New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-03-22
BEHOLDING THE UNSEEN.
THE RADICAL CLUB FOR MARCH.

ERT COLYER.
IPRoM A REGULAR CORRESPONDENT or TnB TRIBUSEl
BosroN, March 19.-The streets were full of
the deyOees OF 81. Patrick, terrible army with
banners "a went yesterday, through the usually qnet
ways OF the West End the March meeting Of the Radi
cal Club Beacon-st. had withdrawn from sight, behind
blinds and curtains for green flags waved and rustled
on the arisOcrac air and the sidewalks used 10 the
pressure OF feet shod in daines brodequns resounded
the tramp tramp Of Hibernion large and small.
and above all, enthusiastic 1t was Ike going
ont Of Bedlam into Paradise to step into DR.. Bar
tOls quiet parlors, where pictured faces OF
dead beauties smile from the walls, where
shapes of grace CLEAN in marble wilderness from
and recess and where fresh flowers make Summer fra
GRANGE in the air. The company was unusually large.
A few familiar faces were absent-Col. Hlgginson ana
John Weiss for nstanccbut the genial smile OF Robert
Colyer whom somebody has well called great part OF
what saved from the Chicago fire. was bright enough
TO fill with light and warmth all the empty places Tho
essaylst Of the occasion the Rev. WIN. C. Gannet
son of od Dr. Gannet" as Boston had for many years
been In the habit OF calling the beloved and reyered Uni
tartan minister whose death In the fearful Eastern Ran
road accident of last Autumn win be long remembered
Mr. Gannetrs essay attempted to evolve the real har-
mony the seeming discord between science anu re-
lgiOn, and lie entitled 10 " Looking at the Unseen"
when Paul says we look not the things which are
SEEM but at the things which unseen. he speaks for
all OF u.s. It ia not specially the scientific not specially
tho religious but tho human attitude. The outside
never satisfies. What lies bchindi What s it made Off
What Is IL for7 How It to bel Such are the qes
tionings with which have always stood before ma
ture We all philosophers in our search for causes
and desnes. The child In his nursery Is on rrepress
Bile asker c0nun1rums. And how his science runs into
his religion! "What makes my gun go bangf' ne begins
with but ii Is, Who made me T. and, when mat
Is answered. " VINO made GOdP WHO was the hrst
mother the very first g. asked one small 99estioner and
Where did God stand to make the world before there
.Nrr.aa fO sfa
could Satan have been wicked before there was any
Devil to put him up to IL" wondered third. me
savage "a also philosopher. seeking with hs chldlKe
into causes and with him, also science ana re-
gton not two but The thunder rolls above him.
Hush" said the Old-time German; " Hush, the god
Thor is hurting his mighty hammer" The moon passed
between the earth and the sun, ecpsng 10 " ltfs me
would shout and shoot his burning arrows into the arr
to drive MN C Ihas %S to or be seen ecct but
his theory took him at once 20 the gods ana the de
man; and the savage-wy every professor in Harvard
College Is tho of savage. We or to-day peer more
eagerly than ever the ana the more we see,
conyinces us the more how little we see. Every anxious
guess origin or our destiny every sacred aspra
ton. testiHos how truly We look az things not
calling the looking OF religion -, Is the IL looking ip
to find Of the snow and the astronomer the
place where light dwes, and owen studies his fossil
years CO. they also looking at the things not seen,
and this we call the looking OF science. We are wont to
separate religion from SCIENCE bu thcr attitudes oe!oIe
nature are just the and that suggests that child
aud savage may be essentially right after ALL IN making
them not two Science looks at the things not
seen in the three waysof educated eyes OF improving
Instruments and OF careful reasoning each method add
ing realms TO her gaze. The very beginning Oh a
scientific education is u learn 10 see-el To observe
with minute and accurate attention, what Is gong on
were all there was to with. Now the eyes
armed with instrument5 which give lar lar,
worlds to our vision NJ one looks into
telescope microscope, great Inns OF the'Unseen
burst into the M LII nj TO Sg be e Eoc int
space But Science does not stop with the vision OF
her instruments She feels her to the laws OF events
and dares to predict what instruments ana eyes shan
see These fOreseeings the feats OF science. on
around the sun At LAST astronomers began to guess
our nelGD?r IN is spell ro 1S Sei nng Where
might be found The hgurng was and the
new new planet 'nI% swan into their .Een the one
inlnity science ia still making magnificent qesses. sus
costing and theorznG things which cannot yet be seem
passed beyond the Material The matter at its finest
as secabIe The motion quick beyond all possibility
of our catching but not beyond the possibility ofcach-
farthest space the braincel is nothing but matter
aud motion This is all that Science sees When he looks
ence; and some say, and half fear that there Is
nothing in tho Universe but Matter and Motion.
this same physical Science Does this, ITSELF be-
tray something in the Universe beyond its mere matter
Science Science What Is that reason with which
I SnS where no instrument could follow her In The
second step what is the cunning that calculates the
curves of lcnssurfaces for her instrumental Nay,
in the step what is the mere sensation of sight when
our eyes open and sect Traced along from the With
out toward Within tho process Is FIST that rapid
flashing the ether that Is OF course physical
They strike through the eyelayers to the retlna, and
there give up their motion to certain hlamens
behind still we are in the physical The thrl passes
inward to certain spot OF gray neryematter IN the
thaupa rnans flpF ne
And all this, too, purely physical Matter and motion
That NO 90 one has yet fathomed This ply steal be-
comes psycnical. The neryethrll becomes conscious
ness Through the organ OF something has
passed into sensation. Religion says that
this consciousness which we find In ourselves,
overlyng Mi the matter and motion OF our bralnces
and body overos tho whole universe Of matter and
and laws OF this Consciousness OF ours belongs IN
dim way at least TO Great consciousness that over
hes the Whole; that our VIII betokens VIII there; our
Reasoning betokens Thought there our Sense OF Right
Sense OF Right there; and we make God in our own
image. Some people cry out at this IA Fetchlsm Dut
in order to evolve consciousness, for that
part of Nature but her conscousnes' must be con,
world, in every faintest thrill OF its physical
motion the other side the spirit side. must be somehow
represented. This makes Nature alive and God imina
nent. But self Will always make God In its own image
and the self becomes conscious, WISE and noble
will Nature MI and I'LL, to us, with wiser, nober
Godlife. The man who is thoroughly imbued with
sense that Nature is the Life OF God, is everywhere u
wOrshiper What others call accident he feels sure is
invisible law what confusion, he doubts not is
hidden order. What seems horror he cannot help trust
ing unknown goodness. To him the universe Is u
Temple.
Tho discussion which followed was more brief than
usual. DR.. Bartol the irst speaker. He said ii
seemed strange that there should be any alarm about
the tendency OF Materiaism when it continually
taking the direction toward Spirit Before science,
before the Great White Throne in Revelations, the
heavens and the earth fee away and nothing Is left but
pure force scientists carry their theory beyond
the atom. one Frenchman in particular goes behind
the atom to at0mlctes. When II gets far that,
MateriaIam hns committed smlode Pntlng immnI-