New-York tribune., 1874-11-07
THE CLAIMS OF SCIENCE NET.
BY PROF. CHARLES w. SHIELDS. D. D.. OF
PRINCETON.

SOCIETY OF wASHINGT0N-A SCHEME 'V" ""'
MoNIzING TIE CLAIMS OF SCIENCE AND NE
vFALEp REIIGIoN-ErTHER TO FILL THE VOID
WHERE ONE OR TIE OTHER LEAVES ANYTHING
uNFxpr ,tNTD-pHnosoPHY TO ACT AS UMPIRE
WHERE VIEWS ARE OPPOSED.
The paper which ] shall have the honor to
offer vou IL should be promised will embrace but
small part Of immense field. 1t claim to be moth
ing more than glimpse OF the present state Oh
the sciences philosophical point of view ana VIII
simply aim bring forward certain general prncipes
which are believed already latent in many thought
ful minds
On careful review the history OF the sciences, 1t
would be shown that each of them, since the Reorma
tion has broken two sections the one mainly sci
entifc and other largely dogmatic and that these
two sections in parting from each other, have pro-
ceeded through three distinct stages. less
oessive and Observation-Disclosures. stage Of healthfu
separation and progress marked by ascertaDed facts
and truths; second stage OF mutual avoidance. filled
with various hypothesis and dogmas and third stage
o; open rupture issuing in antagOntc specraons and
creeds 1t would be interesting TO test this generaiza
ton by tracing the sciences from stage to another
during the last three centuries together with the dis
coverie opinions and controversies which have marked
their Indeed is plain that without some such
review OF the past growth of knowledge we canneither
understand its state forecast ts future pro-
gross The history the sciences alone lead to
what whewel and Comte have termed their philosophy
that science OF the sciences which the sciences them
selves yield their last and nobest frutage On
this OCCASION however. some acquaintance with such
history may be assumed. and it will be enough to pro-
duce the results which have been drawn from 1t, and
leave them 10 stand upon their own evidence.
Let define the field before Leaving out OF view
those portions OF knowledge which have attained to
scientific certainty those discovered facts and laws
which alone make positive science, shall lind re-
naming be considered OF unsolved problems.
mostly questions of origin and destiny, which grow
ing complex hour and before which the re-
lgious and scientific champions OF our day are now
crossing ances like the two knights before the mystic
shield with respective dogmas and hypothesis in
contradictory STATE. 1t will be our first
task survey the opposite sides phases of these
questions expressed in such d0gmas and hypothesis
from independent point Of view. in strictly philo-
sopbca mood with an effort to do to each OF them the
utmost Justice. We shall then have the materials for
full aud fair decision.
ASTRONOMICAL PRoBLEMs--THE NEBULAR HYPoTH-
ESIS.
Astronomy-to begin with the Oldest of the concrete
scences-st offers the two parties that ever present
problem which has tasked for thousands OF
years. the origin heavens the production OF those
mysterious bodies the planets and satellites. the
stars, galaxies aud nebua which Ill the immensely of
space around Oa the side OF this question We
have the hypothesis of evolution. OF the spontaneous
growth of worlds OF crude matter by of its
own laws from an indefinite antiquity and immensely
In word the rise of the present from ancient
II is hypothesis old the days of Lsncp-
pus. DemOcrus and Epicurus. who held that the orig
inal atoms struggling together throughout space and
time after infinite trials have at last brought forth the
existing worlds the test to survive their may con-
fIct And though 1t slumbered during the early and
middle ages, until 1t revived by Gassend and Mag
menus In seventeenth century, it has since
forth again with renewed vigor and in still more scen
tfc forms. Descartes led the way devoutly assuring
the Sorbonne that the worlds were doubt created
perfect, while, nevertheless. he would show how they
might have arisen mechanical principles from certain
worthless or vast eddes of different matter forming
and whirling the and planets like boats in
mselstrOm Leibnz. IN place Of the vortces, put the
monads or living atoms acting and reactng under pre-
established harmones until they evolved the present
solar system the best possible world Emmanuel
Kant. applying the physics OF Newton, sketched nat
uraI history Of celestial bodies first massed
of chaos of attractive and repulsive PARTICLES
then formed revolving globes and finally poised in
the equilibrium OF the planetary forces. Laplace at
length completed such views with his magnificent pos
tulate Of primitive nebula, or universal ire-mist
eddyng into central igneous body like the break
lug rotating rings such those Of Saturn cooling
into cloudy and watery spheres such as Jupiter and
Neptune and at last hardening into solid shells such
that which ncrusts the fiery core of our earth. The
elder Hersche pushed this sublime speculation with the
telescope beyond solar armament iHtO the sderea
heavens, where he detected he supposed, vast nebu
ious with lucid points gtterng as the nuclei OF
new worlds, rather Of ancient worlds remote that
ages must pass the tardy light paint their
finished form In the eye OF man. Humboldt in view Of
such researches grandy described the whole celestial
spectacle only In appearance simultaneous, having
beyond it endless perspective Of stars and galaxes
distant 10 be portrayed yet In other than their
embryo stages. mere films and dots OF light. Other
authorities still living might be cited who hold or use
the same hypothesis, and 1t is claimed that the
speotroscope has raised it to the rank of theory by
exhibiting the chemical constitution Of different
all the phases Of cosmc growth nebua, SUM-
and planet plainly bursting into life throughout the
heavens the germ, leaf. and flower at our feet.
THE DOGMA OF CREATION BY FIAT.
On the other side Of the question have the dogma
OF immediate creation, Of Instantaneous starting
forth OF the earth from nothing their
present form. at the mere word Of Jehovah. II is
dogma which claims to be old the Hebrew and
Christian Scriptures and various terms has been
formulated and handed down TO by the rabbis. the
fathers the schoomen the reformers, and the dvines
of the following age Philo the PatODic Jew, in
ment with the Maccabees, held that the worlds
formed from anything pretxistent but spoken INTO
being from nothing Clement OF Alexandria. in Oppo-
sition the Epcureans delighted to represent the
alton Of the voluntary act Of Divine love.
Augustine precisely taught that the Deity fash
heavens and earth out Of matter. yet
out Of himself but out OF nothing. by instantaneous
exertion of His free will. Aquinas followed with
the scholastic distinction that God from eternity willed
that the world should be- and not that the world should
be from eterntyhat He With both space and
time and lie the author OF rather than
its mere former. Melancthon, in contrast with the
stoca OF eternal matter designated the creative
act a simple fiat. commanding things to be which had
not been before Calvin stgmatized profane Jeer
the inquiryiwhy the heavens and earth should have
beAn created thousand after many