The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-06-17

Of Fate. So impatient are they of Provi- I
DENTAL influence over the fortunes of man
that Mr. Buckle incarnates an abstraction,
and supposes the same mechanical law to
determine the fall of an empire and the mis-
carriage of letter.
! There is difficulty, however, on their own
method, in accounting for the phenomena of
force without the supposition of an antece-
dent, In conceiving an effect without cause
but the af'ront to science involved in the
concession Of Creator they hasten to re-
pair by putting Deity in commission and
running the universe on the principle of
" evolution"
Mr.. Herbert Spencer, know, repudiates
the tmputation Of Atheism but the distinc-
ton between no-God and Deity hid away
somewhere in the recesses Of infinity, il not
too subtle for apprehension, is plainly of no
moment to the welfare of humanity.
Equally on either theory, whether of blank
Atheism or of a God retired from all interest
and activity in the economy Of the universe,
the world is fatherless and forsaken. and
man abandoned to the Orphanage Of despair. |
And this, gentlemen, is the first principle Of |
the Positive Philosophv-the, Almighty re-
dnced to the impotence of speculative pos
slbllity, Deity skulking from The light of
science! o..
Nay, farther: Since the omnipotence of
evolution precludes the hypothesis of special |
creation. it is incumbent on science to ex-
plain the phenomenon of man by the process
OF Induction; and accordingly Mr.. Darwin |
traces his pedigree upon the principle of
natural SELECTION" and by an ultimate
analysis discovers bis genesis in protopIasm. |
mus does the philosophy of rationalism dis
parage man no less than Deity: and degrades
him from his proud prominence to an
equality with the ape and a confraternity
with the reptile. And, as in his origin so in
his after progress, his development is i'm
PEELED and directed by no other than the ac-
ton OF material force ; and his pathway is
strewn with the wreck of every human
hope.
Destiny, working by the agency of " natu-
raj SELECTION" DEGREES premature death to
all who, whether from physical infrmity or
mental debility or moral ineptitude, are un-
able, OF their own resources, to fight the
battle of life: and so by the "surVival of
the fittest" only, humanity gradually as
cends to the summit of perfection. Hence,
Whosoever or whatsoever tends to arrest the
operation of this memorable law is an OBJ
struction to the improvement of the race
and therefore all the schemes of benevo-
lence and philanthropy which contemplate
the prolongation of diseased mortality-all
our asylums for the insane, all our hospitals
for the invalid, all our schools for the disci-
pine of depraved passion-are. so many i'm
pediments TO the perfectbility of man; and
in the positivist plan of civilization there is
no voice for the plant Of pity, no sphere for
the ministrati0nS Of charity. In aid OF the
off Of ior orfiE osol
expedient is employed: and stirptculture,
for so they call it in their pedantic nomen-
clature -stirpiculture is introduced as the
political instrumentality of human regene-
ration.
That is TO say, a perfect humanity is to be
developed by the arts Of the cattle-breeder !;
and in the ideal man of the millennium we
are to behold the result of the same process
which produces the Berkshire pig. Then,
too. since the happiness of the individual is
; the only end of life, and since no apparitiOn
of the hereafter rights the skeptic soul,
enlightened reason eDjoins tue prompt sutio-
cation of the incurable invalid as the ten
derest Office of sympathiziDg friendship ::
and Tollemache applauds murder in the dis
guiSe of classical euphemism. DR.. BaStian
is still more adventurous and audacious; for,
lifting the veil that envelopes the infinite and
inscrutable. he solves the mysterious pro-
blem of life by the theory Of spontaneous
generation and by chemical combination
realizes the dream of l'rankenstein, and
himself becomes the creator.
Mr.. Darwin tells us that the human mind,
with all its grand attributes Of thought and
emotion, is but the development of the dim
sensations of the molluse.
Conscience, according to Monsieur Littri,
is the outcome of animal instinct, and rei-
gion the whimsy Of some torpid brain, fancy
ing that bigger Calibar moves the stars and
rolls the thunder. Even the devout spirit of
Mathew Arnold, left alone to the light of
secular culture, can attain to no loftier con-
ception of Deity than ''the something not
ourselves that makes for the righteousness"
and can PROFOUND no better definition of
religion than "morality touched by emo.
tion."
Farther still: AS the logic of the positive
science ignores all phenomena not Cogniza-
| BILE by observation, and rejects every gene
ralization not established by an induction
of verified fact; the necessary consequence
| is, the reduction of all existence to mate
| rial form, and the negation of mans spirit
ual being.
Thought is but an operation Of the brain !:
emotion a nervous pusation: and since
| function ceases when structure is destroyed,
nothing OF man survives the death Of bis
| body. In chorus of intidel clamor, the
| disciples oftbe Positive Philosophy all assure
lis that death dissolyes the elements of hui
mainly that the dim perspective of destiny
discloses no abode OF immortal spirits; but
instead, the Unirersuna of Strauss closes the
vista of human hope. Yet again, as science
knows of nothing beyond the finite and
phenomenal; and as all experience proves
the universally and uniformity of law, then
every impulse of volition is determined by
its antecedents: aud with the freedom of his
will man loses his moral responsibility.
Thus, not content to work within the do
main of physics, to which its experimental
method vigorously restricts it, false science
| usurps upon the province of the transcen-
dental and impiously applies its principles
to the solution OF metaphysical problems, as
| if the spirit of man might be resolved In a
crllcible and some spectrum analysis reveal
| the counsels Of Omniscience.
So. gentlemen, we see to what pltiable
| plight humanity is reduced by the nhitoso-
| phy Of Rationalism-- God to sustain us
| bv the bounties of His providence; no con-
| science to guide us through the labyrinth Of
life; no liberty of choice between good aud
evil; no fear of retribution to quelI the
furies of Iicentious passion; no hope Of i'm
mortality to gid the dark cloud of earthly
existence; no tradition of a heayen-born line.
age to hold us erect above tue beasts of the
field; no charity to salve the wounds of af-
flictcd man T; no sentiment of piety to soothe
the asitations Of the troubled spirit aud lull
exhausted nature to the repose of blissful
faith.
Gentlemen, upon what tragic catastrophe
this goddess philosophy is fated to precipi-
tate mankind cannot be known till the. cur
tain falls, but to me 1t seems that having