The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-09-15

is equally helpless. If you ask him whence
ia this matter of. which We have peen
discoursinp, who or what divided 1t INTO
molecules. who or what impressed upon
Them this necessity Of running into organic
formss he has no answer. Science also is
mute in reply to these questions. but II
the ,naterialist is COMPOUNDED ana science
rendered dumb, who else is entitled to an
swerr Towhom has the secret beenrevealedI
Let us lower our heads and acknowledge
our ignorance, one and all. Perhaps the
mystery may resolue itself into knowledge
at some future day. The process of things
upon this earth has been one Of ameliora-
ton. II IS long aoay from the IqLanodon
and his contemporaries to the President and
members of the British Association. And
whether we regard the improvement from
the scientific or from the theological point
of view-as the result Of progressive de-
velopment or as the result of successive ex-
hibitions Of creative energy-neither view
entities us to assume that mans present
faculties end the series; that the process OF
amelioration stops at him. A time may
therefore come when this ultra scientific re-
gion by which we are now EMBODIED may
offer itself to terrestrial If not to human In.
vestipation. Two-thirds of the rays emitted
By the sun fail to arouse in the eye the sense
of vision. The rays exist, but the visual
organ requisite for their translation into
light does not exit And so from this re-
gion of darkness and mystery which sur
rounds us rays may now be dartlng which
require but the development of the proper
intellectual organs to translate them into
knowledge as far SURPRISING ours as ours
does that of the wallowing reptiles when
once held possession of this planet. mean
while the mystery is not without l's USES.
1t certainly may be made power III the
human soul; but it is a power "nich has
feeling, not knowledge, for Its oase. It may
be. and will be, and we hope is, turned to
account, both in steadying and strengthen
ing the intellect and rescuing man from
that littleness to which, in the struggle for
existence, or for precedence in the world,
he is continually prone"
We may say that while TYSDALL is track
ing the march of materialism and pointing
out its present terminus in the midst OF
desert, as it were, confronting limltless
bounds of undiscovered territory, Commo-
dore MAURY, in brief and pointed lee
ture, is presenting to the student view OF
science and faith that is somewhat kindred.
Commodore MAuRY occupies the safe ana
impregnable ground that science cannot
contradict the truth of revelation-that the
truths of science and the truths of the BIZ
BILE are undeniable, and that truth cannot
contradict itself. TTNDALL shows where
naterialism fails and the vast world OF
knowledge that it has been altogether una
BILE to penetrate with the slightest ray OF
light. He conjectures the probability OF
yet wonderful progress in the triumphs OF
science towards illumining the mystery
which surrounds US, but leaves materlallsm
at present environed by inconceivable diff
cul,ies in the way of the completion of its
theory.
TYSDALL entertains his hearers with
dissertation on the molecular theory, and
conducts them along its beautiful path to
the desert of ignorance, in which all the
paths of science touching the creation of
the earth have terminated. Commodore
MAURY interests his young auditors with
clear and brief description of LA PLACES
nebulous theory-so deeply interesting and
plausible, and yet not an established truth.
Great as are the displays of human genius
in these theories, how infinitely far away
are they, even though established as true,
from the great First Cause They would
leave revelation untouched, and the pro-
" blem of the connection Of the body and
d" soul as insoluble'' " as it was in the pre-
" scientific ages" Granting to science oil
it can in all human probability attain we
shall still occupy the ground now held by
Commodore MAURY, that both science and
the Bible are true. There will still be
natural and supernatural not TO be ex-
planned or defined by materialism, and
which con only be seen through the eye OF
Faith, and with which human sympathy
must rest on "feeling" and not "knoW-
ledge" as TYNDALL says. We admire the
devout expires sion of this faith made by
commodore nAShfs An oo@A SoSAHto >HS
cadets at Lexington he said:
"Strive in all things and at all times to
be right minded and as you are conducted
along those beautiful walks in the fields of
physical research, which modern investiga-
ton has made so lovely and instructive,
guard against the seductive arguments of
those authors who delight to point out what
they cal! contradictions to the Bible.
"My dear young friends, always remem
Der that the author of that book is natures
God that the revelations of science and the
statements of the Bible are both true, and
that truth cannot contradict itself.
"Now, when you fancy you discover, as
many say they do, discrepancies between
science and the Bible, be not fast, as Co.
lenso and others have been, to pronounce
the Bible wrong. Keep from presumptuous
sins, and be firm in the belief that the BIZ
BILE is true that science is true; and that
if there be apparent discrepancy between
these two records, it is not the fault of
either, but of yourself, their interpreter.
The records are right, but their interpreta-
ton has on many occasions been wrong"