The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-06-24
Professor Lionel Beale, FRS, on Modern
Scientific Thought

A crowded meeting of the members OF the
Victoria (PhiOsophicaD Institutes Society
founded to investigate all scientific questions in
cudng any said to initiate against Religious
BeIief-toOk place at No. 7, Adelphi Terrace
London. on the 18th Of May. when Professor
Lionel Beale, FRS, President (lS8l) OF the
MicroscOpical Society. read paper. He com
menced by alluding to the varied opinions that
existed among scientific men, as to. whether the
hypOtheses upon which modern scientific opinion
in favor Of some form of the physical doctrine of
life were based. are worthy OF acceptance. He
himself confessed that he 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 -" would
draw attention to the declaration again and again
repeated, and now taught even to children, that
the living and the Don-living differ only in degree,
that the living has been evolved by degrees from
the non-iving, and that the latter passes by gra-
dations towards the former state. No one has
adduced any evidence in proof of these cOncu-
sions which are, in fact, dictatOrial assertions
only, and specimen Of any kind of matter
which actually passing from the non-living to
the living state. which can be shown to estzb-
lish any connection between these absolutely
different conditions OF matter, has been, or can
be at this time, brought forward. Between
purely vital and purelv physical actions not the
faintest analogy has been shown to exist. The
living world ~ absolutely distinct from the nom
living world, and, instead of being q necessary
outcome of il, is, compared with the antiquity Of
matter. probably very recent addition to it,
not of course, an addition of mere transformed
or modified matter and energy, but of transcend
ent power conferred on matter which controls,
regulates, and manages both matter and its forces
according il may be, to laws, but not the laws
of inert T1atter. Ii is not only or two of the
positions assumed by the materialist that are
open to doubt objection. Facts completely
controyert all materialistic views which have
been put forward. To be condemned as untena-
BILE is the doctrine that there is a relationship be-
tween non-lving and living matter, that the
term molecular mechanism, can be applied to the
former The simple truth is, that the essential
phenomena 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 20 be Influenced by the facts of nature
an at present discovered will feel obliged TO admit
the existence of vital power distinct from, and
capable of controlling, the ordinary forces of nom
living matter. Ii has been concusiyely shown
that the laws OF vital force or power essen
tiaIIy different from those by which ordinary mat
ter and its forces are goverened." The author
then referred to Nature explained by the Ma
tsrialist: A Nature which really blind.
Unsuitable 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 assurance of die
tatorial authority that it sprang from chaos 10
obedience 10 everlasting selforiginatIng ~ law,
and that il will return to chaos, IN obedience to
the same-aII life, and work, and thought being
but the undulations Of cosmic nebulosty, and
dependent upon the never-ceasing gyratiOns Of
infinite, everlasting atoms, as they bound through
tbe aces from void to void. This, the dullest,
tbe narrowest, the most superficial of all creeds,
-materialism, which includes some mixture Of
antitheism and atheism OF various forms and
hues.-has been half accepted by hundreds OF
ne-sons during the last few years. believe all
materialistic doctrines, vary as they may In de-
tail. will be found to agree in accepting as
trutb.-if, indeed, they are not actually based on
it-tbe monstrous assumption that the living
and the non-Iiving one, aud that every living
tbino l. lust as much machine as a watch, or q
windmill, or a hydraulic apparatus. According
20 the material contention, everything owes It's
existence to the properties Of the material Part-
oes ont Of which it Is constructed But is 1t not
strange that 1t never seems to have occurred to
the materiaIistic 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 dependent for its construction upon the
nroperties OF the material PARTICLES of the matter
Ont of which its several parts have been con-
structed ~
Several new Australian and American subscrib-
ers were announced, making the total strength OF
the Institute 96O.