New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-04-14
A SANE AND LUCID MIND.
DIR. CARPENTERS CAREER.

NATURE AND MAN. ESSAYS, SCIENTIFIC AND
PHILOSOPHICAL BY william d. Carpenter,
dnctoy Memoir RI by j. Estu csr Tan an n an'
12mo PIP. ABB. d. Appleton & Co.
The memoir OF Or. Carpenter by his son. pre-
fixed to this volume of essays, is the record of
busy life, marked by few events OF personal IN
terest, but filled with intellectual work, and IN
teresting in a special way as illustrating the de-
velopment and mature operation Of an es entialy
sane, lucid and active mind. There is another
phase of DIR. Carpenters intellectual career which
must be emphasized, for 1t is one in which most
modern men of science differ radically from him.
He was throughout q man of strong religious con-
victions and he found it possible to pursue phys-
cal science ardently and unfalteringly without
weakening his faith in die ordering Of the uni
verse by Supreme Being Nor can IL be said OF him
rs it was said Of Faraday, that he only succeeded
in doing this by keeping his science and his re-
hgion in separate watertight compartments =
He made religion the rule Of his life, and he was
never more congenialy engaged than in laboring
to demonstrate the entire harmony between it
| and science At the same time, a mind which
| was SO open to new evidence, and in which the
| process of growth continued almost TO the end,
| could not but acquire breadth and compre-
| hensiveness OF perception Incompatible with the
| maintenance Of belief in many non-essentials
| which, nevertheless, are commonly held to be
| tests OF orthodoxy. Thus the papers in this VOL
| ume on The Fallaces OF Testimony" and The
Psychology of Belief" indicate positions with re-
gard to the Scripture miracles little il at all less
| sceptical than those held by him concerning mod
ern Spirituslism
| On the other hand, his essay on Thesm and
Evolution" is strong and closely reasoned argu-
| ment against atheism and agnosticism, and eX
hibits reverential mental attitude characteristic
| of the author. There can be no doubt that hlz'
| all the rest Of us Dr. Carpenter was greatly intu
enced by inherited mental sptitudes, and thai
| these were strengthened by the religious atmos
phere in which he was brought up. Had ther
/ been in the examples offered him during thes
early years any faint OF bigotry or repelling mar
rowness Of view, the probability is that hi
studies would have led him as far as similar line
of research have led Huxley and Tyndall and tn
school they represent. But he had the erninen
good fortune TO BIO the child OF intelligent AND
open-minded parents, and his home was the areni
OF those reasonable and dispassip"Ste INQUIRIES ant
discussions which are among the most potent ed
ucafional agencies Thus the religious elemen
| became mart of the warp and wool of his char
actar. and in later life the scientific evidence
| which would have brought other men to agnos
ticism simply io6sened his adherence to forma
theology and his belief in the evidential valu
of miraculous relations and of all so-called super
naturalism. There is, indeed, some ground TO
suspecting that had he lived longer and retaine
his intellectual vigor he might have seen reason
modify his views upon the worthlessness OF Ger
tain binds Of testimony, for in several Of his writ
ngs--nctsbly in his Mental Physiology -he CAV
. indicstions OF tendency 10 believe that ther
. mighf be natusal forces and laws as yet unclsss
flea and inperfectly known. capable OF suppyin
explanations OF many phenomena hitherto refuse