The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-01-07
RIDDLE Of UNIVERSE
NOT ANSWERED YE'
SIR OLIVER LODGE ANSWER
PROF. HAEcKEL's MATERIALIsn
In the Absence Of knowledge, the Ma
of Science May Find Himself Utte
ing Words Of I.amentable Folly. an
Blasphemy-A Plea for Idealism.
London Mail.

In Life and Matter" (Willian
and Norgate) we have at length an an
swer to Professor Haeckel's famou
Riddle Of the Universe, by one VIII
stands in the foremost rank of Births
men Of science. Sir Oliver Lodg
gives reason for thinking that HaecI
ell IS alleged science is often unsount
that his assumptions do not rest upo
solid fact, and that the huge structun
| of theory which he has 80 painfully
built up upon few axioms is base
upon insecure foundations.
In Sir Oliver Lodges opinion
Haeckel's great fault is that he ha
been guilty of "overconfdent mega
tions and supercilious denials of fact
at present outside the range Of ortha
dox science.''
| Haeckel has banished God from tn
universe and replaced idealism b
blank materialism. His gospel Nigh
be summed up in the famous phrase
"life begins in cell and ends in I
sel.'' Matter with him is the caus
of mind and life; matter, indeed, j
mind and life. Personality ceases witt
p. death, and there is no existence b.
hind or beyond the grave. Reveale!
religion is pure Pigment Of the priest
for science knows nothing of it. Me,
are simple automatic, swayed by mat
ter and the obscure force which i
known as "Chance or Spontaneity.'
I The universe is mechanical and re-
spends to mechanical, not to spiritua
law.
At every point Sir Oliver joins bat
, tie with Haeckel. The axioms upoI
which Haeckel has worked, and which
. he has declared to be either alread,
, demonstrated or self-evident, Sill
Oliver denies. Haeckel's CLAW OF
substance which is the summary o,
the two laws that "matter cannot per
ish or come into existence" and that
y "energy cannot perish or come int
; existence" he fatty contradicts. They
are not like the axioms Of Euclid, and
it is growing more and more probabl,
that atoms Of matter, or the electroni
which compose atoms, are not the i'm
? mutable things that they have beer
4 supposed to be. In the last analyst,
l.. all matter becomes "knots or twist,
e or vertices or some sort Of
c modification of the ether Of space
j small bit partitioned off from the rest
9 and individualized by reason of thii
i identifying peculiarity."
s In the future it may be possible, al
b science marches out into new fields O;
d discovery, to tie these knots or t.
l. unite them-to resolve matter as we
), know it into space, without any prop
!, erty that can be identified; in a word
: to destroy or to create the material.
Next Sir Oliver turns to the origin
i and nature Of life Life, he holds to bs
in another category from the material
g Haeckel has alleged that the germ OF
It consciousness and of individual life
n is in the atom, but he does not explain
- whence that germ came, or why and
p how; according to his own theory, il
A vanishes in the human animal. For be
g. first assumes that mind is in matter.
- and then he, proceeds to argue that
e. when matter develops into man, mind
l. has vanished and nothing remains but
q the collection of cells. In this argu,
ment he is turning his back upon
psychologists of the front rank in Ger.
many; he is deliberately ignoring the
4. fact that Wundt has recanted as the
" "foolish sin Of his YOUTH the belief
that the science of the soul or mind is
~ purely physical, and has declared that
"it weighed on him as a kind of crime
from which he longed to free himself. y
~ Indeed, this change in German science
from materialism to idealism Is one Of
the great spiritual events Of our time
ds Haeckel's voice as Sir Oliver rightly
points out, -
els as the voice Of one crying in tn.
oh wilderness, not as the pioneer or van
he guard Of an advancing army, but as thu
nd despairing shout Of a standardbearer
We still bold and unf1inching, but aban
doned by the the retreating ranks o:
- his comrades, as they march to new or
F.. ders in fresh and more idealist direc
tion.' toward religion and toward thu
faith in God. Twentieth centur,
science, in fact, is building on the bar
ne, space cleared by the destructive process
ght of nineteenth century philosophy, bu
it is building temple to God and not
n.y. hall dedicated to the sacredness of mat
les, ter.
gin There is nothing fatal to the belief il
God in the fact that the universe 0
~. | matter as we know it is governed b.
- mechanical laws, Newton, who wa
firm believer, foretold that this woul
.,on prove to be the case. Law and orde
elf rather than caprice must be the attri
a. butes of the supremest intelligence
Ing, Yet it does not follow that in the spher
evel of mind and life the mechanical law
orn- hold undisputed sway. Life, as 81
day Oliver necessarily repeats, Is somethin
ing, outside Of and apart from science
tan something with which physical scienc
ON cannot deal something which lies in
. wholly different category from matte
ing In the material structure of the huma
ing being it may be incarnate, as in tn
ieht immortal work of art the thought 9
eks s; the artist or even the revelation of Go
,day is incarnate and visible.
gre It might be objected to Sir Oliver
philosophy that it really creates dua
ism instead of unifying, and that. it d
lice mands two works, one of matter and or
S'O of mind, independent of each othe
N. moved by different laws, and SO repr
't'S senting that very Manieheanism again
Tai which at the outset he protests. We
see1 not see that this objection is necessar
fol. ~ fatal. Haeckel' IS system on the clio
a. est possible analysis is open to tt
s by same charge, tho Haeckel does not see
o 1ne to be aware of it. And can any. chang
Or. take place without the reaction of son
and ID force upon another, whether we ca
iaed second force chance or controllir
, m minds
$ D. -------- - -- -----
well
At the Friends church, First av
III q. nue. and Fourteenth street, Rev. G. !
ting Bridgeman, of Hamline university, wi