The Detroit times., 1911-02-16
CARDINAL GIBBONS
REPLIES T0ED|SOh
Says Published Views on Religion
Show He Has Manned Mind Like
Darwin and Others.

NEW YORK, Feb. 16.-Cardinal
Gibbons replies to the printed opin-
ions Of Thomas A. Edison, In an In
teryiew In the Columbian magazine,
He says: ~
Il regret exceedingly that he has
given such views to the public, for
| admier Mr.. Edison's genius. Some
belittle him as mere mechanic.
have no patience with such view
for no man could achieve what Mr..
Edison has without extraordinary
mental powers. He il the represents
tive of American inventive genius
and has brought glory upon our coun.
try In the whole world: he Is truly q
marvel, and, as well, great benefac
tor of the race. He has been intense
ly devoted to his pursuits, and he has
paid the penalty, just ss Darwin did
just as so many Of our great men do
Darwin bemoaned ut the end OF
his life, you know, that his intense de.
votion to scientific investigation had
strophied his sense of poetry, OF
music, and know not what; | would
add. his sense of religion, for the
religious spirit, II not cultivated, VIII
die, too.
so has 1t been with Mr.. Edison;
he has manned his own mind, Just as
Darwin did, by too one sided ex-
ercise of its powers. He talks with
great freedom, and say with not q
little contempt. Of theology; but one
suspects that he has been too occu-
pied and perhaps too contemptuous
Of theology to devote much time TO
its study. One suspects that his ac-
quaintance with IL is almost limited
to fragmentary "reminiscences OF SER
mons heard In boyhood days.
! Here Is a scientist who proclaims
dogmas to the public. and he seems
to ask us to believe them because he
believes them II he spoke az the
head Of school he might refyr US to
their arguments; but l do not know
for whom he speaks. Not for the ma
terialist, because he believes matter
cannot explain all; not for the .dalist,
for he believes In matter; not for the
monist evidently; not for the agnos-
tic, for he acknowledges a supreme
intelligence; nor for the pantheist, 40
far, at least, as he reveals his mind,
In fact, cannot place Mr.. Edison
do not know any school that would
claim him. All / can be sure OF Is
that he dogmatizes his own. account.
The most striking instance Sof his
dogmatism Is his fundamental :isser.
ton tht cells have intelligence. Mr..
Edison does not prove this: he does
not try to prove 1t; he asserts IL, over
and over again, and perhaps some
simple people will believe 1t Ia true.
Those who persevere to the end
may be saved-by philosophy? But
the world was never governed by
philosophy: 1t has never wanted to be,
and II never will be. Christianity
knows the nature of man; II has far
deeper wisdom than was ever dream
ed of in the philosophy Of the great
thinkers.
"One; thing am glad Of is that Mr.
Edison recognizes the existence Of n
supreme intelligence. To me the
whole world testifies this. It Is good
to me that he cannot conceive OF blind
evolution as accounting for It, nor for
the wonders OF nature. Mechanism
alone. as he says, cannot explain this
world; only supreme intelligence
could produce II, rule II, and bring
1t to 1t sperfection.
Proof, proof he says, that is
what have always been after and
he claims to accept no scientific fact
without the final proof Now, who