Volume II Part 14 (2/2)
[Sidenote: Anthropocentric ideas of G.o.d.] But reflexion teaches us that we came not hither of ourselves, and that doubtless the same Good Being who prepared this delightful abode brought us as tenants into it. From the fact of our own existence, we are insensibly and inevitably led to infer the existence of G.o.d; from the favourable circ.u.mstances in which our lot is cast, we gather evidences of His goodness; and in the energy which natural phenomena often display, we see the tokens of His power.
What other explanation can we give of tempests in the sea or lightning in the heavens? Moreover, it is only during a part of our time--our waking hours--that we are brought into relation with these material things; for the rest, when we are asleep, a state in which we spend more than a third part of our life, we are introduced to other scenery, other beings, another world. [Sidenote: Of the world and heaven.] From these we gather that there are agents of an intangible and more ethereal mould, perhaps of the nature of Him who brought us here, perhaps His subordinates and messengers. Whence do they issue and whither do they go? Is there not beyond the sky above us a region to which our imperfect vision cannot penetrate, but which may be accessible to them from the peaks of elevated mountains, or to be reached only with wings? And thus we picture to ourselves a heaven shut off from earth, with all its sins and cares, by the untroubled and impenetrable sky--a place of light and repose, its pavement illuminated by the sun and countless other s.h.i.+ning bodies--a place of peace, but also a place of power.
[Sidenote: Of evil beings and h.e.l.l.] Still more, a thousand facts of our life teach us that we are exposed to influences of an evil nature as well as to those that are good. How often, in our dreams, does it happen that we are terror-stricken by the approach of hideous forms, faces of fearful appearance, from which we vainly struggle to escape. Is it not natural for us to attribute the evil we see in the world to these as the good to those? and, since we can not conceive of the existence of beings without a.s.signing them a place, where shall we find for these malignant spirits a habitation? Is it not in the dark region beneath the ground, far away from the realms of light--a region from which, through the volcano, smoke and burning sulphur are cast into this upper world--a place of everlasting fire and darkness, whose portals are in caves and solitudes of unutterable gloom?
[Sidenote: Of man, the supernatural.] Placed thus on the boundary between such opposing powers, man is the sport of circ.u.mstances, sustained by beings who seek his happiness, and tempted by those who desire his destruction. Is it at all surprising that, guided by such obvious thoughts and simple reasonings, he becomes superst.i.tious? that he sees in every shadow a spirit, and peoples every solitary place with invisibles? that he casts a longing look to the good beings who can protect him, seeking to invoke their aid by entreaties, and to propitiate their help by free-will sacrifices of things that are pleasant and valuable? Open to such influences himself, why should he not believe in the efficacy of prayer? His conscious superiority lends force to his suspicion that he is a worthy object for the opposing powers to contend for, a conclusion verified by the inward strifes he feels, as well as by the trials of life to which he is exposed.
[Sidenote: His immortality and future life.] But dreams at night, and sometimes visions by day, serve to enforce the conclusion that life is not limited to our transitory continuance here, but endures hereafter.
How often at night do we see the well-known forms of those who have been dead a long time appearing before us with surprising vividness, and hear their almost forgotten voices? These are admonitions full of the most solemn suggestions, profoundly indicating to us that the dead still continue to exist, and that what has happened to them must also happen to us, and we too are destined for immortality. Perhaps involuntarily we a.s.sociate these conclusions with others, expecting that in a future life good men will enjoy the society of good beings like themselves, the evil being dismissed to the realms of darkness and despair. And, as human experience teaches us that a final allotment can only be made by some superior power, we expect that He who was our Creator shall also be our Judge; that there is an appointed time and a bar at which the final destination of all who have lived shall be ascertained, and eternal justice measure out its punishments and rewards.
[Sidenote: Inducements to morality.] From these considerations there arises an inducement for us to lead a virtuous life, abstaining from wickedness and wrong; to set apart a body of men who may mediate for us, and teach us by precept and example the course it is best for us to pursue; to consecrate places, such as groves or temples, as the more immediate habitations of the Deity to which we may resort.
Such are the leading doctrines of Natural Theology of primitive man both in the old and new continent. They arise from the operations of the human mind considering the fitness of things.
Just as we have in Comparative Anatomy the structure of different animals examined, and their ident.i.ties and differences set forth, thereby establis.h.i.+ng their true relations; just as we have in Comparative Physiology the functions of one organic being compared with those of another, to the end that we may therefrom deduce their proper connexions, so, from the mythologies of various races of men, a Comparative Theology may be constructed. [Sidenote: Course of Comparative Theology.] Through such a science alone can correct conclusions be arrived at respecting this, the most important of the intellectual operations of man--the definite process of his religious opinions. But it must be borne in mind that Comparative Theology ill.u.s.trates the result or effect of the phase of life, and is not its cause.
[Sidenote: Corrections of anthropocentric ideas.] As man advances in knowledge he discovers that of his primitive conclusions some are doubtless erroneous, and many require better evidence to establish their truth incontestably. A more prolonged and attentive examination gives him reason, in some of the most important particulars, to change his mind. He finds that the earth on which he lives is not a floor covered over with a starry dome, as he once supposed, but a globe self-balanced in s.p.a.ce. The crystalline vault, or sky, is recognized to be an optical deception. It rests upon the earth nowhere, and is no boundary at all; there is no kingdom of happiness above it, but a limitless s.p.a.ce, adorned with planets and suns. Instead of a realm of darkness and woe in the depths on the other side of the earth, men like ourselves are found there, pursuing, in Australia and New Zealand, the innocent pleasures and encountering the ordinary labours of life. By the aid of such lights as knowledge gradually supplies, he comes at last to discover that this, our terrestrial habitation, instead of being a chosen, a sacred spot, is only one of similar myriads, more numerous than the sands of the sea, and prodigally scattered through s.p.a.ce.
[Sidenote: Consequence of discovering the form of the earth.] Never, perhaps, was a more important truth discovered. All the visible evidence was in direct opposition to it. [Sidenote: Detection of its insignificance.] The earth, which had hitherto seemed to be the very emblem of immobility, was demonstrated to be carried with a double motion, with prodigious velocity, through the heavens; the rising and setting of the stars were proved to be an illusion; and, as respects the size of the globe, it was shown to be altogether insignificant when compared with mult.i.tudes of other neighbouring ones--insignificant doubly by reason of its actual dimensions, and by the countless numbers of others like it in form, and doubtless, like it, the abodes of many orders of life.
And so it turns out that our earth is a globe of about twenty-five thousand miles in circ.u.mference. The voyager who circ.u.mnavigates it spends no inconsiderable portion of his life in accomplis.h.i.+ng his task.
It moves round the sun in a year, but at so great a distance from that luminary that, if seen from him, it would look like a little spark traversing the sky. It is thus recognized as one of the members of the solar system. [Sidenote: Other solar bodies.] Other similar bodies, some of which are of larger, some of smaller dimensions, perform similar revolutions round the sun in appropriate periods of time.
[Sidenote: Magnitude of the universe.] If the magnitude of the earth be too great for us to attach to it any definite conception, what shall we say of the compa.s.s of the solar system? There is a defect in the human intellect which incapacitates us for comprehending distances and periods that are either too colossal or too minute. We gain no clearer insight into the matter when we are told that a comet which does not pa.s.s beyond the bounds of the system, may perhaps be absent on its journey for more than a thousand years. Distances and periods such as these are beyond our grasp. They prove to us how far human reason excels imagination, the one measuring and comparing things of which the other can form no conception, but in the attempt is utterly bewildered and lost.
[Sidenote: The infinity of worlds.] But as there are other globes like our earth, so too there are other worlds like our solar system. There are self-luminous suns exceeding in number all computation. The dimensions of this earth pa.s.s into nothingness in comparison with the dimensions of the solar system, and that system, in its turn, is only an invisible point if placed in relation with the countless hosts of other systems which form, with it, cl.u.s.ters of stars. Our solar system, far from being alone in the universe, is only one of an extensive brotherhood, bound by common laws and subject to like influences. Even on the very verge of creation, where imagination might lay the beginning of the realms of chaos, we see unbounded proofs of order, a regularity in the arrangement of inanimate things, suggesting to us that there are other intellectual creatures like us, the tenants of those islands in the abysses of s.p.a.ce.
Though it may take a beam of light a million of years to bring to our view those distant worlds, the end is not yet. Far away in the depths of s.p.a.ce we catch the faint gleams of other groups of stars like our own.
The finger of a man can hide them in their remoteness. Their vast distances from one another have dwindled into nothing. They and their movements have lost all individuality; the innumerable suns of which they are composed blend all their collected light into one pale milky glow.
[Sidenote: Insignificance of man.] Thus extending our view from the earth to the solar system, from the solar system to the expanse of the group of stars to which we belong, we behold a series of gigantic nebular creations rising up one after another, and forming greater and greater colonies of worlds. No numbers can express them, for they make the firmament a haze of stars. Uniformity, even though it be the uniformity of magnificence, tires at last, and we abandon the survey, for our eyes can only behold a boundless prospect, and conscience tells us our own unspeakable insignificance.
[Sidenote: Triumph of scientific truth.] But what has become of the time-honoured doctrine of the human destiny of the universe? that doctrine for the sake of which the controversy I have described in this chapter was raised. It has disappeared. In vain was Bruno burnt and Galileo imprisoned; the truth forced its way, in spite of all opposition, at last. The end of the conflict was a total rejection of authority and tradition, and the adoption of scientific truth.
CHAPTER IX.
THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON--(_Continued_).
HISTORY OF THE EARTH.--HER SUCCESSIVE CHANGES IN THE COURSE OF TIME.
_Oriental and Occidental Doctrines respecting the Earth in Time.--Gradual Weakening of the latter by astronomical Facts, and the Rise of Scientific Geology._
_Impersonal Manner in which the Problem was eventually solved, chiefly through Facts connected with Heat._
_Proofs of limitless Duration from inorganic Facts.--Igneous and Aqueous Rocks._
_Proofs of the same from organic Facts.--Successive Creations and Extinctions of living Forms, and their contemporaneous Distribution._
<script>