The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-12-12

A correspondent suggests that we republish
in our paper the Inaugural Address before the
British Association by Professor John Tyndall,
az a mastery production, and one that has made
an extensive and PROFOUND sensation in the scien-
tifc world and on public sentiment. We must
beg however to be excused from reproducing the
Address, for one or two reasons. The first is its
extreme length. for it would occupy at least two
whole pages Of the ADVERTISER. Moreover we
opine that it is entirely too obviously scientific to
suit the tastes of the majority of our readers.
We have read it, but honestly confess that, after
wading through the mazes of Tyndall's talk
about "a the origination of life and "matter,
the promise and potency of every form and quality
of life," we were relieved at the conclusion Of the
article to find the author saying: "Here, how
ever, I must quit a theme too great for me to
handle" &c.
We doubt not Professor TyndaI Is indeed the
great and learned philosopher that he is claimed
to be, but after all, one is tempted to ask, Cui
Bono? The study Of the sciences is certainly
very good and useful. but when it is put forward
in such n shape that it tends to shake the founda-
ton of mans belief in religion, and in a better
state Of existence to come, it perpetrates a griev-
Gus wrong. Professor Tyndall is doing that
which is calculated to unsettle the beliefs and
make unhappy the minds of thousands of men
and women who have been taught from infancy
to look to some higher power for their guidance
through life and their consolation in death. He
and his kindred scientists attempt to upset creeds
and beliefs that have made bad men good, and
kept millions in 4 straight course-but without
providing anything adequate in the place of that
which they seek to destroy. And all this is done
simply to show how vastly learned poor humanity
may become. And after all, this celebrated ad-
dress is mostly made up of guesses-Of wild con-
lecture, and ends with the acknowledgment that
the theme is too great for the writer to handle.
How does be know, and where are his proofs for
the theory, for instance, that matter, by some
thing inherent in it, evolves itself into form and
life and thought, and then again changes in time
to other forms of matter, and so goes on for ever?
Rather poor consolation, we fancy, would be
afforded a dying man by one Of these very learned
scientists. The sufferer about to undergo the last,
great mysterious change, would probably be told
that he was composed of "matter" that at one
time and another had assumed all the varieties
and forms of life that he bad ever seen; that his
body was now undergoing great organic change;
but he need not be alarmed in the least, as there
was not an atom of him that would be lost, and
that it was quite possible part Of him would ap-
pear to his great-grandchildren in the shape of a
fine cabbage, which they would partake of with
corned beef-also a part Of him-while the re-
mainder of his matter" might take the shape
of q pet monkey or a poll-parrot. What a heal
ING balm 10 a mind diseased would be such theo-
ries as these!
4 marked contract to the school of modern
scientists is presented in the character of the eel
ebrated French statesman, Guizot, who recently
died at a very advanced age. A late number of
the London Spectator contains some extracts from
his will, in which the old statesman declares that,
born a Protestant, he had used the liberty which
the Protestant Church gives of inquiry and doubt,
and that for some time be had held that the un-
assisted reason of man is competent to furnish him
with a solution of the great problem of duty and
DESTINY. and that his unassisted will is equal to
the task of regulating his life according to the
moral law. He had, however, abandoned this
belief. He was convinced that we are children in
Gods hands, unable to penetrate to His motives
or ultimate designs, and he declares himself quite
resigned to $50 large a share Of Ignorance and
weakness" 81 believe in God, and adore Him,
without attempting to comprehend Him." He
confesses a profound belief IN the permanent gov
ernment of the universe by God, as well as Of his
immediate action in the soul OF man; and be re-
cognizes God especially in the histories OF the Old
and New Testaments, which he calls monuments
of the divine revelation and action, by the medi-
alton and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, for
the salvation OF the human race" DE adds that
he carefully holds alOof from the scientific discus
sions and the solutions offered of the mysteries of
revelation: 81 trust that God permits me to call
myself a Christian, and l am convinced that in
the light which wo are about to enter We shall
fully discern the purely human origin and vanity
of most of our dissensions here below on divine
things"