverence."
147
demands the radical

upon law
as science
extirpation of caprice, and the absolute reliance
with the growth of
in nature, there grew,
and determination
tions, a desire
of theory this
mob
of gods
phenomena on
ural
to
and demons, and
basis
no-
scientific
sweep from the
field
to place nat-
more congruent with them-
selves.
The problem which had been previously approached

from above was now attacked from below; theoretic
passed from the super- to the sub-sensible.
that to construct the universe in idea
have some notion of
its
it
effort
was
It
constituent parts
of
what Lu-
Ab-
cretius subsequently called the "First Beginnings."
stracting again
speculation
from experience, the leaders of
reached at length
atoms and molecules, the
were
set forth with
pregnant
the
meeting of the British Association.
mind
of
moment
Lange, a
this
which
and completeness which

our
in
his
it
it
attained
assumed in the
who may
"Few
attention.
non-materialist,
last
Thought, no doubt,
doctrine before
Democritus,' a philosopher
arrest
doctrine of
such power and clearness at the
had long hovered about

the precision
scientific
developments of
latest
felt
was necessary to
great
well for a
men," says
excellent "History
of
Materialism," to the spirit and to the letter of which I
am
equally indebted, "have been so despitefully used by
In the distorted images sent down
history as Democritus.
to us
through unscientific traditions, there remains of him
almost nothing
pher,'
but the name of *the laughing
philoso-
while figures of immeasurably smaller significance
spread themselves out at full length before us."
Born 460
B.C.
Lange
148
m
Bacon's liigh appreciation of Democritus
speaks of
ample
which
illustrations of
rapher of Bacon.
indebted to
It is evident, indeed, that
man
sidered Democritus to be a
either Plato
am
my
^for
excel-
Spedding, the learned editor and biog-
Mr.
lent friend
Bacon con-
of weightier metal than
though their philosophy "was
or Aristotle,
noised and celebrated in the schools, amid the din and
pomp
of professors."
was not they, but Grenseric and
It
Attila and the barbarians,
"For, at a time
losophy.
who destroyed the atomic phiwhen all human learning had
suffered shipwreck, these planks of Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy, as being of a lighter
and more
were preserved and came down to
substance,
inflated
us,
while
things more solid sank and almost passed into oblivion."
The son
whole
He
a wealthy father,
of
Democritus devoted the
of his inherited fortune to the culture of his
travelled
everywhere;
and Plato were
there,
ing himself known.
visited
mind.
Athens when Socrates
but quitted the city without mak-
Indeed, the dialectic
strife in
which
much delighted had no charm for Democritus,

who held that "the man who readily contradicts, and uses
many words, is unfit to learn anything truly right." He
Socrates so
is
said to have
discovered and educated Protagoras the
being struck as
Sophist,
he, being a
hewer
of
much by
sagacity of his conversation.
from his
travels,
the
manner
in
which
wood, tied up his fagots, as by the

Democritus returned poor
was supported by
his
brother,
and
at
length wrote his great work entitled "Diakosmos," which
he read publicly before the people of his native town.
He was honored by
his
countrymen
in various ways,
and
died serenely at a great age.
The
principles enunciated
by Democritus reveal
his un-
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
149
to those who deduced the phefrom the caprices of the gods. They
compromising antagonism
nomena
of nature
are briefly these:
From nothing comes
1.
ing that exists can be destroyed.
the combination and separation of molecules.
happens by chance; every occurrence has
which
Noth-
nothing.
All changes are due to
its
Nothing
2.
cause,
from
by necessity. 3. The only existing things

are the atoms and empty space; all else is mere opinion.
4. The atoms are infinite in number and infinitely various
in form; they strike together, and the lateral motions and
whirlings which thus arise are the beginnings of worlds.
5.
follows
it
The
number,
of their atoms, in
soul consists of
fire.
depend upon the
varieties of all things
fine,
size,
6.
The
smooth, round atoms, like those of
These are the most mobile of
trate the
varieties
and aggregation.
all:
they interpene-
whole body, and in their motions the phenomena
of life arise.
The
first five
propositions are a fair general statement
of the atomic philosophy, as

sixth,
Democritus made his
nervous
system,
now
finer
held.
As
regards the
atoms do duty for the
whose functions were then unknown.
The atoms
of
tion; they
combine
Democritus are individually without sensain obedience to mechanical laws;
and
not only organic forms, but the phenomena of sensation
and thought, are the
result of their combination.
That great enigma, "the exquisite adaptation of one

part of an organism to another part, and to the conditions
of
life,**
more especially the construction
body, Democritus
sk
man
of
more
tion of love
made no attempt
fiery
to solve.
human
Empedocles,
and poetic nature, introduced the no-
and hate among the atoms,
their combination
of the
and separation;
to account for
and bolder than De-
150
mocritus,
linked,
the
in
suited
lie
struck
the
thought,
penetrating
however, with some wild speculation, that

very nature
their
to
those
of
ends
maintain
in
lay
it
which
combinations
other words,
(in
environment) to
their
with
in
were
harmony with
themselves,
while
unfit
combinations, having no proper habitat, must rapidly dis-
Thus, more than 2,000 years ago, the doctrine of
appear.
the "survival of the fittest," which in our day, not on

the basis of vague conjecture, but of positive knowledge,
has been
raised to such
received at
all
had
extraordinary significance,
events partial enunciation.*
Epicurus,' said to be the son of a poor schoolmaster at
Samos,
is
the next dominant figure in the history of the
He
atomic philosophy.
tus,
mastered the writings of Democri-
heard lectures in Athens, went back to Samos, and
subsequently wandered through various countries.
He
fi-
nally returned to Athens, where he bought a garden, and
surrounded himself by pupils, in the midst of

lived a pure and serene
life,
whom
he
and died a peaceful death.
Democritus looked to the soul as the ennobling part of
man; even beauty, without understanding, partook of animalism.

Epicurus also rated the spirit above the body;
body being that of the moment, while

could draw upon the future and the past. His
the pleasure of the

the spirit
philosophy was almost identical with that of Democritus;
but he never quoted either friend or

ject of
Death he treated with
It merely robs us of sensation.
not;
ob-
Epicurus was to free the world from superstition
and the fear of death.
is
One main
foe.
and when death
See "Lange," 2d
is,
edit., p. 23.
we
As
indifference.
long as we are, death
are not.
Life has no
^^^^ 342
more
b.o.
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

evil for
not to
him who has made up
He adored
live.
The idea
fashion.
godless
who
that
it is
no
evil
the gods, but not in the ordinary-
of Divine power, properly purified, he
thought an elevating one.
who
mind
his
151
he taught, "Not he
Still
gods of the crowd, but rather he
rejects the
The gods were
accepts them."
is
to
him
eternal
and
immortal beings, whose blessedness excluded every thought

of
care or occupation of any kind.
Nature pursues her
course in accordance with everlasting laws, the gods never
They haunt
interfering.
The
lacid interspace of world
Where never
Nor ever
the least white star of snow,
falls
Nor ever lowest

Nor sound
^
of
and world
creeps a cloud or moves a wind,
roll of
thunder moans,
human sorrow mounts
to
mar
Their sacred everlasting calm.^
Lange considers the
relation of
Epicurus to the gods
subjective; the indication, probably, of an ethical require-
ment
of
his
own
nature.
We
cannot read history with
open eyes, or study human nature to

to discern
such a requirement.
Man
its
depths, and fail
never has been, and
he never will be, satisfied with the operations and products of the Understanding alone;
cannot cover
all
the
tory of the efforts
hence physical science
demands of his nature. But the hismade to satisfy these demands might
be broadly described as a history of errors
the
error, in
great part, consisting in ascribing fixity to that which

fluent,
is
which varies as we vary, being gross when we are
gross,
and becoming,
stract
and sublime.
as
our capacities widen, more ab-
On one
*
great point the
Tennj'sons "Lucretius."
mind
of Epi-
152
He
curus was at peace.
neither sought nor expected, here
or hereafter, any personal profit from his relation to the
And
gods.
ity of
it is
assuredly a fact that loftiness and seren-
may
thought
be promoted by conceptions which
"Did
volve no idea of profit of this kind.
man*
said a great
to
the heart of things,

able. "
The
rendered
me
once, "that an Intelligence
my
on earth would be
life
utterer of these words
less,
is not,
in-
I not believe,'*
my
in
but more, noble by the fact that
it
at
is
intoler-
opinion,
was the
need of ethical harmony here, and not the thought of personal happiness hereafter, that prompted his observation.
There are persons, not belonging
to the highest intel-
lectual zone, nor yet to the lowest, to
ness of
exposition
suggests want of
whom
perfect clear-
depth.
They
find
comfort and edification in an abstract and learned phraseology.

rid
his
To such people
style
of
Epicurus,
who spared no
peared, on this very account, superficial.

ever, a disciple
pains to
every trace of haze and turbidity,
who thought
spend his days and nights

ness of his master, and to
it
He
had,
ap-
how-
no unworthy occupation to
in the effort to reach the clear-
whom
the Greek philosopher
is
mainly indebted for the extension and perpetuation of his

fame.
Some two
Lucretius'
wrote
centuries after the death of Epicurus,

his
great
"On
poem,
the
Nature of
Things," in which he, a Roman, developed with extraordinary ardor the philosophy of his Greek predecessor.
He
wishes to win over his friend Memnius to the school of
Epicurus; and although he has no rewards in a future

to offer, although his object appears to
tive
one, he
addresses
Carlyle.
his
life
be a purely nega-
with the heat of an
friend
'
Born 99
B.C.
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
153
His object, like that of his great forerunner,
apostle.
day trembled before every natural event
in his
is
and considering that men
the destruction of superstition;
as a direct
monition from the gods, and that everlasting torture was

also in prospect, the
freedom aimed
be deemed a positive good.
at
by Lucretius might
"This terror," he
says,
"and
darkness of mind, must be dispelled, not by the rays of

the sun and glittering shafts of day, but
and the law
He
of nature."
by the aspect
refutes the notion that any-
thing can come out of nothing, or that what
is
once be-
The first beginnings,

them all things can
gotten can be recalled to nothing.
the atoms, are indestructible, and into
be resolved at
last.
Bodies are partly atoms and partly
combinations of atoms; but the atoms nothing can quench.
They
things can be closely packed and exhibit
all
enduring strength.
visible.
as
and, by their denser
are strong in solid singleness,
combination,
We
come
He
denies that matter
at length to the atoms,
an imperishable substratum,
and development
of things
The mechanical shock
all
is
infinitely di-
without which,
order in the generation
would be destroyed.
of the
atoms being, in his view,
the all-sufficient cause of things, he combats the notion

that the constitution of nature has been in
mined by
intelligent design.
throughout
infinite
tions possible.
unfit ones
Of
The
time rendered
these, the
disappeared.
Not
fit
any way
deter-
interaction of the atoms

all
manner
of
combina-
ones persisted, while the
after
sage deliberation did
the atoms station themselves in their right places, nor did
they bargain what motions they should assume.

eternity they
have been driven together, and,
motions and unions of every kind, they
fell at
From
all
after trying
length into
the arrangements out of which this system of things has
154
"If you will apprehend and keep in mind
been evolved.
these things, Nature, free at once, and rid of her haughty

lords,
is
seen to do
things spontaneously of herself,
all
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

visible particles of air act in the
particles of water.
We
same way
in-
as the visible
perceive, moreover, the different
them coming to our nostrils.

Again, clothes hung up on a shore which waves
break upon, become moist, and then get dry if spread out
in the sun, though no eye can see either the approach or
the escape of the water- particles.
A ring, worn long on
the finger, becomes thinner; a water-drop hollows out a
stone; the plowshare is rubbed away in the field; the
street-pavement is worn by the feet; but the particles
Nature acts
that disappear at any moment we cannot see.
through invisible particles. That Lucretius had a strong
smells of things, yet never see
scientific
fine
imagination the foregoing references prove.
illustration
of
his
power
in
this
respect
is
his
A
ex-
planation of the apparent rest of bodies whose atoms are

in motion.
He employs
with skipping lambs,
the image of a flock of sheep
which,
sents simply a white patch
seen from a distance, pre-
upon the green
hill,
the jump-
ing of the individual lambs being quite invisible.
His vaguely grand conception of the atoms falling
eter-
nally through space, suggested the nebular hypothesis to
Kant,
its first
propounder.
Far beyond the limits of our
* Monro's translation.
In his crilicism 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 rest.
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
155
world are to be found atoms innumerable, which
risible
nave never been united to form bodies, or which,

united, have been again dispersed
falling
once
if
through
silently
As everywhere
immeasurable intervals of time and space.
throughout the All the same conditions are repeated, so
must the phenomena be repeated
below
this,
considered, must dissipate every thought of a de-
and go,
attracting
persing their
which
poem,
by the gods. The worlds come

new atoms out of limitless space, or disown particles. The reputed death of Lucre-
the universe
flection of
tius,
us,
worlds without end; and
us, beside us, therefore, are
when
Above
also.
is
forms
Mr.
Tennyson's
noble
in strict accordance with his philosophy,
which
the
basis
of
was severe and pure.
2
Still earlier
than these three philosophers, and during
the centuries between the
human
intellect
Pythagoras
made
his
was
them and the
first of
active
in
other
had founded a school
fields
of
Plato,
and whose
and
to the present hour.
Within
to
and
The
At Athens had
who ruined the
Aristotle,
yoke remains
the
theirs.
experiments on the harmonic intervals.
appeared Socrates,
broken
than
mathematics,
Sophists had run through their career.
Sophists,
last,
some extent un-
this period also the
School of Alexandria was founded, Euclid wrote his "Ele-
ments" and made some advance in

had propounded the theory of the
ciples of hydrostatics.
by the
discoveries of
the historically
optics.
lever,
Archimedes
and the
prin-
Astronomy was immensely enriched

who was followed by
Hipparchus,
more celebrated Ptolemy.
been made the basis of
scientific
Anatomy had
medicine; and
it is
said
156
by Draper
'
had
vivisection
that
begun.
In
the
fact,
science of ancient Grreece had already cleared the world

of the fantastic images of divinities operating capriciously
through natural phenomena.
from that
It
had shaken
fruitless scrutiny *'by the internal
free
itself
the
light of
mind alone," which had vainly sought to transcend expeand to reach a knowledge of ultimate causes. In-
rience,
stead of accidental observation,

tion with a purpose;
it
had introduced observa-
instruments were employed to aid
the senses; and scientific
method was rendered in a great
measure complete by the union of Induction and Experiment.

"What, then, stopped
its
victorious advance
Why was
the scientific intellect compelled, like an exhausted

lie
fallow for nearly two millenniums, before
gather the elements necessary to
Bacon has already

cribes this
thought,
us
as-
obscurity
of
enthusiasm
intolerance of disposition,
must have had
the circumstances of the time.
their
tianity
Eome, and the other
had appeared, offering the Gospel
by moderation,
if
not asceticism of
life,
ing against the profligacy of the age.
But
of each."
antecedents in
Empire, had fallen into moral putrefaction.
of the
re-
Whewell
cause;
and he gives striking examples
these characteristics
soil, to
could
and strength ?
its fertility
know one
stationary period to four causes
servility,
of temper;
let
it
cities
Chris-
to the poor,
and
practically protest-
The
sufferings of
the early Christians, and the extraordinary exaltation of
mind which enabled them

tortures to
to
triumph over the diabolical
which they were subjected,
must have
"History of the Intellectual Development of Europe,"
'
"History of the Inductive Sciences,"
Described with terrible vividness in Renan's "Antichrist,"
vol.
p. 295,
i.
left
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

They scorned
traces not easily effaced.

of that "building of
their
Science.
'
'
The Scriptures which ministered
needs were also the measure of their
spiritual
When,
the earth, in view
God, that house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.

to
157
for example, the celebrated question of the
Antipodes came to be discussed, the Bible was with many

the ultimate court of appeal.
Augustine,
who
flourished
would not deny the rotundity of the earth; but

deny
the possible existence of inhabitants at the
he would
other side, *' because no such race is recorded in Scripture
A.D. 400,
among
the descendants of
was shocked
at the
Adam/'
ings out of the reach of the
reined
in.
Archbishop Boniface
assumption of a "world of human be-
means
Science was not likely to
of salvation."
make much
Later on, the political and theological
Church and
civil
strife
Thus
progress.
between the
governments, so powerfully depicted by
much to stifle investigation.

Whewell makes many wise and brave remarks regard-
Draper, must have done
ing the spirit of the Middle Ages.
The seekers
after
It
was a menial
natural knowledge
spirit.
had forsaken the
fountain of living waters, the direct appeal to Nature by
observation and experiment, and given themselves up to

the remanipulation
It
of the notions of their predecessors.
was a time when thought had become
the acceptance of mere authority led, as

science, to intellectual death.
abject,
it
and when
always does in
Natural events, instead of
being traced to physical, were referred to moral, causes;

while an exercise of the fantasy, almost as degrading as
the spiritualism of the present day, took the place of scientific
speculation.
Then came
the mysticism of the Middle
Ages, Magic, Alchemy, the Neoplatonic philosophy, with

its
visionary though sublime abstractions,
which caused
158
men
to look with
shame upon
own
their
bodies,
as hin-
derances to the absorption of the creature in the blessedness of the Creator.
Finally came the scholastic philoso-
according to Lange,
phy, a fusion,
the least mature
of
notions of Aristotle with the Christianity of the West.
As
tellectual immobility was the result.
a traveller with-
out a compass in a fog
may wander
making way, and
himself after hours of
find
same
clouds,"
'
knots,
and
found
themselves at the
formed
long, imagining he is
toil
at his
having "tied and untied
starting-point, so the schoolmen,
the
In-
and
dissipated
end of
the
same
centuries in
their old position.
With regard
wields,
When
the
would
influence wielded
to the
the Middle Ages,
and which,
ask
to
permission
human mind
a less
by
Aristotle in
extent,
he
still
make one remark.
to
has achieved greatness and given
evidence of extraordinary power in one domain, there
mains.
ance in
is
it
power
Thus theologians have found comfort and assurthe thought that Newton dealt with the question
a tendency to credit
of revelation
forgetful
of his powers,
through
in all other do-
with similar
of the fact that the very devotion

all
the best years of his
totally different class of ideas, not to
disqualification, tended to render
him
life,
to a
speak of any natural

less,
instead of more,
competent to deal with theological and historic questions.

Goethe, starting from his established greatness as a poet,
and indeed from

tory,
of
his positive discoveries in Natural His-
produced a profound impression among the painters
Grermany,
when he published
which he endeavored
to
his
"Farbenlehre," in
overthrow Newton's theory of

WhewelL
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
159
This theory he deemed so obviously absurd that
colors.
he considered
author a charlatan, and attacked
its
with a corresponding vehemence of language.
main
Natural History, Groethe had made really consid-
of
erable discoveries
ing
that,
science,
him
In the do-
and we have high authority for assum-
had he devoted himself wholly
to that side of
he might have reached an eminence comparable
with that which he attained as a poet.
In sharpness of
observation, in the detection of analogies apparently re-
mote, in the classification and organization of facts according to the analogies discerned, Goethe possessed extraordi-
nary powers.
These elements of
may be
tory,
endowed
richly
He
conceptions;
reasoning;
in the direction of natural his-
sciences.
Goethe was
could not formulate distinct
he could not see
and,
supreme, he
fall in
almost shorn of endowment as regards the
physical and mechanical

condition.
inquiry
But, on the other hand, a
with the disciplines of the poet.
mind thus
scientific
in regions
the force of
in
this
mechanical
mechanical
where such reasoning reigns
became a mere
ignis fatuus to
those
who
followed him.
I have sometimes
totle
with Goethe
permitted myself to compare Aris-
to
superhuman power
credit the Stagirite with an almost
of
amassing and systematizing
facts,
but to consider him fatally defective on that side of the

mind, in respect to which incompleteness has been just
ascribed to Goethe.
Whewell
refers
totle not to a neglect of facts,
idea
cause,
appropriate
which
is
to
the
facts:
Force, and
the
the errors of Aris-
but to "a neglect of the

the
idea of
Mechanical
substitution of vague or
inapplicable notions, involving only relations of space or
emotions of wonder."
This
is
doubtless true;
but the
160
word
mere
implies
"neglect"
whereas in Aristotle, as in Groethe,
As
the root of his mistakes.
played what we should

in
attributes
ness
ideas,
of
had
really
failed
place
He
ject.
the
to
his
the
worst of
indistinct-
and a confident use
delusive notion that he
he had, as
while
subject,
things,
of
Aristotle dis-
of
He
it.
the
in
subject
order
true
the general to the
of
He made
ob-
of
it,
by passing
inquiry,
particular, instead
ticular to the general.
yet,
put words
place
preached Induction without practicing
the
verting
led
not, I believe,
investigator
mind,
grasp even the elements of
to
the
in
some
modern physical
mastered
was
a physicist,
consider
confusion of
language which
of
it
incapacity which lay at
but sheer natural
misdirection,
misdirection,
intellectual
from the
of
in-
from
par-
of the universe a closed
sphere, in the centre of which he fixed the earth, prov-
ing from
to that of
general principles, to his
tirely unphysical.
His notions
no
it
motion
how many
it
is
He
not exist, and proved that
would be impossible.
When
far
motion were en-
real mechanical conception re-
species of animals
general principles
parts.
of
lying at the bottom of his mind.
vacuum could
in
and
was natural or unnatural, better or
It
worse, calm or violent
that a
satisfaction
the world for near 2,000 years, that no other
universe was possible.
garding
own
why
He
must
afiirmed
if
it
did
determined a priori
exist,
and showed on
animals must have such and such
an eminent contemporary philosopher, who
removed from
errors of this kind,
remembers these
abuses of the d priori method, he will be able to
make
allowance for the jealousy of physicists as to the accept-
ance of so-called d priori truths.

tail,
as
Aristotle's errors of de-
shown by Eucken and Lange, were grave and
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
He
numerous.
affirmed that only in
161
man we had
the beat-
body was colder

than the right, that men have more teeth than women, and
that there is an empty space at the back of every man's
ing of the heart, that the
the
left side of
head.
There
one essential quality in physical conceptions
is
which was entirely wanting

followers
a capability of
The Germans express
before the mind.
ing by the word
We
stelliLng.
in those of Aristotle
and
his
being placed as coherent pictures

the act of pictur-
and the picture they
vorstellen,
call a Vor-
have no word in English which comes nearer
to our requirements than Imagination ; and, taken with its
proper limitations, the word answers very well.

tainted
by
its
some minds.
of
associations,
But
it is
and therefore objectionable
Compare, with reference
to
this
to
capacity
mental presentation, the case of the Aristotelian, who
refers the ascent of water in a
pump
rence of a vacuum, with that of Pascal
to Nature's abhor-
when he proposed
by the ascent
to solve the question of atmospheric pressure

of the
Puy
de Dome.
explanation refuse to
in
the
In the one case the terms of the
mto
fall
other the image
is
place as a physical image;
distinct,
the descent and rise
of the barometer being clearly figured beforehand as the
balancing of two varying and opposing pressures.
3
During the drought
dom, the Arabian
was
active.
order,
With
learning,
opposites.
of
intellect,
the Middle
as forcibly
Ages in Christenshown by Draper,
the intrusion of the Moors into Spain,
and refinement took the place of
When
their
smitten with disease, the Christian peas-
ant resorted to a shrine, the Moorish one to an instructed
162
The Arabs encouraged translations from the

Greek philosophers, but not from the Greek poets. They
physician.
turned in
disgust "from
the
lewdness of
our
classical
mythology, and denounced as an unpardonable blasphemy

connection between the impure Olympian Jove and the
Most High God." Draper traces still further than Whewell the Arab elements in our scientific terms.
He gives
examples of what Arabian men of science accomplished,
all
dwelling particularly on
Alhazen,
who was
the
first
to
correct the Platonic notion that rays of light are emitted
Alhazen discovered atmospheric

by the eye.
and showed that we see the sun and the moon
have
He
set.
after they
explained the enlargement of the sun and
moon, and the shortening
when near
these bodies
refraction,
of the vertical diameters of both
the horizon.
He was
aware that
the atmosphere decreases in density with increase of eleva-
and actually fixed
tion,
its
height at 583^ miles.
*'Book of the Balance of Wisdom," he
In the
sets forth the con-
nection between the weight of the atmosphere and
He shows
creasing density.
ently in a rare and dense
that a
body
will
weigh
its in-
differ-
atmosphere, and he considers
the force with which plunged bodies rise through heavier
He
media.
ity,
steelyards.
fell into
the
understood the doctrine of the centre of grav-
and applied
He
balances and
recognized gravity as a force, though he
and
of
assuming
making
to diminish
it
it
purely
simply as
terrestrial.
He
the relation between the velocities, spaces, and times
of falling bodies,
tion.
to the investigation of
the error of
distance,
knew
it
and had
He improved
distinct ideas of capillary attrac-
the hydrometer.
of the densities of bodies, as given
very closely to our own.
*'I
The determinations
by Alhazen, approach
join," says Draper, "in the
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
163
pious prayer of Alhazen, that in the day of judgment the
All-Merciful will take pity on the soul of Abur-Kaihan,
because he was the
(and
L have
entire
men
the race of
first of
a table of specific gravities."
to construct
be historic truth
If all this
may
confidence in Dr. Draper), well
he "deplore the systematic manner in which the literature

of
Europe has contrived
to
put out of sight our

'
Mohammedans.
upon the mind during the
obligations to the
The
strain
scientific
'
stationary period
toward ultra -terrestrial things, to the neglect of problems

close at hand,
was sure
action was gradual;

a
power was
went too
provoke reaction.
for the
To
But the
re-
ground was dangerous, and
hand competent
at
far.
to
who
to crush the critic
elude this power, and
still
allow oppor-
tunity for the expression of opinion, the doctrine of "two-
was invented, according
fold truth"
to
which an opinion
might be held "theologically," and the opposite opinion

"philosophically."
'
Thus, in the thirteenth century, the
creation of the world in six days, and the unchangeable
ness of the individual soul, which had been so distinctly

affirmed
by
Thomas Aquinas, were both denied
St.
but
osophically,
Catholic faith.
admitted to be true as
When
articles
Protagoras uttered the
phil-
of
the
maxim which
brought upon him so much vituperation, that "opposite

assertions
are
equally true," he simply meant to affirm
men's differences to be so great, that what was subjectively true to the one might be subjectively untrue to the
other.
The
great Sophist never
loose with the truth
by saying
meant
to play fast
and
that one of two opposite
"Intellectual Development of Europe," p. 359.
"Lange, 2d edit, pp. 181, 182.
164
made by
assertions,
escape being a
the same individual, could possibly
It
lie.
was not ''sophistry," but tbe dread
of tbeologic vengeance, tbat generated this double dealing
with conviction; and
it
is
astonishing
men who were
lengths were allowed to
to
notice
what
adroit in the use
of artifices of this kind.
Toward
ness, if I
the close of the stationary period a word- weari-
may
so express
it,
Christendom had become sick of
sion of men's minds.
the School Philosophy and

to
no
issue,
but
took more and more possesverbal wastes, which led
its
the intellect in everlasting haze.
left
Here
and there was heard the voice of one impatiently crying

in the wilderness,
*'!N'ot
unto Aristotle, not unto subtle
not unto Church, Bible,
hypothesis,
must we turn
knowledge
for a
direct investigation of
or blind tradition,
of the universe, but to the
Nature by observation and experi-
In 1543 the epoch-marking work of Copernicus
ment."
on the paths
heavenly bodies appeared.
of the
The
total
crash of Aristotle's closed universe, with the earth at

centre, followed as a consequence,
its
and **The earth moves!"
became a kind of watchword among
intellectual freemen.
Copernicus was Canon of the church of Frauenburg in the

diocese of Ermeland.
For three -and- thirty years he had
withdrawn himself from the world, and devoted himself

to the consolidation of his great
He made
tem.
feared
it,
its
scheme of the
solar sys-
blocks eternal; and even to those
and desired
its
overthrow,
it
who
was so obviously
strong that they refrained for a time from meddling with

it.
In the
appeared:
of
it
peace.
last
it
is
year of the
said
life
of Copernicus his
that the old
man
book
received a copy
a few days before his death, and then departed in
THE BELFAST ADDREbS

The
Italian philosopher,
the earliest converts to the
165
Giordano Bruno, was one
new astronomy.
of
Taking Lu-
cretius as his exemplar, he revived the notion of the in-
and, combining with
finity of worlds;
it
the doctrine of
sublime generalization that the
Copernicus, reached
the
fixed stars are suns,
scattered numberless through space,
and accompanied by
them
tion to
Struck with the problem of the generation
and maintenance
of organisms,
and duly pondering
to the conclusion that Nature, in
of unravelling
The
and unfolding.
infinity of
by
artificer;
its
own
brings these forms forth.
empty
be,
intrinsic
Matter
is
he
is
one
forms un-
der which matter appears was not imposed upon

external
it,
her productions,
Her process
does not imitate the technic of man.
it
rela-
moon
but Bruno came closer than this to our present line
of thought.
came
which bear the same
This was an expansion of transcendent im-
to our earth.
port;
satellites,
that our earth does to our sun, or our
it
by an
and virtue
force
not the mere naked,
capacity which philosophers have pictured her to
who brings forth all things

own womb.
This outspoken man was originally a Dominican monk.
but the universal mother,
as the fruit of her
He was
in
accused of heresy and had to
fly,
Geneva, Paris, England and Germany.
into the
hands of the Inquisition
prisoned for
many
and handed over
In 1592 he
fell
He was
im-
at "Venice.
years, tried, degraded,
to the Civil
seeking refuge
excommunicated,
power, with the request that
he should be treated gently, and "without the shedding

of blood."
This meant that he was to be burned;
burned accordingly he was, on February
16,
1600.
and
To
escape a similar fate Galileo, thirty-three years afterward,
abjured upon his knees, with his hands upon the holy
166
Gospels, the heliocentric doctrine, which he
home
who from
After Galileo came Kepler,
true.
He
defied the ultramontane power.
pre-existing
observations
the laws of
knew to be
his German
traced out from
planetary motion.
Materials were thus prepared for Newton,
who bound
those
empiricar laws together by the principle of gravitation.
4
In the seventeenth century Bacon and Descartes, the
restorers of philosophy,
appeared in succession.
Differ-
ently educated and endowed, their philosophic tendencies
were
Bacon held
different.
fast
to
Induction, believing
firmly in the existence of an external world, and

collected
experiences the
basis of
all
making
The
knowledge.
mathematical studies of Descartes gave him a bias toward

Deduction;
same
and
his
fundamental principle was
Descartes.
all things.
Only
his
own
the
the individual
man
am,"
said
identity was sure to him;
and
who made
as that of Protagoras,
the measure of
much
*'I
think, therefore I
the full development of this system would have led to an

idealism, in which the outer world
solved into a mere phenomenon of

sendi,
one
of
Descartes's
would have been
contemporaries,
of
re-
Gas-
consciousness.
whom we
more presently, quickly pointed out that the

personal existence would be proved as well by ref-
shall hear
fact of
erence to any other
act, as to
the act of thinking.
I eat,
therefore I am, or I love, therefore I am, would be quite

as conclusive.
Lichtenberg, indeed, showed that the very
thing to be proved was inevitably postulated in the
two words, "I think"; and
it
is
from the postulate could, by any

than the postulate
itself.
first
plain that no inference

possibility,
be stronger
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
167
But Descartes deviated strangely from the idealism im-
He was
plied in his fundamental principle.
the
to
first
manner eminently capable of bearing the test

phenomena to purely mechanThrough fear or love, Descartes was a
principles.
reduce, in a
of mental presentation, vital

ical
good churchman; he accordingly rejected the notion

atom, because
it
was absurd
to suppose that
pleased, could not divide an atom;

of the
of
atoms small round
particles,
which he builds the organism.
God,
if
made
clear
to
mind
He
so
and
light splinters, out
He
sketches with mar-
power, which shall illustrate vital actions.

his
an
he puts in the place
vellous physical insight a machine, with water for

tive
of
that such a machine
its
mo-
He
has
would be
competent to carry on the processes of digestion, nutrigrowth, respiration, and the beating of the heart.
tion,
would be competent
to
ternal sense, to store
them up
to
and
passions,
He
and
the external
and wheels.
he says, "it
"As
in
is
is
the
its
of
weights
not necessary to conceive any other vegeta-
nor any other principle of motion
than the blood and the
nowise different from the
Had
movement
deduced from
spirits agitated
which burns continually in the
bodies."
of
far as these functions are concerned,"
tive or sensitive soul,

life,
movements
organs, as the
its
a clock, or other automaton,
fire
and mem-
deduces these functions of his machine from
the mere arrangements of
or of
in imagination
go through the internal movements of the appe-
ory,
tites
limbs.
It
accept impressions from the ex-
fires
heart,
by
and which
the
is
existing in inanimate
Descartes been acquainted with the steam-
engine, he would have taken

as his motive power.
it,
instead of a fall of water,
He would have shown
the perfect
analogy which exists between the oxidation of the food in
168
He would
the body, and that of the coal in the furnace.
assuredly have
anticipated
which the heart

deducing
all
diffuses
Mayer
'*the
oil
blood
the
in calling
lamp of
of the
life,"
animal motions from the combustion of this
as the motions of a steam-engine are deduced from
oil,
the combustion of
ever,
its
As
coal.
the matter stands, how-
and considering the circumstances of the time, the

clearness, and precision, with which Descartes
boldness,
grasped the problem of vital dynamics constitute a marvellous illustration of intellectual power.*
During the Middle Ages the doctrine of atoms had

to all appearance vanished
held
its
from discussion.
It
probably
ground among sober-minded and thoughtful men,
though neither the church nor the world was prepared

hear of
it
with tolerance.
Once, in the year 1348,
But
ceived distinct expression.
retractation
when
Hobbes
the seventeenth century,
temporary and friend of
it
But, before
stating his relation to the Epicurean doctrine,
of the general introduction of
slumbered
was revived by a conof Malmesbury, the or-
it
thodox Catholic provost of Digne, Gassendi.

well to say a few words on the
it re-
by compulsion
immediately followed; and, thus discouraged,

till
to
effect, as
it
will be
regards science,
monotheism among
Eui'o-
pean nations.
"Were men,"
of invisible
says
intelligent
Hume,
**led into the
apprehension
power by contemplation of the
works of Nature, they could never possibly entertain any
who bestowed
exist-
ence and order on this vast machine, and adjusted
all its
conception but of one single Being,
>
See Huxley's admirable "Essay on Descartes.*'
364, 365.
**Lay Sermons,"
pp.
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

parts to one regular system."
of the heatlien,
who
sees a
169
Kef erring to tte condition
god behind every natural event,
thus peopling the world with thousands of beings whose

caprices are incalculable,
of any compromise
science,
Lange shows the impossibility

such notions and those of
between
which proceeds on the assumption of never- chang-
ing law and causality.

teristic penetration,
'*when the great thought of one God,
upon the
lacting as a unit
he continues, with charac-
**But,'*
universe, has been seized, the
connection of things in accordance with the law of cause
and
only thinkable, but
effect is not
it is
a necessary con-
For when I
sequence of the assumption.
see ten thou-
sand wheels in motion, and know, or believe, that they

are all driven
have before
which
is
by one motive power, then
me
know
determined by the plan of the whole.
being assumed,
it
follows that I
may
being,
scientific action free.'*
God
therefore,
this
conception
its parts.
renders
In other words, were a capricious
at the circumference of every
of every lever, the action of the
wheel and at the end
machine would be
culable by the methods of science.

its
So much
investigate the struct-
ure of that machine, and the various motions of
For the time
that I
a mechanism, the action of every part of
But the
incal-
actions of all
parts being rigidly determined
relations,
by their connections and

and these being brought into play by a single
motive power, then, though this

elude me, I
which
it
am
still
last
prime mover
may
able to comprehend the machinery
sets in motion.
the relation of Kature to
We
have here a conception of
its
Author, which seems per-
some minds, but perfectly intolerable

Newton and Boyle lived and worked happily
fectly acceptable to
to others.
under the influence of
this conception;
Science VI
Goethe rejected
it

I70
vehemence, and the same repugnance to accepting
with,
manifest in Carlyle.'
it is
The analytic and synthetic tendencies of the human

mind are traceable throughout history, great writers ranging themselves sometimes on the one side, sometimes on
Men
the other.
whose
of
warm
impressions
elevating
satisfaction,
feelings,
therefore,
ratlier
is
lean to the synthetic side;
ical,
and minds open
by nature
produced
to the
a whole,
as
ethical than
log-
while the analytic har-
monizes best with the more precise and more mechanical
which seeks the satisfaction of
bias
Some form
the
understanding.
pantheism was usually adopted by the one,
of
while a detached Creator, working more or less after the
manner
men, was often assumed by the other.
of
sendi, as sketched
by Lange,
dropped the
cause, he immediately
known laws
them
of
vital
all
mechanics
to the atoms,
He
phenomena.
as the great
idea, applied the
and deduced from
defended Epicurus, and
dwelt upon his purity, both of doctrine and of
he was a heathen, but so was Aristotle.

superstition
know
and
religion,
the true religion.
rewarded nor punished,
and
He
'
True
rightly, because he did not
thought that the gods neither
and he adored them purely in

see,
says Gas-
reverence of the child, instead of the fear of
Boyle's model of the universe
Artificer.
life.
Epicurus assailed
consequence of their completeness: here we

sendi, the
Gas-
hardly to be ranked with
Having formally acknowledged God
either.
first
is
was
the Strasburg clock with an outside
Goethe, on the other hand, sang
Innem zu bewegen,
Natur zu hegen."
*'Ihm ziemt's die Welt im
Natur
in sich,
sich in
See also Carlyle, "Past and Present," chap.
v.
tlie
slave.
the
body
The
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
171
errors of Epicurus shall be corrected,
and
Gassendi then proceeds,
his truth retained.
of
any heathen might have done, to build up the world,

and all that therein is, of atoms and molecules.
God,
who created earth and water plants and animals, produced
as
in the
first
place a definite
number of atoms, which conThen began that series of
stituted the seed of all things.
now
combinations and decompositions which
which
will
change resides in matter.
moving
The
continue in future.
principle
In
artificial
productions
the
from the material worked
different
is
goes on, and
principle of every
upon; but in nature the agent works within, being the
most active and mobile part
Thus
of the material itself.
this bold ecclesiastic, without incurring the censure of the
church or the world, contrives to outstrip Mr. Darwin.
The same
mind which caused him to detach the

Creator from his universe, led him also to detach the soul
from the body, though to the body he ascribes an influcast of
ence so large as to render the soul almost unnecessary.
The
aberrations of reason were, in his view, an affair of
the material brain.
Mental disease
then the immortal reason
by the
disease.
The
sits apart,
is
brain-disease;
and cannot be touched
madness are those
errors of
but
of the
instrument, not of the performer.

It
may
necting
be more than a mere result of education, con-
itself,
probably, with the deeper mental structure
of the two men, that the idea of Gassendi, above enunciated, is substantially the
same
as that expressed
by Pro-
fessor Clerk Maxwell, at the close of the very able lect-
ure delivered by him at Bradford in 1873.
both philosophers, the atoms,

prepared
materials^
if
According
to
I understand aright, are
which, formed
once
for all
by the
172
Eternal, produce
phenomena
by
difference, however,
one postulates^
*'
subsequent interaction
their
of the material world.
him
philosophic
by Kant, and
their
his
calls
cause.
first
heights
The
In his
the atoms. Professor
the basis of an induction,
finds
scale
to
the
this
between G-assendi and Maxwell.
the other infers
manufactured articles," as he
Maxwell
all
There seems to be
which enables
considered inaccessible
from the atoms to
to take the logical step
Maker.
Accepting here the leadership of Kant, I doubt the

Maxwell's logic;
legitimacy of
to
There
but
it
is
impossible not
the ethic glow with which his lecture concludes.
feel
is,
moreover, a very noble strain of eloquence in
his description of the steadfastness of the atoms:

ral causes, as
if
we know,
are at work,
they do not at length destroy,
all
which tend
"Natu-
to modify,
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
may
in the heavens,
be dissolved and
of
their
which these systems are built
ruins, the molecules out of
the
though ancient systems
new systems evolved out
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

entirely
new
from the
significance.
theory,
but
it
Stoney, and Sir William
mine the sizes

between which
of
it
an
In our day there are secessions

still
stands
firm.
Loschmidt,
Thomson have sought
to deter-
the atoms, or rather to fix the limits
their sizes lie
while the discourses cf Wil-

THE BELFAST ADDRESS
173
liamson and Maxwell delivered in Bradford in 1873
hold of the doctrine upon the foremost
trate the present

scientific
wanting
terial
In
minds.
this
illus-
fact,
may
it
be doubted whether,
fundamental conception, a theory of the ma-
universe
capable of scientific statement.
is
6
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
point
He
of Eeligion,'* developed,
view, and with consummate
The Bishop
idea.
and
of
it
will
still
influences
from his own
sagacity, a
many
similar
superior minds;
repay us to dwell for a moment on his views.
draws the sharpest distinction between our real selves
He
and our bodily instruments.
member, use the word
soul, possibly
so hackneyed in his day, as

ations
percipient
or
He
of
'^living powers,'*
"moving agents,'*
we should employ the
dwells upon the fact that limbs
removed and mortal diseases

almost up to the
refers to sleep
because the term was
powers,''
"ourselves," in the same sense as
term soul.
moment
and
re-
had been for many gener-
it
But he speaks
previously.
"perceiving
does not, as far as I
assail the
may
body, the mind,
of death, remaining clear.
to swoon,
be
He
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
dissolution of all of
succession of bodies, the
them having no more tendency
to dis-
solve our real selves, or "deprive us of living faculties

the faculties of perception and action
of
than the
dissolution
any foreign matter which we are capable of receiving
174
common
impressions from, or making use of for the
key
occa-
of the Bishop's position:
sions of life."
This
*'our organized
bodies are no more a part of ourselves
is
the
than any other matter around us."

calls
attention to the use of glasses,
jects" for the "percipient
The eye
itself
quite as
much
he
this
which "prepare ob-
power" exactly
as the eye does.
no more percipient than the glass;
is
the instrument of the true
as foreign to the true self, as the glass
is.
is
and also
self,
"And
if
we
see
only in the same manner as we do with
with our eyes

glasses,
In proof of
may
the like
concluded from analogy
justly be
of all our senses."
Lucretius, as
you
are aware, reached a precisely oppo-
conclusion:
and
it
site
not profitable, to us
certainly
all,
to
would be
interesting,
if
hear what he would or could
As
urge in opposition to the reasoning of the Bishop.
brief discussion of the point will enable us to see the bear-
ings of an important question, I will here permit a disciple of Lucretius to try the strength of the Bishop's position,
and then allow the Bishop
of rolling back,
if
he can, the
difficulty
The argument might proceed

"Subjected to the
lung),
test of
upon Lucretius.
in this fashion:
mental presentation {Yorstel-
your views, most honored prelate, would
many minds
a great,
if
view
to retaliate, with the
not an insuperable,
offer to
You
difficulty.
speak of 'living powers,' 'percipient or perceiving powers,'
and
'ourselves'; but can
you form
a mental picture of
any
of these, apart
from the organism through which
posed to act?
Test yourself honestly, and see whether you
possess any faculty that
a conception.
of us;
The
would enable you
to
it is
sup-
form such
true self has a local habitation in each
thus localized, must
it
not possess a form?
If so,
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

what form?
When
parts;
a leg
is
Have you ever

is
moment
for a
amputated the body
the true self in both of
Aquinas might say
in both;
to
prove that the other
them or
Thomas
in one?
but not you, for you appeal
one of the two
foreign matter.
is
realized it?
divided into two
is
to the consciousness associated with
ness,
175
Is conscious-
then, a necessary element of the true self?
what do you say
If not,
so,
then on what grounds
do you deny any portion of the true

seems very singular
If
whole body being de-
to the case of the
prived of consciousness?
parts,
self
to the severed
limb?
It
to the
end of your admirable book (and no one admires
its
sober strength more than I do), you never once men-
tion the brain or nervous system.

of
from the beginning
that,
the body,
and show that
its
You
begin at one end
may
parts
without prejudice to the perceiving power.
be removed
What
if
you
begin at the other end, and remove, instead of the
leg,
the brain?
parts;
The body,
but both are
as
now
in
before,
the
divided
is
into
neither can be appealed to to prove that the other
eign matter.
the brain
Or,
instead
itself, let
be removed, and
of
is for-
going so far as to remove
a certain portion of
let a
two
same predicament, and
rhythmic
its
series of
bony covering
pressures
and
relaxations of pressure be applied to the soft substance.
At every
tion"
pressure "the faculties of perception and of ac-
vanish;
at
every relaxation of
pressure
they are
Where, during the intervals of pressure, is the

perceiving power?
I once had the discharge of a large
Leyden battery passed unexpectedly through me: I felt
restored.
nothing, but was simply blotted out of conscious existence

for a sensible interval.
that interval?
Where was my
Men who have
true self during
recovered from lightning-
176
and
Stroke have been mucli longer in the same state;
in-
deed in cases of ordinary concussion of the brain, days
may
during which no experience
elapse
Where
consciousness.
is
man
the
is
registered
during
himself
in
the
You may say that I beg the quesassume the man to have been unconscious,
period of insensibility ?
tion
when
that he
was really conscious
forgotten
the time, and has simply
all
what had occurred
to
In reply to
him.
tortures that superstition ever invented,
so remembered.
ments goes
only so
if
felt
do not think your theory of
bottom of the matter.
at all to the
this,
from the worst
I can only say that no one need shrink
and
instru-
tele-
graph operator has his instruments, by means of which he

converses with the world;
our bodies possess a nervous
system, which plays a similar part between the perceiving
power and external
things.
Cut the wires
of the operator,
break his battery, demagnetize his needle; by this means
you
certainly sever his connection with
inasmuch as these are

does not touch the
survives,
man who
and he knows
I would ask, in the
real instruments,
uses
the world:
their
them.
that he survives.
but,
destruction
The operator
What
is
there,
human system that answers to this

when the battery of the
as to produce insensibility, or when
conscious survival of the operator

brain
it is
is
so disturbed
destroyed altogether?
which you may regard as

upon me with some force. The brain may
change from health to disease, and through such a change
"Another
consideration,
slight, presses
most exemplary man may be converted into a deMy very noble and approved
bauchee or a murderer.
the
good master had,
as
you know, threatenings
inta-oduced into his brain
by
of lewdness
his jealous wife's philter;
and
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
177
sooner than permit himself to run even the risk of yield-
How
ing to these base promptings he slew himseK.
hand
the
self if
of Lucretius
not, act in this
it
distempered way without
the intervention of the immortal reason?

it
is
apparent need of your immortal reason at

not, then the
immortal reason, by
in operating
upon
I think,
if
you
will allow
are
or an eyeglass
to
blood in
nificance
of
its
have
to
esti-
you would a
all its
mystery,
condition and our con-
produces the very swoon to which you
in relation to
a
it
our meat, and drink, and
perfectly transcendental value
cases,
initiate
and
life,
refer,
air,
and
forget all this does, I think, open a
innumerable errors in our habits of
some
from your
the brain as
the fact that a slight excess or defect of
to
it
exercise,
to say so, that the
shut your eyes to
perfect correlation
sciousness,
me
likely to flow
To regard
mate of the body.
and that
mischievous activity
broken instrument, must have the
gravest consequences
to the
its
If it can-
all.
committing every imaginable extravagance and
credit of
crime.
in
can, then
If it
mover which requires only healthy regularender it reasonably self-acting, and there is no
a prime
tion to
staff
Can the
the real Lucretius remained as before?
brain, or can
could
have been thus turned against him-
and
sig-
way
to
and may possibly,
foster that very disease,
and
consequent mental ruin, which a wiser appreciation of this

mysterious organ would have avoided."
I can imagine the
argument.
He was
Bishop thoughtful
not the
man
after hearing this
to allow anger to
with the consideration of a point of this kind.

reflection,
est
mingle
After due
and having strengthened himself by that hon-
contemplation
of
the
facts
which was habitual with
him, and which includes the desire to give even adverse
178
reasonings their due
weight, I can suppose the Bishop
to proceed thus: *'You will
ogy
of Eeligion,' of
remember
that in the 'Anal-
which you have so
Jîndly spoken,
and that I
I did not profess to prove anything absolutely,
over and over again acknowledged and insisted on the

smallness of our knowledge, or rather the depth of our
ignorance, as regards the whole system of the universe.
My
my
show
object was to
deistical friends,
who
set forth
and beneficence of Nature and

while they had nothing but scorn for
so eloquently the beauty
the Kuler thereof,
the so-called absurdities of the Christian scheme, that they
were in no better condition than we were, and

every difficulty found upon our
for
that,
side, quite as great a diffi-
culty was to be found upon theirs.
I will now, with your
You
permission, adopt a similar line of argument.
are
a Lucretian, and from the combination and separation of

insensate atoms deduce
all
terrestrial
organic forms and their phenomena.

the
first
instance
I admit that
how
far I
you can build
am
things,
Let
me
including
tell
you
in
prepared to go with you.
crystalline forms out of this
play of molecular force; that the diamond, amethyst, and

snow-star are truly wonderful structures which are thus
produced.
I will go further and acknowledge that even
way be organized. Nay,

you can show me an animal without sensation, I will
concede to you that it also might be put together by the
a tree or flower might in this
if
suitable play of molecular force.
**Thu8 far our way

ficulty.
Your atoms
much more
are
is
clear,
but
now comes my
dif-
are individually without sensation,
they without
intelligence.
May
you, then, to try your hand upon this problem.
I ask
Take
your dead hydrogen atoms, your dead oxygen atoms,
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
179
your dead carbon atoms, your dead nitrogen atoms, your

dead phosphorus atoms, and
grains of
the other atoms, dead as
all
which the brain
of
shot,
is
formed.
Imagine
them separate and sensationless observe them running

together and forming all imaginable combinations. This,
as a purely mechanical process, is seeable by the mind.
But can you see, or dream, or in any way imagine, how
out of that mechanical act, and from these individually
dead atoms, sensation, thought, and emotion are to rise?
;
Are you
likely
Homer
extract
to
of dice, or the
Differential
billiard-balls?
am
not
bereft of this
all
Kraft of which you speak, nor

brethren, a mere
vacuum
the rattling
am
I,
like so
Yorstellungs-
many
of
my
as regards scientific knowledge.
I can follow a particle of
tory nerve;
out of
Calculus out of the clash of
musk
I can follow the
until
waves
it
of
reaches the olfac-
sound until
their
tremors reach the water of the labyrinth, and set the otoliths
and Corti's
waves of ether
Nay
more, I
fibres in
motion; I can also visualize the
as they cross
am
the eye and hit the retina.
able to pursue to the central organ the
motion thus imparted
at the periphery,
and
to see in idea
the very molecules of the brain thrown into tremors.

insight
baffies
is
not bafiled by these physical processes.
and bewilders
me
is
the notion that
My
What
from those
physical tremors things so utterly incongruous with them,

as sensation, thought,
may
say,
of light
beg
possesses
not more incongruous than the flash
is
from the union
to say that it
is
The "flash"
that
is
is.
of
oxygen and hydrogen.
For such incongruity
affair
of
But
as the flash
which I now force upon your

an
You
that this issue of consciousness from
or think,
the clasli of atoms
and emotion, can be derived.
attention.
consciousness, the objective
180
is
You
incongruity;
only by
It is a flasli
a vibration.
counterpart of wliicli
your interpretation.
are the cause of the apparent
and you are the thing that puzzles me.
need not remind you that the great Leibnitz
felt
the
diffi-
culty which I feel; and that, to get rid of this monstrous
from death, he displaced your atoms by
deduction of
life
his monads,
which were more or
perfect mirrors of
less
the universe, and out of the summation and integration

of
which he supposed
"Your
the
all
and emotional
intellectual,
phenomena
to
difficulty, then, as I see
You
is quite as great as mine.
understanding in
its
demand
of
life
sentient,
arise.
you
are ready to admit,
cannot satisfy the
for logical continuity
human
between
molecular processes and the phenomena of consciousness.
This
is
What
on which Materialism must inevitably
split
pretends to be a complete philosophy of
life.
a rock
whenever
it
the moral,
is
likely to indulge in
great topics, where
ences of opinion.
my
ill-
we
Lucretian?
You and
I are not
temper in the discussion of these
see so
But there
much room
for honest differ-
are people of less wit or
more
who
are
ever ready to mingle anger and vituperation with such
dis-
bigotry
(I
cussions.
say
it
There
with humility), on both
are, for
example, writers of note and
fluence at the present day

to
who
assume the *deep personal
are not
sin' of a
This
is
in-
ashamed publicly
great logician to be
the cause of his unbelief in a theologic
sides,
dogma.'
And
the aspect under which the late Editor of the "Dublin Review"
memory of John Stuart Mill. I can only say that
presented to his readers the
would as soon take my chance in the other world, in the company of the
"unbeUever, " as in that of his Jesuit detractor. In Dr. "Ward we have au
example of a wholesome and vigorous nature, soured and perverted by a
poisonous creed.
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

there are others
wrought
Bible,
who hold
as
that we,
who
cherish our noble
has been into the constitution of our
it
and by inheritance into
forefathers,
181
be hypocritical and insincere.
us,
must necessarily
Let us disavow and
countenance such people, cherishing the unswerving

that what
good and true
arguments
dis-
faith
will
be
preserved for the benefit of humanity, while all that
is
bad or
is
in both our
false will disappear."
I hold the Bishop's reasoning to be unanswerable, and

his liberality to be
It is
worthy of imitation.
worth remarking that in one respect the Bishop
was a product
Long previous
of his age.
to his
day the
nature of the soul had been so favorite and general a
when the students of the Italian

know the leanings of a new Pro-
topic of discussion that,
Universities wished to
fessor,
soul.
they at once requested him to lecture upon the
About the time
not only agitated,

clear-witted
their best
of
Bishop Butler the question was
but extended.
men who
arguments applied equally
The Bishop's arguments were

it,
It
admitted
it,
was
entered this arena
by the
seen
many
that
of
and men.
to brutes
He saw
of this character.
took the consequence, and boldly embraced
the whole animal world in his scheme of immortality.

6
Bishop
Butler
accepted
with
unwavering trust the
chronology of the Old Testament, describing
it
as "con-
firmed by the natural and civil history of the world, collected from
earth,
common
and from the
historians,
from the
late inventions of arts
state
and
of
the
sciences.'*
These words mark progress; and they must seem some-
what hoary
to the
Bishop's successors of to-day.
It
is
182
hardly necessary to inform you
main
whole science of geology, with

regarding
the
of
life
The
created.
laxed,
the
mind
its
earth,
conceptions
being
the
astounding revelations
ancient
old
of
rigidity
the public
since his time the do-
tliat
been immensely extended
of the naturalist has
been
having
has been re-
rendered gradually toler-
ant of the idea that not for six thousand, nor for sixty
thousand,
nor for six thousand thousand, but
embracing untold millions

the theatre of
of
years,
and death.
life
has been read by the
this
The
for eons
.
earth has been
riddle
of
the rocks
geologist and paleontologist, from
sub-cambrian depths to the deposits thickening over the

sea-bottoms of to-day. And upon the leaves of that stone
book are, as you know, stamped the characters, plainer
and surer than those formed by the ink of history, which
carry the mind back into abysses of past time, compared
with which the periods which satisfied Bishop Butler
cease to have a visual
The lode
angle.
of discovery once struck, those petrified
in which life
was
forms
one time active, increased to multi-
at
They were grouped
tudes and demanded classification.
in
genera, species, and varieties, according to the degree of
between them.
similarity subsisting
Thus confusion was
avoided, each object being found in the pigeon-hole appropriated to
it
and
to its fellows of
ical or physiological character.
came evident
lowest down;
that
The
similar morpholog-
general fact soon be-
none but the simplest forms of
life lie
we climb higher among the superimposed strata, more perfect forms appear. The change,
however, from form to form was not continuous, but by
steps
some
that, as
small,
some
Huxley, "a hundred
feet
great.
*'A section," says Mr.
thick will exhibit at different
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

ieiglits
passes
Ammonite, none of wiiicli

beyond the particular zone of limestone, or clay,
a dozen
species
zone below
into tlie
question:
Have
of
or into
it,
presence of such facts
stages,
183
tliat
above
In tbe
it.*'
was not possible to avoid the
it
these forms, showing, though in broken
and with many
irregularities,
unmistakable
this
general advance, been subjected to no continuous law of
growth
or variation?
scientific,
or had
Had
our
education' been
purely
been sufficiently detached from
it
influ-
ences which, however ennobling in another domain, have
always proved hinderances and delusions when introduced
domain
as factors into the
of physics,
the scientific
mind
never could have swerved from the search for a law of

growth, or allowed
itself to
accept the anthropomorphism
which regarded each successive stratum

chanic's bench for the manufacture of
as a
new
kind of me-
species out of
the old.
all relation to
Biased, however,
by
their previous education, the great
majority of naturalists invoked a special creative act to ac-
count for the appearance of each new group of organisms.

Doubtless numbers of them were clear-headed enough to
see that this
fact, it
was no explanation
at all
that, in point of
was an attempt, by the introduction of a greater
difficulty,
to account for a less.
offer in the
way
of explanation,
But, having nothing to
they for the most part
men
nat-
urally and necessarily simmered round the question.
De
held their peace.
Maillet, a
notice
Still the
thoughts of reflecting
contemporary of Newton, has been brought into
by Professor Huxley
as
one
the modifiability of living forms.'*
Brodie, a
man
who
The
**had a notion of
late Sir
of highly philosophic mind, often
Benjamin
drew
my
attention to the fact that, as early as 1794, Charles Dar-
184
win's grandfather was the pioneer of Charles i)arwin.'
In
and in subsequent years, the celebrated Lamarck,
1801,
who, through the vigorous exposition of his views bj the

author of the *'Yestiges of Creation,** rendered the public
mind
perfectly familiar with the idea of evolution, endeav-
ored to show the development of species out of changes
and external condition.
of habit
In 1813 Dr. Wells, the
founder of our present theory of Dew,
Eoyal Society a paper in which,
read before the
to use the
words
of
Mr.
Darwin, **he distinctly recognizes the principle of natural

selection;
and
this is the first recognition
The thoroughness and
indicated."
skill
that has been
with which Wella
pursued his work, and the obvious independence of his
him long ago
character, rendered
it
gave
me
a favorite with
the liveliest pleasure to alight
tional testimony to his penetration.
Patrick Matthew,
Yon Buch,
upon
me; and
this addi-
Professor Grrant, Mr.
the author of the "Yestiges,*'
D'Halloy, and others, by the enunciation of opinions more
showed that the question had
or less clear and correct,
been fermenting long prior
to the
when Mr.
year 1858,
Darwin and Mr. Wallace simultaneously, but independently,
placed
their
closely concurrent views
before
the
Linnean Society.'
These papers were followed in 1859 by the publication
of the first edition of the
things
come slowly
to
"Origin of Species."
the birth.
Copernicus,
All great
as
in-
formed you, pondered his great work for thirty-three years.
I.
"Zoonomia,"
In 1855 Mr. Herbert Spencer ("Principles of Paychology," 2d
p. 465)
vol.
i.
pp. 500-510.
expressed *'the belief that
life
under
all its
edit. vol.
forms has arisen by an
unbroken evolution, and through the instrumentality of what are called naturai
causes."
This
was my
belief also at that time.
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

Newton
for nearly
twenty years kept the idea of Gravita-
mind;
tion before his
for
twenty years also he dwelt upon
his discovery of Fluxions,
tinued to
make
it
185
and doubtless would have con-
the object of his private thought, had
he not found Leibnitz upon his track.
Darwin
for two-
and- twenty years pondered the problem of the origin of

species,
and doubtless he would have continued
had he not found Wallace upon

trated,
A concen-
track.'
but full and powerful, epitome of his labors was
the consequence.
one;
his
do so
to
The book was by no means an easy
and probably not one
then attacked
it,
had read
every score of those
in
its
who
pages through, or were com-
petent to grasp their significance
if
I do not
they had.
say this merely to discredit them: for there were in those
days some really eminent
scientific
men, entirely raised
above the heat of popular prejudice, and willing
any conclusion that science had
to accept
to offer, provided it
duly backed by fact and argument,
who
Mr. Darwin's views.
work needed an
pounder, and
In
fact,
the
entirely mistook
found one in Mr. Huxley.
it
ing more admirable in the
way
know
noth-
those early articles of his on the origin of species.
the subject,
ex-
of scientific exposition than
swept the curve of discussion through the really

cant points of
was
He
signifi-
enriched his exposition with
summing
profound original remarks and
reflections, often
up
an argument which a
in a single pithy sentence
less
compact mind would have spread over pages. But there

is one impression made by the book itself which no exit,
however luminous, can convey; and that
The behavior
of Mr. Wallace in relation to this subject has been dignified
position of
>
in the highest degree.
186
is
the impression of
and
of
Let us glance at
its
observation
the vast
thought,
implied in
No
without exception.
production.
its
The
chick, or child,
rule
is
probably
is
in all respects
and
particulars the counterpart of its brother
and
in
and
sister;
No
such differences we have "variety" incipient.
naturalist could tell

ried;
both of
labor,
hands that what are called "va-
all
are continually produced.
rieties"
of
principles.
conceded on
It is
amount
how
could be car-
far this variation
but the great mass of them held that never, by any
amount
of internal or external change, nor
of both, could the offspring of the
deviate from each other as
The function
by the mixture
same progenitor so
far
to constitute different species.
of the experimental
philosopher
is
to
com-
bine 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.

himself with pigeon-fanciers
bought,
observed every breed that he could obtain.

rived from a
common
He
associated
kept,
and
Though
de-
begged,
stock, the diversities of these pigeons
were such that "a score of them might be chosen which,

if
shown
to
were wild
an ornithologist, and he were told that they

birds,
would certainly be ranked by him as

The simple principle which guides
well-defined species."
the
pigeon-fancier, as
selection of
does the cattle-breeder,
it
some variety that
strikes
his fancy,
propagation of this variety by inheritance.
The
first
Experiments
With
is
the
and the
his
eye
step only toward experimental demonstration has been taken.
now begun
incalculable value,
might, a couple of centuries hence, furnish data of
which ought
to
be supplied to the science of the futurei
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
187
directed to the particular appearance which he wishes
still
he selects
to exaggerate,
it
as
it
reappears in successive
and thus adds increment
broods,
increment until an
to
amount of divergence from the parent type is

The breeder in this case does not produce the
astonishing
effected.
He
elements of the variation.
by
selection adds
has been obtained.
ever try to
make
simply observes them, and
them together until the required result

"No man," says Mr. Darwin, "would
a fantail
he saw a pigeon with a
till
tail
developed in some slight degree in an unusual manner,

or a pouter until he saw a pigeon with a crop of unusual
Thus nature gives the
size."
by the law
man
hint,
by indubitable
satisfied himself
the organization of an animal or of a plant
same treatment applies
(for precisely
some extent
plants) is to
to
facts that
Hitherto we have dealt with the
variation under nature.
adding together of small changes by the conscious
Can Nature thus
man.
of
answer
is,
things produced
;
is far
hence
at
in
Mr.
The number
excess of the number
some period or other
must be a struggle
infallible result ?
If
for existence.
conditions would decide.
we have the
selec-
Darwin's
of living
that can
of their lives
And
what
is
the
one organism were a perfect copy of
the other in regard to strength,
But
siiill,
and
agility, external
this is not the case.
Here
fact of variety offering itself to nature, as in
the former instance

varieties
select?
"Assuredly she can."
be supported
there
and
he passes from variation under domestication to
plastic,
tion
it,
of inheritance exaggerates the deviation.
Having thus
the
upon
acts
which are
it
offered
least
itself
To
man; and those
competent to cope with surround-
ing conditions will infallibly give
most competent.
to
way
to those that are
use a familiar proverb, the weakest
188
goes
But the
the wall.
to
triumphant
fraction
again
breeds to over-production, transmitting the qualities which

secured
maintenance, but transmitting them in
its
The
ent degrees.
whom
those to
in excess, will
differ-
struggle for food again supervenes, and
the favorable quality has been transmitted
triumph
as before.
It is easy to see that
we have
here the addition of
crements favorable to the individual,
still
in-
more rigorously
carried out than in the case of domestication; for not only
by nature, but they

This is what Mr. Darwin calls "Natural
are destroyed.
Selection," which acts by the preservation and accumula-
are unfavorable specimens not selected
tion
of
small inherited modifications, each profitable to
the preserved being.
With
and leavens the vast store of

collected.
We
idea he interpenetrates
this
facts that
he and others have
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

to discern
vidual increment
**
fail
what vast modifications may be produced by
natural selection in periods sufiiciently long.
we
may
Each
indi-
resemble what mathematicians call
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

cause he
is
human
fashion,
it
certainly
is
not be-
unacquainted with the numberless exquisite
adaptations, on which this notion of a supernatural Artificer has been founded.
most
His book
is
startling facts of this description.
a repository of the
Take the marvel-
lous observation which he cites from Dr. Kriiger, where
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
189
a bucket, with an aperture serving as a spout,

in an
Bees
orchid.
visit
is
formed
in eager search of
the flower:
material for their combs, they push each other into the
bucket, the drenched ones escaping from their involuntary
bath by the spout.
Here they rub
their backs against the
viscid stigma of the flower and obtain glue;
then against
the pollen-masses, which are thus stuck to the back of the
bee and carried away.
*'"When the bee, so provided,
to another flower, or to the

is
pushed by
its
comrades into the bucket, and then crawls
out by the passage, the pollen-mass upon

sarily
comes
first
into
contact with
which takes up the pollen; and
Or take
fertilized.
is
flies
same flower a second time, and
this
its
back neces-
the viscid stigma,"
this is
other case of
*'Bees visit these flowers in order to
how
that orchid
the
Catasetum,
gnaw
the labellum;
in doing this they inevitably touch a long, tapering, sensi-
projection.
tive
when touched,
This,
ruptured, setting free a spring,

is
transmits a sensa-
membrane, which
tion or vibration to a certain
is
instantly
by which the pollen-mass
shot forth like an arrow in the right direction, and ad-
by
way
heres
this
viscid extremity to the
its
back
of the bee.
*
'
In
the fertilizing pollen is spread abroad.
It is the
mind thus
stored with the choicest materials
of the teleologist that rejects
teleology,
these wonders to natural causes.
ing to him, the method of
They
nature,
seeking to refer
illustrate,
accord-
not the "technic" of
The beauty of flowers is due to natThose that distinguish themselves by viv

idly contrasting colors from the surrounding green leaves
a manlike Artificer.
ural selection.
are
most readily seen, most frequently
visited
by
insects,
most often
fertilized,
selection.
Colored berries also readily attract the atten-
and hence most favored by natural
190
tlieir
wMcb
upon them, spread

manured seeds abroad, thus giving trees and shrubs
and
tion of birds
beasts,
feed
possessing such berries a greater chance in
the struggle
for existence.
With profound
and synthetic
analytic
Mr. Dar-
skill,
win investigates the cell-making instinct of the hive-bee.

His method of dealing with
back from the more perfectly to the

oped
uses
instinct
its
'from
falls
less perfectly devel-
the hive-bee to the humble-bee, which
own cocoon
intermediate
He
representative.
it is
comb, and to classes of bees of
as a
endeavoring to show how the passage
skill,
might be gradually made from the lowest to the highest.
The saving
economy of
wax
of
the most important point in the
is
Twelve
bees.
to fifteen
pounds
of dry sugar
pound
are said to be needed for the secretion of a single

of wax.
The
quantities of nectar necessary for the
must therefore be
structive instinct
which
wax
and every improvement of con-
vast;
results
a direct profit to the insect's
otherwise be devoted to the
in
wax
the saving of
The time
making of wax
life.
that
is
is
would
devoted
to the gathering and storing of honey for winter food.
Darwin passes from the humble-bee with
Mr.
cells,
to
through the Melipona with
the hive-bee
with
its
its
more
its
rude
artistic
cells,
The
upon the
astonishing architecture.
bees place themselves at equal distances apart
wax, sweep and excavate equal spheres round the selected
The spheres intersect, and the planes of intersecHexagonal cells are

tion are built up with thin laminae.
thus formed. This mode of treating such questions is,
The expositor habitually
as I have said, representative.
retires from the more perfect and complex, to the less perfect and simple, and carries you with him through stages
points.
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

of perfecting
adds
191
increment to increment of infinitesimal
change, and in this
way gradually breaks down your
re-
luctance to admit that the exquisite climax of the whole

CO aid be a result of natural selection.
Mr. Darwin shirks no

subject was with his
difficulty;
own
and, saturated as the
thought, he must have known,
better than his critics, the weakness as well as the strength
This of course would be of
of his theory.
little
avail were
his object a temporary dialectic victory, instead of the es-
tablishment of a truth which he means to be everlasting.
But he takes no pains

discerned;
to
disguise the weakness he
nay, he takes every pains to bring
it
has
into the
His vast resources enable him to cope
strongest light.
with objections started by himself and others,
so as to
leave the final impression upon the reader's mind that,
if
they be not completely answered, they certainly are not

fatal.
Their negative force being thus destroyed, you are
free to be influenced
he
is
by the vast
able to bring before you.
positive
mass
terrible
of
Accomplished
antagonists.
evidence
This largeness of knowl-
edge, and readiness of resource, render Mr.
most
of
Darwin the
naturalists
have levelled heavy and sustained criticisms against him
not always
with the view of fairly weighing his theory,
but with the express intention of exposing

only.
This does not
tion with a soberness
irritate
him.
He
its
treats
weak
points
every objec-
and thoroughness which even Bishop
Butler might be proud to imitate, surrounding each fact
with
tions,
as
it
its
appropriate detail, placing
and usually giving

was kept
isolated,
it
failed
without a trace of ill-temper.
it
in
its
proper
rela-
a significance which, as long

to
appear.
He moves
This
is
done
over the subject
with the passionless strength of a glacier; and the grind-
192
ing of the rocks
is
not always without a counterpart in
But though
the logical pulverization of the objector.
handling this mighty theme

there
is
an êmotion of the
all
passion has been
intellect,
in
stilled,
incident to the dis-
cernment of new truth, which often colors and warms the

His success has been great; and
pages of Mr. Darwin.
this implies not only the solidity of his
work, but the pre-
paredness of the public mind for such a revelation.
On
me more than
Sprung from a race of theologians, this
celebrated man combated to the last the theory of natural
One of the many times I had the pleasure of
selection.
meeting him in the United States was at Mr. Winthrop's
a remark of Agassiz impressed
this head,
anything
beautiful
else.
from luncheon, we
in
Brookline,
residence at
all
halted, as
near
if
by common consent,
window, and continued there a discussion
front of a
which had been started
at table.
The maple was
autumn glory, and the exquisite beauty

side seemed, in
my
in
its
of the scene out-
case, to interpenetrate
ance the intellectual action.

siz turned,
Rising
Boston.
without disturb-
Earnestly, almost sadly, Agas-
and said to the gentlemen standing round, "I
confess that I was not prepared to see this theory received

as it has
cess
is
been by the best
intellects of
our time.
Its suc-
greater than I could have thought possible."
7
In our day grand generalizations have been reached.
The theory
Another,
cance,
is
of the origin of species is but one of them.
of
still
wider grasp and more radical
signifi-
the doctrine of the Conservation of Energy, the
ultimate philosophical
dimly seen
issues of
that doctrine which
which
*'
binds
are
as
nature
yet
but
fast in
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

an extent not
fate,** to
every antecedent
consequent
hitlierto recognized,
exacting from
consequent, from every
equivalent
its
198
equivalent antecedent, and bringing vital
its
phenomena under the dominion
as well as physical
understanding has yet pierced,

in nature.
upon the
Long
in
advance
all
experiment
all
subsequent experience
Mayer extended the
justified the affirmation.
indestructibility to energy, applying

to inorganic,*
everywhere
constancy and indestructibility of
subject, the
matter had been affirmed; and
ganic nature.
itself
definite
asserts
of
of
human
that law of causal connection which, so far as the
it
attribute of
in the first instance
and afterward with profound insight
The vegetable
world,
to or-
though drawing
all
nutriment from invisible sources, was proved incom-
its
anew either matter or force. Its matter is for the most part transmuted gas; its force transformed solar force. The animal world has proved to be
petent to generate
equally uncreative,
to the
all
combustion of
its
its
motive energies being referred

food.
The
activity of each ani-
mal, as a whole, was proved to be the transferred activity

of
its
The muscles were shown
molecules.
to
be stores of
mechanical energy, potential until unlocked by the nerves,
and then resulting in muscular

at
which messages
fly to
and
contractions.
The speed
fro along the nerves
was
de-
termined by Helmholtz, and found to be, not, as had been

previously supposed, equal to that of light or electricity,
but
an
less
than the speed of sound
less
even than that of
eagle.
This was the work of the physicist:
Dr. Berthold has
shown
that Leibnitz
had sound views regarding the
conservation of energy in inorganic nature.
Science
then came the
VI
194
conquests of the comparative anatomist and physiologist,

revealing the structure of every animal, and the function
of
every organ in the whole biological
from the
series,
The nervous system had

zoophyte up to man.
been made the object of profound and continued study,
lowest
the wonderful and, at bottom, entirely mysterious controlling
power which
exercises over the whole organism,
it
and mental, being recognized more and more.

Thought could not be kept back from a subject so pro-
physical
Besides the physical
foundly suggestive.
by Mr. Darwin, there is a psychical

gradations, and asking equally for
the different grades and orders of
for?
What
is
life
to
How
are
be accounted
the principle of growth of that mysterious
are questions which, though
many
Reason?
These
not thrusting themselves so
minds, but had been forthem before the "Origin of
reflecting
by one
mally broached
in
attention of the general public, had not
upon the
only occupied
dealt with
a solution.
Mind
power which on our planet culminates

forcibly
life
presenting similar
of
Species" appeared.
With
the mass of materials furnished by the physicist
and physiologist in
his hands, Mr. Herbert Spencer, twenty
years ago, sought to graft upon this basis a system of psy-
chology;
and two years ago a second and greatly ampliwork appeared. Those who have occu-
fied edition of his
pied themselves with the beautiful experiments of Plateau

will
remember
when two
that
pended in a mixture
density as the
oil,
mediately unite.
of
spherules of olive-oil, sus-
alcohol and water of the same
are brought together, they
Something
like a pellicle' appears to be
formed around the drops, the rupture

diately followed
by
do not im-
of
which
is
imme-
the coalescence of the globules into
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

There are organisms whose
one.
195
vital actions are almost
as purely physical as the coalescence of such drops of
oil.
They come into contact and fuse themselves thus together.

From such organisms to others a shade higher, from these
to
others a shade higher
ascending
Mr.
series,
and on through an ever-
still,
Spencer
conducts
argument.
his
There' are two obvious factors to be here taken into ac-
count
as
the creature
it is
and the medium in which
often expressed, the organism
Mr. Spencer's fundamental principle
two factors there

is
is
and
that between these
is,
The organism
incessant interaction.
played upon by the environment, and
is
meet the requirements of the environment.

be
fines to
it lives, or,
environment.
its
modified to
Life he de-
continuous adjustment of internal relations
*'a
to external relations."
In the lowest organisms we have a kind of tactual

diSused over the entire body;
sense
pressions from without
ments,
special
and
their
corresponding adjust-
portions of the surface
The
sponsive to stimuli than others.

the basis of
then, through im-
all
of
them being
become more
re-
senses are nascent,
that simple tactual sense
which the sage Democritus recognized 2,800 years ago as

their
common
progenitor.
instance, appears to be a
processes in the
The
mere disturbance
By
first
light
it
is
more
The eye
sensitive to
is
incipient
merely capable of revealing differences of
and shade produced by bodies close
lowed,
of the chemical
degrees the action be-
in a few pigment- cells,
light than the surrounding tissue.
At
first
animal organism, similar to that which
occurs in the leaves of pk.nts.
comes localized
action of light, in the
as the interception of the light
at hand.
commonly
Folis,
by^
the contact of the closely adjacent opaque body, sight in
196
condition becomes a kind of "anticipatory touch."
this
The adjustment
continues;
a slight
bulging out of
the
lens
epidermis over the pigment-granules supervenes.

is
incipient, and,
through the operation of
infinite adjust-
ments, at length reaches the perfection that
hawk and
the
special
eagle.
differentiations
vaguely sensitive
With
So
of
of
displays in
it
they are
the other senses;
which was
tissue
originally
over.
all
the development of the senses, the adjustments
between the organism and
environment gradually ex-
its
tend in space^ a multiplication of experiences and a corre-
sponding modification of conduct being the

adjustments
greater
extend
also
in
and time the adjustments
covering
time^
Along with
intervals.
also
continually
extension in
this
The
result.
space
increase in speciality and
complexity, passing through the various grades of brute
and prolonging themselves
life,
Very
son.
striking are Mr.
upon
the influence of the sense of touch

of intelligence.
all
This
is,
domain
the
into
of
rea-
Spencer's remarks regarding

the development
so to say, the mother- tongue of
the senses, into which they must be translated to be
of service to the organism.
parrot
is
the most
power
is
also
Hence
intelligent of
greatest.
From
importance.
its
and
birds,
this
sense
it
its
The
tactual
gets knowl-
by birds which cannot employ their

The elephant is the most sagacious of
feet as hands.
quadrupeds its tactual range and skill, and the consequent multiplication of experiences, which it owes to its
edge,
unattainable
wonderfully adaptable trunk, being the basis of

ity.
its
sagac-
Feline animals, for a similar cause, are more saga-
cious than hoofed animals
atonement
tent made, in the case of
the horse,
being to some ex-
by
the possession of
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

In
sensitive prehensile lips.
of intellect
hand
197
Primates
tlie
evolution
tlie
and the evolution of tactual appendages go

In the most intelligent anthropoid apes
in hand.
we find the tactual range and delicacy greatly augmented,

new avenues of knowledge being thus opened to the ani-
Man
mal.
crowns the
edifice here,
not only in virtue of
own manipulatory power, but through
his
the enormous
extension of his range of experience, by the invention of
instruments
precision,
of
which serve as supplemental
The
and supplemental limbs.

these is finely described and
senses
of
reciprocal
action
That chas-
illustrated.
tened intellectual emotion to which I have referred in connection with Mr. Darwin
is
not absent in Mr. Spencer.
His illustrations possess at times exceeding vividness and
and from
force;
his style
on such occasions
it
is
to be
inferred that the ganglia of this Apostle of the Under-
standing are sometimes the seat of a nascent poetic

It
is
of
fact
supreme importance that
performance of which at
and
deliberation,
first
may, by
the subsequent
group of
out
letters
effort,
facility of
requires even painful effort
be rendered automatic.
habit,
Witness the slow learning of
letters
its
which forms a word
is
Instance
the
child,
of
and with-
Instance the
eye,
bil-
when he
are unconsciously co-
musician who,
enabled to fuse a multitude
and
when each
instantly,
whose muscles of hand and
reaches the perfection of his art,

ordinated.
by a
reading in a man,
fused to a single perception.
liard-player,
thrill.
actions, the
by
practice,
arrangements,
is
auditory,
tactual,
and muscular, into a process of automatic manipu-
lation.
Combining such
tary transmission,
after
coming out
facts
we reach
with the doctrine of heredi-
a theory of Instinct.
A chick,
of the egg, balances itself correctly, runs
198
power
and beak?
eyes, muscles,
taught;
its
personal experience
are registered the powers

also as regards
The
ferred to.
is
is nil;
In
its
which
it
but
has the ben-
it
inherited organization
already
Man
also carries with
the physical texture of his ancestry,
bound up with
it.
as
The
a lack of individual
cells
him
the in-
well as
defects of intelli-
gence during infancy and youth are probably
life
re-
distance at which the insects stand apart
they sweep their hemispheres and build their
herited intellect
So
displays at birth.
the instinct of the hive-bee,
"organically remembered."
early
ft
has not been individually
It
efit of ancestral experience.
when
possesses
it
movements to definite ends. How

this very complex co-ordination of
of directing its
the chick learn
(lid
thus showing that
picks up food,
about,
due
less
to
experience than to the fact that in
the cerebral organization
is still
incomplete.
The
period necessary for completion varies with the race, and
As
with the individual.
a round shot outstrips the rifled
bolt on quitting the muzzle of the gun, so the lower race,

in
childhood,
may
outstrip
the
higher.
But
eventually overtakes the lower, and surpasses
As
regards individuals,
we do not always
cocity of youth prolonged to mental
while the dulness of boyhood
is
power
the higher
it
in range.
find the
in maturity;
sometimes strikingly con-
trasted with the intellectual energy of after years.

ton,
when
a boy, was weakly, and he
lar aptitude at school;
pre-
showed no
Kew-
particu-
but in his eighteenth year he went
Cambridge, and soon afterward astonished his teachers

by his power of dealing with geometrical problems. Dur-
to
ing his quiet youth his brain was slowly preparing

to be the
displayed.
organ of
itself
those energies which he subsequently
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
By myriad
blows
and superscription
use a Lucretian phrase) the image
(to
of
199
the external world are stamped as
consciousness upon the organism, the depth of
states of
depending on the number of the blows.
the impression
When two
or more
phenomena occur
in the
environment
invariably together, they are stamped to the same depth

or to the same
here
we come
relief,
to the threshold of a great question.
way rid himself of the

and
Time,
Kant assumed them
Space
ing that he could in no

ness
of
And
and indissolubly connected.
essary "forms of
intuition," the
to be nec-
molds and shapes into
which our intuitions are thrown belonging

and without objective existence.
See-
conscious-
to
ourselves,
With unexpected power
and success, Mr. Spencer brings the hereditary experience

theory, as he
holds
to bear
it,
upon
this question.
"Ij;
there exist certain external relations which are experienced
by
organisms at
all
lations
will
all
instants of their
there
lives
re-
be established answering internal relations that are
absolutely
constant
and
universal.
have in those of Space and Time.

of
waking
which are absolutely constant and universal
sponded
to
As
relations
we
the substratum
Non-ego, they must be
other relations of the
all
Such
re-
by conceptions that are the substrata of all

Being the constant and infi-
other relations in the Ego.
nitely repeated elements of thought, they
the
automatic elements of thought
which
tion.'
it
is
impossible to get rid of
must become the
elements of thouglit
the
forms of
intui-
"
Throughout
and Mill's
this application
"Law
stands upon his
and extension
of Hartley's
of Inseparable Association," Mr. Spencer
own ground,
invoking, instead of the ex-
periences of the individual, the registered experiences of
200
His overthrow of the restriction of experience
the race.
to the individual
is,
1 think,
That
complete.
restriction
ignores the power of organizing experience, furnished at

the outset to each individual;
it
ignores the different de-
by
the same
grees of this power possessed
individuals of
different
human
the
in
as a man.
there not
to be as capable of education
These predetermined internal relations are
dependent of the
human
Were
race.
and by
brain a potency antecedent to all experi-
dog or a cat ought
ence, a
different races,
brain
is
experiences
of
the
in-
The
individual.
the "organized register of infinitely nu-
merous experiences received during the evolution
of
life,
or rather during the evolution of that series of organisms
through which the human organism has been reached.
The
effects
of
the most uniform and frequent of these
experiences have been successively bequeathed, principal
and
interest,
ligence
it
which
and have slowly mounted

lies latent in
in
high
the brain of the infant.
intel-
Thus
happens that the European inherits from twenty to
thirty cubic inches

it
to that
of brain than the Papuan.
more
Thus
happens that faculties, as of music, which scarcely exist
some
Thus
to the
it
inferior races,
become congenital
in superior ones.
happens that out of savages unable
number
of their fingers,
up
and speaking a language
containing only nouns and verbs,

tons and Shakespeares.
to count
arise at length
our New-
'
8
At
the outset of this Address
ical theories
which
lie
it
was stated
beyond experience
a process of abstraction from experience.
tfiat
phys-
are derived
by
It is instructive
to note from this point of view the successive introduction
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

of
new
The
conceptions.
idea of the attraction of gravita-
was preceded bj the observation
tion
iron
by a magnet, and
The
polarity of
tion that atoms
and repellent
of the attraction of
of light bodies
magnetism and
by rubbed amber.
electricity also appealed to
became the substratum
It thus
the senses.
of
by the play
poles,
becomes
of the concep-
and molecules are endowed with

of
which
It required
structural.^
thought to extend
its
attractive
forms
definite
Thus molecular
of crystalline architecture are produced.
force
2U1
no great boldness
play into organic nature, and to
recognize in molecular force the agency
by which both
plants and animals are built up.
way, out of ex-
In
this
perience arise conceptions which are wholly ultra-experi-
None
ential.
of the atomists of antiquity
had any notion
of this play of molecular polar force, but they
had experi-
ence of gravity, as manifested by falling bodies.

ing from
this,
they permitted their atoms to
through empty space.
Abstract-
fall
eternally
Democritus assumed that the larger
atoms moved more rapidly than the smaller ones, which

they therefore could overtake, and with which they could
Epicurus, holding that empty space could offer
combine.
no resistance
to motion, ascribed to all the
but he seems to have
velocity;
overlooked
quence that under such circumstances

never combine.
domain
move
of
conse-
Lucretius cut the knot by quitting the
by a kind
of volition.
swerve from his own principles?
gradually
the
atoms could
the instinct utterly at fault which caused Lucre-
tius thus to
ing
the
physics altogether, and causing the atoms to
together
Was
atoms the same
the
number
of
progenitors,
Diminish-
Mr. Darwin
See Art. ou Matter and Force, or "Lectures ou Light," No. III.
202
comes at length to one
*'
primordial form"; but
how he supposes
not say, so far as I remember,

to
He
have been introduced.
lie
does
this
form
quotes with satisfaction the
words of a celebrated author and divine who had

ually learned to see that
of the Deity to believe
was
it
He
self- development
capable of
as to believe
He
do
just as noble a conception
into other
and needful forms,
required a fresh act of creation to supply
What
But
the
seemed his object to
set
which
anthropomorphism,
aside, is
as
firmly
multitude.
Two
here.
We
it
associated
with the creation of a few forms as with the

of
Mr.
of this view of the introduction of life I
know.
not
grad-
created a few original forms,
the voids caused by the action of His laws."
Darwin thinks
*'
creation
need clearness and thoroughness
courses and two only are possible.
Either
let
us open our doors freely to the conception of creative

or abandoning them, let us radically change our no-
acts,
tions
Matter.
of
we look
If
at matter
as pictured
by
Democritus, and as defined for generations in our scientific
of
text-books, the notion of conscious

it
cannot be formed
placed in
the
mouth
opinion,
to crush all
however,
who framed
partial students.
ticians,
of
coming out
The argument
life
by the mind.
Bishop Butler
suffices,
such materialism as
this.
in
my
Those,
these definitions of matter were but
They were not
biologists,
whose labors referred only
but mathema-
to such accidents
and
properties of matter as could be expressed in their formulae.
Their
science of
dealt;
life.
science
With matter
and, denuded
gentle mother of all"

dread.
was mechanical
science,
not the
in its wholeness they never
by their imperfect
became the object
definitions,
"the
of her children's
Let us reverently, but honestly, look the question
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

Divorced from matter, where
in the face.
208
is life?
What-
may say, our knowledge shows them to be indisEvery meal we eat, and every cup we drink,
illustrates the mysterious control of Mind by Matter.
On tracing the line of life backward, we see it apever OUT faith
solubly joined.
more
proaching
more
and
We
physical condition.
to
come
what we
call
isms which I have compared to drops of

in a
the purely
at length to those organ-
mixture of alcohol and water.
We
oil
suspended
reach the pro-
which we have "a type distinguishable from a fragment of albumen only by its finely granutogenes of Haeckel, in
lar character."
and find two poles in each
of its
the process of breaking;
but,
And
however small the
parts,
though enfeebled, the polarity of the

when we can break no longer, we prolong
each carries with

whole.
We break a magnet,
fragments. We continue
Can we pause here?
it,
the intellectual vision to the polar molecules.
Are we not
urged to do something similar in the case of life?
Is
some extent with Luthat "Nature is seen to do all
there not a temptation to close to

cretius,
when he
affirms
things spontaneously of herself without the meddling of
gods?" or with Bruno, when he declares that Matter

not "that mere empty capacity which philosophers have
the
is
who brings
own womb?" Believ-
pictured her to be, but the universal mother

forth all things as the fruit of her
ing,
as I do,
in the
continuity of nature, I cannot stop
abruptly where our microscopes cease to be of use.

the vision of
the
vision of the eye.

fied
by
mind
By
a necessity engendered
and discern
This
mode
in
and
justi-
boundary of the experimental
science I cross the
evidence,'
Here
authoritatively supplements the
that Matter
of procedure
which we, in our
was not invented
in Belfast.
204
ignorance of
powers, and notwithstanding our
latent
its
professed reverence for
its
Creator, liave hitherto covered
with opprobrium, the promise and potency of
all terres-
trial Life.
you ask me whether there exists the least evidence

prove that any form of life can be developed out of
If
to
my
reply
that evidence considered perfectly conclusive by
many
matter,
is
without demonstrable antecedent
has been adduced;
pondered
life,
and that were some of us who have
this question to follow a
and accept testimony because
very
falls
it
common example,
in with our belief,
we also should eagerly close with the evidence referred

But there
to.
in
is
the
true
man
of
science a desire
stronger than the wish to have his beliefs upheld; namely,
the desire to have
causes
him
them
to reject the
reason to suspect that
whom
true.
And
this
stronger wish
most plausible support,

it
is
vitiated
I refer as having studied
by
if
he has
Those to
error.
believing
this question,
the evidence offered in favor of "spontaneous generation"

to
be thus vitiated, cannot accept
that the chemist
now
it.
They know
full well
prepares from inorganic matter a
vast array of substances,
which were some time ago
garded as the sole products of
vitality.
They
re-
are inti-
mately acquainted with the structural power of matter, as

evidenced in the phenomena of crystallization.
They can
justify scientifically their belief in its potency,
under the
proper conditions, to produce organisms.

to
your questions, they
to point to
will frankly
But, in reply
admit their inability
any satisfactory experimental proof that
can be developed, save from demonstrable antecedent
As
life
life.
already indicated, they draw the line from the highest
organisms through lower ones down to the lowest; and
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

it is tlie
205
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 differyou suppose, and I therefore crave your
ent from what
**The question of an ex-
gracious patience to the end.

ternal world,'* says J. S. Mill,
of
metaphysics.
phenomena
* '
'
Mr.
*'is
the great battleground
himself
Mill
reduces
external
we
our own
Kant, as
to "possibilities of sensation."
have seen, made time and space "forms" of
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
intuitions.
all
that
it
Fichte,
inherits,
having
first
by no means easy to combat such notions.

"I see you," and that there is not the
about it, the obvious reply is, that what I am
I say
that
my
is
an affection of
my own
sight can be checked
least
doubt
really con-
And
retina.
it
For when
is
scious of
And
an apparition of the mind.'
if
by touching you, the
I urge
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
All we hear, and see, and touch, and taste,
a change.
would be urged, mere variations of our
own condition, beyond which, even to the extent of a
That anything answering to
hair-breadth, we cannot go.
and
smell, are,
it
our impressions exists outside of ourselves

but an
inference^ to
which
all
validity
**
is
not a /acr,
would be denied by
*
Atheist" or a 'Materialist."
Bruno was a "Pantheist," not an
**Exaniination of Hamilton," p. 154.
"Bestimmung des Menschen."
206
an
idealist like Berkeley, or
Spencer takes another

educated man, there
by
a sceptic like
no doubt or question as
who think
represents
sciousness
But he
Our
to be.
is
states of
to the
from the
differs
that the world really
it
Mr.
With, him, as with the un-
line.
is
existence of an external world.
uneducated,
Hume,
what conconscious-
ness are mere symbols of an outside entity which produces
them and determines the order of their succession, but the

which we can never know.*
In fact, the
whole process of evolution is the manifestation of a Power
real nature of
As
absolutely inscrutable to the intellect of man.

in our day as in the days of
find this
is
by
earth
Power
out.
Job can man by searching
Considered fundamentally, then,
the operation of an insoluble mystery that

is
evolved, species differentiated, and
accessible
mony
on
past.
strength of the doctrine of Evolution consists, not
in an experimental demonstration (for the subject
it
life
it
mind unfolded,
from their prepotent elements in the immeasurable
The
little
to this
with
mode
but in
of proof),
scientific thought.
From
its
contrast,
derives enormous relative cogency.
On
is
hardly
general har-
moreover,
the one side
* 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
In this
upon. The impressions of sense are the mere signs of external things.
paper Helmholtz contends strongly against the view that the consciousness of
and he evidently doubts the power of the chick to pick up
space is inborn
On this point, he says, further
grains of com without preliminary lessons.
Such experiments have been since made by Mr.
experiments are needed.
Spalding, aided, I believe, in some of his observations by the accomplished and
;
deeply lamented Lady Amberly
and they seem
to prove conclusively that the
chick does not need a single moment's tuition to enable
the muscles of
its
eyes,
and peck.
it
Helmholtz, however,
the notion of pre-established harmony
and
am
the organization of experiences of race or breed.
to stand, run,
is
govern
contending against
not aware of his views as to
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

we have
called)
a theory
derived,
as
could with any propriety be so
it
(if
207
were the theories referred to at the
beginning of this Address, not from the study of nature,
men
but from the observation of
Power whose garment
the
into an Artificer,
fashioned after the
man
acting by broken efforts as
other side
and
us,
all
nature as
a theory which converts
seen in the visible universe
is
And
vestigation of man.
We
and thought.
even
I dare apply the
life, if
which
this
offered to the in-
is
span
moment we
tween them.
the parallel
it
is
only knowable
phenomena
of sensa-
see with undoubting certainty that
But we
they go hand in hand.
try to soar in a
vacuum
seek to comprehend the connection be-
An
Archimedean fulcrum
is
here required
which the human mind cannot command; and the

to
solve the problem
illustrious
to
lift
to
fundamental
spoken
of,
is
all
is
that of a
like
man
trying
All that has been
waistband.
to be taken in connection with
When
truth.
when "the
vaguely sensitive
own
himself by his
effort
borrow a comparison from an
friend of mine
said in this discourse

this
the
"We can trace the development of a nervous sys-
tem, and correlate with
the
On
term, an infinitesimal span of
tion
model, and
act.
we have the conception that all we see around

we feel within us the phenomena of physical
well as those of the human mind have their
unsearchable roots in a cosmical
in part.
human
seen to
is
over"
is
senses"
are
a tissue at
first
'nascent
differentiation
spoken
of
of,
and when these
possessions and. processes are associated with "the modification
of an organism
by
its
environment," the same
parallelism, without contact, or even approach to contact,

is
implied.
gulf from
Man the object is separated by an impassable

man the subject. There is no motor energy in

208
the
Imman
carry
intellect to
from the one
without logical rupture,
it,
to the other.
9
The
doctrine of Evolution derives man, in his totality,
from the interaction
ample
fully
organism and environment through
of
The Human Understanding,
countless ages past.
that faculty which
round upon
Mr. Spencer has turned so
own
its
for ex-
antecedents
is itself
skil-
a result of
the play between organism and environment through cos-
mic ranges of time.

so irresistible a
Never, surely, did prescription plead
But then
claim.
it
comes
to pass that,
over and above his understanding, there are
many
other
things appertaining to man, whose prescriptive rights are

quite as strong as those of the understanding
It is
itself.
a result, for example, of the play of organism and environ-
ment
that sugar
and that aloes are
sweet,
is
that
bitter;
the smell of henbane differs from the perfume of a rose.
Such
facts of
consciousness (for which, by the way, no
adequate reason has ever been rendered) are quite as old
and many other things can boast
as the understanding;
an equally ancient
to that
as
origin.
Mr. Spencer at one place refers
most powerful of passions
one which, when
it
first
relative experience whatever;
as being at least as ancient,
understanding
itself.
into the texture of
Wonder and
Then
man
the
occurs,
is
amatory passion
antecedent to
and we may press
and
there
its
all
claim
as valid, as that of the
are such things
as the feeling of
woven
Awe, Eeverence,
not alone the sexual love just referred
to,
but the love of the beautiful, physical, and moral, in Nature, Poetry,
which, since
and Art.
the
There
earliest
is also
dawn
of
that deep-set feeling,

history,
and probably
THE BELFAST ADDRESS
209
for ages prior to all history, incorporated itself in the Ee-
You, who have escaped from these
ligions of the world.
religions into the high- and- dry light of the intellect,
you deride accidents

touch the immovable basis
deride them; but in so doing
merely,
and
fail
to
religious sentiment in the nature of man.
sentiment reasonable satisfaction
scientific
many
culture as
have been and are
dearest privileges of freemen as
have been, and would,
if
form
the
yield this
grotesque in relation to
religions of the world
of the
dangerous,
of
may
the problem of prob-
is
And
lems at the present hour.
To
of
nay,
some
destructive,
of
to the
them undoubtedly
they could, be again
it
will be
wise to recognize them as the forms of a force, mischievous

if
permitted to intrude on the region of objective knowl-
over which
edge,
holds no command,
it
but capable of
adding, in the region of poetry and emotion, inward completeness
and dignity
to
man.
Feeling, I say again, dates from as old an origin

as high a source as intelligence,
its
range
of play.
recognize the
necessity
than of resisting
of form.
it
What we
equally demands
it
of
of meeting this
humanity
will
demand, rather
on account of errors and absurdities

should
resist,
attempt made in the past, and
upon
and
The wise teacher
and
this elemental bias of
at all
now
hazards,
repeated,
to
is
the
found
man's nature a system which
should exercise despotic sway over his
no fear of such a consummation.
intellect.
I have
Science has already to
some extent leavened the world; it will leaven it more

and more. I should look upon the mild light of science
breaking in upon the minds of the youth of Ireland, and
strengthening gradually to
the
perfect day,
as a surer
check to any intellectual or spiritual tyranny which
may
210
threaten this island, than the laws of princes or the swords
We
won our battle even in the

the issue of another condoubt
we
Middle Ages; should
of emperors.
flict
fought and
with our broken foe?
The impregnable
in a few words.
the
ology,
entire
position of science
We
claim,
domain
and we
may
shall wrest
cosmological
of
be described
from
the-
All
theory.
schemes and systems which thus infringe upon the domain of science must, in so far as they do this, submit
to its control,
and relinquish
Acting
otherwise
and
is
it
thought of controlling
all
proved always disastrous in the
simply fatuous to-day.
it.
past,
Every system which
would escape the fate of an organism too rigid to adjust

to
itself
its
environment, must be plastic to the extent
that the growth of knowledge demands.
has been thoroughly taken
in,
exclusiveness diminished, things
When
this truth
rigidity will
be relaxed,
now deemed
essential will
be dropped, and elements now rejected will be assimi-
The
lated.
lifting of
the
life
is
as long as dogmatism, fanaticism,

out, various modes of leverage
life to
the essential point;
and
and intolerance are kept
may be employed
to raise
a higher level.
Science
itself
not infrequently derives motive power
Some of its greatest dismade under the stimulus of a nonThis was the case among the ancients,
scientific ideal.
Mayer, Joule, and
so among ourselves.
been
has
it
and
from an
ultra -scientific source.
coveries have been
Oolding, whose names are associated with the greatest of
modern
generalizations,
were thus influenced.
With
usual insight, Lange at one place remarks that "it
is
his
not
always the objectively correct and intelligible that helps
man
most, or leads most quickly to the fullest and truest
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

As
knowledge.
chrone reaches
the
body upon the brachysto-
sliding
end sooner than by the straighter road
its
of the inclined plane, so, through the
we
211
swing of the
ideal,
naked truth more rapidly than by
often arrive at the
Whewell speaks
the processes of the understanding."
of
enthusiasm of temper as a hinderance to science; but he
means the enthusiasm
weak
of
There
heads.
is
a strong
and resolute enthusiasm in which science finds an

and
it
is
to the lowering of
this
ally;
rather than to the
fire,
diminution of intellectual insight, that the lessening productiveness of
men
of
science,
Mr. Buckle sought to detach intellectual
to be ascribed.
achievement from
moral
been said by
from
literature;
into action,
writings
Huxley, and
its
its
of
leaders
its
A
of
many
you
find
of literary style?
their
oth-
glance at the less

its
Helmholtz,
Du Bois-Reymondwould show
writers can
and vigor
for
opponents that science divorces
breadth of literary culture they command.
modern
erred,
the achieve-
but the statement, like so
from lack of knowledge.
arises
ers,
technical
it
gravely
would be poor indeed.
of the intellect
It has
itself
He
force.
without moral force to whip
ment
in their mature years, is
its
what
"Where among
superiors in clearness
Science desires not isolation,
but freely combines with every effort toward the bettering

of
man's
estate.
Single-handed, and supported,
outward sympathy, but by inward
force,
it
not by
has built at
least
one great wing of the many-mansioned home which
man
in his totality demands.
And
if
rough walls and
protruding rafter- ends indicate that on one side the edifice is
still
incomplete,
it
the parts required, with

that
we can hope
for
is
only by wise combination of
those already irrevocably built,
completeness.
There
is
no neces-

212
sary incongruity between what has been accomplished and
what remains
which we
The moral glow
be done.
to
by
all feel
ignition, has in it
of
Socrates,
nothing incompati-
Anaxagoras which he so much

And
"scorned, but which he would hardly scorn to-day.
here I am reminded of one among us, hoary, but still
ble with the physics of
whose prophet-voice some
strong,
more than any other

life
and nobleness lay
one
fit
and
thirty years
latent
in
its
to stand beside Socrates or the
and
to dare
and
of the Stoa,
to
Maccabean Eleazar,
and dared
have been the teacher
have discoursed of Beauty and Virtue
Academe."
in the groves of
far
most gifted minds
suffer all that they suffered
as he once said of Fichte, "to
fit,
ago,
unlocked whatever of
of this age,
With
a capacity to grasp
physical principles which his friend Goethe did not possess,
and which even
total lack of exercise
able to reduce to atrophy,
it is
the world's loss that he,
in the vigor of his years, did not
pathies to science, and
make
his message to mankind.
was
equally
how
he
conclusions a portion of
Marvellously endowed
as
he
and
in the
And now
might have done much toward
to reconcile the claims of both,
enable them in coming

of spirit
its
open his mind and sym-
equipped on the side of the Heart and of
the Understanding
teaching us
has not been
the
bond
end
and
to
times to dwell together, in unity
is
of peace.
come.
With more
time,
or
greater strength and knowledge, what has been here said
might have been better

omitted,
said,
might have received
while worthy matters, here

fit
expression.
But there
would have been no material deviation from the views

set forth.
As
regards myself, they are not the growth
THE BELFAST ADDRESS

of a day;
know
and
213
regards you, I thought you ought to
as
the environment which, with or without your con-
sent, is rapidly surrounding you, and in relation to which

some adjustment on your part may be necessary. A hint
how the troubles of commay be ended; and it is perfectly possible for

you and me to purchase intellectual peace at the price
of Hamlet's, however, teaches us
mon
life
The world
of intellectual death.
nor
description;
this
and try
their shelter,
The unstable and

But
the truth.
and
not without refuges of
wanting in persons who seek
it
to persuade others to
to
whom
repose
would exhort you
choice be forced
is
will yield to
sweeter than
to refuse the offered
scorn the base repose
to
do the same.
weak have yielded and
and they
this persuasion,
shelter,
the
is
is
to
accept,
upon you, commotion before
if
the
stagnation,
the breezy leap of the torrent before the fetid stillness of
In the course of this Address I have touched

the swamp.
on debatable questions, and led you over what will be
deemed dangerous ground and this partly with the view
of
telling
you
that,
regards these questions,
as
claims unrestricted right of search.

to say that the
it
wrong, we
science,
are
Here
should agree with
indeed certain that these views will un-
dergo modification.
or
It is not to the point
views of Lucretius and Bruno, of Darwin
and Spencer, may be wrong.

you, deeming
claim
But the point

the
right
is
it
into
an
whether right
that,
discuss
to
however, no exclusive claim
not urged to erect
is
them.
and those unquenchable claims
you
The inexorable
of
his
knowl-
moral and
emotional nature, which the understanding can never

isfy, are
here equally set forth.
For
here made;
idol.
advance of man's understanding in the path of

edge,
science
sat-
The world embraces not

214
only a Newton, but a
but a Kaphael
not
Shakespeare
not
only a Boyle,
only a Kant, but a Beethoven
not
Not in each of these, but

human nature whole. They are not opposed,
only a Darwin, but a Carlyle.

in
all,
is
but supplementary
And
able.
if,
not
mutually exclusive, but reconcil-
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
so long as this
it
has emerged, seek-
thought and
it
as to give unity to
is
done, not only without intolerance or
ing so to fashion
faith;
bigotry of any kind, but with the enlightened recognition

that ultimate fixity of conception
that each succeeding
is
here unattainable, and
age must be held free to fashion
own needs
then,
casting aside all the restrictions of Materialism, I
would
the
mystery
in
afiirm this to be
accordance
creative faculties of
handled
streaks
me
its
a field for the noblest exercise of what,
in contrast with the
too great for
with
knowing
man.
faculties,
may
be called the
Here, however, I touch a theme
to handle, but
which
will assuredly be
by the loftiest minds, when you and I, like

morning cloud, shall have melted into the
of
infinite azure of the past.
I
;
APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS

18U
THE
I
world has been frequently informed of
have raised up against myself a host
late that
enemies
of
and considering, with few exceptions, the deliverances of the Press, and more particularly of the religious
Press, I
am
forced to admit that the statement
only too
is
some comfort, nevertheless, from the reflection of Diogenes, transmitted to us by Plutarch, that
"he who would be saved must have good friends or viotrue.
I derive
lent enemies;
and that he
best off
is
who
possesses both.''
This "best" condition, I have reason to believe,
mine
is
Eeflecting on the fraction I have read of recent remonstrances,
appeals,
menaces, and
only the world that
now
is,
judgments
covering
but that which
have
noticed with mournful
seem
to
interest
how
not
come
is to
trivially
men
be influenced by what they call their religion,
and how potently by that "nature" which
it is
province of religion to eradicate or subdue.
the alleged
From
fair
and manly argument, from the tenderest and holiest sympathy on the part of those who desire my eternal good, I
pass
by many
gradations, through deliberate unfairness, to
a spirit of bitterness,
pressible in
words
potent factor,
my
which desires with a fervor inexeternal
ill.
we might expect
ISTow,
were religion the
homogeneous utterance
from those professing a common creed, while,
if
human
(215)
216
we may expect
nature be the really potent factor,
matter of fact we have the

that the
common
suggesting to
latter;
religion, professed
different people, is
my mind
and defended by these
merely the accidental conduit through
which they pour their own tempers,
lofty or low, courte-
may
mild or ferocious, as the case
ous or vulgar,
utter-
As
ances as heterogeneous as the characters of men.
Pure abuse, however,
as
be.
serving no good end, I have,
wherever possible, deliberately avoided reading, wishing,
and uncharita-
indeed, to keep, not only hatred, malice,
away from
demands not only goodand many-sidedness of
bleness, but even every trace of irritation, far
my
side of a discussion which
temper, but largeness, clearness,
mind,
It
if
it
to guide us to even provisional solutions.
is
has been stated, with
many
variations of note and
comment, that in the Address as subsequently published
by Messrs. Longman
Belfast.
Roman
Startled
this point.
my
have evoked, I
This he will by no means
retreat.
of dissent
am now
tolerate.
at
upon
which
trying to
"It
is
too
now to seek to hide from the eyes of mankind one
foul blot,
Professor Tyndall has
one ghastly deformity.
himself told us
composed.
It
how and where

was written among
crude production;
Address of his was
this
solitudes of the Swiss mountains.

ried,
specially strong
is
by the deep chorus
"dazzling fallacies"
late
have retracted opinions uttered
Catholic writer
its
the glaciers and

It was-
the
no hasty, hur-
every sentence bore marks of
thought and care."
My
critic
intends to be severe: he
is
simply
just.
In
the "solitudes" to which he refers I worked with deliberation,
endeavoring even to purify
my
intellect
by
his
own Church
ciplines similar to those enjoined
by
dis-
for
'

the sanctification of the soul.
217
moreover, in
I tried,
my
ponderings to realize not only the lawful, but the expedi-
and
ent;
to permit
my
no fear to act upon
mind, save
word on which I could not take

or in any other world.
that of littering a single
my
stand, either in this
my
Still
my
time was so
isolated position were so numerous,
and expression so slow,
from
brief, the difficulties arising
and
my
thought
that, in a literary point of view,
I halted, not only behind the ideal, but behind the pos-
Hence, after the delivery of the Address, I went
sible.
over
it
with the desire, not to revoke
improve
to
and above
verbally,
it
which might give color to the notion

or haste.
remove any word
of *'crudeness, hurry,
'
In connection with the charge of Atheism

refers
but
principles,
its
all to
Address:
*'
my
critic
Preface to the second issue of the Belfast
to the
their writings
to
men," I there
say, "are proved by

have their hours of weakness and of
Christian
doubt, as well as their hours of strength and of conviction;
and men
variations of
of
tense.
many of my assailants
know how strong the
Atheism' upon
my
Were
claims of the doctrine of

allegiance might be.
they would be very strong.
But, as
during years of self-observation that
and vigor that
of clearness
to
my mind
thought
it
the religious
the only alternative ones, I do
not
terial
own way, these

moods
like myself share, in their
mood and
it is,
it
this doctrine
is
Ma-
Probably
I have noticed
not in hours
commends
itself
that in the presence of stronger and healthier
ever dissolves and disappears, as offering no
solution of the mystery in
we form a part."
With reference
which we dwell, and of which
to this honest and reasonable utterance

Science
YI 10
'
FBAQMENTS OF SCIENCE
218
mj
censor exclaims, "This
is
a most remarkable passage.
Much, as we dislike seasoning polemics with strong words,
we
Apology only tends to

name of Professor Tyndali
assert that this
of steel to the
tation against
which he
affix
with links
the dread impu-
'
struggles.
Here we have a very fair example of subjective religBut my quarrel with such exhibitions is that
ious vigor.
they do not always represent objective
No
fact.
atheistic
human
reasoning can, I hold, dislodge religion from the
Logic cannot deprive us of
heart.
As an
to the religious.
beyond the
assaults
of
ment
will
and
have
to
But the
logic.
he
feels,
it is
religious life
use the word in
is
its
embodiment of the religious sentibear more and more, as the world be-
of
We
stress of scientific tests.
projecting into external nature that
My
which belongs to ourselves.

take:
is life
this
comes more enlightened, the
must be careful
and religion
experience of consciousness
often projected in external forms
widest sense
life,
critic
and takes delight
in
commits
feeling,
this mis-
that I
am
quisite
and he obviously experiences the most expleasures of "the muscular sense" in holding me
down.
His feelings are as real as
struggling,
"struggles"
struggle.
of
my
not
do not fear the charge of Atheism;
nor
is,
equally
however,
should I even disavow

of the
Supreme which
to frame.
it,
he,
real.
His picture
mere delusion.
in reference to
or his order,
any
definition
would be
likely
His "links" and his "steel" and his "dread
imputations"
my
his imagination of
do
are were
what mine
if
are, therefore,
even more unsubstantial than
"streaks of morning cloud," and they
mitted to vanish together.
may
be per-
219
These minor and more purely personal matters

weightier
end, the
allegation
at
an
remains that at Belfast I
my position by quitting the domain of science,

and making an unjustifiable raid into the domain of theology.
This I fail to see. Laying aside abuse, I hope
misused
my
accusers will consent to reason with me.
lawful for a scientific

of the
man
system?
solar
to speculate
Is
longed the intellectual vision
they
cepting that theory as probable,
man
pro-
beyond the boundary of
and propounded the nebular theory?
experience,
not
Did Kant, Laplace, and William
Herschel quit their legitimate spheres, when
scientific
it
on the antecedents
is
it
Ac-
not permitted to a
to follow up, in idea, the series of changes
associated with the condensation of the nebulso; to pict-
ure the successive detachment of planets and moons, and

the relation of all of
our earth, with
them
to the sun ?
orbital revolution
its
If I
and axial
look upon
rotation, as
one small issue of the process which made the solar sys-
tem what
it
is,
will
and express
any theologian deny
my
right to en-
view? Time was when

a multitude of theologians would have been found to do
so when that arch-enemy of science which now vaunts its
tolerance would have made a speedy end of the man who
might venture to publish any opinion of the kind. But
tertain
this theoretic
that time, unless the world
is
caught strangely slumber-
ing, is forever past.
As
regards inorganic
without
let
nature,
then,
we may
traverse,
or hinderance, the whole distance which sepa-
rates the nebulae
from the worlds of to-day.
But only a
now conceded ground of science was

ground. I could by no means regard this as
few years ago this

theological
the final and
sufficient
concession of theology;
and,
at
220
Belfast, T
state
thought
that,
it
the freedom which

inorganic.
my
not only
right,
organic world,
as regards the
we have already won
but
my
in regard to the
I could not discern the shred of a title-deed
which gave any man, or any

open the door of one of
class of
these
men, the right to
worlds to the
it
frankest, wisest,
scientific
And
searcher and to close the other against him.

sidered
duty, to
we must enjoy
I con-
and in the long run most
conducive to permanent peace, to indicate, without evasion or reserve, the ground that belongs to
to
which she
will assuredly
make good her
Science, and
claim.
I have been reminded that an eminent predecessor of
mine in the Presidential chair expressed a totally different

view of the Cause of things from that enunciated by me.
In doing so he transgressed the bounds of science at
much as I did; but nobody

The freedom he took I
him.
as
what
world;
must regard
least
raised an outcry against
And
claim.
looking at
as the extravagances of the religious
very inadequate and foolish notions con-
at the
cerning this universe which are entertained by the majority of
our authorized religious teachers;
energy on the part of good

I
may
say
it
men over
at the waste of
things unworthy,
if
without discourtesy, of the attention of en-
lightened heathens;
the fight about the fripperies of Kit-
ualism, and the verbal quibbles of the Athanasian Creed;
the forcing on the public view of Pontigny Pilgrimages;

the dating of historic
epochs from the definition of the
Immaculate Conception;
Glories of
these
the Sacred
chimeras, which
not appear to
me
the proclamation of the Divine
standing
Heart
astound
all
in
the
midst of
thinking men,
extravagant to claim the public
it
did
toler-
ance for an hour and a haK, for the statement of more

reasonable views
views
wMcli science
ties
lias
more
in accordance with tlie veri-
brought to
light,
and which many
weary souls would, I thought, welcome with
and
221
gratification
relief.
But to come to closer quarters. The expression to

which the most violent exception has been taken is this:
*' Abandoning all disguise,
the confession I feel bound to
make before you is, that I prolong the vision backward
across the boundary of the experimental evidence, and
discern in that Matter which we, in our ignorance, and
notwithstanding our professed reverence for
its
Creator,
have hitherto covered with opprobrium, the promise and

potency of every form and quality of life.'* To call it a
*'
chorus of dissent," as
way
my
Catholic critic does,
of describing the storm of
statement has been assailed.
being past, I hope I
may
First of
sent to reason.
is a mild
opprobrium with which this
But the first blast of passion
again ask
all,
my
opponents to con-
am blamed
boundary of the experimental evidence.

is
the habitual action of the scientific
that portion of
gation.
Our
tricity, all
it
which applies
for crossing the
This,
mind
itself to
at
I reply,
least of
physical investi-
theories of light, heat, magnetism,
imply the crossing of this boundary.
on the "Scientific Use of the Imagination,'* and
and
elec-
My paper
my "Lect-
ures on Light," illustrate this point in the amplest manner;
and
in the Article entitled
"Matter and Force" in
the present volume I have sought, incidentally, to

clear, that in
make
physics the experiential incessantly leads to
the ultra-experiential; that out of experience there always
grows something
their different
most
finer
than mere experience, and that in
powers of ideal extension
part, the difference
consists, for the
between the great and the medi-
222
The kingdom
ocre investigator.
of
not by observation and experiment alone, but
bj
fixing the roots of observation
cometh
science, then,
is
completed
and experiment
in a
Tegion inaccessible to both, and in dealing with which

are forced to fall back
upon the picturing power
we
of the
mind.
Passing the boundary of
experience,
ground
not, in the abstract, constitute a sufficient

sure.
There must have been something in
mode
of
*'
crossing
it
which
provoked
does
therefore,
my
for cen-
particular
tremendous
this
chorus of dissent."
Let us calmly reason the point out.

theory as
it
and
schel,
as
held by the best scientific intellects of
is
it
According
to-day.
through
diffused
I hold the nebular
was held by Kant, Laplace, and William Herto
our sun and planets were once
it,
space
impalpable
an
as
which,
by condensation, came the
caused
the
haze
condense?
to
rounded the sun and planets?
molecular
force.
overwhelms
man's
maintain what we
Loss
It is
call life.
bone of
are
its
part, it
Life;
or
nebula,
origin
is
who
may
it
heat.
the
earth
Was
work
fashioned
it,
no intrusion
science
of
which
unfit
now covered with

They
life
of
its
are,
flesh.
to
visible
on the
How
implicated in the nebula
and wholly Unfathomable
a Being standing outside the
and vitalized
it;
but whose own
and ways are equally past finding out?
the eye of
of
was
tear
not formed of matter different
be, of a vaster
the
What
What
of
bone, and flesh of
were they introduced?
as
out of
For eons, the immensity
from that of the earth around them.

contrary,
haze,
system.
That whicb^ rounds a
conceptions,
They
living things.
solar
has hitherto ranged
As
far as
through nature,
purely creative power into any series of
223
phenomena lias ever been observed. The assumption of

Bucli a power to account for special phenomena, though
often made,
has always proved a failure.
and
to the very spirit of science;
responsibility of holding up, in contrast with
which
of nature
it
opposed
It is
I therefore
it,
assumed the
that
science to disclose, and in the application of which
alone
hope
for
further
nebulae and the solar system,
we can
Holding, then, that the
light.
life
germ
other in the relation of the

I reaffirm here,
method
has been the vocation and triumph of
included, stand to each
to the finished organism,
not arrogantly, or defiantly, but without
a shade of indistinctness, the position laid
down
at Belfast.
Not with the vagueness belonging to the emotions, but

with the definiteness belonging to the understanding, the
scientific
man
has to put to himself these questions regardlife upon the earth.

He will be
upon the subject, for he knows best
ing the introduction of

the last to dogmatize
that
certainty is here for the present
refusal of
hypothesis
the creative
is
unattainable.
less
His
an assertion of
knowledge than a protest against the assumption
of
if
the claim to which
the source of perpetual confusion
is
not forever,
lie
beyond
knowl-
edge which must long,
us,
and
With a mind open to conviction he asks his

opponents to show him an authority for the belief they
so strenuously and so fiercely uphold.
They can do no
more than point to the Book of Genesis, or some other
upon
earth.
portion of the Bible.

pathetic, to
man
me
Profoundly interesting, and indeed
mind of
But the Book
are those attempts of the opening
to appease its
hunger for a Cause.
of Grenesis has no voice in
grasp of geology, which
it
yielded like potter's clay;
scientific
questions.
resisted for a time,

its
it
To
the
at length
authority as a system of cos-
224
mogony being
ment
discredited on all hands,
of the obvious
meaning of
its
by the abandonIt is a
writer.
In the former aspect
not a scientific treatise.
beautiful: in the latter aspect
it
tinue to be, purely obstructive and hurtful.

its
it is
has been, and
forever
will con-
it
To
poem,
knowledge
value has been negative, leading, in rougher ages than
and even
to physical,
ours,
in
our own "free" age to
moral, violence.
No
is
incident connected with the proceedings at Belfast
more instructive than the deportment
of
the Catholic
body usually too wise to confer

notoriety upon an adversary by imprudently denouncing
him. The "Times," to which I owe a great deal on the
score of fair play, where so much has been unfair, thinks
that the Irish Cardinal, Archbishops, and Bishops, in a
recent manifesto, adroitly employed a weapon which I, at
an unlucky moment, placed in their hands. The antecehierarchy of Ireland;
dents of their action cause

light;
and
me
a brief reference
to regard
to
it
in a different
these antecedents will, I
think, illuminate not only their proceedings regarding Belfast,
but other doings which have been recently noised
abroad.
me
document bearing the date of November, 1873, which, after appearing for a moment, unaccountably vanished from public view. It is a Memorial adBefore
dressed,
lies
by Seventy
of the
Students and Ex-students of
the Catholic University in Ireland, to the Episcopal Board

of the University
est
and
it
constitutes the plainest
remonstrance ever addressed by
spiritual pastors
and masters.
Irish
and brav-
laymen
to their
It expresses the profound-
est dissatisfaction with the curriculum marked out for the
225
students of the University; setting forth the extraordinary

fact that the ]ectui*e-list for the faculty of
lished
name
of
Science, pub-
month before they wrote, did not contain the

a single Professor of
the Physical or Natural
Sciences.
The memorialists forcibly deprecate this, and dwell

upon the necessity of education in science: "The distinguishing mark of this age is its ardor for science.
The
natural sciences have, within the last fifty years, become
the chief est study in the world
they are in our time pur-
sued with an activity unparalleled in the history of manScarce a year
kind.
now
passes without some discovery
being made in these sciences which, as with the touch of

magician's wand, shivers to atoms theories formerly
the
deemed
ural
unassailable.
sciences
our religion.
faith
through the physical and nat-
It is
now made on
that the fiercest assaults are
No more
deadly weapon
is
used against our
than the facts incontestably proved by modern
re-
searches in science."
Such statements must be the reverse of comfortable to

a number of gentlemen who, trained in the philosophy
of Thomas Aquinas, have been accustomed to the unquestioning submission of
all
science of Theology.
But
other sciences to their

this
is
not
seems certain," say the memorialists,

for the physical
in
the
Catholic
all:
viz.,
divine
"One
"that
if
thing
chairs
and natural sciences be not soon founded

University, very
have their faith exposed
to
many young men
will
dangers which the creation of
a school of science in the University would defend them

from.
For our generation
of Irish Catholics are writhing
under the sense of their inferiority in science, and are determined that such inferiority shall not long continue
and
"
226
SO, if scientific
training be unattainable at our University,
they will seek
it
not one of which
at Trinity or at the
is
Queen's Colleges, in
there a Catholic Professor of Science.'*
Those who imagined the Catholic University
Ken-
at
sington to be due to the spontaneous recognition, on the

part of the
the age,
Eoman
hierarchy, of the intellectual needs of
derive enlightenment from
will
more from what follows:
To
remains.
for the
this,
and
still
most formidable threat
the picture of Catholic students seceding to
Trinity and the Queen's
Colleges,
the
memorialists add
"They will, in
own homes, unaided by any guiding
this darkest stroke of all:
the solitude of
their
advice, devour
works
the
of
Haeckel,
Lyell; works innocuous
Tyndall,
and
studied under a professor
who
Darwin,
if
Huxley,
would point out the difierence between established facts

and erroneous inferences, but which are calculated to sap
the faith of a solitary student, deprived of a discriminat-
ing judgment to which he could refer for a solution of his

diflS-Culties.
In the light of the knowledge given by this courageous
memorial, and of similar knowledge otherwise
derived,
the recent Catholic manifesto did not at all strike
me
as
a chuckle over the mistake of a maladroit adversary, but

rather as an evidence of profound uneasiness on the part
of the Cardinal,
signed
it.
however,
the Archbishops, and the Bishops
with
their
one concession to the

olic
accustomed practical wisdom.

spirit
which
it
As
embodied, the Cath-
University at Kensington was brought forth, appar-
ently as the effect of spontaneous inward force,

of
who
They acted toward the Students' Memorial,
and not
outward pressure becoming too formidable to be suc-
cessfully opposed.
227
The memorialists point with bitterness to the fact, that

**the name of no Irish Catholic is known in connection
with the physical and natural sciences."
But this, they
ought
know,
to
the complaint of free and cultivated
is
minds wherever a Priesthood exercises dominant power.

Precisely the same complaint has been
ture
and the
modern
The
Germany.
to the Catholics of
times, are almost wholly the
of the
Eoman
these in Grermany
"The
estants.
German
is
respect
achievements of that country, in
scientific
vanishingly small fraction of
members
made with
great national litera-
it
work
only
of Protestants.
is
derived from
Church, although the number of
at least as great as that of the Prot-
question arises," says a writer in an able
periodical,
"what
is
the cause of a
so humiliating to the Catholics?
It
phenomenon
cannot be referred
endowment due to climate (for the Protestants of Southern Germany have contributed powerfully
to the creations of the German intellect), but purely to
to
want
of natural
outward circumstances.
in the pressure
And
these are readily discovered
exercised for centuries
by the
Jesuitical
system, which has crushed out of Catholics every tendency

to free
mental productiveness."
It
is,
indeed, in Catholic
countries that the weight of Ultramontanism has been most
severely
spirits,
felt.
It is in
who have
such countries that the very
finest
dared, without quitting their faith, to
freedom or reform, have suffered extinction.

The extinction, however, was more apparent than real,
and Hermes, Hirscher, and Giinther, though individually
plead
for
broken and subdued, prepared the way, in Bavaria, for

persecuted but unflinching Frohschammer, for Bol-
the
linger,
and for the remarkable
Bollinger
is
liberal
the head and guide.
movement
of
which
FRAGMENTS OF
228
Thoiigli
molded
SCIENCE'
for centuries to
an obedience unparal-
any other country, except Spain, the Irish
leled in
intel-
beginning to show signs of independence; demand-
lect is
ing a diet more suited to
As
the Middle Ages.
one grand anathema,

forth
by the Vision
Book
of Daniel.
It
which rested upon

feet of clay;
of
which
character and fate are shadowed
of
Nebuchadnezzar recorded
in the
resembles the image, whose form was

silver,
feet of clay.
and the
and
brass,
And
and the
iron,
and the gold, were broken

like the chaff of the
carried
pabulum
its
but the gold, and
terrible,
years than the
Archbishops, and Bishops are united in
Cardinal,
Pope,
its
for the recent manifesto in
of
a stone smote the
brass,
and the
in pieces together,
summer
and iron
threshing-floors,
silver,
and became
and the wind
them away.
Monsignor Capel has recently been
good enough
to
proclaim at once the friendliness of his Church toward

true science,
to determine
what true science
Let us dwell for a moment on the proofs of her scien-
is.
tific
it
and her right
competence.
When
Halley's comet appeared in 1456
was regarded as the harbinger of God's vengeance, the
dispenser of war, pestilence, and famine, and

the
Pope the church
the monster away.

to
bells of
An
by order
Europe were rung
of
to scare
additional daily prayer was added
the supplications of the faithful.
The comet
in
due
time disappeared, and the faithful were comforted by the

assurance that, as in previous instances relating to eclipses,
droughts,
and
rains,
so also as regards this "nefarious'*
comet, \dctory had been vouchsafed to the Church.
Both Pythagoras and Copernicus had taught the heliocentric doctrine that the earth revolves round the sun.
In the exercise of her right to determine what true science

is,
tlie
229
Clmrcli, in the Pontificate of Paul Y., stepped in,
and by the mouth

delivered,
"And
of the holy Congregation of the Index,
on March
whereas
5,
1616, the following decree:
hatn also come to the knowledge of
it
the said holy congregation that the false Pythagorean doctrine of the mobility of the earth
and the immobility of
the sun, entirely opposed to Holy Writ, which
is
taught
by Nicolas Copernicus, is now published abroad and received by many. In order that this opinion may not
further spread, to the damage of Catholic truth, it is
ordered that this and all other books teaching the like
doctrine be suspended, and by this decree they are all
respectively suspended, forbidden, and condemned."
But why go back to 1456 and 1616? Far be it from

me to charge bygone sins upon Monsignor Capel, were
The most apit not for the practices he upholds to-day.
plauded dogmatist and champion of the Jesuits is, I am
No less than thirty editions of a work
informed, Perrone.
have been scattered abroad for the healing of the
His notions of physical astronomy are virtually
nations.
of his
those of 1456.
He
by universal law
planet to stand
teaches boldly that

.
that
He
still
"God
when God
does not rule
orders
given
does not detract from any law
passed by Himself, but orders that planet to move round

the sun for such and such a time, then to stand still, and
then again to move, as His pleasure
may
ma, that
soul was created
Jesuitism
its
favorite dog-
by a
direct super-
proscribed Frohschammer for questioning
every human
be."
natural act of God, and for asserting that man, body and
soul,
came from
his parents.
strives for universal
power;
This
it
is
is
the system that
from
it,
as
now
Monsignor
280
Capel graciously informs
us, that
allowable in science, and what
In the face of such

at will,
it
facts,
is
we
are to learn
what
is
not!
which might be multiplied
requires extraordinary bravery of mind,
or a
reliance upon public ignorance almost as extraordinary,

to
make
made by Monsignor Capel
the claims
for
bis
Church.
me
Before
a very remarkable
is
1875 by the Bishop
very clearly lays
down
addressed in
Deans and Pro-
Montpellier, in which
Faculties of
fessors of
letter
of Montpellier to the
the writer
the claims of his Church.
He had
been startled by an incident occurring in a course of
on Physiology given by
tures
tific
a professor, of
capacity there was no doubt, but who,
rightly or
wrongly, had made
materialism.
Bishop,
*'la
ne
*'Je
me
mission que
his
it
whose
was alleged,
course the vehicle of
point donn^,"
suis
lec-
scien-
says the
je remplis au milieu de vous.
*Personne, au temoignage de saint Paul, ne s'attribue a
soi-meme un pareil honneur;
il
faut 6tre appeld de Dieu,
comme Aaron/ Et pourquoi en est-il ainsi?

que, selon le m^me Apotre, nous devons ^tre
deurs de Dieu;
et
il
sion;
si
'''ettres
I'Eglise,
de crânce,
qu'elle
Mais,
si
j'ai
qu'un envoyd
s'ac-
reû d'En-Haut une mis-
au nom de Dieu lui-mtoe, a souscrit mes
me
m'a donndes
sien, le r61e qu'elle
**0r.
ambassa-
n'est pas dans les usages, pas plus
qu'il n'est dans la raison et le droit,
credite lui-meme.
C'est parce
les
sierait-il
de manquer aux instructions
et d'entendre,
en un sens different du
m'a confid?
Messieurs, la sainte Eglise se croit investie
droit absolu d'enseigner les
hommes;
taire de la v^rit^, non pas de
complete, m^lê
du
elle se croit d^posi-
la v^ritd fragmentaire, in-
de certitude et d' hesitation, mais de
la
"

vne religienx.
verite totale, complete, an point de
comme
lenr indissolnble alliance, qne,
dot magnifiqne de
la
meme
dans I'ordre natnrel,
on philosopMqne, moral
scientifiqne
n'admet pas qn'nn syst^me pnisse

par des Chretiens,
s'il
on
politiqne,
sontenn
etre
contredit a des
Bien
qne son Fondatenr
pins, elle est si siire de I'infaillibilite
divin Ini a commnniquee,
231
dogmes
et
definis.
elle
adopts
Elle
consid^re qne la negation volontaire et opiniatre d'nn senl
point de sa doctrine rend conpable dn p^chd d'h^resie;

et elle
pense que tonte heresie formelle,
si
on ne
la rejette
pas conragensement avant de paraitre devant Dien, entraine
avec soi
la perte certaine
The Bishop
de la grace et de
recalls those
whom
I'eternite.
he addresses from the
false
philosophy of the present to the philosophy of the
past,
and foresees the trinmph
le
dix-nenvi^me
si^cle
"Avant qne
of the latter.
s'ach^ve,
la
vieille
philosophic
scolastiqne aura repris sa place dans la jnste admiration
dn monde.
II Ini
manx
gnerir les
rivale;
et
fandra ponrtant bien dn temps ponr
de tont genre, canses par son indigne
pendant de longnes annees encore, ce
philosophie, le pins
grand de
la
nom
de
langne hnmaine apr^s celni
de religion sera snspect anx ames qui se sonviendront de

J
la science
impie et materialiste de Locke, de Condillac on
d'Helvetins.
c'est
L'henre actnelle
maintenant
1'
est
anx
sciences natnrelles:
instrument de combat contre I'Eglise et
contre tonte foi religiense.
Nons ne
les
redontons pas."
Further on the Bishop warns his readers that everything

can be abused.
Poetry
jure practical conduct.

lentes: et
le
Bossnet
is
good, but in excess
les a louees
'comme
plus a la justesse dn raisonnement'
tume exclusivement a
it
may
"Les math^matiques sont
in-
excel-
etant ce qui sert
mais
si
on s'accou-
lenr methode, rien de ce qui appar-
232
tient a I'ordre
et
moral ne parait plus pouvoir 6tre d^montr^;
Fenelon a pu parler de V ensorcellement
et des
attraits
diaboliques de la gdomdtrie."
of
The learned Bishop thus

the Church: *'Oomme le
finally accentuates the claims
ddfinissait le
Pape Ldon X.,
au cinqui^me concile oecumdnique de Latran, *Le vrai ne

pent pas ^tre contraire ^ lui-m^me; par consequent, toute
une veritd de
assertion contraire k
sairement et absolument fausse.'
revelde est ndces-
foi
de
suit
II
la que,
sans
entrer dans I'examen scientifique de telle ou telle question
de physiologic, mais par
la seule certitude
nous pouvons juger du sort de
telle
ou
de nos dogmes,
telle
hypoth^se,
qui est une machine de guerre anti-chr^tienne plutot qu'une
conqu^te serieuse sur

ture.
myst^res de
les secrets et les
la na-
un dogme que I'homme a 6i6 form^ et

Done il est faux, heretique,
dignite du Createur et offensant pour son
de dire que I'homme constitue la septi^me
C'est
fagonnd des mains de Dieu.

contraire k la
chef-d'oeuvre,
esp^ce des singes
humain
Heresie encore de dire que
n'est pas sorti d'un seul couple, et
compter jusqu'a douze races
The course
see,
has
of
life
upon
earth,
been one of amelioration

animated nature
raise itself to a loftier
is
to
as far as Science can
steady advance on
improve
level.
amelioration depend largely
genre
distinctesi'*
The continued
the whole from the lower to the higher.

effort of
le
qu'on y peut
In
its
condition and
man improvement and
upon the growth
of conscious
knowledge, by which the errors of ignorance are continually moulted, and truth
of
is
organized.
knowledge that has given a
philosophy of
this
age.
It is the
advance
materialistic color to the
Materialism
is
therefore
not a
233
thing to be mourned over, but to be honestly considered

-
accepted
false,
if
it
be wholly true, rejected
mixture of truth and
error.
the nervous sj^stem, and

ing,
its
Of
it
be wholly
if it
embrace a
if
wisely sifted and turned to account
late years the
relation to thought
have profoundly occupied inquiring minds.
duty not to shirk

accept
the
it
study of
and
It is
feel-
our
ought rather to be our privilege to
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
Assuredly
level
it
this
Matter,
not.
their mani-
and purify both.
fold defects, but also to strengthen
mind degraded by
mend
recognition of
Is
its
dependence?
is
raised to the
on the contrary,
ought to occupy, and from which timid ignorance
would remove it.

But the light
is
dawning, and
it
will
become stronger
of that
Even the Brighton ''Church Congress"

From the manifold confusions
assemblage my memory has rescued two items,
which
would
as time goes on.
affords evidence of this.
it
fain preserve: the recognition of a relation
between Health and Eeligion, and the address of the Eev.
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

and inherent power of propagation. I wonder
whether he is less effectual in his ministry than his more
its vitality
embroidered colleagues
to
come
to
some
It surely
behooves our teachers
definite understanding as to this question
of health; to see how,
by
inattention to
it,
we
are de-
234
frauded,
negatively and
privation of that
*'
good health;
ural concomitant of
tion into
positively,
is
by the
the nat-
by the
inser-
and a thousand
ill- temper,
of cynicism,
life
negatively,
positively:
sweetness and light" which
cor-
We
roding anxieties which good health would dissipate.

fear and scorn
it,
**
and could apply
new
preacher
ecstatic moments of
of
But he who knew all about

knowledge, might become the
materialism."
his
Not,
gospel.
through the
however,
the individual does such knowledge
come, but through the revelations of science, in connection

with the history of mankind.
Why
Koman
should the
Why
a mortal sin?
Catholic Church call gluttony
should fasting occupy a place in the
What
disciplines of religion?
is
advice to the young clergyman
if
it
be not
when wisely
who came
that, in virtue of its action
and drink are creatures
upon the
brain,
is
moral and religious virtue
To
use the old language, food
applied, there
even in a hydro-carbon?
him, per-
to
predestination and election,
difficulties of
plexed with the
the meaning of Luther's
God, and
of
have
therefore a
Through our neglect of the monitions of
spiritual value.
a reasonable materialism
we
sin
here point to the train of

science has given
modern
and
suffer daily.
might
deadly disorders over which
society such controlsdisclosing
the lair of the material enemy, insuring his destruction,
and thus preventing that moral squalor and hopelessness

which habitually tread on the heels of epidemics in the
case of the poor.
Eising to higher spheres, the visions of Swedenborg,
and the ecstasy

that
psychical
of
Plotinus and Porphyry, are phases of
condition,
nervous system and
state
obviously
of
health,
connected with
on which
is
the
based

Vedic doctrine of
the
the absorption of
how
Porphyry complains
to pass into a condition of ecstasy.
having been
individual
Plotinus taught the devout
into the universal soul.
of
the
235
only once united to
God
in eighty-six
while his master Plotinus had been so united six
years,
times in sixty years.'
me
informs
customed
that the poet, in
to
seize
sciousness such
some
moods, was
of his
ac-
an external object to assure
hold of
own
himself of his
who knew Wordsworth
friend
bodily existence.
As
states of
phenomena have an undisputed
con-
reality,
and a substantial identity; but they are connected with

the most heterogeneous objective conceptions.
The
sub-
experiences are similar, because of the similarity
jective
of the underlying organizations.
But
for those
who wish
to look
beyond the
facts,
there will always remain ample
tion.
Take the argument
the Belfast Address.
my
room
far as I
assailants has attempted to
in
back the
rolling
they even imagine that

that
is
there employed.
culty does not abolish
and the argument
practical
specula-
of the Lucretian introduced in
As
am
answer
aware, not one of
difficulty
Some
it.
indeed, rejoice over the ability displayed

ler
for
on his opponent; and
is
the Bishop's
But
the raising
it
does
of them,
by Bishop But-
own argument
of a new diffi-
not even lessen
of the Lucretian remains
the
old one,
untouched by
anything the Bishop has said or can say.
And
Important
'
may be permitted me to add a word to an

controversy now going on: and which turns on
here
it
recommend
to the reader's particular
attention Dr. Draper's important
work entitled, "History of the Conflict between "Religion and Science" (Messrs.
S.
King
&
Co.).
286
Do
the question:
of
states
consciousness enter as links
and sequence, which give
into the chain of antecedents
bodily actions, and to other states of conscious-
rise to
which are not
ness; or are they merely by-products^
physical
the
to
tial
Speaking for myself,
going on in th brain?
processes
is
it
essen-
have no power
certain that I
interposed between
of imagining states of consciousness,
the molecules of the brain, and influencing the transfer-
ence
motion
of
"eludes
seems
iron
of
among
The thought
molecules.
the
and hence the logic
mental presentation";
all
strength which claims for
the
brain an
automatic action, uninfluenced by states of consciousness.
But
it
I believe,
is,
automaton-theory,
admitted
that
states
by those who hold the

consciousness are pro-
of
duced by the marshalling of the molecules of the brain:
and
is
this production of consciousness
to
me
by molecular motion
quite as inconceivable on mechanical principles
as the production of molecular motion by consciousness.

If,
therefore, I reject one result, I
however, reject neither,
must
and thus stand
reject both.
I,
in the presence of
two Incomprehensibles, instead of one Incomprehensible.
While accepting fearlessly the facts of materialism dwelt

upon in these pages, I bow my head in the dust before
that mystery of mind, which has hitherto defied its own
penetrative power, and which may ultimately resolve itself
into a demonstrable impossibility of self- penetration.
But the
secret is an
open one
the
practical monitions
are plain enough, which declare that on our dealings with
matter depend our weal and woe,
The
state of
mind which
the claims of "materialism"
remember a time
when
physical
and moral.
rebels against the recognition of

is
not
I regarded
unknown
my
body
to me.
I can
as a weed, so

much more
highly did I prize the conscious strength and
pleasure derived from moral and religious feeling

I
may add, was mine without the intervention
The
it
was not an ignoble one, but
error
from the penalty attached
me
taught
such
it
body
lier
the
Saner knowledge
is
Am
and there
years
life
dogma.
not save
no weed, and that treated as

would infallibly avenge itself.
I personally
that the
no
no
is
and aspects
and
Not
me
Give
so.
their
spiritual experience of those ear-
resolve of duty, or
work
of mercy,
no work
no solemnity of thought, no joy in
of self -renouncement,
mine;
which,
of
this did
to error.
lowered by this change of front?

health,
237
nature
of
that
would not
still
be
without the least reference or regard to
this
any purely personal reward or punishment looming
in the
future.
And now I have to utter a "farewell" free

my readers; thanking my friends
from
ness to all
pathy more
steadfast, I
than the antipathy of

a passage
would
my
if
less noisy,
and commending
to these
from Bishop Butler, which they have either not
read or failed
to
Bishop,
men would be
"that
self-willed,
fain believe,
foes;
bitter-
for a sym-
lay to heart.
and disposed
"It seems,"
saith
strangely headstrong and
to exert themselves with
an im-
petuosity which would render society insupportable,

the living in
quired
it
impracticable,
moderation
and
their sense of things."
were
it
and
not for some ac-
self-government,
and readiness in restraining
the
themselves,
some aptitude
and concealing
XI
THE REV. JAMES MARTINEAU AND THE BELFAST
ADDRESS
*
PKIOK
to
publication
tlie
of tlie
Fifth Edition of
"Fragments" my attention had been directed

by several estimable, and indeed eminent, persons,
an essay by the Rev. James Martineau, as demanding
these
to
serious consideration
at
my
hands.
essay the attention claimed for

of
it
it,
I tried
give the
to
and published
my
views
as an Introduction to Part 11. of the "Fragments."
I there
referred,
and here again
refer with pleasure, to
the accord subsisting between Mr. Martineau and myself
on certain points of
Cosmogony and natural

scientific
refutation."
with the sun and

earth, before
and
still
is
it
lies
again:
"It
turns
stars,
and
in
moon and
after the
far,"
committed to a given
history of man,
And
"In so
Cosmogony.
biblical
says he, "as Church belief
open to
out
that
and on the
appearance of our race, quite
other things have happened than those which the sacred
Once more: "The whole history of

the genesis of things Religion must surrender to the
Sciences." Finally, still more emphatically: "In the in-
Cosmogony
recites."
vestigation of the genetic order of things, Theology
is
an
and must stand aside." This expresses, only in

words of fuller pith, the views which I ventured to enun-
intruder,
(238)
"Fortniglitly
Review."
REV MARTINSAU AND BELFAST ADDRESS
239
"The impregnable position of Science,'*

"may be stated in a few words. We claim,
ciate in Belfast.
I there say,
and we
shall wrest
from Theology, the entire domain
Thu Theology,
theory."
Cosmological
so far as
it
of
is
represented by Mr. Martinean, and Science, so far as 1
understand
of
it,
are in absolute
harmony
here.
But Mr. Martineau would have just reason to complain

if, by partial citation, I left my readers under the
me
impression
At
that
the agreement
between us
is
complete.
the opening of the eighty-ninth Session of the
New
chester
principal,
College, London, on October
6,
delivered an Address bearing the
Man-
1874, he, its
"Eelig-
title
ion as affected by Modern Materialism"; the references

and general tone of which make evident the depth of its
my
author's discontent with

I find
fast.
of
it difficult
upon
merit, containing
many
to grapple with the exact
grounds
Indeed, logically considered, the im-
this discontent.
pression left
previous deliverance at Bel-
my mind by
many
an essay of great
sesthetic
passages of exceeding beauty, and
sentiments which none but the pure in heart could
utter as they are uttered here, is
The author appears

so timid
brave and
at times so
and captious, and
vague and unsatisfactory.

liberal, at
at times, if I dare say
times
it,
so
imperfectly informed, regarding the position he assails.
At
some
are
the outset of his Address Mr. Martineau states with

distinctness his "sources of religious faith."
two
"the
tion of
They
scrutiny of Nature" and "the interpreta-
Sacred Books."
It
would
have been a theme
worthy of his intelligence to have deduced from these
But not another

Having swept
Science various "books" contemptu-
two sources his religion as
word
is
said about
with the besom of
the
it
stands.
"Sacred Books."
240
ously away,
does not define the Sacred residue; mucli
lie
less give us the reasons
why he deems them
sacred.
His
references to "Nature," on the other hand, are magnifi-
cent tirades against Nature, intended, apparently, to show

the wholly abominable character of man's antecedents
the theory of evolution be
While joyfully
lacks steadiness.
"the widening
Here
true.
also
if
mood
his
accepting, at one place,
the deepening vistas of time, the
space,
detected marvels of physiological structure, and the rapid

filling- in
life,"
he
of
missing
the
links in the chain of organic
another,
at
falls,
into lamentation
and mourn-
ing over the very theory which renders "organic life" "a
He
chain."
avows
its
claims the largest liberality for his
sect,
and
contempt for the dangers of possible discovery.
But immediately afterward he damages the

ruins all confidence
in
modern
He
the avowal.
and almost
claim,
and
professes sym-
the
same
breath he treats, or certainly will be understood to
treat,
pathy
Science,
Atomic Theory, and the doctrine
the
of
with
Energy, as
if
in
of the Conservation
they were a kind of scientific thimble-
riggery.
His ardor, moreover, renders him inaccurate; causing
him
to see discord
between
but harmony reigns.
men where nothing
scientific
In his celebrated Address to the
Congress of German Naturforscher, delivered at Leipzig,

three years ago,
conceivable
ments of
Du Bois-Reymond
connection
definite
atoms in
speaks thus:
between
subsists
my
brain,
definite
"What
move-
on the one hand,
* Mr. Martineau's use of the term **sacred" is unintentionally misleading.

In his later essays we are taught that he does not mean to restrict it to the
Bible.
He does not, however, mention the 'books" beyond those of the Bible
1879.
to which he would apply the term.
*
'
MARTINEAU AND BELFAST ADDRESS
REV.
241
and, on the other hand, such primordial, indefinable, undeniable, facts as these: I feel pain or pleasure; I expe-
rience a sweet taste, or smell a rose, or hear an organ, or

see something red.
number
ceivable that a
and forever incon-
It is absolutely
of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,
and
oxygen atoms should be otherwise than indifferent as to
own
their
position
and motion,
It is utterly inconceivable
from their
joint action.
how
past,
or future.
present,
consciousness should result
'
This language, which was spoken in 1872, Mr. Marti-
neau "freely"
is
translates,
and quotes against me.

Evidence
due to misapprehension.
that I
is to
is
at
hand
employed similar language twenty years
The
act
to prove
ago.
It
be found in the "Saturday Review" for 1860; but a
agreement between
sufficient illustration of the
Du Bois-Reymond and
on
course
myself
is
Materialism,"
"Scientific
delivered
then widely circulated, and reprinted here.
who compares
line of
in
dis-
1868,
The reader
pursued in both, and that perfect agree-
is
ment reigns between

dress he criticises,
my
friend and me.
'
now comes my
'
Thus
is
'
far,
'
difficulty.
sensation,
In the very Ad-
Mr. Martineau might have seen that
same position
will prove this
without
friend
the two discourses will see that the same
thought
precisely the
my
furnished by the
maintained.
I say,
'
'
our way
Your atoms
much more
quotation
is clear,
but
are individually
are they without intelli-
May I ask you, then, to try your hand upon this

problem? Take your dead hydrogen atoms, your dead
oxygen atoms, your dead carbon atoms, your dead nitrogen atoms, your dead phosphorus atoms, and all the other
atoms, dead as grains of shot, of which the brain is
formed.
Imagine them separate and sensationless obgence.
SCIENCE
YI 11
242
serve them ruaning together and forming all imaginable

This,
combinations.
a purely mechanical process,
as
is
bj the mind. But can you see, or dream, or in

any way imagine, how out of that mechanical act, and
seeable
from these individually dead atoms, sensation, thought,

Are you likely to extract
and emotion are to rise?
Homer
out of the rattling of dice, or the Differential Cal-
culus out of the clash of
low a
particle of
musk
billiard-balls?
until
it
...
I can fol-
reaches the olfactory nerve;
I can follow the waves of sound until their tremors reach

the water of the labyrinth, and set the otoliths and Corti's
fibres in
motion; I can also visualize the waves of ether
as they cross the eye
am
and
Nay, more, I
hit the retina.
able to pursue to the central organ the motion thus im-
parted at the periphery, and to see in idea the very mole-
My
cules of the brain thrown into tremors.

baffled
by these physical
wilders
me
is
things
so
utterly
thought,
complete
and
processes.
What
insight
baffles
is
not
and be-
the notion that from these physical tremors
incongruous with
emotion
can
misapprehension of
could induce Mr.
mond and myself

"The affluence
Martineau
as
them
our true
to
sensation,
as
derived."
be
It is
only a
relationship
represent
Du
that
Bois-Key-
opposed to each other.
of illustration," writes
pathetic reviewer of this essay, in the
an able and sym-
New York
"Trib-
une," "in which Mr. Martineau delights often impairs the

distinctness of his statements
by diverting the
attention of
the reader from the essential points of his discussion to

the beauty of his imagery, and thus diminishes their
of conviction."
To
willing testimony;
power
the beauties here referred to I bear
but the reviewer
estimate of their effect
upon
my
is
strictly just in his
critic's logic.
The
"afflu-
REV.
248
tlie heat, and haze, and haste,

upon Mr. Martineau's own mind,
often produce vagueness where precision is the one thing
needful poetic fervor where we require judicial calm; and
ence of illustration," and

generated by
reaction
its
where the
practical unfairness
and
I willingly believe is
strictest justice
meant to
ought to
observed.
be,
In one of his nobler passages Mr. Martineau
how
be,
us
tells
the pupils of his college have been educated hitherto:
*'They have been trained under the assumptions
that
(1)
the Universe which includes us and folds us round
the
is
life- dwelling of an Eternal Mind; (2) that the world of our
abode
the scene of a moral government, incipient but
is
not complete; and (3) that the upper zones of

tion,
above the clouds of
sphere of a
scene
human
affec-
and passion, take us into the
self
Divine Communion.
Into this over- arching
that growing thought and enthusiasm have ex-
it is
panded to catch their light and fire."

Alpine summits seem to kindle above us as we read
these glowing words;
life.
At
see their beauty
and
feel their
the close of one of the essays here printed,* I
thus refer to the

'*
*'Divine":
with awe
we
'Two
the
sponsibility
"Communion" which Mr. Martineau

things,' said
starry heavens,
man.'
in
strength and sanity,
and the pause
of
And
when
Immanuel Kant,
calls
'fill
and the sense of moral
in
his
reflection
hours of health and
has set
in,
the scientific in-
by the same awe.
Breaking contact with the hampering details of earth,
him with
re-
the stroke of action has ceased,
vestigator finds himself overshadowed
associates
me
Power which gives
it
fulness and tone
to his existence, but which he can neither analyze nor
"Scientific
Use
of the Imagination.'
244
comprehend.''
Though.
'*
knowledge"
is
here disavowed,
the "feelings" of Mr. Martineau and myself are, I think,
very much
He, nevertheless, censures
alike.
me for
denounces
referring
Surely he
Emotion.
words refer
to
Keligion to
When
Power which
I attempt to give
I see manifested in the Universe an ob-
jective form, personal or otherwise, it slips
declining
all
intellectual manipulation.
"Mind";
I refuse to call
mystery overshadows
me
but
it
seem
it fit
It is otherwise
He
content.
He
could
me
to
it;
save
not,
I dare not
even a "Cause."
Its
remains a mystery, while
it
the objective frames which some of
make
away from me,
I dare
pronoun *'He" regarding
poetically, use the

call it a
region of
an inward hue or temperature, rather than
to an external object of thought.
the
the
almost
The foregoing
inconsistent here.
is
me
my
neighbors try to
and desecrate
to distort
it.
with Mr. Martineau, and hence his
dis-
professes to Tcnow where I only claim to feel.
make
his contention
process of verification,
good against me
if,
by a
transform his assump-
he would
knowledge." But he makes no atThey remain assumptions from the begin-
tions into "objective
tempt to do
so.
ning of his Address to

uses the
on which
tion
ure"
is
its
word "unverified,"
its
one of
incidence
his
And
end.
as
if
it
falls.
sources of
yet he frequently
were
fatal to the posi-
"The
scrutiny of Nat-
"religious
logical foothold does that scrutiny furnish,
what
on which any
faith";
one of the foregoing three assumptions could be planted?

is base and cruel: what
drawn regarding its Author? If
tooth and claw," who is responsible?
Nature, according to his picturing,

IS
the inference to be
Nature be "red in
On
a Mindless nature Mr. Martineau pours the full torrent
of his gorgeous invective;
but could the "assumption" of
REV.
*'an Eternal

Mind"
even of
Mind
mean and ugly
a Beneficent Eternal
render the world objectively a whit less
than
is?
it
Not an
man's
It is
iota.
245
and not
feelings,
external phenomena, that are influenced by the assump-
adds not a ray of light nor a strain of music to
It
tion.
sum
the objective
It does
of things.
not touch the phe-
nomena of physical nature storm, flood, or fire ncr diminish by a pang the bloody combats of the animal world.
But it does add the glow of religious emotion to the human soul, as represented by Mr. Martineau. Beyond this
I defy him to go; and yet he rashly it might be said
petulantly kicks away the only philosophic foundation on
which it is possible for him to build his religion.
He twits incidentally the modern scientific interpreta-
tion of nature because of
new
the
vise,
if
This
is
its
want
future," he says, "preach

can,
it
the means of
common argument:
fort of belief!"
My
of Emerson, when,
reply
is
"Let
of cheerfulness.
its
own
making the
"If you only
gospel,
and
de-
tidings glad.^^
knew
the com-
that I choose the nobler part
after various disenchantments, he ex-
The gladness of true heroism

him who is really competent to say
"gladness" is an emotion, and Mr. Marti-
claimed, "I covet truth r^

visits
the heart of
this.
Besides,
neau theoretically scorns the emotional.

acquainted with a writer
upon
this source, while mistaking it for
tive.
to
"To
past,
as though,
could be found there.
agency.
'
'
of
Humanity
not,
how-
largely
something objecis
no need
being missed here.
He
But when once He has been appre-
hended by the proper organs

life
am
reach the Cause," he says, "there
go into the
whole
who draws more
ever,
is
of divine apprehension, the
recognized as the scene of His
That Mr. Martineau should have lived so long,
246
thought so much, and failed to recognize the entirely sub-
His
jective character of this creed, is highly instructive.
**proper organs of divine apprehension"
given,
we must
assume, to Mr. Martineau and his pupils, but denied to
many
of the greatest intellects
and other ages

In
and noblest men in
when Mr. Martineau
fact, it is
tional that he scorns the emotions;
is
it is
most purely emo-
when he
purely subjective that he rejects subjectivity.

just
Mill.
and
tribute
liberal
But
'*
He
pays a
John Stuart
character of
cient approval,
and
reality of things.'*
all
susceptibilities"
*'
support from Omnis-
lost all
presumable accordance with the
Mr. Martineau had given them any
If
inkling of the process
objective ground of
shrunk into mere unaccredited subhave
jective susceptibilities,
his pupils
to the
most
is
in the light of Mill's philosophy, benevolence,
honor, purity, having
tive
this
the very core of his emotions.
lie at
by which he renders the
objective,
or
how he
*'
subjec-
arrives at an
Omniscient approval," gratitude from
would have been
his just
meed.
But, as
it
is,
he leaves them lost in an iridescent cloud of words, after

exciting a desire which he
*'We are," he
is
incompetent to appease.
says, in another place, "forever shaping
our representations of invisible things into forms of

nite opinion,
and throwing them
to the front, as if
were the photographic equivalent of our real
faith.
defi-
they
It is
Yet somehow the essence

of our religion never finds its way into these frames of
theory: as we put them together it slips away, and, if we
turn to pursue it, still retreats behind ever ready to work
with the will, to unbind and sweeten the affections, and
a delusion
which
affects us all.
bathe the
to pass
life
with reverence, but refusing to be seen, or
from a divine hue
of thinking into a
human
pat*
REV.

This
tern of thought."
man who
because the
of the treasury of
very beautiful, and mainlj so
is
utters
his
247
it
own
obviously brings
it all
out
But the "hue" and
heart.
**pattern" here so finely spoken of, the former refusing to
pass into the latter, are neither more nor less than that
**
emotion," on the one hand, and that "objective knowl-
edge," on the other, which have drawn this suicidal
fire
from Mr. Martineau*s battery.

I
now come
to
one of the most serious portions of Mr.
serious
Martineau's pamphlet
"personal errors" than of
thought
author has
He
tone.
give
it
of its
gravity, though
its intrinsic
to
fit
on account
far less
its
a witty and sarcastic
analyzes and criticises "the materialist doctrine,
which, in our time,
is
proclaimed with so
much pomp,
Matter is all I want,'

and resisted with so much passion.
says the physicist; 'give me its atoms alone, and I will
*
explain the universe.' "
swering me.
even by Mr. Mar-
It is thought,
tineau's intimate friends, that in this
pamphlet he
must therefore ask the reader
is
an-
to contrast
the foregoing travesty with what I really do say regarding
"I do not think that he [the
atoms:
titled
to
explain
everything.
The utmost he can

of
materialist] is en-
say that his molecular groupings
phenomena,
of
solute ignorance."
"Give me
its
In
reality,
they
and motions
explain
affirm is the association of
whose
'
real
This
is
bond
of
nothing.
two
union he
is
classes
in ab-
very different from saying,
atoms alone, and I will explain the uni-
Mr. Martineau continues his dialogue with the

physicist: " 'Grood,' he says; 'take as many atoms as you
verse."
please.
See that they have
all
that
is
requisite to
Address on "Scientific Materialism."
Body
248
metaphysical B], being homogeneous extended
[a
'That
is
not enough,' his physicist replies;
something more.
and
must have
The atoms must not only be
in motion,
many kinds
but also of as
of various shapes,
are chemical elements;

I
for
how could
Mr. Martineau consents to answer, 'only this

erable enlargement of your specified
whom
eral;
Mr.
specified ?]
Martineau],
its
monism
For the
last
accessible to
The
all.
"A man
my
answer:
my
question,
can say,
'I feel,
does consciousness infuse

is
into sevit
it
its
will
deals with serious
answer to
in
my
it,
have been
words,
I think, I love,*
itself into
is
briefly
but how
And
the problem?'*
"The passage from
the physics of the
brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness

thinkable.
by
seven years the question here pro-
posed by Mr. Martineau, and
here
it
[put into
educe Consciousness?' "
This reads like pleasantry, but
this:
a consid-
is
a conversion of
fact,
if
it,*
datum [where, and
your scheme seems hardly to gain
for example,
things.
'So be
by what manipulation of your resources
end; for
you,
in
even at the cost of
yet,
as there
I ever get water
had only hydrogen elements to work with?'
by
might do
'it
and the mathematicians, but
for Democritus
solids.'
is
un-
Granted that a definite thought and a definite
molecular action in the brain occur simultaneously;
we
do not possess the intellectual organ, nor apparently any

rudiment of the organ, which would enable us to
pass,
by a process of reasoning, from the one to the other.

They appear together, but we do not know why. Were
our minds and senses so expanded, strengthened, and
illuminated, as to enable us to see and feel the very molecules of the brain; were
motions,
all their
we capable
of following all their
groupings, all their electric discharges,
BEV.
if
249
such there be; and were we intimately acquainted with
the corresponding states of thought and feeling,
from the solution
be as far as ever
physical processes connected with the facts of
these
are
we should
'How
of the problem,
The chasm between
consciousness?'
the two classes of
phenomena would still remain intellectually impassable.

Compare this with the answer which Mr. Martineau puts
into the mouth of his physicist, and with which I am gen'
'
by Mr. Martineau's readers, both in England and America: '* 'It [the problem of consciousness]
erally credited
along
all
polarity;
my
me
Of course you understand that

atoms have been affected by gravitation and
does not daunt
and now
at
all.
have only
among molecules:
a difference
which can change only

as
order^
in
say
step,
the inorganic,
an
a globule that turns itself inside out.

of
these our problem will be
we may say ['entirely unhow careful you are to provide for
'Likely enough,*
I],
'seeing
emergencies; and
all
are
their place^ like the particles in
With an adequate number

manageable.'
likely,'
there
Fechner on
and there are the organic^ which can change
undulation;
their
to insist with
where you
will
any hitch should occur in the next

have to pass from mere sentiency to
if
you can again look in upon your atoms,

and
among them a handful of Leibnitz's monads,
to serve as souls in little, and be ready, in a latent form,
thought and
will,
fling
with that Yorstellungs-fahigkeit which

interpreters of nature so
*'But surely,"
much
continues
observe that this 'matter'
of
our
picturesque
Martineau,
"you must
prize.'"
Mr.
yours alters
its
style
Bishop Butler's reply to the Lucretian in the "Belfast Address'*
the same strain.
with
Is all
la
250
every change of service:
starting as a beggar witli scarce
a rag of 'property' to cover
wben
prince
bones,
turns
it
lie
ventures to believe,
all terres-
measure of the required 'change in our
If the
trial life.'
answer
will
it
demands, carrying 'the promise and potency of
had a
as a
'We must
large undertakings are wanted.
Tyndall; and then,
had been
notions'
np
cbange our notions of matter,' says Professor
radically
all
its
specified,
real meaning,
the proposition
would have
and been susceptible of a
It is
test.
easy travelling through the stages of such a hypothesis;
you deposit
drawing on
at
it
your bank a round sum
ere
you
and,
start,
piecemeal at every pause, complete your
grand tour without a debt."
The
last
ably stated.
paragraph of this argument
On
Mr. Martineau.
it
I am willing to try
may say, in passing,
is
forcibly and
conclusions with
that I share his
contempt for the picturesque interpretation of nature,
if
But the term

used by me, means the power
accuracy of vision be thereby impaired.

Yorstellungs-fahigkeit,
as
of definite mental presentation, of attaching to words the
corresponding objects of thought, and of seeing these in

their proper relations, without the interior haze
penumbral borders which the theologian
mode
ability
of "interpreting nature"
now
loves.
soft
To
this
I shall to the best of
my
adhere.
Neither of us, I
trust,
will
be afraid or ashamed to
Our
begin at the alphabet of this question.
must be
and
to understand each other,
and
this
first
effort
mutual under-
standing can only be insured by beginning low down.

Physically speaking, however,
sea level.
Sea,
Let us then travel
we need not go below the

in company to the Caribbean
and halt upon the heated water.
What
is
that sea,
REV.
and what
self,
the sun that
is
Answering
heats it?
I say that they are both matter.
251
for
my-
a glass with
fill
and expose it on the deck of the vessel;

some time the liquid has all disappeared, and left
the sea- water

after
We
a solid residue of salt in the glass behind.

bility, invisibility
apparent
The glad and
secret aid
The sun unto the ocean
the water has taken to
From
itself
have mo-
In virtue of
annihilation.
paid,
wings and flown
off as vapor.
the whole surface of the Caribbean Sea such vapor
and now we must follow
is rising:
it
not
upon our
legs,
however, nor in a ship, nor even in a balloon, but by the
mind's eye
in
other words,
by
that
which Mr. Martineau knows so

justly scorns
when
power
of Yorstellung
and which he so
well,
indulges in loose practices.
it
Compounding, then, the northward motion

with
the
earth's
axial
rotation,
we
track
vapor
of the
our fugitive
through the higher atmospheric regions, obliquely across

the Atlantic
Ocean
to
Here
Western Europe, and on
familiar
Alps.
occurs.
Floating on the
of the cold firmament,
particles
of
water,
These coalesce to
tains
never
in
another wonderful
cold calm
our
metamorphosis
and in presence
air,
the vapor condenses, not only to
but to particles of
stars of
snow, which
forms so exquisite
fail to
to
excite rapture.
that,
As
crystalline
fall
when
water.
upon the mounfirst
seen,
they
to beauty, indeed, they
put the work of the lapidary to shame, while as to accuracy they render
eter.
Are these
concrete the abstractions of the geomcrystals
"matter"?
Without presuming
to dogmatize, I answer for myself in the affirmative.

Still,
a formative jpower has obviously here
come
into
252
play which did not manifest
The question now
the vapor.
*'
in both
potential"
Was
is,
conditions of temperature to bring

I answer for myself
not
power
the
requiring only the proper
them,
of
in either the liquid or
itself
Again
into action?
it
I am,
in the affirmative.
however,
quite willing to discuss with Mr. Martineau the alternative
hypothesis, that an imponderable
with the substance after
itself
he should espouse
If
state.
demand
of
from the
perfect
Did
come in?
the soul
first,
contemporaneously with
also ask
whether
At what moment
it
did
by degrees;
enter at once or
or growing and perfecting itself

its
own handiwork?
I should
Does
localized or diffused ?
it is
then I should
think clearly, I
to
efforts
I should ask.
can never dispense.
unites
exercise of that Yorstellungs-
my
in
soul
escape from the liquid
this hypothesis,
him an immediate
fahigkeit, with which,
its
formative
it
move
about as a lonely builder, putting the bits of solid water

in their places as soon as the proper temperature has set
in?
or
is
crystal?
it
distributed
through the entire mass of the
If
the
then the soul has the shape of
the crystal;
its
to be
but
Has
shape.
made
latter,
if
the former, then I should inquire after
it
legs or
arms?
me how
clear to
If not, I
would ask
ances can act so perfectly the part of a builder ?
on
definition, and ask unusual questions,
thereby banish unmeaning words.)

tion and residence of the soul before
What becomes
of it
when
it
a thing without these appli-
if
What
it
the crystal
(I insist
haply I might
were the condi-
joined the crystal?
is
dissolved?
Why
should a particular temperature be needed before it can

Finally, is the problem before us
exercise its vocation?
in any
I think
way
it
simplified
by the assumption of
its
existence?
probable that, after a full discussion of the ques-
REV.
tion,
Mr. Martineau would agree with
building power
displayed in the
me
253
in ascribing the
crystal
to the
bits
of
water themselves. At all events, I should count upon his

sympathy so far as to believe that he would consider any
one unmannerly who would denounce me for rejecting this
notion of a separate soul, and for holding the snow-crystal
to be
*'
matter."
But then what an astonishing addition

actually seeing
in a drop
action of
its
is
here
made
to
Who
would have dreamed, without

work, that such a power was locked up
the powers of matter
of
water?
the
liquid
All that we needed to make the
was the assumption of
intelligible
Mr. Martineau's **homogeneous extended atomic solids,"
But had we supthis, we should
smoothly gliding over one another.
posed the water to be nothing more than
have ignorantly defrauded
it
of
an
power, which the art of man, even
utmost degree of
I
would
invite
refinement,
is
intrinsic architectural
when pushed
to its
incompetent to imitate.
Mr. Martineau to consider
how
inappro-
bank deposit becomes under

The "account current" of matter
priate his figure of a fictitious
these
circumstances.
receives nothing at
my
kept back from
If,
it.
hands which could be honestly

then, "Democritus
and the mathe-
maticians" so defined matter as to exclude the powers here
proved to belong to
it,
they were clearly wrong, and Mr.
Martineau, instead of twitting
them, ought rather to applaud
me with my departure from

me for correcting them.*
and is open
knowledge of the object increases. Such increased knowledge has radically changed our conceptions of the luminiferoua
ether, converting its vibrations from longitudinal into transverse.
Such changes
'
Definition implies previous examination of the object defined,
to correction or modification as
also Mr. Martineau's conceptions of matter are
doomed
to undergo.

254
The reader
my
of
small contributions to the literature
which deals with the overlapping margins
how
Theology, will have noticed
Emerson.
of Science
do so mainly because in him we have a poet
and a profoundly religious man, who

undaunted by the discoveries
In his case
or prospective.
really
is
and cheers him with
immortal
and entirely
Science, past, present,
of
Poetry,
with the
bacchanal, takes her graver brother Science

laughter.
joy of a
by the hand,
By Emerson
conceptions are continually transmuted into the
scientific
finer
and
frequently I quote Mr.
and warmer hues
forms
present theme
Our
an ideal world.
of
touched upon in the lines
is
The journeying atoms,
primordial wholes
Firmly draw, finnly drive by their animate poles.
As
in
regards veracity and insight these few words outweigh,
my estimation,
the formal learning
all
expended by Mr.
Martineau in those disquisitions on Force, where he
treats
the physicist as a conjurer, and speaks so wittily of atomic
In
polarity.
*'
fact,
without this notion of
drawing" and "driving"
we
dumb
Bushman
stand as stupidly
tallization
as
Solar System.
The
have endeavored
to
this attraction
before the
before
the
polarity
this
and repulsion,
phenomena of Crysphenomena of the
genesis and growth of the notion I
make
clear in
my
third
Lecture on
Light, and in the article on "Matter and Force" published

in this volume.
Our
or two ago I
is
here foreshadowed.
Moore, the hero of Corunna.

tree
little
Sunday
stood under an oak planted by Sir John
further course
On
the ground near the
oaklets were successfully fighting for life with
the surrounding vegetation.
The acorns had dropped
into

REV.
the friendly
soil,
What
tion.
is
and
this
the acorn?
was the
sun, without
whose heat and
however rich the
the seed?
And
result of their interac-
what the earth? and what the
come a
tree,
light the tree could not be-
and however healthy
soil,
answer for myself as before
all
something much
than the oak,
matter.**
down
now
taking
the vegetable
kingdom
we might approach much more
nearly to
lower
in
but this
is
necessary.
instead of conceding the suJB&ciency of matter here,
If,
Mr. Martineau should

soul,
By
matter.
of
the case of crystallization already discussed;
not
*'
the heat and light which here play so potent a part
acknowledged to be motions
are
255
all
the
fly to the
hypothesis of a vegetative
before
asked in relation to the
questions
I would invite him to go

snow-star become pertinent.
over them one by one, and consider what replies he will
make to them. He may retort by asking me, *'Who in-
fused the principle of
life
into the tree?"
I say, in an-
swer, that our present question is not this, but another
not
who made
the tree, but what
besides matter in the tree?
Martineau
is
is
it?
If so, what,
may have begun by
this
Is there anything
and where?
time to discern that
not ''picturesqueness," but cold precision, that
How,
Mr.
my
it
Vor-
would ask, is this

mind ? where did it
flourish before the tree grew? and what will become of
it when the tree is sawn into planks, or consumed in fire ?
stellungs-fahigkeit demands.
vegetative soul to be presented to the
Possibly Mr. Martineau

this soul to
then
ter,
if
the
may
consider the assumption of
be as untenable and as useless as I do.
power
to build a tree be conceded to pure mat-
what an amazing expansion
tency of matter"
But
is
of our notions of the "po-
implied in the concession!
Think
of

256
the acorn, of the earth, and of the solar light and heat
was ever such necromancy dreamed of as the production

of that massive trunk, those swaying boughs and whispering leaves, from the interaction of these three factors
this interaction,
moreover, consists what we
will be seen that I
wonder
of the tree;
am
call
life.
In
It
not in the least insensible to the
nay, I should not be surprised
if,
in
more perplexed and
the presence of this wonder, I feel
overwhelmed than Mr. Martineau himself.

Consider it for a. moment. There is an experiment,
first
made by Wheatstone, where
transferred from
its
the music of a piano
is
sound-board, through a thin wooden
rod, across several silent
rooms in succession, and poured
The
out at a distance from the instrument.
strings of the
Every
piano vibrate, not singly, but ten at a time.
subdivides, yielding not one note, but a dozen.
string
All these
vibrations and subvibrations are crowded together into a
deal not more than a quarter of a square inch in
bit of
Yet no note
individual rights; and
section.
the air
by
is
are,
at last,
tant end
when
seeks to realize
music flows through
it.
asserts its
shaken forth into
against which the dis-
a second sound-board,
of the rod presses.
it
Each vibration
lost.
all
Thought ends
in
amazement
the motions of that rod as the

I turn to
roots, its trunk, its branches,
conveys the music, and yields
and
it
my
tree
its
leaves.
up
does the trunk convey the matter
and observe
As
its
the rod
to the distant air, so
and the motion
the
shocks and pulses and other vital actions which eventI

ually emerge in the umbrageous foliage of the tree.
went some time ago through the greenhousJ of a friend.

He had ferns from Ceylon, the branches of which were in
some cases not much thicker than an ordinary pin
hard,
EEV.
smooth, and cylindrical
often
257
leafless for a foot or
more.
them the unsightly twig

unlocked the exuberant beauty hidden within it, and broke
forth into a mass of fronds, almost large enough to fill the
arms. We stand here upon a higher level of the wonder-
But
at the
ful:
we
piano,
passing unheard
through these tiny boughs, and
what Mr. Martineau would opulently
clustered magnificence"
my
amazement
their
of
are conscious of a music subtler than that of the
issuing in
**
end of every one
to
know
the leaves.
of
that every cluster,
form and texture
lie,
like the
Does
the
call
lessen
it
and every
leaf
music in the rod,
in the molecular structure of these apparently insignificant
stems?
Not
Mr. Martineau weeps for* 'the beauty of
so.
the flower fading into a necessity."
comes
to
me through
delight in
it
all
is
To me,
what he
sees with a
as to him, not even
was arrayed
in all his glory
I see
like
I have spoken above as
if
Solomon
one of these.
the assumption of a soul
would save Mr. Martineau from the inconsistency of

iting pure matter
assumed
This,
trees.
be the necessary result; for

that the soul
cred-
with the astonishing building power
played in crystals and
is
it
not
it
my
necessity or through freedom,
the same.
wonder superadded.
I care not whether
dis-
however, would not
would remain
itself matter.
to be
proved
"When a boy I
learned from Dr. Watts that the souls of conscious brutes

are
mere matter.
ter the
human
And
soul
thodox company.
body
as in
claim for mat-
find himself in very or-
of the fifth
soul occupies a place;
quits the
tion,
would
*'A11 that is created," says Fauste, a
famous French bishop
The
man who would
the
itself,
at death,
it
is
**is
matter.
enclosed in a body;
and returns
the case of Lazarus;
century,
it
to it at the resurrec-
the distinction between
258
Hell and Heaven, between eternal pleasures and eternal
even
pains, proves that,
after death, souls
God only
and are corporeal.
occupy a place
incorporeal."
is
Tertullian,
moreover, was quite a physicist in the definiteness of his

*'The materiality of the
conceptions regarding the soul.
soul," he says, "is evident from the evangelists.
man
it
soul
is
is
placed in the middle of a flame,
cruel agony, and
it
would
its
tongue
feels a
Wanting materiality ^^^ adds Tertullian,
be without meaning.'"
have glanced at inorganic nature
hu-
implores a drop of water at the hands
of a happier soul.
*'aZ? this
there expressly pictured as suffering in hell;
at the sea,
and the
sun, and the vapor, and the snow-flake, and at organic
That
by the fern and the oak.
and
liberated
the
water
the
same sun which warmed
vapor exerts a subtler power on the nutriment of the
nature as represented
hold of matter wholly unfit for the pur-
It takes
tree.
poses of
nutrition,
separates
nutritive from
its
its
non-
nutritive portions, gives the former to the vegetable, and

carries the others
the
air,
its sap,
Planted in the earth, bathed by
the cells are formed, the
the whole
naked
away.
and tended by the sun, the
is
woven
to a
extracts, which
woody
fibre is spun,
by
and
texture wonderful even to the
eye, but a million-fold
The foregoing
tree is traversed
more so
to microscopic vis-
M. Alglave recently brought to light for the

from the sixth Lecture of the "Cours
benefit of the Bishop of Orleans, are taken
d'Histoire
Moderne"
of that
most orthodox of statesmen, M,
G-uizot.
"] could
multiply," continues M. Guizot, "these citations to infinity, and they prove that
in the first centuries of our era the materiality of the soul was an opinion
not only permitted, but dominant."
Dr.
recently addressed, obviously forget their
Moriarty, and the synod which he
own
antecedents.
them the direct

ism" more "brutal" than any ever enunciated by me.
cession from the early Church renders
Their boasted suc-
offspring of a "material-
REV.
ion.
esses?
Does consciousness mix in any way with these procNo man can tell. Our only ground for a negative
conclusion
is
the absence of those outward manifestations
from which feeling
is
see
stimulus,
In the greenhouses of
that a leaf can close,

as
man can
in
these
Kew we
response to a proper
promptly as the human fingers themselves;
and while there Dr. Hooker
will tell us of the
and fly-devouring power
fly-catching
But even
usually inferred.
are not entirely absent.
may
259
wondrous
of the Dionaea.
No
say that the feelings of the animal are not repre-
sented by a drowsier consciousness in the vegetable world.
At
all
events,
no
line has ever
conscious and the unconscious;

into the animal
sible to say
by such
been drawn between the

for the vegetable
shades
fine gradations that it is
impos-
where the one ends and the other begins.
In all such inquiries we are necessarily limited by our

own powers: we observe what our senses, armed with the
by Science, enable us to observe; nothing

The evidences as to consciousness in the vegetable
world depend wholly upon our capacity to observe and
weigh them. Alter the capacity, and the evidence would
aids furnished
more.
alter too.
Would
any manifestation
that which to us
is
a total absence of
of consciousness be the
with our capacities
same
indefinitely multiplied?
to a being
To such
being I can imagine not only the vegetable, but the mineral world, responsive to the
differing only in degree

tions,
proper
irritants,
the response
from those exaggerated manifesta-
which, in virtue of their magnitude, appeal to our
weak powers of observation.

Our conclusion, however, must be based, not on powers that we imagine, but upon those that we possess.
What do
they reveal?
As
the earth and atmosphere of-
^260
fer themselves as tlie nutriment of the vegetable world, so
does the
latter,
inorganic
in
nature,
Mixed with
ample
the
which contains no constituent not found

offer
the
to
substances
animal
water,
world.
for ex-
vegetable constitutes, in the long run, the sole
Animals may be divided
sustenance of the animal.
two
itself
certain inorganic
the
classes,
first
of
which can
utilize
into
the vegetable
world immediately, having chemical forces strong enough

to cope with
most refractory parts; the second
its
use the vegetable world mediately; that

finer portions
But
first.
class
is to say, after its
have been extracted and stored up by the

have we an atom newly created.
in neither class
The animal world
is,
so to say, a distillation through the
vegetable world from inorganic nature.
From
this
point of view
Nor am
where.
life
would conimmanent every-
three worlds
all
which I picture
stitute a unity, in
life as
I anxious to shut out the idea that the
here spoken of
may be but
a subordinate part and
function of a Higher Life, as the living, moving blood
subordinate to the living man.
long as
it is
man mind
not dogmatically imposed.
takes
Left for the hu-
dogma, the inner force
yoke
appears, and the outward
is
no such idea as
upon, the idea has ethical
freely to operate
but, stiffened into a
vitality;
I resist
dis-
of a usurping hierarchy
its place.
The problem
definite
before us
statement.
We
is,
at
all
events,
capable of
have on the one hand strong
grounds for concluding that the earth was once a molten

mass.
We now find it not only swathed by an atmos-
by a
The question
phere, and covered
sea,
things.
is,
Certainty
may be
but also crowded with living
How
as unattainable
were
they introduced?
here as Bishop
Butler
REV.
held
to be in matters of religion
it
but in the contempla-
mind
tion of probabilities the thoughtful
The conclusion
a side.
261
of Science,
forced to take
is
which recognizes un-
broken causal connection between the past and the present, would undoubtedly be that the molten earth contained
within
elements of
it
life,
which grouped themselves into
The
their present forms as the planet cooled.
and reluctance encountered by

from the
fact
that
prior footing in the
upon reasoning
hour against
strength
these,
of
human mind.
alone,
its
Did the
could not hold
it
But
rival.
it
less
thought and feeling which
its
fears
into
and
life
lifts
its
and
not only by
mean, but by that
loftiness
possessor above the
and which the theologic
self,
depend
latter
ground for an
warmed
is
by associated hopes and
which are more or
atmosphere of
conception obtained a
theologic
the
difficulty
this conception arise solely
idea,
in its
we should
accept
nobler forms, has engendered in noble minds.
Were
not man's
murmur
without a
life
of
from what we
pure
purity
origin implicated,
the derivation of animal

call
is
troubled
hopes and
traversed
fears
The conclusion
But the
life, and by our
inorganic nature.
intellect points this
by our
way and no
other.
interests in this
regarding the
life
by the emotions, anger
to
and vegetable
come.
rising
Eeason
is
in the weaker
heads to the height of suggesting that the suppression of
by the arm of the law would be an act agreeBut this foolishand serviceable to man.
ness is more than neutralized by the sympathy of the wise;
and in England at least, so long as the courtesy which
befits an earnest theme is adhered to, such sympathy is
the inquirer
able to God,
ever ready for an honest man.
shrink from saying
all
Kone
of
us here need
that he has a right to say.
We
262
ought, however, to remember that
weaving
of Jesuits,
their
not only a band
is
it
schemes of intellectual slavery,
under the innocent guise "of education," that we
Our
opposing.
foes are to
some extent
own
our
of
are
house-
hold, including not only the ignorant and the passionate,
but a minority of minds of high calibre and culture, lovers
freedom moreover, who, though
of
riddled by logic,
its
objective hull be
find the ethic life of their religion
still
But while such considerations ought
unimpaired.
ence the form of our argument, and prevent
it
to influ-
from ever
slipping out of the region of courtesy into that of scorn
or abuse,
substance^
its
think,
and presented in unmitigated
ought to be maintained
strength.
In the year 1855 the chair of philosophy in the Uni-
Munich happened
versity of
priest of
great
great courage,
critical
filled
great
who had borne
cated the belief that every
world from
to
by
a Catholic
the brunt of battle long be-
God by
human
soul
a separate and
sent into the
is
supernatural act of
In a work entitled the "Origin of the
creation.
and
learning,
His Jesuit colleagues, he knew, incul-
DSllinger.
fore
be
penetration,
Human
Soul," Professor Frohschammer, the philosopher here
luded
and
to
to,
was
affirm
hardy enough
question
to
man, body and
that
parents, the act of creation being,
secondary only.
all temerities of
Cattolica,"
The
soul,
this kind;
and
doctrine,
comes from his
therefore,
Jesuits keep
immediately
this
al-
a sharp
mediate and
lookout on
their organ, the "Civility
pounced
upon
Frohschammer.
His book was branded as "pestilent," placed in the Index,
and stamped with the condemnation

'
Jhis
King Maximilian
II.
of the Church.*
The
brought Liebig to Munich, he helped HelmhoUz in
researches, and loved to liberate and foster science.
But through
his liberal
REV.
263
Jesuit notion does not err on the score of indefiniteness.
to
Power whom Goethe does not dare

name, and whom Gassendi and Clerk Maxwell present
to
lis
According
to
the
it,
nnder the guise
out annually,
for
dictum
of
Taken
souls.
of atoms, turns
alone,
a quarter
in connection with the
Mr. Carlyle, that this annual increment to our
population
human
England and Wales
new
of a million of
"Manufacturer"
of a
"mostly fools," but
are
little
mode
heart seems derivable from this
profit
the
to
of regarding
the Divine operations.
But
Physiologists say that every
accept?
from an egg not more than the

Is this
eter.
we to
human being comes
the Jesuit notion be rejected, what are
if
egg matter?
jhth. of
I hold
it
as the seed of a fern or of an oak.
an inch in diambe so, as
to
much
Nine months go
to
during this period of
gestation
Are the additions made

drawn from matter? I
think so undoubtedly.
If there
be anything besides mat-
the
making
of
ter in the egg,
in the
it
into
man.
or in the infant subsequently slumbering
womb, what
is
The questions already asked
it?
with reference to the stars of snow
Mr. Martineau will complain that I
babe of
its
wonder; but
is
may be here repeated.

am disenchanting the
this the case?
I figure
it
grow-
ing in the
womb, woven by
a something not itself, without
conscious
participation on
the
part of
mother, and appearing in due time

all
its
organs and
all
their
work accomplished during

concession of power to the Jesuits
intellectual
in
either
father
a living miracle,
implications.
with
Consider the
these nine months in forming
the schools, he did far more
damage
to tho
freedom of his country than his superstitious predecessor Ludwig
Priding himself on being a G-erman Prince,

ference of the
Roman
or
Ludwig would not
I.
tolerate the inter-
party with the poUtical afEairs of Bavaria.
264
the eye alone
with
thousand
by
it
its
humors, and
Consider the ear with
raculous retina behind.
panum, cochlea, and
and
lens,
its
Corti's organ
an
and
sciousness,
and employed
interpret, antecedent to all con-
sonorous tremors of
the
tym-
its
instrument of three
strings, built adjacent to the brain,
to sift, separate,
mi-
its
the external world.
All this has been accomplished, not only without man's

contrivance, but without his knowledge, the secret of his
own
organization
his birth in the
having been withheld from him since
immeasurable
past, until these latter days.
Matter I define as that mysterious thing by which

is
accomplished.
How
came
it
have
to
this
power
question on which I never ventured an opinion.
Matter starts as "a beggar,"
in
it is,
Jacobs of theology have deprived
it
my
way toward
the Ages, let
mystery;
If,
is
then,
view, because the
Mr.
of its birthright.
Marti neau need fear no disenchantment.

lution go but a short
all this
Theories of evo-
the explanation of this
hope, will at length give us
us
a Poet competent to deal with
it
aright.
There are men, and they include among them some of

the best of the race of man,
upon whose minds this myswarmth or color. The

suffices for them, and they
tery falls without producing either

*'dry light"
of the intellect
live their noble lives
untouched by a desire
There
mystery shape or expression.

hand,
men whose minds
presence,
heights
are
and who, under
which
have
stimulus,
been
two
classes of
be accorded them.
men; and
The
history
attain
overtopped.
spiritual climates are necessary for the
of these
on
the
other
warmed and colored by
its
never
are,
to give the
to
its
moral
Different
healthy existence
different climates
of humanity,
must
however,
proves the experience of the second class to illustrate the
REV.
most pervading need. The world

some kind, even though it should
lectual
is
whoredom
the lifting
of
power
'
'
of
spiritualism.
will liave religion

flj
'
'
for
What
is
really
must be preceded by
from the practical materialism of the present,
from the torn swaddling bands of the
of
to the intel-
it
an ideal element in human
the free play of this power
265
past.
wanted
But
life.
its
release
as well as
It is
now
in
danger of being stupefied by the one, or strangled by the

other.
strength,
however,
look,
insight,
forward to a time when
and elevation which now
visit
the
us in
mere hints and glimpses, during moments "of clearness
and vigor,"
of purer
shall be the stable
and permanent possession
and mightier minds than ours
purer
and might-
ier,
partly because of their deeper knowledge of matter
and
their
mare
faithful conformity to its laws.
Science YI 12
XII
FERMENTATION, AND ITS BEARINGS ON SURGERY AND
MEDICINE
*
ONE
the most remarkable characteristics of the
of
we
age in which
desire
live, is its
and tendency
to connect itself organically with preceding ages
to
this
how
ascertain
be what
it
problem
the state of things that
And
is.
is
now
the more earnestly and
more
studied, the
clearly
came
is
to
profoundly
comes into view
the vast and varied debt which the world of to-day owes
to that fore- world, in
which man by
directed strength
replenished and subdued the earth.
Our
first
may have been
prehistoric fathers
by
the
origin is
discovery and
when
we
seeds whose
life.
Later on,
find the
same
spirit of
relished,
Theophrastus,
invention at work.
historic account of the first brewer,
from history that his
produce
of
the claims of luxury added themselves to those of
"We have no
development
agricult-
They tamed and harnessed their

and sent them down to us as min-
instead of rivals in the fight for
necessity,
glean
well-
now unknown.
animal antagonists,
isters,
and
savages, but they
They founded
were clever and observant ones.

ure
skill, valor,
more
than
who was born
art
two
but we
was practiced, and

thousand
years
its
ago.
nearly four hundred years
Discourse delivered before the Glasgow Science Lectures As80ciatioH|
October 19, 1876.
(266)
^.
2^
FERMENTATION
before Christ, described beer as the wine of barley.
extremely
difficult to
Egypt was the land in which it was

of man to quench his thirst with
age overcoming
It is
preserve beer in a hot country,
still,
brewed, the desire
first
this exhilarating bever-
the obstacles which a hot climate threw
all
way of its manufacture.

Our remote ancestors had also learned by experience
that wine maketh glad the heart of man.
Noah, we are
in the
planted
informed,
experienced
vineyard, drank of
consequences.
the
the
wine,
though wine and
But,
beer possess so old a history, a very few years ago no
knew
the secret of their formation.
said that until the present year
and
Indeed,
it
no thorough and
man
might be
scientific
account was ever given of the agencies which come into

play in the manufacture of beer, of the conditions necessary to
which
its
it
health,
is
and
subject.
of the maladies
and
vicissitudes to
Hitherto the art and practice of the
brewer have resembled those of the physician, both being
By
founded on empirical observation.
meant the
observation of facts, apart from the principles which explain them, and which give the mind an intelligent mastery over them.
this is
The brewer learned from long experience

success.
But he had
the conditions, not the reasons, of

to contend,
perplexities.
and has
still
to contend, against
Over and over again
unexplained
his care has
been ren-
dered nugatory; his beer has fallen into acidity or rottenness,
and disastrous
losses
have been sustained, of which
he has been unable to assign the cause.
It is the
hidden
enemies against which the physician and the brewer have

hitherto
contended, that
recent
researches are dragging
into the light of day, thus preparing the

final extermination.
way
for their
268
Let us glance for a moment
signs of fermentation.
a private
still
at the
outward and visible
few weeks ago I paid a
and
in a Swiss chalet;
this is
visit to
what
I saw.
In the peasant's bedroom was a cask with a very large
bunghole carefully closed.
which had
lain in
the cherries
for fourteen
it
tirely filled with the
The cask contained
fruit,
days.
It
was not en-
an air-space being
when they were put
in.
cherries
above
left
had the bung
re-
moved, and a small lamp dipped into this space. Its flame
The oxygen of the air had
was instantly extinguished.
entirely
disappeared,
acid gas.'
I tasted
its
being taken
place
by carbonic
they were very sour,
the cherries:
The
though when put into the cask they were sweet.

cherries
and the liquid associated with them were then
placed in a copper boiler, to which a copper head was
From
closely fitted.
the head proceeded a copper
tube
which passed straight through a vessel of cold water, and

Under the open end of the tube
issued at the other side.
was placed a
bottle to
receive the spirit distilled.
The
flame of small wood-splinters being applied to the boiler,

after a time
tube,
was condensed by the cold
liquid
fillet
be
to
vapor rose into the head, passed through the

into the bottle.
that fiery
of the water,
On
and
being tasted,
and intoxicating
spirit
it
known
fell in
proved
in com-
merce as Kirsch or Kirschwasser.
The
cherries,
it
should be remembered, were
left
to
themselves, no ferment of any kind being added to them.
In
this respect
what has been said
also to the grape.

'
done
the vintage the fruit of the vine
is
is exhaled from the lungs after the oxygen of the air has
duty in purifying the blood, the same also which effervesces from soda-
The gas which

its
At
of the cherry applies
water and champagne.
FERMENTATION
269
placed in proper vessels, and abandoned to
own
its
action.
It ferments, producing carbonic acid; its sweetness disap-
pears,
and
end of a certain time the unintoxicating
at the
grape-juice
is
converted into intoxicating wine.
in the case of the cherries, the fermentation
in
what sense spontaneous
is
spontaneous
more
will appear
Here, as
by
clearly
and by.
me
It is needless for
Glasgow audience that

work in this way. In the
to tell a
the beer-brewer does not set to

first
place the brewer deals not with the juice of fruits,
The barley having been
but with the juice of barley.
steeped for a sufficient time in water,

subjected to a temperature
grain to germinate; after which

a kiln.
It
it is
is
it
completely dried upon
then receives the name of malt.
crisp to the teeth,
and decidedly sweeter
The malt
is
to the taste than
mashed up
It is ground,
the original barley.
drained and
cause the moist
sufficient to
in
warm
water, then boiled with hops until all the soluble portions
have been extracted;

called the wort.
as possible;
the infusion thus produced
This
is
drawn
off,
and cooled as rapidly
then, instead of abandoning the infusion, as
the wine-maker does, to
its
own
action, the
yeast with his wort, and places
only one aperture open to the
it
air.
tion of the yeast, a brownish froth,

yeast, issues
being
from the aperture, and
into troughs prepared to receive
foaming of the wort
is
brewer mixes
in vessels each with
Soon after the addiwhich is really new

falls
like a cataract
This frothing and
it.
a proof that the fermentation
is
active.
Whence comes
the yeast which
from the fermenting tub?

did
the
brewer become
What
is
issues
so
this yeast,
possessed of
it?
copiously
and how
Examine
its
270
The brewer
quantity before and after fermentation.

troduces,
may
say,
10
cwts.
from four
yeast;
of
The yeast
be 50, cwts.
collects
lie
has,
or
40,
it
augmented
therefore,
during the fermentation.
to five fold
in-
we
Shall
conclude that this additional yeast has been spontaneously
Are we not
generated by the wort?
rather reminded of
and brought forth
that seed which fell into good ground,

fruit,
some
fold?
On
thirty-fold,
some
examination,
sixty-fold,
notion
this
some a hundred-
of
organic growth
more than a mere surmise. In the year

when the microscope was still in its infancy, Leeuwenhoek turned the instrument upon this substance, and
turns out to be
1680,
found
composed of minute globules suspended in a

Thus knowledge rested until 1835, when Cagniard
it
liquid.
de
la
Tour
in France,
and Schwann in Grermany, inde-
but animated
pendently,
by
common
thought,
turned
microscopes of improved definition and heightened powers
upon
yeast,
and found
it
budding and sprouting before
The augmentation
their eyes.
above was thus
proved to
of
arise
the yeast
from
alluded to
the growth of
minute plant now called Torula (or Saccharomyces)
Spontaneous
visioe.
question.
generation
The brewer
is
deliberately
therefore
out of
the
sows the yeast-plant,
which grows and multiplies in the wort as

soil.
Gere-
its
proper
This discovery marks an epoch in the history of
fermentation.
But where did the brewer

to this question
it
is
similar to
find his yeast?
The reply
that which must be given
were asked where the brewer found his barley.
He
if
has
received the seeds of both of them from preceding generations.
Could we connect without solution of continu-
ity the present with the past,
we should probably be
able
FERMENTATION
back the yeast employed by
to trace
Buxton to-day
271
my
friend Sir Fowell
employed by some Egyptian brewer
to that
two thousand years ago. But you may urge that there
must have been a time when the first yeast-cell was genGranted exactly as there was a time when the
erated.
first
barley-corn was generated.
hold of you that a living thing

it
lose themselves in the

this
is
easily generated because
Both the yeast-plant and the barley-plant
small.
is
Let not the delusion lay
our day there
is
dim twilight of antiquity, and in

no more proof of the spontaneous
generation of the one than there
is
of the spontaneous gen-
eration of the other.

I stated a
moment ago
that the fermentation of grape-
was spontaneous; but I was careful
juice
Now
this is the sense
like the
yeast,
brewer and
The wine-maker does
meant.
distiller,
"in what
by and by."
to add,
sense spontaneous will appear more clearly
not,
deliberately introduce either
or any equivalent of yeast, into his vats;
he does
not consciously sow in them any plant, or the germ of any

plant;
indeed, he has been hitherto in ignorance whether
plants or germs of
his operations.
any kind have had anything
Still,
when
to
do with
the fermented grape-juice
examined, the living Torula concerned in alcoholic

mentation never
this?
If
wine-vat,
there
fails
make
its
appearance.
How
is
no living germ has been introduced into the
whence comes the
life
so invariably dereloped
You may
be disposed to reply, with Turpin and oth-
ers, that, in virtue of
juice,
to
is
fer-
when brought
its
own
inherent powers, the grape-
into contact with the vivifying atmos-
pheric oxygen, runs spontaneously and of

into these
low forms of
life.
its
own accord
I have not the slightest ob-
272
provided proper evidence can
jection to this explanation,
be adduced in support of
in
its
But
it.
am
favor, as far as I
the evidence adduced
acquainted with
der under the strain of scientific criticism.

I can see, the evidence of men, who,
it,
snaps asun-
It
is,
as far as
however keen and
clever as observers^ are not rigidly trained experimenters.
These alone are aware
of the precautions necessary in in-
In reference, then, to
vestigations of this delicate kind.
the
life of
when
the wine-vat, what
is
the decision of experiment
by competent men?
carried out
Let a quantity of
the clear, filtered **must" of the grape be so boiled as to
destroy such germs as

or otherwise.
it
may have
contracted from the air
In contact with germless
nated must never ferments.
air the
All the materials for sponta-
neous generation are there, but so long as there
sown there
is
no
mentation which
life
is
uncontami-
is
no seed
developed, and no sign of that
the concomitant of
resort to a boiled liquid.
The grape
fer-
Nor need you

sealed by its own
life.
is
By
skin against contamination from without.
an ingen-
ious device, Pasteur has extracted from the interior of the
pure juice, and proved that in contact with pure
grape
its
air it
never acquires the power to ferment
produce fermentation in other liquids.*

fore, in the interior of the
observed in the vat
What
then
is
is
its
to
itself,
nor to
It is not, there-
grape that the origin of the
life
be sought.
true origin?
This
is
Pasteur's an-
swer, which his well-proved accuracy renders worthy of

confidence.
all
At
the time of
the vintage microscopic
particles are observed adherent, both to the outer surface
The
liquids of the healthy animal
tamination.
Pure blood,
for example,
body are also sealed from external condrawn with due precautions from the
veins, will never ferment or putrefy in contact with pure air.
FERMENTATION
and
of the grape
Brush these
the twigs which support the grape.
of
particles into a capsule of pure water.
rendered turbid by the dust.
some
of these
Torula
is
into the pure inert juice of the
What
fermentation.
of
done, our familiar
all
the
the other signs of ac-
be drawn
inference to
Obviously that the particles ad-
experiment?
this
by
is
herent to the external surface
germs
is
observed budding and sprouting, the growth of
the plant being accompanied
from
a microscope,
Instead of receiving them in
cells.
them be brushed
Forty-eight hours after this
grape.
tive
Examined by
of
the grape include the
that life which, after they have been
the juice, appears in such profusion.
Wine
objected to on the ground that fermentation
sown
in
sometimes
is
is "artificial";
but we notice here the responsibility of nature.
ment
It is
minute particles are seen to present the ap-
pearance of organized
water, let
273
The
fer-
of the grape clings like a parasite to the surface of
the grape; and the art of the wine-maker from time im-
memorial has consisted in bringing

ignorantly bringing
two
and
it
may be
added,
things thus closely associated by
nature into actual contact with each other.
For thousands
wbat has been done consciously by the brewer

has been done unconsciously by the wine-grower.
The
of years,
one has sown his leaven just as much as the other.
Nor
is
it
necessary to impregnate the beer-wort with
yeast to provoke
tact of
our
Abandoned
fermentation.
common
air, it
to the
con-
sooner or later ferments; but
the chances are that the produce of that fermentation, instead of being agreeable,
By
a rare accident
mentation,
enormous.
we might
but the odds
Pure
would be disgusting
air
get the true alcoholic fer-
against
acting
to the taste.
obtaining
upon a
it
lifeless
would be
liquid
will
274
never provoke fermentation;
but our ordinary
air is tlie
wben
vehicle of numberless germs wbich act as ferments
tbey
fall
Some
The germs
into appropriate infusions.
duce acidity, some putrefaction.
them
of
pro-
of our yeast-
plant are also in the air; but so sparingly distributed that
an infusion like beer-wort, exposed to the
is
almost
by foreign organisms.
sure to be taken possession of

fact,
air,
In
the maladies of beer are wholly due to the admixture
of these objectionable ferments,
whose forms and modes
of
nutrition differ materially from those of the true leaven.
"Working in an atmosphere charged with the germs of

these organisms,
you can understand how easy
it is
to fall
any one of them.
into error in studying the action of
deed
it is
In-
only the most accomplished experimenter, who,
moreover, avails himself of every means of checking his

conclusions,
land of
walk without tripping through
that can
pitfalls.
this
Such a man the French chemist Pasteur
He
has hitherto proved himself to be.
has taught us
how
commingled ferments of our air, and to

Guided by him, let
us fix our attention more particularly upon the growth and
action of the true yeast- plant under different conditions.
Let it be sown in a fermentable liquid, which is supplied
to
separate the
study their pure individual action.
with plenty of pure
air.
The plant
will
flourish
in the
aerated infusion, and produce large quantities of carbonic
you know, of carbon and oxyThe oxygen thus consumed by the plant is the free
gen.
oxygen of the air, which we suppose to be abundantly
acid gas
compound,
supplied to the liquid.
as
The
action
is
so far similar to the
which inspire oxygen and expire

we examine the liquid even when the
respiration of animals,
carbonic acid.
If
vigor of the plant has reached
its
maximum, we hardly
FERMENTATION
find
in
it
flourished,
And
The yeast
a trace of alcohol.
but
275
grown and
iias
has almost ceased to act as a ferment.
it
could every individual yeast-cell seize, without any
impediment, free oxygen from the surrounding liquid,

is
certain that
What,
would cease
it
to act as a
then, are the conditions
plant must be placed so that

istic
quality?
Eeflection
under which the yeast-
may
it
on the
it
ferment altogether.
display
its
character-
facts already referred to
suggests a reply, and rigid experiment confirms the sug-
Consider
gestion.
vessel.
Consider the beer in
aperture open to the

to
Alpine
the
imbibe
air,
oxygen,
Whence come
through which
but
pour
to
the volumes of
production of this latter gas?
mospheric
cherries
its barrel,
air dissolved in the
in
their
closed
with a single small

it is
forth
observed not
carbonic
oxygen necessary
acid.
to
The small quantity

wort and overlying
it
the
of at-
would
be totally incompetent to supply the necessary oxygen.
In
no other way can the yeast-plant obtain the gas necessary

for its respiration than by wrenching it from surrounding
substances in which the oxygen exists, not free, but in a
state
of
combination.
solution in which
it
It
decomposes the sugar of the
grows, produces heat, breathes forth
carbonic acid gas, and one of the liquid products of the
decomposition
is
mentation, then,
our familiar alcohol.
is
The
a result of the effort of the
act of
little
fer-
plant
by means of combined oxygen,

oxygen is cut off. As defined by
to maintain its respiration
when
its
supply of free
Pasteur, fermentation
is
life
without air.
But here the knowledge of that thorough investigator

to our aid to warn us against errors which have been
comes
committed over and over again.
It is not all yeast-cells
that can thus live without air and provoke fermentation.
276
They must be young

tive vigor
cells whicli
from contact with
have caught their vegeta-
may be
sessed of this vigor the yeast
But once
oxygen.
free
pos-
transplanted into a
saccharine infusion absolutely purged of
where
air,
will
it
continue to live at the expense of the oxygen, carbon, and
Under these new conbe by no means so vigorous
other constituents of the infusion.

ditions
as
its life,
when
it
as a plants will
had a supply
of free oxygen,
but
action as
its
a ferment will be indefinitely greater.
Does the
yeast- plant stand alone in its
power of pro-
voking alcoholic fermentation ? It would be singular if

amid the multitude of low vegetable forms no other could
be found capable of acting in a similar way.
And
here
we have occasion to marvel at that sagacity of observation among the ancients to which we owe so vast a
debt.
Not only did they discover the alcoholic ferment
again
of yeast, but they
ing
it
had
to exercise a wise selection in pick-
out from others, and giving
special prominence.
it
common
Place an old boot in a moist place, or expose

paste or a pot of
jam
to the air;
with a blue-green mould, which
it
is
soon becomes coated
nothing else than the
fructification of a little plant called Penicillium glaucum.
Do
not imagine that the mould has sprung spontaneously
from boot, or
dant in the
as
legal
paste, or
air,
jam;
its
germs, which are abun-
have been sown, and have germinated, in
and legitimate a way
the wind to a proper
soil.
as thistle- seeds wafted
Let
the
minute
by
spores of
Penicillium be sown in a fermentable liquid, which has
been previously so boiled as to

seeds which
it
may
kill
all
other spores or
contain; let pure air have free access
to the mixture; the Penicillium will
grow
rapidly, striking
long filaments into the liquid, and fructifying at
its sur-
FERMENTATION
277
Test the infusion at various stages of the plant's
face.
growth, you will never find in

forcibly
submerge the
it is
plant,
where the quantity
the liquid,
reach
.little
But
a trace of alcohol.
it
push
of
it
free
insufficient for its needs, it
down deep
into
oxygen that can
immediately begins
to act as a ferment, supplying itself with
oxygen by the
decomposition of the sugar, and producing alcohol as one

decomposition.
the
the results of
of
Many
microscopic plants act in a similar manner.

liquids they flourish without
but cut
off
it,
In aerated
any production
of alcohol,
from free oxygen they act as ferments, pro-
ducing alcohol exactly as the

duces
low
other
only
less copiously.
of all these facts
we
real
alcoholic leaven pro-
For the right apprehension
are indebted to Pasteur.
In the cases hitherto considered, the fermentation
proved to be the invariable correlative of
life^
is
being pro-
duced by organisms foreign to the fermentable substance.

But the substance itself may also have within it, to some
extent, the motive power of fermentation.
The yeastplant, as we have learned, is an assemblage of living cells;
but so at bottom, as shown by Schleiden and Schwann,
are
all
organisms.
living
Cherries,
apples,
peaches,
pears, plums, and grapes, for example, are composed of

cells,
each of which
to direct
is
your attention
1821, the celebrated
a living unit.
to a point of
And
extreme
here I have
In
interest.
French chemist, Berard, established
the important fact that all ripening fruit, exposed to the

free atmosphere,
and
liberated
bonic acid.
absorbed the oxygen of the atmosphere
an approximately
He
also
placed in a confined
mosphere was
first
equal
volume
found that when ripe
of
fruits
car-
were
atmosphere, the oxygen of the
at-
absorbed, and an equal volume of car-
278
bonic acid given out.
But the process did not end
here.
After the oxygen had vanished, carbonic acid, in considerable quantities, continued to be exhaled
which
same time
at the
coming more acid

tity of acid
to the taste,
fruits,
though the absolute quan-
was not augmented.
of capital importance,
mark
by the
lost a portion of their sugar, be-
This was an observation
and Berard had the sagacity
to re-
process might be regarded as a kind of
that the
fermentation.
Thus the
living cells of fruits can absorb
oxygen and
breathe out carbonic acid, exactly like the living cells of
Supposing the access
the leaven of beer.
denly cut
off,
of
will the living fruit-cells as
oxygen sud-
suddenly
die,
by extracting
round them? This is
or will they continue to live as yeast lives,
oxygen from the saccharine
juices
a question of extreme theoretic significance.
It
was
first
answered affirmatively by the able and conclusive experi-
ments of Lechartier and
Bellamy, and the answer was
subsequently confirmed and explained by the experiments
and the reasoning
of
Pasteur.
Berard only showed the
absorption of oxygen and the production of carbonic acid

Lechartier and Bellamy proved the production of alcohol,
thus completing the evidence that
absent.
a fruit
So
it
was a case
of
full
was Pasteur
would continue
of the fruit, that
of the idea that the cells of
to live at the
expense of the sugar
once in his laboratory, while conversing
on these subjects with M. Dumas, he exclaimed, "I

wager that
if
carbonic acid,
by
real
though the common alcoholic ferment was
fermentation,
will
a grape be plunged into an atmosphere of

it
the continued
will
life
produce alcohol and carbonic acid

of its
own
cells
that
they will act
for a time like the cells of the true alcoholic leaven.
'
'
He
FERMENTATION
made the experiment, and found
had foreseen.
under a
He
tlie
279
be what he
result to
then extended the inquiry.

plums, he
bell-jar twenty-four
carbonic acid gas;
beside
plums uncovered.
At
filled
Placing
the jar with
he placed twenty-four similar
it
the end of eight days, he
removed
and compared them with the
The difference was extraordinary. The uncovfrom the
the plums
others.
jar,
ered fruits had become
soft,
watery, and very sweet;
the
others were firm and hard, their fleshy portions being not
watery.
at all
They
moreover, lost a considerable
had,
They were afterward
quantity of their sugar.
and the juice was
It yielded
distilled.
grams of alcohol, or one per cent
bruised,
and a half
six
of the total weight of
Neither in these plums, nor in the grapes
the plums.
first
experimented on by Pasteur, could any trace of the

dinary alcoholic leaven be found.
As
or-
previously proved
by Lechartier and Bellamy, the fermentation was the work

of the living cells of the fruit itseK, after air had been
them.
denied to
stroyed
by
When, moreover,
bruising,
the
mentation was the correlative of a vital
when
life
cells
no fermentation ensued.
act,
and
were
de-
The
fer-
it
ceased
was extinguished.
Liidersdorf was the
first
to
show by
this
method
that
yeast acted, not, as Liebig had assumed, in virtue of
He
organic^ but in virtue of its organized character.
plate,
ground
and found that with the destruction
of the
organism, though
its
power
ferment totally disappeared.
to act as a
One word more

here.
To
de-
stroyed the cells of yeast

glass
by rubbing them on
its
chemical constituents remained, the
in reference to Liebig
may
find a place
the philosophic chemist thoughtfully pondering
these phenomena, familiar with the conception of molec-
280
ular motion, and

tions
changes
tlie
produced by the interao
purely chemical forces,
of
nothing could be mor^
natural than to see in the process of fermentation a simple

illustration of molecular instability, the
ferment propagat-
ing to surrounding molecular groups the overthrow of
own
tottering
its
Broadly considered, indeed,
combinations.
amount of truth in this theory; but

Liebig, who propounded it, missed the very kernel of the
phenomena when he overlooked or contemned the part
He looked
played in fermentation by microscopic life.
at the matter too little with the eye of the body, and too
there
a certain
is
much with
its
revelations
hypothesis,
He
the spiritual eye.
microscope, and was
as
would have poured

have
practically neglected the
unmoved by
was
said,
striking illustration of
Liebig 's
unveil molecular actions
but
it
the
in
knowledge which
upon
natural
power
was an
his
to
His
mind.
nay
it
was a
and
penetrate
error,
and as such
has proved an ignis fatuus instead of a pharos to some of

his followers.
I have said that our air
is
full of
the germs of fer-
ments differing from the alcoholic leaven, and sometimes

seriously interfering with the latter.
of
this
They
are the weeds
microscopic garden which often overshadow and
choke the flowers.

pose milk to the
air.
rating like blood
Ex-
Let us take an illustrative case.
It will, after a time, turn sour, sepa-
into clot
and serum.
Place a drop of
this sour
milk under a powerful microscope and watch
closely.
You
see the minute butter-globules animated
that curious quivering motion called the
But
let
Brownian motion.
not this attract your attention too much, for
another motion that
we have now
to
it
by
seek.
it is
Here and
FERMENTATION
you observe a
there
among
the globules;
tumult,
and you
long
less
the
tossing
it
and
the field of
the
globules
rapidly across
Familiar with one sample of this organism,
microscope.
which from
from
aside
probably see emerging
will
more or
wriggling
than ordinary
disturbance
greater
keep your eye upon the place of
organism,
eel-like
281
motions receives the name of
its
soon detect numbers of them.
vibrio,
It is these organisms,
you
and
other analogous, though apparently motionless, ones, which
by decomposing
the milk render
it
They
sour and putrid.
are the lactic and putrid ferments, as the yeast -plant
the alcoholic ferment of
germs out
of
Keep them and
sugar.
your milk and
it
But
Exam-
will continue sweet.
milk may become patrid without becoming sour.

ine such putrid
is
their
milk microscopically, and
swarming with shorter organisms,
you
sometimes
find
it
associated
with the vibrios, sometimes alone, and often manifesting

a wonderful alacrity of
and
their
trefy.
germs out
Expose
motion.
Keep
your milk and
a mutton-chop to the air
summer weather
in
of
juice of the fetid
it
soon stinks.
these organisms
it
will
never pu-
and keep
it
moist;
Place a drop of the
chop under a powerful microscope;
it is
seen swarming with organisms resembling those in the putrid milk.
These organisms, which receive the common
name of bacteria,^ are the agents of all putrefaction. Keep

them and their germs from your meat and it will remain
forever sweet.
Thus we begin to see that within the
world of life to which we ourselves belong, there is another living world requiring the microscope for
its
dis-
Doubtless organisms exhibiting grave specific differences are grouped to
gether under this
common name.
282
cernment, but which, nevertheless, has the most important

bearing on the welfare of the higher life-world.
And now
us reason together as regards the origin
let
of these bacteria.
granular powder
is
hands, and you are asked to state what
placed in your
You exam-
it is.
it, and have, or have not, reason to suspect that seeds

some kind are mixed up in it. To determine this point
you prepare a bed in your garden, sow in it the powder,
ine
of
and soon
mixed crop
find a
after
neither docks nor thistles ever
You
made
their appearance in
repeat the experiment once, twice, ten
From
times, fifty times.
thistles
Until this powder was sown
sprouting from your bed.
your garden.
docks and
of
fifty different
beds after the sow-
What
will
be your response to the question proposed to you?
"I
you obtain the same
ing of the powder,
am
crop.
not in a condition," you would say, "to afiirm that
every grain of
seed; but I
and
the
am
powder
a dock-seed,
is
in a condition
affirm
to
or a thistle-
that both
dock
thistle seeds form, at all events, part of the powder.'*
Supposing a succession of such powders to be placed in

your hands with grains becoming gradually smaller, until
they dwindle to the size of impalpable dust particles;
suming that you
treat
that from every one
a definite
it
may be
crop
it
of
may
mignonette,
them
all
them
be
it
in a few days
clover,
may be
may
it
a plant
you obtain
be mustard,
more minute
than any of these, the smallness of the particles,

the
plants
that
validity of the
spring
from them,
conclusion.
giving you would conclude that
is
not
the
range
of
or of
not afEect the
shadow of mismust have

powder
the
contained the seeds or germs of the

in
does
Without
as-
same way, and
the
in
physical
life
observed.
science
an
There
experi-
FERMENTATION
283
ment more conclusive nor an inference
than this
safer
one.
Supposing the powder

the
air,
be light enough to
to
and that you are enabled
plainly as
your hand.
to see
it
float in
there just as
you saw the heavier powder in the palm of

If the dust sown by the air instead of by the
hand produce a definite living crop, with the same logical

you would conclude that the germs of this crop
rigor
must be mixed with the

spores
the
the
of
little
which I have already

in the
A cut
air.
dust.
To
plant
Penicillium
referred,
take an illustration:
are light
glaucum^
enough
to
to float
apple, a pear, a tomato, a slice of vege-
table marrow, or, as already mentioned, an old moist boot,
a dish of paste, or a pot of jam, constitutes a proper soil
Now, if it could be proved that the

when sown in this soil produces this plant,
for the Penicillium,
dust of the air
while, wanting the dust, neither the
both together can produce
it,
it
nor the
soil,
nor
would be obviously
just
air,
as certain in this case that the floating dust contains the
germs of Penicillium
as that the powders sown in your

garden contained the germs of the plants which sprung
from them.
But how
In
this
is
way.
the floating dust to be rendered visible?
Build a
little
chamber and provide
a door, windows, and window-shutters.
it
with
Let an aperture
be made in one of the shutters through which a sunbeam

can pass.
Close the door and windows so that no light
shall
enter save through the
track of the
in the air of
sunbeam
is
the room.
hole in the shutter.
and vivid
If all disturbance of
the air of
the chamber be avoided, the luminous track will

fainter
and
fainter,
The
at first perfectly plain
until at last
it
become
disappears absolutely,
284
and no
beam
the
beam
trace of the
to
be seen.
The
floating
is
visible at first?
which, thus illuminated and observed,
What
rendered
dust of the
air,
palpable to
as
is
sense as dust or
powder placed on the palm
In the
the dust gradually sinks to the floor or
still
air
and
sticks to the walls
ceiling, until finally,
cleansing process, the air

ically
of the hand.
is
by
this self-
from mechan-
entirely freed
suspended matter.
we have made our footing sure. Let

us proceed.
Chop up a beefsteak and allow it to remain
for two or three hours just covered with warm water; you
Thus
far, I think,
thus extract the juice of the beef in a concentrated form.
By
properly boiling the liquid and filtering
obtain from
number
it
a perfectly transparent beef -tea.
you can
Expose a
of vessels containing this tea to the moteless air
your chamber; and expose a number
of
it,
of
taining precisely the same liquid to the
vessels
dust-laden
conair.
In three days every one of the latter stinks, and, examined with the microscope,
swarming with the bacteria
them
every one of
of
putrefaction.
found
is
After three
months, or three years, the beef-tea within the chamber

is
found in every case as sweet and
from
put
bacteria, as
in.
There
is
it
was
at the
clear,
moment when
and
it
as
free
was
first
absolutely no difl:erence between the air
within and that without save that the one

the other dust-laden.
is
dustless
and
Clinch the experiment thus: Open
the door of your chamber and allow the dust to enter
it.
In three days afterward you have every vessel within the
chamber swarming with

putrefaction.
as in the case of the

tiply
bacteria,
and in a
Here, also, the inference
powder sown
your proofs by building
in
fifty
is
state of active
quite as certain
your garden.
Mul-
chambers instead of
FERMENTATION
by employing every imaginable
one, and
animals and tame;

the
vegetables of
you
cases
285
of
flesh,
fowl,
fish,
most various kinds.
infusion of wild
and viscera;
If
in
the dust infallibly producing
find
these
all
its
of
crop of
neither the dustless air nor the nutritive
bacteria, while
infusion, nor both together, are ever able to produce this
crop, your conclusion
simply
is
of the air contains the
peared in your infusions.

of experimental
science
the dust
irresistible that
germs of the crop which has apI repeat there is
more
no inference
than this one.
certain
In
the presence of such facts, to use the words of a paper

lately published
in the
"Philosophical Transactions,"
would be simply monstrous
to affirm that these
it
swarming
crops of bacteria are spontaneously generated.

Is
there
then no experimental proof
generation?
doubt the experimental proof of a

possibility,
are
confuse matters
this
of
spontaneous
But to
to deny its
though some writers
answer without hesitation, none!
two different things,
fact,
and
by making them synonymous.
In
fact,
doctrine of spontaneous generation, in one form or
another, falls in with the theoretic beliefs of
ioremost workers of this age; but
who have
pose, the
it is
some
of the
exactly these
men
the penetration to see, and the honesty to ex-
weakness of the evidence adduced in
And
here observe
how
common
practices of
life.
numbs them.
When my
its
support.
these discoveries tally with the
Heat
kills
the bacteria,
cold
housekeeper has pheasants in
charge which she wishes to keep sweet, but which threaten

to give way, she partially cooks the birds, kills the infant
bacteria,
and thus postpones the
milk she also extends
its
evil day.
By
period of sweetness.
boiling her
Some weeks
286
ago in
Alps
tlie
made a few experiments on tbe
ence of cold upon ants.

patches of snow
tain slopes.
on the
warm
still
The
Thougli
sun was
the
ants were found in the
warm
In a few
ant,
wholly lose
power
locomotion and
of
dead upon the snow.
Transferred to the
lie
practically
warm
rock,
revive, to be again smitten with death- like
ness
when
ant
is
What
retransf erred to the snow.
ger,
for example,
of
power
their
This
or continuing putrefaction.
of the preservation
it
cold.
when he surrounds
wares by lumps of
ice,
of
it
numb-
true of the
life is
produciog
the whole
is
meat by
is
Their active
specially true of our bacteria.
suspended by cold, and with
phy
sec-
few languid struggles, would
after a
onds a vigorous
grass and
Transferred to the snow the
rapidity of their paralysis was surprising.
would
strong,
maintained themselves on the moun-
rocks adjacent.
its
influ-
philoso-
The fishmon-
his very assailable
stays the process of putrefaction
by reducing to numbness and inaction the organisms which

produce it, and in the absence of which his fish would remain sweet and sound. It is the astonishing activity into
which these bacteria are pushed by warmth that renders a
single
summer's day sometimes so disastrous
to the great
The bodies of guides

Alpine glaciers have come to the
butchers of London and Glasgow.

lost in the crevasses of
surface forty years after their interment, without the flesh
showing any sign of putrefaction.

ing case of this kind
beria
is
which was found incased
for ages,
But the most
astonish-
that of the hairy elephant of Si-
but when laid bare
in ice.
its
flesh
It
had been buried
was sweet, and
for
some time afforded copious nutriment to the wild beasts

which fed upon it.
Beer is assailable by all the organisms here referred to,
FERMENTATION
some
of
which produce
acetic,
some
lactic,
and some bu-
open to attack from the bacteria
tyric acid, while yeast is
of
287
In relation to the particular
putrefaction.
beverage
the brewer wishes to produce, these foreign ferments have
been properly called ferments of

leaven
true
The
The
disease.
usually
globules,
are
cells of the
somewhat elongated.
other organisms are more or less rod-like or eel-like
in shape,
some
of
Each
necklaces.
them being beaded so
as to resemble
of these organisms produces a fermenta-
Keep them out of

your beer and it remains forever unaltered. Never without them will your beer contract disease. But their germs
tion
and a flavor peculiar
are in the
in
air,
even in the
yeast
to itself.
the vessels employed in the brewery;
used to impregnate the wort.
sciously or unconsciously, the art of the brewer
His aim
against them.
is to
paralyze,
if
is
Con-
directed
he cannot anni-
hilate them.
For
beer, moreover, the question of temperature is one
of
supreme importance; indeed, the recognized influence
of
temperature
is
causing on the continent of
Europe a
complete revolution in the manufacture of beer.

I
was a student in Berlin,

specially devoted
places
which was then making

beer
is
prepared by what
mentation;
the
to
its
is
in
the
way
1851,
there were
Bavarian
beer,
into public favor.
This
sale
of
called the process of low fer-
name being given
partly because the yeast
of the beer, instead of rising to the top
and issuing through
the bunghole, falls to the bottom of the cask;

also,
other
because
but partly,
produced at a low temperature.

and older process, called high fermentation^
it
When
certain
The
is
more handy, expeditious, and cheap.
is
far
In high fermenta-
tion eight days suffice for the production of the beer;
in
1865
FERMENTATION
289
These low organisms, wliich one miglit be disposed to

regard as the beginnings of
life,
were we not warned that
the microscope, precious and perfect as

to
show us the
has no power
by no means
the economy of
it is,
real beginnings of life, are
purely useless or purely mischievous in
They are only noxious when out of their proper

They exercise a useful and valuable function as
nature.
place.
the burners and consumers of dead matter,
animal and
vegetable, reducing such matter, with a rapidity otherwise

unattainable,
thermore, they are not
them that
of
classes
all alike,
absolutely necessary to
putrefaction,
tion.
oxygen
the
man.
One
of
support
the
of
air,
which
is
the bacteria of
according to Pasteur, absolutely deadly
is,
to the vibrios
only restricted
is
it
Fur-
worthy of special reference
is
or rather the
Air,
and
are really dangerous to
difference in their habits

here.
and water.
to innocent carbonic acid
which provoke the butyric acid fermenta-
This has been illustrated by the following beautiful
observation.
A drop
is
of
of the liquid containing those small organisms
placed upon glass, and on the drop
exceedingly thin
ciently,
it is
glass;
for,
to
is
placed a circle
magnify them
suffi-
necessary that the object-glass of the micro-
Eound
scope should come very close to the organisms.

the edge of the circular plate of glass the liquid
tact with the air,
and incessantly absorbs
it,
is
in con-
including the
if the drop be charged with bacteria, we

have a zone of very lively ones. But through this living
oxygen.
Here,
zone, greedy of
oxygen and appropriating
it,
the vivifying
gas cannot penetrate to the centre of the film.
In the
middle, therefore, the bacteria die, while their peripheral

colleagues continue active.
Science
If
a bubble of air chance to
VI 13
290
be enclosed in the
and wabble
ette
which
all their
it
the bacteria will pirou-
oxygen has been absorbed,
until its
motions cease.
the peripheral organisms that are
it is
after
Precisely the reverse of
all
In their case
with the vibrios of butyric acid.
this occurs
first killed,
the cen-
ones remaining vigorous while ringed by a zone of
tral
Pasteur, moreover, filled two vessels with a liquid
dead.
containing
through one vessel he led
these vibrios;
he led carbonic
deportment
without
by an
its
actual fact.
life
bearing upon the theory of fermenta-
more
still
found the vib-
ago that the thought of
fifteen years
now approach an
cerns us
after three hours
was while observing these differences
upon the mind
tion, flashed
We
It
and
air,
and
acid,
rios fully active.
air,
through the other
killed its vibrios in half an hour;
and
of
round
film,
of this admirable investigator.
aspect of this question which con-
and
closely,
will
be best illustrated
few years ago I was bathing in an
my
Alpine stream, and returning to
my
cade which had been
clothes from the cas-
shower-bath, I slipped upon a
block of granite, the sharp crystals of which stamped themselves into
my
naked
for a speedy recovery.
chief
The wound was an awkward
shin.
being in vigorous health at the time, I hoped
one, but
into
the
stream,
Dipping a clean pocket-handker-
wrapped
it
round the wound,
limped home, and remained for four or

in bed.
There was no pain, and
I thought myself quite
fit
to quit
when uncovered, was found

and entirely
free
at the
my
five
days quietly
end
of this time
perfectly clean,
from matter.
Placing over
goldbeater' s-skin, I walked about all day.
ing itching and heat were
The wound,
room.
felt;
uninflamed,
it
a bit of
Toward even-
a large accumulation of
FERMENTATIONand I was forced
matter followed,
The water bandage was
291
to
go
bed again.
to
was powerless
to
arnica was applied, but
it
restored,
but
it
check the action now
set up;
made matters
The inflammation increased alarm-
worse.
ingly, until finally I
down
to be carried
to
kindness of
the
friends,
placed in the best medical hands.
my
was
On
immediately
the morning after
an abscess
arrival in Greneva, Dr. Gautier discovered
my
in
on men's shoulders
mountain and transported to Geneva, where,
the
thanks
had
from the wound.
instep, at a distance of five inches
The two were connected by
a channel, or sinus^ as
technically called, through which
he was
it
is
empty
able to
the abscess, without the application of the lance.
By what
agency was that channel formed
what
my
that thus tore asunder the sound tissue of
it
and kept me for six weeks a prisoner in bed?
was
instep,
In the
very room where the water dressing had been removed
from
I
my wound
opened
clear
and the goldbeater's-skin applied
this year a
number
and sweet infusions
to
it,
of tubes, containing perfectly
of
fish,
flesh,
and vegetable.
These hermetically sealed infusions had been exposed for

weeks, both to the sun of the Alps and to the warmth
of
a kitchen,
sign of
greater
without showing the slightest turbidity or
But two days after they were opened the

number of them swarmed with the bacteria of
life.
putrefaction, the germs of
which had been contracted from
And had the matter from

my memory of its appearance
the dust-laden air of the room.
my
abscess been examined,
leads
me
to infer that
swarming with
these
which got into
my
it
would have been found equally
bacteria
that
it
was
their
germs
incautiously opened wound, and that
they were the subtile workers that burrowed
down my
292
dug the abscess
shin,
which might
easily
in
mj
and produced
instep,
have proved
effects
fatal.
This apparent digression brings us face to face with the

labors of a
man who combines
the penetration of the true
and conscientiousness
theorist with the skill
perimenter, and whose practice
of the true ex-
one continued demon-
is
stratiou of the theory that the putrefaction of
by the destruction
to be averted
Not only from
germs
of the
wounds
is
of bacteria.
own reports of his cases, but from the

men who have visited his hospital, and
expressed to me by continental surgeons,
his
reports of eminent
from the opinions
do I gather that one

art of surgery
tem
of the greatest steps ever
was the introduction
of treatment, introduced
The
interest of
proceed.
We
we end with
in the
of the antiseptic sys-
by Professor
Lister.
not slacken as we
does
subject
this
made
began with the cherry -cask and beer- vat;
the body of man.
There are persons born
with the power of interpreting natural
facts, as there are
others smitten with everlasting incompetence in regard to
such interpretation.
To
the former class in an eminent
degree belonged the illustrious philosopher Eobert Boyle,
whose words in
forecast of
in his
relation to this subject
prophecy.
"And
let
me add,"
"Essay on the Pathological Part
he that thoroughly understands
and fermentations
the
shall probably be
he that ignores them, to give a
have in them the
of
nature of
much
fair
writes Boyle
Physik," "that
ferments
better able than
account of
divers
phenomena of several diseases (as well fevers as others),

which will perhaps be never properly understood without
an insight into the doctrine of fermentations."
Two hundred
years have passed since these pregnant
words were written, and
it
is
only in this our day that
FERMENTATION
men
are
domain
293
beginning to fully realize their truth.
In the
of surgery the justice of Boyle's surmise has
been
But we now pass the bounds

of surgery proper, and enter the domain of epidemic disease, including those fevers so sagaciously referred to by
Boyle. The most striking analogy between a contagium
and a ferment is to be found in the power of indefinite
self-multiplication possessed and exercised by both.
You
most
strictly
know
the exquisitely truthful figures regarding leaven em-
demonstrated.
ployed in the
Kew
Testament.
measures of meal leavens
it all.
A particle hid in three

A little leaven leaveneth
In a similar manner, a particle of con-
the whole lump.
tagium spreads through the

multiplied as to strike
human body and may be
down whole
populations.
so
Consider
upon the system by a microscopic

the virus of smallpox.
That virus is, to all
the effect produced
quantity of
intents
it
it
and purposes, a seed.
It is
sown
as yeast is sown,
grows and multiplies as yeast grows and multiplies, and

always reproduces
itself.
To Pasteur we
are indebted
for a series of masterly researches, wherein he exposes the
looseness and general baselessness of prevalent notions re-
garding the transmutation of
He
one ferment into another.
guards himself against saying
it
is
impossible.
is
the use of
unsparingly ascribed to him;
matter of
it is
fact,
The
sparing in the use of this word, though
true investigator
but,
as
Pasteur has never been able to effect the
alleged transmutation, while
he has been always able to
point out the open doorways through which the affirmers
such transmutations
of
had allowed error
to
march in
upon them.*
*
Those who wish for an
illustration of
searches, and of the carelessness with
the care necessary in these re-
which they have
in
some cases been
294
'The great source
of
here has been already
error
The observers worked
luded to in this discourse.
al-
in an
atmosphere charged with the germs of different organisms;

the mere accident of
now
organism,
moreover, of
its
fermentative or putrefactive changes, the
may
possession of
by
adduced
so alter as to
show
to
simply cases
Such
that the earlier
which
in
be successively taken
organisms.
different
have been transformed into the

are
now one
In different stages,
another, triumphant.
same infusion
been
possession rendering
first
cases have
must
organisms
later ones,
whereas they
germs, because
different
changes in the infusion, render themselves valid at
of
differ-
ent times.
By
purity
how
teaching us
cultivate
to
individual organism apart from
abled us to avoid
tion
of
each ferment in
in other words, by teaching us
all
particular organism
grows and
all
these errors.
multiplies
into another organism
others
And
to
its
rear the
Pasteur has enwhere
this isola-
has been duly effected
but no
indefinitely,
change
it
of
In Pasteur's
ever observed.
is
how
it
re-
searches the Bacterium remained a Bacterium, the Vibrio

a Yibrio, the Penicillium a Penicillium,
Torula.
Sow any
propriate liquid;
quent crop.
typhoid
you get
and
it,
it
alone,
an ap-
in the subse-
In like manner, sow smallpox in the human
body, your crop
your crop
and the Torula a
of these in a state of purity in
is
Sow there scarlatina, and

Sow typhoid virus, your crop is
your crop is cholera. The disease bears
is
smallpox.
scarlatina.
cholera,
as constant a relation to
its
contagium
as the microscopic
organisms just enumerated do to their germs, or indeed as

conducted, will do well to consult the Rev. "W. H. Dallinger's excellent "Notea
on Heterogenesis"
in the
October number of the "Popular Science E,eview."
a thistle does to
FERMENTATION
295
wonder
then, with analogies
seed.
its
ISTo
so obvious and so striking, that the conviction is spreading and growing daily in strength, that reproductive parasitic
life
the root of
at
is
epidemic disease
that
living
ferments finding lodgment in the body increase there and

multiply,
sist,
the tissue on which they sub-
directly ruining
or destroying
by the generation
indirectly
life
poisonous compounds within the body.
which comes
to
to us with a
demonstration,
infective diseases
of
This conclusion,
presumption almost amounting
clinched by the fact that virulently
is
have been discovered with which living
organisms are as closely and as indissolubly asLOciated as

the growth of Torula
And
of
here,
you
if
with the fermentation of beer.
is
will permit me, I
We
warning to well-meaning people.
a phase of this question
when
it is
would
utter a
word
have now reached
of the very last impor-
tance that light should once for all be thrown upon the
manner
which contagious and infectious diseases take
in
To
root and spread.
this
end the action of various
fer-
ments upon the organs and tissues of the living body must
be studied
the habitat of each special organism concerned
in the production of each specific disease
mined,
and
the
mode by which
its
abroad as sources of further infection.

rigidly accurate
complete
inquiries
mastery over
abhorring cruelty of
thetically
own
from
all
all
field
the physiologist
calamity could
are
spread
It is only
destroyers.
kinds,
Hence, while
while shrinking
sympa-
suffering which my
to
an unbiased
animal suffering
pursuits never call
survey of the
germs
deter-
by such
we can obtain final and
that
these
must be
upon me
of research
inflict
now opening
out before
causes me to conclude that no greater

befall the human race than the stoppage
296
of experimental inquiry in
direction.
tiiis
lady whose
philanthropy has rendered her illustrious said to
me some
time ago that science was becoming immoral; that the
re-
searches of the past, unlike those of the present, were carI replied to her that the science
ried on without cruelty.

of
Kepler and Newton, to which she referred, dealt with
phenomena of inorganic nature; but that one

great advance made by modern science was in the directhe laws and
tion of biology,
new
or the science of
direction scientific inquiry,
life;
though
and that
in this
at the outset pur-
sued at the cost of some temporary suffering, would in the

end prove a thousand times more beneficent than it had
ever hitherto been.
because I saw that the
said this
very researches which the lady deprecated were leading

us to such a knowledge of epidemic diseases as will enable us finally to sweep these scourges of the
from
human
race
the face of the earth.
This
a point of such capital importance that I should
is
like to bring
worthy
it
home
illustration.
to
your intelligence by a single
In
observers,
of animals
two distinguished French
1850,
MM. Davainne and

which had died
trust-
Kayer, noticed in the blood
of the virulent disease called
splenic fever small microscopic organisms resembling trans-
parent rods, but neither of them at that time attached any

significance
lished
to
the observation.
In
1861,
memoir on the fermentation
of
wherein he described the organism which
and
after reading
this
memoir
it
occurred
Pasteur
pub-
butyric
acid,
provoked
to
it;
Davainne
that splenic fever might be a case of fermentation set up

within the animal body by the organisms which had been
observed by him and Kayer. This idea has been placed
beyond
all
doubt by subsequent
reseai:u:a.
FERMENTATION
207
Observations of the highest importance have also been

fever by Pollender and Brauell.
Two
Burdon Sanderson gave ns a very clear
account of what was known up to that time of this disorder.
With regard to the permanence of the contagium,
it had
been proved to hang for years about localities
where it had once prevailed; and this seemed to show
made on
splenic
years ago, Dr.
that the rod-like organisms could not constitute the con-
tagium, because their infective power was found to vanish

in a
few weeks.
But other
facts established
an intimate
connection between the organisms and the disease, so that

a review of all the facts caused Dr. Sanderson to conclude
that the contagium existed in
*
'fugitive"
and
two
distinct forms:
visible as transparent rods;
the one
the other per-
manent but "latent," and not yet brought within the

grasp of the microscope.
At
the time that Dr.
port, a
Sanderson was writing
this
re-
young German physician named Koch,* occupied
with the duties of his profession in an obscure country

district,
time,
was already
at
work, applying, during his spare
various original and
vestigation of
ingenious
He
splenic fever.
devices to the in-
studied the habits of
the rod-like organisms, and found the aqueous
humor
of
an ox's eye to be particularly suitable for their nutrition.
With
a drop of the aqueous
humor he mixed
the tiniest
speck of a liquid containing the rods, placed the drop under his microscope,
warmed
subsequent action.
During the
change was noticeable;
it
suitably,
first
and observed the
two hours hardly any
but at the end of this time the
rods began to lengthen, and the action was so rapid that

'
This, I believe,
this country.
1879.
was the
first
reference to the researches of
Koch made
in
298
of three or four hours thej attained
end
at
tlie
to
twenty times their original length.
At
from ten
the end of a
few additional hours they had formed filaments in
many
hundred times the length of the original
rods.
cases a
The same
filament,
in
was frequently observed
fact,
stretch through several fields
to
Some-
of the microscope.
times they lay in straight lines parallel to each other, in

other cases they were bent, twisted, and coiled into the
most graceful
figures; while
sometimes they formed knots
of such bewildering complexity that
it
was impossible
for
the eye to trace the individual filaments through the confusion.
Had
tific
the observation ended here an interesting scien-
fact
would have been added
to our previous store,
but the addition would have been of
Koch, however, continued

a time noticed
dots
little
to
bodies,
watch the filaments, and
distinct, until finally the
which lay within the outer integument
By and by
pieces, the place of the
row of seeds or
confirmed in
all
after
These
whole
organism was studded with minute ovoid
within their shell.
spores.
respects
the
like peas
integument
fell
to
organisms being taken by a long
These observations, which were
by the celebrated
of Breslau, are of the highest importance.
the
practical value.
dots appearing within them.
became more and more
length of the
little
naturalist,
They
Cohn
up
clear
existing perplexity regarding the latent and visible
contagia of splenic fever; for in the most conclusive man-
ner
Koch proved
the spores, as distinguished from the
rods, to constitute the
contagium of the fever in
its
most
deadly and persistent form.
How
answer.
did he reach this important result?
Mark
There was but one way open to him to
the
test the
FERMENTATION
with
and
of living animals.
it
and that was the inoculation
contagium,
activity of the
He
operated upon guinea-pigs
but the vast majority
rabbits,
299
of his
experiments were
Inoculating them with the fresh blood
made upon mice.
from splenic
of an animal suffering
fever, they invariably
died of the same disease within twenty or thirty hours
He
after inoculation.
contagium maintained
then sought to determine

its
vitality.
how
the
Drying the infectious
blood containing the rod-like organisms, in which, however,
the spores were not developed, he found the con-
tagium to be that which Dr. Sanderson

It
maintained
He
furthest.
its
power
calls
of infection for five
"fugitive."
weeks
at the
then dried blood containing the fully-devel-
oped spores, and exposed the substance to a variety
He
conditions.
form
of
permitted
it
permitted the dried blood to assume the
wetted this dust, allowed
dust;
tests.
it
to
dry again,
remain for an indefinite time in the midst
to
putrefying matter,
of
of
and subjected
\t
to
various other
After keeping the spore-charged blood which had
been treated in
number
of
mice with
of blood fresh
by
of these spores are
is
and found
of
its
he inoculated a
action as fatal as that
an animal suffering from
There was no single escape from death

this
which has died

millions
it,
from the veins
splenic fever.
inoculation
this fashion for four years,
deadly contagium.
after
Uncounted millions
developed in the body of every animal
of splenic fever,
and every spore
competent to produce the disease.
of these
The name
of this formidable parasite is Bacillus anihracis.^
Koch found
splenic fever
animal
that to produce
must enter the blood
may be
its
characteristic ejffects the contagium of
the virulently infective spleen of a diseased
eaten with impunity by mice.
refuses to be communicated
by inoculation
On
the other hand, the disease
to dogs, partridges, or sparrows.
In
800
Now
the very
contagia
is
step toward the extirpation of these
first
the knowledge of their nature; and the knowl-
edge brought to ns by Dr. Koch will render as certain the
stamping out of splenic fever as the stoppage of the plague
by the researches of Pasteur.* One small item

In the single
of statistics will show what this implies.
district of Novgorod in Kussia, between the years 1867
and 1870, over fifty-six thousand cases of death by splenic
Nor
fever, among horses, cows, and sheep were recorded.
of pShrine
did
ravages confine themselves to the animal world, for
its
during the time and in the district referred
human
dred and twenty-eight

nies of the
same
beings perished in the ago-
on the point which
your consideration.
"An
"which perhaps
derson,
hun-
disease.
description of the fever will help
right decision
five
to,
you
to
come
to a
wish to submit to
animal," says Dr. Burdon San-
for the previous
day has declined
food and sho\m igns of general disturbance, begins to
shudder and to have twitches of the muscles of the back,
and soon
after
becomes weak and
listless.
In the mean-
time the respiration becomes frequent and often
and the temperature
rises three or four degrees
difficult,
above the
normal; but soon convulsions, affecting chiefly the muscles

of the
back and
loins,
usher in the final collapse of which
their blood Bacillus anfhracis ceases to act as a ferment.
Pasteur announced
ago the propagation of the vibrios of the silkworm disease

He also made some remarkable
called flacherie, both by fission and by spores.
See
experiments on the permanence of the contagium in the form of spores.
more than
six years
la Maladie des Vers a Sole," pp. 168 and 256.

Surmising that the immunity enjoyed by birds might arise from the heat
of their blood, which destroyed the bacillus, Pasteur lowered their temperature
"iStudes sur
^
artificially,
inoculated them, and killed them.
He
of guinea-pigs after inoculation, and saved them.
moment on
the importance of this experiment.
also raised the temperature

It is needless to dwell for
FERMENTATION
the progress
marked by the
is
301
power of moving
loss of all
the trunk or extremities, diminution of temperature, mu-
cous and sanguinolent alvine evacuations, and similar

charges from the mouth and nose."
above remarked,
of Russia, as
cows, and sheep, and
and women, perished
in this
Europe
What
The
question, then,
mit to your judgment

veals to us the nature,
is this:
it ?
It is
a period of two
throughout
Doubtless
which
Is the
is
it
must
wish to sub-
knowledge which
re-
and which assures the extirpation,
of a disorder so virulent
for
way during
the annual fatality
have no means of knowing.
be very great.
thousand horses,
fifty- six
hundred and twenty- eight men
five
or three years.
dis-
In a single district
and so
vile,
worth the price paid
exceedingly important that assemblies like
the present should see clearly the issues at stake in such
questions as this, and that the properly informed sense of
community should temper, if not restrain, the rashness

who, meaning to be tender, become agents of
cruelty by the imposition of short-sighted restrictions upon
It is a modern instance of
physiological investigations.
the
of those
zeal for
God, but not according to knowledge, the ex-
cesses of
which must be corrected by an instructed public
opinion.
And now
let
us cast a backward glance on the
have traversed, and try
to extract
further profit as they can yield.
field
we
from our labors such
For more than two thou-
sand years the attraction of light bodies by amber was the
sum
of
human knowledge
regarding electricity, and for
more than two thousand years fermentation was effected

without any knowledge of its cause. In science one discovery grows out of another, and cannot appear without

802
Thus, before fermentation could
proper antecedent.
its
be understood, the microscope had
be invented, and
to
Note the
brought to a considerable degree of perfection.
growth
to
Leeuwenhoek, in 1680, found yeast
knowledge.
of
be a mass of floating globules, but he had no notion
This was proved in 1835 by
that the globules were alive.
Cagniard de
la
Then came
Tour and Schwann.
tion as to the origin of
the ques-
such microscopic organisms, and
memoir of Pasteur, published

the *'Annales de Chimie" for 1862, is the inauguration
in this connection
new
On
the
in
of
epoch.
that investigation
Pasteur's subsequent labors
all
Ravages had over and over again occurred
were based.
among French
There was no guarantee that they

wines.
would not become acid or bitter, particularly when exThe commerce in wines was thus restricted, and
ported.
disastrous losses were often inflicted on the wine-grower.
Every one
of these diseases
Pasteur
organism.
was traced
ascertained
to the life of
temperature
the
killed these ferments of disease, proving
expedient of
By
it
unalterable,
saved his country the loss of millions.

vin aigre^ acid wine
produced by a fermentation
Mycoderma
into
aceti.
alcohol,
into vinegar.
set
which
up by
He
fifty
and thus
then went on
he proved to be
a little fungus called
Torula, in fact, converts the grape juice
and Mycoderma
Here
severe losses were
unknown
the simple
heating the wine to a temperature of
degrees Centigrade, he rendered
to vinegar
be so low
to
it
as to be perfectly harmless to the wine.
an
which
aceti
converts
the alcohol
also frequent failures occurred,
sustained.
Through
became
and
the operation of
causes, the vinegar often
sometimes indeed falling into utter putridity.
unfit for use.,

It
had been
FERMENTATION
known
long
to destroy
them
mere exposure to the
tliat
Pasteur studied
it.
803
.:\
air
was
sufficient
these changes,
all
traced
and showed that the perma-
to their living causes,
nent health of the vinegar was insured by the destruction

of this
He
life.
passed from the diseases of vinegar to the
study of a malady which a dozen years ago had

ruined the silk husbandry of France.
name
received the
which
first
of a parasite
took possession of the intestinal canal of the
silkworm, spread throughout
which ought
smitten,
but
This plague, which
was the product
of yebrine^
all
its
body, and
filled
the sack
to contain the viscid matter of the silk.
the
Thus
worm would go
automatically through the
when
to spin.
process of spinning
it
had nothing
Pasteur
followed this parasitic destroyer from year to year, and

led
by
power
his singular
of
combining
facts
with the logic
of facts, discovered eventually the precise phase in the de-
velopment of the insect when the disease which assailed

it
could with certainty be stamped out.
tion to this inquiry cost
him
He
dear.
Pasteur's devorestored to France
her silk husbandry, rescued thousands of her population
from
ruin, set the
looms of Italy
c,lso
to work, but
emerged
from his labors with one of his sides permanently para-
work entitled *' Studies on Beer," in which he describes a method

of rendering beer permanently unchangeable. That method
lyzed.
is
His
last investigation is
embodied
in a
not so simple as those found effectual with wine and
vinegar, but the principles
which
receive extensive application at
There are other
this assembly.
involves are sure to
some future day.
reflections connected with this subject
which, even were they
would sooner or
it
now passed over without remark,
later occur to
every thoughtful mind in
I have spoken of the floating dust of the
304
means of rendering it visible, and of the perfect

immunity from putrefaction which accompanies the contact
of germless infusions and moteless air.
Consider the woes
which these wafted particles, during historic and prehisthe
air, of
toric
ages,
have
inflicted
on mankind; consider the
loss
from putrefying wounds; consider the

loss in places where there are plenty of wounds, but no
hospitals, and in the ages before hospitals were anywhere
of life in hospitals
founded;
consider
slaughter which
the
has hitherto
fol-
lowed that of the
battlefield,
ers are let loose,
often producing a mortality far greater
than that of the battle
when
add
itself;
those bacterial destroy-
to this the other concep-
tion that in times of epidemic disease the self-same float-
ing matter has frequently,
if
not always, mingled with
it
the special germs which produce the epidemic, being thus
enabled to sow pestilence and death over nations and continents
consider
all
this,
and you
will
come with me
to
the conclusion that all the havoc of war, ten times multiplied,
due
would be evanescent
preventible
destruction
is
going on to-day, and
has been permitted to go on for ages, without a whisper
information
of
regarding
its
and
cause being vouchsafed to
We
the suffering sentient world.

invisible thongs,
in
compared with the ravages
to atmospheric dust.
This
it
if
only to-day that the light of science
it is
upon the murderous dominion
these excite in
me
is
of our foes.
being
let
Facts like
the thought that the rule and governance
of this universe are different
supposed them to be
terrible
have been scourged by
attacked from impenetrable ambuscades,
that
and beneficent,
in
from what we in our youth
the inscrutable Power, at once
whom we
have our being and our end,
is
live
and move and
to be propitiated
by means
FERMENTATION
different to tliose usually resorted to.
toward such propitiation
805
The
first
knowledge; the second
is
requisite
is action^
Of knowl-
shaped and illuminated by that knowledge.
edge we already see the dawn, which will open out by
which
to follow
and by
to perfect day; while the action
has
unfailing source and stimulus in the moral and
its
emotional nature of
man in
is
his desire for personal well-
being, in his sense of duty, in his compassionate
with the sufferings of his fellow-men.

Dr. William
"How
Fever
gle narrow
Budd
in
his
celebrated
"How
sympathy
often," says
work on Typhoid
often have I seen in past days, in the sin-
chamber
in the coffin, the
of the
mother
day -laborer's cottage the father
in the sick-bed in muttering de-
lirium, and nothing to relieve the desolation of the
dren but the devotion of some poor neighbor,
many
who
cases paid the penalty of her kindness in
chil-
in too
becoming
same disorder!" From the vanwon

I look forward with confident
already
ground
tage
hope to the triumph of medical art over scenes of misery
herself the victim of the
like that here described.
The cause
of the calamity being
once clearly revealed, not only to the physician, but to

the public,
whose
intelligent
co-operation
essential to success, the final victory of
We
is
absolutely
humanity
is
only
have already a foretaste of that

victory in the triumphs of surgery as practiced at your
a question of time.
doors.
XIII
SPONTANEOUS GENERATION
WITHIN
ten minutes'
walk
have recently built
of a little cottage
in
the Alps,
which
there
is
small lake, fed by the melted snows of the upper mountains.
During the early weeks
of
summer no
trace of life is to be discerned in this water; but invari-
ably toward the end of July, or the beginning of August,
swarms
of
tailed
organisms are seen enjoying the sun's
warmth along the shallow margins
of the lake,
and rush-
ing with audible patter into deeper water at the approach

of
danger.
things
is
The origin of this periodic crowd of living

by no means obvious. For years I had never
noticed in the lake either an adult frog, or the smallest
fragment of frog spawn; so
that,
were I not otherwise
in-
formed, I should have found the conclusion of Mathiole

a natural one, namely, that tadpoles are generated in lake
mud by
the vivifying action of the sun.
The checks which experience alone can

absent,
furnish being
the spontaneous generation of creatures quite as
high as the frog in the scale of being was assumed for

aares to
of
be a
fact.
Here, as elsewhere, the dominant mind
Aristotle stamped
its
notions on the world at large.
For nearly twenty centuries
after
him men found no
diffi-
culty in believing in cases of spontaneous generation which
(306)
"The Nineteenth Century," January,
1878.
would now be rejected
supporter of the
807
monstrous bj the most fanatical
as
Shell-fish of
doctrine.
all
kinds were
Eels were sup-
considered to be without parental origin.
posed to spring spontaneously from the fat ooze of the

Caterpillars were the spontaneous products of the
Nile.
leaves on which they fed;
rats,
and mice were
while winged insects, serpents,
thought capable of being generated
all
without sexual intervention.
The most copious source

was putrefying
flesh
of this life without
an ancestry
and, lacking the checks imposed
fuller investigation, the conclusion that flesh possesses
exerts this generative
member when
power
is
a natural one.
by
and
I well re-
a child of ten or twelve seeing a joint of
imperfectly salted beef cut into, and coils of maggots laid
moment's hesitation I
the conclusion that these maggots had been
Without
bare within the mass.
jumped
to
spontaneously generated in the meat.
which could qualify or oppose

time
was
it
was that
To
The childhood
irresistible.
that of the race,
typifies
of the
I had no
this conclusion,
and the
belief
knowledge
and for the
of the individual
here enunciated
world for nearly two thousand years.
the examination of this very point the celebrated
Francesco Kedi, physician to the Grranddukes Ferdinand

II.
and Cosmo
Academy
of
III.
del Cimento,
Tuscany, and a member of the

addressed
himself
in
He
1668.
had seen the maggots of putrefying flesh, and reflected

on their possible origin. But he was not content with
mere reflection, nor with the theoretic guesswork which
had founded upon their imperfect
Watching meat during its passage from
his predecessors
obser-
vations.
fresh-
ness
to
decay,
prior
invariably observed
to
flies
the
appearance of
maggots he
buzzing round the meat and
fre-
S08
The maggots, he thought, might
quently alighting on
it.
be the
progeny of these
half- developed
flies.
The inductive guess precedes experiment, by which,

however, it must be finally tested. Eedi knew this, and
Placing fresh meat in a jar and cover-
acted accordingly.
ing the
mouth with
paper, he found that, though the meat
putrefied in the ordinary way,
never bred maggots, while
it
the same meat placed in open jars soon
organisms.
swarmed with these
For the paper cover he then substituted
gauze, through which the odor of the meat could
Over
it
but, the
the
flies
buzzed, and on
it
they laid their eggs,
meshes being too small to permit the eggs to
through, no maggots were generated in the meat.

were,
on the contrary, hatched upon
series of
fine
rise.
the gauze.
fall
They
By
such experiments Eedi destroyed the belief in
the spontaneous generation of maggots in meat, and with

it
doubtless
many
The combat was conSchwammerdam, and Eeaumur, who
related beliefs.
tinued by Vallisneri,
succeeded in banishing the notion of spontaneous generation from the scientific
minds of
their
day.
Indeed, as
regards such complex organisms as those which formed

the subject of their researches, the notion was banished
forever.
But the discovery and improvement
of the microscope,
though giving a death-blow to much that had been previously written and believed regarding spontaneous generation,
brought also into view a world of
dividuals so minute
so
close as
of matter
as
to
particles
atoms to organisms.
posed to the
creatures far
air
it
life
formed of
in-
seemed to the ultimate
suggest an easy passage from
Animal and vegetable
infusions ex-
were found clouded and crowded with
beyond the reach
of
unaided vision, but per-
With
*'
an eje strengthened by the microscope.
to
fectly visible
309
reference to their origin these organisms were called
Stagnant pools were found
Infusoria."
full of
them, and
the obvious difficulty of assigning a germinal origin to ex-
minute furnished the precise condition neces-
istences so
sary to give
new play
to the
notion of heterogenesis or
spontaneous generation.
The
scientific
world was soon divided into two hostile
camps, the leaders of which only can here be briefly
luded
to.
On
the one side,
al-
we have Buffon and Keed-
ham, the former postulating his "organic molecules," and

the latter assuming the existence of a special "vegetative
force" which drew the molecules together so as to form

living things.
On
Abb^ Lazzaro
Spallanzani,
the other side,
we have
the celebrated
who in 1777 published results

Needham in 1748, and ob-
counter to those announced by
tained by methods so precise as to completely overthrow

the convictions based
upon
the labors of his predecessor.
Charging his flasks with organic infusions, he sealed their

necks with the blowpipe, subjected them
in this condition
to the heat of boiling water, and subsequently exposed
them
The
to temperatures favorable to the
development of
infusions continued unchanged for months, and
the flasks were subsequently opened no trace of
life.
when
life
was
found.
Here I may
forestall matters so far as to say that the
success of Spallanzani 's experiments depended wholly on

the locality in which he worked.
must have been

germs,
for
free
life.
air
around him
otherwise the process he followed would, as
was long afterward

yielded
The
from the more obdurate infusorial
But
proved by
Wyman, have
his refutation of
infallibly
the doctrine of spon
810
taneous generation
Kor
is
not the less valid on this account.
any way upset by
in
it
is
none.
Eather
fact that others in re-
tlie
peating his experiments obtained
life
where he obtained
the refutation strengthened by such
is
Given two experimenters equally
ferences.
skilful
dif-
and
equally careful, operating in different places on the same

infusion, in the
same way, and assuming the one to obtain
while the other
life
obtain
fails to
it;
then
lished absence in the one case proves that
foreign to the infusion
must be
well-estab-
its
some ingredient
cause in the other.
its
Spallanzani's sealed flasks contained but small quanti-
oxygen was afterward shown to be genwas thought that the absence of

observed by Spallanzani might have been due to the
ties of air,
and
as
erally essential to
life
lack
of
life, it
vitalizing
this
Schulze in 1886 half
gas.
filled
To
dissipate
this
doubt,
a flask with distilled water to
which animal and vegetable matters were added. First

boiling his infusion to destroy whatever life it might contain,
Schulze sucked daily into his flask
which had
air
passed through a series of bulbs containing concentrated

sulphuric acid, where
air
were supposed
this process
infusorial
to
all
germs
of life
be destroyed.
suspended in the
From May
to
August
was continued without any development
of
life.
Here again the {Access of Schulze was due to

ing in comparatively pure
experiment
is
air,
his work-
but even in such
a very risky one.
Germs
will
air his
pass un-
wetted and unscathed through sulphuric acid unless the
most special care

peatedly failed,
is
taken to detain them.
have
by repeating Schulze' s experiments,

Others have failed likewise. The
obtain his results.
re-
to
air
passes in bubbles through the bulbs, and to render the
secure, the passage of the air
method
whole
to cause the
311
must be so slow as
of its floating matter,
even
to the
very
But
core of each bubble, to touch the surrounding liquid.
if this precaution be observed, water will be found quite

Bj the aid of an air-pump,
as effectual as sulphuric acid.
in a highly infective atmosphere, I have thus drawn air
weeks without intermission, first through bulbs containing water, and afterward through vessels containing
for
germs
without any appearance of
infusions,
organic
The
life.
by the water, but they were effectwhile the objection that the air had been
were not killed
ually intercepted,
by being brought
injured
into contact with strongly cor-
rosive substances was avoided.
The
brief
paper of Schulze, published in Poggendorf's
*'Annalen" for 1836, was
we have
seen, traced the
by another
by Schwann. Eedi, as
followed in 1837
short and pregnant communication
maggots of putrefying
flesh to the
But he did not and he could not know the

He had not the instrumeaning of putrefaction itself.
mental means to inform him that it also is a phenomenon
This was first
attendant on the development of life.
Schwann placed
proved in the paper now alluded to.
eggs of
flesh
flies.
in a flask
filled
to
water, sterilized the flask

it
for
one-third of
by
months with calcined
there appeared no
boiling,
air.
its
capacity with
and then supplied
Throughout
this
time
mould, no infusoria, no putrefaction;
the flesh remained unaltered, while the liquid continued

as clear as
it
was immediately after boiling.
Schwann
then varied his experimental argument, with no

tion in the result.
tion is
due
His
final
altera-
conclusion was that putrefac-
to decompositions of organic matter attendant
on the multiplication therein
of
minute organisms.
These
^12
organisms were derived not from the

tliing
contained in the
air,
but from some-
which was destroyed by a

There never was a more
ciently high temperature.
mined opponent
air,
suffi-
deter-
of the doctrine of spontaneous generation
than Schwann, though a strange attempt was made a year
and a half ago

to
it
on the
to enlist
him and others equally opposed
side of the doctrine.
The physical
character of the agent which produces
putrefaction was further revealed
By means
in 1843.
membrane he separated a sterilized putresThe sterilized infuHence it was not the

remained perfectly intact.
of a
cible liquid
sion
by Helmholtz
from a putrefying one.
liquid of the putrefying mass
fuse through the
membrane
for
but
that could freely dif-
something contained in
was stopped by the membrane, that

In 1854 Schroeder and Yon
caused the putrefaction.
Dusch struck into this inquiry, which was subsequently
the liquid, and which
up by Schroeder
followed
employed plugs
ers
Fed with such
to their infusions.
of cases
ity
the
putrescible
sweet after boiling.
These able experiment-
air,
liquids
in the great major-
remained
perfectly
Milk formed a conspicuous excep-
tion to the general rule.
supplied
alone.
of cotton -wool to filter the air supplied
It putrefied after boiling,
with carefully filtered
air.
The
though
researches of
Schroeder bring us up to the year 1859.

In that year a book was published which seemed to
overturn some of the best established facts of previous
vestigators.
was
F.
Its
title
its
author
A. Pouchet, Director of the Museum of Natural
History at Eouen.
only of
was "Heterogenic," and
in-
scientific,
Ardent, laborious,
learned,
full
not
but of metaphysical fervor, he threw his
whole energy into the inquiry.
Never did a subject
re-
313
quire the exercise of the cold critical faculty

this
one
calm
more than
study in the unravelling of complex phe-
nomena, care in the preparation of experiments, care in

their execution, skilful variation of conditions,
sant questioning of results
until
repetition
and
inces-
had placed
them beyond doubt or question. To a man of Pouchet's

temperament the subject was full of' danger danger not
lessened by the theoretic bias with which he approached
This is revealed by the opening words of his preface:
it.
"Lorsque, par la meditation, il fut evident pour moi que
la generation spontande etait encore I'un des moyens
qu'emploie
nature pour la reproduction des etres, je
la
m'appliquai a decouvrir par quels proc^des on
pouvait
parvenir a en mettre les phenom^nes en evidence."

is
It
needless to say that such a prepossession required -a
strong curb.
Pouchet repeated the experiments of Schulze
and Schwann with
He heaped
results diametrically
opposed to
upon argument, spicing with the sarcasm

the logic of the
man
theirs.
upon experiment and argument
experiment
of science.
of the advocate
In view of the multi-
tudes required to produce the observed results, he
les
Proto-organismes que nous
dans
tout, avaient leurs germ.es
of his strongest points.
"Si
voyons pulluler partout
et
dissemin^s dans
1'
atmosphere, dans la proportion mathema-
tiquement indispensable a cet
ment
obscurci, car
serres
que
epais.
II
ridi-
This was one
culed the assumption of atmospheric germs.
ils
effet,
I'air
en serait totale-
devraient s'y trouver beaucoup plus
nos
nuages
n'y a pas la la moindre exageration. "
Eecur-
les
globules
d'eau
qui
forment
ring to the subject, he exclaims: *'L'air dans lequel nous
vivons aurait presque la densite du fer."
There
is
often
a virulent contagion in a confident tone, and this hardiSCIENCE
YI 14
814
hood of argumentative assertion was sure to influence

minds swayed not by knowledge, but by authority. Had
Pouchet known that *' the blue ethereal sky" is formed of
suspended
particles,
through which the sun freely shines,
he would hardly have ventured upon this line of argument.
Pouchet's pursuit of this inquiry strengthened the conviction with
which he began
right credulity in the end.
it,
and landed him in down-
I do not question his ability
as an observer, but the inquiry needed a disciplined ex-
perimenter.
This
at things as
Nature
force her to
show
implies not mere ability to look
latter
offers
them
our inspection, but to
to
herself
under conditions prescribed by
the experimenter himself.
Here Pouchet lacked the nec-
Yet the vigor
essary discipline.
of doubt,
quiry.
which for
So
difl&cult
incapable of
a time
of his onset raised clouds
obscured the whole
field of in-
indeed did the subject seem, and so
definite
when Pasteur made
that
solution,
known his intention to take it up, his friends Biot and

Dumas expressed their regret, earnestly exhorting him to
a definite and
set
rigid
limit to
the time he purposed
spending in this apparently unprofitable
field.*
Schooled by his education as a chemist, and by special

researches on the closely related question of fermentation,
Pasteur took up this subject under particularly favorable

conditions.
and
His work and his culture had given strength
finish to his natural aptitudes.
In 1862, accordingly,
he published a paper '*0n the Organized Corpuscles

*
*'Je ne conseillerais h personne,'* said
**de rester trop
longtemps dans ce
1862, vol. Ixiv. p. 22.
Academy
sujet.*'
Dumas
to his already
**Annales de Chimie
et
exist-
famous
pupil,
de Physique,"
Since that time the illustrious Perpetual Secretary of th
of Sciences has
had good reason
to revise this "counsel."
ing in the Atmospliere,
cal.
By
'
must forever remain
whicli
'
816
classi-
the most ingenious devices he collected the float-
ing particles of the air surrounding his laboratory in the
Kue d'Ulm, and

tion.
Many
of
Sowing them
them
subjected
them he found
to microscopic examina-
to be organized particles.
in sterilized infusions,
he obtained abundant
By more
crops of microscopic organisms.
refined
methods
he repeated and confirmed the experiments of Schwann,
which had been contested by Pouchet, Montegazza, Joly,

and Musset.
He also confirmed the experiments of
Schroeder and
Von
Dusch.
which communicated
He showed
formly diffused through the
air;
interspaces which possessed
no
that
the cause
infusions was not
to his
life
that
power
uni-
there were aerial

to
generate
life.
Standing on the Mer de Glace, near the Montanvert, he

snipped off the ends of a number of hermetically sealed
flasks
containing organic infusions.
One out of twenty

showed signs
of the flasks thus supplied with glacier air
same
of life afterward, while eight out of twenty of the

infusions,
supplied with
crowded with
life.
He
the
air
of
became
the plains,
took his flasks into the caves un-
der the Observatory of Paris, and found the

these caves devoid of generative power.
still
air in
These and other
experiments, carried out with a severity perfectly obvious

to the instructed scientific reader,
and accompanied by a
logic equally severe, restored the conviction that, even in
these lower reaches of the scale of being,
appear without the operation of antecedent
The main
by
position of
does not
Pasteur has been strengthened
practical researches of the
has applied the knowledge
life
life.
most momentous kind.
won from
He
his inquiries to the
preservation of wine and beer, to the manufacture of vin-
816
egar, to the staying of the plague
which threatened utter
destruction of the silk husbandry of France, and to the
examination of other formidable diseases which assail the

higher animals, including man.
provements which
surgery
la
is
Professor
shown by a
Bi^re."'
letter
His relation to the im-
Lister
'*
Etudes sur
Professor Lister there expressly thanks Pas-
teur for having given
him
the only principle which could
have conducted the antiseptic system
The
has introduced into
quoted in his
to a successful issue.
strictures regarding defects of reasoning, to
have been lately accustomed, throw abundant

their author, but
Redi, as
upon
no shade upon Pasteur.
we have
seen, proved the
maggots of putrefy-
ing flesh to be derived from the eggs of
proved putrefaction
lower forms of
which we
light
life
itself
flies;
Schwann
to be the concomitant of
far
Oar
than those dealt with by Redi.
knowledge here, as elsewhere in connection with this subject,
has been vastly extended by Professor Cohn, of Bres-
*'Ko putrefaction," he says, *'can occur in a nitrogenous substance if its bacteria be destroyed and new ones
lau.
prevented from entering

as bacteria,
it.
Putrefaction begins as soon
even in the smallest numbers, are admitted
either accidentally or purposely.
It progresses in direct
proportion to the multiplication of the bacteria,

tarded
when they
exhibit low vitality,
influences which
all
kill
them.
either hinder their
is
it
is
re-
stopped by
development or
All bactericidal media are therefore antiseptic
and disinfecting.""
and
It
was these organisms acting in
P. 43.
In his last excellent memoir Cohn expresses himself thus: *'Wer noch
beut die Faulniss von einer spontanen Dissociation der Proteinmolecule, oder
pn einem unorganisirten Ferment ableitet, oder gar aus 'Stickstoffsplittern'
*
wound and
abscess whicli
hospitals into
frequently converted our
so
and
charnel-liouses,
317
their destruction
is
it
by the antiseptic system that now

which no surgeon would have attempted a few years
The gain is immense to the practicing surgeon as
ago.
renders justifiable opera-
tions
Contrast the anx-
well as to the patient practiced upon.
iety of never feeling sure whether the most brilliant opera-
might not be rendered nugatory by the access of a
tion
few particles of unseen hospital dust, with the comfort

derived from the knowledge that
all
power
of mischief
on
the part of such dust has been surely and certainly annihilated.
But the action
of living contagia extends
the domain of the surgeon.
and
of reproduction
which
characteristic of
indefinite self-multiplication
living things,
beyond
The power
is
coupled with the undeviating fact of con-
and consistency
by penetrating minds, that
tagia "breeding true," has given strength

to a belief long
entertained
epidemic diseases generally are the concomitants of parasitic
life.
"There begins
to be faintly
visible
to
us
vast and destructive laboratory of nature wherein the diseases
which are most
fatal to
animal
life,
and the changes
which dead organic matter is passively

bound together by what must at least be
to
close
analogy of causation."
which, as I have
tagious disease
said,
may be
person smitten by
it
is
liable,
appear
called a very
According to
this
daily gaining converts,
view,
a con-
defined as a conflict between the
and a
specific
organism which multi-
plies at his expense, appropriating his air
and moisture,
Balken zur Stiitze seiner Faulnisstheorie zu zimmem versucht, hat zuerst

den Satz 'keine Faulniss ohne Bacterium Termo' zu widerlegen.'*
* Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy
Council, 1874, p. 5.
die
818
disintegrating his tissues, or poisoning
him by the decom-
positions incident to its growtk.
During the ten years extending from 1859
to 1869, re-
radiant heat in its relations to the
searches on
gaseous
form of matter occupied my continual attention. When

air was experimented on, I had to cleanse it effectually
of floating matter,
and while doing so I was surprised to
notice that, at the ordinary rate of transfer, such matter
passed freely through alkalies, acids, alcohols, and ethers.
The eye being kept sensitive by darkness, a concentrated

beam of light was found to be a most searching test for
suspended matter both in water and in
indefinitely
air
test
indeed
more searching and severe than that furnished
by the most powerful microscope. With the aid of such

a beam I examined air filtered by cotton- wool; air long
kept free from agitation, so as to allow the floating matter
calcined
to subside;
cells of the
between
human
my
air,
and
air
filtered
by the deeper
In all cases the correspondence
lungs.
experiments and those of Schroeder, Pasteur,
and Lister in regard to spontaneous generation was perThe air which they found inoperative was proved
fect.
by the luminous beam to be optically pure and therefore
germless.
Having worked
at the subject
both by experi-
ment and reflection, on Friday evening, January 21, 1870,

I brought it before the members of the Royal Institution.
Two
or three months subsequently, for sufficient practical
reasons, I ventured to direct public attention to the subject in a letter to the
*'
Times."
Such was
my
first
contact
with this important question.
This
letter, I believe,
gave occasion for the
first
public
utterance of Dr. Bastian in relation to this subject.
He

me
did
tlie
819
honor to inform me, as others had informed
Pasteur, that the subject
and
'pertains to the biologist
physician." He expressed ''amazement" at mj reasoning

and warned me that before what I had done could be
undone "much irreparable mischief might be occasioned."
With
preliminary experience to guide and warn
far less
him, the English heterogenist was far bolder than Pouchet

in his experiments,
clusions.
With
and
far
more adventurous
in his con-
organic infusions he obtained the results
of his celebrated predecessor, but he did
much more
the
atoms and molecules of inorganic liquids passing under

his manipulation into those
more "complex chemical com-
pounds," which we dignify by calling them "living organ-
As
isms."'
regards the public
who
take an interest in
such things, and apparently also as regards a large portion of the medical profession, our clever
countryman
suc-
ceeded in restoring the subject to a state of uncertainty

similar to that which followed the publication of Pouchet's
volume
in 1859.
It is desirable that this uncertainty
from
that
all
it
should be removed
minds, and doubly desirable on practical grounds
should be removed from the minds of medical men.
In the present
article,
therefore, I propose discussing this
question face to face with some eminent and fair-minded
member
of the medical profession
who, as regards sponta-
neous generation, entertains views adverse to mine.

a one
it
would be easy
to rest in the
to
impersonal.
name; but
it is
Such
perhaps better
I shall therefore
simply
call
^
"It is further held that bacteria or allied organisms are prone to be engendered as correlative products, coming into existence in the several fermenta-
tions,
just as independently as other less
complex chemical compounds."
Bastian, "Trans, of Pathological Society, " vol. xxvi. 258.
320
mj
proposed co-inquirer
side,
my
With him
friend.
1 shall endeavor, to the
my
best of
conduct this discussion that he who runs

that he
who
reads
may
my
at
so to
ability,
may
read and
my
friend to
understand.
I ask
Let us begin at the beginning.
step into the laboratory of the Royal Institution, where

I place before
him
a basin of thin turnip slices barely cov-
ered with distilled water kept at a temperature of 120 Fahr.
turnip
the
pour
After digesting
for four or
the liquid, boil
off
five
it,
filter
obtain an infusion as clear
We
drinking water.
test
its
number
it,
and
as filtered
cool the infusion,
specific gravity,
be 1006 or higher
we
hours
and
water
of small clean
find
it
to
being
1000.
empty
flasks,
One of
of the shape shown on the margin, are before us.
them is slightly warmed with a spirit-lamp, and its open
end is then dipped into the turnip infusion. The warmed
glass is afterward chilled, the air within the flask cools,
contracts,
sion.
flask.
and
is
followed in
Thus we get
We now heat
its
contraction
by the
infu-
a small quantity of liquid into the

this liquid carefully.
Steam
is
pro-
duced, which issues from the open neck, carrying the air
of the flask along with
tion,
the open neck
The steam within
is
After a few seconds' ebulli-
the flask condenses,
to supply its place,
and
to about four-fifths
of
typical;
it.
again plunged into the infusion.
we may thus
in this
its
fill
way we
volume.
the liquid enters

fill
our
little flask
This description
is
a thousand flasks with a thou-
sand different infusions.

I
now ask my
friend to notice a trough
made
of sheet
handy
copper, with two rows of
derneath
oil;
little
This trough, or bath,
it.
821
Bunsen burners unnearly
is
with
filled
a piece of thin plank constitutes a kind of lid for the
The wood
oil-bath.
perforated with circular apertures
is
wide enough to allow our small flask to pass through and

plunge
which has been heated,
in the oil,
itself
250 Fahr.
Clasped
round by the hot
all
fusion in the flask rises to
its
neck of the
minutes.
now
flask,
With
issues
and the boiling
is
its
not cease to issue, but
from the open
continued for five
its
oil.
violence
is
The steam does

abated.
With a
second pair of tongs held in one hand,

flask is seized close to its
the neck of the
open end, wlare with the other
hand a Bunsen 's flame or an ordinary
spirit
brought under the middle of the neck.
The
dens, whitens, softens,
and
as
is
it
The tongs with the fragment
being withdrawn, the
flask,
is lifted
with
flame
is
glass red-
gently drawn out the
neck diminishes in diameter, until the canal
by evaporation,
not
junction with the flask, and
partially lifts the latter out of the
blocked up.
is
a pair of small brass tongs, an assistant
neck near
seizes the
liquid, the in-
boiling point, which
Steam
sensibly over 212 Fahr.
say, to
its
is
completely
of severed
neck
contents diminished
from the oil-bath perfectly sealed
hermetically.
Sixty such flasks
sawdust,
boiled,
and sealed in the man-
and containing strong infusions
ner described,
mutton,
filled,
turnip,
and transported
to the
Alps.
co-inquirer to
beef,
Thither,
elevation of about 7,000 feet above the sea,
accompany me.
and the weather
of
and cucumber, are carefully packed
is
It is the
month
favorable to putrefaction.
to
I invite
in
an
my
of July,
We
our box at the Bel Alp, and count out fifty-four
open
flasks,
322
with their liquids as clear as filtered drinking water.
however,
six flasks,
examine
closely
has had
the infusion
diness
its fragile
and discover that every one of them

end broken off in the transit from Lon-
what
means.
this
flasks,
and the observed mudknows as well as 1 do
My colleague
the result.
is
Examined with a
pocket-lens, or even
with a microscope of insufficient power, nothing
muddy
the
ance does
is
seen in
liquid; but regarded with a magnifying
thousand diameters or
of a
it
In
We
found muddy.
these,
Air has entered the
don.
is
power
what an astonishing appear-
so,
Leeuwenhoek estimated the popula-
present!
drop of stagnant water at 600,000,000;
tion of a single
probably the population of a drop of our turbid infusion
would be
this
microscope
slowly,
is
others
They
field.
many
The field of the

some wabbling
times multiplied.
crowded with
shooting
organisms,
rapidly
across
the
microscopic
dart hither and thither like a rain of minute
projectiles; they pirouette
and spin so quickly round that
the retention of the retinal impression transforms the
And
living rod into a twirling wheel.
brated naturalists
tell
little
yet the most cele-
us they are vegetables.
From
the
rod-like shape which they so frequently assume, these or-
ganisms are called ''bacteria"
a term, be it here remarked,

which covers organisms of very diverse kinds.
Has
been spontaneously gener-
this multitudinous life
ated in these six
flasks,
or
is
it
the progeny of living
germinal matter carried into the flasks by the entering

air?
If the infusions
are the sterility
have a
self- generative
and consequent clearness
uninjured flasks to be accounted for?
urge
and
matter
is
fairly
by
urge
that
power,
how
of the fifty -four
My
colleague
may
the assumption of germinal
no means necessary; that the air itself
may
823
be the one thing needed to wake up the dormant infusions.
We
will examine this point immediately.

But meanwhile
remind
him
that
am
working
would
I
on the exact lines
I
laid down by our most conspicuous heterogenist.
He dis-
affirms
tinctly
withdrawal of
the
that
atmospheric
the
pressure above the infusion favors the production of or-
and he accounts for their absence in tins of preserved meat, fruit, and vegetables, by the hypothesis that
ganisms
fermentation has hegun in such
that gases have beeir
tins,
generated, the pressure of which has stifled the incipient

life
and stopped
new theory
tin of
of preserved meats.
preserved meat,
the view of testing
neous.
development.*
further
its
fruit, or
its truth,
In well-preserved
Had
its
the
author pierced a
he would have found
tins
is
vegetable under water with

it erro-
he would have found, not
an outrush of gas, but an inrush of water.

this
This
I have noticed
recently in tins which have lain perfectly good for
sixty-three years in the
subjected to the same
Eoyal
test,
Institution.
Modern
yielded the same result.
tins,
From
time to time, moreover, during the last two years, I have

placed glass tubes,
containing clear infusions of turnip,
hay, beef, and mutton, in iron bottles, and subjected them

to air-pressures varying
pheres
pressures,
sufficient
it
is
from ten to twenty-seven atmosneedless to say,
to tear a preserved
meat
tin
far
to
more than
shreds.
After
ten days these infusions were taken from their bottles rot-
ten with putrefaction and teeming with
life.
lapses a hypothesis
Thus
col-
which had no rational foundation, and

which could never have seen the light had the slightest
attempt been made to verify it.
'Beginnings of Life," voL
i.
p. 418.
82J:
Our
fifty- four
vacuous and pellucid flasks also declare
against the heterogenist.
"We expose them to a warm Al-
we suspend them
pine sun by day, and at night
Four
kitchen.
warm
in a
them have been accidentally broken;
of
but at the end of a month we find the fifty remaining

ones as clear as at the commencement. There is no sign
of putrefaction or of life in
We
any of them.
divide these
two groups of twenty- three and twenty- seven
flasks into
respectively (an accident of counting rendered the division
The question now
uneven).
air
can
liberate
Our next experiment

thing more.
will
followed by an inrush of
seven
our
in
the infusions.
pliers,
and some-
this question
and
flasks to a hayloft,
pliers, snip off the sealed
of three-and-twenty.
flasks,
whether the admission of
answer
"We carry the
with a pair of steel
group
is
any generative energy
Each snipping
We
air.
now
and a spirit-lamp,
there,
ends of the
off is of
course
carry our twentyto a ledge over-
looking the Aletsch glacier, about two hundred feet above

the hayloft, from which ledge the mountain falls almost
precipitously to the northeast for about a thousand feet.
wind blows toward us from the northeast that

is, across the crests and snow- fields of the Oberland mounWe are therefore bathed by air which must have
tains.
gentle
been for a good while out of practical contact with either

animal or vegetable
life.
I stand carefully to leeward of
the flasks, for no dust or particle from
must be blown toward them.
I snip
off
all
my
clothes
assistant
ol:
body
ignites the
which I plunge the
pliers,
attached germs or organisms.
Then
spirit-lamp, into the flame of
thereby destroying
An
the sealed end of the flask.
snipping the same process
is
Prior to every
gone through, no flask being
opened without the previous cleansing of the
pliers
by
In this
tHe flame.
way we charge our

mountain
flasks with clean vivifying
We
825
seven- and -twenty
air.
place the fifty flasks, with their necks open, over
a kitchen stove, in a temperature varying from 60 to 90
and
Fahr.,
three
in
twenty-three flasks
two
organisms
days find twenty-one
out of
the
opened on the hayloft invaded by
only of the group remaining free from
After three weeks' exposure to precisely the same
them.
conditions, not one of the twenty- seven flasks
opened in
had given way. No germ from the kitchen air

had ascended the narrow necks, the flasks being shaped
free air
to produce
doubt
clear, I
when
this
They
result.
not,
and as
are
from
free
in
still
the Alps,
as
as they were
life
sent off from London.*
What
is
my
colleague's conclusion from the experi-
ment before us? Twenty-seven putrescible infusions, first

in vacuo, and afterward supplied with the most invigorating air, have shown no sign of putrefaction or of life.
And as to the others, I almost shrink from asking him
whether the hayloft has rendered them spontaneously
generative.
is
Is not the inference here imperative that
not the air of the loft
which
constantly open door with the
something contained in the
observed?
effects
What
is
air,
this
is
it
connected through a
general atmosphere
but
has produced the
that
something?
sunbeam
entering through a chink in the roof or wall, and travers-
ing the air of the
suspended dust
visible in the
loft,
would show
particles.
diffused daylight.
origin of the observed life?

all
it
to be laden with
Indeed the dust
Can
it
If so, are
is
distinctly
have been the
we not bound by
antecedent experience to regard these fruitful particles

'
An
actual experimeut
made
at the Bel
Alp
is
here described.
826
as the
germs
sions.
"We
The name of Baron

Liebig has been constantly mixed up with these discusof
tlie
have,"
observed
life
it
is
said,
"his authority for assum-
ing that dead decaying matter can produce fermentation.'*

True, but with Liebig fermentation was by no means sy-
nonymous with life. It meant, according to him, the shaking asunder by chemical disturbance of unstable molecules.
Does the
ticles?
of our flasks, then, proceed
life
If
my
would ask him,

an assumption
nomena
is
in
'
'
What
from dead par-
should reply "Yes,'' then I
CO- inquirer
warrant does Nature offer for such
Where, amid the multitude
of vital phe-
which her operations have been clearly
traced,
the slightest countenance given to the notion that the
sowing of dead particles can produce a living crop?'*
With regard
to
Baron Liebig, had he studied the
revela-
tions of the microscope in relation to these questions,
mind
so penetrating could never have missed the signifi-
cance of the facts revealed.
He, however, neglected the
microscope, and
but
as that in
fell into
error
not into error so gross
support of which his authority has been
in-
Were he now alive, he would, I doubt not, reputhe use often made of his name Liebig' s view of
voked.
diate
fermentation was at least a scientific one, founded on pro-
found conceptions of molecular
instability.
by no means involves the notion
But
this
view
that the planting of
" Sticks tofisplittern" as Cohn contemptuthem followed by the sprouting of infuso-
dead particles
ously calls
is
rial life.
Let us now return to London and

the dust of
maid has
its
air.
Suppose a room
just finished her
work
fix
in
our attention on
which the house-
to be completely closed,
327
with the exception of an aperture in a shutter through
The
which a sunbeam enters and crosses the room.

placed in the aperture to condense the beam.
now converged
rays are
the dust
is
intensity of
the eye
floating
is
to a cone, at the
raised to almost
Its parallel
apex
of
which
unbroken whiteness by the
illumination.
its
float-
Let a lens be
ing dust reveals the track of the light.
Defended from
all
glare,
peculiarly sensitive to this scattered light.
London rooms
dust of
is
organic,
burned without leaving visible residue.

spirit-lamp flame
upon the
The
and may be
The
action of a
floating matter has
been
else-
where thus described:

In a cylindrical beam which strongly illuminated the
dust of our laboratory, I placed an ignited spirit-lamp.
Mingling with the flame, and round its rim, were seen
curious wreaths of darkness resembling an intensely black
smoke. On placing the flame at some distance below the
beam, the same dark masses stormed upward. They were

blacker than the blackest smoke ever seen issuing from the
funnel of a steamer; and their resemblance to smoke was so
perfect as to prompt the conclusion that the apparently pure
flame of the alcohol-lamp required but a beam of sufficient
intensity to reveal its clouds of liberated carbon.
But is the blackness smoke? This question presented
red-hot poker,
itself in a moment, and was thus answered:
was placed underneath the beam; from it the black wreaths
also ascended.
large hydrogen flame, which emits no
smoke, was next employed, and it also produced with augmented copiousness those whirling masses of darkness.
Smoke being out of the question, what is the blackness ?
It is simply that of stellar space; that is to say, blackness
resulting from the absence from the track of the beam of all
matter competent to scatter its light. When the flame was
placed below the beam, the floating matter was destroyed
828
171 situ; and the heated air, freed from this matter, rose into
the beam, jostled aside the illuminated particles, and substituted for their light the darkness due to its own perfect
Nothing could more forcibly illustrate the

which renders all things visible.
The beam crossed, unseen, the black chasm formed by the
transparency.
invisibility of the agent
air, while, at both sides of the gap, the thickstrewn particles shone out like a luminous solid under the
powerful illumination.
transparent
Supposing an infusion intrinsically barren, but readily
common
air,
be brought into contact with this unilluminable
air,
when exposed
susceptible of putrefaction
to
what would be the result?
It
would never
might, however, be urged that the air
is,
it
may
an easy escape from this

ever,
difficulty,
which
is
by the
Let a condensed
flame.
of the
beam
is
based, howair
has been
its
sent
common
seen within the flask
the
revealing the light, and the light revealing the dust.

the flask, stuff
its
"We have
beam be
through a large flask of bolthead containing
The track
by
a spirit-lamp
life.
upon the unproved assumption that the
affected
It
be thought, no longer the oxygen suitable
development and maintenance of
for the
putrefy.
spoiled
is
Oxygen passed through
violent calcination.
flame
to
air.
dust
Cork
neck with cotton- wool, or simply turn
mouth downward and leave it undisturbed for a day or

Examined afterward with the luminous beam, no
two.
it
track
is
The
through a vacuum.
itself,
flask.
being
Were
now
it
through
the light passes
visible;
floating
matter
the
has
flask
as
abolished
attached to the interior surface of the
our object, as
effectually detain the dirt,

^
it
will be subsequently, to
we might
coat that surface with
See page 142, voL I
329
some sticky substance. Here, then, wittiout ** torturing"

the air in any way, we have found a means of ridding it,
or rather of enabling
We
to rid itself, of floating matter.
it
have now to devise a means of testing the action
of such spontaneously purified air
"Wooden chambers, or
sions.
having
structed,
glass
infu-
are accordingly con-
cases,
side-windows,
fronts,
Through the bottoms
doors.
upon putrescible
of the
and back-
chambers test-tubes
pass air-tight; their open ends, for about one-fifth of the
length of the tubes, being within the chambers.

ion
is
made
for a free connection
nels between the inner
Provis-
through sinuous chan-
and the outer
air.
Through such
channels, though open, no dust will reach the chamber.
The top
by a circular hole
by a sheet of IndiaThis is pierced in the middle by a pin, and
rabber.
through the pin-hole is pushed the shank of a long pipette
ending above in a small funnel. The shank also passes
of each
two inches
chamber
perforated
is
in diameter, closed air-tight
through a stuffing-box of cotton- wool moistened with glyc-
by the rubber and wool,

the pipette is not likely in its motions up and down to
The illustration (page
carry any dust into the chamber.
erine;
so that,
tightly clasped
830) shows a chamber, with six test-tubes,
dows
Wj
pipette
its
which connect the
and
c,
air of the
its
its
side-win-
sinuous channels a b
chamber with the outer
The chamber is
main quiet for two or three days.
carefully closed and permitted
ning by a
beam
sent through
its
Examined
windows, the
air.
to re-
at the beginair is
found
laden with floating matter, which in three days has wholly

disappeared.
To prevent
surface of the
chamber was
erine.
The
its
ever rising again, the internal
at the outset coated with glyc-
fresh but putrescible liquid
is
introduced into
830
the six tubes in succession
by means
of the pipette.
Per-
mitted to remain witliout further precaution, every one

The
of the tubes would putrefy and fill itself with life.
liquid has been in contact with the dust- laden air outside
by which
destroyed.
it
has been infected, and the infection must be
This
is
done by plunging the six tubes into
and boiling the infusion. The time

requisite to destroy the infection depends wholly upon
Two minutes' boiling suffices to destroy some
its nature.
a bath of heated oil
contagia,
whereas two hundred minutes' boiling
fails
to
After
destroy others.
the
doned
been
infusion lias
sterilized,
withdrawn, and the liquid^ whose putresci-
oil- bath is
bilitj
tlie
331
has been in no way
ajffected
by the
boiling, is aban-
to the air of the chamber.
With such chambers
I tested, in the
of 1875-76, infusions of the
autumn and winter
most various kinds, embracing
natural animal liquids, the flesh and viscera of domestic
game,
animals,
many
of
its
any of the
were
series of infusions,
fifty
tested,
There was no shade of uncer-
them repeatedly.
tainty in
More than
and vegetables.
fish,
chambers, each with
results.
In every instance we had,
within the chamber, perfect limpidity and sweetness, which

in
some cases
more than a year
lasted for
without
chamber, with the same infusion, putridity and

lent to the notion that an infusion deprived
its
life
life,
char-
In no instance was the least countenance
acteristic smells.
inherent
its
the
and placed
by heat
of its
in contact with air cleansed of
visibly suspended matter,
has any power to generate
anew.
Eemembering then
the
number and
variety of the in-
fusions employed, and the strictness of our adherence to
the rules of preparation laid
themselves; remembering that
down by the heterogenists

we have operated upon the
very substances recommended by them as capable of furnishing, even in untrained hands, easy
of
spontaneous generation,
their substances
many
and
we have added to
own if^this pretended
that
others of our
generative power were a reality, surely

fested itself somewhere.
and decisive proofs
it
that in such closed chambers at least five
have been given to
The argument
it,
is
but
now
must have mani-
Speaking roundly,
it
should say
hundred chances
has nowhere appeared.
to be clinched
by an experiment
832
wMcli
will
remove every residue of doubt as to the ability

employed to sustain life. "We open
of the infusions here
and permit the
the back-doors of our sealed chambers,
common
with
air
floating particles to
its
For three months they have remained pellucid
our tubes.
and sweet
flesh,
and vegetable extracts purer than
fish,
ever cook manufactured.
Three days* exposure to the
dusty air suffices to render them muddy,

ing with infusorial
and
applied.
is
How
facts.
I invite
air,
liquids are thus proved, one
and
my
the conclusion
putrefactive
that
the
And
life.
that these particles,
colleague to reflect on these
months
its infallible
in a
warm room
to optically
when
submit, bow to
putrefaction in a few days
exposed to dust-laden air?
liquid
and swarm-
account for the absolute immunity
will he
of a liquid exposed for
pure
The
life.
fetid,
ready for putrefaction when the contaminating
all,
agent
have access to
He
must, I
dust-particles are the cause of
unless he accepts the hypothesis
being dead in
the
air,
are in the
miraculously kindled into living things, he must
conclude that the
life
we have observed
springs from
germs or organisms diffused through the atmosphere.
The experiments with hermetically sealed flasks have

reached the number of 940.
A sample group of 130 of
them were laid before the Koyal Society on January 13,
They were utterly free from life, having been com1876.
Special care
pletely sterilized by three minutes' boiling.
had been taken that the temperatures to which the flasks
were exposed should include those previously alleged to
be
efficient.
The
conditions laid
down by
the heterogenist
were accurately copied, but there was no corroboration

of his results.
Stress
was then
laid
on the question of
warmth, thirty degrees being suddenly added to the tem-
383
peratures with wliicli both of us had previously worked.
Waiving all protest against the caprice thus manifested,

met this new requirement also. The sealed tubes, which
had proved barren in the Koyal Institution, were suspended in perforated boxes, and placed under the supervision of an intelligent assistant in the Turkish Bath in
Jermyn Street. From two to six days had been allowed
I
Mine remained
tubes.
minimum
ture to vary from a
At
as
warmer
the boxes, and
of 101 to a
maximum
of
the end of nine days the infusions were
They were then removed
clear as at the beginning.
to a
in
of the bath
times a day, showed the temjDcra-
off twice or three
112 Fahr.
washing-room
in the
Thermometers placed
for nine days.
read
organisms in hermetically sealed
generation of
the
for
position.
temperature of 115 had been
mentioned as particularly favorable to spontaneous generation.
For fourteen days the temperature of the Turkish
Bath hovered about
this point, falling once as
reaching 116 on three occasions,
on two.
corded.
118 on one,
The result was quite the same

The higher temperatures proved
petent to develop
low as
106,
and 119
as that just re-
perfectly incom-
life.
Taking the actual experiment we have made as a basis

of calculation,
if
our 940 flasks were opened on the hay-
Bel Alp, 858 of them would become
loft of the
The escape
organisms.
proving as
of the
filled
remaining 82 strengthens
does conclusively that not in the
our
case,
air,
nor in the infusions, nor in anything continuous
fused through the

in the air
air,
but in
discrete particles,
and nourished by the
the cause of
to be in
it
life.
some
with
infusions,
Our experiment proves
cases so far apart
we
dif-
suspended
are to seek
these particles
on the hayloft as to per-
384
mit 10 per cent of our flasks to take in

tracting contamination.
air witlioiit con-
A quarter of a century ago Pasteur
proved the cause of
*'
be discontinuous.
have already referred to his observa-
so-called spontaneous generation'* to
tion that 12 out of 20 flasks opened
on the plains escaped
infection, while 19 out of 20 flasks
opened on the Mer de
Our own experiment
Glace escaped.
Bel Alp
at the
is
a more emphatic instance of the same kind, 90 per cent
opened
of the flasks
in the hayloft being smitten, while
not one of those opened on the free mountain ledge was

attacked.
The power
is
of the air as regards putrefactive infection
incessantly changing through natural causes,
are able to alter
it
Of a number of
at will.
in 1876 in the laboratory of the
Royal
and we
opened
flasks
Institution, 42 per
cent were smitten, while 58 per cent escaped.
In 1877 the
proportion in the same laboratory was 68 per cent smitten,

to 82 intact.
infusions in
The greater
1877 was due
mortality, so to speak, of the

to the presence of
diffused its germinal dust in the laboratory

it
to
approximate as regards
air of the
his
causing
infective virulence to the
I would ask my friend to bring

penetration to bear upon all the foregoing
Alpine
scientific
facts.
hay which
air,
loft.
They do not prove spontaneous generation
"impossible.'*
sibilities,'*
My
but to
however, relate not to
*'
pos-
and the experiments just
de-
assertions,
'proofs^
to be
scribed do most distinctly prove the evidence on which
the heterogenist relies to be written on waste paper.
My
results;
am persuaded, dispute these

may be disposed to urge that other able
men working at the same subject have
colleague will not, I
but he
and honorable
arrived at conclusions different from mine.
Most
freely
me
granted; but let
made
885
here recur to the remarks already
speaking of the experiments of Spallanzani, to
in
the effect that the failure of others to confirm his results
hy no means upsets
us suppose that
To
their evidence.
my
the Eoyal Institution, repeats there

obtains
fix the ideas, let
colleague comes to the laboratory of
my
experiments, and
and that he then goes
confirmatory results;
to
University or King's College where, operating with the
same
Will he
infusions, he obtains contradictory results.
be disposed to conclude that the
self- same
substance
is
barren in Albemarle Street and fruitful in Grower Street
His Alpine experience has already made
or the Strand?
known
to
him the
literally
between different samples of

for putrefactive
infection.
differences
infinite
existing
air as regards their capacity
And, possessing
this
knowl-
edge, will he not substitute for the adventurous conclusion

that an organic infusion
is
barren at one place and spon-
taneously generative at another,
more
the
obvious one that the atmospheres of the
which have had access
to
rational
two
and
localities
the infusion are infective in
different degrees?
As
regards workmanship, moreover, he will not
bear in mind that fruitfulness
may
fail to
be due to errors of
manipulation, while harrenness involves the presumption

of correct experiment.
can secure the
latter,
obtain the former.
It is only the careful
while
it is
Barrenness
is
open
to
worker that
every novice to
the result at which the
conscientious experimenter, whatever his theoretic convictions

it,
may
be,
ought to aim, omitting no pains
and resorting only when there
the conclusion that the
life
is
to secure
no escape from
it
to
observed comes from no source
which correct experiment could neutralize or avoid.
336
Supposing
Let us again take a definite case.
my
col-
league to operate with the same apparent care on 100 infusions
or
rather on 100 samples of the same infusion-^
and that 50
we
of
them prove
fruitful
this,
as
*'
who would
but
positive'*
treasure
up the 50
shown by
*'
Not
such, I trust,
As
doubt
Dr. William Roberts,
an exact inver-
is
and negative.'
would be the course pursued by
regards the 50 fruitful
not, repeat the
scrutiny,
fruitful flasks
negative'' results.
sion of the true order of the terms positive
friend.
is
and lower the evidential value of
results,
the 50 barren flasks by labelling them

This, as
Are
There are some who would not only
equally balanced?
say
and 50 barren.
and against heterogeny
to say that the evidence for
flasks
he
my
would,
experiment with redoubled care and
and not by one repetition only, but by many,
sure himself that he had not fallen into error.

scrutiny fully carried out
would
conclusion that here, as in
all
as-
Such faithful
him to the
infallibly lead
other cases, the evidence in
favor of spontaneous generation crumbles in the grasp of

the competent inquirer.
The
botanist
knows
that different seeds possess differ-
ent powers of resistance to heat.'
momentary exposure
ers withstand
for several hours.
it
Some
Most
seeds are rapidly killed, while Pouchet
Paris
Academy
of Sciences in
which had been transported

*
am
ences.
It
of our ordinary*
made known
1866 that
in fleeces of
certain
to the
seeds,
wool from Brazil,
p. 282.
indebted to Dr. Thiselton Dyer for various illustrations of such

is,
however, surprising that a subject of such high
tance should not have been more thoroughly explored.
who
by a
See his truly philosophical remarks on this head in the "British Medical
Journal," 1876,
*
are killed
to the boiling temperature, while oth-
scientific
difEer-
impor-
Here the scoundrela
deal in killed seeds might be able to add to our knowledge.
germinated after four hours' boiling.
air
vary as
botanist.
much among
837
The germs of the
themselves as the seeds of the
In some localities the diffused germs are so ten-
der that boiling for five minutes, or even

sure to destroy
them
all; in
less,
would be
other localities the diffused
germs are so obstinate that many hours* boiling would be
them
The absence or presence
requisite to deprive
would produce
The
scribed.
served
and
of their
desiccated hay
great
as
those
as
differences
it
of germination.
of
greatest endurance
I believe
power
of a truss
that
here de-
have ever ob-
the greatest on record
is
was a
case of survival after eight hours' boiling.
As
regards their power of resisting heat, the infusorial
germs of our atmosphere might be

lowing and intermediate heads:
classified
under the
fol-
Killed in five minutes;
not killed in five minutes, but killed in fifteen; not killed

in fifteen minutes, but killed in thirty; not killed in thirty
minutes, but killed in an hour; not killed in an hour, but

killed in
hours;
two hours; not killed
in two,
but killed in three
not killed in three, but killed in four hours.
have had several cases of survival after
four and five

some survivals after six, and one after
eight hours' boiling.
Thus far has experiment actually
reached; but there is no valid warrant for fixing upon
hours* boiling,
even eight hours as the extreme limit of vital resistance.
Probably more extended researches (though mine have

been very extensive) would reveal germs more obstinate
still.
It is also certain that
we might begin
earlier,
find germs which are destroyed by a temperature
low that of boiling water.
In the presence of such
to speak of a death- point of bacteria
would be unmeaning
but
of this
Science
YI 15
and
far befacts,
and their germs
more anon.
SBS
What present warrant,"
it lias
been asked,
or almost naked,
for supposing that a naked,
**is
speck of
six, or eight hours'
protoplasm can withstand four,
there
boil-
Regarding naked specks of protoplasm I make no
ing?"
know nothing about them,
assertion.
But
ures of fancy.
nor an
**
do
save as the creat-
not as a "supposition,"
affirm,
assumption," nor a "probable guess," nor as "a
wild hypothesis," but as a matter of the most undoubted

fact,
by
desiccated
And
hay
that the spores of the

age,
bacillus,
when thoroughly
have withstood the ordeal mentioned.
I further affirm that these obdurate germs, under the
guidance of the knowledge that they are germs, can be destroyed
by
five minutes' boiling, or
The
explanation.
even
This needs
less.
bacterium perishes at a tem-
finished
perature far below that of boiling water, and
assume that the nearer the germ

condition the more readily will
soften before
is
to
to its final sensitive
succumb
it
it is fair
and during germination.
Seeds
to heat.
This premised, the
simple description of the following process will suffice to
make
its
An
meaning understood.
infusion infected with the most powerfully resistent
germs, but otherwise protected against the floating matters

of the air,
is
gradually raised to
germs as have reached the
its
boiling-point.
and
soft
plastic
state
Such
imme-
diately preceding their development into bacteria are thus
warm room
we might have
the liquid charged with well-developed bacteria.
To anticipate this, at the end of ten or twelve hours we raise
destroyed.
The
infusion
is
then put aside in a
for ten or twelve hours.
If for twenty-four,
the infusion a second
time to the boiling
which, as
before,
their point of
destroys
final
all
germs
development.
The
then
temperature,
appronching
infusion
is
again
889
put aside for ten or twelve hours, and the process of heating
is
"We thus
repeated.
their resistance^
and
sion can withstand this process
number
cient
infusions,
germs in
kill the
if
it
the order of
No
infu-
be repeated a
suffi-
finally kill the last of
them.
Artichoke, cucumber, and turnip
of times.
which had proved specially obstinate when
fected with the germs of desiccated
broken down by
this
method
of
in-
hay, were completely
discontinuous heating,
three minutes being found sufficient to accomplish what

three hundred minutes' continuous boiling
complish.
failed
to ac-
applied the method, moreover, to infusions
of various kinds of hay, including those most tenacious of
Not one
life.
of
them bore the
These results
ordeal.
were clearly foreseen before they were realized,
so that
germ theory fulfils the test of every true theory, that

test being the power of prevision.
When *' naked or almost naked specks of protoplasm"
are spoken of, the imagination is drawn upon, not the objective truth of Nature.
Such words sound like the words
of knowledge where knowledge is really nil.
The possithe
bility
of
a "thin
is conceded by those who

Such a covering may, however, exer-
covering"
speak in this way.

cise
a powerful protective influence.
India-rubber,
for
example,
hard in boiling water for a time
The
uncovered pea to a pulp.

diffusion,
and the consequent
oily surface, or
tain bodies,
to
sufficient to
keeps
it
reduce an
pellicle prevents imbibition,
disintegration.
even the layer of
would act
thin pellicle of
surrounding a pea
air
greasy or
which clings to
some extent
cer-
in a similar way.
*'The singular resistance of green vegetables to sterilization," says Dr. William Koberts, "appears to be due to
some
peculiarity
of
the
surface,
perhaps
their
smooth
S40
glistening epidermis whicli prevented complete wetting of

their surfaces."
by which an
1 pointed out in 1876 that the process
atmospheric germ
of
may
be caused to
gravity
wetted would be an interesting sub-
investigation.
ject
needle
is
may
float
dry microscope
covering- glass
on water for a year.
be similarly kept floating, though

nearly eight
is
times
that
of
sewing-
its
specific
water.
Were
it
not for some specific relation between the matter of the
germ and that of the liquid into which it falls, wetting

would be simply impossible. Antecedent to all development there must be an interchange of matter between the
germ and its environment; and this interchange must obviously depend upon the relation of the germ to its encomAnything that hinders this interchange
passing liquid.
In
retards the destruction of the germ in boiling water.
my
paper, published in the "Philosophical Transactions"
for 1877, I
add the following remark:
germ
by desiccation and other causes as practically to prevent contact between it and the surrounding
The body of a germ, moreover, may be so induliquid.
rated by time and dryness as to resist powerfully the insinuIt would
ation of water between its constituent molecules.
be difficult to cause such a germ to imbibe the moisture necessary to produce the swelling and softening which precede
It is not difficult to see that the surface of a seed or
may be
its
so afiiected
destruction in a liquid of high temperature.
However
face,
this
may be whatever be
or of the body,
of the
spores of Bacillus
they do as a matter of certainty

cumstances,
water.
Ko
exposure for
the state of the sur-
hours
resist,
to
subtilis,
under some
the heat of
cir-
boiling
theoretic scepticism can successfully stand in
way
the
dreds,
if
We
of this fact, established as
341
has been by hun-
it
not thousands, of rigidly conducted experiments.
have now to
test
one of the principal foundations
of the doctrine of spontaneous generation as formulated in
With
this country.
this view,
I place before
my
friend
and co-inquirer two liquids which have been kept for six
in one of our sealed chambers, exposed to opti-
months
cally pure
air.
The one
is
a mineral solution containing
which enter
in proper proportions all the substances
into
the other is an infusion of

might be any one of a hundred other infusions,
the composition of bacteria,
turnip
it
animal or vegetable.
water,
They
and there
are,
Both liquids are as

no trace
of
life
in
in fact, completely sterilized.
over which a
juices
is
little
clear as distilled
either of them.
mutton-chop,
water has been poured to keep
its
from drying up, has lain for three days upon a

warm room. It smells offensively. Placing
plate in our
a drop of the fetid mutton-juice under a microscope,
found swarming with the bacteria of putrefaction.
it is
With
a speck of the swarming liquid I inoculate the clear mineral solution
and the clear turnip infusion, as a surgeon
might inoculate an infant with vaccine lymph.

and-twenty hours the
transparent liquids
In four-
have
become
turbid throughout, and instead of being barren as at
they are teeming with
life.
The experiment may be
first
re-
peated a thousand times with the same invariable result.
To
the naked eye the liquids at the beginning were alike,
to
being both equally transparent
the naked eye they are
alike at the end, being both equally
putrid mutton- juice,

tion
muddy.
Instead of
we might take as a source of
any one of a hundred other putrid
liquids,
infec-
animal or
842
vegetable.
a speck of
solution,
So long as the liquid contains living bacteria

it communicated either to the clear mineral
or
the
to
turnip
clear
infusion,
produces
in
twenty- four hours the effect here described.
We
now vary
the experiment thus: Opening the back-
door of another closed chamber which has contained for
months the pure mineral solution and the pure turnip infusion side by side, I drop into each of them a small pinch
of laboratory dust.
The
effect here is tardier
the speck of putrid liquid was employed.
however, after
fusion
is
its
than when
In three days,
infection with the dust, the turnip in-
muddy, and swarming
as before with
But what about the mineral solution which,
bacteria.
in our first
experiment, behaved in a manner indistinguishable from
At
the turnip-juice?
the end of three days there
a bacterium to be found in
it
is
At
it.
equally innocent of bacterial
not
is
the end of three weeks
We may
life.
repeat
the experiment with the solution and the infusion a hun-
dred times with the same invariable result.
Always
in
the case of the latter the sowing of the atmospheric dust

yields a crop of bacteria
never
in
the former does the
dry germinal matter kindle into active

inference which the reflecting
experiment?
Is
it
increase
and multiply,
aeveloped^ only
What
after
they
one of the liquids
is
the
is
mind must draw from
not as clear as
this
day that while both
and
liquids are able to feed the bacteria

to
life.
to enable
them
have been once fully

able to develop into
active bacteria the germinal dust of the air?

I invite
This
My own
teria,
is
my
friend to reflect
upon
this conclusion;
he
the deportment of the mineral solution as described by others.
experiments would lead
though exceedingly slow and
me
to say that the
difficult, is
development of the bac*
not impossible.
will, I think, see that there is
if
343
no escape from
He may,
it.
he prefers, hold the opinion, which I consider errone-
ous, that
bacteria exist in the
The
desiccated organisms.
the one liquid
is
not as germs but as
air,
inference remains, that while
able to force the passage from the inac-
tive to the active state, the other is not.
But this is not at all the inference which has been

drawn from experiments with the mineral solution. Seeing
its
when once
ability to nourish bacteria
inoculated
with the living active organism,
and observing that no
bacteria appeared in the solution
after long
the
air,
their
the inference was
germs existed in
the
ablest literature of the subject, even that
rogeny,
infected with this error;
is
opposed to hete-
while heterogenists at
home and abroad have based upon

stration of their doctrine.
exposure to
drawn that neither bacteria nor

air.
Throughout Germany the
it
a triumphant
It is proved,
demon-
they say, by the
deportment of the mineral solution that neither bacteria

nor their germs exist in the
air;
hence,
on exposing
if,
a thoroughly sterilized turnip infusion to the
air,
bacteria
appear, they must of necessity have been spontaneously
In the words of Dr. Bastian:
generated.
"We
can only
infer that while the boiled saline solution is quite
inca-
pable of engendering bacteria, such organisms are able to

arise de novo in the boiled organic infusion."
would ask
now?
common
this reasoning
exposed to
inference is
my
eminent colleague what he thinks of
The datum
air
"Therefore
is
"A
mineral solution
does not develop bacteria";

if
the
a turnip infusion similarly ex-
posed develop bacteria, they must be spontaneously gen'
**Proceedings of the Royal Society," vol. xxi,
p.
130.
344
The inference, on the face of it, is an unwarranted one. But while as matter of logic it is inconclusive,
London air is as surely
as matter of fact it is chimerical.
bacteria
as London chimneys
germs
of
the
charged with
The inference just referred to is comare with smoke.
of
by the simple question: "Why, when
disposed
pletely
erated."
your
pure
sterilized
air,
Why
cease ?
side
by
infusion
organic
is
should this generation of
exposed to optically
life
should I be able to preserve
side with
your
de novo utterly
my
turnip- juice
saline solution for the three hun-
dred and sixty- five days of the year, in free connection

with the general atmosphere, on the sole condition that
the portion of that atmosphere in contact with the juice
from floating
shall be visibly free
exposure to that dust
fills it
dust, while three days*
with bacteria?"
Am
I over-
sanguine in hoping that as regards the argument here set
who runs may
forth he
read,
and he who reads may under-
stand ?
We
now proceed
calm and thorough considera-
to the
tion of another subject, more important
the foregoing one, but like
it
somewhat
if
possible than
difficult to seize
by reason of the very opulence of the phraseology, logical

and
rhetorical, in
ject
now
to
which
has been set forth.
it
"the death-point of bacteria."

acquainted with the
tion will
The
sub-
be considered relates to what has been called
modem
Those who happen to be
English literature of the ques-
remember how challenge
after challenge has
been
and to one or two

come to close quarters on
issued to panspermatists in general,
home workers
in particular, to
this cardinal point.
English heterogenist.
rily
over a
fire
It is
obviously the stronghold of the
"Water," he
when some
says, "is boiling mer-
luckless person upsets the ves-
'
'
sel so that
the heated fluid exercises
its
345
scathing influence
body hand, arm, or

Here, at all events, there is no room for doubt.
face.
Boiling water unquestionably exercises a most pernicious
upon an uncovered portion of the
and rapidly destructive

posed that
it is
upon the
effect
which we are composed.
And
'
'
living matter of
should be sup-
lest it
the high organization which, in this case,
renders the body susceptible to heat, he refers to the ac-
on the hen's egg to dissipate the
tion of boiling water

notion.
itself
" The conclusion, " he says, "would seem to force
upon us
that there
something intiinsically
is
rious in the action of boiling water
upon
delete-
living matter
whether this matter be of high or of low organization.

Again,
at another place:
' '
"It has been shown that the
briefest exposure to the influence of boiling water is de-
structive of all living matter.
' '
The experiments already recorded plainly show that

is a marked difference between the dry bacterial
there
matter of the
air,
and the wet,
soft,
and active bacteria
The one can be luxuriantly
of putrefying organic liquids.
bred in the saline solution, the others refuse to be born

there,
while both of them are copiously developed in a
sterilized turnip infusion.
seen,
with the warrant of

other.
Inferences, as
we have
already
founded on the deportment of the one liquid cannot
But
this
is
scientific
be extended to the
logic
what the heterogenist has
exactly
done, thus repeating as regards the death-point of bacteria

the error into which he
air.
Let us boil our
swarming bacteria for
fell
concerning the germs of the
muddy
mineral solution with
five minutes.
its
In the soft succulent
condition in which they exist in the solution not one of

>
Bastian, "Evolution," p. 133.
j^j^j^^ p^
135^
iîd., p. 46.
346
The same
true of the turnip
them escapes
destruction.
infusion
be inoculated with the living bacteria only
the
if it
aerial dust
is
being carefully excluded.
In both cases
the dead organisms sink to the bottom of the liquid, and
without reinoculation no fresh organisms will

the case
is
entirely different
when we
arise.
But
inoculate our tur-
nip infusion with the desiccated germinal matter afloat in

the
air.
The "death-point"
of
bacteria
is
maximum temminimum tempera-
the
perature at which they can live, or the
which they cease to
ture at
live.
for example, they
If,
survive a temperature of 140, and do not survive a temperature of 150, the death- point
somewhere between
lies
Yaccine lymph, for example,
these two temperatures.
is
proved by Messrs. Braidwood and Vacher to be deprived

of its power of infection by brief exposure to a temperature between 140
and 150 Fahr.
as the death- point of the
If
no
infusion,
term
**
named
death-point"
which
for example,
be regarded
lymph, or rather of the
time, however, be
of the heat, the
may
which constitute the
diffused in the lymph,
gium.
This
is
particles
real conta-
for the application
An
a vague one.
will resist five hours' con-
tinuous exposure to the boiling temperature, will succumb

to five days'
that
of
exposure to a temperature 50 Fahr. below
boiling.
The
fully
developed
soft
bacteria
of
putrefying liquids are not only killed by five minutes'

boiling,
but by
less
than a single minute's boiling
in-
deed, they are slain at about the same temperature as the

vaccine.
The same
is
true of the plastic, active bacteria
of the turnip infusion.*

*
and
In
my
paper in the "Philosophical Transactions" for 18 V6, I pointed out
illustrated experimentally the difference, as regards rapidity of development.
347
But, instead of choosing a putrefying liquid for inoculation,
let
stance in
and employ our inoculating subthe following simple way; Let a small wisp of
prepare
us
hay, desiccated
by
age, be
washed in a glass
and
of water,
turnip infusion be inoculated with
let a perfectly sterilized
After three hours' continuous boil-
the washing liquid.
ing the infusion thus infected will often develop luxuri-
ant bacterial
Precisely the same occurs
life.
a turnip
if
infusion be prepared in an atmosphere well charged with
The
desiccated hay-germs.
without special inoculation, and
itself
sistance to sterilization
of
infusion in this case infects
March
last I
is
its
subsequent
On
often very great.
purposely infected the air of our labora-
tory with the germinal dust of a sapless kind of hay

in 1875.
re-
the 1st
Ten groups
of flasks
mown
were charged with turnip
infusion prepared in the infected laboratory, and were after-
ward subjected
to the boiling temperature for periods vary-
ing from 15 minutes
240
to
groups only one was sterilized
been boiled for four
hours.
minutes.
that,
Every
groups which had been boiled for 15,
Out
the
of
ten
namely, which had

flask
of
80, 45,
the
60,
nine
75, 90,
and 180 minutes respectively, bred organisms

afterward.
The same is true of other vegetable infusions.
105,
On
120,
the 28th of February
flasks,
last,
for example,
I boiled six
containing cucumber infusion prepared in an in-
fected atmosphere, for periods of 15, 30, 45, 60, 120,
180 minutes.
Every
veloped organisms.
flask of the
On
and
group subsequently de-
the same day, in the case of three
between water-germs and air- germs; the growth from the already softened
water-germs proving to be practically as rapid as from developed bacteria. This
preparedness of the germ for rapid development is associated with its preparedness for rapid destruction.
848
the boiling was prolonged to 240, 300, and 360 minand these three flasks were completely sterilized.
Animal infusions, which under ordinary circumstances are
flasks,
utes;
rendered infallibly barren by five minutes' boiling, behave

like the vegetable infusions in
hay-germs.
On
an atmosphere infected with
the 30th of March, for example, five flasks
were charged with a clear infusion of beef and boiled for

60 minutes, 120 minutes, 180 minutes, 240 minutes, and 300
Every one
minutes respectively.
of
them became
subse-
quently crowded with organisms, and the same happened

to a perfectly pellucid
same
in
time.
The
mutton infusion prepared at the

numbered by hundreds
cases are to be
which similar powers of resistance were manifested by
infusions of the most diverse kinds.
In the presence of such facts I would ask
whether
it is
my
colleague
necessary to dwell for a single instant on the
one-sidedness of the evidence which led to the conclusion

that all living matter has its life destroyed
est
by "the
exposure to the influence of boiling water."
brief-
An
in-
fusion proved to be barren by six months' exposure to
moteless air maintained at a temperature of 90 Fahr.,

inoculated with
full-grown active bacteria
^fills
when
itself
in
two days with organisms so sensitive as to be killed by a

few minutes' exposure to a temperature much below that
of boiling water.
But the extension
desiccated germinal matter of the air
of this result to the

is
without warrant or
is obvious without going beyond the

But
we have gone far beyond the arguargument itself.
ment, and proved, by multiplied experiment, the alleged
destruction of all living matter by the briefest exposure to
The whole
the influence of boiling water to be a delusion.
justification.
This
logical edifice raised
upon
this basis falls therefore to the
ground; and
tlie
349
argument that bacteria and
being destroyed at 140,
must,
if
their germs,
they appear after ex-
posure to 212, be spontaneously generated,
is,
trust,
silenced forever.
Through the
precautions,
and
variations,
repetitions
observed and executed with the view of rendering
its
the separate vessels employed in this in-
results secure,
quiry have mounted up in two years to nearly ten thousand.
Besides the philosophic interest attaching to the prob-
lem of
life's origin,
which
will be always
immense, there
are the practical interests involved in the application of
here
the
doctrines
The
antiseptic system,
illustrates the
discussed
manner
at
in
to
gravest
moment
sight.
Surgery was once a noble
a noble science.
tic
surgery and medicine.
which I have already glanced,

which beneficent results of the
wake
follow in the
of clear theoretic in-
art;
it is
now, as well,
Prior to the introduction of the antisep-
system, the thoughtful surgeon could not have failed
to learn empirically that there
was something in the
which often defeated the most consummate operative
skill.
That something the antiseptic treatment destroys or

ders innocuous.
At King's
and dresses while a

and water, produced
the wound,
ren-
College Mr. Lister operates
shower of mixed carbolic acid
fine
in
air
the simplest manner, falls upon
the lint and gauze employed in the subse-
quent dressing being duly saturated with the antiseptic.
At
St.
Bartholomew's Mr. Callender employs the dilute
carbolic acid without the spray;
point aimed at
the preventing
but, as regards the real
of the
wound from becom-
ing a nidus for the propagation of septic bacteria

practice in both hospitals
is
the same.
the
Commending
it-
'650
does to the scientifically trained mind, the anti-
self as it
septic system has struck
Had
space allowed,
deep root in Grermany.
it
would have given me pleasure
"germ theory"
to point out the present position of the
phenomena
reference to the
guishing
arguments
are terribly strong
infectious disease, distin-
of
which,
based on analogy
from
however,
those based on actual observa-
have liked
I should
tion.
in
follow up the account I
to
have already given* of the truly excellent researches of

a young and an
on splenic
unknown German
fever,
by an account
physician
named Koch,
what Pasteur has
of
re-
Here we
the most deadly
cently done with reference to the same subject.
have before us a living contagium
of
power, which we can follow from the beginning to the
end
of its life cycle.'
We
find
it
in the blood or spleen
of a smitten animal in the state, say, of short motionless
When
rods.
these rods are placed in a nutritive liquid
on the warm stage of the microscope, we soon see them

lengthening into filaments which
by
side,
some
in
lie,
coiled into knots of a complexity not to be
We
finally see those
innumerable
within
it,
spores,
each with death potentially housed
yet not to be distinguished microscopically from
splenic fever
is
subtilis.
The bacterium
me by M.
of
This formida-
called Bacillus Anihracis.
organism was shown to
last July.
unravelled.
filaments resolving themselves into
the harmless germs of Bacillus
ble
cases, side
forming in others graceful loops, or becoming
Pasteur in Paris
His recent investigations regarding the part
plays pathologically certainly rank
among
the most re-
"Fortnightly Review," November, 1876; see article "Fermentation."
Dallinger and Drysdale had previously
shown what
accomplish, by their admirable observations on the
life
it
ski^l
and patience can
history of the monads.
markable labors of that remarkable man.
351
Observer after
observer had strayed and fallen in this land of
pitfalls,
multitude of opposing conclusions and mutually destructive
being
theories
younger
physiological
struck in amid
mony.
the
result.
dealing
Joubert,
and soon reduced
the chaos,
where previous observers
association with
M.
colleague,
They proved, among
selves to be
In
in
France had supposed themsplenic
fever,
equally virulent factor was simultaneously active.

fever was often overmastered
due solely
ground
to
the latter had
of pathological
and cause
of
tors, all the
to har-
other things, that in cases
with
solely
it
Pasteur
by
Splenic
and
septicaemia,
been
another
frequently
results
made the
inferences regarding the character
Combining duly the two
the former.
fac-
previous irregularities disappeared, every
sult obtained receiving the fullest explanation.
On
re-
study-
ing the account of this masterly investigation, the words
wherewith Pasteur himself feelingly alludes to the

ties
me
and dangers
of the experimenter's art
with especial force:
dans cet art
difficile
*'J'ai tant
de
came home
fois
de Texp^rimentation
difficul-
les plus habiles
bronchent a chaque pas, et que Tinterpr^tation des

n'est pas
moins
p^rilleuse.
"
"Comptes-Eendufl,"
Ixzziii. p. lit.
to
^prouve que
faits
XIV
SCIENCE AND
MAGNET
effect
we
iron;
attracts
MAN
but when we analyze the
learn that the metal
but repelled, the
not only attracted,
is
approach to the magnet be-
final
ing due to the difference of two unequal and opposing

Social progress
forces.
duplex or polar
this
vance
is
is
is
action.
for the
As
most part typified by
a general rule, every ad-
balanced by a partial retreat, every amelioration
associated
more or
less
No
with deterioration.
mechanical improvement, for example,
is
great
introduced for
the benefit of society at large that does not bear hardly
upon
Science, like other things,
individuals.
the operation of this polar law, what
one aspect being bad for
it
Science demands above

Its
tion.
home
is
is
is
subject to
good for
it
under
under another.
all
things personal concentra-
the study of
the mathematician,
quiet laboratory of the experimenter,

the meditative observer of nature.
the
and the cabinet of
Different atmospheres
by the man of science, as such, and the man

Thus the facilities of social and international
are required
of action.
intercourse, the railway, the telegraph,
and the
which are such undoubted boons to the man

act to
tute,
of action, re-
some extent injuriously on the man
Presidential Address, delivered before the
October
(352)
1,
1877, with additions.
post-office,
of
science.
Birmingham and Midland
InstS*
MAN
358
that
concentrativeness
SCIENCE AND
tendency
Their
which,
up
break
to
is
have
as I
said,
an absolute necessity to the
is
investigator.
scientific
The men who have most profoundly influenced the

world from the
scientific side
Faraday,
lation.
have habitually sought
iso-
a certain period of his career, for-
at
Darwin
mally renounced dining out.
bustle of the world in his quiet
and Joule dealt with the weightiest

unobtrusive retirement.
There
lives apart
home
Mayer
scientific questions in
one motive
however,
is,
from the
in Kent.
power in the world which no man, be he a
scientific stu-
dent or otherwise, can afford to treat with indifference;
and that
low-men
the cultivation of right relations with his
is
the
individual, but as a
member
It is
duty in this
of possible
danger and
of society.
overcoming alike the sense
aspect,
fel-
performance of his duty, not as an isolated
the desire for repose, that has placed
me
in
your presence
here to-night.
To look
distance;
of
any
age,
We
able.
at his picture as a whole, a painter requires
and to judge
of the total scientific
achievement
the standpoint of a succeeding age
may, however, transport ourselves
is
desir-
in idea into
the future, and thus survey with more or less completeness the science of our time.
cried,
and contrasted
of other times.
dict of posterity.
will
We
sometimes hear
it
de-
to its disadvantage with the science
do not think that

I think,
this will be the ver-
on the contrary, that posterity
acknowledge that in the history of science no higher
samples of intellectual conquest are recorded than those
which
this age has
made
of these I propose, with

ject of
its
own.
One
of the
most
salient
your permission, to make the sub-
our consideration during the coming hour.
854
It is
now
and product
child
the
generally admitted that the

incalculable
of
man
of to-day is
antecedent time.
His physical and intellectual textures have been woven
him during
for
his passage
through phases of history and
forms of existence which lead the mind back to an abys-
mal
One
past.
that past
which he has derived from
of the qualities
the yearning to let in the light of principles
is
on the otherwise bewildering flux
of
He
phenomena.
been described by the German Lichtenberg as "das

lose Ursachenthier"
whom
the
facts excite a
restless cause-seeking
*'the general
man
that the
it
last
more
of science
possible to share,
is
it is
no longer
and
liberally
and the general
of science
thirty or forty years.
public," because
society of his colleagues

as
men
both among
during the
public, than
in
Never, I venture to say, in the
history of the world has this longing been

to,
animal
kind of hunger to know the sources
from which they spring.

responded
has
rast-
I say
a feature of our time
limits his labors to the
his peers, but shares, as far
the world at large
with
the
fruits of inquiry.
The
celebrated Robert Boyle regarded the universe as
a machine; Mr. Carlyle prefers regarding
as a tree.
it
He
loves the image of the umbrageous Igdrasil better than

that of the Strasburg clock.
an organism with
as
life
machine may be denned
and direction outside
be defined as an organism with
life
a tree
may
and direction within.
In the light of these definitions, I close with the conception of
Carlyle.
be inherent, and
hold to
the
expression of
exercised
The order and energy
by
Clockmaker.
fixed
of
the universe
not imposed from without,
law and
not of
arbitrary will,
what Carlyle would call an Almighty

But the two conceptions are not so much
MAN
BCIENCE AND
opposed to each other after
855
In one fundamental par-
all.
ticular they at all events agree.
They equally imply
the
interdependence and harmonious interaction of parts, and

the subordination of the individual powers of the universal
organism to the working of the whole.
Never were the harmony and interdependence just

referred to so clearly recognized as now.
Our insight
regarding them is not that vague and general insight to
which our fathers had attained, and which, in early times,
was more frequently affirmed by the synthetic poet than
by the scientific man. The interdependence of our day
has become quantitative expressible by numbersleading, it must be added, directly into that inexorable reign
of law which so many gentle people regard with dread.
In the domain now under review men of science had first
to work their way from darkness into twilight, and from
twilight
in
science.
dowed,
day.
into
to
It
is
There
no solution of continuity
not given to any man, however enis
spontaneously
rise
into
coveries grow.
splendor
intellectual
without the parentage of antecedent thought.
Great
Here, as in other cases, we have
first
dis-
the
seed, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear, the last
member
of the series
implying the
first.
Thus, as regards
the discovery of gravitation with which the
ton
name
of
New-
more or less clear concerning it

had entered many minds before Newton's transcendent
j,is
identified, notions
mathematical genius raised

tion.
The whole
and a
to the level of a demonstra-
of his deductions, moreover, rested
the inductions of Kepler.

decessors
it
Newton
upon
shot beyond his pre-
but his thoughts were rooted in their thoughts,
just distribution of
fair portion of the
merit would assign to them a
honor of discovery.
856
Scientific theories
air before
sometimes
like
float
of a doctrine is often practically sealed,
one
rumors in the
The doom
thej receive complete expression.
and the truth of
often practically accepted, long prior to the demon-
is
stration of either the error or the truth.
was discarded before
was proved
it
to
Perpetual motion
be opposed to natu-
ral law; and, as regards the
connection and interaction of
natural forces, intimations of
modern
discoveries are strewn
through the writings of Leibnitz, Boyle, Hooke, Locke and

others.
Confining ourselves to recent times. Dr. Ingleby has

pointed out to
me some
singularly sagacious remarks bear-
ing upon this question, which were published by an anony-
mous
writer in 1820.
in 1829.
The
his
Boget's penetration was conspicuous
Mohr had grasped
in 1837
some deep-lying
truth.
writings of Faraday furnish frequent illustrations of
profound belief
the
in
unity
of
nature.
"I have
long," he writes in 1845, "held an opinion almost amounting to conviction, in
common,
I believe, with other lovers
of natural knowledge, that the various forms
the forces of matter are
under which
made manifest have one common

and mu-
origin, or, in other words, are so directly related
tually dependent, that they are convertible, as

into another,
action."
and possess equivalence
Ted
him
it
were, one
power in
their
His own researches on magneto- electricity, on
electro-chemistry,
tice
of
and on the "magnetization of
light,"
At an early date Mr. Jusmark upon this question. Colding,
directly to this belief.
Grove made
his
though starting from a metaphysical
basis,
grasped event-
ually the relation between heat and mechanical work, and
sought to determine
say that to him
it
experimentally.
who has
And
here let
only the truth at heart, and
me
who
MAN
SCIENCE AND
857
in his dealings with scientific history keeps his soul un-
warped by envy, hatred, or malice, personal or national,

every fresh accession to historic knowledge must be welcome. For every new-comer of proved merit, more especially
should have been previously over-
merit
that
if
he makes ready room in his recognition or his
looked,
But no
reverence.
retrospect of
as yet brought to light a claim
scientific
the positions accorded to two great
Germans
ject are
call
literature
which can sensibly

Path-hewers
affect
as
the
them, whose names in relation to this sub-
linked in indissoluble association.
These names
Mayer and James Prescott
are Julius Eobert
In his essay on "Circles" Mr. Emerson,
Joule.
if
remember
At
rightly, pictured intellectual progress as rhythmic.
given
moment knowledge
marks
its limit.
until
has
is
surrounded by a barrier which
It gradually gathers clearness
by and by some thinker
of exceptional
and strength
power bursts
the barrier and wins a wider circle, within which thought
once more entrenches

accumulates, the
the
mind
new
finds itself
itself.
But
the internal force again
barrier is in
its
surrounded by a
turn broken, and

still
wider horizon.
Thus, according to Emerson, knowledge spreads by
inter-
mittent victories instead of progressing at a uniform rate.
When
Dr.
Joule
first
proved that a weight of
pound, falling through a height of

seventy -two
to
warm
feet,
seven hundred and
generated an amount of heat competent
pound
that in lifting
of
water one degree Fahrenheit, and
the weight so
much
heat exactly disap-
peared, he broke an Emersonian ''circle," releasing

act an
amount
one
of scientific energy
by the
which rapidly overran
a vast domain, and embodied itself in the great doctrine
known
as the "Conservation of
Energy."
This doctrino

658
sum
universe a constant
material
recognizes in the
of
power made up of items among which the most Protean

fluctuations are incessantly going on.
of
Nature were
alive, the thrill
body
It is as if the
and interchange
of its en-
The parts of the

and change, augment and di-
ergies resembling those of an organism.
"stupendous whole"
minish,
shift
appear and disappear, while the total of whicti
they are the parts remains quantitatively immutable.

mutable, because
when change occurs
plus accompanies minus,
Im-
always polar
it is
gain accompanies
no item
loss,
varying in the slightest degree without an absolutely equal
change of some other item in the opposite direction.
The sun warms

of
its
the tropical ocean, converting a portion
which
liquid into vapor,
densed on mountain heights,

ocean from which
and
is
recon-
returning in rivers to the
Up
came.
it
rises in the air
to the point
where con-
densation begins, an amount of heat exactly equivalent

to the molecular
work
work
of lifting the
of vaporization
vapor to the mountain- tops has disap-
peared from the universe.

It will
ing to this loss?
What
is
molecules.
been
the gain correspond-
is
seem when mentioned
pressed in a foreign currency.

the gain
and the mechanical
The
to
be ex-
loss is a loss of heat;
a gain of distance, both as regards masses and
Water which was formerly
lifted to a position
from which
it
at the sea-level has
can
fall;
molecules
which have been locked together as a liquid are now

arate as vapor
which can recondense.
gravity comes into
down upon
the
effectual
hills,
and the
their gorges to the sea.
mountain produces
its
play,
sep-
After condensation
pulling
the
rivers thus created
showers
through
Every raindrop which smites the

definite amount of heat; every river
SCIENCE AND MAN"

develops heat by the clash of
in its course
and the
359
friction of
moreover, the molecular work of vaporization
Compare,
reversed.
then,
cataracts
its
In the act of condensation,
bed.
its
primitive
the
accurately
is
of
loss
solar
warmth with the heat generated by the condensation of

the vapor, and by the subsequent fall of the water from
cloud to sea. They are mathematically equal to each
other.
No particle of vapor was formed and lifted withpaid for
out being
particle
returns
the currency of
as water to the
restitution of
quantitative
gratuitous
in
physical
in
heat;
sea without
There
no
the
no
exact
is
nothing
expenditure
without
that heat.
nature,
solar
equivalent gain, no gain without equivalent expenditure.
With inexorable constancy
the one accompanies the other,
leaving no nook or crevice between them for spontaneity
and necessary play of natural
force.
uniformity of nature ever been broken?
The
to mingle with the pure
Has
this
reply
is:
What
*'Not to the knowledge of science."
has been here stated regarding heat and gravity
applies to the whole of inorganic nature.

illustration
from chemistry.
The meUl
in oxygen, a perfectly definite
amount
Let us take an
zinc
may be burned
of heat being pro-
duced by the combustion of a given weight of the metal.
But
zinc
may
be burned in a liquid which contains
also
a supply of oxygen
in this case
heat which
is
în
water, for example.
produce flame or
but
fire,
it
It does not
does produce
capable of accurate measurement.
But the
heat of zinc burned in water falls short of that produced

in pure oxygen, the reason being that to obtain
gen from the water the zinc must

drogen.
that
the
It is in the
missing
first
its
oxy-
dislodge the hy-
performance of this molecular work
heat
is
absorbed.
Mix
the
liberated
360
hydrogen with oxygen and cause them

heat developed
to recombine; the
mathematically equal to the missing heat.
is
Thus in pulling the oxygen and hydrogen asunder an

amount of heat is consumed which is accurately restored
by their reunion.
This leads up to a few remarks upor the Voltaic batIt is not my design to dwell upon the technical
tery.
features of this wonderful instrument, but simply, by
means of it, to show what varying shapes a given amount
of energy can
assume while maintaining unvarying quanti-
tative stability.
When
that form of power which
we
call
an electric current passes through Grove's battery, zinc
consumed
and
in acidulated water;
able so to arrange matters that
Now
zinc shall be consumed.
may
be, possesses
We
the battery.
battery
We
we
are
current passes no
whatever
the current,
it
the power of generating heat outside
can fuse with
fractory of metals, or
electric light,
in the battery
when no
is
it
and that at any
most
iridium, the
we can produce with
it
re-
the dazzling
terrestrial distance
from the
itself.
will
now, ho\. 3ver, content ourselves with causing
the current to raise a given length of platinum wire,
first
to a blood heat, then to redness, and finally to a white
The heat under these circumstances generated in

by the combustion of a fixed quantity of zinc
heat.
the battery
is
no longer constant, but
generated outside.
heat
is
maximum;
it
varies inversely as the heat
the outside heat be m7, the inside
If
if
the external wire be raised to a
internal heat falls slightly short of the
blood-heat,
the
maximum.
If the wire
be rendered red-hot, the quantity
of missing heat within the battery is greater,
external wire be rendered white-hot, the defect
and
is
if
the
greater
SCIENCE AND
Add
still.
MAN
together the internal and external
duced by the combustion

erated without
is
so
much
so
is
much
heat pro-
of a given weight of zinc,
you have an absolutely constant

within
361
and
The heat gen-
total.
lost within, the heat generated
lost without, the polar
changes already
adverted to coming here conspicuously into play.
Thus
in a variety of ways we can distribute the items of a never-
varying sum, but even the subtle agency of the electric

current places no creative power in our hands.
Instead of generating external heat,
we may cause
the
current to effect chemical decomposition at a distance from
Let
the battery.
for example,
it,
oxygen and hydrogen.
decompose water into
The heat generated
in the battery
under these circumstances by the combustion of a given

weight of zinc falls short of what is produced when there
is
no decomposition.
How
short?
far
The question
ad-
When the oxygen and

hydrogen recombine, the heat absorbed in the decomposimits of a perfectly exact answer.
tion
is
amount
accurately restored,
like, bottle
up the
it
gases, carry in this
battery to the polar

battery,
and
is
exactly equal in
We
to that missing in the battery.
in fact,
is
regions,
and
a hearth on
may,
if
we
form the heat of the
liberate
which fuel
it
is
there.
The
consumed;
but the heat of the combustion, instead of being confined

in the usual
manner
to the hearth itself,
may
be
first lib-
erated at the other side of the' world.
And
here
perplexed
we
are able to solve
scientific
an enigma which long
men, and which could not be solved
until the bearing of the mechanical theory of heat
upon
phenomena of the Voltaic battery was understood.

The puzzle was, that a single cell could not decompose
water.
The reason is now plain enough. The solution
the
Science
16
362
of
an equivalent of zinc in a single
much more than
amount
half the
compose an equivalent
of water,
of heat required to de-
a battery of two
we develop an amount
two -celled battery
is
within
own
its
therefore
and
that decomposition,
to
heat
of
instead
slightly
enough
one.
of
excess
in
the
of
rich
cell can-
does not possess.
it
cells
needed for the decomposition
that
develops not
and the single
not cede an amount of force which
But by forming
cell
to
of
The
water.
pay for
maintain the excess referred
to
cells.
Similar reflections
apply to the thermo-electric
pile,
an instrument usually composed of small bars of bismuth
and antimony soldered alternately together.

current
of
is
here evoked
one face of the
thermo-electric
Like the Yoltaic current, the
current can
its
is
You
origin.
those
worthy
of
subsequently Peltier
comes with singular

material used
current.
He
up
decom-
produce
will
be disposed, and
distant manifestations of
to the face of the pile,
examination.
In 1826
thermo-electricity,
and six
closer
Thomas Seebeck discovered

years
wires,
deflect a magnetic needle at
communicated
to the heat
but the case
heat
and
rightly disposed, to refer
power
electric
by warming the soldered junctions
pile.
position, magnetize iron,
any distance from
The
made an observation which
felicity to
our aid in determining the
in the formation of
the thermo-electric
found that when a weak extraneous current
was sent from antimony
to
bismuth the junction of tha
two metals was always heated, but that whea the
was from bismuth
tion
chilled.
Now
a direction
in
to antimony,
which
it
direc-
wag
antimony the junction
the current in the thermo-pile itself
ways from bismuth

tion
to
is
al^
across the heated junc-
cannot possibly establish
itself
SCIENCE AND
consuming
without
This heat
is
MAN
863
heat imparted to the junction.
tlie
the nutriment of the current.
Thus the heat
generated by the thermo- current in a distant wire is simply

that originally imparted to the pile, which has been
transmuted into
first
form
state of
from
at a distance
first
and then retransmuted into
electricity,
its
origin.
As
water
its
in
vapor passes from a boiler to a distant condenser,
and there assumes

so the heat
primitive form without gain or
its
communicated
loss,
to the thermo- pile distils into
the subtler electric current, which
is,
as
it
were, recon-
densed into heat in the distant platinum wire.
my
In
youth I thought an
me
which was shown
to
machine, that
say,
is to
Suppose
engine
which performed work without the

Let us consider the action of such
expenditure of power.
a machine.
electro -magnetic
a veritable perpetual motion
to
it
from a lower to a higher
be employed to
level.
On examining
pump
water
the battery
which works the engine we find that the zinc consumed

does not yield
its
full
amount
heat thus missing within
is
The quantity
of heat.
of
the exact thermal equivalent
work performed without. Let the water

fall again to the lower level; it is warmed by the fall.
Add the heat thus produced to that generated by the fricof the mechanical
tion,
mechanical and magnetical, of the engine; we thus
obtain the precise
All the effects

paid for;
this
amount
of heat missing in the battery.
obtained from the machine are thus
"payment
for results" being, I
strictly
would
re-
peat, the inexorable method of nature.
Ko
engine,
however subtly devised, can evade
law of equivalence, or perform on

smallest
it
modicum
cannot create.
of work.
its
own account
The machine
distributes,
this
the
but
Is the animal body, then, to be classed
364
When
among machines?
lift
a weight, or throw a stone,
or climb a mountain, or wrestle with
not conscious of
Let us look
actually creating
my
at the antecedents of this force.
the muscle and fat of our bodies from what
mal heat you know
My
this fuel.
combustion
arm
my
of
to
is
heat has been produced.
bustion
to
now
contract
my
amount
of
biceps muscle
The com-
perform external work.
increased; this addi-
is
I lay hold
by the contraction of my biceps

foot.
The blood and
a 56-lb. weight, and
through the vertical space of a
lift it
consumed during
tissue
this
contraction have not devel-
oped in the muscle their due amount

of
Ani-
For every
going on.
is
tional heat being liberated in the muscle itself.

of
derive
eat.
and the ordinary slow
inactive,
quickened, and the heat
is
be due to the slow combustion of
now
blood and tissue
it
We
we
grain of fuel thus burned a perfectly definite
without causing
am
comrade,
and expending force?
heat
would
moment missing
at this
is
raise the temperature of
of heat.
in
my
A quantity
muscle which
an ounce of water some-
I liberate the
what more than one degree Fahrenheit.
weight: it falls to the earth, and by its collision generates
the precise
amount
muscular heat
the heat of
The
case
battery
is
when
ternal heat.
force
thus transferred from
is
external space.
heat missing in the muscle.
of
The
fuel
combustion
is
substantially the
it
consumed
produced
is
same
my
outside
hearth to
body, but
my
body.
as that of the Voltaic
All this points to the conclusion that the
we employ
the
in
performs external work, or produces exin muscular exertion is the force of burn-
ing fuel and not of creative will.

facts
its local
My
body
is
seen
to
In the light of these
be as incapable of generating
energy without expenditure, as the solids and liquids of
MAN
SCIENCE AND
The body,
the Voltaic battery.
365
in other words, falls into
the category of machines.
We
can do with the body
done with the battery

magnetize
water,
The combustion
heat
and
iron,
muscle
of
deflect
may
By
machine a
tric
to
may
already
decompose
magnetic
be made
these effects, as the combustion of zinc
produce them.
we have
that
all
platinum wires,
needle.
produce
all
be caused to
turning the handle of a magneto-elec-
coil of
wire
tween the poles of a magnet.

the coil are unconnected
may
As
be caused to rotate belong as the two ends of
we have simply
to
overcome the
ordinary inertia and friction of the machine in turning the
But the moment the two ends
handle.
of the
coil
are
united by a thin platinum wire a sudden addition of labor

is
thrown upon the turning arm.
labor
is
expended,
equivalent
its
You
The platinum wire
glows.
at a white heat, or
even fuse
When
the
necessary
immediately appears.
can readily maintain
it.
This
is
it
a very remark-
From the muscles of the arm, with a temperwe extract the temperature of molten platinum, which is nearly four thousand degrees. The miracle
able result.
ature of 100,
here
in
is
the reverse of that of the burning bush mentioned
There the bush burned,
Exodus.
sumed: here the body
is
but was not con-
consumed, but does not burn.
The
similarity of the action with that of the Voltaic bat-
tery
when
it
heats an external wire
pointing out.
When
the machine
is
too obvious to need
is
used to decompose
water, the heat of the muscle, like that of the battery,
consumed
in
molecular work, being fully restored when
the gases recombine.

of the muscles
gions,
is
may
As
before, also, the transmuted heat
be bottled up, carried to the polar
and there restored
to its pristine form.
re-
S66
The matter
human body
and here we
of the
the world around us;
human body
the same as that of
is
find the forces of the
identical with those of inorganic nature.
as little as the Yoltaic battery is the animal
ator of force.
beyond
others
all
cre-
and distributing the
transforming
in
it is
supplied, but
it
possesses no crea-
Compared with the notions previously
tive power.
tained regarding the play of

result.
body a
an apparatus exquisite and effectual
It is
energy with which
Just
The problem
of vital
'*
enter-
vital force" this is a great
dynamics has been described
by a competent authority as "the grandest of all." I subscribe to this opinion, and honor correspondingly the man
who
first
no pope,
man
He was
successfully grappled with the problem.
being infallible, but he was a
the sense of
in
whose work
of genius
as science endures.
will
be held in honor as long
have already named him in connec-
our illustrious countryman. Dr. Joule.
tion with
eminent men took up

pendently, but
all
this
Other
subject subsequently and inde-
that has been done hitherto enhances
instead of diminishing the merits of Dr. Mayer.
Consider
power
the vigor of
generating
of
can generate
internal
wood
heat,
heat external to
hammering can warm a

heat
reasoning.
his
nail,
"Beyond
the animal organism
itself.
blacksmith
and a savage by
to its point of ignition.
the
friction
Unless, then,
by
can
we aban-
don the physiological axiom that the animal body cannot

create heat out of nothing,
sion that
to
he
within
it is
principle,
hody.^^
but
are driven to the conclu-
the total heat, within
regarded as the real

the
we
calorific
and
without, that ought
effect
of the oxidation,
Mayer, however, not only
illustrates
states
the
numerically the transfer of mus-
cular heat to external space.
bowler who imparts a
SCIENCE AND
MAN
867
velocity of 80 feet to an 8-lb. ball consumes in the act tV
The
of a grain of carbon.
lieat of tbe
muscle
here
is
dis-
tributed over the track of tbe ball, being developed there
by mechanical friction. A man weighing 150 lbs. consumes in lifting his own body to a height of 8 feet the
heat of a grain of carbon. Jumping from this height the
heat is restored.
The consumption of 2 oz. 4 drs. 20 grs.
of carbon would place the same man on the summit of a
mountain 10,000
feet high.
In descending the mountain
an amount of heat equal to that produced by the combustion of the foregoing
amount
of carbon
muscles of a laborer whose weight
When
lbs.
is
is
150
restored.
dried they are reduced to 15 lbs.
The
weigh 64
lbs.
Were
the
oxidation corresponding to a day-laborer's ordinary work

exerted on the muscles alone, they would be wholly con-
sumed
in 80 days.
Were
the oxidation necessary to sus-
tain the heart's action concentrated
on the heart
itself,
it
would be consumed in 8 days. And if we confine our

attention to the two ventricles, their action would consume the associated muscular tissue in 8J^ days. With a
fulness and precision of which this is but a sample did
Mayer, between 1842 and 1845, deal with ihe great question of vital dynamics.
In direct opposition, moreover, to the foremost scienauthorities of that day, with Liebig at their head,
tific
this solitary
to
Heilbronn worker was led by his calculations
maintain that the muscles, in the main, played the part
of machinery, converting the
ously considered
power
tified
side.
which had been previ-
a mere heat- producer, into the motive
of the organism.
by
fat,
Mayer's prevision has been
events, for the scientific world
is
now upon
jus-
his
868
We
place, tlien, food in our stomaclis as so
Here
and the nutritive
fluid is
poured into the blood.
comes into contact with atmospheric oxygen ad-
it
mitted by the lungs.
or coal might unite with
it
in both cases;
if
viz.,
in
may
work
use the term, are the
carbonic acid and water.
force-products are also the same
heat and
oxygen as wood
a furnace.
The matter-
It unites with the
products of the union,
same
by purely chemical
It is first dissolved
bustible matter.
processes,
much com-
The
heat within the body,
outside the body.
of the organism belongs to the
Thus
domain
or
far every action
either of physics
But you saw me contract the muscle of

me to do so? Was it or was it
my
not the direct action of my will? The answer is, the acOver and above
tion of the will is mediate, not direct.
or of chemistry.
arm.
What
the muscles the
enabled
human organism
is
provided with long
whitish filaments of medullary matter, which issue from

the spinal column, being connected by
it
on the one side
with the brain, and on the other side losing themselves in

the muscles.
Those filaments or cords are the nerves,
which you know are divided into two kinds, sensor and
motor, or, if you like the terms better, afferent and efferent nerves.
The former carry impressions from
the latter convey the behests
ternal world to the brain;

of the brain to the muscles.
ourselves aided
first
Here, as elsewhere,
by the sagacity
of Mayer,
clearly to formulate the part played
the organism.
Mayer saw
the ex-
we
who was
find
the
by the nerves
in
that neither nerves nor brain,
nor both together, possessed the energy necessary to
ani-
mal motion; but he also saw that the nerve could lift a
latch and open a door, by which floods of energy are let
loose.
*'As an engineer," he says with admirable lucid-
SCIENCE AND
MAN
369
*'b7 the motion of his finger in opening a valve or
ity,
loosening a detent can liberate an amount of mechanical
energy almost
compared with
infinite
exciting cause;
its
so the nerves, acting on the muscles, can unlock an

amount of power out of all proportion to the work done
The nerves, according to
by the nerves themselves."
Mayer, pull the trigger, but the gunpowder which they
ignite
is
This
stored in the muscles.
now
the view
is
universally entertained.
The quickness
thought has passed into a proverb,
of
and the notion that any measurable time elapsed between

the infliction of a
wound and
the feeling of the injury
would have
rejected
preposterous
been
as
Haller,
were thought
to
be
transmitted,
years
thirty
Nervous impressions, notwithstanding the
ago.
results of
not
if
instan-
taneously, at all events with the rapidity of electricity.
Hence, when Helmholtz, in 1851, affirmed, as the result

of experiment, nervous transmission to be a comparatively
sluggish process, very few believed him.
may now be made

moves
moves
moves
at the rate of
at the
in
the
His experiments
Sound
lecture -room.
1,100 feet a second;
sound in water
rate of 5,000 feet a second;
light in ether
at the rate of 186,000 miles a second,
ity in free wires
moves probably
at the
in air
and
same
electric-
rate.
But
the nerves transmit their messages at the rate of only 70

feet a second, a progress
which in these quick times might
well be regarded as inordinately slow.
Your townsman, Mr. Gore, has produced by

sis
electroly-
a kind of antimony which exhibits an action strikingly
analogous to that of nervous propagation.
antimony
you
is
in
such a molecular
condition
scratch or heat one end of the rod, the
rod of this
that
when
disturbance
370
propagates
before your eyes to the other end, the
itself
onward march
of the disturbance being
announced by the
development of heat and fumes along the
In some such way the molecules of the nerves are
tion.
and
successively overthrown;
vise
some means
of
winding up his exhausted antimony,
The
would be complete.
comparison
summed
Mr. Gore could only de-
if
blood winds up exhausted
the nutritive
as
up, as
Du Bois-Keymond
has
the
may be
subject
it
by
up,
by a harpoon in
animal were 70 feet long, a second would
If the
tail.
nerves,
summed
reference to the case of a whale struck

the
line of propaga-
elapse before the disturbance could reach the brain.
the impression after
its
arrival
has to diffuse
itself
But
and
throw the brain into the molecular condition necessary to

Then, and not
consciousness.
the
defend
tail to
Another
second
reach the
tail,
between the
itself is
till
then, the
command
to
shot through the motor nerves.
must elapse before the command can
so that
infliction
more than two seconds transpire

the wound and the muscular
of
response of the part wounded.
The
interval required for
the kindling of consciousness would probably more than

suffice
for the
even by a
self
it
destruction of the brain
rifle-bullet.
by
lightning, or
Before the organ can arrange
it-
may, therefore, be destroyed, and in such a case
we may
safely conclude that death is painless.
The experiences
of
common
life
supply us with copi-
ous instances of the liberation of vast stores of muscular
power by an
the nerves.
infinitesimal
We
all
know
vous" organization by a
An
aerial
"priming" of the muscles by

the effect produced on a "ner-
slight
sound which causes
wave, the energy of
affright.
which would not reach a
'
SCIENCE AND
minute fraction of that necessary
MAN
871
thousandth
to raise the
of a grain through the thousandth of an inch, can throw
human frame
the whole
into a powerful mechanical spasm,
followed by violent respiration and palpitation.
may be
of course,
the lamented
appealed to as well as the
merchant
complacently in his
sits
or
sleeping,
eye,
Of
this
ear.
Lange gives the following vivid
knowing whether smoking,
The
illustration:
easy-chair,
not
newspaper reading,
digestion of food occupies the largest portion of
the
his personality.
servant enters the
room with
a tele-
gram bearing the words, "Antwerp, etc.

Jonas and
Co. have failed." "Tell James to harness the horses!"
The servant flies. Up starts the merchant, wide awake;
makes a dozen paces through the room, descends to the
.
counting-house, dictates
He jumps
into his
is
immediately
among
his
commercial friends.
he
is
at
and forwards despatches.
letters,
carriage, the
driver
horses snort,
the bank,
and
their
on the Bourse, and
Before an hour has elapsed
again at home, where he throws himself once more
"Thank God
and now for further
into his easy-chair with a deep-drawn sigh,
am
protected against the worst,
reflection.
'
This complex mass of action, emotional, intellectual,
and mechanical,
is
of the infinitesimal
cil
marks on a
terror,
evoked by the impact upon the retina

waves
bit of
of light
paper.
coming from a few pen-
We
have, as Lange says,
hope, sensation, calculation, possible ruin, and vic-
tory compressed into a moment.
What
chant to spring out of his chair?
The
muscles.
What made
his
contraction of his
muscles contract?
which
lifted the
the muscular power.
Whence
of the nerves,
caused the mer-
An
impulse
proper latch and liberated

this
impulse?
From
the

372
centre of the nervous system.
there?
This
reply that
is
had
it
But how did
its
origin in the
human
originate
it
the critical question, to which
some
will
soul.
The aim and effort of science is to explain the unknown in terms of the known. Explanation, therefore,
is conditioned by knowledge.
You have probably heard
the story of the German peasant, who, in early railway
days, was taken to see the performance of a locomotive.
He had
known carriages to be moved except by

Every explanation outside of this conception lay beyond his experience, and could not be invoked.
After long reflection therefore, and seeing no possible
never
animal power.
escape from
conclusion, he exclaimed confidently to
the
companion, "Es mtlssen doch Pferde darin sein"
his
There must be horses

tive theory
With
may
seem,
Amusing
inside.
it
as this locomo-
illustrates a deep-lying truth.
some may be
me such considerations as these:
are so many speaking-tubes, through
sent from the man to the world; and
are so many conduits through which
reference to our present question,
disposed to press upon
Your motor nerves

which messages are
your sensor nerves
the whispers of the world are sent back to the man.
you have not

is
it
told us
existence of
You
is
the man.
Who
or what
that sends and receives those messages through the
bodily organism?
the
where
But
body
as
Do
not the phenomena point to the
a self within the
self,
which
acts
through
through a skilfully constructed instrument?
picture the muscles as hearkening to the
sent through the motor nerves, and
commands
you picture the sensor

are you
nerves as the vehicles of incoming intelligence;
not bound to supplement this mechanism by the assumption of an entity
which uses
it?
In other words, are you
MAN
SCIENCE AND
not forced by your
a free
human
This
own
exposition into
373
hypothesis of
tlie
soul ?
is fair
reasoning now, and, at a certain stage of the
might well have been deemed conAdequate reflection, however, shows that instead
world's knowledge,
clusive.
it
of introducing light into our minds, this hypothesis con-
You do
sidered scientifically increases our darkness.

in this case explain the
which, as stated above,

explain
Try
unknown
the
unknown
the
is
method
in terms
From
difficulty
the side of science all that
we
not
known,
of science, but
you
the more unknown.
of
to mentally visualize this soul as
from the body, and the

ing
in terms of the
an entity distinct
are warranted in stat-
that the terror, hope, sensation, and calculation of
is
Lange's merchant are psychical phenomena produced by,

or associated with, the molecular processes set
up by waves
of light in a previously prepared brain.
When
but
let
facts present themselves let us dare to face them,
the
rance where
man
it
of science equally dare to confess igno-
What
prevails.
then
is
the causal connec-
and subjective
be-
tween molecular motions and states of consciousness ?
My
tion,
if
answer
any,
is:
between the objective
do not see the connection, nor have I as yet
met anybody who does. It is no explanation to say that

the objective and subjective effects are two sides of one
and the same phenomenon. Why should the phenomenon
have two sides?
This
is
the very core of the difficulty.
There are plenty of molecular motions which do not exhibit this two-sidedness.
it
Does water think or
runs into frost-ferns upon a window-pane
feel
If not,
when
why
should the molecular motion of the brain be yoked to this

mysterious companion
consciousness? We
can
form a
374
coherent
picture of
physical
the
processes
the
stirring
of the brain, the thrilling of the nerves, the discharging of
the muscles, and
all
the subsequent mechanical motions
But we can present to our minds no

the process whereby consciousness emerges,
of the organism.
picture
of
an accidental by-product
either as a necessary link or as
Yet
of this series of actions.
certainly does emerge
it
the prick of a pin suffices to prove that molecular motion
The
can produce consciousness.
sentable
to
boundary
We
the mind.
are
of science fail to extricate us
all
here,
is
in
equally unpre-
upon the
fact,
where the ordinary canons
line of the intellect,
from our
we must deny
are true to these canons,
nomena
reverse process of the
motion by consciousness
production of
difficulties.
If
we
to subjective phe-
influence on physical processes.
Observation
proves that they interact, but in passing from one to the
we meet
other,
able
to
a blank which mechanical deduction
Frankly
fill.
stated,
we have here
is
un-
to deal with
facts almost as difficult to seize mentally as the idea of a
And
soul.
etic
if
you
are content to
make your
*'sour* a po-
rendering of a phenomenon which refuses the yoke of
ordinary physical laws,

exercise of
tainty,
ideality.
however, there
I,
for one,
Amid
all
would not object
to this
our speculative
uncer-
one practical point as clear as
is
the day; namely, that the brightness and the usefulness

of
life,
as well as its darkness
great extent
and
disaster,
upon our own use or abuse
depend
to a
of this miraculous
organ.
Accustomed as
prepared
to
hear
my
am
**
to harsh
poetic
**falsehood" and a *'fib."

for poetry or ideality,
The
language, I
rendering'*
vituperation
am
quite
branded as a
is
unmerited,
and untruth are assuredly very
dif-
MAN
SCIENCE AND
375
The one may vivify, while the other kills.

John extends the notion of a soul to "souls
ferent things.
When
St.
washed
if
in the blood of Christ" does he *'fib"?
the appeal to ideality
is
Kor did he
not to have escaped censure.
can this
man
Indeed,
censurable, Christ himself ought
escape
it.
"How
give us his flesh to eat?" expressed the scep-
Such
unpoetic natures.
tical flouting of
us.
Cardinal Manning would doubtless
tant
who
are
still
among
any Protes-
tell
rejects the doctrine of transubstantiation that
away the
duces "the Body
plain words of his Saviour
"fibs"
Lord"
of the
when he
in the sacrament to a
he
re-
mere
figure of speech.
Though misuse may render
it
grotesque or insincere,
when done
the idealization of ancient conceptions,
and aboveboard,
sciously
tant
We
future.
The world
poetic
it
feeling,
abandons
its
my
in
radically
its
and metaphysics
hundred
it,
will be
another."
subject
to
this
"A
good sym-
the Edda, the Koran, are each remem-
There
new symboL
deal with
Our
welcomed when
"is a missionary to persuade thou-
happiest figure.
years.
affect
pretensions to scientific discovery and con-
men than
selves to
to
will not lightly relinquish its heritage of
The Yedas,
bered by
them
affected
only appropriate clothing
bol," says Emerson,
gift to
from our
different
sents to be ranked as a kind of poetry.
sands.
con-
opinion, an impor-
and any feeling which
profoundly requires
us.
not
are
ancestors,
historic
has,
it
no more welcome
is
They
in all ways,
assimilate them-
and
it
will last a
Then comes a new genius and

ideas of
God and
brings
the soul are obviously
symbolic mutation.
They
are not
now
what they were a century ago. They will not be a century hence what they are now. Such ideas constitute a
876
kind of central energy in
tlie
human mind,
capable, like
the energy of the physical universe, of assuming various

shapes, and
undergoing
various
They
transformations.
baffle
and elude the theological mechanic who would carve
them
to
dogmatic forms.
who understands
the poet
tion
or ought to
is,
They
be,
offer
themselves freely to
his vocation,
find
to
*'
thoughts woven into our subjective
and whose funchabitation" for
local
life,
but which refuse
to be mechanically defined.
We
now stand face to face with the final problem.

It is this: Are the brain, and the moral and intellectual
processes known to be associated with the brain and, as
far as our
experience goes, indissolubly associated
ject to the laws
ure?
man, in other words,
Is the will of
and nature equally
**
bound
his
Fichte recoiled.
this latter
the entire satis-
it to
German thinker
understanding, the great
You
nat-
free, or are it
From
fast in fate"?
conclusion, after he had established

faction of
sub-
which we find paramount in physical
will find the record of this struggle
between head and heart in his book, entitled *'Die Bestim-
mung
Menschen"
des
was determined
The
but the price he paid for
To
task.
reigning
Vocation of
at all hazards
it
to
Man.*
indicates the difficulty of the
escape from the iron necessity seen everywhere

in
physical
nature,
he turned defiantly round
upon nature and law, and affirmed both of them

products of his own mind. He was not going
slave of a thing which he had himself created.
a good deal to be said in favor of this
>
Fichte
maintain his freedom,
Translated by Dr. William Smith of Edinburgh
to be the
to
be the
There
is
view, but few of
Trubner, 1873.
MAN
SCIENCE AND
877
US probably would be able to bring into play the solvent
transcendentalism whereby Fichte melted his chains.
Why
ror,
do some regard
this notion of necessity
while others do not fear
somewhere said that a

earnest minds?
Freedom
"It
not Nature," says Fichte, "it
and most
greatest
disorders incident to our race are produced.
crudest
enemy
But the question
man."
of
and
sponsibility here emerges,
of this responsibility that so
He
thought
it
untrue
even
practical consequences.
many
in the
"Analogy," that
Man
is
the
of moral re-
of us dread.
absurd
He
is
terrible
the possible loosening
it is
tion of necessity certainly failed to frighten
its
ter-
belief in destiny is the bias of all
is
by which the
itseK,
with
Has not Carlyle
at all?
it
but
The
no-
Bishop Butler.
he did not fear
showed, on the contrary,
as far as
human conduct
is
con-
cerned, the two theories of free-will and necessity would
come
to the
What
is
same in the end.
meant by
of
producing
as
it
Does
free-will ?
without
events
it
imply the power
antecedents?
were, upon a creative tour of
of
any impulse from within or from without?

sider the point.
reason
why
starting,
occurrences without
Let us con-
there be absolutely or relatively no
If
a tree should
fall, it will
not
be absolutely or relatively no reason
fall;
why
and
if
there
man should
act,
he will not
this
assembly could not persuade
this
moment, the power to lift my arm if I wished to do

Within this range the conscious freedom of my will
so.
It is true that the united voice of
act.
cannot be questioned.
*'wish"?
Are we,
or
that I have not, at
But what about the origin of the

are we not, complete masters of
the circumstances which
tendencies to action?
me
create our wishes,
Adequate
motives, and
reflection will,
I think,
878
What,
prove that we are not.

to
for example,
do with the generation and development
some
will consider
my
tent factor 01
mj
being
total
the
ning of this discourse,
my
were woven for me, not

or regulation of which I
I am.
Here, surely,
hands of the
potter.
of that
which
and others a most po-
total being,
living, speaking organ-
As
ism which now addresses you?
have I had
stated at the begin-
physical and intellectual textures
bi/
Processes in the conduct
me.
had no share have made me what
if
anywhere, we are as clay in the
It
the greatest of delusions to
is
suppose that we come into this world as sheets of white

paper on which the age can write anything
ing us good or bad, noble or
The age can

but
pacities,
stunt, promote, or
it
Owen, who saw

ers
human
of
doctrine
mak-
pervert pre-existent ca-
The worthy Robert
cannot create them.
in external circumstances the great moldcharacter,
by making
the
was obliged
man
It is as fatal as it is
stances.
it likes,
mean, as the age pleases.
himself
supplement his
to
one of the circum-
cowardly to blink
cause they are not to our taste.
How many
facts be-
disorders,
ghostly and bodily, are transmitted to us by inheritance?
In our courts of law, whenever
it
is
a question whether
a crime has been committed under the influence of insanity,
the best guidance the judge and jury can have
is
rived from the parental antecedents of the accused.
among
these insanity be exhibited in
hanced,
because the experience of

is
If
any marked degree,
the presumption in the prisoner's favor
judge and jury that insanity
de-
life
is
enormously en-
has taught both
frequently transmitted from
parent to child.
some years ago, in a railway carriage the govone of our largest prisons. He was evidenîy an
I met,
ernor of

MAN
SCIENCE AND
879
observant and reflective man, possessed of wide experience gathered in various parts of the world and a thor-
ough student
th?at
The
three distinct classes.
who ought never

dent,
He
of the duties of his vocation.
the prisoners in his charge might be
and not internal
taint,
me
consisted of persons
first class
have been in prison.
to
told
divided into
External
acci-
had brought them within the
grasp of the law, and what had happened to them might
happen
to
most of
They were
us.
essentially
men
of
sound moral stamina, though wearing the prison garb.
Then came
the largest class,
sessing no strong bias,
formed of individuals pos-
moral or immoral, plastic to the
touch of circumstances, which could mold them into either
good or
members
evil
happily not a large one

ciliate
Thirdly came a class
of society.
whom
and no discipline tame.
no kindness could con-
They were
sent into this
world labelled "incorrigible,'* wickedness being stamped,

as
it
were,
upon
their organizations.
ant truth, but as a truth
it
It
was an unpleas-
ought to be faced.
For such
criminals the prison over which he ruled was certainly not
the proper place.
their prison should
If confined at all,
be on a desert island, where the deadly contagion of their
example could not
taint the
moral
But the
air.
sea itself
he was disposed to regard as a cheap and appropriate substitute for the island.
State
would
benefit
if
It
seemed to him evident that the
prisoners of the
first class
erated; prisoners of the second class educated;

ers of the third class put
It is not,
were
lib-
and prison-
compendiously under water.
however, from the observation of individuals
that the argument against "free-will,'* as

stood, derives
its
principal force.
indefinitely strengthened
It
is,
when extended
commonly underas already hinted,
to the race.
Most

880
you have been forced to listen to the outcries and

nunciations which rang discordant through the land
of
some years
after the publication of Mr.
of Species."
Well, the world
has for the most part settled
Darwin's book simply
we who
are
now
to the front
from lower
reflects
for
Origin
the clerical world
in the belief that Mr.
files
of time"
that
have come
through almost endless stages of promotion

forms of
of us
life.
were given the privilege of looking
back through the eons across which

its
*'
the truth of nature:
'foremost in the
to higher
any one
If to
even
down
Darwin's
de-
life
has crept toward
present outcome, his vision, according to Darwin, would
ultimately reach a point
when the
progenitors of this as-
sembly could not be called human.

through the interaction of
society,
storing
from
up
From that humble

members and the
its
one emerged;
of their best qualities, a better
this again a better still; until at length,
tegration
of infinitesimals
we came
to be
by the
in-
through ages of amelioration,
what we are to-day.
We
of this genera-
had no conscious share in the production of this grand

and beneficent result. Any and every generation which
The favored organpreceded us had just as little share.
tion
isms whose garnered excellence constitutes our present

store
owed
their advantages,
norance are obliged to
to
first,
what we
in
our
call ^'accidental variation";
ig-
and,
secondly, to a law of heredity in the passing of which our

suffrages were not collected.
With
and precision Mr. Matthew Arnold
characteristic felicity
lifts this
question into
the free air of poetry, but not out of the atmosphere of

truth,
when he
ascribes the process of amelioration to *'a
power not ourselves which makes
for righteousness."
then, our organisms, with all their tendencies
and
If,
eapaci-
MAN
SCIENCE AND
381
and
are given to us without our being consulted;
ties,
if,
while capable of acting within certain limits in accordance
with our wishes, we are not masters of the circumstances
which motives and wishes originate;
in
our
finally,
if,
motives and wishes determine our actions
in
what sense
can these actions be said to be the result of free-will?
Here,
we
again,
confronted with the question of
are
moral responsibility, which, as

of
lately,
moving the
I
tiger,"
much
has been
it
With
desirable to meet.
fear of our falling
and
"the ape
writers,
is
it
talked
the view of re-
back into the condition
propose to grapple with
this
of
by certain
so sedulously excited
question in
rudest form, and in the most uncompromising way.
its
"If,"
says the robber, the ravisher, or the murderer, "I act be-
cause I must
my
sible for
act,
what right have you
deeds?"
The reply
is,
protect itself against aggressive
to
whether they be bond or
man."
for what
of
"Then,"
free,
"The
respon-
right of society
and injurious
forces,
forces of nature or forces
retorts the criminal,
I cannot help."
me
to hold
"Let
it
"you punish me
be granted," says so-
"but had you known that the treadmill or the gallows was certainly in store for you, you might have
ciety,
Let us reason the matter fully and frankly out.
*helped.'
We
may
entertain
no malice or hatred against you;
enough that with a view

tion
we
are determined
to our
that
own
you and such
as
not enjoy liberty of evil action in our midst.
you
we should
a wild beast.
The
shall
You, who
have behaved as a wild beast, we claim the right

or kill as
it is
safety and purifica-
to cage
public safety
is
matter of more importance than the very limited chance

of
your moral renovation, while the knowledge that you
^82
have been hanged by the neck may furnish to others

about to do as you have done the precise motive which
will hold
them back.
If
your act be such as to invoke
a minor penalty, then not only others, but yourself, may

On the homely
profit by the punishment which we inflict.
make-
principle that *a burned child dreads the
fire,* it
you think twice before venturing on a
repetition of your
Observe, finally, the consistency of our conduct.
crime.
You
will
offend,
you
we cannot help
then,
cally,
as
you cannot help
say, because
We
to the public detriment.
punish,
is
punishing, for the public good.
Practi-
Bishop Butler predicted, we act as the
world acted when
it
supposed the evil deeds of
inals to be the products of free-will.**
"What,** I have heard

ing about duty,
offending,
our reply, because
if
it
argued,
its
crim-
**is
the use of preach-
a man*s predetermined position in the
moral world renders him incapable of profiting by ad-
Who
vice?**
er's last
word
knows
is
that he
incapable?
is
The preach-
a factor in the man*s conduct, and
it
may
be a most important factor, unlocking moral energies which
might otherwise remain imprisoned and unused.

preacher thoroughly
feel
that
If
the
words of enlightenment,
courage, and admonition enter into the
list
of forces em-
ployed by Nature herself for man's amelioration, since she

gifted
man with
upon
his tongue.
speech, he will suffer no paralysis to fall
Dung
until its barrenness has

let the
the fig-tree hopefully, and not
been demonstrated beyond a doubt
sentence go forth, **Cut
it
down,
why cumbereth
it
the ground?'*
'
Aa
eminent Church dignitary describes all this, not unkindly, as "trucuI think it worthy of his Grace's graver consideration.
lent logic."
MAN
SCIENCE AND
remember wlien
883
youth in the town of Halifax, some
two-and-thirty years ago, attending a lecture given by a
young man
to a small
The
but select audience.
aspect of
the lecturer was earnest and practical, and his voice soon
He spoke
riveted attention.
of duty, defining
as a debt
it
owed, and there was a kindling vigor in his words which
must have strengthened the sense
dom
No
who heard him.
those
duty in the minds
of
of
speculations regarding the free-
of the will could alter the fact that the
words
of that
young man did me good. His name was Greorge Dawson.

He also spoke, if you will allow me to allude to it, of a
subject
social
much
discussed at the time
Suppose, he says, two
subject of "levelling."
equal at night, and that one rises at

sleeps
till
six,
in so speaking he
not by the reduction of
made
we have
piece of Nature, which, as
men
to
be
while the other
all to
himself the mouth-
seen, secures advance,
common
level,
encouragement and conservation of what

It
Chartist
nine next morning, what becomes of your level-
And
ling?
the
may
is best.
be urged that, in dealing as
hypothetical
criminal,
am assuming
but by the
above with
a state
of
my
things
brought about by the influence of religions which include

the
dogmas
of theology
and the
belief in free-will
state,
namely, in which a moral majority control and keep in
awe an immoral minority.

above
all things,
The
heart of
and desperately wicked.
man
is
deceitful
Withdraw, then
our theologic sanctions, including the belief in free-will
and the condition
of the race will
pies of individual wickedness
duced.
ishers,
of late
We
shall
all,
and murderers.
it
that
be typified by the sam
which have been above ad
is,
become robbers, and rav
From much
would seem that
this
that has been written
astounding inference finds
384
Louse -room in
many
minds.
the
Possibly,
people
who
hold such views might be able to illustrate them by
in-
dividual instances.
The
fear of hell's a
hangman's whip.
To keep the wretch
order.
Eemove
the fear, and the wretch,
instinct,
may become
him
disorderly;
following his natural
but I refuse to accept
"Let us eat and drink, for

by no means the ethical consequence
of a rejection of dogma.
To many of you the name of
George Jacob Holyoake is doubtless familiar, and you are
probably aware that at no man in England has the term
*' atheist" been
more frequently pelted. There are, moreover, really few who have more completely liberated themas a sample of humanity.
to-morrow we die"
selves
is
from theologic notions.
ticians
Mr.
Holyoake
followers to **Eat
Not
is
Among
a leader.
Does he exhort
ury" you
will find these
of dirt is
comfort
is
his
and drink, for to-morrow we die"?
In the August number of the
so.
working-class poli-
*'
Nineteenth Cent-
words from his pen: *'The gospel
bad enough, but the gospel of mere material
He
much worse."
contemptuously
the
calls
Comtist championship of the working man, *'the championship of the trencher."

liberty
which brought with
He would
it
place "the leanest
the dignity and
seK-help" higher than *'any prospect of a

out it."
Such
is
"atheistic" leader;
be ashamed of
the
moral
doctrine
power
of
full plate with-
taught
by
this
and no Christian, I apprehend, need
it.
Most heartily do I recognize and admire the spiritual

if I may use the term, shed by religion on the
minds and lives of many personally known to me. At the
radiance,
AND MAN
SCIEI^CE
same time I cannot but observe how
885
signally, as regards
the production of anything beautiful, religion fails in other
and defender
Its professor
cases.
a brawler and a clown.
is sometimes at bottom
These differences depend upon
primary distinctions of character which religion does not

remove.
may comfort some to know that there are

many whom the gladiators of the pulpit would
It
among us
call "atheists"
and "materialists/' whose
lives,
neverthe-
by any accessible standard of morality, would

more than favorably with the lives of those who
less, as tested
contrast
seek to stamp them with this offensive brand.
When
say "offensive," I refer simply to the intention of those
who
use such terms, and not because atheism or material-
ism,
when compared with many
of the notions ventilated
columns of religious newspapers, has any particular
in the
offensiveness for me.
If
wished to find men who are
scrupulous in their adherence to engagements, whose words

are their bond,
is
subjectively
and
faithful husband,
zen
to
whom
unknown;
if
moral shiftiness of any kind

I
wanted a loving
an honorable neighbor, and
father, a
a just citi-
should seek him, and find him among the band of
"atheists" to which I refer. I have known some of the

most pronounced among them not only in life, but in
death seen them approaching with open eyes the inex-
orable goal, with no dread of a
no hope
their
as
if
of
duties,
their
a heavenly crown,
and
as
eternal
faithful
future
"hangman's whip," with

and still as mindful of
in the
discharge of them,
depended upon their
latest
deeds.
In
letters
addressed to myself, and in utterances ad-
dressed to the public, Faraday
is
often referred to as a
sample of the association of religious faith with moral

SCIENCE 17
.
ele-
386
I
vation.
was
how
nearly his
extravagance,
gentle,
him for fourteen or

and had thus occasion to observe
character approached what might, without
locally intimate with
fifteen years of
my
life,
He was
be called perfection.
impetuous but
self -restrained
strong but
a sweet
and
lofty
men and women; and
courtesy marked his dealings with
though he sprang from the body of the people, a nature

so fine
might well have been
antecedent chivalry.
Christian
the
distilled
Not only
religion
in
its
necessary
from the flower
broader sense was
Faraday's
to
of
spiritual
what many would call the narrow sense held

by those described by Faraday himself as "a very small
and despised sect of Christians, known, if known at all,
as Sandemanians,'' it constituted the light and comfort of
peace, but in
his days.
"Were our experience confined to such cases,
it
would
furnish an irresistible argument in favor of the association

of dogmatic religion with moral purity
already intimated, our experience
and grace.
But, as
not thus confined.
is
In
we may compare with
further illustration of this point,

of
equal magnitude, whose char-
acter, including gentleness
and strength, candor and sim-
Faraday a philosopher
plicity, intellectual
power and moral
elevation, singularly
resembles that of the great Sandemanian,
but
who
has
neither shared the theologic views nor the religious emotions
which formed so dominant a
factor in Faraday's
I allude to Mr. Charles Darwin, the
men
searcher as obedient to the
was the patriarch

fore, as so
lief as
many
to the
desire,
command
Abraham
command
of Grod.
life.
of scientific
of
truth as
I cannot there-
look upon Faraday's religious be-
the exclusive source of qualities shared so conspic-
uously by one uninfluenced by that belief.
To
a deeper
SCIENCE AND
virtue belonging to
human
MAN
nature in
its
387
purer forms I
am
disposed to refer the excellence of both.

Superstition
may
be defined as constructive
which has grown incongruous with
intelligence.
religion
We
may
admit, with Fichte, '*that superstition has unquestionably
constrained
tices
and
panying
stated
its
its
by
abandon many pernicious prac-
subjects to
to adopt
many
useful ones"; the real loss accom-
decay at the present day has been thus clearly
the same philosopher: **In so far as these lamen-
do not proceed from the
priests themselves whose

dominion over the human mind
we can well understand but from the politicians, the
tations
grief at the loss of their
whole matter resolves
itself into this,
that
government has
thereby become more difficult and expensive. The judge

was spared the exercise of his own sagacity and penetration when, by threats of relentless damnation, he could
compel the accused
to
make
The
confession.
evil spirit
formerly performed without reward services for which in

later times
judges and policemen have to be paid."
No man
ever felt the need of a high and ennobling

more thoroughly than this powerful and fervid
teacher, who, by the way, did not escape the brand of
** atheist."
But Fichte asserted emphatically the power
and sufficiency of morality in its own sphere. "Let us
religion
consider," he says, **the highest which

in the absence of religion
moral
man obeys
because
it
is
man can
mean pure
possess
morality.
The
the law of duty in his breast absolutely,
a law unto him; and he does whatever re-
veals itself to him as his duty simply because it is duty.

Let not the impudent assertion be repeated that such an
obedience, without regard for consequences, and without

desire for consequences,
is
in itself
impossible and op-
888
So much
posed to human nature."
was equally
"I have no
distinct.
Faraday
for Fichte.
intention,*'
he says, "of
substituting anything for religion, but I wish to take that
human
part of
nature which
philosophy,
ity,
independent of
is
commerce, the various
without
it."
These were the words
they expressed his latest convictions.
Moral-
and
institutions
and may ex-
habits of society, are independent of religion

ist
it.
of his youth,
would add
but
that
muse of Tennyson never reached a higher strain than

when it embodied the sentiment of duty in ^none:
the
And, because right
Were wisdom
Not
in the
the morality of
apon a very rigid
undone
tutions
right, to follow right
way assumed by our dogmatic

human nature been built up.
which has molded us thus

readily
is
in the scorn of consequence.
and
it
The power
worked with
far has
What
stuff.
teachers has
stern tools
has done cannot be so
it
has endowed us with moral consti-
which take pleasure in the noble, the
and the
true,
sentient
organisms,
just as
surely as
which
has endowed us with
it
aloes
find
beautiful,
and
bitter
sugar
sweet.
That power did not work with delusions, nor

stay
its
hand when such
dogmas, have been
and
cold, pleasure
its
are removed.
ministers
and pain,
shame, pride, love, hate,
Facts, rather than
hunger
fervor,
terror,
awe
will it
and
thirst,
heat
sympathy,
aspiration,
such were
the forces
whose interaction and adjustment throughout an immeasurable past

tellectual,
will
wove the
triplex
web
of
man's physical,
and moral nature, and such are the
in-
forces that
be effectual to the end.
You may
retort that
even on
my own
showing "the
SCIENCE AND
power which makes
sions; for
it
MAN
389
for righteousness" has dealt in delu-
cannot be denied that the beliefs of religion,
including the dogmas of theology and the freedom of the

will,
have had some
molding the moral world.
efiect in
Granted; but I do not think that this goes to the root of
Are you
the matter.
dogmas
are primary,
quite sure that those
beliefs
that they
and not derived?
and
are not
the products^ instead of being the creators^ of man's moral
nature
I think
it is
in one of the Latter-Day Pamphlets
that Carlyle corrects a reasoner,

of
man from
who deduced
a belief in heaven,
by
telling
the nobility
him
that he
puts the cart before the horse, the real truth being that
the belief in heaven
The bird's
Emerson as
derived from the nobility of man.
is
weave
instinct to
typical
its
nest
is
referred to
the force which built cathedrals,
of
temples, and pyramids:

Knowest thou what wove yon woodbird's nest
Of leaves and feathers from her breast,
Or how the
fish outbuilt its shell,
Painting with morn each annual cell?
Such and so grew these holy

"While love and
piles
terror laid the tiles;
Earth proudly wears the Parthenon
As
the best
gem upon her zone;
And Morning
opes with haste her lids
To gaze upon the Pyramids;

O'er England's abbeys bends the sky
As on
its
friends with kindred eye;
For out of Tliought's
These wonders rose
And
"With
interior sphere
to
upper
air,
nature gladly gave them plao.
Adopted them
And
by
into her race,
granted them an equal date
Andes and with Ararat
FRAGMENW OF SCIENCE
890
many
Surely,
utterances which have been accepted as de-
scriptions ought to be interpreted as aspirations, or as hav-
ing their roots in aspiration instead of in objective knowl-
Does the song
edge.
of the herald angels,
"Glory
express the exaltation and the yearning of a

it
God
and on earth peace, goodwill toward men,"
in the highest,
or does
to
human
describe an optical and acoustical fact
host and an audible song
soul
a visible
If the former, the exaltation
and the yearning are man's imperishable possession a ferment long confined to individuals, but which may by and
by become the leaven

lief
Look
If the latter,
of the race.
in the entire transaction
is
then be-
wrecked by non-fulfilment.
East at the present moment as a comment on
to the
the promise of peace on
That promise
is
earth and goodwill toward men.
dream ruined by the experience
teen centuries, and in that ruin
is
of eigh-
involved the claim of
the "heavenly host" to prophetic vision.
But though the
mechanical theory proves untenable, the immortal song and

the feelings
let us
etry,
it
expresses are
ours, to be incorporated,
still
hope, in purer and less shadowy forms in the pophilosophy, and practice of the future.
Thus, following the lead of physical science, we are
brought without solution of continuity into the presence

of problems which, as usually classified,
side the
domain
of physics.
To
lie
entirely out-
these problems thoughtful
and penetrative minds are now applying those methods of

research which in physical science have proved their truth
by
their fruits.
There
is
on
all
hands a growing repug-
nance to invoke the supernatural in accounting for the
human
and the thoughtful minds
just
referred to, finding no trace of evidence in favor of
any
phenomena
of
life;
other origin, are driven to seek in the interaction of social
SCIENCE AND
forces the genesis
and development
If tliey succeed in their search
to succeed
social
significance
is
to
duty
to
of
and
Toward
this
man's moral nature.
I think they are sure
if
now
of social
duty
will, it
not obliterate, the strifes and

beset
great end
it
work; and devoutly wishing
and disfigure our
social
behooves us one and

its
all
consummation, I have
the honor, ladies and gentlemen, to bid

farewell.
391
will be raised to a higher level of
and the deepening sense
be hoped, lessen,
heartburnings which
life.
MAN
you a friendly
XV
PROFESSOR VIRCHOW AND EVOLUTION
world
ours
THIS
clement region
of
but
it
may
the growth of
be that the plant
the bendings and bufietings
a shrub, within
turing of
on the whole, been an
has,
for
it
reaches his estate;

civilization;
certain
of
The
tor-
strengthens
limits,
it.
man
the brute,
through savagery and barbarism his
and through
illusion
and persecution
knowledge of nature, including that of
The
the hardier for
is all
has undergone.
Through the struggles and passions
in-
natural truth;
bias toward natural truth
own
his
his
frame.
must have been strong
to
have withstood and overcome the opposing
forces.
ing appeared in the world before Knowledge
and thoughts,
Feel-
conceptions, and creeds, founded on emotion, had, before
Such thoughts,
conceptions, and creeds must have met a deep and general
the
dawn
of science, taken root in
man.
want; otherwise their growth could not have been so luxuriant,
need
nor their abiding power so strong.
this
led
ually to the differentiation of a caste,
was to cultivate the mystery of
and
to give shape,
life
whose vocation
and
Even
its
it
surroundings,
the savage lived, not
alone, but in a mental world peopled with forms
answering to his capacities and needs.

(392)
event-
name, and habitation to the emotions
which that mystery aroused.
by bread
This general
hunger for the ideal and wonderful
As
time advanced
other words, as the savage opened out into civilized
în
man
393
these
finally
forms were purified and ennobled until they
emerged in the mythology and

"Where
Wound
As
poets,
the magic robe of Poesy
still
lovingly around the Truth.'
itself
the priesthood
their deities, celestial
art of Greece:
would have been
and otherwise, with
and appliances, being more or
all their
retinue
symbols and
less legitimate
personifications of the aspects of nature
justified,
and the phases of
human soul. The priests, however, or those among

them who were mechanics, and not poets, claimed objecthe
tive validity for their conceptions,
external
need and nature
of
man.
dering of the emotions

fact
ideal
ity as
it,
on
and
poetic
that
wages war.
any other part

its
tried to base
upon
It is against this objective renthis thrusting into the region of
and positive knowledge
sciously,
and
evidence that which sprang from the innermost
of
conceptions
essentially
science,
consciously
or
Religious feeling
of
human
is
uncon-
much
as
consciousness
a ver-
and against
subjective side, the waves of science beat in vain.
But when, manipulated by the constructive imagination,

mixed with imperfect or inaccurate historic data, and
molded by misapplied logic, this feeling makes claims
which traverse our knowledge of nature, science, as in
duty bound, stands as a hostile power in
against the
mythologic scenery,
rather than against the
life
Science enters her protest.
if
may
and substance
Sooner or
its
path.
use the term,
of religion, that
later
among
ing people, that scenery will be taken for what

*
It is
**Da der Dichtung zauberische Hiille
Sich noch lioblich urn die Wahrheit wand."
it is
Schiller.
think-
worth
394
as
an
on the part
effort
man
and nature within the range
life
temporary and
of
of
knowledge
essentially
of that
mystery of
to bring the
of
fluxional
his
capacities;
rendering
which transcends
all
in
as a
terms
knowledge, and
admits only of ideal approach.
The
It
signs of the times, I think, point in this direction.
for example, the obvious
is,
aim
of
Mr. Matthew Arnold
amid the wreck
of d6gma, the poetic basis of

remembered that under the circumstances poetry may be the purest accessible truth. In
to protect,
And
religion.
it is
to be
other influential quarters a similar spirit
remarkable
Andrews
article
is
at
*'
matter
is
is
Nineteenth
Century," amid other free utterances, we have

*'If
In.
published by Professor Knight of St.
September number of the
in the
work.
not eternal,
its
this one:
emergence into being
first
a miracle beside which all others dwindle into absolute
insignificance.
process
terial
But, as has often been pointed out, the
unthinkable;
is
the sudden apocalypse of a ma-
world out of blank nonentity cannot be imagined;*
emergence into order out of chaos when 'without form
its
and void'
of
its
of
life, is
merely a poetic rendering of
slow evolution.''^
These are
spoken before the moral
all
the doctrine
bold words to be
philosophy class of
university, while those I have underlined
Scotch
show a remarkThey re-
able freedom of dealing with the sacred text.
peat in terser language what I ventured to utter four years
ago regarding the Book of Grenesis.

esting
and indeed pathetic
opening mind of
*
to
"Profoundly
inter-
are those attempts of the
to appease its
hunger for a Cause.
Professor Knight will have to reckon with the English Marriage Service,
one of whose
made
man
me
all
Collects begins thus:
things of nothing."
"O
God,
who by
thy mighty power hast

But the Book
has no voice in scientific ques-
of Genesis
tions.
It is
a poem, not a
aspect
it
forever beautiful;
and
will
it
is
My
ful."
in
the latter
fiat
as
an
he
replies,
With
has been,
"proceed by a
vital," he asks,
Or"
of volition?
"Aas
question
his
it
agreement with Professor Knight extends
Or was
remoter development from the non-vital?

ated by a
In the former
scientific treatise.
continue to be, purely obstructive and hurt-
"Does the
further.
395
it
still
it cre-
here he emphasizes
always existed in some form or other
eternal constituent of the
"how we
and
still
universe?
do not see,"
can escape from the last alternative."
my
the whole force of
conviction I say,
Nor do
1,
though our modes of regarding the "eternal constituent"
may
not be the same.
When
matter was defined by Descartes, he deliberately
excluded the idea of force or motion from
and from
his definition.
Extension
account.
And, inasmuch
as
matter, gave
ment
in
the
its
In
observed motions were
God, resident outside of
cause.
impulse.
attributes
the impotence of matter to
generate motion was assumed,

referred to an external
its
only was taken into
this connection the argu-
Young's "Night Thoughts"
will
occur to most
readers
"Wlio Motion foreign to the smallest grain
ShoJ;
through vast masses of enormous weight?
Who
bid brute Matter's restive
Such various forms, and gave
Against
land,
wings
to fly?
John ToPutney Churchyard,
this notion of Descartes the great deist
whose ashes
lie
strenuously contended.
unmarked
He
in
affirmed motion to be an in-
that no portion of matter was

and that even the most quiescent solids were ani-
herent attribute of matter

at rest,
lump assume
it
396
mated by a motion
The
of their ultimate particles.
cess of his contention, according to the learned
and
suc-
labori-
ous Dr. Berthold/ entitles Toland to be regarded as the
founder of that monistic doctrine which
is
now
so rapidly
spreading.
seems to
It
me
that the idea of vitality entertained in
our day by Professor Knight closely resembles the idea
motion entertained by his opponents in Toland's day.
of
Motion was then virtually asserted
from matter, and incapable of being gener-
distinct
eris,
ated out of
Hence
matter.
the obvious inference
matter was observed to move.
energy not
on
it
from
shock of
the
withoutthe
its
own
logical
Knight,
*'The evolution of nat-
"may be
non-vital passing into the vital.
And
a fact;
of the
Spontaneous generation
matter
is
not
itself
whether
Vitality,
alive.
seen in a single cell of protoplasm or in the

is
a daily
imaginative guess, unverified by scientific
as yet, an
tests.
form continues, but
But we have no evidence
and hourly apocalypse.
is,
impressed
forces
purely passive recipient of the
changed.
is
ure," says Professor
when
was the vehicle of an
It
repository of
The
the Divine.
subject-matter
the
to be a thing sui gen-
human
brain,
a thing sui generis, distinct from matter, and incapable
of being generated out of matter."

that, in process of time,
It
may
however,
be,
example
vitality will follow the
of motion, and, after the necessary antecedent wrangling,
take
its
place
mother" who
That
**
among
the
attributes
of
**
universal
has been so often misdefined.
matter
is
not
itself
alive"
seems to regard as an axiomatic truth.

'
that
Professor
Knight
Let us place in
"John Toland und der Monismus der Gegenwart,** Heidelberg,
Carl Winter.
PBOFESSOR VIROHOW AND EVOLUTION

contrast with
this
the
notion
397
by the
entertained
philos-
opher Ueberweg, one of the subtlest heads that Grermany
"What
has produced.
weg, "would, in
ess
my
occurs in the brain," says Ueber-
opinion, not be possible,
which here appears in
its
the proc-
if
greatest concentration did
not obtain generally, only in a vastly diminished degree.
Take
a pair of
mice and a cask of
flour.
By
copious
nourishment the animals increase and multiply, and in the
same proportion sensations and feelings
augment.
quantity of these latter possessed by the
first
pair
The
not
is
simply diffused among their descendants, for in that case
more feebly than the first. The sensations and feelings must necessarily be referred back to
the flour, where they exist, weak and pale it is true, and
the last must feel
not concentrated as they are in the
brain."
We
may
not be able to taste or smell alcohol in a tub of fermented

cherries,
trated
but by distillation we obtain from them concen-
Hence Ueberweg's comparison
Kirschwasser.
the brain to a
still,
of
which concentrates the sensation and
feeling, pre-existing, but diluted in the food.
"Definitions," says Mr. Holyoake,'
zon of experience expands.
They
descriptions of the state of a question.
through a discovery at once."
and
"grow
as the hori-
are not inventions, but
Thus
No man
sees all
Descartes's notion
motion, would be put

by a physiologist or a crystallographer of
the present day.
They are not descriptions of the state
of matter,
his explanation of
aside as trivial
of the question.
And
yet a desire sometimes shows
in distinguished quarters to bind us

'
Letter to Lange: "Geschichte des
itself
to conceptions
Materialismus, " zweite Aufl., vol.
p. 621.
'
down
"Nineteenth Century " September, 1878.
ii.
898
which, passed muster in the infancy of
knowledge, but
which are wholly incompatible with our present enlightenment.
Mr.
me
hold
views
to
knowledge
and
seeks to
enunciated by "Democritus
and the
advances
is
think,
That
mathematicians."
sense
when he
Martineau,
definitions
in
undulatory theory was started,

the vibrations of
The example
which was a case
example,
transverse
for
the
was not imagined that

of
sound was
longitudinal vibration.
of
as
both with sound

for
light could be transverse to the
tion of propagation.
substitution of
When,
it
change
should
accordance
practice.
scientific
errs
direc-
at hand,
Now
longitudinal vibrations
the
in
the case of light involved a radical change of conception

as to the mechanical
dium.
But though
with a substance,
properties of the
this
luminiferous me-
change went so far
possessing
the
as to
properties of
fill
space
a solid,
rather than those of a gas, the change was accepted, be-
cause the newly discovered facts

it.
the
of
imperatively demanded
Following Mr. Martineau's example, the opponent of

undulatory theory might effectually twit the holder
it
on his change
might say, "alters
of front.
its
"This ether
style with every
of yours,"
change of service.
Starting as a beggar, with scarce a rag of
cover
its
bones,
it
turns
takings are wanted.
up
as a prince
he
when
You had some show
'property' to
large under-
of reason
when,
with the case of sound before you, you assumed your ether
But now
that new service is rendered necessary by new facts, you
drop the beggar's rags, and accomplish an undertaking,
great and princely enough in all conscience; for it implies that not only planets of enormous weight, but comets
to be a gas in the last extremity of attenuation.
with hardly any weight at
all, fly
through your hypothet-
rBOFESSOR VIRCHOW AND EVOLUTION

ical solid
in
vain,
wo
This would
without perceptible loss of motion."
sound very cogent, but
my
opinion,
it
would be very
899
Equally
vain.
Mr. Martineau's contention that
is
are not justified in modifying, in accordance with ad-
vancing knowledge, our notions of matter.

Before parting from Professor Knight,
We
his courage as well as his insight.
let
me commend
have heard much
of late of the peril to morality involved in the
What
religious belief.
is
worthy of
writes,
respect
all
"that were
and
attention.
admit," he
*'I
proved that the moral faculty was
it
derived as well as developed,
The
not be invalidated.
decay of
Mr. Knight says under this head
its
present decisions would
child of experience has a father
whose teachings are grave, peremptory, and august; and

an earthborn rule may be as stringent as any derived from
a celestial source.
It does not
even follow that a belief in
the material origin of spiritual existence, accompanied
by
a corresponding decay of belief in immortality, must nec-
moral
essarily lead to a relaxation of the
It is certain that it has often
done
so.*
certain that there have been individuals,
fibre of the race.
But
equally
it is
and great
histor-
communities, in which the absence of the latter belief
ical
has neither weakened moral earnestness nor prevented devotional fervor."
the best
men
of
I have elsewhere stated that
my
acquaintance
belong
and beneficent in act

the
let
belief
men
to a class
referred to alone.
They
neither stimulus nor inspiration, while
^were
gret
*
may
who
some
of
thought
assiduously
derive
from
say
with re-
it
it
I in quest of persons who, in regard to the
Is this really certain?
effect,
lofty in
Instead of standing in the relation of cause and
not the "decay" and "relaxation" be merely coexistent, both, per-
haps, flowing from
common
historic antecedents?
400
endowments of human character, are

with the unendowed, I should find some
finer
be ranked
to
characteristic
samples among the noisier defenders of the orthodox beThese, however, are but "hand-specimens" on both
lief.
sides; the
stitute,
therefore,
my
Again,
ence.
Buddha
scribes
prophet;
tal
wider data referred to by Professor Knight con-
a rare,
welcome corroboration
excellent
of
mj
experi-
Professor Blackie, de-
more than
"a great deal
being
as
exceptional, and altogether transcenden-
incarnation of moral perfection."
Buddha preached was
gospel of
Brahma and
divorced not only from

ity,
critic.
And
'
ethics,
the Brahminic Trin-
but even from the existence of Q-od.
ized and gallant voices from the
"what
yet,
human
pure
' '
These
'
civil-
North contrast pleasantly
with the barbarous whoops which sometimes come to us

along the same meridian.
Looking backward from

earnest past, a
my
boyhood fond
but averse to school work,
present standpoint over the
of
lies
play and physical action,
The aversion
before me.
did not arise from intellectual apathy or want of appetite

for knowledge, but simply
teachers lacked the
they taught.
a thread of
many
from the
fact that
my
earliest
power of imparting vitality to what
Athwart
all
play and amusement, however,
seriousness ran through
a sleepless night of
fretted
by the question
versed
in
Scripture;
my
my
character;
childhood has been passed,
"Who made God?"
for
and
loved
the
was well
Bible,
and was
prompted by that love to commit large portions of it to

memory. Later on I became adroit in turning my Script-
"Natural History of Atheism,"
p. 136.
* Ibid., p.
125.
PROFESSOR VIRCHOW AND EVOLUTION^

tiral
knowledge against the Churcli of Rome, but
Church marked onlj
acteristic doctrines of that
The
the limits of inquiry.
401
tlie
char-
for a time
eternal Sonship of Christ, for
example, as enunciated in the Athanasian Creed, perplexed

me.
The
body was
resurrection of the
also a thorn in
mind, and here I remember that a passage in

**
Grave" gave me momentary
my
Blair'
rest.
Sure the same power
That rear'd the piece
Can reassemble the
And
at first
and took
it
down
loose, scattered parts
put them as they were.
The conclusion seemed
for the
my
moment
entirely fair, but
came back to me. I

had seen cows and sheep browsing upon churchyard grass,
which sprang from the decaying mould of dead men. The
flesh of these animals was undoubtedly a modification of
human flesh, and the persons who fed upon them were as
undoubtedly, in part, a more remote modification of the
same substance. 1 figured the self- same molecules as belonging first to one body and afterward to a different one,
and I asked myself how two bodies so related could posThe
sibly arrange their claims at the day of resurrection.
with further thought
difficulties
scattered parts of each were to be reassembled and set as
they were.
But
if
handed over to the one, how could
they possibly enter into the composition of the other?
Omnipotence
contradiction.
itself,
I concluded, could not reconcile the
Thus the plank which
Blair* s mechanical
theory of the resurrection brought momentarily into sight,

disappeared, and I was again cast abroad on the waste
ocean of speculation.
At
the same time I could
by no means get
rid of the
402
idea that the aspects of nature and the consciousness of
man
my
implied the operation of a power altogether beyond
grasp
an
energy the thought of which raised the tem-
perature of the mind, though
refused to accept shape,
it
personal or otherwise, from the intellect.

critics of the
"Saturday Eeview" are
as they sometimes
do
way.
I,
to
justified in
speaking
They owe him
of Mr. Carlyle.
and have a right
ing,
Perhaps the able
announce the
noth-
own
fact in their
am
however, owe him a great deal, and
also in
honor bound to acknowledge
the debt.
Few, perhaps,
come into contact with that illustrious man have shown him a sturdier front than I have,
or in discussing modern science have more frequently
But I could see that his contention at
withstood him.
bottom always was that the human soul has claims and
yearnings which physical science cannot satisfy. England
to come will assuredly thank him for his aflS.rmation of the
who
are privileged to
ethical
may,
and
ideal
Be this as it
of human nature.
now reached in my story the feeling
side
at the period
my
was indefinitely strengthened,
referred to
whole
life
being at the same time rendered more earnest, resolute,
and laborious by the writings

ministered
to
this
result.
Fichte powerfully stirred

lation I
cared
systems,
but a great
little
my
moral pulse.*
for political
deal
Others also
Carlyle.
of
Emerson kindled me, while
for
In this
re-
theories or philosophic
the
propagated
strength of pure and powerful minds.
In
my
life
and
later school
days, under a clever teacher, some knowledge of mathe-
'
The reader
will find in the Seventeenth Lecture of
the "Characteristics of the Present

philosopher.
Age" a sample
Fichte's course on
of the vital
power
of this

physics had
matics and
however,
both was,
But
it.
been
picked up:
and
scanty,
was really with the view
it
mathematics and physics could help

rather
than with
either
science,
continuity of
at
my
resolved to augment
of learning
me
in
1848,
it
fascinated
break
the
me on
Germany.
its
own
account.
duly and honestly out, moral qualities were
There was no room allowed for
incessantly invoked.
in-
no room even for carelessness. The edifice of

had been raised by men who had unswervingly
sincerity
science
to
and devote the meagre funds then
life,
science soon
carry
whether
in other spheres,
disposal to the study of science in
But
To
ventured,
stock of
acquiring distinction in
the desire of
that
my
my
403
followed the truth as
had often
sacrificed
in
is
it
nature;
and in doing so
which are usually potent in
interests
this world.
Among
these
be
among
men of Germany
much insisted on as
rationalistic
conscientiousness in
work
as
And
theologians.
I found
it
could
why, since they had
not
the rewards or penalties of the theologian to offer to their
disciples?
Because they assumed, and were
assuming, that those
whom
justified
in
they addressed had that within
them which would respond
to their appeal.
If
Germany
should ever change for something less noble the simple

earnestness and fidelity to duty, which in those days characterized her teachers,
ally,
it
cadent
will
and through them her sons gener-
Such a decoexist with the most rampant
not be because of rationalism.
Germany might
rationalism without
relation of cause
and
their
standing to each other in the
effect.
My first really laborious investigation, conducted jointly

with my friend Professor Knoblauch, landed me in a re-
'
404
gion which harmonized with

essentially
my
speculative tastes.
It
an inquiry in molecular physics, having
was
refer-
ence to the curious, and then perplexing, phenomena exhibited
by
crystals
when
freely suspended in the magnetio
amid the most complex operations of

its twofold aspect of an attractive and a resIron was attracted by a magnet, bismuth
I here lived
field.
magnetism in
pellent force.
and the crystals operated on ranged themtwo heads. Faraday and Pliicker had
worked assiduously at the subject, and had invoked the
aid of new forces to account for the phenomena.
It was
was
repelled,
selves under these
soon, however, found that the displacement in a crystal
atom of the iron class by an atom of the bismuth

class, involving no change of crystalline form, produced a
complete reversal of the phenomena. The lines through
of an
the crystal
which were in the one case drawn toward the
poles of the magnet, were driven, in the other case, from

these poles.
By
such instances and the reasoning which
they suggested, magne-crystallic action was proved to be
new forces, but to the modifiby molecular arrangement. Whether

diamagnetism, like magnetism, was a polar force, was in
It was
those days a subject of the most lively contention.
finally proved to be so; and the most complicated cases
of magne-crystallic action were immediately shown to be
due, not to the operation of
cation of the old ones
simple mechanical consequences of the principle of dia-
magnetio polarity.
These early researches, which occupied in
my
all
five
and throughout which the molecular

architecture of crystals was an incessant subject of mental contemplation, gave a tinge and bias to my sub-
years of
life,
sequent scientific thought,
and
their influence is easily

traced in
my
subsequent inquiries.
405
For example, during
nine years of labor on the subject of radiation, heat and
were handled throughout by me, not as ends, but as

instruments by the aid of which the mind might perlight
chance lay hold upon the ultimate particles of matter.

Scientific
progress
which incessantly
by
depends
mainly upon two factors
the
strengthening of the mind
interact
and the illumination of phenomena by knowlThere seems no limit to the insight regarding phys-
exercise,
edge.
processes which this interaction
ical
Through such
insight
we
carries
are enabled to enter
in
that subsensible world into which all natural

strike their roots,
By
it
we
atoms and atomic motions which

of the senses,
and to apply
to
lie far
train.
phenomena
and from which they derive
enabled to place before
are
its
and explore
nutrition.
mind's eye
the
beyond the range
them reasoning
as stringent
by the mechanician to the motions and colsensible masses.

But once committed to such
as that applied
lisions of
conceptions, there is a risk of being irresistibly led be-
yond the bounds
Even in those early

myseK more and more
of inorganic nature.
stages of scientific growth, I found
compelled to regard not only crystals, but organic structures,
the
body
of
man
architecture, infinitely
inclusive,
as cases of molecular
more complex,
it is true,
than those
of inorganic nature, but reducible, in the long run, to the
same mechanical
laws.
In ancient journals I find recorded
ponderings and speculations relating to these subjects, and

attempts made, by reference to magnetic and crystalline
phenomena, to present some satisfactory image
to the
mind
way in which plants and animals are built up.

haps I may be excused for noting a sample of these
speculations, already possibly known to a few of my
Per-
of the
early
read-

406
ers,
but whicli here finds a more suitable place than that
which
it
formerly occupied.
Sitting,
in
summer
the
of 1855, with
my
friend Dr.
Debus under the shadow of a massive elm on the bank

of a river in Normandy, the current of our thoughts and
conversation was substantially this: We regarded the tree
above us.
In opposition to gravity its molecules had
ascended, diverged into branches, and budded into innumerable leaves. What caused them to do so a power
external to themselves, or an inherent force?

jects the outside builder;
let us,
Science
therefore, consider
re-
from
the other point of view the experience of the present year.
A low temperature had

vegetable world.
But
kept back for weeks the
life
at length the sun gained
of the
power
rather, the cloud- screen which our atmosphere had

drawn between him and us was removed and life immediately kindled under his warmth.
But what is life,
and how can solar light and heat thus affect it? Near
our elm was a silver birch, with its leaves rapidly quivering in the morning air.
We had here motion, but not the
motion of life. Each leaf moved as a mass under the influence of an outside force, while the motion of life was
inherent and molecular.
How are we to figure this moor,
lecular motion
the forces which
which flow from them ?

from the
tree
it
implies,
and the
results
Suppose the leaves to be shaken
and enabled to
attract
and repel each
other.
To
fix the ideas,
all
the other points and to attract the roots, and the root
suppose the point of each leaf to repel
of each leaf to repel all other roots,
points.
little
The
leaves
but to attract the
would then resemble an assemblage
of
magnets abandoned freely to the interaction of their
own
407
In obedience to these they would arrange
forces.
themselves, and finally assume positions of
forming
rest,
Let ns suppose the breeze, which now
a coherent mass.
causes them to quiver, to disturb the assumed equilibrium.
As
often as disturbed there
the part of the leaves to

this effort the
would be a constant effort on

re-establish it; and in making
mass of leaves would pass through
shapes and forms.
If
other
leaves,
different
moreover, were at
hand endowed with similar forces, the attraction would

extend to them a growth of the mass of leaves being the
consequence.
We
have strong reason for assuming that the ultimate
the
particles of matter
is
atoms and molecules of which
made up are endowed with
The phenomena
Under the operation
of such forces the mole-
cules of a seed, like our fallen leaves in the
instance,
first
take up positions from which they would never
But
undisturbed by an external impulse.

heat,
which come
and
soil these
The
effort,
continue to pour in
On
is
is
and
the inert mole-
an immediate
incessantly defeated
solar light
if
waves impinge, disturbing the
atomic equilibrium, which there

restore.
move
waves through space, are the
to us as
great agents of molecular disturbance.

cules of seed
of crys-
conception of molecu-
tallization, lead, of necessity, to this
lar polarity.
by
forces coarsely typified
those here ascribed to the leaves.
it
for
incessantly renewed;
effort to
the waves
in the
lecular struggle matter is gathered from the soil
mo-
and from
the atmosphere, and built, in obedience to the forces which
guide the molecules, into the special form of the

a general way, therefore, the
life of
tree.
In
the tree might be de-
fined as an unceasing effort to restore a disturbed equi-
librium.
In the building of crystals Nature makes her
408
we have here
structural effort;
first
of the so-called
vital force,"
*'
the earliest groping
and the manifestations
of
and animals, though, as already stated,

more complex, are to be regarded of the same
this force in plants
indefinitely
mechanical quality as those concerned in the building of

the crystal.
Consider the cycle of operations by which the seed
produces the plant, the plant the flower, the flower again
the seed, the causal
planetary orbit to
or
what planned
know
**
science
planned" at
on
its
returning with the fidelity of a
if
We
molecular rhythm?
even to inform us whether
Yonder
all.
it
do not
was ever
butterfly has a spot of orange
we look
at a
drawing made a century
ago, of one of the ancestors of that butterfly,

find the self-same spot
upon the wing.
we probably
For a century the
molecules have described their cycles.
Butterflies
been begotten, have been born, and have died;

find the molecular architecture unchanged.
know; but we stand within our
we say
may
that there
not yet find
involved in
its
is
its
have
still
we
Who
or what
We
do not
persistency of recurrence?
determined this
Who
original point of departure.
this
fails
wing: and
line,
its
intellectual range
when
probably nothing in that wing which
Newton
to prove that the principles
construction are qualitatively the same as
those brought into play in the formation of the solar sys-
tem.
We
the brain
may even take a

of man ^the organ
he can neither think nor
step further,
of his
feel,
is
and
affirm that
reason ^without which

also
an assemblage of
molecules, acting and reacting according to law.
Here,
however, the methods pursued in mechanical science come

to
an end; and
if
asked to deduce from the physical
action of the brain molecules the least of the
inter-
phenomena

of sensation or thought, I acknowledge
The
my
409
helplessness.
association of both with the matter of the brain
may
be as certain as the association of light with the rising of
But whereas in the latter case we have unbroken mechanical connection between the sun and our
the sun.
organs, in the former case logical continuity disappears.
Between molecular mechanics and consciousness

posed a
incompetent to carry
soning
is
accept
the
observed
without being
'priori
is
inter-
over which the ladder of physical rea-
fissure
able
bring
to
We
us.
association
an
as
it
must, therefore,
empirical
fact,
under the yoke of d
deduction.
Such were the ponderings which ran. habitually through

my mind in the days of my scientific youth. They illustrate two things
a determination to push physical con-
siderations to their utmost legitimate
limit; and an acknowledgment that physical considerations do not lead
to the final explanation of all that
This acknowledgment, be
means made with the view
it
of providing
of considerations other than

lectual duality, if 1
may
in the following extract
we
feel
said in passing,
physical.
and know.
was by no
room for the play

The same intel-
use the phrase, manifests
from an
article entitled
and Metaphysics,*' published in the

August 4, 1860:
*'
**
itself
Physics
Saturday Eeview'*
for
**The philosophy of the future will assuredly take more
account than that of the past of the dependence of thought
and feeling on physical processes; and
it
may be
that the
mind will be studied through organic comwe now study the character of a force through
qualities of the
binations as
We
the affections of ordinary matter.

Science VI 18
believe that every

410
thought and every feeling has

relative
that
process
mechanical cor-
accompanied by a certain breaking up
is
it
and remarshalling
its definite
atoms of the brain.
of the
This
purely physical; and were the faculties
is
latter
we now
possess sufficiently expanded, without the creation of any
new
faculty,
it
would doubtless be within the range
augmented powers
to infer
from the molecular
brain the character of the thought acting on

versely,
We
condition of the brain.
be seen,
to
would be an
faculties
do not say
that
all-important
is
ci
side that,
might be so tabulated side
Our present powers, it is

nothingness when brought to bear on
true,
shrivel
into
such a problem, but

our limits that this
other.
is
it
is
because of
the case.
powers
of our
mere expansion
the
this, as will
one were given, a mere reference to the
if
would declare the
with
and
the inference here referred
the state of the brain and the asso-
table
lem and
and, con-
But by observing, with the
priori one.
we assume,
ciated mental affections, both
by
it,
from the thought the exact molecular
infer
to
are,
we
of the latter
Why,
former.
The
its
complexity and
quality of the prob-
believe, so related, that a
would enable them
then,
in
scientific
to cope
speculation
May
should we turn our eyes exclusively to the past?

it
not be that a time
but
still
earth,
advancing
starting
a rudiment,
is
coming
when
the
ages
no doubt
dwellers
upon
distant,
this
fair
from the gross human brain of to-day as
may be
tions faculties of
site
our
of
state of the
able to apply to these mighty ques-
commensurate extent?
Griven the requi-
expansibility to the present senses and intelligence of
man^given
and
this
that
is
also the time necessary for their expansion
high goal
may be
attained.
Development
required, and not a change of quality.
is
all
There need
411
be no absolute breacb of continuity between us and our

loftier brothers
"We
yet to come.
have guarded ourselves against saying that the
inferring of thought from material combinations
rangements would be an inference d
and
The
priori.
ar-
infer-
ence meant would be the same in kind as that which the

observation of the effects of food and drink upon the
mind
would enable us
latter
in
the degree
of
make, differing only from the
analytical
insight
which we suppose
Given the masses and distances of the planets,
attained.
we can
to
on their mutual
Given the nature of a disturbance in water,
infer the perturbations consequent
attractions.
or ether knowing the physical qualities of the medium we can infer how its particles will be affected. In
all this we deal with physical laws.
The mind runs with
certainty along the line of thought which connects the
phenomena, and from beginning to end there is no break
in the chain.
But when we endeavor to pass by a similar
process from the phenomena of physics to those of thought,
we meet a problem which transcends any conceivable expansion of the powers which we now possess. We may
think over the subject again and again, but it eludes all
air,
intellectual presentation.
We
with the Incomprehensible.

wide, but
it
has
its
limits
let
territory
us claim
its
even
in
it
in all its
man
the visible
and
from our vocabulary,
let
forms
himself
experiment with and to speculate upon.

vital force'
is
Let us follow matter to
the muscles, blood, and brain of
of physics
from which we look with vacant
gaze into the region beyond.
utmost bounds,
stand at length face to face
The
as
ours to
Casting the term
us reduce,
if
we
can,
phenomena of life to mechanical attractions

Having thus exhausted physics, and
repulsions.
412
reached
We
us.
And
very rim, a mighty Mystery
its
made no
have, in fact,
thus
will ever loom,
it
still
looms beyond
step toward
its
solution.
compelling the philosophies
of successive ages to confess that

*
As dreams
are
la rounded
by a
my work
In
times
since,
thus extracted from the
The
of,
sleep.'
'We
are such stuff
and our
little life
**
on *'Heat,** published in 1863, and repub-
many
lished
made
distinction
had resolved
at
**
here
is
employ the
clearly
brought out which I
hazards to draw
all
precise language
Saturday Review."
that,
namely, be-
tween what men knew or might know, and what they

could
never hope to know.
power
to
Impart simple magnifying
our present vision, and the atomic motions of
Compare
might be brought into view.
the brain itself
these motions with the corresponding states of conscious-
and an empirical nexus might be established; but
ness,
"we
by
vacuum when we endeavor
try to soar in a
from the one to the other.
logical deduction
these
brain-effects
mechanical
treatment.
We
from another.
motion
open
to us,
and by
'
to pass
Among
new product appears which
it
we deduce
Nevertheless observation
relations
may be
may
really lie in the attempt to convert a
into an inference
My
but
an
desire for the

to let facts
The most
is
established which
are at least as valid as those of the deductive reason.

difficulty
defies
cannot deduce motion from
consciousness or consciousness from motion as
one
'
The
datum
ultimate fact into a product of logic.
moment, however,
is
not to theorize,
speak in reply to accusation.
"materialistic" speculation for which I was
'

responsible, prior to the
**
Belfast Address,'*
is
413
embodied
in the following extract from a brief article written as far
back as 1865:
*'
Supposing the molecules of the human
and thus renewing a

be gathered first-hand from nature,
body, instead of replacing others,

pre-existing form, to
and placed in the exact relative positions which they occupy in the body.
Supposing them to have the same
and distribution of forces, the same motions and
distribution of motions would this organized concourse
forces
of molecules stand before us as a sentient, thinking being ?

it would not.
Or supposing a planet carved from the sun, set spinning
round an axis, and sent revolving round the sun at a distance equal to that of our earth, would one consequence
There seems no valid reason to assume that
of the refrigeration of the mass be the development of
organic forms ?
speaking, but
expressed,
trine.
I lean to the affirmative.
it is
'
This
'
An
without ''dogmatism.'*
a belief, a leaning
not
is
plain
opinion
is
an established "doc-
'
The burden
much
of
my
writings in this connection
is
as
a recognition of the weakness of science as an asser-
In 1867, I told the working
tion of its strength.
Dundee
that while
making the
largest
demand
for
men
of
freedom
of investigation; while considering science to be alike powerful
as an
instrument of intellectual culture, and as a
ministrant to the material wants of men;
asked whether
if
science has solved, or is likely in our day to solve, "the

problem of the universe," I must shake my head in doubt.
I compare the mind of man to a musical instrument with
a certain range of notes, beyond which in both directions

exists
force
silence.
The phenomena
come within our
intellectual range;
infinite
of
matter and
but behind, and
414
above, and around us the real mystery of the universe lies
we
unsolved, and, as far as
are concerned,
incapable
is
of solution.
my mind
While refreshing
on these old themes I ap-
pear to myself as a person possessing one idea, which so
overmasters him that he
That idea
is
of
littleness
spects
and
never weary of repeating
is
it.
the polar conception of the grandeur and the
man
^the
vastness of his range in some re-
and
directions,
powerlessness to take a
his
In 1868, before the Mathematical
single step in others.
and Physical Section of the
Association,
British
then
assembled at Norwich, 1 repeat the same well-worn note:

*'In thus affirming the
growth of the human body to
be mechanical, and thought as exercised by us to have
its
correlative in the physics of the brain, the position of the

'materialist,*
as far as that position
I think the materialist will
against
position
pass beyond
and soul
is
it.
The problem
as insoluble in
human
brain,
claimed, 'Ohne
may
and
modern form
but,
stated.
even
German
if
as
it
body
was in
a constituent of the
is
has
writer
ex-
That may or
Phosphor kein gedankel'
not be the case;
case, the
its
trenchant
is
of the connection of
Phosphorus
the pre-scientific ages.
tenable,
but I do not think he can
attacks,
all
is
be able finally to maintain this
we knew
it
to
be the
knowledge would not lighten our darkness.
On
both sides of the zone here assigned to the materialist he

is
equally helpless.
ter'
of
divided
If
which we have
it
you ask him whence

been
into molecules,
discoursing
the
is
also
materialist
mute
is
this 'mat-
who
what
or
and impressed upon them
necessity of running into organic forms
Science
is
he has no answer.
in regard to such questions.
confounded
and
this
science
is
But
if
rendered

dumb, who
else
is
prepared with
answer?
an
415
Let us
lower our heads and acknowledge our ignorance, priest
and philosopher, one and
all."
The roll of echoes which succeeded the Lecture delivby Professor Virchow at Munich on September 22,
The ** Times*' published a
1877, was long and loud.
ered
nearly full translation of the lecture, and
it
was eagerly
commented on in other journals. Glances from it to an

Address delivered by me before the Midland Institute in
the autumn of 1877, and published in this volume, were
very frequent. Professor Virchow was held up to me in
some quarters as a model of philosophic caution, who by
his reasonableness reproved my rashness, and by his depth
reproved my shallowness. With true theologic courtesy I
was sedulously emptied, not only
scientific
mon
April
for
And
the
am
though I
recalling in the
principles of
indebted to Professor
'Nineteenth
Century" for
mind in this connection from heated

do not think a brief additional exVirchow 's views, and of my relation to them,
public
fancy to sober
amination of
will
**
the
thought," but of *'common modesty" and **com-
sense."
Clifford
of
fact, I
be out of place here.
The keynote
of his position is struck in the preface to
the excellent English translation of his lecture
written expressly
by
himself.
**
further from his intention than
great services rendered
On
admiration than himself.
preface
Nothing," he says, *'wa3
any wish
by Mr. Darwin
of biological science, of which
to disparage the
to the
advancement
no one has expressed more

the other hand,
it
seemed
high time to him to enter an energetic protest against the

attempts that are
made
search as actual facts,
to
proclaim the problems of
and the opinions
of
scientists
re-
as

416
On
established science.'*
It
promotes
among
ground,
tlie
delusions
pernicious
the
others, that
the
of
Socialist,
Virchow considers the theory of evolution dangerous; but

fidelity to truth is so great that
his
danger and teach the
theory,
if
he would brave the
were
it
only proved.
"However dangerous the state of things might be,

confederates be as mischievous as they might,
not hesitate to say that from the
let the
I do
still
moment when we had
become convinced that the evolution theory was a

fectly established doctrine
our oath to
it,
so
so sure that
certain that
we could
communicate
it
it
into our actual
to every educated
to every child, to
make
it
it
*Thus
life,
feel
it is*
any scruple
so as not only to
man, but to impart
it
the foundation of our whole
ideas of the world, of society,
upon
we could pledge
say,
from that moment we could not dare to

about introducing
per-
and the
State,
our whole system of education.
and
to base
This I hold to
be a necessity.**
would be interesting to know the persons designated

by the pronoun "we'* in the first sentence of the foregoing quotation. No doubt Professor Haeckel would accept
this canon in all its fulness, and found on it his justificaIt
He would
tion.
say without hesitation: "I
am
convinced
that the theory of evolution is a perfectly established doctrine,
and hence on your own showing I am
urging
its
introduction
into our schools.**
justified in
It
is
plain,
however, that Professor Virchow would not accept this

retort as valid.
His "we** must cover something more
would probably cover more

even than the audience he addressed; for he would hardly
than Professor Haeckel.
affirm,
even
if
It
every one of his hearers accepted the theory
of evolution, that that
would be a
sufficient
warrant for

upon the public at large. His "we,"
needs definition. If he means that the theory
forcing
it
417
I submit^
of
evolu-
ought to be introduced into our schools, not when

experts are agreed as to its truth, but when the commution
nity
is
right,
prepared for
and
its
that, as a
introduction, then, I think, he
would be wrong in seeking

troduction.
must have
if
is
matter of social policy. Dr. Haeckel

to antedate the period of its in-
In dealing with the community great changes

timeliness as well as truth
upon
their side.
But
the mouths of thinkers be stopped, the necessary social
preparation will
will
an unwholesome divorce
be impossible;
be established between the expert and the public, and
the slow and natural process of leavening the social
by discovery and discussion
will
lump
be displaced by some-
thing far less safe and salutary.
The burden, however, of this celebrated lecture is a

warning that a marked distinction ought to be made between that which is experimentally proved, and that which
is
still
in the region of
As
He
speculation.
to
the latter,
Virchow by no means imposes silence.

is far too saman to commit himself, at the present time of
day, to any such absurdity. But he insists that it ought
gacious a
not to be put on the same evidential level as the former.

*'It
ought," as he poetically expresses
in small letters under the text."
be warned that the speculative matter

actual truth
that
it
"to be written
is
to
only possible^ not
belongs to the region of "belief," and
not to that of demonstration.
As
tinues in this speculative stage
he considers, to teach
it,
The audience ought
it
it
long as a problem con-
would be mischievous,
in our schools.
"We
ought not,"
he urges, "to represent our conjecture as a certainty, nor

our hypothesis as a doctrine: this
is
inadmissible."
With
418
regard to
connection between physical processes and
tlie
phenomena lie
grant that we can find
mental
points at which
we
says:
*'I
willingly
certain gradations, certain definite
trace a passage
to processes purely physical,
Throughout
indeed,
will,
this discourse I
from mental processes
or of a physical character.
am
not asserting that
will
it
never be possible to bring psychical processes into an immediate connection with those that are physical.
say
is
that
we have
at present
no right
All I
this pos*
In the next
connection as a doctrine of science.'*
sihle
up
to set
paragraph he reiterates his position with reference to the
must draw," he
we wish
**We
of such topics into school teaching.
introduction
between what
says, '*a strict distinction
to teach^
and what we wish
The
to search for.
objects of our research are expressed as problems (or hy-
We
potheses).
ready
is
to
need not keep them
communicate them
the problem ; that
is
to all the
what we
to
we are
ourselves;
worlds
and
strive for. '
say,
There
The
in-
vestigation of such problems, in which the whole nation
may
is
be interested, cannot be restricted to any one.
Freedom
not,
But the problem
of Inquiry.
(or hypothesis) is
without further debate, to be made a
Haeckel
will not concede to Dr.
**that
This
doctrine,^
it is
He
a question for
the schoolmasters to decide, whether the Darwinian theory

of
man's descent should be at once laid down as the basis
of instruction,
and the protoplastic soul be assumed
as the
foundation of
all ideas
concerning spiritual being."
The
Professor concludes his lecture thus:
did Bacon say of old ^Scientia

defined that knowledge
"With
est potentia,^
perfect truth
But he
also
and the knowledge he meant was
not speculative knowledge, not the knowledge of hypotheses,
but
it
was objective and actual knowledge.
Gentle-
419
men, I think we should be abusing our power, we should

be imperilling our power, unless in our teaching we
strict
From
main.
domain we may make incursions
this
field of problems^
into the
and I am sure that every venture of that
kind will then find
all
have emphasized by
series
re-
ourselves to this perfectly safe and unassailable do-
needful security and support.'*
italics
of quotations;
two sentences in the foregoing
the other
the
are
italics
author's
own.
Virchow's position could not be made clearer by any
comments of mine than he has here made it himself.
That position is one of the highest practical importance.
our whole German Fatherland," he says,
*' Throughout
*'men are busied in renovating, extending, and developing the system of education, and in inventing fixed forms
in
which
to
mold
it.
On
the threshold of coming events
stands the Prussian law of education.

States larger schools are being built,
tablishments are set up,
What is to be the
What Yirchow thinks
be
to
?'
is
ought to
the state
the
are
Finally comes
chief substance of the
it ought and ought not

by the foregoing quotations. There
be a clear distinction made between science in
of hypothesis, and science in the state of fact.
'
disclosed
he assumes
ban
es-
extended,
In school teaching the former ought to be excluded.

as
German
new educational
the universities
question.
teaching
all
and 'middle' schools are founded.
'higher'
the
In
it
And,
to be still in its hypothetical stage, the
of exclusion ought, he thinks, to fall
upon the theory
of evolution.
now
judgment before the tridown. First and foremost,
freely offer myself for
bunal whose law
is
here laid
420
then,
I liave never advocated
the
introduction
theory of evolution into our schools.

disposed to resist
its
been better understood and

nized than
it is
now by
The theory ought,
I should
introduction before
utility
its
its
of
even be
meaning had
more
fully recog-
the great body of the community.
I think, to bide its time until the free
and opinion has won
conflict of discovery, argument,
this recognition.
is
that free discussion should not be prevented, either
the ferocity of reviewers or the

as I said before, the
On
work
arm
by
of the law; otherwise,
of social preparation cannot
go
this count, then, I claim acquittal, being for the
moment on
the side of Virchow.
Besides the duties of the chair,

privileged to occupy in
of a century,
part,
for
necessary condition here, however,
it
on.
the
London
for
which
have been
more than a quarter
and which never involved a word on
my
pro or con, in reference to the theory of evolution,
I have had the honor of addressing audiences in Liverpool, Belfast,
and Birmingham; and
in these addresses the
theory of evolution, and the connected doctrine of spon-
taneous generation, have been more or less touched upon.
Let us now examine whether in
my
references I have de-
parted from the views of Virchow or not.
In the Liverpool discourse, after speaking of the theory

of evolution
when applied
to
matter, as belonging to "the
the primitive condition of
dim
and affirming that "the certainty

is
twilight of conjecture,'*
of experimental inquiry
here shut out," I sketch the nebular theory as enunci-
Kant and Laplace, and afterward proceed thus:

"Accepting some such view of the construction of our
ated by
system as probable, a desire immediately arises to connect

the present
life of
our planet with the past.
We
wish to
know something
On
our remotest ancestry.
of
detachment from the sun,
life,
as
421
its
first
we understand it, could

How, then, did it
not have been present on the earth.
The thing
come there ?
ent freedom
which checks
to
be encouraged here
is
a rever-
freedom preceded bj the hard discipline

licentiousness
in
speculation
while
thing to be repressed, both in science and out of
And
dogmatism.
here I
ing, willing to end,

to
am
have no right
intrude wpon you unasked the unformed notions which are
modern
to
more
solid consistency in
speculative mind.^^
more especially the
I then notice
**
is
hands of the meet-
in the
but ready to go on.
floating like clouds^ or gathering

the
the
it,
Those who hold the doctrine
of
basis of the theory.
evolution
are by no
means ignorant of the uncertainty of their data, and they

only yield to it a provisional assent.
They regard the nebular hypothesis as probable; and, in the utter absence of
any proof
method
of the
of nature
illegality
of the act, they prolong the
from the present into the
the observed uniformity of nature
is
their
past.
Here
only guide.
Having determined the elements of their curve in a world

of observation and experiment, they prolong that curve
into an antecedent world, and accept as probable the unbroken sequence of development from the nebula to the
present time."
Thus
it
appears that, long antecedent to
the publication of his advice, I did exactly what Professor
Virchow recommends, showing myself

could be not to claim for a
which did not belong

I
now
once from
to
as
careful as
scientific doctrine
he
a certainty
it.
pass on to the Belfast Address, and will cite at

it
the passage which has given rise to the most
violent animadversion.
*'
Believing as I do in the conti-
422
nuity of nature, I cannot stop abruptly where our microscopes cease to be of use.
mind
At
this point the vision of the
authoritatively supplements that of the eye.
intellectual necessity I cross the
boundary
mental evidence, and discern in that
of the experi-
matter' which we,
and notwithstanding
in our ignorance of its latent powers,
our professed reverence for
Creator, have hitherto cov-
its
ered with opprobrium, the promise and potency of
Without halting
restrial life."
By an
moment
for a
all ter-
go on to
do the precise thing which Professor Yirchow declares to

"If you ask me," I say, "whether there
be necessary.
the least evidence to prove that any form of
exists
life
can be developed out of matter independently of antecedent
life,
conclusive
my
to follow a
cause
reply
is
that evidence considered perfectly
by many has been adduced, and
it falls
we
common example, and accept testimony bein with our belief, we should eagerly close
with the evidence referred
man
that were
But
to.
there
in the true
is
of science a desire stronger than the wish to have his
beliefs
And
namely, the
upheld;
those to
whom
tion, believing the
them
desire to have
true.
I refer as having studied this ques-
evidence offered in favor of
spontane-
ous generation' to be vitiated by error, cannot accept
They know
full well that the
chemist
now
it.
prepares from
inorganic matter a vast array of substances, which were
some time ago regarded
They
as the products solely of vitality.
are intimately acquainted with the structural
of matter, as evidenced in the

tion.
They can
phenomena
of
power
crystalliza-
justify scientifically their belief in its po-
tency, 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
423
can be developed, save from demonstrable
tliat life
antecedent life."
Comparing the theory
of evolution with other theories,
I thus express myself; *'The basis of the doctrine of evo-
for
but
lution consists, not in an experimental demonstration
the subject
in its general
trast,
hardly accessible to this mode of proof
is
harmony with scientific thought. From conit derives enormous relative strength.
On
we have a theory, which converts the Power
moreover,
the one side
whose garment
is
seen in the visible universe into an Ar-
tificer,
fashioned after the
broken
efforts,
we have
man
human
model, and acting by
On
seen to act.
the other side
we see around us and feel

phenomena of physical nature as well as
the human mind have their unsearchable roots
the
in a cosmical
I dare apply the term,
life, if
mal span of which
Among
is
the conception that all
within us
those of
as
is
an
infinitesi-
offered to the investigation of man.
thinking people, in
my
opinion, this last concep-
tion has a higher ethical value than that of a personal artificer.
Be
that as
it
may, I make here no claim for the
theory of evolution which can reasonably be refused.

**Ten years have elapsed,'' said Dr. Hooker at Nor-
wich in 1868,' "since the publication of 'The Origin of

Species by Natural Selection,' and
early
now
to ask
it
is
therefore not too
what progress that old theory has made
in scientific estimation.
Since the 'Origin' appeared
it
has
passed through four English editions,^ two American, two
German, two French, several Russian, a Dutch, and an

"Nineteentli Century,"
Quoted by
'
President's Address to the British Association.
Published by Mr. John Murray, the English publisher of Virchow's Lect*

Bane and antidote are thus impartially distributed by the same hand.
ure.
Clifford,
3, p.
726.
424
So
from Natural Selection being a

thing of the past [the 'Athenaeum' had stated it to be
Italian
edition.
so],
is
it
sophical
far
an accepted doctrine with almost every philonatmralist,
including,
it
stood, a considerable proportion
admit that
it
accounts for
will
who
always be
under-
are not prepared to
Mr. Darwin assigns to
all
it."
In the following year, at Innsbruck, Helmholtz took up

the same ground.*
he
is
simply blind
made by
the theory during that time.
ward and
visible signs of
The
cated.
Another decade has now passed, and

see the enormous progress
who cannot
hostility
the recognition of Mr.
this
Some
of the out-
advance are readily indi-
and fear which so long prevented

Darwin by his own university have
vanished, and this year Cambridge, amid universal acclamation,
conferred
Academy
sistently
of
on
him her Doctor's
degree.
The
Sciences in Paris, which had so long per-
closed
its
doors
against
Mr. Darwin, has also
yielded at last; while sermons, lectures, and published ar-
show that even the clergy have, to a great

extent, become acclimatized to the Darwinian air.
My
brief reference to Mr. Darwin in the Birmingham Address was based upon the knowledge that such changes
had been accomplished, and were still going on.
That the lecture of Professor Virchow can, to any practicles plainly
extent,
tical
disturb this progress of public faith in the
theory of evolution, I do not believe.
"Noch
besteht lebliafter Streit
um
That the special
die "Wahrheit oder Wahrscheinlichkeit
von Darwin's Theorie er dreht sich aber doch eigentlich nur um die Grenzen,
welche wir fur die Yerauderlichkeit der Arten annehmen diirfen. Dass innerhalb derselben Species erbliche RacenverscMedenheiten auf die von Darwin
beschriebene Weise zu kommen konnen, ja dass viele der bisher als verschiedene
Species derselben Gattung betrachteten Formen von derselben Urform abslammen, warden auch seine G^gner kaum leugnen." "Populare Yortrage."
;

lessons of caution whicli he
inculcates were exemplified
bj me, years before his voice was heard upon this

has been proved in the foregoing pages. In point
if
he had preceded
desire
had been
me
subject,
of fact,
instead of following me, and
to incorporate his wishes in
I could not have accomplished this
my
my
if
words,
more completely.
moreover, to draw the coincident lines
possible,
is
425
It
still
most of what he has said about spontaneous

generation might have been uttered by me. I share his
for
further,
opinion that the theory of evolution in
its
involves the passage from matter which
complete form
we now hold
be inorganic into organized matter; in other words,
to
in-
volves the assumption that at some period or other of the

earth's history there occurred
"spontaneous generation."
proofs of
it
are
still
what would be now called

agree with him that "the
"Whoever," he
wanting. "
says, "re-
calls to mind the lamentable failure of all the attempts

made very recently to discover a decided support for the
in the
generatio cequivoca
lower forms of transition from
the inorganic to the organic world will feel

rious to
demand
that this theory,
I hold with
Yirchow that the
lamentable, that the doctrine
my
position here is so well
upon
it
is
doubly
all
our views
failures have
been
But
utterly discredited.
known
se-
so [utterly discredited,
should be in any way accepted as the basis of

of life."
it
that I need not dwell
further.
With one
special utterance of Professor
translator connects
me by name.
Yirchow
his
"I have no objection,"
observes the Professor, "to your saying that atoms of car-
bon
also possess mind, or that in their connection with
the Plastidule
know ôw I
company they acquire mind; only I
am
to
perceive
this.^^
This
is
do not
substantially
426
what
had said seventeen years previously in the
The Professor
day Review."
continues:
Satur-
*'
I explain
*'If
and repulsion as exhibitions of mind, as psychiphenomena, I simply throw the Psyche out of the win-
attraction
cal
dow, and the Psyche ceases

in passing, that the
window
lator,
to
be a Psyche."
not worth house-room.
is
who
is
meaning, we
man
evidently a
**As
foot-note.
an
may
may
Psyche that could be cast out
At
say,
of the
this point the trans-
of culture, strikes in with a
illustration
Professor Virchow's
of
quote the conclusion at which Doctor
Tyndall arrives respecting the hypothesis of a human

offered as an explanation
or a simplification
of
soul,^
series
phenomena psychical phenomena, as he calls

them. *If you are content to make your soul a poetic
rendering of a phenomenon which refuses the yoke of
ordinary physical law::, I, for one, would not object to this
of obscure
exercise of ideality.'"*
Professor Virchow's meaning, I
how
admit, required illustration; but I do not clearly see
me
the quotation from
am
serving opprobrium.
In a far coarser fashion
ance of
cited as meriting praise or de-
mine has been dealt with

sting of a
wasp
to the brain as pain.
at the finger-end
tute,
and only when
this subject
1,
1877.
it.
itself
the sting
it
reaches the brain
Those who think most
hold that a chemical change.
Presidential Address delivered before the
October
upon
comparative slowness along
have we the fact of consciousness.

profoundly on
may
it
announces
The impression made by
travels, in the first place, with
the nerves affected;
this utter-
in other places:
therefore be worth while to spend a few words
The
I do not
subserves this purpose.
even know whether I
Birmingham and Midland
"Fortnightly Review," Nov.
1,
1877, p. 607.
Insti-

wMch,
strictly interpreted,
atomic motion,
is
is,
427
in such
a case, propagated along the nerve, and communicated to
Again, on feeling the sting I flap the insect
the brain.
What
violently away.
has caused this motion of
The command from the brain
to
remove the
my hand ?
insect travels
along the motor nerves to the proper muscles, and, their
they perform the work demanded

But what moved the nerve molecules which
unlocked the muscle? The sense of pain, it may be reforce being unlocked,
of them.
But how can a sense
plied.
make matter move ?
of consciousness,
pain or pleasure in the world could

a billiard-ball;
why
should
any other
of pain, or
it
stir
Not
lift
all
state
the sense of
a stone or
a molecule?
move
Try
to
express the motion numerically in terms of the sensation,
and the
difficulty
Hence the idea
long ago entertained by philosophers, but lately brought

into special
prominence, that the physical processes are
complete in themselves, and would go on just as they do

if
consciousness were not at
ness,
on
this view,
in terms of force
Conscious-
implicated.
and motion, and unessential
lecular changes going
Four years
all
a kind of by-product inexpressible
is
on
to the
mo-
in the brain.
"Do
ago, I wrote thus:
states of conscious-
ness enter as links into the chain of antecedents and se-
quence, which gives rise to bodily actions ?

myself,
it
certain
is
power
that I have no
Speaking for
of imagining
such states interposed between the molecules of the brain,
and influencing the transference

molecules.
The thing
'eludes
Hence an iron strength seems
all
of
motion among the
mental presentation.*
to belong to the logic
which
claims for the brain an automatic action uninfluenced by

consciousness.
But
it is,
I believe, admitted
by those who
428
hold the automaton theory that states of consciousness are

produced by the motion of the molecules of the brain; and
consciousness by molecular motion
this production of
to
me
is
quite as unpresentable to the mental vision as the
production of molecular motion by consciousness.
one
reject
neither^
must
result I
reject both.
If I
however^
/,
reject
and thus stand in the presence of two Incompre-
Here I
hensibles, instead of one Incomprehensible."
se-
cede from the automaton theory, though maintained by

friends
who have
which
avowal
my
all
occurs
esteem, and fall back
upon the
wearisome
iteration
with
such
throughout the foregoing pages; namely,
my own
utter
incapacity to grasp the problem.
This avowal
is
repeated with emphasis in the passage
which Professor Virchow's translator draws attention.

What, I there ask, is the causal connection between the
to
objective and the subjective
and
between
My
states of consciousness?
the connection, nor

It
does.
is
am
molecular motions
answer
is:
I acquainted with
do not see
anybody who
no explanation to say that the objective and
subjective are two sides of one and the
same phenomenon.
Why
sides ?
should the phenomenon have two
very core of the
This
is
There are plenty of molecular
difficulty.
Does
motions which do not exhibit this two-sidedness.

water think or feel when
window pane?
of the brain be
sciousness?
If not,
yoked
We
it
why
runs into frost-ferns upon a
should the molecular motion
to this mysterious
companion
can form a coherent picture of
purely physical processes
the
the
stirring
con-
all
the
of the brain,
the
thrilling of the nerves, the discharging of the muscles,
and
all
the subsequent motions of the organism.
We are
here dealing with mechanical problems which are mentally

But we can form no
presentable.
whereby consciousness emerges,
429
picture of the process
either as a necessary link,
or as an accidental by-product, of tbis series of actions.
The
by con-
reverse process of the production of motion
sciousness
is
We
equally unpresentable to the mind.
are
here in fact on the boundary line of the intellect, where

the ordinary canons of science
we must deny
are true to these canons,
nomena
influence
all
fail to extricate us.
on
physical
If
we
to subjective phe-
The me-
processes.
chanical philosopher, as such^ will never place a state of
consciousness and a group of
molecules in the relation
Observation proves them to inter-
mover and moved.

but, in passing from the one
of
act;
to the other,
a blank which the logic of deduction
This, the reader will remember,

I
is
is
we meet
unable to
fill.
the conclusion at which.
had arrived more than twenty years ago.
I lay bare
unsparingly the central difficulty of the materialist, and

tell
him
that the facts of observation which he considers
so simple are
**
almost as
as the idea of a soul.**
those
who wish
difficult
go
and
to retain this idea, **If
interpretations of grosser minds,
to be seized mentally
further,
say, in effect, to
you abandon
who image
the
the soul as
of the window an
we know not how, among
Psyche which could be thrown out
entity
which
is
usually occupied,
the molecules of the brain, but whicb on due occasion,
such as the intrusion of a bullet or the blow of a club, can

fly
away
into other regions of space
if,
abandoning
this
heathen notion, you consent to approach the subject in
way in which approach is possible

make your soul a poetic rendering of
the only
sent to
non which,
to
as I
show you,
if
you con-
a phenome-
have taken more pains than anybody
refuses the
yoke
else
of ordinary physical laws
430
then
would not object
for one,
I,
"
ity.
I say
theologian,
scourges
me
to this exercise of ideal-
good temper, that the
strongly, but with
it
who hacks and
or the defender of theology,
for putting the question in this light is guilty
of black ingratitude.
Notwithstanding the agreement thus far pointed out,

there are certain points in Professor Virchow's lecture to
which I should
it
feel inclined to
tion with Socialism;

it
take exception.
I think
was hardly necessary to associate the theory of evolu-
was correct
Socialism, or of
it
do
to
so.
may be even questioned whether

As Lange remarks, the aim of
extreme leaders,
its
is
to
overthrow the
existing systems of government, and anything that helps
them
to this
papal
end
is
welcomed, whether
be atheism or
i\.
For long years the
infallibility.
Socialists
saw
Church and State united against them, and both were

common hatred. But no sooner
does a serious difference arise between Church and State
therefore regarded with a
than a portion of the Socialists begin immediately to dally
The experience
with the former.'

elections
truer to
by
illustrates
my mind
Lange 's
of
position.
the last
German
Far nobler and
than this fear of promoting Socialism
a scientific theory which the best and soberest heads
world have substantially accepted, is the position

assumed by Helmholtz, who in his "Popular Lectures''
describes Darwin's theory as embracing *'an essentially
in the
new
creative thought" (einen wesentlich
ischen Gedanken),
this
and who
illustrates
neuen schopferthe
greatness of
thought by copious references to the solutions, pre-
"Geschichte des Materialismus, "
Auflage, vol.
ii.
p. 538.

viously undreamed
life
which
of,
He
and organization.
points to the clouds of
and confusion which
it
how
discovery since
is
the progress of
the enigmas of
offers of
it
431
error
has already dispersed, and shows

enunciation
first
its
simply a record of the approach of the theory toward
complete
One point
demonstration.
deserves
exposition
especial
in
mention
*'popular'*
this
Helmholts
here.
dominant position acquired by Germany in
refers to the
physiology and medicine, while other nations have kept

her in the investigation of inorganic nature.
abreast of
He
men
claims for Grerman
unflagging and
aims,
the credit of pursuing with
self-denying industry,
with purely ideal
and without any immediate prospect
utility,
has determined
German
to was, in his opinion,
and
for his
practical
that which
superiority in the fields referred
something different from
quiries into the nature
with psychological
of
But
the cultivation of pure science.
of
life
are
this.
In-
intimately connected
and he claims
ethical questions;
countrymen a greater fearlessness of the consefull knowledge of the truth may here
quences which a
carry along with
other nations.
France," he says,
men competent
energy the
hitherto
it,
*'
among
than reigns
And why
is this
possess
to follow
distinguished
up and
illustrate
methods of natural science;
''England and
investigators
with vigorous
but they have
been compelled to bend before social and theo-
logical prejudices,
and could only utter their convictions
under the penalty of injuring their
Germany has gone

She has cherished the
usefulness.
geously.
the inquirers of
the case?
social
forward
trust,
influence and
more
coura-
which has never
been deceived, that complete truth carries with
it
the anti-
dote against the bane and danger which follow in the train
432
of half knowledge.
people
cheerfully laborious and temperate
people morally strong
truth full in the face.
Nor
can
well afEord to look
appear to threaten the bases of

of
Helmholtz
are,
in
my
cable to the condition of
by the
are they to be ruined
when
enunciation of one-sided theories, even
society.'*
opinion, wiser
Germany
may
these
These words
and more
at the present
appli-
moment
than those which express the fears of Professor Virchow.

It will
be remembered that at the time of his lecture his
chief anxieties were directed toward France;
but France
has since that time given ample evidence of her ability to

crush, not only Socialists, but anti- Socialists,
who would
impose on her a yoke which she refuses to bear.

In close connection with these utterances of Helmholtz,
I
place another utterance not less noble, which I trust
was understood and appreciated by those to

addressed.
"If,'* said the
whom
was
it
President of the British Asso-
ciation in his opening address in Dublin, *'we could lay
down beforehand
the precise limits of possible knowledge,
the problem of physical

solved.
But the question
would be already half

which the scientific explorer
science
to
has often to address himself
is,
not merely whether he
is
able to solve this or that problem ; but whether he can so

far unravel the tangled threads of the
matter with which
he has to deal as to weave them into a definite problem

at all.
fastly
...
If his
eye seem dim, he must look stead-
and with hope into the misty
vision, until the
clouds wreathe themselves into definite forms.
seem
dull,
very
If his ear
he must listen patiently and with sympathetic
trust to the intricate whisperings of
the goddess,
voices until here
Nature
as she has been called, of a hundred

and there he can pick out a few simple notes to which
his
own powers can
resound.
finds himself placed
upon
and
if,
If,
then, at a
433
moment when he
on a pinnacle from which he
called
is
to take a perspective survey of the range of science,

to tell us
at
what he can
see
from his vantage-ground;
such a moment, after straining his gaze to the
very-
verge of the horizon, and after describing the most distant
he should give utterance also to
of well-defined objects,
some
which he
of the subjective impressions
of receiving
possibilities
explain
from
regions
beyond;
which seem opening
why he
if
to his
view
the fault
and
the
loss
would
if we refused to listen calmly^ and temperately

own judgment on lohat we hear; then assuredly
he
if
he should
be alike ours
to
it
form our
is we who
committing the error of 'confounding matters of fact
with matters of opinion^ if we failed
to
that they
had
been all put on the
While largely agreeing with him
discriminate betiueen
a discourse^ arid
the various elements contained in sxich
sumed
conscious
thinks this a mere blind alley and that an
open path; then
would
is
he should depict
same
footing,
as'
^^
I cannot quite accept
the setting in which Professor Yirchow places the confessedly abortive attempts to secure an experimental basis
for the doctrine of spontaneous generation.
doctrine *'so discredited" that

ers of
'
Their induction
is
not a
of the scientific think-
England accept "as the basis
'
life.
some
It is
of all their views of
by no means thus
limited.
They
have on their side more than the "reasonable probability'*
deemed
sufficient
by Bishop Butler
for practical guidance
in the gravest affairs, that the
members
which are now
formed a continuous mass;
discrete once
of the solar systeni
that in the course of untold ages, during
which the work
of condensation, through the waste of heat in space,

ScienceYI 19
went
434
and that our present sun
on, the planets were detached;

is
the residual nucleus of the flocculent or gaseous ball
from which the planets were successively separated.
we
as
define
was not possible for eons subsequent
it,
When
separation.
this
Life,
and how did
appear?
it
to
I have
already pressed this question, but have received no answer.'
If,
with Professor Knight, we regard the Bible
account of the introduction of
poem, not as a statement of
life
fact,
upon the earth
where are we
as
to seek for
There does not exist a barrier
guidance as to the fact?
possessing the strength of a cobweb to oppose to the hypothesis which ascribes the appearance of
tency of matter'
tion.'
'
to that
life
**
po-
which finds expression in natural evolu-
This hypothesis
is
not without
difficulties,
its
but
they vanish when compared with those which encumber

rivals.
its
There are various
facts
connected, and whose connections
but we do not think of
filling
in
we
science obviously
are unable to trace;
the gap between
the intrusion of a separable spiritual agent.

ner,
though we are unable
to trace the
from the nebula, when there was no

the present earth where
tice of science
life
life
them by
In like man-
course of things
in our sense, to
abounds, the spirit and prac-
pronounce against the intrusion of an an-
thropomorphic creator.
Theologians must liberate and
fine their conceptions or
re-
be prepared for the rejection of
them by thoughtful minds. It is they, not we, who lay

claim to knowledge never given to man. Our refusal of
In the "Apology for the Belfast Address" the question
is
reasoned out.
an undeniable necessity," says Professor Virchow, "not to

sever the organic world from the whole, as if it were something disjoined from
the whole." This grave statement cannot be weakened by the subsequent
'
*'We
feel it
pleasantry regarding "Carbon
Co."

the creative hypothesis
an assertion of knowledge
less
is
435
than a protest against the assumption of knowledge which
must
long,
which
is
if
problem as
der
is
beyond
far as
my
At
the same
overwhelming won-
capacities allow,
the ages just as
This wonder has come to
much
as
my
understanding, and
Hence
has an equal right to satisfaction.
abandoning your illegitimate

place,
and the claim to
us,
look with strenuous gaze into the whole
the predominant feeling.
me from
it
lie
a source of perpetual confusion."
when
time,
not always,
claim
say,
if,
knowledge, you
to
with Job, your forehead in the dust and acknowl-
edge the authorship of this universe to be past finding

out
having made
if,
and relinquished the
this confession,
views of the mechanical theologian, you desire, for the

isfaction
which
of feelings
admit to
those of humanity at
large,
Power
things it
that
moves
all
to
sat-
in great part,
be,
give ideal form to the

is
not by
me
that
you
will find objections raised to this exercise of ideality, if

it
be only consciously and worthily carried out.
Again, I think Professor Virchow's position,

to the question of contagium
that of true philosophy.
the doctrine.
*'It
forefathers,
and
teenth century.
is
lost,'*
We
the Middle Ages.

it
He
animatum
is
of proof,
regard
not altogether
points to the antiquity of
he says,
have received
'*in
this
the darkness of
name from our
already appears distinctly in the six-
We
possess several works of that time
which put forward contagium animatum as a

doctrine,
in
scientific
with the same confidence, with the same sort
with which
the *Plastidulic
souF
is
now
set
forth."
These
speculations of our "forefathers"
will
appeal
436
By some
differently to different minds.
they will be
dis-
missed with a sneer; to others they will appeal as proofs

of
genius on the
There
are
part of
men, and
however wealthy
who
in regard to facts,
who
can.
enunciated
They
are
them.
who,
minority,
can never rise into
and they are sometimes
the region of principles;

ant of those
those
by no means the
formed
intoler-
to plod meritori-
ously on the lower levels of thought, unpossessed of the

pinions necessary to reach the heights.
ize the
the
mental act
They cannot
act of inspiration
it
real-
might well be
by which a man of genius, after long pondering

and proving, reaches a theoretic conception which unravels
called
and illuminates the tangle
who
at the present
Darwin.
of centuries of observation
There are minds,
experiment.
For
my
moment
part, I
it
may be
and
said in passing,
stand in this relation to Mr.
should be inclined to ascribe to
penetration rather than to presumption the notion of
contagium animatum.
He who
I think, to be held in esteem;
quantity of
justify a
fact,
man
ertheless,*'
for he
and the measure
of
Professor Virchow,
throughout a long time to discover

of disease.
had before him the

analogy, that would
**
of genuis in taking a step so bold.
says
The
invented the term ought,
**no
Nev-
was able
one
germs
these living
sixteenth century did not find them, nor
did the seventeenth, nor the eighteenth."
But
it
may be
urged, in reply to this, that the theoretic conjecture often

legitimately comes
first.
anticipates the fact
It is the forecast of genius
and constitutes a spur toward
which
its
dis-
instead of being a spur, the theoretic guess
covery.
If,
rendered
men
content with imperfect knowledge,
be a thing to be deprecated.
this is distinctly not the case;
But
in
modem
it
would
investigation
Darwin's theory, for exam-
PROFESSOR VIROHOW AND EVOLUTION

pie, like the
487
undulatory theory, Las been a motive power
and not an
"At
anodyne.
continues
last,"
Professor
*'in the nineteenth century we have begun litby little really to find contagia animata,^'' So much
the more honor, I infer, is due to those who, three cent-
Virchow,
tle
put together the
uries in advance, so
and character.
of contagious disease as to divine its root
Professor Virchow seems
deprecate
to
and analogies
facts
the "obstinacy"
with which this notion of a contagium vivum
Here I should not be inclined

do not know, nor does he
tell
to follow
me,
how much
ery of facts in the nineteenth century
is
emerged.
him; because I
the discov-
indebted to the
stimulus derived from the theoretic discussions of preced
The
ing centuries.
genesis of scientific ideas
is
a subject
He would be but a
modern chemistry from
the efforts of the alchemists, who would detach modern
atomic doctrines from the speculations of Lucretius and
his predecessors, or who would claim for our present
of profound interest and importance.
poor philosopher
who would
sever
knowledge of contagia an origin altogether independent

of the efforts of our "forefathers" to penetrate this enigma.
Finally, I do not
fessor
call
Virchow
as to
know
and predict
covery which
is
is
or ought to be.
a theory a principle or conception of the mind which
accounts for observed

for
that I should agree with Pro-
what a theory
fits
facts,
and which helps us
facts not yet observed.
into a theory strengthens
not a thing complete from the
grows, as
it
first,
to look
Every new
it.
dis-
The theory
but a thing which
were asymptotically, toward certainty.
Dar-
win's theory, as pointed out nine and ten years ago by
Helmholtz and Hooker, was then exactly in
this condition.
438
of growth;
and had they
to
speak of the subject to-day
they would be able to announce an enormous strengthening of the theoretic
then
with
left
been since
have
theory
the
and which
existed,
spanned,
Fissures in continuity which
fibre.
probably never
more
the
tested
is
progressive
experience
fill
little
filled
being ever
of
so that the further
does
fully
and
it
but
harmonize
We
discovery.
the gaps;
all
hope
in,
shall
not pre-
this will
vent a profound belief in the truth of the theory from
Much
taking root in the general mind.

a total denial of the theory.
The man
sumes in such a case the position

and
be stranded
opinion,
is to
less will it justify
a denier
of
The proper
isolated.
who
of science
as-
sure to
is
attitude,
in
my
give to the theory during the phases of
its
growth as nearly as possible a proportionate assent; and,

if
it
be a theory which influences practice, our wisdom
to follow
its
is
probable suggestions where more than prob-
ability is for the
the theory of
moment
unattainable.
contagium
vivum more
I write thus with
especially in
my
mind, and must regret the attitude of denial assumed by

Professor Yirchow toward that theory.
"I must beg
my
me," he says, "if, notwithstandmade by the doctrine of infectious
friend Klebs to pardon
ing the late advances

fungi, I
still
persist in
the fungus which
fungi so long
me."
is
my
reserve so far as to admit only
really proved, while I
as they are
not
Professor Yirchow, that
deny
actually brought
is to
it
other
before
say, will continue to
deny the Germ Theory, however great the

on its side, however numerous be the cases
renders a just account, until
all
probabilities
of
which
it
has ceased to be a theory
and has become a congeries of sensible facts. Had

he said, "As long as a single fungus of disease remains
at
all,

to
be discovered,
it,"
it
is
your bounden duty
I should cordially agree with him.
439
to search
But by
for
his un-
reserved denial he quenches the light of probability which
ought
to
and
upon one
here
Note,
theory of
in relation to the
side has begotten excess
As
upon
evolution excess
the other.
might have been expected, Professor Yirchow shows himself
in practice far too
sound a philosopher
in his critique of Dr. Haeckel.
"Et qu'est-ce que

charbon contagieux
le
contagium?
me
to
be restricted by the canon
is
down
the contagium?" in the following words
A mon
avis,
paralt si grande qu'il
un organisme microscopique qui
I'analogie de la peste avec le
me
semble possible de trouver
contient le germe de I'affection.
qu'd present on a peu cherche k trouver cet organisme."
March, 1879.
laid
In his recent discourse upon the plague, he asks
and answers the question, "What
tifique,*'
Both
guide the practice of the medical man.
Mais jus-
"Revue
Soien-
XVI
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT*
THEby
subject of
our
has
among
late
tliis
own
its
connotations.
is
implies,
It
other things, the loss of a comrade by whose side
On
I have worked for thirteen years.
gret
That word "late"
honorary secretary.'
me
for
evening's discourse was proposed
not without
its
the other hand,
re-
opposite in the feeling with which
I have seen him rise by sheer intrinsic merit, moral and

intellectual, to the highest official position
the power of English science to bestow.
which
is
it
in
Well, he, whose
constant desire and practice were to promote the interests
and extend the usefulness
of this Institution, thought that
when
occupied so
at a time
the
electric light
public attention, a few sound notions regarding
more purely
scientific side,
might, to use his
much
it,
of
on the
own
pithy
am
here
to-night with the view of trying, to the best of
my
abil-
expression, be
ity, to realize
*'
planted'' in the public mind.
the idea of our friend.
In the year 1800, Volta announced his immortal
dis-
Whetted to eagerness by the previous

conflict between him and Galvani, the scientific men of
the age flung themselves with ardor upon the new discovcovery of the
A Discourse delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on
January
*
pile.
It, 1879,
and introduced here as the
Mr. "William Spottiswoode,
(440,
latest
Fragment.
late President of the
Royal Society.
Friday,
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT

ery, repeating Yolta's experiments,
441
and extending them in
The light and heat of the voltaic circuit atmarked attention, and in the innumerable tests and
trials to which this question was subjected, the utility of
platinum and charcoal as means of exalting the light was
many
ways.
tracted
on
Mr. Children, with a battery
hands recognized.
all
surpassing in strength
predecessors, fused platinum
all its
wires eighteen inches long, while "points of charcoal pro-
duced a
appeared feeble."
it,
compared with
light so vivid that the sunshine,
Such
effects
reached their culmi-
nation when, in 1808, through the liberality of a few

bers of the Eoyal
struct a battery
Institution,
of
which he afterward obtained

far transcending
Davy was enabled
two thousand pairs

calorific
of
mem-
to con-
with
plates,
and luminous
anything previously observed.
effects
The
arc
between the carbon terminals was four inches
of flame
long,
and
lime,
were
by
heat
its
melted
quartz,
like
wax
in
sapphire,
a
candle
and
magnesia,
flame;
while
fragments of diamond and plumbago rapidly disappeared

as
if
reduced to vapor.'
The
of heat
first
condition to be fulfilled in the development
and light by the
electric current is that it shall
encounter and overcome resistance.

perfect conductor,
Flowing through a
no matter what the strength
of the cur-
rent might be, neither heat nor light could be developed.
Davy, "Chemical Philosophy,"
p. 110.
Davy
showed the action of this battery. He then fused iridium, the alloy of iridium
and osmium, and other refractory substances. "Philosophical Magazine," vol.
2
In the concluding lecture at the Royal Institution jn June, 1810,
XXXV.
p. 463.
Quetelet assigns the
points to Ourtet in 1802.
Davy
first
production of the spark between coal-
certainly in that year
showed the carbon
light
with a battery of 150 pairs of plates in the theatre of the Royal Institution
("Jour. Roy. Inst." vol. i. p. 166).

442
rod of unresisting copper carries away uninjured and
unwarmed an
atmosplieric discliarge competent to shiver
to splinters a resisting oak.
self- same
send the
current
through a wire composed of alternate lengths of
The
and platinum.
num
much.
offers
silver offers little resistance, the plati-
The consequence
that the platinum
is
raised to a white heat, while the silver
is
The same holds good with regard
terminals
employed
The
the production
for
interval between
them
offers
to the carbon
the
of
electric
a powerful re-
passage of the current, and
sistance to the
not visibly
is
warmed.
light.
silver
it
is
by the
gathering up of the force necessary to burst across this

interval that the voltaic current
bon
we
is
able to throw the car-
commotion which
into that state of violent intestine

call
and to which
heat,
its
effulgence
is
The
due.
smallest interval of air usually suffices to stop the current.
But when the carbon points
are
first
brought together and
then separated, there occurs between them a discharge of

incandescent matter which carries, or msLj carry, the current over a considerable
space.
The
The space between
wholly from the incandescent carbons.
them
with a blue flame which, being usually bent
is filled
by the
Arc*
earth's magnetism, receives the
The
part played
of silver and thallium
current
first selects
thallium.
While
the resistance to
ize the silver.
its
power;
it
it
as
by
name
of the Voltaic
by the deportment
The
which in this case is
resistance is strikingly illustrated
when mixed
its carrier
together and volatilized in the arc.
the most volatile metal,
continues abundant, the passage of the current
it is
As
comes almost
light
so small
that the heat generated
is
the thallium disappears the current
presses the silver into
its service,
and
is
finally
is
so free
incompetent to
volatil-
forced to concentrate
fills
the space between
the carbons with a vapor which, as long as the necessary resistance
is
absent,
it
have on a former occasion drawn attention to a

danger which besets the spectroscopist when operating upon a mixture of con-
is
incompetent to produce.
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT

For seventy
443
we have been
years, then,
in possession
of this transce-ndent light without applying
it
to the illu-
Such applications
our streets and houses.
mination of
suggested themselves at the outset, but there were grave
The
their way.
in
difficulties
arose from
difficulty
first
the waste of the carbons, which are dissipated in part
by
ordinary combustion, and in part by the electric transfer

of matter
from the one carbon
carbons at the proper
To keep
to the other.
distance
devised, the earliest, I believe,
asunder
by
the
regulators were
Staite,
and the most
by Duboscq, Foucault, and Serrin, who have

been succeeded by Holmes, Siemens, Browning, Carr^,
Gramme, Lontin, and others. By such arrangements the
successful
first difficulty
graver one,
of
was
is
the voltaic
practically
overcome
but the second, a
probably inseparable from the construction

battery.
It
from the operation
arises
of
that inexorable law which
throughout the material uni-
demands an eye
and a tooth for a
verse
for an eye,
tooth,
refusing to yield the faintest glow of heat or glimmer of

light without the expenditure of an absolutely equal quantity of
some other power. Hence, in practice, the desiraany transformation must depend upon the value
bility of
of the product in relation to that of the
The metal
zinc can be
ignited in a flame, but

tion of all foreign heat
burned
it is
and
temperature of this room.

foil at the
like
power expended.
paper;
it
might be
possible to avoid the introducto
burn the zinc in
This
is
air of the
done by placing zinc
focus of a concave mirror, which concentrates
to a point the divergent electric beam, but

stituents volatile in different degrees.
When,
which does not
in 1872, I first
observed the effect
here described, had I not known that silver was present, I should have inferred
its
absence.
444
warm
the
flame,
and we could readily determine the amount
generated by
only in
The
air.
zinc burns at the focus with a violet
but in liquids.
air,
ulated water
is
of heat
But zinc can be burned not

It is thus burned when acid-
combustion.
its
poured over
it is
it;
burned in
also thus
however, to obtain the oxy-
the voltaic battery.
Here,
gen necessary for
combustion, the zinc has to dislodge
its
the hydrogen with which the
consequence
is
oxygen
The
combined.
is
heat due to the
that the
combustion of
by
the metal in the liquid falls short of that developed

its
combustion in
air,
by the exact quantity necessary
oxygen from the hydrogen.
separate the
of the total heat are used
up
to
Fully four-fifths
in this molecular work, only
warm the battery. It is upon this

we must now fix our attention, for it is solely
out of it that we manufacture our electric light.
Before you are two small voltaic batteries of ten cells
each.
The two ends of one of them are united by a thick
one-fifth
remaining to
residue that
copper wire, while into the circuit of the other a thin

platinum wire
introduced.
is
The platinum glows with
white heat, while the copper wire
Now
by
an ounce of
its
heat.
like
not sensibly warmed.
an ounce of
coal,
produces
complete combustion in air a constant quantity of
The
through
total
heat
developed
by an ounce
union with oxygen in the battery
its
solutely invariable.
in action until an
sumed.
zinc,
is
Let our two
batteries, then,
mestic, being liberated
burned, that
In the other
part foreign
is
is
on the hearth where the
the heat
is
is
con-
purely do-
to say, in the cells of the battery
case,
în
continue
ounce of zinc in each of them
In the one case the heat generated
zinc
of
also ab-
is
in part domestic
fuel is
itself.
and
in
part within the battery and in part out-
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT

One
side.
is
and
mind
of the fundamental truths to be borne in
sum
that the
ternal
to
445
and domestic
of the foreign
internal
heats
is
fixed
of
the ex-
and invariable.
Hence,
have heat outside, you must draw upon the heat with-
These remarks apply
in.
to the
electric
By^ the
light.
intermediation of the electric current the moderate

of the battery
not only carried away, but concentrated,
is
so as to produce, at any distance from
next in order to that of
the
its
origin, a heat
The current might
sun.
therefore be defined as the swift carrier of heat.
ing
itself
warmth
Load-
here with invisible power, by a process of trans-
mutation which outstrips the dreams of the alchemist,
can discharge
and
its
it
load, in the fraction of a second, as light
heat, at the opposite side of the world.
Thus, the light and heat produced outside the battery

are derived
from the metallic fuel burned within the
bat-
tery; and, as zinc happens to be an expensive fuel, though
we have possessed
enty years,
it
But within these
use.
walls, in the
day discovered a new source of
now
more than
the electric light for
sev-
has been too costly to come into general
On
to investigate.
autumn
electricity,
the table before
covered copper wire, with
its
of 1881, Fara-
which we have
me
lies
a coil of
ends disunited.
I lift one
and in doing so exert the
side of the coil
from the
muscular
necessary to overcome the simple weight
of
effort
the coil.
The
ment.
I unite
effort
two ends and repeat the experi-
its
now
table,
required,
would be found greater than
if
before.
accurately measured,
In
lifting
the coil
I cut the lines of the earth's magnetic force, such cutting,
as
proved by Faraday, being always accompanied,
in a closed conductor,
electric current
by
the production of an "induced"
which, as long as the ends of the coil
re-
446
mained
separate,
had no
circuit
through which
could
it
pass.
The current here evoked subsides immediately
heat;
this heat
being the exact equivalent of the excess
of effort just referred to as

to
over and above that necessary
overcome the simple weight of the
coil is liberated
ends are united

that of the
air.
as
it
it
back to the
falls
the
and when
its
encounters a resistance over and above
It generates
in direction to the
When
coil.
table,
first,
an
electric current
and reaches the
opposed
table with a di-
minished shock. The amount of the diminution is accurately represented by the warmth which the momentary
current develops in the
coil.
Various devices were em-
ployed to exalt these induced currents, among which the

instruments of Pixii, Clarke, and Saxton were long con-
Faraday, indeed, foresaw that such attempts
spicuous.
were sure to be made; but he chose to leave them in the
hands of the mechanician, while he himself pursued the

deeper study of facts and principles.
writes in 1831, *'been
desirous of
**I
have rather," he
discovering
new
and new relations dependent on magneto -electric

tion,
facts
induc-
than of exalting the force of those already obtained
being assured that the latter would find their full devel*
opment hereafter."
For more than twenty years magneto-electricity had

subserved its first and noblest purpose of augmenting our
knowledge of the powers of nature. It had been discovered
and applied
practical
light
ends
to intellectual ends, its
being
still
unrealized.
had raised thoughts and hopes
in public illumination.
cheaply;
Many
application to
The Drummond
of vast
improvements
inventors tried to obtain
and in 1853 an attempt was made
a company
it
to organize
in Paris for the purpose of procuring, through
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT
447
the decomposition of water, by a powerful magneto- electric
machine constructed by M. Nollet, the oxygen and hydrogen
necessary for
the
The experiment
lime light.
but the apparatus by which
it was attempted sugHolmes other and more hopeful applicaAbandoning the attempt to produce the lime light,
tions.
with persevering skill Holmes continued to improve the
apparatus and to augment its power, until it was finally
failed,
gested to Mr.
able to yield a magneto- electric light comparable to that

of the voltaic battery.
Judged by
later
knowledge, this
machine would be considered cumbrous and defective
first
extreme; but judged by the light of antecedent
in the
marked a great step forward.

Faraday was profoundly interested in the growth of his
own discovery. The Elder Brethren of the Trinity House
had had the wisdom to make him their "Scientific Adevents,
viser' '
it
and
it is
interesting to notice in his reports regard-
ing the light, the mixture of enthusiasm and caution which

characterized him.
Enthusiasm was with him a motive
power, guided and controlled by a disciplined judgment.
He
rode
While
pro and
it
as a charger,
holding
it
in
by a strong
rein.
dealing with Holmes, he states the case of the light
He
con.
as regards cost,
checks the ardor of the inventor, and,
rejecting sanguine estimates,
he
insists
over and over again on the necessity of continued experi-
ment
for the
solution of
this
important
His
question.
matured opinion was, however, strongly in favor of the

light.
With
reference to an experiment
made
at the
South
Foreland on the 20th of April, 1859, he thus expresses

himself:
a mile
"The beauty
off,
of the
light
was wonderful.
At
the apparent streams of light issuing from the
lantern were twice as long as those from the lower light-
448
house, and apparently three or four times as bright.
plane
horizontal
made
in
which
above or below
all
it
they chiefly took their

black.
The
tops of the
The
way
hills,
the churches, and the houses illuminated by it were striking in their effect upon the eye/' Further on in his re-
port he expresses
my
part of
fessor
himself
thus:
"In fulfilment
duty, I beg to state that, in
Holmes has
my
practically established
of
this
opinion. Pro-
the fitness and
sufficiency of the magneto-electric light for lighthouse pur-
poses, so far as
The
its
nature and management are concerned.
produced
light
is
powerful beyond any other that I
have yet seen so applied, and in principle

mulated to any degree;
great;
management
its
and knowledge."
accu-
regularity in the lantern
its
easy,
and
confided to attentive keepers of

intellect
may be
may
care there
its
is
be
the ordinary degree of
Finally,
as regards
the con-
duct of Professor Holmes during these memorable experiments,
it
is
only fair to add the following remark with
which Faraday closes the report submitted to the Elder

Brethren of the Trinity House on the 29th of April, 1859
must bear
*'I
openness,
my
candor,
has answered
testimony," he says,
and honor
of
*'to
the
perfect
Professor Holmes.
He
every question, concealed no weak point,
explained every applied principle, given every reason for

a change either in this or that direction, during several
periods of close questioning, in a manner that was very

agreeable to me, whose duty
it
was
to search for real faults
or possible objections, in respect both of the present time
and the
future.
'
*
'
Soon afterward the Elder Brethren

*
2,
Holmes's
1857.
first offer
of his machine to the Trinity
of
the
Trinity
House bears date February
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT
449
House had tlie intelligent courage to establish the machines of Holmes permanently at Dungeness, where the
many years.
Alliance Company
magneto-electric light continued to shine for
The
magneto-electric machine of the
soon succeeded to that of Holmes, being in various ways

a very marked improvement on the
were stronger and

In
predecessor.
light
its
latter.
currents
Its
was brighter than those of
moreover, the commutator, the
it,
its
flash-
ing and destruction of which were sources of irregularity
and deterioration in the machine

suggestion
of
M. Masson,*
of
Holmes, was, at the
entirely abandoned;
alternat-
ing currents instead of the direct current being employed.
M. Serrin modified
view of
enabling
his
to
it
excellent lamp with the express
cope with
alternating
During the International Exhibition
of
machine was shown, M. Berlioz offered

invention to the Elder
They
ties
*'I
am
require
will
whether,
if
to dispose of the
the Trinity House.
not aware that the Trinity House authori-
have advanced so
they
currents.
where the
the matter to Faraday, and he replied as
referred
follows:
Brethren of
1862,
far as to be able to decide
more
magneto -electric
whether
machines,
or
they should require them, they see reason to
suppose the means of their supply in

the source already open to them,
this country,
would not be
from
sufficient.
Therefore I do not see that at present they w^nt to purchase a machine."
Faraday was
obviously swayed
the desire to protect the interests of
by
Holmes, who had
fall upon the pioneer.

The Alliance machines were introduced with success at
borne the burden and heat which
Cape
la
H^ve, near Havre; and the Elder Brethren of the
Du
Moncel, "1 'Electricity," August, 1878,
p. 150.
450
determined
House,
Trinity
apparatus,
decided,
in
have
to
1868,
the
best
available
on the introduction
of
ma-
chines on the Alliance principle into the lighthouses at
Souter Point and the South Foreland.
These machines
were constructed by Professor Holmes, and they
With
tinue in operation.
still
con-
regard, then, to the application
of electricity to lighthouse purposes, the course of events
The Dungeness light was introduced on January

the light at La H^ve on December 26, 1863, or
nearly two years later. But Faraday's experimental trial
was
81,
this:
1862;
at the
South Foreland preceded the lighting
of
Dungeness
by more than two years. The electric light was afterward

The light was started at
established at Cape Grisnez.
Souter Point on January
11,
land on January
At
1872.
and most powerful
newest
light,
1,
it
began
I have
to shine
now
and
development of the
on January
really
development of
South Fore-
at the
the Lizard, which enjoys the
constitutes
this subject.
electric
1878.
1,
to revert to a point of
moment, but which

in the
1871
apparently small
an important step
I refer to the
given in 1857 to the rotating armature by Dr.

Siemens,
of
Berlin.
Instead of employing coils
transversely round cores of
Saxton, Siemens,
shape,
wound
his
iron,
after giving
as
in
a bar of
form
Werner
wound
the
machine of
iron
the proper
wire longitudinally round
it,
and ob-
tained thereby greatly augmented effects between suitably
placed magnetic poles.
Such an armature
the small magneto-electric machine which I

to
your
to
Mr. Henry Wilde, of Manchester.
notice,
is
employed in
now introduce
and for which the Institution
is
indebted
There are here
six-
teen permanent horseshoe magnets placed parallel to each
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT

and between
other,
two ends
now
of
the wire which surrounds the armature are
In turning the handle and
the armature to rotate,
can be united in
of the armature coil

this is
is
now
overcome
amount
The excess
it.
to rota-
friction of
and by the expendi-
to be overcome,
ture of an additional
my
done I imme-
resistance
Something over and above the ordinary
tion.
causing
simply overcome ordinary me-
But the two ends

a moment, and when
diately experience a greatly increased
the machine
The
Siemens armature.
their poles a
disconnected.
chanical friction.
to
451
am
muscular force I
of
of
labor thus thrown
able
upon
exact equivalent in the electric currents
ai*m has its
generated, and the heat produced
the coil of the armature.
by
their subsidence in
portion of this heat
may be
rendered visible by connecting the two ends of the

with a thin platinum wire.
chine
is
rapidly turned
When
the wire
heat, then with a white heat,
The moment
fusion.
armature
is
and
coil
the handle of the ma-
glows,
with a red
first
finally with the heat of
the wire melts, the circuit round the
broken, an instant
relief
from the labor thrown
upon the arm being the consequence.
Clearly realize the
equivalent of the heat here developed.
During the period
of turning the
machine a certain amount
of
combustible
substance was oxidized or burned in the muscles of
arm.
Had
it
my
done no external work, the matter consumed
would have produced
a definite
amount
of heat.
Kow,
the
muscular heat actually developed during the rotation of

the machine
fell
short of this definite amount, the missing
heat being reproduced to the last fraction in the glowing
platinum wire and the other parts of the machine.

then, the electric current intervenes between
and the generated
heat, exactly as
it
did a
my
Here,
muscles
moment ago
452
between the voltaic battery and
generated beat.
its
The
and purposes a veMcle

which transports the heat both of muscle and battery to
any distance from the hearth where the fuel is consumed.
electric current
Not only
is
tensifier of
in
is,
is
to all intents
the current a messenger, but
magical power.
round numbers, 100
fication of this heat that

als,
also an in-
it is
The temperature
Fahr., and it is by
my arm
of
the intensi-
one of the most refractory of met-
which requires a heat of 8,600^ Fahr.
to fuse
it,
has
been reduced to the molten condition.

Zinc, as I have said,
is
a fuel far too expensive to per-
mit of the electric light produced by
used for the
its
combustion being
common purposes of life, and you will readily

human muscles, or even the muscles of
perceive that the
a horse, would be more expensive
we can employ
chine,
and
it
Here, however,
still.
the force of burning coal to turn our ma-
employment of our cheapest fuel,

by Faraday's discovery, which opens
this
is
rendered possible
out to us the prospect of being able to apply the electric

light to public use.
In 1866 a great step in the intensification of induced

currents,
and the consequent augmentation of the magneto-
electric light,
my
was taken by Mr. Henry Wilde.
lot to report
upon them
to the
It fell to
Eoyal Society, but
be-
fore doing so I took the trouble of going to Manchester

to witness Mr.
Wilde's experiments.
way; starting from a small machine
He
operated in this
like that
your presence a moment ago, he employed

excite
an electro-magnet of a
peculiar
in
current to
shape,
whose poles rotated a Siemens armature;'

'
its
worked
from
between
this ar-
Page and Moigno had previously shown that the magneto-electric current
could produce powerful electro-magnets.
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT
453
mature currents were obtained vastly stronger than those

generated by the small magneto-electric machine.
These
currents might have been immediately employed to pro-
duce the
but instead of
light;
electric
they were
this
round a second electro-magnet
conducted
of
vast
size,
between whose poles rotated a Siemens armature of

volyed in this series of operations:
first,
the small magneto-electric machine;

ture of the
first
which was
drawn from
the armature of
secondly, the arma-
armature of the second electro-mag-
With
vast dimensions.
of
this third
the currents
armature, Mr. Wilde obtained
both as regards heat
fects,
in
electro-magnet, which was of considerable
size; and, thirdly, the

net,
cor-
Three armatures therefore were
responding dimensions.
and
ef-
enormously tran-
light,
scending those previously known.*
But
the discovery which, above all others, brought the
practical question
On
to
the front
is
now
to be considered.
by
the 4th of February, 1867, a paper was received
the Royal Society from Dr. William Siemens bearing the

title,
*'0n the Conversion of Dynamic into Electrical Force
without the use of Permanent Magnetism."'
Mr. Wilde's paper
1867, p. 89.
a report
me
My
is
Brethren of the Trinity House on
pleasure to state that the machine
transcends in power
'
A paper on
all
is
was
briefly
May
expressed in
17, 1866: "It gives
exceedingly effective, and that
it
far
other apparatus of the kind."
the same subject, by Dr.
aiy 17, 1867, before the

neering," No. 622,
the 14th
published in the "Philosophical Transactions" for
opinion regarding Wilde's machine
to the Elder
On
p. 45,
Academy
Werner Siemens, was read on Janu-
of Sciences in Berlin.
In a letter to "Engi-
Mr. Robert Sabine states that Professor Wheatstone's
machines were constructed by Mr. Stroh in the months of July and August,
1866.
1 do not doubt Mr. Sabine's statement; still it would be dangerous in
the highest degree to depart from the canon, in asserting which Faraday
specially strenuous, that the date of a discovery
Toward the end
is
the date of
its
wa5
publication.
of December, 1866, Mr. Alfred Yarley also lodged a provisional
specification (which, I believe, is
a sealed document) embodying the principles
454
of
February a paper from Sir Charles Wheatstone was

bearing the
ceived,
re-
**0n the Augmentation of the
title,
Magnet by the reaction thereon of Currents

itself."
Both papers, which dealt
with the same discovery, and which were illustrated by
experiments, were read upon the same night; viz., the
14th of February. It would be difficult to find in the
whole field of science a more beautiful example of the in-
Power
of a
induced by the Magnet
two
teraction of natural forces than that set forth in these
You
papers.
can hardly find
bit
that
iron
of
hardly pick up an old horseshoe, for example
not possess a trace of permanent magnetism;
such a small beginning

taught us to
rise
by a
you can
does
and from
Siemens and Wheatstone have
series of interactions
between mag-
net and armature to a magnetic intensity previously un-
Conceive the Siemens armature placed be-
approached.
electro- magnet.
tween the poles of a suitable
Suppose
this latter to possess at starting the faintest trace of
netism;
when
mal strength are generated in

that
coil
its
The
infinitesimal
the armature will then circulate

its
coil.
Let the ends of
connected with the wire surrounding the
be
electro-magnet.
menting
intensity
by an
current
it,
generated
infinitesimal
amount.
current again passes round the magnet,

its
This
which immedi-
enhanced power to bear upon the
of the dynamo-electric machine, but
The
the coil which
producing a current of greater strength.
ately brings
in
round the magnet, aug-
strengthened magnet instantly reacts upon

feeds
mag-
the armature rotates, currents of infinitesi-
coil.
some years elapsed before he made any-
His brother, Mr. Cromwell Varley, when writing on this subject

It probably
in 1867, does not mention him (Proc. Eoy. Soc, March 14, 1867).
marks a national trait, that sealed communications, though allowed in France,
have never been recognized by the scientific societies of England.
thing public.
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT
By
this play of
455
mutual give and take between magnet
and armature, the strength of the former
is
raised in a
very brief interval from almost nothing to complete magnetic saturation.
Such
magnet and armature are able
produce currents of extraordinary power, and
common
to
an
elec-
circuit of
mag-
if
tric
lamp be introduced
net
and armature, we can readily obtain a most powerful
light.'
By
into the
we
this discovery, then,
are enabled to avoid
the trouble and expense involved in the
employment
of
permanent magnets; we are also enabled to drop the exciting magneto- electric machine,
electro- magnets.
By
so far simplified,
and reduced
it,
and the duplication of the
in short, the electric generator is

in cost, as to enable elec-
our present means
tricity to enter the lists as the rival of
of illumination.
Soon
the announcement
after
of their
Siemens and Wheatstone, Mr. Holmes,
discovery
by
at the instance of
the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House, endeavored to
turn this discovery to account for lighthouse purposes.
Already,
in
the spring of
1869,
he
had constructed a
machine which, though hampered with

extraordinary power.
The
light
was
defects,
exhibited
developed
focus of a dioptric apparatus placed on the Trinity
in
the
Wharf
and witnessed by the Elder Brethren, Mr.
at Blackwall,
Douglass, and myself, from an
on the opposite side
of
observatory at Charlton,
the Thames.
Falling upon the
suspended haze, the light illuminated the atmosphere for

miles all round.
not, I imagine,
Anything so sunlike
been previously witnessed.
in
splendor had
The apparatus
In 1867 Mr. Ladd introduced the modification of dividing the armature into
two separate
coils,
one of which fed the electro-magnets, while the other yielded
the induced currents.
456
was rapidly distanced by the safer

and more powerful machines of Siemens and Gramme.
of Holmes, however,
As
regards lighthouse illumination, the next step for-
ward was taken by the Elder Brethren of the Trinity

House in 1876-77. Having previously decided on the
establishment of the electric light at the Lizard in Cornwall, they instituted, at the time referred to,
series of
an elaborate
comparative experiments wherein the machines
of Holmes, of the Alliance
Company,
of Siemens,
and of
Gramme, were pitted against each other. The Siemens

and the Gramme machines delivered direct currents, while
those of Holmes and the Alliance Company delivered alThe light of the latter was of the
ternating currents.
same
intensity
in
all
azimuths;
that of the former was
different in different azimuths, the discharge being so reg-
ulated as to yield a gush of light of special intensity in
one direction.
The following
table gives in standard can-
dles the performance of the respective machines:
Name
of Machine
Holmes
Alliance
Gramme
Gramme
(No. 1)
(No. 2)
Siemens (Large)
Siemens (Small, No. 1)
Siemens (Small, No. 2)
Two Holmes's coupled
Two Gramme's (Nos. 1 and 2)

Two Siemens' (Nos. 1 and 2)
Maximum
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT
457
These determinations were made with extreme care and

accuracy by Mr. Douglass, the engineer- in- chief, and Mr.
Ayres, the assistant engineer of the Trinity House. It is
practically impossible to
compare photometrically and
di-
rectly the flame of the candle with these sun-like lights.
light of intermediate intensity
Trinity oil lamp
was
that
therefore in the
of
the six-wick
first
instance com-
light.
The candle power of the oil
lamp being afterward determined, the intensity of the electric light became known.
The numbers given in the table
pared with the electric
prove the superiority of the Alliance machine over that

of Holmes.
They prove the great superiority both of the
Gramme machine and

the Alliance.
The
Siemens machine over

Siemens machine is shown to
of the small
large
yield a light far exceeding all the others, while the coupling of
two Grammes, or
effected for the first time,
augmentation of the
two Siemens together, here
of
was followed by a very great

rising in the
light,
one case from
6,663 candles to 11,896, and in the other case from Q^^Q^
candles to 14,134.
"Where the arc
ternal resistance small,
great
is
single
advantages
and the ex-
attach
to
the
Siemens light
After this contest, which was conducted throughout in
the most amicable manner, Siemens machines of type No.
2 were chosen for the Lizard.
"We have machines capable of sustaining a single light,

and also machines capable of sustaining several lights.
The Gramme machine,
As
the result of
a recent
for example,
trial
which
ignites
by Mr. Schwendler, they have
chosen for India.
SCIENCE^VI 20
the
been, also
458
Jablochkoff candles on the Thames
Embankment and
at
the Holborn Yiaduct, delivers four currents, each passing
through
own
its
In each circuit are
circuit.
five
lamps
through which the current belonging to the circuit passes
The
in succession.
correspond to so
lights
many
resist-
ing spaces, over which, as already explained, the current
has to leap; the force which accomplishes the leap being
Whether
that which produces the light.
the current
is
to
be competent to pass through five lamps in succession, or
depends entirely upon the
to sustain only a single lamp,

will
and
the
skill of
maker
down by Ohm
guide him, definite laws laid

ago,
by which he must
Ohm
Voltaic
that force,
and
forward
enables
We
have only
rent
generated
others,
half a century
the elements of a
indefinitely its electro-
namely, which urges the current

to
it
surmount external
obstacles.
to link the cells together so that the cur-
by each
and add
We
the others.
to arrange
augment
battery so as to
motive force
has, to
abide.
how
has taught us
He
of the machine.
its
cell
shall
electro-motive
increase,
it is
pass through all the

force
that
to
true, at the
of
all
same time the
resistance of the battery, diminishing thereby the
quanti-
but we augment the power
ty of the current from each
cell,
of the integrated current to
overcome external hinderances.
The
resistance of the battery itself may,
indeed,
be ren-
dered so great that the external resistance shall vanish in

comparison.
What
here
is
said
regarding
the
equally true of
magneto -electric machines.
our
current
leap
five
lights
to
in
electro -motive
over
succession,
force.
This
five
intervals,
we must invoke
is
battery
voltaic
is
If
we wish
and
produce
sufficient
done through multiplying,
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT

by
459
the use of thin wires, the convolutions of the rotating
armature
as,
moment
additional
adds
cell,
we augmented
the cells of our
Each additional convolution,
battery.
voltaic
ago,
its
the others; and though
each
like
electro-motive force to that of all

also adds its resistance, thereby
it
diminishing the quantity of current contributed by each

convolution, the integrated current becomes
endowed with
the power of leaping across the successive spaces necessary for the production of a series of lights in
its
course.
The current is, as it were, rendered at once thinner and

more piercing by the simultaneous addition of internal reThe machines, on the
sistance and electro- motive power.
which produce only a single
other hand,
light
have a
small internal resistance associated with a small electro-
motive
force.
armature
is
In such machines the wire of the rotating
comparatively short and thick, copper ribbon

being commonly
of wire
instead
employed.
Such ma-
chines deliver a large quantity of electricity of low tension
in
other
words,
of
low
power.
leaping
though competent, when their power
is
Hence,
converged upon
a single interval, to produce one splendid light, their currents are unable to force a passage
lutions of our machines
electro-motive force;
the
number
of
Thus, by augmenting the convo-
intervals is increased.
the convolutions,
when
we
gain
by lessening the number of
while,
we
quantity and
sacrifice
electro- motive
sacrifice
force
and
gain quantity.
Whether we ought
chine
nal
or
the
other
to
choose
depends
work the machine has
the
entirely
to
one form of ma-
upon the
exter-
If the
object
perform.
be to obtain a single light of great splendor, machines of
low resistance and large quantity must be employed.
If
460
we want
obtain in the same circuit several lights of
to
high internal resistance
moderate intensity, machines of
and
of
correspondingly high
electro-motive
power must
be invoked.
When
a coil of covered wire surrounds a bar of iron,
the two ends of the coil being connected together, every

alteration of the
magnetism
of the bar is
accompanied by
The
the development of an induced current in the coil.
current
change.
is
only excited
No
matter
may
ism of the bar
how
during
the
strong or
magnetic
period of
how weak
the magnet-
remains
be, as long as its condition
permanent no current
is
developed.
Conceive, then, the
pole of a magnet placed near one end of the bar to be
moved along
it
of the pole's
motion there
toward the other end.
the magnetism of the bar,
we
shall
During the time
be an incessant change in
will
and accompanying
this
change
have an induced current in the surrounding
coil.
If,
instead of moving the magnet, we move the bar and
its
surrounding coil past the magnetic pole, a similar
al-
teration of the magnetism of the bar will occur, and a
similar current will be induced in the coil.
You have
Gramme
He aimed
here the fundamental conception which led M.

to the construction of his beautiful machine.'
at
giving continuous motion to such a bar as
here
described;
continuous
ring,
caused to rotate
shoe magnet.
and for
which,
this
purpose he bent
by
suitable
direction of
it
into a
mechanism,
rapidly close to the poles of
The
we have
he
a horse-
the current varied with
the motion and with the character of the influencing pole.
The
result
was that the currents in the two semicircles
of
"Comptes Rendus," 1871, p. 176. See also Gaugain on the Gramme

macMne, "Ann. de Chem. et de Phys.," vol xxviii. p. 324.
THE ELECTBIC LIGHT
461
the coil surrounding the ring flowed in opposite directions.
But
it
was
easy,
by the mechanical arrangement
called a
commutator, to gather up the currents and cause them to
The
flow in the same direction.
machines of Gramme,
first
therefore, furnished direct currents, similar to those yielded
by the voltaic pile. M. Gramme subsequently so modified

Such alhis machine as to produce alternating currents.
the
lights
produce
to
ternating machines are employed
now exhibited on the Holborn Viaduct and the Thames
Embankment.
Another machine
Lontin.
of great alleged merit is that of
M.
It resembles in shape a toothed iron wheel, the
teeth being used as cores,
The wheel
copper wire.
opposite poles
round which are wound
of powerful
coils of
caused to rotate between the
is
electro-magnets.
each pole the core or tooth
is
On
passing
strongly magnetized, and
instantly evokes in its surrounding coil an induced cur-
rent of corresponding strength.
The currents excited
in
approaching to and retreating from a pole, and in passing

different poles,
of a
move
commutator these
conflicting electric streams are gath-
ered up and caused to flow in a

bins,
in
common
The bob-
bed.
which the currents are induced, can be so
number
machine. To
augment
creased in
as to
the
excite
his
applies the principle of Mr.
furnishes
by means
in opposite directions, but
direct current,
indefinitely the
electro-magnets,
"Wilde.
which
is
in-
of
M. Lontin
small
carried
power
machine
round the
electro-magnets of a second and larger machine.
Wilde's
may be added, is also applied on the Thames

Embankment and the Holborn Viaduct; a small Gramme
principle, it
machine being used
in
each case to excite the electro-
magnets of the large one.
462
The Farmer- Wallace macMne

It consists of a
great power.
and
induced currents,
inducing
of
an apparatus of
also
is
combination of bobbins for

the
electro-magnets,
latter being excited by tbe metliod discovered by Siemens
In tbe machines intended for the pro-
and Wbeatstone.
duction of the electric light, the electro-motive force
so
is
great as to permit of the introduction of several lights in
A peculiarly novel feature of the Farmer-
the same circuit.
Wallace system
two
rods,
Instead of
the shape of the carbons.
is
large plates of carbons with bevelled edges are
and
passes from edge
to edge,
as the carbon
dissipated.
is
The
electric
discharge
shifts its position
according
employed, one above the other.
The duration
of the light in
this case far exceeds that obtainable with
rods.
have
myself seen four of these lights in the same circuit in
Mr. Ladd's workshop in the City, and they are now, I

believe,
employed
Liverpool
the
at
tity
machine" pours forth a flood
tension.
for the
thick
It
unable
is
to
cross
production of the electric
copper
When
wires.
Station
Street
The Farmer- Wallace
the Metropolitan Eailway.
sent
of
the
*'
electricity
light,
but
a
of
low
necessary
interval
through
of
quan-
it
can fuse
short
bar
of iridium, this refractory metal emits a light of extraor-
dinary splendor.'
The machine
of
M. de Meritens, which he has gener-
ously brought over from Paris for our instruction,
newest of
all.
In
its
is
the
construction he falls back upon the
principle of the magneto-electric machine, employing per-
manent magnets
The
iridium light
as the exciters of the induced currents.
was shown by Mr. Ladd
theatre of the Royal Institution.
It brilliantly illununated the
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT

Using
tlie
463
magnets of the Alliance Company, by a skilful

M. de Meritens produces with
disposition of his bobbias,
eight magnets a light equal to that
magnets in
Alliance
the
produced by forty
While
machines.
the
space
more than
one-fourth of the latter.
In the De Meritens machine
the commutator is abolished.
The internal heat is hardly
sensible, and the absorption of power, in relation to the
occupied
is
only one- fifth, the cost
produced,
effects
de Meritens
same
in the
small.
is
little
his larger
maintains a considerable
machines M.
number
of lights
circuit.*
In relation
to
this
subject,
inventors
into
fall
two
the contrivers of regulators and the constructors
classes,
of machines.
M. Eapieff has hitherto belonged
tors of the first class,

is
With
is
to inven-
but I have reason to know that he
engaged on a machine which, when complete, will place
him
in the other class also.
rods,
M. Eapieff employs two pairs
forming a V.
The
light is
tion of the four carbons.

light
Instead of two single carbon
produced
each pair
common
junc-
The device
for regulating the
At
the bottom of the
of the simplest character.
is
of rods,
at the
stand which supjDorts the carbons are two small electro-
magnets.
One
of them,
when
the current passes, draws
the carbons together, and in so doing throws itself out of
leaving the control of the light to the other.
circuit,
The
carbons are caused to approach each other by a descending weight, which acts in conjunction with the electro-
magnet.
'
The
small machine transforms one and a quarter horse-power into heat and
about 1,900 candles; the large machine transforms

power, yielding about 9,000 candles.
light, yielding
five horse-
464
Through
the
"Times," every
had the pleasure

M.
E-apieflt'
to
the
same
the
invention
his
The illumination
Square.
himself,
and
extinction
of
of
Printing House
at
which
press-room,
under the guidance of
believe,
are,
the
regulators
lamps
five
are
in
devised
so
any lamp does not compromise

M. Kapieff has
action of the others.
the
extremely effectual and agreeable
is
There
eye.
circuit,
the
of
witnessing,
of
proprietors
has been given to M. Eapieff to
and simplify
develop
the
of
liberality
facility
lately
improved
the
that
the
his
regulator.
Many
other inventors might here be named, and fresh
ones are daily crowding
long
known
as negative carbon a disk,
he has, I
The small
am
Werdermann has been
and
Employing
as positive carbon a rod,
assured, obtained very satisfactory results.
to introduce a
by his minute arcs

number of lamps
by a current
of
resistances brought into play
enable Mr.
into a
Mr.
in.
in connection with this subject.
Werdermann
circuit
traversed
electro-motive power.
M. Eeynier
a very beautiful little lamp, in
carbon rod, properly adjusted,
is
only moderate
also the inventor of
which the point
of a thin
caused to touch the
is
cir-
cumference of a carbon wheel which rotates underneath

the point.
of rod
The
light
and wheel.
One
formed not quite the

tors is this:
The
is
developed at the place of contact
am
in-
improvement of regula-
positive carbon
wastes more profusely
is
greater heat of the former.
It
of
in the
than the negative, and this
Siemens to
though
of the last steps,
last,
chill the
negative
alleged to be due to the
occurred to Mr. William

artificially,
diminishing or wholly preventing
its
with the view
waste.
This he
accomplishes by making the negative pole a hollow cone
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT
465
and by ingeniously discharging a small
of copper,
cold water against the interior of the cone.
copper
jet of
His negative
thus caused to remain fixed in space, for
is
it
is
not dissipated, the positive carbon only needing control.

I have seen this lamp in action, and can bear witness to
its
success.
I might go
on
Indeed,
jected.
other inventions, achieved or pro-
to
there
something
is
bewildering in the
recent rush of constructive talent into this domain of ap-
The question and
plied electricity.
ified
from day
to
day,
steady
its
prospects are mod-
advance
being
made
toward the improvement both of machines and regulators.
With regard
to our public lighting, I strongly lean to the
opinion that the electric light will at no distant day
umph
over gas.
am
As, however, I
our private houses.
dropping
not so sure that
word here
market in the
slightest
that
could
degree,
am
it
tri-
do so in
will
anxious to avoid
influence
limit
the
myseK
share
to this
general statement of opinion.
To one
idea,
inventor in particular belongs the honor of the
and the
bon rods
to
realization of the idea, of causing the car-
burn away
like a candle.
say that I here refer to the young

Jablochkofi.
He
sets
distance apart, and
It is needless to
Eussian
two carbon rods upright
fills
officer,
M.
at a small
the space between them with an
The carbon rods

in metallic holders.
A momentary contact is esbetween the two carbons by a little cross-piece of
insulating substance like plaster of Paris.

are fixed
tablished
the same substance placed horizontally from top to top.
This cross-piece
is
immediately dissipated or removed by
the current, the passage of which once established
ward maintained.
The carbons gradually
is after-
waste, while the
466
wax
substance between them melts like the
The comparison, however, only holds good
of a candle.
for the act of
melting; for, as regards the current, the insulating plaster

is
practically inert.
Indeed, as proved by M. Rapieff and
Mr. Wilde, the plaster
may be
dispensed with altogether,
the current passing from point to point between the naked
carbons.
M. de M^ritens has recently brought out a new canin which the plaster is abandoned, while between
dle,
the two principal carbons

the
of
same
material.
chine two of
is
placed a third insulated rod
With
the small
these candles can be lighted
they produce a very brilliant
light.*
Meritens mabefore you;
In the Jablochkoff
necessary that the carbons should be consumed
candle
it is
at the
same
rents
De
Hence the
rate.
by which
this equal
necessity for alternating cur-
consumption
is
secured.
It will
be seen that M. Jablochkoff has abolished regulators
alto-
In
gether, introducing the candle principle in their stead.
my
judgment, the performance of the Jablochkoff candle
on the Thames Embankment and the Holborn Viaduct
is
highly creditable, notwithstanding a considerable waste of

light
toward the sky.
be added, would
their
light
be
The Jablochkoff lamps,

more
effective
in
street,
it
may
where
would be scattered abroad by the adjacent

now occupy in
houses, than in the positions which they
London.
It
was
my
custom some years ago, whenever I needed
new and complicated instrument,

^
The machine
of
to sit
down
beside
its
M. de Meritens and the Farmer-Wallace machine were
worked by an excellent gas-engine, lent for the occasion by the Messrs. Crossley
of Manchester.
The Siemens machine was worked by steam.
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT

proposed
and
constructor,
to
talk the
467
matter over with.
The study of the inventor's mind which

opened out was always of the highest interest
him.
this habit
to me.
remember the impression made upon me

on such occasions by the late Mr. Darker, a philosophical
instrument maker in Lambeth.
This man's life was a
struggle, and the reason of it was not far to seek.
No
particularly well
matter how commercially lucrative the work upon which

he was engaged might be, he would instantly turn aside
from it to seize and realize the ideas of a scientific man.
He had an
its
inventor's power, and an inventor's delight in
The
exercise.
power
late
Mr. Becker
in a very considerable
possessed
On
degree.
the same
the Continent,
Froment, Breguet, Sauerwald, and others might be mentioned as eminent instances of ability of this kind.
Such
minds resemble a liquid on the point

Stirred
by a
of
crystallization.
hint, crystals of constructive
thought imme-
diately shoot through them.
That Mr. Edison possesses

this intuitive power in no common measure is proved by
what he has already accomplished. He has the penetration to seize the relationship of facts
the art to reduce
them
and
principles,
and
and concrete combinaHence, though he has thus far accomplished nothing that we can recognize as new in relation to the electo novel
tions.
tric light,
an adverse opinion as to his ability to solve the
complicated problem on which he
is
engaged would be
unwarranted.
I will endeavor to illustrate in a simple
Edison's alleged
mode
vantage of what
Ohm
manner Mr.
of electric illumination, taking ad-
has taught us regarding the laws of
the current, and what Joule has taught us regarding the

relation
of
resistance
to
the
development of
light
and
468
From one end
Keat.
a voltaic battery runs a wire,
of
two branches, which
dividing at a certain point into
re-
unite in a single wire connected with the other end of the
From
battery.
passes
first
where
tion,
the positive end of the battery the current
through the single wire to the point of juncit
divides itself between the branches accord-
ing to a well-known law.
If
one branch be
is
that the quantity of current
A clear
to the resistance.
it
is
strict
inversely proportional
When
is
a river
derived
meets an
passing right and left of the obstacle,
divides,
and afterward reuniting.

in depth, width,
and
If the
two branch beds be equal
inclination, the water will divide
equally between them.
self
The
image of the process
from the deportment of water.

island
re-
than the other, more than
less resistant
the current will choose the freer path.
half
law
branches be equally
If the
the current divides itself equally between them.
sistant,
If
it-
they be unequal, the larger
quantity of water will flow through the more open course.
And,
as
definite
of the
in the case
number
division of the
of islands,
water,
we may have an
in-
producing an indefinite sub-
trunk stream, so in the case of
ity
we may have,
of
branches, the current dividing
instead of two branches,

itself
electric-
any number
among them,
in
accordance with the law which fixes the relation of flow

to resistance.
Suppose an insulated
an "electric main," to be
Let us apply this knowledge.

copper rod, which we
laid
down along one
may
call
of our streets, say along the Strand.
Let this rod be connected with one end of a powerful vol-
good metallic connection being established

between the other end of the battery and the water-pipes
under the street. As long as the electric main continues
taic battery, a
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT

unconnected with the water-pipes, the
plete
and no current
will
flow;
but
if
469
circuit
incom-
is
any part
of
the
main, however distant from the battery, be connected with

the adjacent water-pipes, the circuit will be completed and
Supposing our battery
the current will flow.
to
be at
Charing Cross, and our rod of copper to be tapped oppoSomerset House, a wire can be carried from the rod
site
building,
into the
may
wire
and the current passing through the
be subdivided into any number of subordinate
branches, which reunite afterward and return through the
The branch
water-pipes to the battery.
employed
to
raise
incandescence
vivid
to
metal like iridium or one of
its alloys.
tapped at one point, our main

dred points.
The current
with law,
power
by
its
its
strength.
to
The
currents
may
may
be
refractory
Instead of being
be tapped at one hun-
will divide in strict accordance
produce light being solely limited
process of division closely resembles
the circulation of the blood;
the electric main carrying
the outgoing current representing a great artery, the water-
pipes carrying the return current representing a great vein,
while the intermediate branches represent the various vessels
by which the blood
This,
if
mode
of
I understand
illumination.
is
distributed through the system.
aright,
The
is
Mr. Edison's proposed
electric
force
is
at
hand.
Metals sufficiently refractory to bear being raised to vivid
incandescence are also at hand.

ulate the division of the current
its light
room
so
principles whi<}h reg-
and the development of
and heat are perfectly well known.
There
is
no
for a "discovery," in the scientific sense of the term,
but there
ical
The
is
ample room for the exercise of that mechan-
ingenuity which has given us the sewing machine and
many
other useful inventions.
Knowing something
of
470
the intricacy of the practical problem, I should certainly

prefer seeing
it
in
Mr. Edison's hands to having
it
sometimes stated as a recommendation to the
It is
light without heat;
in
elec-
but to disprove
tric
light
that
this
it
only necessary to point to the experiments of
is
it
is
Davy, which show that the heat
of the voltaic arc tran-
The emission
scends that of any other terrestrial source.
from
To
the carbon points
capable of accurate
is
analysis.
we will take the case of a platislightly warmed by the current, and then
simplify the subject,
num
wire at
first
When
gradually raised to a white heat.

wire sends forth rays
nerve.
They
are
first
warmed, the
which have no power on the optic
what we
call invisible
rays
and not un-
the temperature of the wire has reached nearly 1,000
til
Fahr. does
it
begin to glow with a
rays which
it
emits prior to redness are
faint,
which can warm the hand but cannot excite

the temperature of the wire
dark rays not only
mented
in intensity.
is
raised
When
vision.
to whiteness, these
persist,
but they are enormously aug-
They
constitute about 95 per cent of
the total radiation from the white-hot platinum wire.
make up
The
red light.
all invisible rays,
They
nearly 90 per cent of the emission from a brilliant
electric light.
You
can by no means have the light of the
carbons without this invisible emission as an accompani-
ment.
The
invisible as
visible radiation
its
is,
as it were, built
upon the
necessary foundation.
It is easy to illustrate the
growth in intensity
of these
invisible rays as the visible ones enter the radiation
More than
thirty years ago the radiation
admirably investigated by Dr. Draper of
New
and
from incandescent platinum was
York.
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT
471
augment in power. The transparency of the elementary

of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen,
and metalloids
chlorine, iodine, bromine, sulphur, phosphorus, and even
gases
of
carbon,
for
heat rays
the invisible
is
extraordinary.
Dissolved in a proper vehicle, iodine cuts the visible radiation sharply
By
sion.
off,
but allows the invisible free transmis-
dissolving iodine in sulphur.
Dewar
Professor
has recently added to the number of our effectual ray-
The mixture may be made
filters.
as black as pitch for
the visible, while remaining transparent for the invisible
By
rays.
such
filters it is
possible to detach the invisible
rays from the total radiation, and to watch their augmentation
as the
light
Expressing
increases.
from a platinum wire when

touch
when,
number
1,
therefore,
the
by the
radiation
warm
rays are invisible
the
to
by
the
radiation
from the
same wire
may be 600
or more.'
It is not,
invisible
raised to a white heat

then,
all its
feels
first
it
the
diminution or transformation of
the
non-
luminous emission that we obtain the luminous; the heat

rays maintain their ground as the necessary antecedents
and companions of the
light rays.
When
detached and
concentrated, these powerful heat rays can produce
Archimedes
effects ascribed to the mirrors of
of
Syracuse.
glimmer of
While incompetent
light,
inflame
enough
they can raise
to yield,
when
it
See
burn up wood, and
When
to bear their
they impinge upon
shock without
to a heat so white
analyzed,
at the siege
to produce the faintest
paper,
even ignite combustible metals.
sion,
the
or to affect the most delicate air-ther-
mometer, they will
a metal refractory
all
article
all
fu-
and luminous as
the colors of the spectrum.
"Radiation," vol.
i.
472
In
way
this
by
the dark rays emitted
carbons are converted into light rays of
the incandescent
all colors.
Still,
so powerless are these invisible rays to excite vision that

the eye has been
platinum
visual impression.
of heat
placed at a focus
competent to raise
any
to bright redness, without experiencing
foil
Light
no doubt, the amount
for light,
imparted by the incandescent carbons to the
far less than that
imparted by
gas flames.
air is
It is less, be-
cause of the smaller size of the carbons, and of the comparative smallness of the quantity of fuel
given time.
It is also less
trate the carbons as
ture of the flame
which
while
is
The tempera-
lowered by the admixture of a gas
constitutes four-fifths of our atmosphere,

it
in a
because the air cannot pene-
penetrates a flame.
it
consumed
and which,
appropriates and diffuses the heat, does not aid
in the combustion; and this lowering of the temperature by
the inert atmospheric nitrogen renders necessary the com-
bustion of a greater amount of gas to produce the neces-
In
sary light.
paradoxical,
it
fact,
is
though
the
statement
entirely because of
its
may appear
enormous actual
temperature that the electric light seems so cool.
It
is
this temperature that renders the proportion of luminous
to
non-luminous heat greater in the
our brightest
The
flames.
quires no air to sustain

air
vacuum.
Its
light
electric
electric light
light,
than in
moreover,
re-
It glows in the most perfect

it.
and heat are therefore not pur-
chased at the expense of the vitalizing constituent of the

atmosphere.
Two
orders of minds have been implicated in the de-
velopment
coverer,
little
of this subject:
whose object
is
for practical ends;
first,
purely
the investigator and disscientific,
and who cares
secondly, the practical mechani-
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT

whose object
cian,
is
mainly industrial.
and probably in many cases
true,
473
It
would be
easy,
say that the one
to
wants to gain knowledge, while the other wishes to make
money; but
am persuaded
that the mechanician not in-
frequently merges the hope of profit in the love of his
Members
work.
each of these classes are sometimes
of
scornful toward those of the other.

ple,
There
for
is,
exam-
something superb in the disdain with which Cuvier
hands over the discoveries

apply them: "Your grand
of
pure science to those
who
practical achievements are only
the easy application of truths not sought with a practical

intent
truths
own
sake,
which
pursued for their
their discoverers
impelled solely by an ardor
for
knowledge.
Those who turned them into practice could not have

them,
covered
while
those
neither the time nor the
Your
a practical result.
colonies,
who
dis-
them had
them to
discovered
inclination to pursue
rising workshops,
your peopled
your vessels which furrow the seas;

tumult" "this
this
abun-
this
commotion," he
would have added, were he now alive, "regarding the
electric light"
"all come from discoverers in Science,
dance, this luxury,
though
all
remain strange to them.
covery enters
the
The day
market they abandon
it;
that a disit
concerns
them no more."
In writing thus, Cuvier probably did not sufficiently
take into account the reaction of the applications of science
upon science itself. The improvement of an old instrument or the invention of a new one is often tantamount to
an enlargement and refinement of the senses of the scientific
investigator.
community
the
human
is
also
brain.
Beyond
this,
the amelioration of the
an object worthy of the best

Still,
assuredly
it is
efforts of
well and wise for
474
a nation to bear in
which
mind
that those practical applications
strike the public eye,
and excite public admiration,
are the outgrowth of long antecedent labors begun, con-
tinued, and ended, under the operation of a purely intel-
''Few," says Pasteur, "seem to compre-
lectual stimulus.
hend the
marvels of industry and the
real origin of the
I need no other proof of this than the
wealth of nations.
frequent employment in lectures, speeches and
lan-
official
guage of the erroneous expression, 'applied science.'
statesman of the greatest talent stated some time ago that

in our
day the reign
had rightly yielded
of theoretic science
Nothing, I venture to
place to that of applied science.
say, could be more dangerous, even to practical life, than

the consequences which might flow from these words.
They show
the imperious
There exists no category
higher education.
which the
name
a reform in our
necessity of
have science and the applications of

united as tree
A
us a
and
cohort of
of the scientific
to
wisdom they do not
ether,
We
regenerators
have among
men
high
of
the
man
How
that he ought to pursue.
scientific
which are
who would place the operations

mind under the control of a hierarchy
which should dictate
nounce
science
here suggested.
social
thoughts and aspirations
its
We
fruit."
final reflection is
small
of sciences to
of 'applied science' could be given.
explain.
theories;
they
of
science the course
hierarchy
to
get
They decry and
de-
this
scorn
all
is
reference
to
and atoms, and molecules, as subjects lying far

and yet such ultra-sensi-
apart from the world's needs;
ble conceptions are often the spur to the greatest discoveries.
The
source,
in fact,
from which the true natural
philosopher derives inspiration and unifying power
is es-
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT

sentially ideal.
Faraday lived in
half a century ago,
when he
476
Nearly
this ideal world.
first
obtained a spark from
the magnet, an Oxford don expressed regret that such a
discovery should have been made, as

facile
gret,
implement in the hands

a
Comtist
repression,
hierarchy would
sending
it
placed a
of the incendiary.
have
Faraday back
to
new and
To re-
probably
his
added
bookbinder's
bench as a more dignified and practical sphere of action

than peddling with a magnet.
spark which
now
shines
And
upon our
yet
coasts,
it
is
Faraday's
and promises
to
illuminate our streets, halls, quays, squares, warehouses,
and, perhaps at no distant day, our homes.
END OF VOL.
n.
OF " FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE"
Due
".jj
Ul
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ir
<
CD
UJ
iQ
CO
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CT;
^1
-"
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(T CO
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Lu
X
h1
1820-1893.
Tyndallf John
Fragments of science* New York, P.F*
Collier, 1S05.
2 V. illus. 21 cm*
82452

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JOHN TYNDALL

Reflections on Prayer and Natural Law

Miracles and Special Providences

On Prayer as a Form op Physical ENEBaY

V. Matter and Force

Use of the Imagination

The Belfast Address

The Rev. James Martineau and the Belfast Address

Vn. An Address to Students

XIV. Science and

XV. Professor Virchow and Evolution

thunder and in the violence of the storm they

the presence of a shouter and of furious strikers

created an ludra, or giver of rain.

of the rain they

REFLECTIONS ON PRAYER AND NATURAL

the apparent confusion and caprice

have seemed hope-

seek for law or orderly relation;

and before the

thought of law dawned upon the unfolding

these otherwise inexplicable effects were referred to per-

fall of a cataract the savage saw

him the hammer- clang

these terrible powers was the consequence, and

was offered to the demons of earth and air.

and we look with suspicion and

on any phidry them

losophy, the apparent tendency of which

Probably every change from ancient savagery

present enlightenment has excited, in a greater or less degree,

fears of this kind.

not yet determined whether

with the transitory, and con-

in linking the imperishable

found the living plant with the decaying pole to which

the powers of nature

even to pray for things in

conceded that the age

near the foot of the Khone glacier, I

who, after a solid breakfast, including a bottle of wine,

This was the annual custom of the place.

by year the Highest was entreated, by official intercessors,

diversion of the Ehone, or a deepening of

the river's bed, would, at the time I

been of incalculable benefit to the inhabitants of the val-

would have shrunk from the idea of

river, or to cause a portion of it to flow over the

and down the valley

he would have deemed a miracle, and he did not come

perform miracles, but to do some-

ON PRAYER AND NATURAL LAW

thing which he manifestly thought lay quite within the

gentleman who was

faith in the priest's blessing;

present at the time smiled at this re-

or to cause the water to flow

In a similar manner the same Protestant gentleman

Mass upon the

That poor man did not expect

the ice into adamant, or to strengthen

to withstand the pressure of the water;

did he expect that his sacrifice would cause the stream to

edge lay a region where rain was generated, he knew not