New-York tribune., 1872-02-27
EVOLUTION.

AMERICAN UNITARIAN AocVSiNAAN-''
IrRoM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRlBUNS'
BosroN, Feb. 2G.--The course OF lectures Oh
Christianity and Rationasm given by the American
Unitarian Association was closed TINS a'eiuoo" ~ .n
reading OF an essay. written by the Rev. James "ar
,,raau of England on the Place Of Mind In Nature ana
Intuition in Man. The essay was written espocaH iul
the course and as Mr. Martineau could not como hse
20 deliver IT, Il was read Kings Chapel by the Rev.
Henry W. Foote, the pastor
That the universe around MS was not always
there ia so little disputed that every philosophy ana
sverv faitb undertakes to tell how It came to be- They
all assume as theater Of their problem the heo OF
pace where all objects he and tho track OF ume Where
events have reached the Now But into these they carry
10 aid them IN representing the origin of things, such
sterpretng conceptions may be most familiar 10 the
knowledge or fancy Of their age; first, the nat OF
Almighty VIII. which bade the world DC
filed, 80 that the light kndled ana inc
waters swayed. and the earth stood fast beneath te
aut OF the sky; next, when the sway OF poetry anu
force had yielded the inventive arts the idea OF
soutrving and adapting power building ana balancing
the worlds 10 20 smoothly and keep time together anu
stocking them with sclfmovng and sensitive haohuos'
and now since physiology has got TO the 'front.' 'ho a"
aogy OF the seed germ, in itself the least oi ,sS
vet so prolific that with history long enough u VIII oe us
snavn upOn the waters, and fill every waste "l'h e
creatures rs they are. The prevalence OF the newest
metaphor betravs itself the current language OF science
We now unfold 4" what we used to "take TO pieces;
we "deveop" the theory which we used TO construct
We treat the system OF the world an "Organ'sm
rather than mechanism" :" and the doctrine of Evou-
ton only applies the images OF indefinite growth OF the
greater ont Of the less till from some datum Invisible 10
the microscope arises teeming universe.
In dealing with these three concepuons-Creaton,
Construction EvOuuOnthere is one thing ON which Ke-
lon insists viz: that mind is first and rules forever
and whatever the process be, is its process moving
toward congenal ends this be granted and 1t mat
tiers not by what path method the Divine Thought ad
vances or long IL is upon the road Time counts TOT
nothing with the Eternal and though 1t should appear
that the system of the world and the ranks OF Deing
arose not by start OF crystazaton but like the grass
or the forest, silent and seasonal graduation, as true
vorship NAV he paid 10 the Indweing God who makes
matter itself transparent with spiritual meanings ana
brcathCs before the pulses OF nature and appeals 10
us in the sorrows of TO the preexistng DEITY
who from an infinite loneliness, suddenly became the
Maker of ALL the idea, therefore, OF gradual unfold
ing OF the creative plan and the maturing OF 1t by rules
OF growth there is nothing necessarily prejudlcal 10
piety and so long as the Divine Mind is left IN un-
disturbed supremacy as the living Aln-an, the
belief may even foster larger, calmer tenderer
devotion than tho conceptions which 1t supersedes.
But 1t Is liable 10 special Illusion winch the
others 10y their cOarsey separating lines manage to
escape long you plant the Supreme Cause at dis
tance from His effects and assign to Him space OF
tine where nothing else be, the conception OF that
separate and solitary existence, however barren is
secure But in proportion you think OF Him as never
I'm an empty field waiting for future beginning OF ac-
tiviy a. you let Him mingle with the elements and
blend with the natural life of things, there is recurring
danger His light should disappear behind the opaque
material vail, and His Spirit be quenched amid the
shadows Of inexOrable Law. This danger haunts our
time The doctrine OF Evolution, setting forth to show
how the greatest things may be brought out OF the least
fills with fear, whether perhaps, mind may not he
instead Of first whether, at the outset anything
there hut the rudmeuts Of matter and force.
Il a1f-frp
Of time. that must measure every nature
IN its beginning admits nothing belong to its
except what is found in 1t then II takes two forms, ac
corlnc the doctrine of Evolution is applied TO man
himself the outward universe. In the former case
infuses dlsrust into our setinOwedge weakens our
subjective religion native faith in the intuitions OF
thought and conscience the latter 1t weakens
our objective religion, suggests that there IS no ognat
ing mind. Nj Martineau then takes mp the theory OF
Human Evolution and the mora illusions Is apt to fos
ter He considers. first the Experience Philosophy,
which produced not few admirable analyses OF the
formation Of language and the tissue Of thought nor is
there any legitimate objection TO it, except as faf as us
sirnpliGcatOns are Overstrancd and cannot be made
good Il undertakes with minimum OF initial ca
pacity to account for the maximum Of human genius
and character All the higher endOwments are in this
view merely transformed sensations. All the intutons
Of the reason, the visions of the imagination, the
inspirations OF conscience, are all recalled to
the standard Of sense All the independent values which
tions and beliefs dsspated as falacious they are
all based upon sentient of worth which lies at
the bottom and feeling almost inevitably spreads
that we are dupes characteristic capacities
but the idea OF an eternal FOunt OF beauty truth and
goodness behind the pleasingness and concinnty OF
phenomena is illusion. BY recent extension the
theory of Evolution has appedto the whole nat
ura history Of our race; and the resources Of Habit
already servceabe in explaining the apttudes OF indivd
uas have been account the large scale OF
successive generations transmitting by inheritance the
acquisitions hitherto made good In this way 1t is con-
tended that Conscience boarded fund OF tradonary
pressure Of utility gradually eacng the primitive yes
tges OF fear and dispensing itself with an auence OF
disinteresed sympathy This vast enlargement of the
doctrine OF Evolution, while increasing Its power and
removing the reach of accurate tests alters ne
ther its principle its practical effect 1t undertakes
exhibit the highest and the greatest In our nature as
uteriOr phenomena of the lowest and the least.
Considering the evidence for either these varieties OF
Evolution inadequate, yet the supposiuon that
their case out Mr. Martneau contends that it
does not Justify the skephcal estimate which habitually
fosters Of the Intellectual moral and religious intuitions
OF the human mind For, though animal sensation with
It's connected instinct should be the raw material Of
whole mental history it is not that account entitled
70 all that after Il, and stand the
bOundaryine between fact and dream between terra
hrma and airy nothing" That which is first in time
has necessary priority Of in the scale Of truth
and reality and the laerfOund may well be the greater
existence and the assured Ia our wisdom 10 be
gathered by going back to the age before errors
Instead OF consulting the maturity Of thought to
peer into its cradle and seek Oraces In its infant crios
II the last appeal be TO the animal elements expert
only learn by unlearning. If nothing is to
be deemed true but what prehuman apes saw then all
the sciences must be usOry; with the suicidal result
that with them this doctrine of Evolution vanish too.
The tact assumptOD therefore that yOu upset sinner