Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1882-06-15
No. 80.
EVOLUTION.
Professor Lionel Beale, i. X. s., On
Modern Scientific Thought.

Modern Scientific Thought.
A crowded meeting of the members Of the
Victoria Philosophical InStitute,-: Society
founded to investigate all scientific ques-
tions, including any said to initiate against
Religious Belief-took place at No. Z Adelphi
Terrace, London, on the 10th of May. when
Professor Lionel Beale, F. Il. S., President
1981) of the Microscopical Society read
paper He commenced by alluding TO the
varied opinions that existed among scientific
men, as to whether the hypothesis upon
which modern scientific opinion in favor OF
some form Of physical doctrine OF life were
based are worthy Of acceptance He himself
confessed that he was among those who held
that no form of the hypothesis which at
tributes the phenomena of the living world
to mere matter and its properties has been or
can be justified by reason He added,-"I
would draw attention to the declaration again
and again repeated, and now taught even to
children, that the living and the non-living
differ only in degree, that the living has been
evolved by degrees from the non-living, and
that the latter passes by gradations towards
the former state No one has adduced any
evidence of proof of these conclusions, which
are, in fact, dictatorial assertions only, and no
specimen of any kind of matter which is ac-
tually passing from the nOn-llving to the
living state, or which can be shown to eS-
tablish any connexiOn between these abso-
lutely different conditions of matter, has been
or can be at this time brought forward. Be-
tween purely vital and purely physical ac-
tions not the faintest analogy has been shown
to exist. The living worm is absolutely dis
tinct from the nOn-living world and, instead
of being necessary outcome OF 1t, Is, COM
pared with the antiquity Of matter, probably
q very recent addition to it,-not, of course,
an addition of mere transformed or modified
matter and energy, but transcendent power
conferred on matter which controls, regulates,
and manages both matter and its forces ac-
cording it may be, to laws, but not the laws
of inert matter. 1t is not only one or two OF
the positions assumed by the materialist that
are open to doubt or objection. Facts COM
pletely controvert all materialistic views
which have been put forward. To be con-
demned as untenable is the doctrine that
there is relationship between non-living
and living matter, or that the term molecular
mechanism can be applied to the former.
The simple truth is, that the essential phe-
nomena of all living beings cannot be ex-
planned without recourse to some hypothesis
of power totally different from any OF the
known forms Or modes of energy. Any one
who allows his reason to be influenced by the
facts of nature as at present discovered, will
feel obliged to admit the existence of vital
power as distinct from, and capable OF con-
trolling, the ordinary forces of non-living
matter 1t has been conclusively shown that
the laws of vital force or power are essen
TALLY different from those by which ordinary
matter and its forces are governed"
How, 10 No+y1
planned by the Materialst:
"a Nature which was really blind, in
satiable, irresistible fate, falsely called law,
destitute of intelligence and reason, devoid
of mercy and Justice, is the Nature held up
for our admiration, with the consoling assur-
ance of dictatorial authority that it sprang
from chaos in obedience to everlasting self
originating (:) law, and that it will return
to chaos in obedience to the same,-all life,
and work, and thought being but the undu-
lations Of cosmic nebulosity, and dependent
upon the never-ceasing gyrations of infinite,
everlasting atoms, as they bound through
the ages from void to void. This the dulleSt,
the narrowest the most superficial of all
creeds- s-materialism, which includes some
mixture of antitheism and atheism of various
forms and hues,-haS been half accepted by
hundreds of persons during the last few
years. / believe all materialstic doctrines,
vary as they may in doctrines, vary as they
may in detail, will be found to agree in ac-
cepting as a truth,-if, indeed, they are not
actually based on t,-the monstrous assump-
tion that the living and the non-living are
one, and that every living thing is just as
much machine as q watch, or a windmill,
or hydraulic apparatus. According to the
material contention, everything owes its ex-
istence to the properties of the material par
ticles out of which it is constructed. But it
is not strange that it does not seem to have
occurred to the materialistic devotee that
neither the watch, nor the steam engine, nor
the windmill, nor the hydraulic apparatus,
nor any other machine known to, or made
by, any individual in this world, is depend
ent for its construction upon the properties
Of the material particles of the matter out of
which its several parts have been construc-
ted y
Several new Australian and American sub
scribers were announced, making the total
strength of the Institute $50.