New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-06-03
4 VENERABLE NEW DOCTRINE:

Sir William Grove, whose name is 80 in
timately associated with the doctrine of the
correlation and conservation Of forces, has
caused decided sensation in the scientific
world recently by propounding, in a lecture at
the Royal Institution. what he calls the theory
of antagonism. The gist Of this hypothesis is
that antagonism pervades all nature, inorganic
no less than organic; that it is not confined TO
sentient beings. but is the law also of natural
forces. In his own words: ~ desire to prove
that antagonism,' word generally used to
signify something disageeable, pervades all
things that it is not the baneful thing which
many consider it; that it produces at least
quite as much good as evil but that whatever
be its effect my theOry-call it, if you will,
speculation-is that it is a necessity of exist
encc, and of the organism of the universe so
far as we understand it; that motion and life
cannot go on without it, that it is not mere
casual adjunct of nature, but that without it
there would be no nature, at all events as we
conceive it that i. is inevitably associated with
unorganized matter with organized matter,
and with senticnt beings This theory Sir
William proceeded to support by arguments
derived from cosmic and telluric phenomena,
such as the maintenance Of planetary and stellar
equilibrium by the balanced pull of the re-
spective bodies, the resistance offered to the
transmission of light by the unknown sub
stance called ether, and many other striking
instances in point.
No doubt it was brilliant lecture, but It is
not little surprising that Sir William Grove,
and after him many men Of science and editors
e
recognize an old friend in this really venerable
doctrine. Nay, we even find correspondents of
English scientific journals contending, some
that Professor Huxley is the author of the So
called new theory, others insisting that the
credit Of originating it belongs to Mr. Herbert
Spencer. The truth is that it is necessary to
go back very long way beyond Huxley or
Spencer or Grove to find the beginnings of
the doctrine of antagonism. Plato, when he
said, "There is in matter a blind, refractory
force. which resists the will of the Great
Arifcer,n was evidently not far from it. But
the doctrine can be traced beyond Plato into
Asian philosophy, and thence it descended to
the Scmites, to be embodied presently in that
not very modern system Of thought known as
the Kabbala. The idea that the antagonism
seen in Nature is necessary, and that it Is not
evil in the sense of being malignant. was in
deed elaborated by the Kabbalists so long
ago that there is something whimsical in the
resurrection of this hoay conception as dis
covery of to-day. Antagonist, said the Kab-
balists. IL the dark side Of nature, the Shadow
Of the Light; not evil in itself, but the reverse
of tho good principle They treated of it as
essential to the vitality and development of the
principle Of good. They also held that an
tagonism was necessary to the maintenance Of
cosmic equilibrium. and they taught that an
tagonisrn az manifested between sentient be-
ings grew out Of the repulsion between matter
and spirit.
The Egyptian myth of Typhon was another
mode Of presenting the same doctrine. Ty-
phon. 10 the initiate. stood for what Sir Will