Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-09-18
PROFESSOR TYNDALL's ADDRESS.

ment of Science for the current year.
A recent number of the New York
Weekly Sun gives the following:
The address recently delivered by
Prof. Tyndall at Belfast, before the
British Association for the Advance
ment of Science, will doubtlessl excite
to renewed energy the contest between
Science and Religion, which has been
raging during the past few years. APP
parently goaded into it by the criti-
cisms of the religious press upon his
proposition for scientific test of the
efficacy of prayer, the Professor has
seized the occasion of his elevation to
the Presidency of the Association to
make the distinct avowal that he sees
in the matter "the promise and poten-
cy of every form and quality of life."
In other words, he declares that mat
ter contains in itself all the elements
necessary to account for the phenom-
ena of creation without assuming the
existence of personal, intelligent
Creator.
Taken alone, this avowal would au-
thorize us to rank Prof. Tyndall
among the Materialists. Such con-
clusion, however, he most earnestly
deprecates, even to the extent of say
ing:
ain fact, the whole process of evo-
luton is the manifestation of power
absolutely inscrutable to the intellect
of man. AS little in our day as in the
days of Job, can man by searching
find this power out. Considered fun
damentally, it is by the operation of
an insoluble mystery that life is
evolved, species differentiated, and
mind unfolded from their prepotent
elements in the immeasurable past.
There is, you will observe, no very
rank materialism here.n
And q little further on he says
again:
ave have the conception that all
we see around us, and all we feel with
in us--the phenomena of physical ma
ture as we'll as those of the human
mind-have their unsearchable roots
in cosmical life, if dare apply the
term, an infinitesimal span of which
only is offered to the investigation of
man,
Aside from the contradiction be-
tween the idea of matter as self-suf-
ficient to evolve every form and
quality of life, and that of an unknown
power which evolves from that matter
all perceptible phenomena, it is
worthy of remark how confidently
Prof, Tyndall pronounces this latter
power inscrutable" "insoluble,"
and "unsearchable." There Is in
these epithets revelation of
great significance. 1t is q confess
sion of the impotency of Prof. Tyn-
dali and his school to fairly grapple
with the subject they profess to dis
cuss, and of their unwillingness to
concede that any one else can do what
they fail to do. They know all about
it that can be known, and therefore
those who preteEd to know more are
impostors. 1t Is this secret arrogance
more than than their attacks upon
accredited opinions that renders mod
ern scientists so hateful to the public
at large. Men will listen to argument
when it is candidly and fairly submit
ted to their judgments, but they will
not hear dogmatism which, in adj
vance, brands dissent as folly.
All this, however, does not detract
from the force of such arguments as
Prof. Tyndall and his friends really
have to present. They have already
done much to dissipate false ideas of
the relations between God and the
universe, and we trust they may be
enabled to do more yet. In the strug-
gle between them and their opponents
the truth will sooner or later come to
light, and when it does come to light
no one will object to the means by
which that result has been achieved.
The Professors allusion to the ques-
tion put by Jobs friend is inappropri-
ate to the subject under discussion,
and shows a want of candor, a want of
knowledge or an ineXcusable weak
ness on the part Of one making such
high claims to ability and learning.
Zophar, in reproving the afflicted pa
triarch for seeking to justify himself,
declares that the wisdom of God is
unsearchable, and dealing purely with
the spiritual. phenomena attendant
upon the exercise of genuide repent
ance in the midst of severe Affections,
asks, "Canst thou by searching find out
God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
to perfection ~ These questions in
troduce us to sublime description
of the Almighty, q knowledge of
whom is "high as Heaven, deeper
than hell and broader than the sea-"
Zophar then draws a picture of the
power, wisdom and absolute greatness
of God, which is startling to all who
have violated his law. He is repre-
sented as being who intimately
knows the human hearts, thorough
ly acquainted with it's sins, and from
whom it is utterly impossible to es-
cape. Could the learned Professor
have alluded to any book of human
origin which proves with such abso-
lutte certainty the existence and char
acter of God, who creates, uphOlds and
governs all things? There are few
sciences which are not foreshadOwed
in the Bible, and there is no surer an
tidote to the gross materialism of
evolution" which the Professor has
the boldness to avow and defend in
course of his address, than Is found
on every page of the Divine Record.
The sublime truth that God created
called into being = the heavens and
the earth and all things therein is
fundamentally lies at the base of all
knowledge. Denying this great fact,
such minds as TyndalPs, Humphreys
and Darwin's may tread the dark
hope.
dNatural selection" is a rope of sand
that crumbles if but touched with a
simple fact, and " Protophasm is a
shifting tide, eluding its discoverers
and gliding from under its adherents.
Nor should the advocates of such
speculations warp Scripture from its
true meaning by allusions, leaving
the impression that it supports their