Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-07-07

30 WDOIN COLLEGE.

Commencement exercises at this institution
began on Sunday evening, 9th inss., with the
Baccalaureate address by President Chamber
lain, of which we give an abstract:
The text, from Ecclesiastes, II said will
be wise, but it wes far from me-"
These words express the despair of one who
had made the highest earthly choice. He had
asked for wisdom, and when he had "sought
out all knowledge and the reasons of things"
which in this day we call science and phi
losopby-found at the end that all is vanity
and increase of sorrow, and wisdom far from
him. Why is this? DO not worthy choice
and q high purposes ensure success? We can
at any rate see how the great king set out.
lie centred all things in the sense. He meas
ured his worth blythe abundance of the things
he possessed. He sought rest without trust.
We may lind lesson in this. For the drift
of the times is somewhat in the same line. II
is sometimes said to be the duty of the schol-
| ar to resist the tendency of the times. This
is not quite correct. For the scholar evolves
the ideas which work the worlds true pro-
gress. Yet the scholar is in position to keep
things in wholesome balance. His wisdom is
the only safe conservatism. 1t will not do to
give this up to ignorance and obstinacy. It
may be that we have duty,-to discover at
least. why the wisdom of this age fails to
satisfy. That the pursuit of it gratiies is OBJ
| vious. There is excitement, but no where
satisfaction. 1t is the age of Fact, the drift
of thought and life is towards materialism.
The spirit of the ''positive philosophy" pre-
walls. Positivism, in q general sense, was
foreshadowed by Bacon and Newton, and
| even by Hume and Kant and Hamilton. The
positivism now referred to is this broader
kind, and admits into its communion such men
as Mill and Spencer. who declare their dissent
from many doctrines of Comte, and at the
same time men like Mr.. Lewes. who profess
es himself his follower. What 10 meant il that
method of investigation or mode of thought
commonly known as the scientific, and which
consists sin circumscribing as closely as posi-
BILE the domain Of hypothesis, and admitting as
object of its study only that which may be OBJ
served as fact, formulated as law, and verified
| by proof"
1t is curious to observe how widely into
| thought and life this objective spirit has
| reached. So the modern critical method in
history. 1t has sifted evidence, and that is
well, for truth is what we want. But to its
eyes fact is fact without regard to its na-
ture or claims. If the story Of M0ses is not
! history it is the grandest poem, and a fact
, equally difficult to reduce to nothing.
So the christian miracles are treated a. if
they were question of to-day. But the
probability of miracles depends on the need
and occasion. The evidence is . question
for the witnesses. If divine revelation 10
to be authenti ted, then miracles are not i'm
probable. They are ''et ofintroduction.
They have done their work. Now we accept
christianity on experience and on it's known
character. Nor indeed is it anything more
improbable that God should move among his
laws to answer some spiritual need, than that
hn nfn ahr,, aoto Io-A 1a- In
| manner not unlike, but slower in result. In
fact every improvement in the arts of life and
civilization is q slow miracle.
We see the same spirit in political philoso-
ply. The main trouble is-and it is one
which destroys the value of much of their ar
gument-that the political economists regard
man as placed here to do the most work he
can for society, forgetting that society and
the state and the church itself exist for the
man; that thus protected he may gain most
mastery over the brute forces Of nature and
rise to his truest life. The industry of the
| times even show similar tendency. Diversi-
fications of labor and devotion to specialties,
tend to narrow and cramp the man. These
things may be well for society, but they are
dangerous to the well-being of the individ-
ual.
But how is it with our science? Has it not
mastered the situation? We had hoped now
at last for positive and tangible results-some-
| thing like q specie basis for these high tran
sactions. But we find the old uncertainty,
the old despair The real questions of the
| soul remain unanswered. Mind and matter
| are reduced to a co.eternal brotherhood.
The validity of knowledge is denied, and no.
| where is there any proof of a God the heart
| of man can love, or the mind know. The Ar
gument strictly within its limits, seems cor.
| Rut ia in mn
| ton. If the aim was to solve the real prob.
lem, and get at a true comprehension of the
universe, q fatal error was involved. In es.
Gaping from the tyranny OF metaphysics 1t
| went so far As to deny or ignore the first and
| clearest fac. science could take account Of
that is, mans conscious nature and condition.
Strangely, that is just where metaphysics had
wrecked itself. That which is the cause of
our dissatisfaction with the philosophy of
science, was precisely the cause Of the dissat
sfaction with philosophy itself. Man does
not like to have his personality impugned.
Nor does he rest in atheism. Yet the leading
systems of philosophy had come to these prac-
| tcal results. If the soul has no reality, then
we cannot know anything at all. But our
| science has done the same thing again for US.
And she has gone too far. Her results we're
| we'll enough regarded in their own line. But
| she has attempted to conclude too much from
them. All the testimony you can get out Of
matter and force, proves nothing as to mind
and spirit. Nor does it prove anything as to
cause. These belong to another domain.
Yet one that is in harmony with this, though
not identity. What indeed, from her narrow
starting point, and in her rigid way, has
| science proved? That she finds no absolute
knowledge, no spirit NO cause, no God.
For the truth is, Nature does not teach
these things directly. She does not reveal
God, for she does not contain Him. The
face of God first seen, can then be seen mir
rored in Nature, but not before. "The in
visible things of Him which are clearly seen
in the things that are made" are his Eternal
Power and God-head, that is His Supremacy
just what the apostle said and nothing more.
The rest Of His character, is disclosed by
higher revelation.
We need not therefore reject the teachings
Of Science, but restrict them to their limits,
accept her verified facts and interpret them
in broader light. We need not 1ebuke the
Scientific spirit, but should understand it and