Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-11-11

law" have an equal right to take their
own feelings as the measure Of right
eousness. So one set Of atheists
curses marriage, and another black
guards polygamy, and they are both
right if there be no God above all and
over all.
| do not intend this as a substitute
for the answer which / would have
made if the presiding genius of the
Review had been propitious. My
principal object is to show that his
circular abuse" amounts to abso-
lutely nothing. Aregular reply would
prove that in every line of his last arti-
Gle he has either falsi6ed history or
applied to it an erroneous interpreta-
ton. But | am tempted not to quit
without giving a sample OF his efforts
at scientific reasoning.
If he does not deny the existence of
a God his occupation is gone. The
object, therefore, Of his highest ambi.
ton ever since he took the stump
against Christianity has been and is to
annihilate the evidence which shows
that the world has a Maker and a
Moral Governor. This being his great
central point CT (which all other points
must turn, he has, of course, laid him
self out TO do his very best for it. Let
us see what he has achieved.
| thought | was giving a true aud
accurate account OF bis theory when |
said hat he regarded the universe as
natural; that 1T came into being Of its
own accord" that 1T made its own
laws at the start, and atterward i'm
proved itself considerably by sponta-
neous evolution" But he denies that
this q true exposition Of his views, and
he exercises his conceded right to de
fine them again more sharply than he
did before. Now he says that the uni
verse did not come into being at all;
it always was; nor did it make It's own
laws, for it has no laws.
If the material universe existed just
as it is now, fromall unbegun eternity,
there is, to be sure, not much chance
for a creator to have done any work !;
if its harmony is preserved and the
uniformity of its action maintained
without any rule or regulation pre-
scribed by a superior power, then
there is and has been noneed of a law
giver; God is, therefore, so useless a
being that he may be theoretically
blotted out of existence.
For the proposition that the uni
verse always was (without a creator)
and will be forever without a pre-
server, he offers only n proof, to-
wit, that it is according to "his" idea.
This he considers potent enough to
override all the evidence, direct and
circumstantial, by which his idea" is
opposed. All testimony borne by the
common sense of mankind, all the
deductions of reason, all philosophy,
and all faith in Holy Writ must be
swept aside, so that his idea" may
have free course to run and be glori-
fed. But this ascription of supreme
authority to an idea, merely because it
happens to be his idea, will hardly be
concurred in. The assertion of it,
indeed, proves nothing except that his
bump of self-esteem is in a state of
chronic inflammation.
He starts another idea, which has
the same special merit of being his
own, namely, that the material uni
verse is not governed by laws. The
planets move at a rate and orbits
which can be calculated with absolute
certainty; the earth revolves on its
axis with such perfect regularity
that the very second of time at which
the sun will rise at a particular place
can be predicted a thousand years be-
forehand chemical substances com
bine always in exactly the same rela-
tive proportions; in the animal and
vegetable world like produces like; in
all organized beings causes are known
to produce certain effects favorable or
~uniayorable to life and health. MI.
lngersolls idea is that these are not
the results Of law or any sort of intel
ligent pre- arrangement; but they are
phenomena which happen, aud the
world is by mere accident prevented
from falling int chaos. In his wis
dom he decides as matter of fact"
that there is no rule back of the phe-
nomenon which a controlling power
compels the subject-matter to obey
it merely happens so uniformly that it
creates the idea Of law in our minds.
which is, however,a mere delusion If
Calico and Newton and Kepler, and
all the other philosophers, great and
small, have been seduced into the
weak belief that the material universe
is under the reign Of law, it is rare
good fortune for us in these latter days
to have found a superior parsonage
who, BY nearly turning the Drummond
light Of his intellect on the subject.
at once exposes the blunders Of the
ignorant living and the barbarian
dead"
Let no mar misunderstood or mis-.
represent Mr.. Ingersoll. 1t is not in
irony or to point a scurrile jest that he
denies the operation OF natural laws
upon matter. He is In serious earnest,
aud if he does not actually believe
what he says his stimulation Of %sinceri.
ty is perfect. To make himself clear
be takes a simple case. Water. he
says, always runs down hill, not because
there is a law behind it-law does not
cause the phenomenon, but the phe-
nOmenon causes the idea Of law to ex-
list in our minds-but that idea is on
this side OF the fact. 1t follows that
Newton must have been grossly mis-
taken when he said that the falling of
water and other bodies toward the
center Of the earth was caused by the
law of gravitation.
Mr.. Ingersoll suppOses that he Is i'm
putting an a~bsurdity to me when he
says: "Mr. Black probably thinks the
differences in the weight ofrocks and
clouds is produced By law" Undoubt-
eddy | do; / learned in my infancy
land | have kept the cre6ulity Of the
cradle') that this difference is caused
By that same law Of grayitation OBJ
Grating according to rules which are
perfectly understood by all tolerably
well informed men. l will 20 further
and confess that | think it a most BEN
e%fcent law which prevents the rocks
from flying about through the air and
the clouds from becoming immovably
fixed in the earth. Our great Creator
ought to be adored and thanked for