The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1875-12-22
PROF. TYNDALL.

EhUk. I1MDALL.
We are informed in the last number of
Scribner, Wexford and Armstrong; Book
Buyer" that an enlarged edition is in prepa-
ration by Professor Tyndall of his Fragments
of Science, and that it is intended to CON-
prise all his late papers on the so much
mooted questions of materialism. The in
PRODUCTION has been issued, and shows how
sturdily the Professor maintains his ground
against his opponents. His final conclu-
sions are thus expressed: "When | attempt
to give to the power which | see manifested
in the universe an objective form, personal
or otherwise, it slips away from me declin-
ing all intellectual manipulation. dare
not, save POLITICALLY, use the prOnOun He"
regarding it. dare not call it a Hind. !
refuse to call it even a Cause It's mystery
oYershadows me, but it remains q mystery,
while the objective frames, which my neigh
bors try to make it fl, simply distort and
desecrate it," If God is without personality
and without intelligence, if lie is not even
cause, then He is indeed nothing but poetic
fiction, and the denial of His existence, of
course, involves the denial of Immortality,
redemption and future life-in a word it is
a rejection of the supernatural.
Professor Tyndall's latest utterance is
but new form for the expression of the
unbelief common to the whole school Of
materialists. Occupied exclusively with
the investigation of natural phenomena, they
absurdly complain that they cannot find evil
dence of spiritual being in all the world where
their researches lie. Overlooking the fact
that the physical world is neither the only
world in which men live, nor the most i'm
pOrsant world to a rational and accountable
creature, and blind to the truth that the fac
ulties BY which they investigate material
phenomena are rot the only faculties nor the
noblest which man possesses, their dOgmatic
denial of the existence of a spiritual essence
because it cannot be subjected to the analy-
sis of physical test, is as illogical as the
reasoning of metaphysician would be who
discredited the law of gravitation because it
did not appeal to his consciousness, or be-
cause he could not prove it by syllogism.
When Professors of Natural Science tell
US that when they have reached the utmost
boundaries of the realm where their research
es lie, they fail to fod evidence of the exist
ence of a spiritual world, they tell US truly,
but what right have they to assume that
when they have touched the border beyond
which experimental investigation can make
no further discoveries, that God cannot or
does not lift the veil and reveal Himself, and
make known the relations He sustains to his
own creation, and the rational creatures who
inhabit it? Of course We are not framing
an argument for the truth of the supernatur-
al,-that needs no defence in this connec
ton, aud no vindication with those for whom
We write-but it is not useless to refer some
times to the arbitrary and unphilosophical
positions assumed by the skeptical scientists
of the day,
Rugged old Thomas Carlyle, with all his
cynicism, has touch of pity mingled with
his honest scorn when he speaks of the
character and fruits of this materialistic phi
lOsophy. "He who di5cerns nothing but
Mechanism in the universe has in the fatal
est way missed the secret of the universe al.
together. That all Godhead should vanish
out of mems conception of the universe seems
to me precisely the most brutal error-I will
not disparage heathenism by calling it
Heather error Whatever is noble, inspired |
divine, drops cut of life. There remains
everywberein life despicable caput mortuam
-'be mechanical hull-all soul fed out of
it..