Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-18
BOOK REVIEWS,
The PROBLEM OF HUMAN LIfs. By A. wiiford Hall
New YorS: Hall & Co. Sacramento: W. A. &
c. S Houphton

unknown to Science or to Literature, has
successful achievement of which only tran
soendent intellectual powers could suffice.
The problem of human life as illustrated by
phenomena has hitherto proved rather more
than match for the best minds, but this
writer, not content with settling every diff
Guilty "here," has proceeded to arrange the
thereafter also, and in giving his views has
made it perfectly clear that he thinks he has
said the last word on the whole subject. Nor
is this by any means a complete measure of
taken to solve the problem of life, here and
hereafter, but he has undertaken to play
havoc with all the theories of all the leading
scientific men of the day. Out of his five
hundred and odd pages he devotes three hun.
bred to a demolition of Tyndsn and the I'm
dulatory theory of sound. In the remaining
two hundred pages he pulverizss Darwin, and
Haeckel, and Huxley, and Mayer, and Helm.
holz, and q few score more. And surely
never was there such an outpouriDg of blood
upon the wine-skins Nothing can be
more terrible than "the noise Of tn. cap
tains and the shouting in Mr.. Halls on
slaught. Nor can there be anything more
remarkable than the way in which he convicss
his wretched opponents of positive and even
abject imbecility. He has no mercy upon
them. He smites with the sword of the
Lord and of Gideon. He shouts Ha (. Ha
and the breath of his nostrils is as smoke. 1t
is really terrible scene, and after a little
becomes no better than massacre, for the
stunted and warped intellects of a Tyndall,
a Darwin, Haeckel and Huxley have no
chance whatever against the giant mentality
OF MILFORD Hail.
His own account of the way in which he
came to enter upon this dreadful work of
slaughter is interesting. It appeared to him
that the defense of religion against science
had hitherto been altogether too timid and
feeble. 1t had not occurred to the generality
of religiOnists, in fact, to turn the weapons
of science against itself by the simple process
of denying ell its conclusions, ignoring the
weight of experimental proofs, and setting
up counter theories upon foundation of
gratuitous assumptions. Mr.. Hall, however
being convinced himself without inquiry that
Christianity was true, set himself to disprove
the theory of Evolution, which, also without
inquiry. he had convinced himself was false
Now, when a man reaches his conclusions
thus in advance of all investigation, il follows
necessarily that his subsequent inquiries will
fortify his preliminary assumptions for being
hopelessly biased at the outset, he is inca
pacitgted for any fruitful search after the
truth. Our author. by his own admission,
begged the whole question at the beginning.
Having thus comfortably solved the problem
in the easiest possible manner, he proceeded to
write book which should be delight and
solace to the peculiar class of minds which
cannot distinguish between this sort of preten-
tious rubbish and real scientific investigation,
and which, because they, too, have accepted
religious theories in advance of inquiry, are
far more DESTROYS of finding apologies for
their positions than Of ascertaiping whether
those positions are really tenable.
Mr.. Hall has at least sufficient sense of
what is due to the worlds method of res-
soning left, to express consciousness of the
| fact that when an unknown person like him
| self thus challenges the whole scientific gen.
Grafton, and undertakes to traverse their
liable to be suspected of presumption. There
is no doubt about this. It is also true that
the world refuses to accept the presumptuous
speculations of its MILFORD Halls unless they
are preferred very much more modsstly, and
supported very much more strongly. than is
the case in the work before us. Our author
set out to destroy his opponents, as many
champion OF theology has done before; as
Joseph Cook did only the other day. But
the wake of advancing Science is encum-
bered with the wrecks of hundreds of such
desperate and ambitious ventures, and it will
not be long before The Problem of Life I"
will be added to their number. 1t is, how
ever, interesting to note how unerringly a
book of this kind Sits out the scientists from
the sciolists. Whoever has been trained to
habits of scientific investigation Immediately
perceives the fundamental weakness of all
such arguments, and is therefore not misled
by any adroitness of sophistry or audacity of
assumption. But the class of minds whish
have been enfeebled by theological ratiocina-
ton are incapable of discriminating between
real and sham science, and cannot distinguish
between the authority of q Darwin or
Spencer and that of a literary quack like this
author.
Such minds, deluded by the specious fuency
of the writer, and gratifed By his constant
expressions of triumph over the paper men
he has in his own self-sufficient imagination
overthrow, are prone to regard his argu-
ments as massive" unanswerable,"
profound" and in all ways superlative. 1t
might be thought that the reception accorded
this book by the scientific and literary world
would have by this time awakened some
doubt in the minds of its believers. But
nothing is more common than to fed intelli-
gences so warped that they twist evidence
which is condemnatory of their positions
into confirmation of the latter. In such a
case they would say that the silence or con
tempt with which this work has been received
only proved that the ,cientiGc men demol-
ished by it were afraid to meet its author in
controversy. OF course it would not occur to
these people that controversy is only called
for when the new arguments advanced are so
far scientific as to seriously impugn the theo-
ries they are aimed at. We have had abund-
ant examples of pseudo. science of late years.
Thus the inventors of the fat money folly
thought they were entitled to challenge the
supporters of scientific finance upon equal
terms OF course they were not SO entitled,
for their whole theory was based upon false
and delusive assumptions, and upon defiance
of the teachings Of experience.
Naarly all he ationu bootownd