Part 12 (1/2)

Ingersoll or any other boasted descendant of a gorilla. And he also insists that when _a priori_ speculation is lost in abstract conceptions, the highest must necessarily press alone upon the intuitions of consciousness, where all generalizations cease, and all synthesis is undeniably at an end. Here, in this mysterious chamber of the soul, we stand silent and alone, with only dim and shadowy phantoms about us, as if in the august presence of Deity itself.

But how does scientific speculation propose to stifle these intuitions of consciousness--reduce them to the least of all potential factors in the universe? We will take the very latest of these speculations. In supplementing both the Darwinian theory and the grander speculation of Laplace, the scientists, so called, tell us that the process of aggregation, or the turning out of new worlds in the universe, is still going on; but that the time is coming when all the primeval potency or energy, originally inhering in diffused matter, will have exhausted itself in actual energy, and that then all light, life and motion in the universe, will cease and be at an end. This dissipation of potential energy is to result, they say, in a played-out universe, as it has already resulted, they claim, in a played-out moon, if not countless other heavenly bodies.[38] All the exterior planets, or a majority of them at least, are to be placed in this category of dismantled worlds, or those in which all life has hopelessly ceased and become extinct. All has utterly disappeared, or, to paraphrase one of Pope's couplets,

”Beast, bird, fish, insect--what no eye can scan, Nor gla.s.s can reach--from zoophyte to man.”

All these dismantled planets, and satellites to planets, are only so many immense cinders--mere refuse slag--of no conceivable interest to science, except to predicate the ultimate conclusion--”a played-out universe, resulting from a played-out potency within the universe.” The magnificent clockwork of the heavens will then have run down, with no Darwinian whirligig to wind it up again, and the terrible reality of Byron's dream, which it would seem was not all a dream, be realized in the bright sun extinguished, the stars darkling the eternal s.p.a.ce, rayless and pathless, and the icy earth swung blind and blackening in the moonless air.

Oh, if this be star-eyed science, give us anything in place of it!

Blear-eyed bigotry in his cloistered den, mumbling unintelligible prayers, and believing that man is to be saved, not by what he does, but by a _credo_ only, is far preferable to it. But oh, how unspeakably preferable the simple faith of the star-led Magi, who

”Deeming the light that in the east was seen An earnest and a prophecy of rest To weary wanderers, such as they had been,”

came on that bleak December night, 1880 years ago, to pay their homage to the Christ-child--the long expected Messiah--the Redeemer of the world!

Footnotes

[1]: It may be proper, however, to state that the tenth and concluding chapter was originally written as a lecture, and delivered about a year ago in New Haven, Boston, and at other points. A request for its publication has induced the author to place it in this volume, with the portion referring to the Bible genesis omitted. It will be found germane to the general subject.

[2]: ”Without this latent presence of the 'I am,' all modes of existence in the external world flit before us as colored shadows, with no greater depth, root, or fixure, than the image of a rock hath in the gliding stream, or the rainbow on the fast-sailing rain storm.”--_Coleridge's_ ”_Comments on Essays_.”

[3]: And science that is not purely inductive--i.e. primarily based on the inviolability of our intuitions--is no science at all, but the sheerest possible speculation.

[4]: This presence of an active living principle in nature, one originally a.s.signed as the ”_divina particula aurA

_” of every living thing, is frequently referred to in the higher inspirational moods of our poets. Wordsworth exquisitely refers to it in the following lines of his ”Excursion:”--

”To every form of being is a.s.signed An _active_ principle: howe'er removed From sense and observation, it subsists In all things, in all nature, in the stars Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds; In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone That paves the brooks.”

[5]: The existence of vital units is conceded by some of the staunchest materialists, such as Herbert Spencer, Professor Bastian and others.

Professor Bastian says: ”The countless myriads of living units which have been evolved in different ages of the world's history, must, in each period, have given rise to innumerable mult.i.tudes of what have been called 'trees of life.'” He insists, however, that they have been ”evolved” from something, or by some unknown process. But we shall show further on that a ”unit” can neither be _evolved_ nor _involved_, and that this is as true of vital units as of the mathematical or chemical unit. Neither evolution nor involution will ever effect the value of a unit.

[6]: According to Aristotle, the great world-_ordainer_ is the constant world-_sustainer_.

[7]: The definition which Professor Robinson, in his Lexicon of the New Testament, gives of the word IfIEuroI-II1/4I+-, as connected with the ”divine life,” entirely harmonizes with this view of the subject. He says: Trop.

I John 3, 9, IEuroa1/4fI, a1/2 I cubedI muI cubedI muI1/2I.I1/4I-I1/2I?I, a1/4I I”I?I... I'I muI?I... IfIEuroI-II1/4I+- a1/4EuroI...I”I?I1/2 (I'I mua1/2”I1/2) I muI1/2 a3/4I1/2I”a?

IEuroI muI1/2I mua1/2 _i.e._ the germ or principle of divine life through which he is begotten of G.o.d, I”I? IEuroI1/2I mua1/2'I1/4I+-.

[8]: Professor Schmidt, of the University of Strasburg, who insists that species are only relatively stable, admits that they remain persistent as long as they exist under the same external conditions.

Time is, therefore, not a factor in the mutation of species. Nor are environing conditions factors, except as a failure of conditions results in the disappearance of species, as the presence of conditions results in their appearance.

[9]: Says M. Ch. Bonnet, in his ”La PalingA(C)uA(C)sie Philosophique;” ”Il est de la plus parfaite A(C)vidence que la matiere est susceptible d'une infinitA(C) de mouvemens divers, et de modifications diverses,” and this is the universal claim of the materialists.

[10]: Professor Burdach (as trad, par Jourdan), in speaking of the productive power of nature, says, ”LimitA(C)e quant Ai l' A(C)tendue de ses manifestations, elle continue toujottrs d' agir pour la conservation de ce qui a A(C)tA(C) crA(C)A(C), et, quoiqu' elle ne maintenue les formes organiques supA(C)rieures que par la seule propagation, il ne rA(C)pugne point au bon sens de penser qu' aujourd' hui encore elle a la puissance de produire les formes infA(C)rieures avec des elA(C)ments hA(C)tA(C)rogA(C)nes, comme elle a crA(C)A(C) originairement tout ce qui possA(C)de l'

organisation.” This shows that its author believed in the possibility of the ”superior organic forms,” like the mastodon, megatherium, etc. from the ”heterogenetic elements”--those undergoing every conceivable change--as well as the ”inferior forms.” At all events, it is a legitimate induction from materialistic premises.

[11]: This point is conclusively made by Professor Burdach, who says (we quote from Jourdan); ”La tendance interieure Ai la configuration existe avant sa manifestation.” And by his _tendance interieure_ he must mean some vital or other law, equivalent to an _entia_ in matter, which results _in_, not _from_ manifestation.

[12]: Goethe borrowed his idea of an archetypal world from Plato and the Eleatic school. They held that the world was originated, and not eternal; that it was framed by the Creator after a perfect archetype, one eternally existing in the divine mind, if not an actual soul-world of which our own is but the reflex.

[13]: In a note to Prof. Bastian's ”Beginnings of Life” (vol II. p. 537) an important fact is mentioned as obtained from the writings of Dr.