Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1872-06-07
Published by Request
NM. mccONNELLs SPEECH.
Delivered at the Contest Ter the
King Prize Medal.
Mind versus Matter,

s. .
The eternity of matter has ever been
the stronghold of infdelity. Jlnmu-
liability, and Independence, however,
are necessarily and insepaEably as5o-
ciated with selfeXistence whereas HTu-
tation Is thegreat law which upholds
materiality, and decay is written upon
every atom that floats through space.
Moreover matter in and of itself is pos
sessed of no creative power; So far as
we are able to ascertain. it is made up
of an infinite bomber of inert PARTICLES
which only approximate each other,
for il is a matter of doubt as to their
being at all in actual cantact; where
fore to endow it with properties ade-
uuate to explain all natural phenom-
ena, would be to make each of these
particles an independent and con-
scious being. If too such principle or
law were inherent in matter, it must
have been in OperatiOnfrom all eterni-
ty, but law is only the uniform mode
according to which an agent or pow
or acts, and in order TO be law, must
he IN active operation. Suspend for
one moment the law of gravitatiOn,
and in the ensuing crash of worlds,
you annLl that law forever-suspend
cOhesions power as each atom tracks
its solitary way through space you
suspend its power forever. The on
ward march of progressive science not
only shows that there was time when
this law did not exist, but it also
points with unerring certainly to
period when matter itself slumbered
i'm the embrace CT noneXisteDce. If
then this law came into operation at
a,,t,cn1..o,aN ,,arfn1 II iS
whelming argument for Deity, because
every law presuppOses a law-giver.-
If, too, matter has not existed from
eternity, it must be an effect and every
effect must have a cause, design mani
tested in the effect presuppOses intel
ligence in the cause, and the adaptation
of means to an end implies an exercise
of will, but that agent or being liz
which will and intellect are found is
considered person wherefore the
conclusion is legitimate. Before SER
aph had sung or world bad glittered
the great, infinite and eternal Mind
existed. and in the council chambers
of eternity framed the laws which
govern and uphold the universe
Those, however, who would confine
matter to the brief period of Man's ex-
istence, take from, il much ofits grand
eur. The most plausible theory in re-
gard to the formation of the earth af-
firms that when first it was hurled
from the plastic hand of Deity, il was
in a state OF igneOus fusion, and for
ages as a nebulOus mass rested upon
the shadowy confines of the broad inn
mensc, and then with the fiery glare
Of the comet, moved off through space,
now lingering around some blazing
orb. then lost in the dim distance of
its wide-extended orbit, and far on
through the unwaning cycles of eter-
nifty, again making its appearance
Thus ii moved OH its burning heat he
ing gradually radiated into space, I'M
til il neared the second stage of refrig-
Grafton, where assuming the form of a
fiery liquid ball. ii rolled on for ages
more until q crust was formed and il
had reached the third stage of refriger
alton. From that time until the
zOOphyte first appeared as frail pho
neer upon tho utmost confines of ami
mated existence, an amazingly long
period must have elapsed and in
definite ages more must have rolled
away, as formation after formation
was added ere it had reached the
blooming beauty of to-day: and when
our little earth as yet lay slumbering
i'm the hollow of Jehovah's hand fresh
blazing suns lit up the path for worlds
whose lustrious splendOr the lapse of
ages had already extinguished. With
this view of the subject, matter as
sumes transcendent grandeur. YOn
glorious Day-gOd, poised in mute sub
Unity I'm mid heaven, although for
ages having been the burning center
in whose genial rays, revolving worlds
have loved to bask, and though ages
more may roll away and his glory be
undiminished, yet supported by scrip
ture and reasoning from analogy, the
time will come when his effulgent
brightness will be forever extinguish-
ed, and already yon dark spots that
rest upon his fervid disc, speaks in
premonatory tones to Man. Every
sun, then that to night flames in yon-
der bestudded armament In process of
time will become a blooming void,
while every nebulous mass that skirts
the confines of that void abyss, where
creative power is yet unknown, togeth-
or with every fiery comet that threads
the maze of star-lit space, will become
blazing sun. But the advocates of
the development theory, argue from
this formative process, that matter is
possessed of the power to produce the
lowest forms of life which become
STRIPS, or roots, from which all subse-
quent species are developed. The
cause producing the strips N ust neces-
sarily have been limited in its power.
According to principle in mechanics,
It might transmit that power through
the series, but by no possible means
could force they put in operation
of itself, acquire the additional power
necessary 10 the porduction of more
complicated organisms. AS further
proof of the futility of the argument, it
is affirmed by the most eminent
Biologists, that Of more than $4,000
fossil species dug from the rocks, each
is Just as distinct from the other, as
are the existing species of to-day, nor
is there the slightest evidence of some
having been developed from others. -
Earth's primitive inhabitants lived
and passed away with no funeral
dirge, save the hoarse roaring of con-
tending elements, and no epitaph save
what the unseen gasses write, but
those epitaphs are as enduring as the
rocks upon which they are inscribed,
and to-day, point out a grand mau-
soleum for each formation in which
the developing principles is entombed
along with the remains of unnumbered
dead. Says the late eminent D'Orbig-
ny, twenty times have distinct
creations repeopled the earth, with
plants and animals following. each
time some geological disturbance
which had totally destroyed living ma
ture." This testimony from the
rocks, then strikes at the very basis of
this contemplate theory assigning to
Man an origion transcendently glOri-
Gus, and a destiny invested with an
awful grandeur. No STRIPS has beea
found for the moral element Of his ma
ture, but the morality of Mans M
ture, is the main spring of the mental
mechanism-the great underprop up
on which the whole superstructure
rests. Wherefore mind has not been
produced from matter; upon every