Part 7 (2/2)

It is required, finally, in closing the discussion of this chapter, to account for the fact that, upon a single idea so many theories of G.o.d have fastened themselves; or better, perhaps, that a single idea has developed itself in so many forms. This cannot better be done than in the language of that metaphysician, not second to Plato, the apostle Paul. In his Epistle to the Romans, beginning at the 19th verse of the 1st chapter, he says: ”Because that which may be known of G.o.d is manifest to them; for G.o.d hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even his eternal power and G.o.dhead, so that they are without excuse. Because that, when they knew G.o.d, they glorified him not as G.o.d, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened: professing themselves to be wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible G.o.d into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.” This pa.s.sage, which would be worthy the admiring study of ages, did it possess no claim to be the teaching of that Being whom Mr. Spencer a.s.serts it is _impossible for us to know_, gives us in a popular form the truth. Man, having organic in his mind the idea of G.o.d, and having in the Universe an ample manifestation to the Sense, of the eternal power and G.o.dhead of the Creator of that Universe, corresponding to that idea, perverted the manifestation to the Sense, and degraded the idea in the Reason, to the service of base pa.s.sion. By this degradation and perversion the organic idea became so bedizened with the finery of fancy formed in the Understanding, under the direction of the animal nature, as to be lost to the popular mind,--the trappings only being seen. When once the truth was thus lost sight of, and with it all that restraint which a knowledge of the true G.o.d would impose, men became vain in their imaginations; their fancy ran riot in all directions.

Cutting loose from all law, they plunged into every excess which could be invented; and out of such a stimulated and teeming brain all manner of vagaries were devised. This was the first stage; and of it we find some historic hints in the biblical account of the times, during and previous to the life of Abraham. Where secular history begins the human race had pa.s.sed into the second stage. Crystallization had begun.

Students were commencing the search for truth. Religion was taking upon itself more distinct forms. The organic idea, which could not be wholly obliterated, formed itself distinctly in the consciousness of some gifted individuals, and philosophy began. Philosophy in its purest form, as taught by Socrates and Plato, presented again the lost idea of pure Theism. But the spirituality which enabled them to see the truth, lifted them so far above the common people, that they could affect only a few.

And what was most disheartening, that same degradation which originally lost to man the truth, now prevented him from receiving it. Thus it was that by a binding of the Reason to the wheels of Pa.s.sion, and discursing through the world with the Understanding at the beck of the Sense, the many forms of religion became.

”ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS.”

On a former page we have already attempted a positive answer to the question, ”What are s.p.a.ce and Time,” with which Mr. Spencer opens this chapter. It was there found that, in general terms, they are _a priori_ conditions of created being; and, moreover, that they possess characteristics suitable to what they condition, just as the _a priori_ conditions of the spiritual person possess characteristics suitable to what they condition. It was further found that this general law is, from the necessity of the case, realized both within the mind and without it; that it is, must be, the form of thought for the perceiving subject, corresponding to the condition of existence for the perceived object. It also appeared that the Universe as object, and the Sense and Understanding as faculties in the subject, thus corresponded; and further, that these faculties could never transcend and comprehend s.p.a.ce and Time, because these were the very conditions of their being; moreover, that by them all s.p.a.ces and times must be considered with reference to the Universe, and apart from it could not be examined by them at all. Yet it was further found that the Universe might in the presence of the Reason be abstracted; and that, then, pure s.p.a.ce and Time still remained as pure _a priori_ conditions, the one as _room_, the other as _opportunity_, for the coming of created being. s.p.a.ce and Time being such conditions, _and nothing more_, are ent.i.ties only in the same sense that the multiplication table and the moral law are ent.i.ties.

They are _conditions_ suited to what they condition. In the light of this result let us examine Mr. Spencer's teachings respecting them.

Strictly speaking, s.p.a.ce and Time do not ”exist.” If they exist (ex sto), they must stand out somewhere and when. This of course involves the being of a where and a when in which they can stand out; and that where and when must needs be accounted for, and so on _ad infinitum_.

Again, Mr. Spencer would seem to speak, in his usual style, as if they, in existing ”objectively,” had a _formal_ objective existence. Yet this, in the very statement of it, appears absurd. The mind apprehends many objects, which do not ”exist.” They only are. Thus, as has just been said, s.p.a.ce and Time, as conditions of created being, _are_. They are ent.i.ties but not existences. They are _a priori_ ent.i.ties, and so are _necessarily_. By this they stand in the same category with all pure laws, all first principles.

”Moreover, to deny that s.p.a.ce and Time are things, and so by implication to call them nothings, involves the absurdity that there are two kinds of nothings.” This sentence ”involves the absurdity” of a.s.suming that ”nothing” is an ent.i.ty. If I say that s.p.a.ce is nothing, I say that it presents no content for a concept, and cannot, because there is no content to be presented. It is then _blank_. Just so of Time. As nothings they are, then, both equally blank, and dest.i.tute of meaning.

Now if Mr. Spencer wishes to hold that nothing represented by one word, differs from nothing represented by another, we would not lay a straw in his way, but yet would be much surprised if he led a large company.

Again, having decided that they are neither ”nonent.i.ties nor the attributes of ent.i.ties, we have no choice but to consider them as ent.i.ties.” But he then goes on to speak of them as ”things,” evidently using the word in the same sense as if applying it to a material object, as an apple or stone; thereby implying that ent.i.ty and thing in that sense are synonymous terms. Upon this leap in the dark, this blunder in the use of language, he proceeds to build up a mountain of difficulties.

But once take away this foundation, once cease attempting ”to represent them in thought as things,” and his difficulties vanish. s.p.a.ce is a condition. Perhaps receptivity, indivisibility, and illimitability are attributes. If so, it has attributes, for these certainly belong to it.

But whether these shall be called attributes or not, it is certain that s.p.a.ce is, is a pure condition, is thus a positive object to the Reason, is qualified by the characteristics named above; and all this without any contradiction or other insuperable difficulty arising thereby. On the ground now established, we learn that extension and s.p.a.ce are _not_ ”convertible terms.” Extension is an attribute of matter. s.p.a.ce is a condition of phenomena. It is only all _physical_ ”ent.i.ties which we actually know as such” that ”are limited.” From our standpoint, that s.p.a.ce is _no_ thing, such remarks as ”We find ourselves totally unable to form any mental image of unbounded s.p.a.ce,” appear painfully absurd.

”We find ourselves” just as ”totally unable to form any mental image of unbounded” love. Such phrases as ”mental image” have _no relevancy_ to either s.p.a.ce or Time. In criticizing Kant's doctrine, which we have found _true_ as far as it goes, Mr. Spencer evinces a surprising lack of knowledge of the facts in question. ”In the first place,” he says, ”to a.s.sert that s.p.a.ce and Time, as we are conscious of them, are subjective conditions, is by implication to a.s.sert that they are not objective realities.” But the conclusion does not follow. If the reader will take the trouble to construct the syllogism on which this is based, he will at once perceive the absurdity of the logic. It may be said in general that all conditions of a thinking being are both subjective and objective: they are conditions of his being--subjective; and they are objects of his examination and cognizance--objective. Is not the multiplication table an objective reality, _i. e._, would it not remain if he be destroyed? And yet is it not also a subjective law; and so was it not originally discovered by introspection and reflection? Again he says, ”for that consciousness of s.p.a.ce and Time which we cannot rid ourselves of, is the consciousness of them as existing objectively.” Now the fact is, that primarily we do not have _any_ consciousness of s.p.a.ce and Time. _Consciousness has to do with phenomena._ When examining the material Universe, the _objects_, and the objects as at a distance from each other and as during, are what we are conscious of. For instance, I view the planets Jupiter and Saturn. They appear as objects in my consciousness. There is a distance between them; but this distance _is_ not, except as they _are_. If they are not, the word distance has no meaning with reference to them. Take them away, and I have no consciousness of distance as remaining. These planets continue in existence. They endure. This endurance we call time, but if they should cease, one could not think of endurance in connection with them as remaining. Here we most freely and willingly agree with Mr. Spencer that ”the question is, What does consciousness directly testify?” but he will find that consciousness on this side of the water testifies very differently from his consciousness: as for instance in the two articles in the ”North American Review,” heretofore alluded to. Here, ”the direct testimony of consciousness is,” that s.p.a.ces and times within the Universe are without the mind; that s.p.a.ce and Time, as _a priori_ conditions for the possibility of formal object and during event, are also without the mind; but the ”testimony” is none the less clear and ”direct” that s.p.a.ce and Time are laws of thought in the mind corresponding to the actualities without the mind. And the question may be asked, it is believed with great force, If this last were not so, how could the mind take any cognizance of the actuality? Again, most truly, s.p.a.ce and Time ”cannot be conceived to become non-existent even were the mind to become non-existent.” Much more strongly than this should the truth be uttered. They could not become non-existent if the Universe with every sentient being, yea, even--to make an impossible supposition--if the Deity himself, should cease to be. In this they differ no whit from the laws of Mathematics, of Logic, and of Morals.

These too would remain as well. Thus is again enforced the truth, which has been stated heretofore, that s.p.a.ce and Time, as _a priori_ conditions of the Universe, stand in precisely the same relation to material object and during event that the multiplication table does to intellect, or the moral law to a spiritual person. It will now be doubtless plain that Mr. Spencer's remarks sprang directly from the lower faculties. The Sense in its very organization possesses s.p.a.ce and Time as void forms into which objects may come. So also the Understanding possesses the notional as connecting into a totality.

These faculties cannot be in a living man without acting. Activity is their law. Hence images are ever arising and _must_ arise in the Sense, and be connected in the Understanding, and all this in the forms and conditions of s.p.a.ce and Time. He who thinks continually in these conditions will always _imagine_ that s.p.a.ce and Time are only without him--because he will be thinking only in the iron prison-house of the imagining faculty--and so cannot transcend the conditions it imposes.

Now how shall one see these conditions? They do ”exist objectively”; or, to phrase it better, they have a true being independent of our minds. In this sense, as we have seen, every _a priori_ condition must be objective to the mind. What is objective to the Sense is not s.p.a.ce but a s.p.a.ce, _i. e._ a part of s.p.a.ce limited by matter; and, after all, it is the boundaries which are the true object rather than the s.p.a.ce, which cannot be ”conceived” of if the boundaries be removed. Without further argument, is it not evident that there s.p.a.ce, like all other _a priori_ conditions, is object only to the Reason, and that as a condition of material existence?

At the bottom of page 49 we have another of Mr. Spencer's psychological errors:--”For if s.p.a.ce and Time are forms of thought, they can never be thought of; since it is impossible for anything to be at once the _form_ of thought and the matter of thought.” Although this topic has been amply discussed elsewhere, it may not be uninstructive to recur to it again. Exactly the opposite of Mr. Spencer's remark is the truth. The question at issue here is one of those profound and subtile ones which cannot be approached by argument, but can be decided only by a _seeing_.

It is a psychological question pertaining to the profoundest depths of our being. If one says, ”I see the forms of thought,” and another, ”I cannot see them,” neither impeaches the other. All that is left is to stimulate the dull faculty of the one until he can see. The following reflections may help us to see. Mr. Spencer's remark implies that we have no higher faculty than the Sense and the Understanding. It implies, also, that we can never have any _self_-knowledge, in the fundamental signification of that phrase. We can observe the conduct of the mind, and study and cla.s.sify the results; but the laws, the const.i.tution of the activity itself must forever remain closed to us. As was said, when speaking of this subject under a different phase, the eye cannot see and study itself. It is a mechanical organism, capable only of reaction as acted upon, capable only of seeing results, but never able to penetrate to the hidden springs which underlie the event. Just so is it with the Sense and Understanding. They are mere mechanical faculties capable of acting as they are acted upon, but never able to go behind the appearance to its final source. On such a hypothesis as this all science is impossible, but most of all a science of the human mind. If man is enclosed by such walls, no knowledge of his central self can be gained.

He may know what he _does_; but what he _is_, is as inscrutable to him as what G.o.d is. As such a being, he is only a higher order of brute. He has some dim perceptions, some vague feelings, but he has no _knowledge_; he is _sure_ of nothing. He can reach no ground which is ultimate, no _Rock_ which he knows is _immutable_. Is man such a being?

The longings and aspirations of the ages roll back an unceasing NO! He is capable of placing himself before himself, of a.n.a.lyzing that self to the very groundwork of his being. All the laws of his const.i.tution, all the forms of his activity, he can clearly and amply place before himself and know them. And how is this? It is because G.o.d has endowed him with an EYE like unto His own, which enables man to be self-comprehending, as He is self-comprehending,--the Reason, with which man may read himself as a child reads a book; that man can make ”the _form_ of thought the _matter_ of thought.” True, the Understanding is shut out from any consideration of the forms of thought; but man is not simply or mainly an Understanding. He is, in his highest being, a spiritual person, whom G.o.d has endowed with the faculty of VISION; and the great organic evil, which the fall wrought into the world, was this very denial of the spiritual light, and this crowding down and out of sight, of the spiritual person beneath the animal nature, this denial of the essential faculties of such person, and this elevation of the lower faculties of the animal nature, the Sense and Understanding, into the highest place, which is involved in all such teachings as we are criticizing.

Mr. Spencer's remarks upon ”Matter” are no nearer the truth. In almost his first sentence there is a grievous logical _faux pas_. He says: ”Matter is either infinitely divisible or it is not; no third possibility can be named.” Yet we will name one, as follows: _The divisibility of matter has no relation to infinity_. And this _third_ supposition happens to be the truth. But it will be said that the question should be stated thus: Either there is a limit to the divisibility of matter, or there is no limit. This statement is exhaustive, because limitation belongs to matter. Of these alternatives there can be no hesitation which one to choose. There is a limit to the divisibility of matter. This answer cannot be given by the physical sense; for no one questions but what it is incapable of finding a limit.

The mental sense could not give it, because it is a question of actual substance and not of ideal forms. The Reason gives the answer. Matter is limited at both extremes. Its amount is definite, as are its final elements. These ”ultimate parts” have ”an under and an upper surface, a right and a left side.” When, then, one of these parts shall be broken, what results? Not _pieces_, as the materialist, thinking only in the Sense, would have us believe. When a final ”part” shall be broken, there will remain _no matter_,--to the sense nothing. To it, the result would be annihilation. But the Reason declares that there would be left _G.o.d's power_ in its simplicity,--that final Unit out of which all diversity becomes.

The subsequent difficulties raised respecting the solidity of Matter may be explained thus. And for convenience sake, we will limit the term Matter to such substances as are object to the physical sense, like granite, while Force shall be used to comprise those finer substances, like the Ether, which are impalpable to the physical sense. Matter is composed of very minute ultimate particles which do not touch, but which are held together by Force. The s.p.a.ce between the atoms, which would otherwise be _in vacuo_, is _full_ of Force. We might be more exhaustive in our a.n.a.lysis, and say--which would be true--that a s.p.a.ce-filling force composes the Universe; and that Matter is only Force in one of its modifications. But without this the other statement is sufficient. When, then, a portion of matter is compressed, the force which holds the ultimate particles in their places is overcome by an external force, and these particles are brought nearer together. Now, how is it with the moving body and the collision? Bisect a line and see the truth.

C A--------B 1

A body with a ma.s.s of 4 is moving with a velocity of 4 along the line from A to B. At C it meets another body with a ma.s.s of 4 at rest. From thence the two move on towards B with a velocity of 2. What has happened? In the body there was a certain amount of force, which set it in motion and kept it in motion. And just here let us make a point. _No force is ever lost or destroyed. It is only transferred._ When a bullet is fired from a gun, it possesses at one _point_ a maximum of force.

From that point this force is steadily _transferred_ to the air and other substances, until all that it received from the powder is spent.

But at any one point in its flight, the sum of the force which has been transferred since the maximum, and of the force yet to be transferred, will always equal the maximum. Now, how is it respecting the question raised by Mr. Spencer? The instant of contact is a point in time, _not a period_, and the transfer of force is instantaneous. C, then, is a _point_, not a period, and the velocity on the one side is 4 and the other side 2, while the momentum or force is exactly equal throughout the line. If it is said that this proves that a body can pa.s.s from one velocity to another without pa.s.sing through the intermediate velocities, we cannot help it. The above are the facts, and they give the truth. The following sentence of Mr. Spencer is, at least, careless. ”For when, of two such units, one moving at velocity 4 strikes another at rest, the striking unit must have its velocity 4 instantaneously reduced to velocity 2; must pa.s.s from velocity 4 to velocity 2 without any lapse of time, and without pa.s.sing through intermediate velocities; must be moving with velocities 4 and 2 at the same instant, which is impossible.” If there is any sense in the remark, ”instantaneously” must mean a _point_ of time _without period_. For, if any period is allowed, the sentence has no meaning, since during that period ”the striking unit” pa.s.ses through all ”intermediate velocities.” But if by instantaneously he means _without period_, then the last clause of the sentence is illogical, since instant there evidently means a period. For if it means point, then it contradicts the first clause. There, it is a.s.serted that 4 was ”_reduced_” to 2, _i. e._ that at one point the velocity was 4, and at the next point it was 2, and that there was _no time_ between. If 4 was instantaneously reduced to 2, then the velocity 2 was next after the velocity 4, and not coeval with it. Thus it appears that these two clauses which were meant to be synonymous are contradictory.

Bearing in mind what we have heretofore learned respecting atoms, we shall not be troubled by the objections to the Newtonian theory which follow. In reply to the question, ”What is the const.i.tution of these units?” the answer, ”We have no alternative but to regard each of them as a small piece of matter,” would be true if the Sense was the only faculty which could examine them. But even upon this theory Mr.

Spencer's remarks ”respecting the parts of which each atom consists,”

are entirely out of place; for the hypothesis that it is an ultimate atom excludes the supposition of ”parts,” since that phrase has no meaning except it refers to a final, indivisible, material unit. All that the Sense could say, would be, ”What this atom is I know not, but that it is, and _is not divisible_, I believe.” But when we see by the Reason that the ultimate atom, when dissolved, becomes G.o.d's power, all difficulty in the question vanishes. Having thus answered the above objections, it is unnecessary to notice the similar ones raised against Boscovich's theory, which is a modification of that of Newton.

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