Part 5 (1/2)

Another of the most powerful ways in which scientific discovery has promoted moral progress has been an indirect one, viz., by diminis.h.i.+ng ignorance. Deficiency of knowledge is the parent of a vast {133} amount of evil and failure. ”There is no instance on record of an active ignorant man, who, having good intentions, and supreme power to enforce them, has not done far more evil than good.” (Buckle, ”History of Civilization,” vol.

1, p. 167). Ignorance largely precludes happiness, and intelligence is an indispensable condition of the highest morality. There are plenty of difficult positions in life in which the desire to do right is not alone sufficient, we must intelligently know what is the right course to pursue.

We are all of us ignorant in different degrees, and must be content in many matters to walk by faith until we can walk by sight, and to act according to rule and precept until we have discovered general principles to guide us:--blind dogmatic morality and ”rule of thumb” method is vastly better than none, and has rendered great services to mankind. Whether comforting doctrines are true or not, the great bulk of mankind prefer them because they afford immediate relief; and whether they be erroneous or truthful, men will be benefited by them and continue to believe in them, until their minds are sufficiently advanced to receive a knowledge of verified principles. Rules of morality however, when presented to us with a basis of demonstrable truth, come with a degree of divine authority, and possess greater claim to our observance, than the same rules presented to us as empirical or dogmatic statements only.

In proportion to our ignorance the more we dislike to be apprised of our defects and the more inclined are {134} we to continue uninformed; because the less intelligent we are the less are we able to perceive the evil effects of our blindness or the advantages of knowledge. As also the present state of civilization is very imperfect, and unsolved problems exist in all directions, ignorance and all its evil consequences are extremely prevalent. It causes the great ma.s.s of mankind to neglect better objects for the sake of money. It indirectly constrains lawyers to neglect moral evidence. It induces medical men to withhold truth from ignorant patients. It causes ministers of religion to prefer doctrine to demonstration. It would therefore be comparatively easy to compose lists of our moral deficiencies, and of improvements urgently needed in morality, far more extensive than the very incomplete ones of our material shortcomings already given (see pp. 68 to 78). To enumerate however the imperfections in the moral conduct of mankind, the frauds in trades, the undue advantage taken of the defenceless, the deceit and empiricism in professions, the professional trading on human weakness, the cruelty of field sports, the hollow motives of social, political, and religious life, the propagating as infallible truth, doctrines which may be fallacious, is not the object of this Chapter; but rather to make clear the fact, that the extension of the domain of verified truth by means of scientific research is highly conducive to moral progress.

The extension of new scientific knowledge is influencing morality and gradually reducing the selfishness {135} of mankind, by proving that there exist no royal roads to happiness, and that the greatest amount of individual and national success can only be secured by a genuine pursuit of truth, as an individual and cosmopolitan duty. Increased knowledge is gradually proving to mankind that the purest happiness is to be obtained by intelligent and virtuous conduct. By shewing Man the unreasonable character of some of his fears and hopes, and subst.i.tuting for them a greater variety and extent of intellectual pleasures, science is slowly making him more satisfied with his lot on this Earth. Meanwhile the great ma.s.s of mankind are still pursuing the ever retreating phantom of an easy way to happiness; the great laws of nature however cannot be evaded, the avoidance of evil and the attainment of good can only be secured by obeying all the great laws which govern our nature.

Progress in morality is largely dependent upon the diffusion of belief in the universality of scientific laws. When men understand those laws, know that their action is irresistible, and that they have no alternative but to obey them or suffer, they acquire a habit of obeying them. Universality of law in moral actions is often considered to be incompatible with the existence of freedom of the will in selecting ideas, and choosing courses of conduct; but we are free or not, according to circ.u.mstances, both to think and to act. All things are free to be active or not, in accordance with their properties and surrounding conditions, but not in {136} contradiction to them; and the human will is no exception to this statement. The ”will” is only free within certain limits; it cannot act in opposition to its strongest motives or causes of action. We believe ourselves to be much more free than we are, because we often do not know the causes which determine us, and we frequently fail to detect those influences, because we cannot think, and at the same time clearly observe our act of thought and its motives. Freedom of the will does not enable us to set aside laws: entire freedom from law in any instance is probably only apparent. This limited degree of freedom of the will indicates the dependence of volition upon scientific laws, because a supernatural power, being entirely independent of natural law, could not be limited by it. To affirm without proof that the human will is a ”supernatural power” is to implicitly deny the universality and constancy of natural laws. New knowledge developed by Science, imparts to us liberty, but not license; and, so far from diminis.h.i.+ng the freedom of the will, increases it by showing us what conditions we must fulfil and obey in order to effect our objects. We acquire power by being first obedient; and this is in accordance with the principles and facts of science; we must obey nature before we can make nature obey us; the elementary bodies, also, usually acquire the free state, latent power, and the ability to evolve heat and electric energy, only by being first subjected in their crude state to a process of reduction and purification. {137}

Few circ.u.mstances connected with the discovery of new truths of science, have had a greater moral effect, than the very high degree of certainty of such truths. The moral result of this is a corresponding degree of confidence in the statements of science. Trustworthiness is a great moral quality. Uncertainty is a continual hindrance to action and enjoyment; and many persons are driven to believe in error, and hence to commit sin, rather than remain in suspense. Contradictions of doctrine, and the consequent uncertainty of belief, in any subject, are fertile sources of strife. Science consists, not merely of opinions and words, but also of the tangible realities which those opinions and words represent, the forces, substances and phenomena of the material Universe. Some persons however fancy that the results of science are as uncertain as those of the undemonstrable subjects with which they are familiar.

Another way in which science has contributed to moral progress, has been by requiring greater accuracy in nearly all human actions, and thereby diffusing greater exact.i.tude of language and of conduct, which has spread itself throughout all civilised society. Previous to the use of watches and clocks, persons were no doubt much less exact in fulfilling their appointments; the establishment also in our chief towns, of electric time-keepers regulated from Greenwich Observatory, is increasing exact.i.tude in our large communities. Since the introduction of railways, millions of persons have been compelled to be more {138} exact in their movements, by the risk they incur of missing their train. Numerous inventions and processes based upon scientific discoveries could not be worked at all unless men possessed habits of greater accuracy than formerly. Workmen now require higher moral and intellectual education, and their duties require more intelligence and involve greater responsibility.

Science diminishes error, and the avoidance of error is a large step towards the attainment of truth. There is no tyranny equal to that of false ideas. Error often produces immoral acts, and every act of immorality is a mental error. ”The ignorant justice-loving man, enamoured of the right, is blinded by the speciousness of wrong.” ”Inaccuracy of thought is the cause not only of the errors we meet with in the sciences, but also of the majority of the offences which are committed in civil life,--of unjust quarrels, unfounded law suits, rash counsel, and ill-arranged undertakings.

There are few of those which have not their origin in some error, and in some fault of judgment, so that there is no defect which it more concerns us to correct.”[17]

Our senses and consciousness are often great deceivers, and unless corrected by sufficient knowledge, are frequently as great a source of error in moral questions as in mental ones.[18] Their incessant influence is a cause of selfishness, and of the fallacious tendency existing in nearly every man, to exaggerate the importance of himself and of everything relating to him. {139} It has led man to consider himself ”the Lord of Creation”;--to believe that his volitions are not subject to natural laws &c.:--and has given rise to the comparatively narrow-minded idea ”the study of mankind is man.” The fact that consciousness frequently misleads men of energetic temperament who feel their energy, indicates its connection with a physical basis.

Consciousness is also an essential condition of what we term evil. If we define evil as that which produces pain or discomfort in sentient creatures, then evil is that influence only which unpleasantly affects consciousness. And if we admit this, then all evil is relative, and there is no absolute evil; because, if there were no sentient creatures, there would be no evil. It is manifest also, that if the existence of evil is dependent upon that of sentient creatures, and if the existence of such creatures depends upon physical conditions, and upon the operations of the great principles of science, then the existence of evil must itself depend to that extent upon those conditions and principles. What we term Evil, is caused, not only by the actions of man, but also on a large scale by the operation of the simplest forces of matter, in earth-quakes, storms, volcanic outbursts, droughts and famines, pestilences, etc. Evil (as well as good) may therefore be viewed as a result, to some extent, of the operation of the laws of the Universe; and here again we are compelled to recognise a scientific basis of morality. {140}

That the same causes, acting under different conditions, produce different and even opposite effects, is a well-known scientific truth. The same heat of summer which causes our foods to decay, promotes the growth of plants in the soil; the same cold of winter which increases the pain of bronchial affections, and cuts short the lives of aged and infirm persons, acts as a stimulant and a source of pleasure to the young and healthy. We need not therefore be surprised, that the same physical conditions and principles of nature, act as causes or conditions both of what we term evil and what we term good. If, also the theory of relativity in physical and mental action is true, that change of impression is a necessary cause or condition of consciousness, and that previous experience of pain increases the perception of pleasure, we possess in that theory, as one of the general ideas of science, a partial basis of morality. All these remarks tend to shew, that in order to obtain a truly scientific view of the nature of man, and of man's position and duties in the Universe, we must avoid the errors caused by uncorrected consciousness.

Another great moral effect of the continual discovery of new truth in science, is the gradual production and diffusion of uniformity of belief, first amongst scientific men, and then amongst the ma.s.s of mankind. This uniformity of belief is a necessary result of the invariability of fact and law; it does not extend to scientific opinions, hypotheses or theories, because they are not necessarily facts, and may be {141} erroneous. A knowledge of science tends to remove differences of opinion between man and man, because it enables every honest examiner to obtain essentially similar results. Scientific research will gradually disclose what is true and what is untrue in doctrine and empirical rules; and what is true will be retained. A universal religion or a scientific philosophy which is composed of contradictory creeds cannot be wholly true. Science is gradually superseding unreasonable beliefs, and inaugurating a true universal gospel in which all men will eventually think alike in fundamental matters. The continued discovery of new truth must of necessity sooner or later lead mankind to the source of all truth and to universal satisfaction and happiness. It has been frequently stated that science is antagonistic to religion; it is evident however that as science is so conducive to morality, it cannot be opposed to true religion, but only to false or unfounded beliefs. Nothing shews more plainly a weakness of moral confidence and a deficiency of faith in an over-ruling power, than a fear that the pursuit of scientific truth will lead to results injurious to mankind. What we most need to fear is, not that our most cherished doctrinal beliefs may be proved to be mistakes, but that we through deficiency of knowledge may be led to do wrong.

There are plenty of questions, especially in matters of theory and doctrine in concrete subjects, which science cannot directly and absolutely decide either one way or the other, but respecting which, by the {142} aid of new knowledge and of inference based upon it, science gradually acc.u.mulates so large a preponderence of evidence as conclusively settles them to the conviction of every unprejudiced and reasonable person. Many of the most deeply interesting questions in mental science and morality are of this kind; and will probably be settled in this manner. It is well-known also to scientific men that the indirect conclusions of the intellect and reasoning power are often more certain than the direct evidence of the senses and consciousness; we are more certain for instance that the Earth is a sphere than that it is a plane, although the former conclusion is arrived at largely by inference, whilst the latter is the direct testimony of uneducated consciousness. Whilst our senses and consciousness inform us that the Earth is a fixed body, inference proves to us that it is rus.h.i.+ng through s.p.a.ce at an immense velocity. Sense and consciousness are not intellect, although they are often treated as such. Their functions are to perceive and observe, to act as witnesses, to supply evidence to the judgment, and not to usurp the reasoning power. Even the universal consciousness of all mankind is insufficient to overthrow the final decisions of the intellect, or to decide what is true or false, because the senses and consciousness cannot compare or infer. As it is the force and repit.i.tion, and not the truthfulness of mental impressions, which largely determines belief, we are capable of believing error as well as truth, and we believe much that is erroneous until the {143} corrections of the intellect are applied to the evidence of the senses and feelings. The correctness or otherwise of our present beliefs will be tested in the future as others have been in the past, and the new experiences requisite for the purpose will probably be obtained by means of original research. It is a great mistake to suppose that the warrantable inferences deduced from scientific knowledge will not sooner or later profoundly influence questions relating to the highest hopes and aspirations of the human race, such as the independent existence and immortality of the human soul; that of a personal Ruler of the Universe; freedom of the will; the origin of evil; future reward and punishment; &c. By extension of knowledge a scientific system of morality will be formed. The great principles which govern the phenomena of all bodies are gradually being discovered, and when found we deductively apply them to ourselves, and thus arrive at a knowledge of our true position in nature, our duties, our proper course of conduct, &c. Science also by disclosing to us the true relations of matter to mind in the human brain, will probably not only make known to us the true limits of our mental powers and of the knowable, but also help to solve the problems of the relations of the Universe and of Man to an intelligent Creator. It will decide such questions, largely by shewing us whether or not the ideas we entertain respecting them are consistent with the more extensive knowledge evolved by research. A part of the data from which we may {144} safely predict that science will in the future exercise so great a moral influence over mankind, is the fact that its chief principles are fundamental guides and regulators of human action.

Probably nothing has a greater effect in making a man humble and reverent than a thorough knowledge of science. By the inventions of the telescope, microscope, spectroscope, telegraph, microphone, telephone, &c., the extremely finite extent of all our faculties has been abundantly demonstrated. Whilst the wonders of the telescope have developed an intelligent sentiment of reverence, by revealing to us a portion of the vast amount of the Universe of matter and energy, those of the microscope have strengthened that sentiment by affording us an insight into the almost endless complexity of minute creatures, substances and actions. Whilst also these and other scientific instruments and appliances have proved the excessively limited extent of our senses; the inscrutable character and immense number and variety of problems of nature yet unsolved, equally demonstrate the extreme feebleness of our mental powers. To obtain an accurate acquaintance with science also, and especially to discover new scientific truths, it is absolutely necessary to set aside human pride, and approach the subject like a little child; no other course is possible.

A knowledge of geology and astronomy also makes a man humble and reverent.

The fact that this globe must have existed myriads of years; and is always moving at the immense velocity of more than 62,000 {145} miles an hour in its...o...b..t, is sufficient to convince any unprejudiced person of his own transient physical existence and his comparative physical feebleness and insignificance. Hitherto, man has largely been accustomed, through the influence of uncorrected impressions and other causes, to view all nature as having been expressly provided for him, but science informs us that whilst this Earth is suitable for his abode, and Nature ministers to his necessities and pleasures, it is only on condition that he first obeys the great laws of matter and energy, and adapts himself to their requirements.

The operation of those laws often ruthlessly destroys thousands of men by pestilence, famine, drought, and other great calamities, and man can do nothing which is incompatible with them without suffering a penalty.

Science shews that man is but one out of at least 320,000 different species of animals; it also discloses the fact that the entire human population of this globe const.i.tute only about one 50,575,785 millionth part of the Earth, and proves to us that the Earth itself is but a speck in the Universe, one out of at least 75 millions of worlds; and that not only is it merely a planet revolving round the Sun, but that the Sun is only one of a mult.i.tude of Suns, and is itself, with all its planets, revolving round a still more distant centre in s.p.a.ce.

There is scarcely a faculty man possesses, which is not immeasurably limited in comparison with the powers and capabilities of inanimate nature.

His physical energy, when compared with that of the {146} momentum of this Earth, is so exceedingly small that it can hardly be conveyed to our minds by means of figures; even the steam engine, excessively wasteful as it is of power, far surpa.s.ses him in strength. The duration of his existence is to that of the world he inhabits, as nothing to infinity. His power and speed of locomotion are also very limited; the globe to which he is fixed by gravity, moves in one hour through a distance greater than he could walk in twenty years. Practically, by circ.u.mstances, he is almost rooted like a vegetable to the locality where he exists; comparatively few men have walked even a hundred miles from their homes, or have been conveyed round this little globe by the aid of all our improved means of transport. A balloon can ascend in the air, but a man cannot; without the aid of that apparatus he is absolutely fixed to the surface of the Earth, and with the a.s.sistance of all the appliances of science, he cannot yet ascend even ten miles into the atmosphere, nor dive more than a few fathoms into the sea.

His senses are equally contracted; his perceptions of touch and sound are far less delicate than that of the microphone; a photographic surface will detect vibrations of light which he cannot at all perceive, and record images more quickly than his brain; and for the detection of magnetism and the chemical rays of light he possesses no sense whatever:--electrometers and galvanometers can detect thousands of times smaller quant.i.ties of electricity than he can perceive:--whilst a bolometer renders manifest a one {147} hundred-thousandth of a Centigrade degree change of temperature, he can hardly detect a difference of an entire degree; and whilst carbon and platinum may be heated to whiteness without material change, a rise or fall of about five Fahrenheit degrees in his temperature endangers his life. His mental and intellectual powers are as limited as his senses; he can hardly reckon without making an error even a single million, nor can he conceive an adequate idea of a billion; a million miles or a millionth of an inch are each quite beyond his immediate perception; an extremely minute circ.u.mstance also is capable of disturbing and entirely diverting his train of thought. He cannot create or destroy even a particle of dust, nor form out of nothing a single idea. The velocity of transmission of his nervous power, and the speed of his execution of will, are also extremely slow in comparison with that of an electric current in a copper wire. Every person is aware that he can only very slowly receive and understand a new idea.

His mental advance is as tardy as his locomotion, a sixth part of his life is spent in acquiring the merest rudiments of universal knowledge. Whilst his reasoning power, when applied to actual and truthfully stated experience, is truly ”the great guide” of his life, it only renders explicit what was already contained in that experience; for when he draws an inference, he usually only states in one form of words, what he has already implicitly included in the propositions; and if the inference contains more than this it is {148} unwarranted. His mental helplessness in the absence of knowledge, is equal to his physical incapacity in the absence of light. Nearly every problem of nature also is so complex, and affected by so many conditions, that his reasoning power only enables him to advance a very minute step at a time in the discovery of new knowledge; he is then obliged to halt, and have recourse to new experiences obtained either by means of experiment and observation, or by the latter alone.

Man's moral actions are largely the effect of circ.u.mstances; his thoughts and actions are probably the whole of them limited by law. He is never free from the influence of causation. His mental and moral freedom are limited by the epoch in which he lives, by the customs of his nation, by the individuals by whom he is immediately surrounded, by the alcoholic stimulants of which he partakes, and by his own physical and mental const.i.tution, his degree of intelligence, &c., &c. Whether he is willing or not, he is incessantly compelled to receive sensuous and mental impressions, and be influenced by an almost infinite number and variety of agencies acting upon him both from within and without:--To be mentally and physically active, and perform all the bodily functions and acts necessary to his existence:--To live on this globe in presence of all its phenomena, and be carried through s.p.a.ce at an immense velocity:--To undergo through a long series of generations a progressive existence and development of civilization, &c., &c. {149} He is more subject to the laws of the Universe than those laws are subject to him; and he can only exercise his will successfully and become their master by first obeying them.

Under the influence of the light and heat of the Sun, the entire population of this planet (about fifteen hundred millions) are renewed out of the crust of the Earth every few years, by breathing the air, drinking the water, feeding upon plants which take their const.i.tuents from the Earth, water and air; or by eating animals which have lived upon plants; and if that heat and light, or that supply of food and air, were to cease, all those human beings would die, and all the moral phenomena of man on this globe would terminate. Whilst man cannot exist without the support of inanimate nature and the operation of its laws, inanimate nature and its laws can exist without him. That also which is naturally ordained by Creative power to be dependent, cannot be essentially more important than that upon which it depends for its existence. The essential importance of man in relation to the Universe, exists only in his own imagination.

These facts shew that the principles of science, and the physical and chemical properties of substances, lie at the very basis of man's existence and activity and it would therefore be incorrect to say that the physical system of the Universe is unimportant in comparison with the moral phenomena of mankind.

That science conduces to humanity by preventing {150} and alleviating animal suffering has been already alluded to (p. 80-81). True humanity consists not in the abolition of experiments upon living creatures, but in the judicious employment of them. Instead of barbarously treating our suffering fellow creatures by indolently and ignorantly allowing causes of disease and pain to continually occur and take their course, it urgently enforces upon us the duty of extending our knowledge of physiology by means of new experiments, observations and study. It would be untruthful to say that experiments purposely made upon men and other animals do not yield new and valuable information;--Pharmacopoeias and Materia-Medicaes are full of descriptions of the properties of curative agents discovered by these and other scientific methods.