New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-12
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
CHRISTIAN PANTHEIsM.

The pnrpose of this work If to reconelie inc eSse
t;al nrinoiples Of religious faith with the present
tendencies of thought In the sphere OF Pos''l'o 49,
nbvs;cal science. Mr. Picton is not votary oi
,oaern skepticism although he recognizes the iae'
az its existence and it's bearing on vital quesuohs
Nor Is he partisan of any Of the current systems u
nhioeophy or science but discusses their Naiio"e
pretensions in the spirit Of intelligent ana ihparai
criticism He has no fear of Their progress OF 'hn-
.ooe. he accepts many of their concluslonsi ne |
hopors the earnestnes and ability Of their expouno-
ers; while ne believes that their results are IN mar
mopy with the essential ideas OF religion IL Us pos
sible he afirms that all forms OF finitc existence |
may be reduced to modes of motion. But this is OF
M consequence in a religious point of view,
for motion itself is only the visible mani
festat1on of the energy Of an infinite life. |
"To meD he says the doctrine of an eternal con-
tnuity of development has no errors for believing
matter TO be in its ultimate essence spiritual, see
in every cosmic revolution change from glory 10
glory as by the Spirit of the Lord lean look down
the uncreated unbeRinning past without the s. ok
ness of bewildered faith. j want no silent dark
eternity IN which world for / am dU ,ciple
of One who said, My Father worketh hitherto My
sense OF eternal order is no longer Jared by tle sud-
den appearance in the universe of dead ins sub
stance foreign TO God and spiritual being, And If,
with a true insight / could stand so high 'above the
world as to take any comprehensive surFe of its I'M
ceasing evolutiOns here a nebula dawn ing at the
silent fat be light there the populous lobe, where
the communion of the many with the o. brings the
creature back to the Creator; am = .ure that the
oneness of the vision so far from deg rading would
upspeakably elevate my sense of an dignity and
blessedness Of created being. have no temptation,
therefore TO Join in cursing thei discOverer who
tracks the chain of divine forces by which finite con-
so;onsness has been brought to- take its present
fore; because know he can never find more than
tina. yrlicfreas in the beginning, and is and ever
,shall he-the power of an endless life"
With regard TO the speculatisns of Professor Hux-
ae, 4e author SO far from beyailing their effects,
pronounces them decidedly favorable 10 the inter
sts Of religion. They present formidable barrler
TO the entertainments Of usateralisR, In this re-
pect he thinks that Professor Huxley has rendered
services the Church, If hess signal not less vaIua
Die, than those which he has rendered to science
lie has brought the religious world face to face with
facts with vieor and elearness peculiar to him.
self Not only So In the opinion OF the suthor' ne
has made questions concerning shose facts OF 'ast
importance to the future of religion. BE has de-
fined the only terms on which harmony is possible
between spiritual reli gion and physical science.
Eoualipg Berkeley in transparent distnctness OF
statement, while he far surpasses him IN knowledge
of physical phenomena, Mr.. Huxley has shown that
whether we start with materialsmor ideallsm, we
are brought at length to the same point lie has
thus proved himself Of the most powerful
opyopente that naterialism ever had All
that he dad in his celebrated discourse on the ply
scal Basis of Life" was to call attention to certain
indisputable facts. " And perhaps il was the impos
sibility of denying these facts which was main
cause of the uneasiness that most of us felt. Thus
he told US that all organizations from the Ichen up
TO the man. are all composed mainly of one sort OF
matter which in all cases, even those at the ex-
tremity of the scale, is almost identical in cOmpo-
~ IL f,,t N,,,1 ho svaciu cd
was that every living action from the vibrations of
ella by the foramnfer to the imagination Of Ham
let OF the composition of the Messiah is accompanied
by and in sense finds equivalent expression in,
.definte waste or disintegraton of material tissue
Thus il is less certain that the muscles of horse
are strained by heavy load, than it is that the
brain of a Shakespeare .undergoes molecular agita
ton producing definite chemical results IN the sub
fine effort of imagination"
But at FIRST blush, such statements produce shock
in the minds of most readers. They reluctant to
be told that the soul never acts by itself apartfrOm
some excitement of bodily tissue 1t seems mon
strous that thought and love, which IN one direc-
ton find their expression in the majesty of eloquence,
should in another direction find their expression in
evolving carbonic acid and water. Such union be-
tween soul and body seemed to amount to identity.
And yet the soul conscious that, whatever might
be said il was not one of the chemical elements nor
all Of them put together.
The mental anxiety referred to has been sggra-
waited by the hold which has been taken most
inomring minds by the doctrine of development
Whether natural selection is is not sufficient to
account for the origin of species the idea of
cessive acts of creation out of nothing has been yr
tually abandoned by all whose observations of
Nature have been such scale to entitle their
opinions TO any weight What once the prop
erty of a few isolated thinkers has been made COM
pletely accessible to minds of common intelligence
But the terrors which have been awakened by the
popular reception Of novel scientific theories
tirely founded on the assumption that matter and
spirit are fundamentally distinct III their nature
1t has been the general belief that matter
thing heavy, hfeleSs, inert, something that forms
the hidden basis Of the ethereal vision of the world
But argues the author, if that assumption be the
mere creature Of false analogy, and is wholly neon
graOus and unthinkabe. it does not indeed follow
that matenaism in fair sense of the word, is i'm
possible, still the conclusion cannot be avoided
that materiasm and spiTitualism would then
hibit ony different aspects of the everlasting
fact and physical research might henceforth unfold
70 us only the energies Of Infinite Life self governed
by eternal law.
But admitting the universal action of molecular
mechanics the author adduees numerous instances
which show that the explanation they offer Of the
phenomena of sensation cannot be realized in
seriousness. Nothing is really an explanation which
cannot be reproduced in consciousness such. We
demand cause from which the effect nationally
be educed The perception of distance for example,
Is explained by the action of the muscular aud
the experience of touch. This is an adequate expla
nation, for it can be realized in Consciousness. But
h. 90 nit axnla aftoun f