Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-04-09

he Is tOlerably ripe. When he becomes
wise enough to realize that his wisdom is
folly, his proioundest learning Ignorance,
and his opinions, drawn from partial views
of truth and its relations, of little value, he
has risen into a realm where he drops his
robe of pride, and drapes himself in the
garment of docility. The simplicity and
teachablenoss of great men have been the
wonder of the vulgar through all time. At
the beginning of our late civil war, a cap
italst from the country came to New York
for the purpose of acquiring a stock Of
financial information. What was TO be the
effect of this war upon the finances of the
cOuntry2 How should he manage to save
his wealth. How should he manage TO in
crease il? These were tho questions he
| put to the wisest financier he knew. The
old man pointed to All apple-woman across
the street. "Go and ask her." he said
''she knows just as much about 1t as do"
Yet opinions were as plenty as black ber-
ries, in Wall street, while tho results of the
war, as they accumulated, proved that they
were beyond human sagacity to foresee,
and that the man most competent TO foresee
them had no more financial prescience than
the ignorant apple-woman.
There Is a realm of inquiry--indeed,
there are many realms of inquiry-where
the opinions and speculations of one man
are just as valuable as those of another
man-no more so, no less-for those of both
are valueless. The speculations of such =
man as Mr.. Tyndall on the origin of life
attract great deal of attention yet Mr..
Tyndall knows just as much about the or
igin of life as the apple-woman on the cor
ner, and no more. The speculations about
development and atoms, and molecules
form, perhaps, an elevated amusement
They are better than the Hippodrome and
the Negro Minstrels, without being more
instructive. 1t is better to speculate on the
atomic theory than to play battledoor and
shuttlecock. 1t is better to speculate per-
sonal God out OF the universe than to go on
spree-better to ignore His work than to
mar it. But the whole thing rises no high
er than elevated amusement. 1t does not
give even the smallest basis for sound
opinion. All these Spectators, wrapped
around with scientific regulations, batter
ing vainly against the limits of thought and
scientific knowledge, and coming back
with their reports of having seen some
thing more than their fellows, are pretend
ers-to be praised, perhaps, for their enter
prise, but laughed at for their conclusions.
Mr. Tyndall finds in matter the promise
and the potency of all forms and qualities
of life. Who put the promise and the po.
tency there? All! that is the question, and
Mr.. Tyndall has not solved il. He goes no
farther, perhaps, than TO say that he finds
them there. Has he found them there In
what form have they presented themselves
10 his scientific investigation Can he
show what he has found? Alas he has
found nothing new-seen nothing that 9TH
ers have not seen. He has only come to a
personal conclusion and INDUCED in per-
sonal speculation, and that conclusion and
that speculation are not only unscientific,
but they are valueless.
Is there not some way-some scientific
way-in which a just conclusion may be
arrived at concerning this great subject2
II we should stand at the beginning of the
world, and know the want of bread, would
it not be very unscientifc for us to get to-
gcther bundle of seeds or germs and spec
ulate as 10 which would be the most likely
to give us bread? Would 1t not be better
TO plant every seed, label its bed, watch its
growth, and examine its fruits? Would
not that DO the scientific way OF ascertain
ing the nature and characteristics of the
great power that was to feed us Certainly
that seed which would yield the best re-
| suits, and address itself most directly and
benefcently to our wants, would be the
| one to which we should give our faith. To
do anything else would be irrational and
unscientific.
Well, certain seeds have been planted in
the world of mind. They have borne, in
various times, and in many countries, their
| legitimate fruits. Can We not find, in the
adaptation Of these fruits TO human want, a
scientific conclusion concerning the tree or
| plant that bears them7 Is 1t not strictly
| scientific to conclude that the better the
fruit, and the better its results, the more
thoroughly is the seed vitalized by ever
lasting and essential truth? If certain
ideas of the nature and character OF God,
and of the Immortality of the soul-if GER
tain ideas OF human esponsibility-have
| digni6ed humanity more, elevated 1t more,
civilized it more, purified its morals, sweet
ened its society, stimulated its hopes, as
suaged its sorrows, developed its benevo-
lence, and repressed its selishness, more
than any other ideas, are not those ideas
scientifically ascertained to be nearer the
truth than any others3 If they are not,
then We misunderstood the nature and the
processes of science.
There has been abroad in the world, for
many centuries, an idea, advanced and
maintained by more religions than one,
that there is at the head of the univere an
Almighty Coda Spirit who has created
all material things, and informed them
with lava Spirit that is in itself the
source of all life. There has been the fur
ther idea that this God is a person, who,
though His mode of being is beyond hui
man ken, recognizes the persons He has
created, loves them, regards them as His
family, and holds them personally respon-
sibe to His moral law. There has been
the further idea that mankind, in conse-
quence of their common parentage, are a
band of brothers and sisters, who owe TO
one another goodwill and unselfish SER
vice. There has been the further idea that
this personal God is being to be wor-
SHIPPED as the sum and source of all perfec-
tion-to be thanked, praised, prayed to, in
the full recognition of filial relationship,
and full faith in His providential and pa
ternal care. Out of this group of ideas has
come the worlds best civilization. Out OF
it have come churches and schools, and
colleges, and hospitals, and benign gov
ernments and missions, and thousand in
stitutions of brotherly benevolence. From