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 rheism and Atheism in Science. 
 
 By the late Col. CHAS. WHITTLESEY. 
 
THEISM I ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 IS EVOLUTION HERETICAL? 
 
 BY COLONEL, CHARLES WHITTLESEY 
 
 About 1840 there was published in 
 England without date or preface, by 
 an unknown author, a very erudite 
 work, entitled " Vestiges of Creation." 
 A second edition or sequel was after- 
 wards issued by the author defending 
 his theory, in which appears dates as 
 late as 1843. This was republished 
 in the United States, by Harper's 
 Brothers, also undated. 
 
 Like Junius, the writer still remains 
 stat nominis umbwi. Hugh Miller, in 
 his "'Footprints of the Creator," replied 
 to the " Vestiges of Creation " with 
 equal erudition and more eloquence. 
 
 His invisible antagonist refers to 
 researches of Darwin repeatedly, but 
 the latter had not then published his 
 work on the " Origiu of Species. " 
 The author of the " Vestiges ' adopts 
 the Continental theory of spontaneous 
 or aboriginal generation, or evolution, 
 which was then synonymous with 
 development. He is, however, not an 
 atheist but a theist, and everywhere 
 attributes evolution to a divine law 
 and law-giver. His expressions are 
 numerous and explicit; always re- 
 pudiating the idea of fatality and 
 materialism — For example: 
 
 (Vest iffes. Harpers Edition p. 84) 
 u Let us see how the doctrine or crea- 
 tion by law, agrees w T ith this ex- 
 pounded view of the* organic world.'' 
 
 (p. 82.) " Those who object to the 
 hypothesis of a creation by the inter- 
 vention of law, do not perhaps con- 
 sider how powerful an argument in 
 favor of the existence of God is lost 
 by rejecting this doctrine.' 1 
 ' (p.' 197-198.) "It is proper to en- 
 quire if there be necessarily, in this 
 doctrine of natural law, any pecu- 
 liarity calculated materially to effect 
 our hitherto supposed relation to the 
 Deity. * * * For let us but 
 
 fully and truly consider what a system 
 is here laid open to view, and we can- 
 not well doubt that we are in the 
 hands of One who is both able and 
 willing to do us the most entire justice. 
 
 " In this faith we may rest at ease, 
 even though life should have been to 
 us but a protracted disease, or though 
 ever\ r hope we had built on the secular 
 materials within our reach was felt to 
 be melting from our grasp. Think- 
 ing of all the contingencies of this 
 world to be melted into or lost in the 
 greater system, to which the present 
 is only subsidiary, let us wait the end 
 with patience and be of good cheer." 
 
 Numerous quotations might be add- 
 ed of a similar import from this gifted 
 writer, who should never have hesi- 
 tated to avow himself. Though he 
 adopted scientifically the hypothesis 
 of Oken, Lamark and De Maillet, the 
 misapplication of their doctrines to 
 atheism in morals and religion he does 
 not fail to denounce. This author whose 
 diffuse style and broad learning bear 
 strong resemblance to Lyell's, begins 
 the process of evolution with the uni- 
 verse in its nebulous condition. He 
 adopts the theory of La-Place and 
 Comte in regard to the condition of 
 matter throughout stellar space, in the 
 form of incandescent vapor, having a 
 motion of revolution from west to 
 east. 
 
 By concentration, according to the 
 nebulous hypothesis, stars were thrown 
 off, and from them planets and their 
 satellites, by a law of mechanics well 
 understood. 
 
 Though there are astronomers who 
 have doubts of the correctness of this 
 hypothesis, it is generally received at 
 this day. 
 
 In its place there is no alternate 
 theory of sufficient prominence to 
 
IS EVOLUTION HERETICAL 
 
 discredit La Place. From this arch- 
 aic stage of evolution the "Vestiges" 
 assumes the origin of life as an 
 analogy, and on the ground that 
 development must be an universal 
 law, pervading all conditions of mat- 
 ter, impressed upon it by the Creator. 
 
 At that time the distinction be- 
 tween the origin of species by diver- 
 gence from existing forms, and the 
 origin of species by the generation of 
 life, was not clearly considered. 
 
 At the present time the proofs of 
 divergence are so frequently wanting, 
 that there is the same necessity for a 
 generous confidence which existed in 
 regard to the insect acarus supposed 
 to be generated by electricity by 
 Doctor Bastian. 
 
 The utterances of Mr. Darwin are 
 quite similar: 
 
 ,; There is grandeur in this view of 
 life with its several powers, having 
 been originally breathed by the Crea- 
 tor into a few forms or into one, and 
 that while this planet has gone 
 cycling onward according to the fixed 
 law of gravity from so simple a be- 
 ginning, endless forms, most beauti- 
 ful and most wonderful, have been 
 and are being evolved. " — Origin of 
 Species, p. 429. 
 
 "Iain aware that the conclusions 
 arrived at in this work will be de- 
 nounced by some as highly irreligious. 
 He who denounces them is bound to 
 show why it is more irreligious to ex- 
 plain the origin of man as a distinct 
 species by descent from some lower 
 form through the laws of variation 
 and natural selection, than to explain 
 the birth of an individual through 
 the laws of ordinary reproduction. 
 The birth of both species and individ- 
 uals are equally parts of a grand se- 
 quence of events which our minds re- 
 fuse to accept as the result of blind 
 chance." — Descent of Man, />. 612. 
 
 However, not long before his 
 death, Mr. Darwin, in a private let- 
 ter to a friend on the Continent, pub- 
 lished after his decease, made use of 
 
 expressions from which atheists have 
 claimed that he was of their belief. 
 or rather disbelief. It is also true 
 that the origin of species by diver- 
 gence from preexisting forms does 
 not imply at the same time, an origin 
 of life. Neither does it follow that 
 development may not exhaust itself 
 and cease in a given line when its pur- 
 pose is accomplished. All minerals, 
 from the oldest, to those of the new- 
 est rocks, crystallize under the proper 
 conditions. When each crystal is 
 perfected, by a mysterious process 
 that never varies, and is rigidly con- 
 trolled by material laws, the process 
 in that special instance ceases because 
 its work is finished. 
 
 The disciples of Darwin, especially 
 those young naturalists who are pre- 
 disposed to materialism, have pushed 
 his doctrines beyond those of their 
 leaders. In regard to species, varie- 
 ties and races, the distinctions are 
 not so well defined, that it is very 
 difficult to show divergences. 
 
 For genera, families, classes, orders 
 and sub-kingdoms, the differences are 
 better determined. 
 
 Divergences among them are there- 
 fore more difficult to establish, which 
 will be referred to hereafter. 
 
 But if it is admitted that in the ani- 
 mal kingdom, divergences are tracea- 
 ble to the dawn of life, there is be- 
 hind this, untouched, the question of 
 the institution of vitality, or the ori- 
 gin of animal life. 
 
 The origin of the pre-existing min- 
 eral kingdom is 'easy of solution by 
 theists; Jmt this, like that of animal 
 life, must be accounted for by mate- 
 rialists, on scientific or philosophical 
 grounds only; and here their conclu- 
 sions fail at the most important 
 point. 
 
 What were the primitive forms of 
 plants or animals is not known. 
 
 By analogy geologists infer thai 
 the earliest ones were animated jellies, 
 or gelatinous foci, of which the rhiz- 
 opods are an example: but of which 
 
IS EVOLUTION HERETICAL 
 
 the fossilized condition is too obscure 
 to be studied. There .are premoni- 
 tions of more ancient living objects, 
 but this is inferential, not proven. 
 
 Probably this is the reason why 
 mineral gelatines were selected by be- 
 lievers in spontaneous generation as 
 the seat of primordial existence. 
 
 Following up the line of descent to 
 this inevitable point, we reach a posi- 
 tion where divergencies cannot occur, 
 and the vague influences of environ- 
 ment, natural selection and inherit- 
 ance cannot be considered, because 
 there was but one individual. 'We are 
 face to face with the naked question 
 of the origin of life, either by a 
 supreme creator or by what must be 
 of equal potency, — self-generation. 
 The latter is only a different name 
 and location for the same power, 
 where a mineral without life im- 
 presses inert matter with what it has 
 not, showing a far reaching de- 
 sign of progression, which is in- 
 finite. Back of this the atheistical 
 scientist is required to explain the 
 origin of the few simple substances 
 which form the basis of the material 
 universe. The theistical scientist is 
 content to admit of a supernatural 
 pre-existing mind, which originated 
 these primordial atoms, and designed- 
 ly invested them with the capacity of 
 combination and development, known 
 as natural laws, which from their 
 origin have been in constant activity. 
 
 On the assumption that these sim- 
 ple substances are self-created, we 
 shall be compelled to believe that 
 matter preceded mind in the order of 
 existence, and originating with some- 
 thing that did not exist, impressed 
 upon itself a capacity to originate 
 life, and evolve worlds. Those sixty- 
 five unconscious substances could 
 have no precedence over each other, 
 or have had any form of mental ac- 
 tion until animal life occurred. 
 
 These are the proper fields of sci- 
 ence, requiring all the powers of the 
 human intellect. Not one of them is 
 
 as yet fully understood, but it is 
 plainly observable, that they are ev- 
 erywhere at work and will so con- 
 tinue through interminable asons. The 
 origin of matter, the subsequent ori- 
 gin of vegetable life followed bv ani- 
 mal, must be regarded as creative 
 acts. If the missing link shall be 
 discovered connecting the monkey 
 and the man, a guiding hand is still 
 necessary to select one or more pairs 
 out of many thousands, and fix the 
 time when their progeny should be- 
 come progenitors of the race. • 
 
 Materialists claim that it is impos- 
 sible to conceive of the self-origin of 
 a being with power to create mat- 
 ter. Such a conception is indeed be- 
 yond our powers except as a logical 
 inference. The distance of the remot- 
 est star, which is finite, is especially 
 beyond our comprehension except as 
 a mathematical demonstration, or 
 that of the nearest star, or even of 
 the farthest planet of our own system. 
 Incomprehensibility attaches to thou- 
 sands of facts, which are not on that 
 account to be denied. Very few if 
 any of the laws of nature will be 
 considered as fully understood even in 
 this scientific age. Within every one 
 of us are faculties, of the existence of 
 which we are conscious every hour, 
 but their mysterious workings we 
 understand little better than the mys- 
 tery of Deity. 
 
 If human incomprehensibility is a 
 good ground for denying the super- 
 natural origin of the laws of nature, 
 which ensure continuous regulation, 
 it is good ground for denying our 
 own existence. 
 
 The self-origin of matter and of 
 nature's laws requires a faith as much 
 more sweeping as millions of such 
 conceptions require more fait\i than 
 one. In either case we are to be di- 
 rected by reason, and the considera- 
 tion of what is within the range of 
 our observation; having intellect 
 enough to make us responsible for a 
 correct conclusion. 
 
IS EVOLITION HERETICAL? 
 
 The construction of the universe 
 under any of the plans hitherto dis- 
 cussed implies a previous spiritual ex- 
 istence. There is an order and a 
 succession of events which demand 
 thought as well as action, implying 
 a determination or mental design 
 prior to the existence of matter. In- 
 ert inorganic matter directing its own 
 origin is a clear absurdity. 
 
 There are in the United States 
 numerous theists and Christians who 
 are scientists of reputation, who ac- 
 cent the theory of Darwin so far as it 
 has a settled position in natural 
 science. Their religious couvictions 
 are not disturbed by a doctrine pure- 
 ly scientific. That it has been mis- 
 applied by. materialists to questions of 
 religious belief outside the domain of 
 science, neither weakens nor strength- 
 ens it as a scientific truth. I knew a 
 mathematician who concluded to set- 
 tle the question of a future state by 
 an algebraic formula. The question 
 of a divine agency in this universe is 
 one of ethics, not of the exact 
 sciences. On moral subjects philoso- 
 phers cannot claim a monopoly of 
 authority. 
 
 What Darwin claims to have dem- 
 onstrated in regard to development of 
 species in animals, covers but a limited 
 portion of the general theory of evo- 
 lution in the natural world. 
 
 If the doctrine is true, it cannot be 
 limited to one department of nature, 
 but must apply to all parts of the uni- 
 verse. Its mission must be universal and 
 this divine plan must have begun to 
 take effect as soon as a particle of 
 matter existed. The design was to 
 carry out a system of natural law 
 which has operated and shall operate 
 as long as there may exist a world of 
 matter. Further on I shall refer to 
 some of the most prominent phases 
 of development in the planetary and 
 stellar systems, and to well-established 
 changes or metamorphoses in the 
 rocky beds of this planet, all indicat- 
 ing a plan, formed before the creation 
 
 of matter. In this vast scheme there 
 is a valuable and beneficent purpose, 
 extending through the whole of it, 
 which operates with harmony in all 
 departments of nature, including its 
 mental and spiritual phase. If any 
 thing has originated spontaneously in 
 the sense of independence of this 
 plan, it must be an opposition crea- 
 tion. While the all-pervading prin- 
 ciple of evolution is true as a sci- 
 entific fact, it by no means fol- 
 lows that materialistic evolution, 
 as applied to questions of ethics, 
 is true/ To extend it so far as 
 to cover the origin of matter or of 
 life, is an assumption not warranted 
 by science or observation. 
 
 Darwin and his compeer in natural 
 science, Huxley, rejected the theory of 
 spontaneous generation. The former, 
 however, carried his conclusions so 
 far in relation to the origin of species 
 that his claims came very near to the 
 origin of life. Prof. Huxley endows 
 protoplasm with almost the same po- 
 tency. Their disciples, in many in- 
 stances, go beyond both of these phil- 
 osophers, evidently on account of 
 their eagerness to combat theology 
 and deify nature to the exclusion of 
 nature's God. The late Prof. Bar- 
 rande, in France, and Louis Agassiz, 
 in the United States, yery much cir- 
 cumscribe the Darwinian theoiw of 
 development. Profs. Dawson, Guy of 
 and Dana restrict it to changes with- 
 in narrow limits. 
 
 As the contest now stands, there is 
 no point in the line of attack which is 
 scientifically more weak than spon- 
 taneous generation. 
 
 Even though it should be proven to 
 be true that life had been evolved 
 from sea-foam or from star-dust, or 
 gelatinous points, from solutions of 
 silex, or by protoplasm, the necessity 
 of a ruling spirit, more ancient than 
 any of these substances; and the belief 
 in theism would be evidently strength- 
 ened. 
 
THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 II. 
 EVOLUTION IN THE PLANETARY AND STELLAR WORLD. 
 
 BY COLONEL CHARLES WHITTLESEY. 
 
 The consideration of a subject so 
 immense that it staggers the greatest 
 of human intellects, is introduced, not 
 because it is new, but because it lies 
 at the foundation of Evolution, and 
 is largely mechanical in its nature. The 
 space occupied by the stars is as a 
 sentiment wholly inconceivable. As 
 a problem in mathematics, however, 
 by the use of known distances we are 
 enabled to grasp it mentally, to a lim- 
 ited extent. The stellar system has 
 its bounds, and if these are beyond 
 our direct comprehension, what shall 
 be said of the space beyond? 
 
 Inconceivable immensity has thus 
 added to it space still more immense, 
 through which the stellar system 
 moves, probably in an orbit of its 
 own. If we are only vivified miner- 
 als.our sense of nothingness as a part of 
 this vast creation, should sink us still 
 lower, in our own estimation. 
 
 Necessarily the first steps in the 
 origin of matter were the production 
 of the simple substances. These be- 
 ing originated in the form of prim- 
 ordial atoms, were at the same time 
 endowed with affinities for combina- 
 tion. The development of the ma- 
 terial universe in its present condi- 
 tion, might be effected by laws im- 
 pressed upon those few substances. 
 
 Such a mode of action is aptly ex- 
 pressed by the word " evolution,'" a 
 process wholly different from a direct 
 creative act. 
 
 Such an act is so clearly superhu- 
 man and supernatural, that man 
 could never comprehend it without 
 the aid of an outside intelligence; nor 
 the origin of vegetable life or animal 
 life from inanimate or dead matter. 
 No mortal has professed to have the 
 capacity to conceive of the process of 
 a primordial creation. 
 
 All modes are alike unfathomable 
 i and so is the idea of annihilation of 
 | matter. But of the fact of creation 
 i there can be no doubt. 
 
 We can also conceive of an origin- 
 | ating agent or force, and that quali- 
 I ties could be impressed on matter by 
 it such as are familiar to us. These 
 qualities acting with regularity 
 through vast periods of time for val- 
 uable ends clearly indicate an inten- 
 tion. 
 
 The earliest known condition of 
 matter is the nebulous mass of La 
 Place, when metals and metalloids 
 existed in the . state of vapor. It is 
 universally admitted that gravitation 
 was inherent in this mass, and that it 
 had a motion of rotation. By mere 
 cooling and gravity there would be a 
 general condensation. In a rotating 
 body, condensation produces an in- 
 crease of its angular velocity. As- 
 tronomers now hold with Hersehel 
 and La Place, that as the revolving 
 nebula increased in velocity of revolu- 
 tion, its outer portions would be 
 thrown off as separate bodies, becom- 
 ing stars. 
 
 Probably the nebulous mass em- 
 braced the entire space now occupied 
 by the stellar system. It probably 
 had a regular motion in a vast orbit, 
 returning to itself like those of the 
 planets. Should that theory be true, 
 the disrupted portions would move in 
 orbits, forming a celestial group, such 
 as we behold. This is the teaching 
 of science. ^ The time required for a 
 single period of revolution exceeds 
 five millions of years. 
 
 It is settled by astronomy that the 
 stars have a motion in regard to each 
 other, which is being studied with 
 great interest. 
 
 As the process of condensation went 
 
EVOLUTION IN THE PLANETARY AND STELLAR WORLD. 
 
 on, chemical action and segregation, 
 which belong to the fixed properties 
 of matter, became practicable; and 
 new solids and compounds would be 
 evolved under pre-existing laws. 
 
 As consolidation progressed, chemi- 
 cal action would be intensified, and 
 consequently galvanism and electrici- 
 ty. No new qualities were necessary 
 in the existing molecules, but only 
 better opportunities of action. All 
 the simple substances known to us 
 formed that primordial nebulous body. 
 None have been originated since. 
 When sulphur and oxygen are brought 
 into contact, they unite not from se- 
 lection or choice, but from the effect 
 of natural law with which they were 
 from the first endowed. If this pro- 
 cess is a mode of self or individual ac- 
 tion it cannot be distinguished from 
 self-creation, which requires a mental 
 entity and volition somewhere. With 
 this there is necessarily a power of 
 choice, and instead of uniting in 
 atomic weights with fixed proportions, 
 which are eternal, they might vary in 
 different ages or in the same age. 
 Any theory which ignores a designing 
 author, by whom these qualities are 
 impressed upon the atoms at their 
 birth, must contemplate an endless 
 series of new impressions. 
 
 Such is the present state of knowl- 
 edge among those best qualified to 
 know. The same process in the de- 
 velopment of each star or sun. in due 
 time resulted in the formation of 
 planets and their satellites, which, in 
 the case of this earth at least, became 
 habitable. Thus qualities inherent 
 in the primitive globe, might be 
 transmitted to the planets, resulting 
 in an atmosphere, oceans, strata of 
 rocks, and mineral deposits. When 
 that stage w r as reached, both vegeta- 
 ble and animal life became possible. 
 Evolution and development are thus 
 far possible and reasonable. At this 
 point materialists propose to enlarge 
 their meaning, so as to embrace a 
 self-vitalizing power of matter hith- 
 
 I erto without vitality. The crystalli- 
 zation of minerals had hitherto been 
 | the nearest approach to vital force, and 
 this action is galvanic and chemical. 
 In the order of events, vegetation 
 preceded those animal existences, 
 which belong to the lower and less 
 perfect phases of life. 
 
 Coupled with the doctrine of self- 
 evolution or self-development, as used 
 in natural science. i° the denial of an 
 : intelligent First Cause. 
 
 This doctrine teaches evolution car- 
 ried to the extent of self-creation. 
 We can conceive of the impress of 
 such qualities upon matter, for a pur- 
 ■ pose, but the conception of a purpose 
 or plan without a thinking agent is 
 j impossible. 
 
 Materialistic evolution requires a 
 | universe without a head. It is as 
 i fundamental to that system of ethics, 
 I that the vast celestial mechanism 
 | should have no mental contriver, as it 
 1 is to the self-development of life. It 
 | is equally necessary to the doctrine of 
 ! the origin of man by self-evolution. 
 Behind all these propositions, is the 
 negation of an active deity, in any 
 ! and all natural laws and processes. 
 
 Metamorpliism. 
 
 The Darwinian doctrine of the " Or- 
 
 j igin of species V covers only a limited 
 
 field in the broad domain of evolution. 
 
 Cosmogenic evolution was not one 
 
 of Darwin's studies. This lies far back 
 
 of animal and vegetable life. After 
 
 the stars and planets hud assumed 
 
 form, and had taken up their orbits, 
 
 ] their materials continued to change in 
 
 ! texture, a process that is expressed bv 
 
 k, metamorphism." which is still going 
 
 ] on in the rocky beds of this planet, 
 
 presenting another broad field of the 
 
 ; effects of change. Where it will end 
 
 I no scientist can foretell. There are 
 
 I numerous instances where its effects 
 
 i are visible, but the cause is not. When 
 
 molten metals or stone are allowed to 
 
 cool they become solid and crystalline. 
 
 This changed condition is due to no 
 
EVOLUTION IN TIIK PLANETARY AND STELLAR WORLD. 
 
 new qualities, but to the action of 
 those of which they were invested at 
 their origin. Bars of wrought iron 
 of a' brittle or crystalline texture have 
 been known, in the course of years, 
 to become more ductile and fibrous. 
 Probably they formed a galvanic bat- 
 tery with magnetic currents. 
 
 A chain composed of large links 
 was put on an inclined plane in a coal 
 mine at Mineral Ridge, near Miles, in 
 Trumbull Co., in Ohio. To make it 
 take hold better the engineer cast on 
 each link a round ball of iron. The 
 effect was to change the fibrous char- 
 acter of the links, and render them so 
 crystalline that they broke and became 
 useless. Many years since, on Center 
 street, Cleveland, Ohio, there was a 
 lime-kiln sunk in the blue laminated 
 clay of this vicinity. It was located 
 about 15 rods west of the bridge across 
 the Cuyahoga river. 
 
 After the abandonment of the kiln 
 I found that the lamination of the 
 blue clay, which was originally hor- 
 izontal, presenting its edges to the 
 heat of the kiln, had become vertical 
 and parallel to its curve. The change 
 extended eight or ten inches outward, 
 forming a true slate, less and less 
 laminated away from the kiln. 
 
 I have a specimen of kidney iron- 
 ore from the mines near Zoar, Ohio, 
 which was compact before it was cal- 
 cined, except on the exterior, where 
 there were concentric layers. When 
 deposited it was a compact carbonate 
 of iron, altered to an oxide externally, 
 which gave it the name of t; shell ore " 
 among furnace men. After calcina- 
 tion in a large pile at the yard of the 
 furnace of Ford, Howard & Co., in 
 Akron, Ohio, there were a number of 
 pieces which assumed the form of 
 small columns, radiating from a cen- 
 ter, like miniature basaltic pillars. 
 The last two instances were due to 
 prolonged heat below the melting 
 point. Such are a few among many 
 examples. 
 
 Nearly all the slaty rocks of the 
 
 world have undergone metamorphism 
 from some cause, changing the lami- 
 nation and segregating mineral masses, 
 veins and beds of quartz. In the 
 Green Mountain range of Vermont 
 the slates and the limestones show 
 similar changes from the Canada line 
 to New Jersey. From fossiliferous 
 limestone the finest of marble was pro- 
 duced by natural processes. These 
 are instances of slow but widespread 
 changes embracing the universe, and 
 which in part come under our obser- 
 vation . Mi neral vein s, and most forms 
 of mineral deposits, can be referred to 
 this universal law, which must have 
 had a design and a designer. The 
 first processes are part of a system, 
 each having a bearing upon the next, 
 throughout the series. An inspiration 
 runs through the whole, which ma- 
 terialists call, nature or natural law, 
 while they close their eyes and their 
 mental perception to the fact of an 
 originator. 
 
 The most delicate galvanic action 
 was connected with dynamical dis- 
 turbances, all pointing to the concen- 
 tration of metals in bodies that man 
 could appropriate. Metallic segrega- 
 tion in veins, beds and masses is more 
 conspicuous in mountain ranges, 
 where fissures are most numerous and 
 electrical activity is greatest. 
 
 Such laws of development are 
 traceable to the remote past, before 
 the deposition of sedimentary rocks, 
 and thence forward to the present 
 hour. 
 
 Geologists explain the origin of 
 mineral coal, another beneficent gift, 
 to the race, by means of a tropical 
 atmosphere, in all parts of the earth, 
 not due to the tropics or confined to 
 any latitude. Before this planet had 
 lost all its external heat, the seas 
 were at a temperature too high for 
 air-breathing animals, and were en- 
 veloped in dense clouds of vapor. The 
 atmosphere was charged with carbon- 
 ic acid, and thus, at the ocean level, 
 trees, ferns, and mosses sprang up of 
 
EVOLUTION IN THE PLANETARY AND STELLAR WORLD. 
 
 gigantic size and rapid growth. This 
 astonishing vegetation, when buried 
 by sedimentary strata, became car- 
 bonized and preserved for our benefit. 
 
 It would be very instructive to re- 
 produce the theories of geologists in 
 regard to the cause of metamorphism, 
 but they are so numerous and so vari- 
 ous that too much space would be re- 
 quired. 
 
 The United States Geological Sur- 
 vey has for many years been engaged 
 upon the mines of precious metals in 
 Nevada, California, Colorado and the 
 Rocky Mountain region. Every re- 
 source of modern science has been 
 brought to bear upon both the practical 
 and theoretical aspects of those won- 
 derful mineral deposits. A brief ref- 
 erence to the government reports will 
 be interesting as an instance of the 
 power and universality* of metamor- 
 phism in the texture of rocks. These 
 learned investigators, after the most 
 patient examination, agree that the 
 mineral concentrations are due to that 
 cause. 
 
 On the cause of these changes they 
 express themselves with great caution, 
 although they are among the world 
 wide instances of this inscrutable 
 agent. They represent that there is 
 great complexity, and that the pro- 
 cesses of mineralization occupied a 
 length of time beyond conception. 
 Sir Chas. Lyell held finally to the con- 
 clusion that all the changes observed 
 in geology might be accounted for by 
 visible causes now in operation, acting 
 through immense periods of time. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT <>F TERRESTRIAL ELEC- 
 TRICITY'. 
 
 Reference is seldom made to what 
 is evidently a general cause of elec- 
 trical excitement or disturbance, one 
 of the Hnest examples of self-regula- 
 tion in nature. These manifestations 
 accompany, ami therefore must de- 
 pend upon the unequal distribution of 
 heat. In this way, by a universal 
 law of change, as general and appar- 
 
 ent as that of gravitation, the normal 
 equilibrium of terrestrial electricity is 
 disturbed. In some of its phases the 
 electrical force is thus put in motion, 
 currents are formed, concentrations 
 take place, and discharges occur, visi- 
 ble in the form of lightning. 
 
 It must be a material substance or 
 it could not produce momentum, ex- 
 isting throughout this planet and 
 doubtless throughout the material 
 universe. 
 
 The fact that in the air, the water, 
 and the earth there is a perpetual dif- 
 ference of temperature, no one will 
 question. In the atmosphere it is the 
 cause of motion, from the mildest 
 breeze to the most furious tornadoes. 
 It affects the, quantity of invisible 
 moisture and the visible rain-fall. 
 Electrical action is excited by the 
 daily changes of temperature, particu- 
 larly when the sun passes the meridi- 
 ans, and on a more extended scale by 
 its annual movement in declination. 
 
 During the warm months in every 
 latitude there are local thunderstorms, 
 whirlpools and waterspouts, which 
 generally occur in the afternoon, 
 when the solar effect is greatest. As 
 the sun approaches or departs from 
 the solstices, it carries with it a series 
 of storms, which are generally called 
 equinoctial. The currents of the 
 ocean are compounded largely of the 
 differences in heat, between the equa- 
 torial and solar regions, and the 
 effects of the equally extensive cur- 
 rents of the atmosphere, due to the 
 same cause. These general and local 
 variations cause tin; atmospherical 
 and terrestrial electricity to vary, 
 which affects the germination and 
 growth of seeds and of plants, and 
 the assimilation of food in animals. 
 In the mass of the earth this simple 
 but universal operation is and ever 
 has been producing its results. 
 
 Between the molten central parts 
 <>f the earth and its solid exterior, 
 there is a perpetual difference of tem- 
 perature, producing galvanic currents, 
 
EVOLUTION IN THE PLANETARY AND STELLAR WORLD. 
 
 which act; upon minerals in solution; 
 the consequences are crystallization, 
 segregation; the formation of veins, 
 and the concentration of metals in 
 various forms. Magnetism, both an- 
 imal and mineral, may be traced to 
 the same source, over which there 
 may be some external influence from 
 other planets, and even from the fixed 
 stars. The nervous systems of ani- 
 mals and plants are so constituted as 
 to perforin electrical functions which 
 vary with the daily changes of the 
 atmosphere. 
 
 The difficulties which present them- 
 selves to many minds in finding a suf- 
 ficient mechanical power, may be 
 overcome by considering this wide- 
 spread effect of changes in tempera- 
 ture, as the sun moves to and from 
 the equator in declination, causing its 
 heat to vary every day. When it has 
 reached its greatest northern declina- 
 tion, it presents itself to the earth 
 every succeeding day, with the warm- 
 est belt, receding towards the south. 
 
 Inequality of temperature pervades 
 all the materials of this earth, and 
 thus there is everywhere an unfailing 
 source of motion. Nearly all the en- 
 ergies of nature may be traced to this 
 quiet agent, whose effects are at 
 
 times prodigious. It realizes the 
 conceptions of perpetual motion. 
 
 On the side of magnetism we may 
 consider the earth as an incessant 
 exciter, through the unequally heated 
 state of its central parts compared 
 with its surface. On the surface the 
 equatorial zones are always at a higher 
 temperature than the temperate, and 
 the temperate than the arctic. This 
 all-pervading cause, though at the 
 foundation of nearly all the activities 
 of the material world, is so gentle and 
 common that it is not duly considered 
 even by philosophers. 
 
 The difference between a self-regu- 
 lating apparatus, like terrestrial elec- 
 tricity, and a self-originating one, is 
 plain enough. A moving force being 
 applied, the printing press, steam en- 
 gine or hundreds of other mechanical 
 contrivances may each regulate itself 
 more or less completely. It was never 
 claimed that this is an evidence that 
 they are their own originators. Science 
 is important and philosophy valuable, 
 but the world is not ruled by them. 
 Natural science, like natural philoso- 
 phy, cannot be determined by opinions 
 or hypothesis. Here nothing is settled 
 that does not rest on facts or demon- 
 strations based upon them. 
 
THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 in. 
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF INVOLUNTARY ACTIVITIES. 
 
 BY COLONEL CHARLES WHITTLESEY 
 
 There are involuntary movements in 
 animal bodies, among which are the 
 circulation of the blood: respiration, 
 digestion and circulation of fluids. 
 On the mental or spiritual side, there 
 are like activities, that are not the re- 
 sults of the will, such as dreams, vis- 
 ions, and memories. From whence 
 come these unbidden realities? Are 
 they natural or supernatural? Hu- 
 man volition does not originate them. 
 
 By whom were they first put in ac- 
 tion? The theist and the atheist 
 alike, refer such manifestations to 
 some form of law. 
 
 Here the atheist rests, leaving the 
 mystery of their origin unanswered. 
 
 To a believer in a Creator, his 
 modes of action through nature are 
 of limited interest, compared to the 
 fundamental power underlying nat- 
 ure. 
 
 Materialists, of the Haeckel school, 
 fall back upon the impossibility of 
 miracles; that is, of the direct action 
 of a divine power. . j 
 
 Can there be a broader miracle than I 
 the origin of matter? Can there be 
 a more miraculous event than the vi- 
 talizing of the flowers of plants? 
 
 There are scientists who believe 
 that all forms of the vital forces 
 should be attributed to electricity. 
 If so, electricity has supernatural at- 
 tributes, the authorship of which 
 must be in itself, or iu some superior 
 power not human. Where is the 
 origin of electricity? It being estab- 
 lished or admitted that there is a cre- 
 ating mental power, everything relat- 
 ing to its activities, resembles closelv 
 
 the miraculous. It is not less so be- 
 cause it applies to matter in the con- 
 dition of minerals and plants, than to 
 animal and mental life. The latter 
 presents facts that are more difficult 
 of " interpretation." because its meta- 
 morphoses are more numerous. The 
 mental faculty in man is more devel- 
 oped than in the oyster, or even in 
 the anthropoid apes. 
 
 If there is no futurity for any of 
 them, it does not appear to be import- 
 ant, what the limit of progress and 
 change may be. 
 
 In the economy of animal life there 
 are fluids, by which medical prescrip- 
 tions are carried to their destination, 
 and by which digested food, reaches the 
 parts for which it is designed. 
 
 Involuntary action of the heart 
 sends the blood to the extremities, 
 and by a reverse action it is returned 
 in an oxygenated and purified condi- 
 tion, through the veins, to go perpet- 
 ually on the same mission. The mi- 
 nute valves of the bladder and the per- 
 spiration tubes of the skin act in the 
 same manner. These phenomena co- 
 operate for the same common purpose 
 — the maintenance of life. Where is 
 the sustaining power of these move- 
 ments ? 
 
 Did those complex machines origi- 
 nate by a fiat of dead matter? If so 
 it is the most wonderful of miracles. 
 
 Commencing with the embryonic 
 ova of the animal kingdom, there is a 
 line or law of development, which is 
 uniform within each genera. The law 
 of propagation within genera is equal- 
 lv fixed and universal, but does not 
 
 10 
 
SIGNIFICANCE OF INVOLUNTARY ACTIVITIES. 
 
 11 
 
 overleap the limits of genera. Over 
 this the individuals have no control, 
 and thus wherever that control lies, 
 it is superhuman. A system so com- 
 plex, ubiquitous and practical is moved 
 not by man. 
 
 The origin of contagious diseases is 
 not clearly defined by medical experts, 
 but it is admitted that they are gen- 
 erated under certain conditions which 
 occur subject to established law, prob- 
 ably by the circulation of microscopic 
 growths in the atmosphere or in the 
 water. If a self-acting machine in- 
 vented by man, capable of digesting 
 food should be shown to an atheist he 
 would discover in it a design. 
 
 [n all latitudes the human stomach 
 performs the function of transmuting 
 food into a group of liquids that are 
 absorbed by the system and become 
 bone, horn, sinew, muscle, &c, con- 
 stituting the animal body. It has 
 been observed by scientific travelers 
 in all parts of the globe, that the tem- 
 perature of the stomach in man is 
 everywhere the same, whether he re- 
 sides in the arctic or the torrid zone; 
 and it is also at the point where the 
 gastrous fluid transforms food into 
 nutrition most readily. Is this in- 
 voluntary process an unthought of 
 accident, that has happened in precise- 
 ly the same way through the period 
 that men have existed? 
 
 There is a connection between heat 
 and' light, and a vory large number of 
 involuntary results in living objects. 
 Such are the ciliary movements, and 
 the capillary action in plants. There 
 are many scientists who believe that 
 heat is not a material substance, but 
 a condition of violent activity among 
 material molecules. They consider 
 heat and force to be convertible, and 
 thus simplifying a large class of 
 phenomena, by consolidation through 
 the effect of inconceivably rapid 
 vibrations. If this hypothesis is ten- 
 able, it makes the claim of a plan, as 
 contrasted with chance more and more 
 palpable. Thus the discoveries and 
 
 refinements of science, point persist- 
 ently to a supreme regulator in all de- 
 partments of the natural world. 
 
 Heat and its opposite or negative 
 cold, though not a substance, play an 
 important part throughout the earth. 
 Because satisfactory definitions can- 
 not be formed, as to their modes of 
 action, they are none the less matters 
 of fact, observed by every observer. 
 Heat was certainly primordial, or at 
 least coeval with matter. This and 
 light have relations to each other 
 that are visible wherever there is life, 
 animal or vegetable. 
 
 To refer involuntary action to the 
 unthinkable or unknowable, is only 
 an ambiguous mode of stating that 
 the limit of human perception has 
 been reached. Thosa who deny 
 superhuman inspiration, encounter 
 that limit in thousands of instances 
 which they are very loth to admit. 
 
 Memory, the most mysterious of 
 our faculties located in the brain, is 
 largely involuntary, and also num- 
 berless unbidden thoughts, that rush 
 through our minds. The impressions 
 they leave engraved or photographed 
 on the nervous ganglia for future use, 
 are wholly involuntary. Reason or 
 the act of reasoning, may be wholly 
 voluntary and subject to the will, but 
 without memory would be of little 
 use. 
 
 If human existence is in some 
 form eternal, this must continue to 
 be the most important faculty, and 
 subject forever to fixed mental laws. 
 Such control must lie outside of hu- 
 manity, inasmuch as it did not origi- 
 nate there. 
 
 Man is frequently conceited, but is 
 nevertheless painfully impotent, never 
 having been able to make a law of 
 material nature or to change one, or 
 to comprehend any of them perfectly. 
 His efforts to place himself at the 
 head of the universe, present the 
 most ridiculous of all pretensions. 
 Over his entry into the world he had 
 no control and has no foreknowledge 
 
12 
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF INVOLUNTARY ACTIVITIES. 
 
 of the time or maimer of his exit. 
 His plans for life may at any hour 
 be disappointed by death. Beyond 
 the mortal life with infinitesimally 
 few exceptions, his name, influence 
 and authority are lost, even under the 
 most carefully drawn testaments. 
 Whether he originates by the agency 
 of mineral or animal bodies; sea foam, 
 star dust, protoplasm, monads, as- 
 cidians or acaria, he is in the future 
 more physically helpless than at his 
 birth. During life his impress upon 
 other men is so near to nothing, that 
 he is at once forgotton by the millions 
 who live on. Yet if he makes one 
 valuable discovery in nature, he hopes 
 for enduring fame in a future, the 
 
 existence of which he denies. A 
 stone dropped in mid-ocean floes not 
 sooner disappear, but there are numer- 
 ous philosophers who are not satisfied 
 with the make-up of the universe, es- 
 pecially its moral features. Number- 
 less books have been written to prove 
 that as individuals, they should not be 
 subjected to any power higher than 
 themselves, and that they are capably 
 of improving everything within the 
 domain of ethics. This is the aim 
 and such are the pretensions of " Syn- 
 thetical Philosophy, 1 ' ;t Positive Phi- 
 losophy," and " Scientific Philosophy" 
 in many books under many names, 
 admitting nothing beyond matter. 
 
THEISM AND AT 
 
 IN SCIENCE. 
 
 xv. 
 
 MOSAIC COSMOGONY MORE ALLEGORICAL THAN LITERAL. 
 
 BY COLONEL CHARLIES WHITTLESEY. 
 
 It is evidently not the purpose of 
 the sacred books of the Hebrews to 
 teach science. Their objects are of a 
 moral and religious character, with 
 only incidental references to secular 
 knowledge by way of illustration. 
 What relates to chronology, general 
 history, geology, and natural philoso- 
 phy, is not more prominent than is 
 necessary for elucidation. Tf this 
 view is correct, it follows that the 
 cosmogony of Moses, in the first 
 chapter of Genesis, was not intended 
 as a treatise on cosmical events. A 
 construction more in harmony with 
 the great purposes of morality, theol- 
 
 ogy and religion, ] 
 
 through 
 
 the Hebrew records, than the secular 
 learning of those times. Such dis- 
 coveries were left to the intelligence, 
 genius and industry of mankind, and 
 which are even yet feebly developed. 
 Under such an aspect, religion is 
 belittled, and science not weakened. 
 Their domains ' are better defined 
 and separated ; unless where they nec- 
 essarily support each other. It is 
 nearly fifty years since a sharp con- 
 test was commenced between scien- 
 tists and theologians on presumed dis- 
 crepancies, based largely upon the 
 first chapter of Genesis, coupled with 
 a theory that there was an intent to 
 describe physical events from the 
 stand-point of natural science. Under 
 a different hypothesis the literary 
 world might have been spared a large 
 part of the books that have been pub- 
 lished, to establish or to overthrow 
 contradictions. Science has not been 
 wholly a loser, because all forms of 
 investigation bring out valuable 
 truths; even those which fail to es- 
 tablish the point at issue. Religion 
 has been the greatest sufferer. 
 
 With this distinction in mind, let 
 us compare the record of nature, as 
 far as it is understood, with the descrip- 
 tive parts of the first chapter, and 
 show how far they correspond. 
 
 The Order of Cosmical Events in Genesis 
 compared with Science. 
 
 Chapter Jf, Verse 1. 
 
 " In the beginning God created the 
 heaven and the earth." 
 
 No time or period of creation or 
 description of the mode of operation 
 is given in this verse. 
 
 The word "create" is found in the 
 first chapter, onlv in the verses 1, 21 
 and 27. In verses 11. 12, 20 and 24, 
 the earth and the waters " bring 
 forth"; and in verse third and in 
 several others, the word " made " is em- 
 ployed. These differences cannot be 
 accidental. They include processes 
 not identical with a divine creative 
 fiat, and cover all forms of origin or 
 evolution by law. No reference is 
 made to the primitive condition of 
 matter. 
 
 Verne 2. 
 
 "And the earth was without form 
 and void, and darkness was upon the 
 face of the deep, and the spirit of God 
 moved over the waters." 
 
 There are differences of translation 
 or of the copies of this chapter, which, 
 however, are not very essential in a 
 descriptive sense, and must be left for 
 Biblical critics to deal with. In the 
 authorized English version, First of 
 Chronicles 14-15, the spirit of God is 
 represented as moving in the tops of 
 mulberry trees. On this passage there 
 are scholars who hold that the 
 Hebrew expression for wind, is nearly 
 the same for the Spirit of God; and 
 would be a better translation. An 
 
 18 
 
14 
 
 MOSAIC COSMOGONY MORE ALLEGORICAL THAN LITERAL. 
 
 authorized Catholic Version of 1778 
 substitutes something personal or ma- 
 terial, and different from the above. 
 
 The recent English version has not 
 changed the reading of that of King 
 James in verse two. Is it not possi- 
 ble that among the ancient orientals 
 wind represented the breath of the 
 deity? 
 
 Verses one and two were probably 
 one sentence in the original, and 
 should be construed as having that re- 
 lation to each other. If such is their 
 relation, their phraseology embraces 
 all of that vast period from the crea- 
 tion of simple substances in a nebu- 
 lous condition, and the organization 
 t>f the celestial system. 
 
 The earth was in its orbit and solid- 
 ified; at least there were some igneous 
 rocks, and possibly some sedimentary 
 ones. It was enveloped in darkness, 
 probably in clouds, resting upon wa- 
 ters which submerged most of the . 
 solid parts. 
 
 Such a condition of the earth is 
 here very well described, but vegeta- 
 ble and animal life cannot be inferred. 
 When the leaves of the book of na- 
 ture are opened, traces of alga? and of 
 low forms of marine life are discov- 
 ered, which are as ancient as the Cam- 
 brian, not mentioned in this chapter. 
 All references to the changes which 
 occurred in the great nebula, occupy- 
 ing incomprehensible periods of time, 
 and finally resulting in the formation 
 of planets, are omitted. 
 
 Verses 3 to 5 inclusive. 
 
 These contain the first mention of 
 light, and the first cosmical day. It 
 is not yet determined by scientists 
 whether light is a material substance. 
 It may be only an emanation produc- 
 ing vision, by means of rapid vibra- 
 tions. If so it is the opposite or neg- 
 ative of darkness, as cold is of heat. 
 
 The late Professor Guyot enter- 
 tained a theory, that the light here 
 referred to was not solar but tempor- 
 ary, either electrical or phosphorescent. 
 
 Such is not a physical impossibility, 
 but presents one of very many forced 
 constructions of the Hebrew records: to 
 meet hypothesis of concordance or of 
 discordance with natural science. 
 
 If light is not a material substance, 
 
 it is incapable of creation, but it is 
 
 capable of being ; * brought forth." 
 
 | Nothing but light is here introduced 
 
 i to account for the evening and the 
 
 I morning of the first day. A very 
 
 ; common feature of Eastern literature 
 
 is the fact that the order of narration 
 
 | does not necessarily follow the order 
 
 | of events. There are such discrepan- 
 
 j cies in the Mosaic records. 
 
 The earth could not have existed 
 i prior to the sun and stars. It has, 
 I however, been mentioned and par- 
 I tialh r described, as in existence be- 
 I fore the firmanent and the celestial 
 I bodies. There are possibilities that 
 I the descriptions may be misplaced; 
 j but it is safer to leave the difficult}' 
 | unsolved than to resort to violent so- 
 | lutions. 
 
 Through this chapter there is a 
 clear moral and religious purpose, on 
 which the Hebrew system is based. 
 It is manifestly not an attempt to 
 teach mankind science, but moral laic, 
 both by direct statements and by the 
 ancient mode of allegories, which the 
 Oriental mind took in by intuition, 
 more readily than by processes of 
 reasoning. These main ethical points 
 are the existence of a creating power, 
 acting everywhere directly or conse- 
 quentially, and therefore a supreme 
 moral ruler. The grouping of events 
 into seven periods or days inculcates 
 another fundamental feature of the 
 moral law, that of six days labor to 
 one day of rest. i 
 
 Verses to 8 inclusive, -a second 
 day. 
 
 An expanse or firmament appears 
 above the waters, implying an atmos- 
 phere, clouds and a sky. Nothing 
 else is done during this period. It 
 was occupied not in creating, making 
 
MOSAIC COSMOGONY MORE ALLEGORICAL THAN LITERAL. 
 
 15 
 
 or bringing forth anything new; but 
 in providing a new arrangement 
 among pre-existing objects. Hither- 
 to there has been placed upon the 
 record, very little that is specific in a 
 descriptive point of view; showing 
 how little importance was attached to 
 physical information. 
 
 Those primeval seas must have de- 
 posited sediments which may have 
 been the metamorphic strata of the 
 Laurentian and Huronian eras. 
 
 Whether they have any form of 
 marine growth is yet an unsettled 
 question. 
 
 Verses 9 to 13 — Italian Version. 
 
 M God also said, let the waters that 
 are under the heavens be gathered to- 
 gether unto one place and let the dry 
 land appear. And it was so done. 
 
 And God called the dry land earth, 
 and the gathering together of the 
 waters he called seas: and God saw 
 that it was good.*' 
 
 These two verses in a natural sense 
 belong to those of the second day or 
 period, presenting no fresh forma- 
 tions, but only movements, that 
 were principally mechanical. 
 
 Verse 11. — M And he said, ' Let the 
 earth " bring forth " the green herbs 
 and such as may seed, and the fruit 
 tree yielding fruit after its kind, 
 which may have seed within itself 
 upon the earth/ and it was done." 
 
 Verse 12. — u And the earth 'brought 
 forth' the green herbs and such as 
 yielded seed according to its kind, and 
 the tree that beareth fruit having 
 seed each one according to its kind, 
 and God saw that it was good. And 
 the evening and the morning were 
 the third day." 
 
 This relation corresponds to the ob- 
 served order of vegetable life, having 
 precedence to that which is animal. 
 When the solid land rose above the 
 seas, it must have presented sedimen- 
 tary beds, in which are evidences of 
 marine growths both vegetable and 
 animal, and they, by implication cov- 
 
 er the extensive era of the Cambrian, 
 Silurian and Devonian formations. 
 
 The mode of the origin of land 
 plants and fruit-producing trees is 
 not given, except by the agency of 
 Deity, direct or indirect. Original 
 creation is not here intimated. A 
 most important phase of this earth 
 has been reached, in which life is 
 possible by animated beings, but the 
 circumstances of this interesting pro- 
 cess are very imperfectly set forth. 
 The question is not, what the Creator 
 knew about his universe, but what is 
 expressed in this chapter. 
 
 Verses 14 to 19 — Fourth day. 
 
 "Lights were then ' made ' in the 
 firmament of heaven, to divide the 
 day and the night, and to be for sea- 
 sons, for days and for years. 
 
 "A great light to rule the day, aud 
 a lesser light to rule the night, and 
 stars, and he set them in the firma- 
 ment of heaven." 
 
 Very little light was necessary to 
 the existence of mollusks or other 
 marine invertebrates; but land plants, 
 producing seed and fruit, require both 
 solar light and heat. The transac- 
 tions of the fourth period, do not pur- 
 port to have been creative acts. Suns, 
 comets, planets and satellites, may 
 have been coursing along their re- 
 spective cycles for cosmical ages; be- 
 fore the atmosphere of the earth, the 
 expanse or the firmament, permitted 
 i the full vivif} T ing action of light and 
 heat on this globe. By the above de- 
 scription, they were then set in order, 
 to stimulate land growths, for the use 
 of beings that were to follow. 
 Whether this vegetation was the suc- 
 cessor of lower forms perfected by a 
 law of evolution, cannot be affirmed 
 or denied on this record. 
 
 Verses 20 to 23— fifth day. 
 
 wt And God said, let the waters 
 ; bring forth ' the creeping creatures 
 having life, and the fowl that may fly 
 over the earth under the firmament 
 of heaven." 
 
16 
 
 MOSAIC COSMOGONY MORK ALLEGORICAL THAN LITERAL. 
 
 21. u And God l created ' the great 
 whales, and ever3 T living and moving 
 creature which the waters brought 
 forth, according to their kinds; and 
 every winged fowl, according to its 
 kind/ 1 
 
 • 22. The mission of marine creature, 
 was to " multiply and fill the waters," 
 and of the birds to multiply upon the 
 land. 
 
 Life is here first brought upon the 
 scene. The testimony of the rocks is 
 explicit in regard to its appearance in 
 the archaic strata as invertebrates; 
 which it is not easy to separate from 
 the vegetation of that era. 
 
 Materialists now claim that with- 
 out divine will or agency direct or in- 
 direct, life was evolved from marine 
 jellies. 
 
 Here it is affirmed that every living 
 and moving thing m the waters was 
 created. The description is clear and 
 comprehensive. To marine vegetation 
 there is no reference in this record as 
 it has reached us, nor can it be inferred 
 by a fair construction. In that field 
 there is a vacancy or gap which must 
 remain a blank. 
 
 There ma}' have been lost portions 
 of importance, an explanation that 
 can merely be suggested, not acted 
 upon. 
 
 Other Scriptural breaks are discern- 
 ible, where the same difficulties arise, 
 which must be left for future investi- 
 gation, and are entirely distinct from 
 direct discrepancies. 
 
 Sixth dag — remainder of chapter 
 one, verses 24 to 31. 
 
 Verse 24. " Let the earth bring 
 forth the living ceature in its kind, 
 cattle and creeping things, and beasts 
 of the earth, according to their kinds." 
 . Here is the first mention of land or 
 air breathing animals. The previous 
 introduction of animal life in the 
 waters corresponds with the order of 
 geology, wh3re there are, first, marine 
 growths algae or sea weeds, followed 
 by low and simple invertebrates, and 
 
 these by vertebrates, well preserved in 
 the stratified rocks. The verse ex- 
 tends to a period on the border, be- 
 tween the Devonian and Carbonifer- 
 ous, when rank swamp growths in 
 brackish waters contended with de- 
 ciduous and evergreen trees. 
 
 Verse 26. '• And God ' made ' the 
 beasts of the earth, according to their 
 kinds, and cattle and every thing that 
 creepeth upon the earth after its 
 kind. 1 ' . . . . No descriptive 
 matter is here added to verse 24. Tt 
 is a general repetition. 
 
 Verse 26. "And he said let us make 
 man in our own image and likeness, 
 and let him have dominion over the 
 fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the 
 air and the beasts, and the whole 
 earth and every creeping creature that 
 moves upon the earth." 
 
 Verse 27. " And God created man 
 in his own image, created he him. 
 male and female created he them." 
 
 This completes the descriptive por- 
 tion of the chapter, beginning with 
 the cosmogony, down to man; whose 
 remains in the quartern ary deposits 
 are well known. 
 
 It is the first introduction of fishes 
 by name, which have left" their im- 
 press upon strata as ancient as the 
 upper silurian. Here the word repre- 
 sents an order, in the same manner as 
 the words, fowls and beasts, are put 
 for departments of the animal king- 
 dom. 
 
 When it is considered that periods 
 so vast, and events so numerous and 
 complicated, are compressed into a 
 part of one chapter, we shall cease to 
 expect precision of description. 
 
 The general coincidence with nat- 
 ural history, overshadows the minor 
 | differences. The defects may be at- 
 | tributable to an evident intention not 
 i to introduce science, which was left 
 j to the exercise of powers given to 
 men, 
 
 A moral and religious intent per- 
 vades the chapter directly and allegor- 
 
MOSAIC COSMOGONY MORE ALLEGORICAL THAN LITERAL. 
 
 IT 
 
 ically. On this plan of interpretation 
 the Mosaic theology is based, and all 
 religious theology. 
 
 What philological force should he 
 given to the terms " created, 11 4i made " 
 and ** brought forth " is not well set- 
 tied by commentators. Tf they are 
 interchangeable these expressions car- 
 ry a meaning different from what 
 would result from separate interpre- 
 tations, but they would still have a 
 clear relation to each other and in- 
 clude all creations and all processes 
 of formation in a general way. 
 
 In these verses, where the word 
 create is not used, a wide door is 
 thrown open to the law of evolution, 
 under divine guidance. Only the ma- 
 terial universe is said to be created 
 with animal and finally human life. 
 
 What is not claimed as due to a 
 creative impulse might be evolved 
 without departing from the letter of 
 our translation. It is agreed that the 
 days are not literal or solar, but that 
 the Hebrew original means a period 
 or era of indeterminate length. The 
 testimony of the rocks makes inverte- 
 brate life the most ancient, but of la- 
 ter origin than vegetable life 
 
 In the march of cosmical events, 
 as disclosed in nature, there are three 
 eras or epochs that make a clear im- 
 press upon the minds of all those 
 who study the material world, Avhat- 
 ever individual views they may hold 
 of its origin. These periods will be 
 shown below, in the form of an ab- 
 stract, in which their general agree- 
 ment with the physical history of the 
 first chapter of Genesis will appear. 
 
 These periods are not sharply de- 
 fined, either in Genesis or geology; 
 but there is a general resemblance 
 which is remarkable. The Mosaic 
 account is generally regarded as more 
 than three thousand years old; and 
 when it is considered that neither in 
 Egyptian. Greek, or Latin records 
 prior to Christ there is to be found so 
 comprehensive an exhibit of those 
 
 great cosmical periods, where shall 
 we look for the inspiration of chap- 
 ter One, in a scientific point of 
 view? Its manifest purpose was 
 moral and religious, only a few 
 words and phrases being de- 
 voted to purely descriptive matter. 
 In geology and in science, there was 
 not enough known at the beginning 
 of the present century on which t»> 
 base the groups of three formatory 
 periods, which can even now be done 
 with only a reasonable approach to 
 the truth. Each era holds to the 
 progress that had been made previous- 
 ly ; and each succeeding era makes 
 a wonderful stride beyond the past. 
 
 In the Mosaic account there are 
 breaks, also repetitions and omissions, 
 but these are not discrepancies. 
 
 The latter can only be based upon 
 direct statements, that conflict with 
 each other or with nature. Consider- 
 ing the breadth of the subject, and 
 the small space devoted to what is in- 
 cidental and subordinate to moral law 
 and religious purposes, which are as 
 much more important than nature, as 
 moral forces are superior to mechanical 
 ones, breaks and deficiencies are un- 
 avoidable. 
 
 The groups are first, — an azoic 
 period, where dead matter pervaded, 
 the universe, in a formative condition. 
 
 Group second. — Greater activity, a 
 rapid deposit of sediment, also vegeta- 
 ble and animal life stimulated and 
 quickened under the new order of 
 things. 
 
 Group Third. — Great and rapid 
 change; the mollusks flourishing 
 as in the Cambrian Era until now, 
 also marine plants, fishes, birds; land 
 animals and land plants; all holding 
 their own; mammals, reptiles and 
 men, all becoming more universal and 
 powerful throughout the earth. 
 
 The boundary of this grouping is 
 not always clearly defined in detail, 
 but with minor breaks and omissions 
 is readily recognized. These defi- 
 
18 
 
 MOSAIC COSMOGONY MORE ALLEGORICAL THAN LITERAL. 
 
 ciencies tend to confirm the belief 
 that secular instruction was not the 
 main design of this chapter. A pre- 
 disposition for criticism, and the dis- 
 covery of difficulties where synthetic 
 and general features are pushed aside, 
 can rind material for discussion in 
 this as in all scientific propositions. 
 
 KECAPITULATION OP AGREEMENTS, DIS- 
 AGREEMENTS AND OMISSIONS. 
 
 Order of erents as re- 
 ceived by scientists. 
 
 First formative process or 
 period. 
 Origin of matter, the 
 stellar system and planets 
 in their orbits, oceans, 
 the atmosphere or sky, 
 imperfect vegetable, fol- 
 lowed by animal life in 
 low forms entombed in 
 the sedimentary rocks. 
 
 Second period of progress. 
 Increase of sediment- 
 ary strata and of marine 
 life, vegetable and ani- 
 mal, invertrebrates and 
 vertrebrates throughout 
 the Silurian and Devon- 
 ian systems, with coal 
 measure growths, fishes, 
 amphibious and land rep- 
 tiles, brackish waters still 
 warm, sustain mollusks 
 and a tropical growth of 
 great luxuriance. 
 
 Third formative period. 
 
 Mesozoic time, tertiary 
 and post tertiary. • 
 
 Fishes, birds, mollusks, 
 land and water plants, 
 shrubs, reptiles, and 
 mammals, the most prom- 
 inent man. 
 
 Order of erents inGen- 
 esis, Chapter one. 
 
 First formative or creative 
 period. 
 
 Creation brought for- 
 ward to the era of the 
 planets, seas, darkness 
 followed by transient 
 light. 
 
 First and second day — 
 a firmament spread our, 
 igneous and sedimentary 
 rocks. 
 
 No mention of life. 
 Second period of progress. 
 
 Dry land appears prom- 
 inently above the water. 
 On the land, plants, 
 shrubs and trees, a per- 
 manent firmament '* set 
 in " order, with sun, 
 moon and stars to mark 
 the day, the night, seasons 
 and years. Creeping 
 creatures"brought forth" 
 in The waters, with fowls 
 or birds on land. First 
 mention of life, amphibi- 
 ous creatures possibly in- 
 cluded. No marine vege- 
 tation brought into view 
 anywhere — close of the 
 fifth day. 
 
 Third formhtive or crea- 
 tive period. 
 
 Air breathing creatures 
 brought forth, land 
 plants, shrubs, trees, 
 man created, not made. 
 
 Thus at the close of the third grand 
 division of the cosmos, the Scripture 
 is at the beginning of the first period 
 directly at issue with materialistic 
 evolution. 
 
 At the beginning of the present 
 century it would not have been possi- 
 ble, to have given the groups of the 
 left hand column of the above 
 abstract, from the scientific libraries 
 of Europe The grouping of the 
 right hand column based upon the 
 Mosaic record, published fifteen hun- 
 dred years before Christ, is a better 
 
 one than the learning of the continent 
 could have produced, if the parts thus 
 unchallenged and uncontradicted by 
 scientists, shall be stricken out. Eveii 
 now the portions under criticism and 
 argument by acknowledged scholars 
 being eliminated there remain only 
 here and there limited fields of dem- 
 onstrated truth. That part of astron- 
 omy which rests upon mathematics 
 presents a pleasing exception. The 
 results of chemical analysis and some 
 other physical qualities of matter are 
 generally accepted. In geology es- 
 pecially the department of paleontolo- 
 gy, the confusion, contradictions and 
 uncertainties are such, that what pro- 
 fesses to be science is but little better 
 than opinion. Whoever studies the 
 reports of state geological surveys, or 
 of the United States will be painfully 
 impressed by the large space devoted 
 to the overthrow of the conclusions of 
 their predecessors. A notable exam- 
 ple of these efforts may be seen in the 
 late government and State reports upon 
 the copper bearing range of the upper 
 peninsula of Michigan. 
 
 It is a fair presumption that the 
 work of the latest school of investiga- 
 tors obliterating that of a long line of 
 observers of reputation during fifty 
 years will in turn be swept away. All 
 investigations in the field have their 
 value even where they are made to 
 sustain or to disprove a theory. But 
 critics and observers will continue to 
 live, and to treat their predecessors 
 without veneration if not without re- 
 spect. 
 
 To such variable standards and 
 changeable tests, mankind are asked 
 to submit their most important moral 
 interests in deference to science. 
 Materialistic philosophy is still more 
 vague having no standard. It pre- 
 sents a tjingled maze of opinions and 
 conceits, each of which is of equal 
 authority, and can be interpreted by 
 every individual so as to conform to 
 his caprices. 
 
 ( leveland, <)., March 1886. 
 
THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 v . 
 
 Mutability of Science as a Moral Regulator. 
 
 BY COL. CHAS. WHITTLESEY. 
 
 These chapters have been written 
 under circumstances not favorable to 
 a full presentation of the subject. 
 For many years, chronic diseases in- 
 cident to service have inflicted almost 
 incessant suffering. But in the wake- 
 ful silence of nights, like the solitude 
 of tedious days, there has been ex- 
 cellent opportunity for undisturbed 
 reflection. 
 
 Conscious of the uncertainty of life 
 and the certainty of continued disabili- 
 ty, I have concluded to commit them to 
 the press, fully conscious of their liter- 
 ary defects. In a subject of such magni- 
 tude as the antagonisms between the- 
 ology and science, style may be over- 
 looked, provided there is sufficient 
 clearness of expression. 
 
 Nothing is presented in a spirit of 
 controversy, but with an unswerving 
 faith that all departments of the uni- 
 verse originated with one mind, di- 
 rectly or indirectly. Those who be- 
 lieve they discover discrepancies and 
 wish to place science above all other 
 considerations may rest assured that 
 there is no intention to disparage its 
 achievements, but only to confine it 
 to scientific uses. There is a plain 
 distinction between knowledge whicn 
 is established beyond reasonable doubt 
 and mere hypotheses or opinions. 
 Books are published under the belief 
 that fluency and an abundance of 
 language with an attractive style, are 
 an evidence of thought and wisdom. 
 
 An eminent French archaeologist 
 has devoted a volume to the theory 
 that the sun's rays are spirits of the 
 dead, returning to this earth, among 
 whom he recognizes that of his de- 
 ceased son. 
 
 A clergyman of some reputation 
 has published as a serious fact in 
 science, that the days of creation are 
 literal; requiring but a short period 
 of time; overthrowing by two asser- 
 tions the work of the geologists of 
 the northern hemisphere during fifty 
 years, and denying the existence of a 
 glacial era. Boulders or lost rocks 
 are accounted for as ejections from 
 volcanoes that are no longer visible. 
 
 A strict separation of questions of 
 
 l natural science from those of theolo- 
 
 I gy will promote mutual charity and 
 
 consideration among those who are 
 
 not specialists in both. 
 
 When, in the tardy progress of 
 events, any fact or doctrine shall be 
 firmly established, to that extent 
 clashing will cease, and of all persons, 
 those who have confidence in the God 
 of nature can there leave it. Every 
 position as it shall be ultimately fixed 
 will be helpful to the race. Solid in- 
 telligence cannot eventually debase 
 it, to whatever unfortunate uses science 
 may be temporarily put. Such studies, 
 so far as they have developed material 
 truths, will remain to counteract 
 vicious ethics. 
 
 My intent is to show that there is a 
 want of perfection in science and, 
 therefore of stability, wholly inconsis- 
 tent with claims to infallibility. 
 Whatevei school assumes to arbitrate 
 upon ethical and moral questions, 
 must demonstrate its stability in or- 
 der to gain confidence. 
 
 A very slight comparison of learned 
 authorities shows the reverse of unity. 
 Permanence must be an attribute of 
 every world-wide system subject to 
 inexorable law. In the world of 
 
 19 
 
20 
 
 THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 natural science and natural philoso- 
 phy where is its regulating head 
 or appellant court? If theology is not 
 infallible there is behind it the belief 
 in a ruling and regulating power 
 which is universal, and if t heists are 
 in the right, there is nothing that 
 cannot in some way be brought to a 
 satisfactory test. Treading in the 
 paths of material nature they may for 
 a time separate, but surely to con- 
 verge and meet in the future. 
 
 Evolution in natural science is like 
 Galileo's revolving earth — a reality. 
 Between this and the moral or ethical 
 deductions of materialists is a gulf 
 that is impassable. That evolution as 
 an atheistical doctrine in morals is 
 false; cannot alter nature. 
 
 None of the fraternity of schools 
 penetrates farther into the material 
 world than astronomers, whose meth- 
 ods are based on mathematics and 
 natural philosophy. In animated nat- 
 ure there is not as great exactness, 
 and therefore more scope for opinion 
 and instability. 
 
 Persons who deny a first great 
 cause detract from the simplicity of 
 nature, and leave its moral grandeur 
 out of view. Its material grandeur is 
 overshadowing to all persons alike. 
 Its moral greatness, when circum- 
 scribed by animism, mortal life and 
 annihilation, becomes frail and unim- 
 portant. 
 
 Wonderful views of the stellar sys- 
 tem have been disclosed. by an increase 
 in the diameter of object glasses in tele- 
 scopes from 9 to 11, 13, 19 and 23 
 inches. 
 
 Clark and Sons of Massachusetts 
 have in this way given to astronomy 
 new worlds, and to those before known 
 new and surprising beauties. Sirius, 
 which by common consent had been 
 regarded as the nearest star to our so- 
 lar system, is found by Bessel to be 
 more distant than several lesser stars, 
 thus making changes even in astrono- 
 my. Double stars have long been 
 known. Prof. C. S. Bumham, of 
 
 Chicago, in 1862 discovered a com- 
 panion of Sirius, but of much less 
 magnitude, revolving around their 
 common centre of gravity in about 
 fifty years. They are thirty-seven 
 times the distance from each other 
 that the sun is from our earth. Their 
 mass is about twenty times that of the 
 sun. There are thousands of binary, 
 triple, quadruple and greater conger- 
 ies of stars, revclving about their cen- 
 tres of gravitation, having a proper 
 motion in space as groups. There are 
 also nebulae not yet resolved. 
 
 The gorgeous cluster of the Pleia- 
 des, which has been admired by ori- 
 ental shepherds from remote ages, 
 presents to the eye a group of seven 
 stars. Small telescopes increase the 
 number to forty-four, and the great 
 refractors to more than six hundred, 
 all with direct as well as revolving 
 motion. Prof. Kirkwood infers that 
 they form a combined system, and 
 that it is infinitely impossible that it 
 has resulted from chance. He says 
 that the new questions which these 
 wonderful groups present are so com- 
 plex as to baffle the greatest living as- 
 tronomers. Humboldt when con- 
 templating these " island worlds" 
 was roused to a state of scientific 
 wonder how they could rotate, and 
 yet be in a state of stability. A fair 
 inference is that they are not. Such 
 changes are not more striking 
 than those of minuter objects, but ap- 
 pear more astonishing, because they 
 occur on a scale inconceivably grand. 
 Under given mutations of a physical 
 character, the system is probably in- 
 destructible, or at least its compo- 
 nents. 
 
 To carry out the moral government 
 of God, he must be eternal, and also 
 the subjects of that government. An- 
 nihilation of any part of it at any 
 time would limit its perfection, as ap- 
 plied to intellectual beings. Its char- 
 acteristics are like the mctamorphism 
 of the rocks, slow of operation, but 
 giver sufficient periods, produce cer- 
 
THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 21 
 
 tain results, that proclaim a benevo- 
 lent intent. With a very large pro- 
 portion of mankind, from the lowest 
 to the highest, their designs and their 
 acts are the reverse of benevolent. 
 Of* the best plans devised by them to 
 promote the happiness of others, they 
 feel no certainty of their future suc- 
 cess, on account of the shortness of 
 life, and their impotence over those 
 who survive them. Here lies the rea- 
 son of the mutability of everything 
 human. No school of scientists has 
 been more positive than that which 
 affirms self or spontaneous genera- 
 tion. 
 
 It is nearly one hundred years, in 
 the days of its leading advocate, Prof. 
 Oken, since those doctrinaries placed 
 the origin of life in something called 
 u seafoam." Thus the greatest func- 
 tion of deified power, the origin of 
 life, was ascribed to spontaneous ac- 
 tion wholly disconnected with deity, 
 which in all forms they denied. Ex- 
 periments were not furnished to dem- 
 onstrate the facts of such an origin; 
 only incessant assertions. 
 
 As those scientists succeeded in con- 
 vincing some of the German people of 
 the truth of the doctrine, immediately 
 there arose among men of learning 
 another equally infallible explanation 
 of life development, through some 
 vital energy in ^stardust," whatever 
 that is. This was followed by ascrib- 
 ing similar powers to ascidians, then 
 to monads and to momiria, which 
 when first observed are undistinguish- 
 able from vegetable organisms. 
 
 Next the acarus horridens took the 
 lead, and now under the fiat of the 
 philosopher of Jena, gelatwies or gela- 
 tinous points. Like its predecessors 
 this is an assumption, not sustained 
 by proof. 
 
 On such variable foundations, can 
 mankind be expected to commit their 
 moral destiny? As scholars, though 
 by no means infallible, their study of 
 nature is becoming more and more 
 valuable. As moralists they cannot 
 
 certainly be more reliable than as 
 scientists ; whose claims are contra- 
 dicted by other scientists equally pro- 
 found. There is not more inconstancy 
 in natural science than in other like 
 pursuits, which are without an um- 
 pire, in fact less. Its mission is the 
 interpretation of nature, whicli is 
 more stable than art ; and as fast as 
 the true interpretation is reached 
 science becomes fixed. 
 
 While mind and talent of the high- 
 est order are necessary to penetrate 
 and expose the secrets of nature, ma- 
 terialists deny the necessity of in- 
 tellect of any order to originate a 
 world. If their positions are good, 
 they become intellectually and moral- 
 ly supreme. This is the teaching of 
 their philosophical works, which rec- 
 ommend to their fellow-men that the) 7 
 are morally independent. 
 
 There are naturalists not theists so 
 far committed to the doctrine of ori- 
 gin by. the divergence of species, as to 
 attribute in them something like a 
 premonition of what is to follow. To 
 pronounced materialists any such 
 looking forward must be self or spon- 
 taneous mental action. On a theisti- 
 cal basis such a premonition might be 
 accounted for as a feature imposed 
 upon matter whether animate or in- 
 animate, laying a foundation for an- 
 other step m its development. On 
 the contrary hypothesis it must be 
 self-action in each case. It cannot 
 consistently be claimed as the result 
 of law while they deny the existence 
 of a law maker. Without law the 
 subject of each premonition has indi- 
 vidual action which must be independ- 
 ent. What can be more unphilo- 
 sophical than myriads of such self-orig- 
 inating existences acting in concert? 
 If it is not wholly imaginary such ac- 
 tion must be mental; and if one creat- 
 ure has it so must all. 
 
 Similar ambiguous phrases are cur- 
 rent in Mr. Darwin's writings, which 
 allow of a construction closely allied 
 to that of premonition. Preordina- 
 
22 
 
 THEISM AND ATHEISM Iff SCIENCE. 
 
 tion by mind presents nothing am- 
 biguous, but terms, such as " natural 
 selection," "effects of environment," 
 and "origin of species," not subject to a 
 supreme regulator, have been honestly 
 construed by thousands to include self- 
 action and to cover the origin of life. 
 
 When that conclusion is reached, 
 thought and foreknowledge naturally 
 follow. Unless between mind and 
 matter, there is something intermedi- 
 ate connecting both, there remains a 
 break between spiritual and material 
 entities. While they are separate the 
 material can act only subject to an in- 
 tellectual guide. Those who believe 
 in self generation will not deny that 
 there is order and system at and after 
 the origin. How can they exist with- 
 out agreement and design ? The Dar- 
 winian doctrine of change within liv- 
 ing species is very much strengthened 
 by the broader and deeper one of 
 primordial evolution. 
 
 Looking over all phases of ex- 
 istence, whether animal or vegetable, 
 it cannot be successfully denied 
 that there is proclivity to change. 
 This feature is not confined to living 
 creatures, but embraces the mineral 
 kinguom from its remotest periods, 
 and such must have been the design 
 of a will, equal to its successful 
 management. Those who discredit 
 and deny the doctrine of evolution 
 will profit by a study of these changes, 
 going back as far as our knowledge 
 extends. They will be found to ex- 
 hibit an harmonious progress, clearly 
 expressing a controlling power, whose 
 modes of operation are beyond the 
 control and largely beyond the under- 
 standing of humanity. This vast 
 scheme is not confined to natural 
 science or to the material world. 
 
 On the question of instability I 
 have already referred to a disposition 
 among geologists to discredit the 
 conclusions of their predecessors. This 
 is manifest not only in the United 
 States, but in Europe, from the earli- 
 est reports and records. 
 
 Examine the prolonged discussion 
 upon our Azoic and Metamorphic 
 systems, including the dreadful Ta- 
 conic series. In archaeology and its 
 cognate studies, the range of discrep- 
 ancies is still wider, on account of less 
 exactness of method, and therefore 
 more exuberance of imagination. 
 There is no lack of earnest research, 
 but an honest difference of opinion. 
 There is not unanimity among arch- 
 aeologists in regard to the presence of 
 the elephant and mastodon in the 
 United States since the occupation of 
 the red men. 
 
 Several members of the Academy of 
 Science at Davenport, la., have exam- 
 ined stone relics from ancient mounds 
 in that vicinity, on which are rudely 
 engraved images that have been con- 
 sidered as representing the elephant. 
 This academy has a stone pipe in the 
 general form of an elephant, and in 
 Missouri such an effigy has been 
 found. The Bureau of Ethnology as 
 a part of the Smithsonian Institute 
 at Washington, denies that the ele- 
 phant and the red man were extem- 
 poraneous, and decline to admit the 
 genuineness of the engraved tablets, 
 or the fact that the elephant was in- 
 tended to be represented. 
 
 Very strenuous efforts are being 
 made to effect uniformity of action 
 upon great practical subjects, by 
 means of congresses and conventions. 
 The peace of Europe is measurably 
 assured by meetings of the powers 
 and general conference upon political 
 questions. Fortunate and valuable as 
 these discussions may be, they have 
 no abiding authority, or final certain- 
 ty of success. 
 
 In medical practice, which controls 
 the greatest of our needs, there are 
 among practitioners the widest differ- 
 ences, amounting to contradictions. 
 By means of schools and med- 
 ical colleges these differences are be- 
 ing reduced, but when will the day 
 come when doctors shall agree! In 
 scientific matters there are in Great 
 
THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE, 
 
 23 
 
 Britain and the United States associa- 
 tions for the advancement of knowl- 
 edge, where the most learned pro- 
 fessors and students meet annually to 
 compare their conclusions. Their 
 published papers represent the highest 
 development of science in all its de- 
 partments. By these records it is 
 evident that their minds are far from 
 accord upon any of the great ques- 
 tions of science. 
 
 in mathematics and astronomy no 
 investigation has embraced more tal- 
 ent and public patronage than the ef- 
 fort to find a standard measure inde- 
 pendent of the meter. The French 
 government employed Prof. Arago in 
 1822 to survey a meridian of longitude 
 through Paris and determine the 
 length of a degree of arc. A given 
 portion of the meridian he surveyed 
 became their standard meter. English 
 mathematicians deny the accuracy of 
 the French work by some 1800 meters. 
 
 For this purpose, for an invariable 
 reference in case the English standard 
 yard should be lost or injured, the 
 government makes use of the semi- 
 polar axis of the earth. The accuracy 
 of the British determination is denied 
 by French mathematicians as subject 
 to a greater error than has been 
 ascribed to the arc of Arago. From 
 the progress of schools towards unity 
 in the past two centuries it may be in- 
 ferred that a geological era may elapse 
 before it is reached. 
 
 Many other institutions in all civil- 
 ized countries have long been engaged 
 either as individual schools or in con- 
 nection with universities and the 
 patronage of governments in dis- 
 cussing great questions in nature, 
 including astronomy, chemistry, ar- 
 chaeology, medicine, mathematics. 
 
 language and social affairs. Where, 
 on any of these subjects, is to be found 
 an exponent that is received with such 
 respect as to silence criticism? 
 
 Questions of world-wide religious 
 interest are discussed by representa- 
 tives of creeds and churches with in- 
 creasing approach to unanimity. The 
 points that are settled as finalities are 
 few, but solutions appear more and 
 more probable. Upon interpretation, 
 discipline and doctrine, there are broad 
 variances of opinion. Max Muller 
 maintains that evolution embraces not 
 only intellectual matters, but the 
 moral and religious senses. 
 
 To this it may be objected that 
 evolution must operate imperatively, 
 not liable to artificial correction ; but 
 in Darwin's plan the surroundings 
 play a very important part. A belief 
 in this adds to the grandeur of moral 
 government, by engrafting upon it, 
 as in the material world, new hopes 
 and possibilities for those who accept 
 the idea of immortality. 
 
 Every discovery of this kind, wheth- 
 er in spiritual or material fields, adds 
 solidity to what may have been estab- 
 lished of a kindred nature before, be- 
 cause it thus becomes more and more 
 universal. As it covers more depart- 
 ments, its necessity for all of them 
 increases, and also the probabilities 
 that it permeates every department of 
 the universe — mental, moral and ma- 
 terial. To those who in various de- 
 grees indulge in the greatest rever- 
 ence for secular learning, I submit 
 whether, if the moral sense comes 
 within its scope and purpose, there is 
 as yet stability enough to formulate a 
 code that shall be true and shall prom- 
 ise to be perpetual. 
 
THEISM ATO ATHEISM W SCIENCE. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Law of Undulations. 
 
 13Y COL. CHAS. WHITTLESEY. 
 
 When we have considered a large 
 number of the qualities of inanimate 
 matter, and have shown that they 
 form parts of systems pervading this 
 planet and doubtless other planets or 
 suns, it may be inferred that other 
 qualities or functions, not as well un- 
 derstood, belong also to systems with 
 laws. Those best known, are gravi- 
 tation, crystallization, cohesion, elec- 
 tricity and orbital motions, whose 
 mutual relations are universally ad- 
 mitted. 
 
 In animate nature, are qualities 
 equally universal, and as mutually de- 
 pendent, which form mental and 
 physiological systems. All of them 
 move forward, in accordance to their 
 special laws. If they did not, they 
 could not act in concert, and accom- 
 plish specific purposes. This would 
 seem to be manifest. In the aggre- 
 gate the universe may be compared 
 to the regiments, brigades and divi- 
 sions of an army, with their batteries 
 of artillery, and squadrons of cavalry, 
 all directed by one will; without 
 which, instead of order and efficiency, 
 there would be insufficiency and chaos. 
 
 The creative power of theistical 
 philosophy is none the less a control- 
 ling agent because its operations are 
 slow ; commencing far back in the 
 life of the universe, and act by endow- 
 ments, impressed upon both matter 
 and mind. 
 
 Special impulses are not impossible, 
 but belong to the miraculous, and lose 
 the form of law, as well as the beauty 
 of systems. It will tend to give clear- 
 ness to our perceptions of spiritual 
 action, if we consider the principles, 
 qualities and forces impressed upon 
 
 matter in primordial times, and how. 
 though fixed in number, they have 
 operated continuously; evolving new 
 principles, qualities and forces. 
 
 Scientific details are not of so much 
 consequence, to our thesis, as the per- 
 sistent relationship of each depart- 
 ment to others, which takes the form 
 of a fact. One of these departments 
 or systems, is the manner in which 
 gases, fluids and solids move in curves 
 or oscillations, and not in right lines. 
 The design or purpose of this Jaw of 
 motion, is in some respects not as 
 manifest, as it is in the case of elec- 
 tricity, crystallization and many other 
 attributes, but the fact is as well estab- 
 lished. Motion is attributed to two 
 mechanical agencies; direct impulse 
 and gravity, which results in the trac- 
 ing of curves. 
 
 A solid shot discharged from a gun 
 takes the track of a parabola. A 
 stone thrown by hand assumes the 
 same curve. Planets, asteroids and 
 comets are regarded by scientists as 
 having had an impulse in a right line, 
 but being immediately acted upon by 
 gravitation from the sun, gave to their 
 orbits the form of ellipses, of which 
 that orb occupies one of the foci. 
 
 Ascending flames from combustion 
 take a wavy form under the effects of 
 buoyancy. The captive balloon or kite 
 struggling to rise. sways to and fro in, 
 much the. same manner. A rope 
 stretched across a flowing stream has 
 the same action. Rockets and other 
 pyrotechny which on public celebra- 
 tions endanger cities, and entrance 
 the hearts of children, come under the 
 same law; likewise their fragments 
 when exploded. 
 
 94 
 
THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 25 
 
 Winds move in waves, the same as 
 the waters, which are wrought into 
 waves. Flags and other sheets acted 
 upon by breezes, are shaped into un- 
 dulatory folds, and never into flat sur- 
 faces. Whether in flumes or other 
 channels, flowing water assumes a 
 wavy movement, which cannot be 
 prevented. If it escapes from pipes, 
 the discharge is in spirts and curves. 
 
 In fountains and jets d eau there 
 are incessant changes, the spray ris- 
 ing and falling continually. It is the 
 same with gases flowing from pipes — 
 always oscillating. A rope or a car- 
 pet shaken along the ground takes on 
 the form of waves, loops and billows 
 
 Semi-fluid or viscous matter, such 
 as molasses, tar, molten slag and lava 
 have a sluggish, rolling flow. Earth- 
 quakes progress in waves on land and 
 beneath the sea. This is a system 
 which philosophers would never have 
 devised. 
 
 Prof. Foreb, on the Swiss geological 
 survey, has a tidal register near Lau- 
 sanne, on Lake Geneva. This instru- 
 ment is affected by the commotion of 
 steamers, on the opposite shore thirty 
 miles distant. Sheets of water falling 
 over dams or regular waterfalls like 
 Niagara, sway back and forth inces- 
 santly, sometimes giving out musical 
 souncls like the Eolian harp or tele- 
 graph wires in the wind. 
 
 Musical string instruments produce 
 harmonious notes by their vibrations. 
 Wind instruments of various forms, 
 made from alloys of metal, produce 
 harmony by vibration. 
 
 The human throat was the model 
 trumpet, most perfect of all by reason 
 of its flexibility and obedience to the 
 will and the lung power. Animals 
 have the organs of modulation for 
 voices in as full perfection. 
 
 All sounds are the fruit of undula- 
 tions breaking upon the drum of the 
 ear, transmitted to the brain by 
 special nerves. A stone dropped into 
 quiet water sends a series of concen- 
 tric waves outward like waves of 
 
 sound which extend beyond the point 
 where they cease to be visible. No 
 waters of seas or lakes are so quiet 
 but there are ripples upon the beach, 
 the result of low, broad waves coming 
 in from a distance; probably the re- 
 sult of atmospheric waves due to in- 
 equalities of pressure. Neither the 
 air or the water is ever at perfect 
 rest. Some forms of undulatory mo- 
 tion are so common that they do not 
 attract attention. 
 
 Stones or metal balls let fall in 
 quiet water sink in wavy lines pro- 
 pelled by gravity only. Lightning 
 approaches to straight or jagged lines, 
 because the initial velocity is irresisti- 
 ble and the course generally down- 
 ward towards the earth through the 
 atmosphere where the resistance is 
 great for so subtle a body. 
 
 Pendulums oscillate with so much 
 regularity that time is measured by 
 them. This motion is so exact that 
 it has been applied to the determina- 
 tion of the standard yard in England. 
 
 On all shores there are undulations 
 of the waters besides the tides, that 
 follow each other hour after hour 
 with a regularity that comes very 
 near to perpetual motion. There are 
 also numerous records of great waves 
 propelled by storms or earthquakes, 
 of great height and terrible power, of 
 which that of Krakatoa has been best 
 described. 
 
 Krakatoa. 
 
 As recently as August 1884 a vol- 
 cano burst forth in the sea near Sum- 
 atra. It rose in a few hours in the 
 form of a cone, formed by ashes and 
 stones thrown upward to a great 
 height. The shock was so irresistible, 
 that a large tract of rich and culti- 
 vated country at the ocean level, was 
 inundated by the wave to an elevation 
 of sixty feet, killing many thousands 
 of people. The atmosphere was made 
 dark by clouds of smoke and dust, 
 which spread several hundred miles 
 in fiP directions. It was claimed but 
 
26 
 
 THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 not well established, that this volcanic 
 dust appeared in our atmosphere, caus- 
 ing an unusually ruddy glow at sun- 
 rise and sunset. 
 
 It was however well settled, by tide 
 registers, on the Indian Ocean and on 
 the Atlantic and Pacific coasts; that 
 a wave moved outward from the vol- 
 cano, across all those seas, which was 
 lost, only when it was broken on some 
 coast. It did not differ from earth- 
 quake waves, except in its extent. 
 From the Indian Archipelago it moved 
 northerly, easterly and southerly, 
 along the coast of Asia across to the 
 Pacific coast and to the Pacific Islands. 
 All the tide registers made record of 
 it. 
 
 On the Atlantic coasts of South 
 and North America it was observed, 
 and coming around Cape Horn ap- 
 peared on the Pacific coast separate 
 from the direct wave from Sumatra. 
 
 In recent years natural philosophers 
 have measuarably abandoned the the- 
 ory that the rays of the sun are pro- 
 jected in right lines. In place of this 
 there is one, requiring rapid vibra- 
 tions at the sun and stars, which 
 transmit light through space, by un- 
 dulations, and requires the presence 
 everywhere of an ether, too subtle to 
 be tangible; but which is admitted 
 as indispensable to the new theory. 
 A new interest is thus given to undu- 
 lations in general. These vibrations 
 strike the retina, and through the 
 nerves of the eye reach the brain pro- 
 ducing the sensation of light. 
 
 The proofs of its existence or of its 
 nature are not very satisfactory. 
 
 Something of this indescribable, or 
 at least, undescribed ethereal char- 
 acter is also required to sustain the 
 theory that heat is only a violent agi- 
 tation of particles. If such an ether 
 exists, it cannot be for light only. 
 There are other mysterious phenom- 
 ena to which an equally mysterious 
 process is necessary. Such as the 
 transmission of sound through solid 
 bodies, which requires a medium 
 
 ethereal enough to penetrate the 
 spaces between the particles. It 
 might also be a promoter of the pas- 
 sage of electricity, through its various 
 conductors, solid or fluid. 
 
 It is well known that sound is con- 
 veyed through wires and cords by 
 diaphragms, distinct enough to give 
 signals without electricity, but won- 
 derfully improved by the use of it. 
 Everything points to a general sys- 
 tem of undulatory movements so uni- 
 versal that it has taken rank as one 
 of the general qualities of matter, 
 however indefinite the details may be. 
 The propelling power of the Kraka- 
 toa waves, which belted the earth and 
 were lost only when they broke on 
 every shore, may not be satisfactorily 
 explained by a first impulse forward, 
 acted upon by gravity. It requires an 
 almost infinite force to stretch a line 
 to a strictly horizontal position, and 
 there the only opposing force is the 
 gravitation of the earth at right an- 
 gles to it. 
 
 Unconfined fluids and gases are so 
 exceedingly sensitive to inequalities of 
 atmospheric pressure that they are 
 never at rest. 
 
 A broad field of conjecture is opened 
 by admitting such an ether, where 
 new possibilities and profound queries 
 force themselves upon us. 
 
 Can it hold the position of a medium 
 of thought along the brain and be at 
 the same time material? 
 
 Unfathomable as such speculations 
 may appear, they are portentous to 
 materialists, not to theists. The posi- 
 tion of the former is nothing without 
 annihilation. Spontaneous genera- 
 tion implies spontaneous destructi- 
 bility. 
 
 Shakespeare had not been educated 
 up to that form of morality when he 
 advised his fellow men to ponder and 
 bear the ills they have, rather than 
 plunge into an unknown sea of troubles 
 which they knew not of. Persons of 
 a suicidal proclivity may well pause 
 long enough to consider whether any 
 
THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 27 
 
 Eower but the creative one can anni- 
 ilate anything. 
 
 Having brought into view some 
 phenomena of solid bodies, especially 
 such as seem to partake of an ethereal 
 or intangible character, we may con- 
 sider those by which the clearly ma- 
 terial, is connected with what is less 
 tangible. The doctrine of universal 
 ether as a medium of light that has 
 become prominent is almost bewilder- 
 ing. It indicates a depth of contriv- 
 ance which goes beyond the doctrine 
 of right line rays, and is a surprise in 
 nature. 
 
 If this medium of undulations stim- 
 ulates or otherwise affects the nerves, 
 it should have some connection with 
 the mind. 
 
 In a chapter on the brain and ner- 
 vous system this possibility will be 
 considered. If the theory holds good, 
 it will be another cord reaching into 
 other systems, binding and intertwin- 
 ing them still closer. Such a bold 
 hypothesis requires, if not a demon- 
 stration, at least something more than 
 plausible argument. 
 
 If established there must stand 
 within sustaining distance an invisi- 
 ble, all powerful, infinite mind who, 
 in the language of Garfield, comes 
 so hear to the children of men that 
 his whispers are audible to them. It 
 is only by such magic power that 
 dead matter from its original condi- 
 tion has been developed into life and 
 perfection in a manner that astonishes 
 the greatest of human intellects. On- 
 ly upon this view can the men.tal be 
 brought into such close unison with 
 the material, such as a creator would 
 naturally bestow upon his creatures. 
 It would save investigators much per- 
 plexity, if instead of laboring to ex- 
 clude a deity they would recognize him 
 as inspiring the forces of nature. 
 
 This is not science but knowledge 
 of a higher grade and good reasoning. 
 The theory of a pervading ether re- 
 quires more imagination or faith than 
 that of an all-pervading spirit. 
 
 Apparently the wave-like motion 
 is a mode of transmission that re- 
 quires the least expenditure of force. 
 An analogous evidence of wide spread 
 mechanical contrivance is the struct- 
 ure of bones, where by means of hol- 
 lows and cavities the greatest strength 
 is obtained with a given material. 
 Whatever the newly found medium 
 for light may be its susceptibility to 
 impact, must be beyond comprehen- 
 sion. Some scientist has estimated 
 the vibrations of light to be 1$0,000 
 in a second. The late Prof. E. Desor 
 of Neufchatel concluded, that the 
 transmission of thought requires time 
 not exactly measurable. Electricians 
 have been able to measure the veloci- 
 ty of the electrical wave. Oscillations 
 of material substances imply momen- 
 tum which implies a material agent 
 or impulse. No form of undulation is 
 mental; wherever vibrations occur, in 
 whatever portion of the universe there 
 must be matter, however attenuated 
 or imponderable. Motion is one of 
 the life sustaining provisions of nature. 
 Its office in the atmosphere is to puri- 
 fy it, extending to caves and mines. 
 In the waters, whether of lakes, rivers 
 or seas, there are self regulating move- 
 men ts that prevent stagnation. 
 
 The mechanism of the universe 
 acts in concord, within fixed limits 
 of change; which are not productive 
 of discord. 
 
 Meteors which reach the earth from 
 other bodies might, if they were large 
 and numerous, increase its bulk and 
 change its relations to the asteroids 
 and planets. The remarkable shower 
 of November 1833 was entirely gase- 
 ous, and dissipated in the atmosphere. 
 As yet astronomers have observed no 
 perceptible increase. The increase of 
 ice on land during the glacial era, 
 produced a slight change in the centre 
 of gravity, and the level of the 
 sea. 
 
 Prof. Geike of the geological survey 
 of Great Britain has given an ex- 
 planation, which shows it to be self- 
 
28 
 
 THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 regulating and returning to its nor- 
 mal condition. 
 
 It is due to astronomical causes, 
 and to combinations between the ec- 
 centricity of the earth's orbit and the 
 revolution of the line of the apsides. 
 It requires about 11,000 years to come 
 on, and the same to retire, or a period 
 of about 22.000 years. 
 
 This oscillation embraces a moder- 
 ate change on an extensive scale, and 
 is going on now. The ice neve and 
 snow of Greenland, British North 
 America and Alaska, slowly increases 
 southward until the astronomical con- 
 ditions change, the temperature is 
 raised, the mass thaws from its south- 
 ern border, and is resolved into water 
 and the normal condition returns. 
 One result was the lowering of the 
 ocean level, by the solidifying of its 
 
 waters retained upon the continents. 
 — Professor Hilgard. of Washington, 
 calculates the change in the center of 
 gravity of the earth to have been on- 
 ly six hundred (000) feet, This is 
 an illustration of the compensations 
 of nature by its self-regulating pro- 
 cesses. 
 
 There is proof of the existence of 
 cave-dwelling men at that period, who 
 probably retreated before the increas- 
 ing cold. A number of pre-glacial 
 animals have left their bones in the 
 clay, sand and gravel derived from 
 crushed rocks and boulders. Many 
 genera survived the Arctic cold. To 
 the controversy in regard to the ele- 
 phant and the mastodon, as a cotem- 
 porary with post glacial man, refer- 
 ence has already been made in discuss- 
 ing the instability of science. 
 
THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Brain and Nerve Mysteries. 
 
 BY COL. CHAS. WHITTLESEY. 
 
 A nerve may be studied physically, 
 like other parts of the animal system, 
 but possesses an interest that attaches 
 to no other organ on account of its 
 relation to mind. Our nerves are 
 formed in knots, ganglia and centres 
 of radiation, of which the most re- 
 markable is the brain. In respect to 
 what is wonderful in mind and at the 
 same time a practical power, it com- 
 pares with the great complex stellar 
 system. It is the seat of all mental 
 action, including reason, passion, mem- 
 ory, the emotions, knowledge, and that 
 group of spiritual activities that are 
 not regarded as material. 
 
 Its material side is being examined 
 under the microscope and in the dis- 
 secting room, bringing out new won- 
 ders and mysteries. Its relations to 
 mind cannot be determined there. 
 When its common centre within the 
 brain case is considered, it is found to 
 dominate. over and direct every move- 
 ment of the intellect, and this subtle 
 essence confessedly directs whatever 
 transpires among men. 
 
 Nothing can be more important 
 physiologically than the brain power. 
 It presents, physically considered, no 
 extreme difficulties over other anato- 
 mies, such as the muscles, bones, the 
 organs of the senses and those of 
 propagation. 
 
 Connected with the nerve system is 
 the mind system, the existence of 
 which needs no argument. Every 
 one is conscious of it. Where demon- 
 strators and chemists leave the ner- 
 vous system, metaphysicians and bi- 
 ologists take it up. Thus far there is 
 as much certainty as the exact sci- 
 ences have attained. With the mental, 
 spiritual, emotional and rational func- 
 tions of our nature everything is dif- 
 ferent. About them there is some 
 light, but naore darkness. How: what 
 
 is spiritual is associated with what is 
 material or matter with mind, is 
 a mystery. 
 
 What invisible agent puts the spirit 
 in motion within the brain, and guides 
 it along the minor nerves to a certain 
 destination ? How is it there transmut- 
 ed into physical force through muscuha* 
 power? How far does the spiritual es- 
 sence act separately from the material 
 body? When the body dies and is 
 decomposed, do thought, memory, 
 emotion and the cognate mental 
 faculties perish also? How far, dur- 
 ing mortal life, is the spiritual sensa- 
 tion of one person transmissible to an- 
 other, and by what medium conveyed? 
 
 Such are some of the questions 
 with which mental philosophers have 
 long struggled by the light of nature 
 under great discouragements, but they 
 have discovered enough to show that 
 mental activity is coextensive with 
 human life, and holds a control over 
 all other interests within our knowl- 
 edge. Outside of theism, they are 
 restricted to reasonings from analogy, 
 which have force, but fall short of 
 demonstration. 
 
 It is everywhere admitted that the 
 nerve system is a connecting link be- 
 tween mental and physical action. 
 Whatever view may be taken of the 
 intervention of a supreme spiritual 
 power, it will not be denied that what 
 pertains to the all-embracing nerve 
 system is everywhere uniform, and 
 therefore subject to one law. There 
 is an imponderable substance, to 
 which brief reference is made in chap- 
 ter three, which is even more univer- 
 sal in nature than the nervous sys- 
 tem, because it pervades the mineral 
 kingdom. Its general name is elec- 
 tricity, but its phases are quite numer- 
 ous. Throughout the vegetable and 
 animal kingdoms nerves act as con- 
 
 29 
 
30 
 
 THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 ductors. They cannot be adapted 
 to each other and reciprocate on so 
 extensive a scale without a design to 
 that effect. 
 
 Electricity has shown such vivify- 
 ing and sustaining effects, that many 
 men of science attribute vital energy 
 to it. This was the theory of Dr. 
 Bastian, upon which his experiments 
 were based. Its gentler manifesta- 
 tions were proven by Galvani, to be 
 constantly present in animals, within 
 whom are self-acting currents, some- 
 times called animal magnetism. 
 Volta produced a current close- 
 ly resembling it, by means of 
 a metallic pile, using acidulated 
 water; which was very properly 
 called galvanism. Plants have a 
 nervous system of their own, through 
 which galvanic currents pass. In this 
 way their food is solved at the root, 
 taken into circulation, and the result 
 is growth. There is not much doubt 
 but all electrical excitements, from the 
 mildest to the most terriific.are brought 
 into action by variations of heat, es- 
 pecially solar heat, a universal, per- 
 petual, self-regulating process. These 
 changes produce an immediate effect 
 upon the nervous system. Telegraph 
 operators sitting at their instruments 
 within the range of local storms, find 
 their nerves , affected. If the wires 
 show a strong surplus, the circuit is 
 opened and the wire connected with 
 the ground. Bolts of fire have been 
 known to flash over the switch into 
 the earth, portions of lightning dis- 
 charges in the distance not visible. 
 Persons in the track of thunder storms 
 have their nerves disturbed or shocked. 
 
 A surcharge may be fatal, but in 
 milder strength, electricity may be a 
 supporter of life, or a curative for its 
 diseases. The natural world cannot 
 be viewed on a broad scale without 
 discovering the fitness of one depart- 
 ment to another. They support each 
 other as systems. 
 
 As these systems are better known 
 to science, their mutuality is more 
 
 and more apparent. The two which 
 have just been discussed, the nerves 
 and electricity, are examples selected 
 from many others because of their 
 prominence, and because they are 
 more familiar. They also possess an 
 irresistible interest, by their asso- 
 ciation with mental action. 
 
 Mental activities that are involun- 
 tary, present greater evidence of sub- 
 mission to law, than those that are 
 under the direction of the will. Some 
 are of a mixed character. The do- 
 mestic affections are offered as an in- 
 stance, not because they are general- 
 ly involuntary, but because they be- 
 long to indisputable consciousness 
 in all human beings, not only now, 
 but since the existence of the first 
 cave-dwellers. 
 
 The group of affections occupies a 
 greater space among the emotions, and 
 has a more direct influence upon hu- 
 man affairs than any other, and ex- 
 ists without regard to philosophy or 
 cultivation. If analogies are allowed 
 any weight, this is a fair field to in- 
 troduce them. If universality adds 
 anything to a metaphysical argu- 
 ment, or an almost complete accord 
 with other departments of mental na- 
 ture, the affections lead. The brute 
 portions of animate nature, in this re- 
 spect sometimes outdo the rational. 
 
 In animals it is often regarded as 
 an instinct, which is entirely invol- 
 untary. As arguments upon the dis- 
 tinction between reason and instinct, 
 bid fair never to come to a close, the 
 two faculties may be treated for the 
 present purpose, as the same. Affec- 
 tion, passion, and other emotions in 
 animals, increase with their native 
 intelligence. The less imposing claims 
 of change by development through 
 divergence of species, requires will 
 and supernatural action, somewhere. 
 
 Whatever vitality may be, and 
 wherever its forces are located, the 
 spiritual part takes the lead of the 
 physical. Whether the unlearned, 
 or the learned, or all of them, dvuy 
 
i 
 
 .C. 
 
 THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 dooms' 
 
 V 
 
 or admit this duplex feature of our ex- 
 istence, will not alter the facts. The 
 question arises as to the capacity of a 
 separation of mind and matter and of 
 separate action? If analogies are 
 stricken from all philosophical treat- 
 ises, their bulk will be much reduced. 
 Galvanic action of the nerves, tele- 
 graphing hither and thither in obedi- 
 ence to will, is a physical fact subject 
 to observation. The will is spiritual and 
 eludes the microscope, but is none the 
 less an actuality or fact. Of that class 
 the mental kingdom is filbd, singly 
 and in groups, constituting a system 
 as wonderful as any department of 
 nature, but intangible, except in their 
 effects. 
 
 Reason is grand and memory indis- 
 pensable, but the sentiments and 
 emotions dominate over them. 
 
 Memory is surely spiritual, if any- 
 thing is; but it acts as an agent to 
 the sentiments and emotions, without 
 being at all like them. 
 
 The exuberant domestic affections 
 are so various and ethereal, that they 
 are difficult to classify. They are 
 largely sentimental and sometimes 
 artificial, but are ingrained in human 
 nature everywhere. They are mental 
 realities of the highest class, that oc- 
 cupy the brain, and are as manifest as 
 rivers and mountains. 
 
 Because they belong to metaphysi- 
 cal and inexact studies, and are often 
 obscure, they none the less form an 
 essential part of the happiness of the 
 race, and must be controlled by law 
 and order, no less than material sub- 
 stances. 
 
 The emotional sense which plays a 
 ruling part in domestic life, whether 
 of men, women or children, is not less 
 powerful, though the main springs 
 may be invisible. The difficult ques- 
 tion is the relation to or trans missi- 
 bility from one mind, soul or spirit to 
 another. It does not dispose of this 
 difficulty to deny a living spiritual 
 deity; for all these qualities exist, 
 however the human race originated, 
 
 and ideas, sentiments and emotions 
 pass from one to another. 
 
 Without a resort to a supernatural 
 agency, involuntary mental action is 
 inexplicable. The child is imbued 
 with the spirit of its parents, not nec- 
 essarily in their presence, but when 
 far away from home. This sentiment 
 is a regulating power over its conduct. 
 It is not destroyed by the death of 
 parents. It remains as a purely spir- 
 itual influence through many years, 
 kept alive by memory, a strictly men- 
 tal faculty. 
 
 The impression left upon a people 
 by the character of a good or patriotic 
 man. personally unknown to them, 
 affects their thoughts and their ac- 
 tions generations after his decease. 
 This spiritual effect is displayed in 
 great practical force by different gen- 
 erals in command of armies. There 
 are many instances where his troops 
 have no personal acquaintance, while 
 they are imbued by his spirit, courage 
 and invincibility. 
 
 This is a real power, though a mere 
 sentiment, by which he is multiplied 
 into thousands of men, through which 
 victories are won and the fate of na- 
 tions determined. It cannot be at- 
 tributed to the imagination, and if it 
 could, this would prove that imagina- 
 tion, which is ideal, is a power in the 
 world of mind, having a systematized 
 action for valuable purposes. On the 
 atheistic basis, this faculty would 
 need an explanation like the others. 
 
 Thus do experience and analogies 
 intimate that there is some mode of 
 transmission of thought and emotion 
 not entirely over the nerves from the 
 living to the living, but from the dead 
 to the living. The mode as a material 
 agency is not comprehensible. There 
 are other involuntary mental opera- 
 tions, in the shape of trances, dreams, 
 somnambulism and visions, that are 
 less tangible than voluntary ones. 
 
 In all ages mankind have believed 
 in witchcraft, ghosts or some form of 
 spirit manifestation. Little has been 
 
32 
 
 THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 settled that goes to explain how much 
 reality there is in such beliefs. As- 
 trology and fortune-telling have at 
 all times had their influence, but as 
 yet these practices partake more of 
 fraud than of philosophy. The in- 
 crease of intelligence steadily dimin- 
 ishes the credence which has been 
 given to all of these classes of beliefs. 
 
 It seems reasonable, however, to 
 conclude that a complete moral gov- 
 ernment requires a systematic use of 
 the spiritual characteristics of our 
 nature. What these characteristics 
 are, cannot be clearly defined by 
 science and its modes. After passing 
 the line of physical observation, we 
 are not necessarily in the unknown. 
 
 Every person we meet has moral, 
 social, and spiritual qualities, a soul 
 and mind, as apparent as the body, a 
 study of which is worthy of the most 
 gifted minds. To ignore such knowl- 
 edge, even in a rough and formative 
 state, or to despise it. is doing injus- 
 tice to interests that are dear to all 
 our fellow-beings. Looking at the 
 qualities of the mind separately as the 
 phrenological student does when he 
 maps them out on his chart, their 
 names, numbers and localities are not 
 well defined, but as a system they are 
 all present. Their mystical outlines 
 renders definition difficult individually. 
 
 Scholars in this field, of necessity 
 contradict each other. Take the emo- 
 tions, instincts, affections, reason, 
 memory and the mental activities, of 
 which these are a portion; the clouds 
 which rest upon their border lines, 
 cannot vitiate their reality as a group, 
 for, viewed in a body, there is noth- 
 ing better defined. These faculties 
 in gross constitute the spiritual part 
 of hu infinity, and are as readily per- 
 ceived as material objects. No dis- 
 play of sophistry can render so plain 
 a truth obscure. Wherever there is 
 human life, the animal body is subor- 
 dinate to the mental faculties. What- 
 ever constitute-; the soul, mind or 
 spirit may like the nebula not yet be 
 
 resolved. But like them they are 
 capable of being resolved. The neb- 
 ulous mass is a reality, though the in- 
 dividual stars are only partly defined. 
 
 Whatever may be the full law of 
 our existence, especially in regard to 
 its perpetuity, no one will be exempt 
 from those laws. Certainly it can- 
 not be varied to suit those who deny 
 futurity. There are other people en- 
 titled to consideration. Those who 
 have hitherto lived and died consti- 
 tuting a great majority, have had some 
 form of religious belief, to which im- 
 mortality is essential. Whatever lies 
 beyond our ken on other planets or 
 systems, it is past argument that here 
 mind is the ruling power. 
 
 It may be mortifying to the pride 
 of philosophers that there is anywhere 
 an intellect greater than themselves. 
 To deny such a fact because it is not 
 solvable by them, will not alter the 
 course of nature or weaken the proofs 
 which exist in favor of a supreme 
 regulating mind. By analogy from 
 what is visible, mental potency of 
 any and every kind should be the last 
 thing which is destructible. 
 
 If it is so, it must require the same 
 fiat power that caused its existence. 
 If anything idealistic as contrasted 
 with matter has existence, it must be 
 spiritual. 
 
 Reasoning from material nature 
 and mental nature as the basis of 
 what we perceive, in almost all coun- 
 tries there has sprung up what is 
 called natural religion. 
 
 A mutual correlation of action 
 among the parts of a civil government 
 or between nations, is evidence of in- 
 tellect and design. In the material 
 world much more comprehensive de- 
 partments work in harmony, sustain- 
 ing and not opposing each other. 
 
 The sun's rays have an electro- 
 magnetic influence direct upon the 
 germination and vitality of plan is. 
 and also not as direct but necessary 
 upon the animal system. But im- 
 portant and perpetual solar heat on 
 
THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 33 
 
 the surface of the earth penetrates on- 
 ly a short distance, yet by its incessant 
 changes is a constant exciter of ter- 
 restrial electricity. 
 
 Beyond this influence upon the 
 earth, is a deep-seated source of heat 
 acting as a universal electrical exciter, 
 in its molten interior. From this, 
 more palpably physical activities are 
 derived, such as currents of the at- 
 mosphere, and of the ocean, which 
 are partly the effect of solar heat, act- 
 ing in concert. It is not a mere sur- 
 mise to attribute galvanic effects to 
 solar rays, coming to us not from 
 that star only, but other stars; and 
 that electricity is thus equalized 
 throughout stellar space. Gravitation 
 is local, as well as general, through- 
 out earthy particles, producing co- 
 hesion. At the same time on a large 
 plan it is necessary to keep up the 
 motion of the planets in their orbits. 
 These various functions assist each 
 other in giving perpetuity to celestial 
 movements, which probably include 
 regular orbital tracks for the stars, 
 combined with revolution in groups, 
 like the planets. 
 
 For this general system, light, heat 
 and electricity play their parts, wher- 
 ever matter exists, especially in ani- 
 mal and vegetable life. It is a coal- 
 escing, not a divergent system, to de- 
 vise and regulate which, a power 
 greater than all is necessary. On 
 questions of conscience and the mor- 
 al sense, scholars are not peculiarly 
 qualified to decide. Their occupation is 
 not specially humanitarian, but rather 
 tends to cold criticism. The an- 
 cient millions did not require the aid 
 of science, to discover a God in na- 
 ture, or to enjoy the beauty of celes- 
 tial bodies. Moderns have learned 
 much that relates to the vast and glo- 
 rious heavens; but what is unknown 
 far exceeds what is known. 
 
 Should it prove to be true that heat is 
 not a substance, only an agency, and 
 is convertible with force, another 
 instance of concentration and sim- 
 
 plicity in nature is established. Light, 
 heat and electricity have a correlation 
 as yet only partially understood. 
 Scientists are on the threshold of 
 their investigations of this mysterious 
 relation. Individually these qualities, 
 agencies or substances, whatever they 
 are, may be indistinct, while as 
 groups they are clearly manifest, like 
 many other phenomena of the uni- 
 verse. Every reduction of their number 
 renders the study of them less complex. 
 
 The mental processes are capable of 
 a similar simplification. The terms 
 mind, thought, soul, heart, and what- 
 ever mental action they embrace, are 
 as definitions very obscure. As a 
 bundle of faculties crowded into the 
 small space of the brain, with a com- 
 bined intellectual force, they are 
 definite, all powerful, and their effects 
 easily understood. 
 
 Should it be demonstrated that there 
 is an all-pervading ether, another step 
 will have been taken in the pathway 
 of simplification. If this agent has 
 co-relations with light, heat and elec- 
 tricity, the combination probably acts 
 in every kingdom, and every depart- 
 ment of each of them in general and in 
 detail. Another proof will thus be 
 furnished of superhuman contrivance. 
 The indications are that such concen- 
 trations will be more numerous as 
 knowledge increases. My program 
 does not require an exhibition of 
 learning beyond what has a bearing 
 upon theistical philosophy as seen in 
 nature. Much refined science, not 
 necessary to the subject, and not easi- 
 ly understood b}' those not specialists, 
 is purposely avoided. In connection 
 with the nervous system there is a 
 highly probable theory that the ubiq- 
 uitous ether has a circulation in the 
 nerve tissue, through which nerve ac- 
 tion is carried on and is accelerated. 
 Such an explanation, when it is es- 
 tablished, will present a beautiful sim- 
 plicity in keeping with many other 
 features of the natural world already 
 brought forward. 
 
THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 General Considerations. 
 
 BY COL. CHAS. WniTTLESEY. 
 
 Travelers who examine the inscrip- 
 tions at Hamath without being able 
 to decipher a single word, acquire 
 some correct impressions of the people 
 who made them. Scientists who ex- 
 plore the rains at Palmyra come to 
 many valuable conclusions in regard 
 to their builders, from which they 
 compose interesting books. 
 
 At Babylon and Nineveh, before 
 the inscriptions were deciphered by 
 recent explorers, much had been writ- 
 ten that was principally inferential, 
 based upon external observations. 
 
 From their camps in the eastern 
 deserts, all these enthusiastic scientists 
 saw, in its fullest splendor, the sidereal 
 heavens revolving overhead, yet some 
 of them are unable to see in that dis- 
 play of celestial mechanism any evi- 
 dence of an intelligent designer. 
 
 Throughout the valley of the Mis- 
 sissippi are ancient earthworks of pre- 
 historic age. Nothing is known of 
 the builders except that which may be 
 inferred from their structures and the 
 relics found in them. Not a phrase or 
 word translated is known to have been 
 written by them. 
 
 There are only dumb witnesses, 
 such as mounds, embankments, effi- 
 gies, implements in' bone, stone, flint 
 and copper, with rude pictorial figures 
 on pieces of slate or mica; beads of bone 
 or shell, also carved human heads, 
 birds, snakes and animals, some of 
 them, like the elephant and mastodon, 
 are extinct. 
 
 On the inspection of these remains 
 
 34 
 
 a special archaeological literature has 
 grown up.describing this people, their 
 religious worship, mode of life and 
 social condition. There are scientists 
 of reputation in this line who admit of 
 no author discoverable in nature who 
 as firmly believe in the existence of 
 the mound-builders and see numerous 
 designs in their relics as though they 
 had witnessed their labors. 
 
 Professor Haeckel, of Jena, stands 
 at the head of analytical chemists. 
 His life has been devoted to protogela- 
 tines or protoplasm, including the pri- 
 mordial cells and spores that belong to 
 animal and vegetable life. His lead- 
 ing purpose has been the support of 
 a theory of spontaneous or self-gener- 
 ation. Darwin and Huxley investi- 
 gated the same question with equal 
 patience and less bias, but were una- 
 ble to agree with Haeckel, on whose 
 dictum sociology principally rests. 
 
 However, this question, regarded as 
 one of natural science, may be set- 
 tled, there is, like the doctrine of di- 
 vergence, a point eventually reached 
 where chemistry, philosophy and all 
 science comes to a halt. 
 
 In the doctrine of divergence Dar- 
 win foresaw that when there existed 
 in the remote past only one pair, it 
 could not exist by development. He 
 adopted the hypothesis that there 
 might have been hermaphrodites as 
 the ancestors of that pair. What 
 might have been goes for nothing in 
 exact science, only what was. Could 
 hermaphrodites breed animals of per- 
 
THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 35 
 
 feet sexual organs different from them- 
 selves? 
 
 When the existence of sexes is 
 reached in animals, the reproductive 
 cells are different in the male from 
 those in the female. By force of this 
 difference they are impregnated by 
 contact. Protoplasm is not life, nei- 
 ther are the cells, but only media nec- 
 essary to its propogation. Every- 
 thing prior to the first introduction of 
 life belonged alone to the mineral 
 kingdom; therefore the gelatines and 
 plasms before that era were chemical, 
 not vital compounds. 
 
 Great efforts have been made to ex- 
 plain away this difference, but thus far 
 without success. Evolution in the 
 animal world was impossible until 
 there were animal existences, and 
 therefore there must be back of this 
 point some intelligent power to put 
 evolution in motion, both as to plants 
 and animals. 
 
 Does evolution evolve itself? Did 
 evolution exist before there was matter 
 of any kind on which it could act? Were 
 the few simple substances evolved? 
 If all these queries should be answered 
 in the affirmative, spontaneous gener- 
 ation goes back to the origin of all 
 things, and is the supreme Creator, as 
 I have before stated, under a new 
 name, with the same faculties. Evo- 
 lution and development do not explain 
 spontaneous generation. 
 
 All phenomena of the universe are, 
 on this theory, self-originating, but 
 nowhere is there hitherto any mental 
 power, design or contrivances, except 
 the limited ones possessed by the ani- 
 mal kingdom, which was the last to 
 come into existence. Such is the 
 philosophy of misapplied science, de- 
 nying a designer in the origin of the 
 mineral kingdom with its unfathomed 
 mysteries; in the priority of vegetable 
 as to animal life or in the endowments 
 of matter which has such wonderful 
 capacity to expand and progress under 
 fixed laws. 
 
 Great efforts have been made to ob- 
 literate the quality known as vitality, 
 and to bring it within the laws of 
 chemical action. In the mineral 
 kingdom there are wonderful trans- 
 mutations that are traceable to chem- 
 ical activities, stimulated by electrici- 
 ty, galvanism, magnetism, segregation 
 and gravitation, always within the 
 limit of manifest law. 
 
 It has not been shown that such 
 changes, which include the solution, 
 transportation and re-arrangement of 
 particles of matter, have originated 
 any simple substance. These activi- 
 ties are not creative, and therefore 
 bring nothing new into existence. 
 Since the primordial origin of simple 
 substances and primeval life, such a 
 creation has been effected only by the 
 intervention of sex, either animal or 
 vegetable: which life or vitality is not 
 new matter. It is associated with 
 matter, without being itself material. 
 Germination and propagation among 
 plants and animals, require seeds in 
 some form, pollen and ova to be im- 
 pregnated, a process not chemical. 
 
 Such vitalized matter is pre-en- 
 dowed with the quality of vitalization; 
 which is not new substance. It is 
 life force, brought into action through 
 the medium of sexuality. If it were 
 otherwise, the great number of skill- 
 ful chemists and electricians who have 
 labored to produce it chemically 
 would have succeeded. A material 
 base, with proper conditions, is requi- 
 site, and electricity, galvanism, segre- 
 gation with other imponderables, and 
 carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxy- 
 gen. But their action comes within 
 a mental domain, not a material one. 
 It is an endowment which chemists 
 employ,but which they cannot change. 
 Their success in that direction would 
 be the same as it has been in the ori- 
 gin of vitality by chemical agencies. 
 
 Life is capable of variation within 
 the limits of genera, but chemical a£- 
 finity admits of no variation. 
 
36 
 
 THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 In natural history the first process 
 of classification is the grouping of 
 what is similar. This leads to a sep- 
 aration of what is unlike in individ- 
 ual qualities and facilitates the study 
 of nature. The same feature charac- 
 terizes the entire range of philosophic- 
 al and scientific investigation. 
 
 First, generalizations, such as king- 
 doms, orders and so on, down to 
 species. In many departments the 
 grouping covers much that is un- 
 known, while as a group the concep- 
 tion is complete. There is no depart- 
 ment of inquiry where this practice is 
 more helpful than in what pertains to 
 mental activities where precise defini- 
 tions are more difficult to formulate. 
 
 Looking at the qualities of the mind 
 separately, as the brain student does 
 when he maps them out on his chart, 
 their names, members and localities 
 are not well defined. Besides their 
 mystical outlines, which render de- 
 scription difficult individually, defini- 
 tions are wanting to convey precise 
 ideas. Scholars in this field of neces- 
 sity contradict each other. 
 
 Take the emotions, instincts, affec- 
 tions, reason, memory and the mental 
 activities of which these are a portion, 
 the clouds which rest upon their bor- 
 der lines cannot destroy their reality 
 and power as a group, for, viewed in 
 a body, there is nothing better defined. 
 
 These faculties, in gross, constitute 
 the spiritual part of humanity, and 
 are as readily perceived as material 
 objects. No display of sophistry 
 can render so plain a truth ob- 
 scure. Wherever there is life the an- 
 imal body is subordinate to the men- 
 tal faculties. 
 
 Whatever constitutes the soul, mind 
 or spirit may, like the nebula, not yet 
 be resolved, but like them are capable 
 of being resolved. 
 
 The nebulous mass is a reality though 
 the individual stars are only partially 
 defined. Whatever may be the full law 
 of our existence, especially in regard to 
 
 its perpetuity, no one will be exempt 
 from that law. Certainly it cannot 
 be varied to suit those who deny fu- 
 turity. There are others entitled to 
 consideration. Of these who have 
 hitherto lived and died, a great major- 
 ity had some form of religious belief 
 to which immortality is essential. 
 Whatever may he beyond our ken on 
 other planets or systems, it is beyond 
 argument that on our own, mind is 
 the ruling power. 
 
 It may be mortifying to the pride 
 of philosophers that there is any- 
 where an intellect greater than them- 
 selves. . To deny such a fact because 
 it is not solvable by them, will not 
 alter the truths of nature or weaken 
 the proofs which exist there in favor 
 of a supreme regulating mind. By 
 analogy from what is visible of men- 
 tal potency of any and every kind, it 
 should be the last thing which is de- 
 structible. If it is so it must require 
 the exercise of the same fiat power 
 that first caused its existence. 
 
 In what pertains to ethics, morals 
 and religion the opinions of men of 
 science, wealth, eloquence or political 
 prominence are entitled to no more 
 weight outside of their specialty than 
 those of equal general intelligence. 
 
 Throughout the ten most promi- 
 nent civilized countries it is a liberal 
 estimate to allow five thousand who 
 claim to be learned persons and whose 
 claims are allowable, who are disciples 
 of sociology. 
 
 They live in the midst of about 
 three hundred millions of people, at 
 least one-tenth of whom are as good 
 authority on religious subjects, or 
 about three millions who condemn 
 the new gospel of animism. 
 
 In the field of natural law, on 
 which natural science is based, the 
 contest between the philosophy of 
 theism and the assumption of Haeckel- 
 ism, on which sociology is based, is so 
 evident that very few words are neces- 
 sary to show it. In the place of deity 
 
THEISM AND ATHEISM IN SCIENCE. 
 
 87 
 
 tbere is spontaneous generation or 
 self-begetting as the origin, not only 
 of life, but of evolution, and of all 
 there is of law in nature. 
 
 To accept of this creative agency 
 requires an overshadowing faith and 
 greater credulity in the un proven 
 than for the wildest religious dogmas. 
 
 Experience has proven that there 
 are temperaments to whom extrava- 
 gant ideas and theories are easily re- 
 ceived as truths. Erratic minds do 
 not, however, control those that are 
 better balanced, and cannot do so, 
 even should they become a majority; 
 for their inherent qualities are self- 
 destroying. Like socialists in society, 
 they will not submit to any form of 
 law or organization. 
 
 CONSCIENCE. 
 
 Conscience is a purely mental qual- 
 ity, and one that no brute creature 
 possesses. It is, in this respect, exclu- 
 sively an inherent sense, coupled with 
 a capacity of development or improve- 
 ment, like reason, memory and that 
 group of faculties. 
 
 Between the latter faculties and 
 conscience, there is a similarity, but 
 with a closer alliance to the moral 
 side of our nature. The term in- 
 cludes a group of senses: (1) Com- 
 mon-sense, or the faculty to do the 
 right thing in the right way; (2) Mor- 
 al sense, or the distinction between 
 right and wrong; (3) Religious sense, 
 a higher plane of the moral sense, 
 connected with a living deity. As mor- 
 al sentiment, atheism sweeps away 
 the entire group. They are all spirit- 
 ual, not animal qualities, and operate 
 in harmony with each other. 
 
 Though they are idealities with not 
 perfectly defined boundaries, their col- 
 lected power is manifest in the king- 
 dom of mind as it acts upon the ma- 
 terial kingdom. 
 
 If this relation is not supernatural, 
 how is it maintained? 
 
 The inference is plain enough that 
 
 it must be due to a universal primor- 
 dial law or to incessant special power. 
 It is a sufficient definition of con- 
 science to call it the perception of 
 right as contrasted with wrong, of 
 justice with injustice, and good with 
 evil. 
 
 The history of mankind shows 
 very few instances of savagery so 
 complete that there are not traces of 
 a moral code. Low and imperfect it 
 may be, but it has still a place in the 
 savage heart. If it is assumed to be 
 due to cultivation and not instinct, 
 such an assumption does not dispose 
 of the capacity for its development, 
 which underlies, in this as in so many 
 other parallel cases, the whole struc- 
 ture of moral and intellectual im- 
 provement. 
 
 Very refined arguments have been 
 published to show that speech is not 
 a function of nature, but an acquired 
 habit. Articulate sounds in man or 
 animals are mechanical, not mental 
 operations. Animals have rude forms 
 of speech, but not logic; or, if moral 
 sentiment is conveyed, no mode of re- 
 cording ideas. The parrot can be 
 taught to speak words. It does not 
 make a man of him, give him ideas, 
 reason or moral sense. Man has the 
 same need of an articulate voice that 
 he has of eyes and ears. 
 
 Should it prove to be true that heat 
 is not a substance, only an agency, 
 and is convertible into force, another 
 instance of concentration and simplic- 
 ity in nature is established. 
 
 Light, heat and electricity have a 
 correlation as yet only partially un- 
 derstood. Scientists are on the thres- 
 hold of their investigations of this 
 mysterious relation. Individually these 
 qualities, relations or substances, what- 
 ever they are, may be indistinct, while 
 as a group, they are more clearly 
 manifest, like many other phenom- 
 ena of the universe. 
 
 Every reduction of their number 
 renders the study of them less com- 
 
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