The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-14

some as the key to revelation and the
which science had recourse in its efforts
to avoid collision with the cosmogony
supposed to have been dictated by the
Creator to the reputed author of the PEN
tateuch That the narrative of Genesis
could hold its ground so long against
science was due at once to its dignity,
which earned for it the praise of Lonsi-
nus and to its approximation to scientific
truth in describing the universe as the
work of a single mind. These character
istics have even in the day Of geology and
Darwin raised up for it such an apologist
as Mr.. Gladstone whose defence. how
ever, amounts to this. that the Creator.
in giving an account OF his own work to
Moses. came remarkably near the truth.
The grand catastrophe. however. was the
discovery of Darwin. This put an end TO
the belief that man was a distinct Gre
alton. apart from all other animals with
an immortal soul specially breathed into
him by the author of his being. 1t showed
that he had been developed by natural
process out of lower forms of life. 1t
proved that instead of a fall of man there
had been a gradual rise. thus cutting
the Incarnation. the fundamental doc
trines of the orthodox creed. For the ny
pothesis Of creation generally was subsu-
tuted that of evolution by some unknown
but natural force or principle Not only
to revealed but to natural religion a heaNy
blow was dealt by the disclosure of wasted
aeons and abortive species which seem
to preclude the idea of an intelligent ana
-.
omnipotent designer. In Paley's watch
there is no waste or abortion, everything
is conducive to the manifest object OF the
machine. The design also is evident,
whereas, after the revelations of Darwin,
il is far from being evident that the mech
anism of the universe is designed for the
good of man.
The chief interpreters of science in its
bearing on religion were, in England. Tyn-
dali and Huxley. Tyndan always de-
clared himself a materialist, though no
one could less deserve the name If it i'm
piled anything like grossness or disregard
of the higher sentiments. He startled the
world by his declaration that matter con-
tanned the potentially of all life; an as
sertion which, though 1t has been found
difficult to prove experirnentally, there
can be little difficulty in accepting, since
we see life in rudimentary forms and in
different stages of development. Huxley
welded a trenchant pen and was an un-
compromising servant of truth. A bitter
controversy between him and Owen rose
out of Owens tendency to compromise
He came at one time to the extreme con-
cusion that man was an automaton.
which would have settled all religious and
Il. 1.ru+ IN ifs
he seemed afterward to feel that he had
gone too far An automaton automaucai-
~ rejecting on its automatic character
is a being which seems to defy concep-
ton The connection of action with mo
tive. of motive with character and cir
cumstance is what nobody doubts: but
the precise nature Of the connection, as
ii is not subject, like a physical connec-
ton. to our inspection, defes scrutiny,
and our consciousness, which is our only
informant. tells us that our agency in
some qualified sense is free.
Materialists or physicists such as Tyn-
dali and Huxley or their counterparts on
the Continent would console us for the
loss of religion by substituting the maJes-
ty of law But the idea of law implies a
lawgiver or an intelligent and authorize
tive imponeut of some kind. There is no
majesty in a mere sequence. even the most
invariable and on the largest scale, the
existence of which alone physical science
can prove.
The all-embracing philosophy of Mr..
Herbert Spencer excludes not only the
supernatural but Theism in its ordinary
form. Yet Theism in subtle form may
be thought to Iurk in it, BY continually
seeking" he says, ito know and being
continually thrown back with deepened
conviction of the impossibility of know
ing we may keep alive the consciousness
that it is alike our highest wisdom and
cur highest duty to regard that through
which all things exist as the Unknow-
able" In this and subsequent passages
he evidently looks upon the Unknowable
as an object of reverence. otherwise it
would hardly be our highest duty to re-
gard it as tina. through which all things
exist, or to maintain any particular atti-
tude toward it. But Unknowableness in
itself eXcites no reverence: We do not
venerate an insoluble problem or fact
which is irrecoverably lost; and the same
may be said of anything material, even
though it be supposed infinite and eternal.
Nothing excites our reverence, but per-
son. or at least a Moral Being. There
fingers in AIR. Spencer's mind the belief
that the present limit OF our knowledge
is the veil of the Deity.
Had the Darwinian discoveries been
known 10 Schopenhauer they would have
cOnspired with the earlier discoveries of
science and with his pitiless survey of the