Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-02-19
BY DIR. j. L. WILLIAMS OF AUGUSTA.

BY DIR. j. L. WILLIAMS OF AUGUSTA.
Dir. Williams first considered man and the ma.
terial creation, in their relations to the invisible
| and immateial. Thought has led TO investigation,
and thus to the development of truth, until the
human mind is beginning to grasp the idea that the
extreme views which have been held are CON-
ponent parts of a grand whole. The speaker
glanced at the changes which have occurred, and
| the emergence of scientific thought fl ON SUPER
stltion, going back TO about six hundred years be-
tore Christ when ignorance and superstition pre-
vailed Into this thick darkness fell the first feeble
rays OF the light of science. A few philosopbic
minds differentiated from the mass, arose above
the common level to catch glimpses of the infinite
scope OF liie, the vast breadth and depth and mag.
| nitude OF beng. They saw in the phenomena of
lie, as exhlbued IN matter, not demonstrations of
| the anger or pleasure of caprcious gods, but the
| harmonious working of fixed and immutable laws.
Lencippus, philosopher of Flea, who lived about
800 B. C., the first, SO far as have been
able TO learn, to teach with any degree of success,
the facts OF universe governed by natural law
| and natural phenomena the result Of natural
causes. The atomic theory orig mated with him.
Matter, he taught, was made up Of atoms possess
Ing sensible power and motion. He thus account
ed for the origin and existence of the universe
without the interposition of a multitude Of gods
and demons.
Democrl,us, the most celebrated philosopher of
antiquity, was the student and successor Of Leu.
cippus. lie perfected the atomic theory, the prin-
clples Of which are substantially the same as is
held at the present day.
From the time of Leucippus down to the death
of Lucretius, the Roman philosopher and poet,
great advance was made in many branches of
science. Within this period are embraced the
lives of men Of whom history may be justly
proud, among which may be mentioned Epicurus,
the founder Of the epcurian sect Of philosophers,
who deem pleasure to be the greatest good; En-
pedecles, Zeno the founder of the stocal school
of philosophy; Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid,
than whom no greater geometrician ever lived;
Archimedes, Pythagorus and many Others Dur
ing that time, the Alexandrian school of phyloso-
ply was founded, and, as Tyndall says, 1.-THE
science of ancient Greece had already done much
toward clearing the world Of the fantastic images
Of divinities operating capriciously through natu-
raj phenomena. But destiny had decreed that the
little flame of science kindled amid the wealth
and arstocracy of ancient Greece, and already be-
coming ghty power, should wane and almost
die out. Tue moral status of the world at large
had become very low. Humanity bad descended
into the,very depths Of degradation, from which
science would have been powerless to effect res
cue."
About this time occurred the birth of Christ, and
the minds o: men were for time drawn away from
scientific subjects. Subsequently religious intol-
erencc, and the strife between the church and
civil power compelled the scientific intellect to
lie dormant until at last came the dawn of in
tellectual freedom and with 1t the revivicaton of
science.
have thus taken brief retrospective glance to
bring to your notice the influences which sur
rounded the birth and early history of science.
These Influences, superstition, bigotry, intoier-
ance and persecution provoked reactionary modes
of thought, which have developed into modern
materialism doctrine which recognizes in all
the phenomena of lie the development of certain
inherent properties of matter The present as
pect OF this doctrine was summed up by Prof
Tyndall in his celebrated address before the Brit
l. DIE c.l1 l..
The confession which feel bound to make be-
fore you all Is that prolong the vision backward
across the boundary of the experimental evidence,
and discern in that matter, which We in our ignor-
ancs, and notwithstanding our professed reverence
for its Creator, have hitherto covered with oppro-
brium, the promise and potency of all terrestrial
life Life then whether existing as a flower or
as states Of human consciousness which involve
all of will and thought and memory, are but ex-
hibitious of the molecular play of matter. as
Herbert Spencer would have it, "Thc continual
adjustment of internal with external relations
Let us briefly examine the argument by which
these conclusions are reached In whatever drec-
ton we look for the ultimate facts of science, we
find them located upon the boundary line which
separates the objective from the subjective condi-
ton OF life. Every eminent scientific man feels
the force of this truth, and attempts to explain his
position in one way or another. Prof. Huxley, the
author OF that ingenious and fascinating essay,
"lhe ply sica basis of life," thinks that all the
possibilities of life, the facts of consciousness,
thought, will and memory, lie hidden in the proto-
plasmic cell, and primarily in the few simple ele-
m'nts, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon OF
VIII ch the cell is compo. ed. Many eminent scen-
titc men accept Prof. IIuxleys protoplasmic the
ory as satisfactory explanation of all the phenom-
era Of life. According to this theory "a unity Of
power or faculty unity of form, and a unity of
substantial composition pervades the whole living
world, Ia semi fluid substance known as proto-
pla. is the physical basis OF life" Polype worm,
mollusk, fish, reptile, fowl. beast and man, all
composed of structural units of the same character
namely masses OF protoplasm with nucleus" All
living powers are cognate and all living forms
fundame ntally of one character. "The origin of
all life is in matter and it returns to matter when
its work is done. Every vital act, the activity of
our thoughts and the exercise of affections are
but expressions of the molecular changes of mat
ter, and the equivalent OF so much protoplasm."
I've subsist upon the modified protoplasm of vege-
tables and animals which in the laboratory of the
stomach is subjected to certain subtle influences
which convert the dead into living protoplasm."
We have no light to assume the existence of any
thing III living matter which does not have its cor
relative in dead matter. In the precise language
of the author, ''it may seem small thing to admit
that the dull vital actions of a fungus forami-
infer, are the properties OF their protoplasm and
are the direct results of nature of the matter of
which they are composed. But it, as have en-
deavored to prove to you, their protopiasm is es-
sentally identical with and most readily converted
into that of any animal, can discern no logical
halIing place between the admission that such is
the fact and the further concession that all vital
action may, with equal proprety, be said to be the
derect result OF the molecular forces of the proto
plasm which displays it, and if so it must be true in
the same sense and to the same extent, that the
thoughts to which am now giving utterance and
your thoughts regarding them, are expressions of
the molecular changes in that mstter of life which
is the source of our other vital phenomena
1t was such reasoning as this, clear, concise and
logical, apparently, which produced such an up
roar in the theological world. Because if this rea-
sonng be established, then Immortality becomes a
dream and theory of the past. Huxley's reason
ING summed up in few words, is about as follows:
We know that protoplasm is the physical basis Of
life in the plant. That all its varied changes are
due to changes in its protoplasm, which is its mat
ter of life. As we ascend the scale of life we 6nd the
vegetable almost imperccptsby running into the
animal, and still this same protoplasm continues to
form the basis of life, and upon its condition and
changes depend all the condition and changes Of
life. Then what right have we to claim more
than the vegetable, other than complexity of or
gansm ndqualitys This argument seems almost
as mathematical the prostulate that inasmuch
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