The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-09-28
By Professor Sir Oliver Lodge, F. r. S. D. &c.
President the British Association Of

LUZ Tile advancement OF Science
quito apart from laboratory experiments,
Ihey belong to the common knowledge of the
race Births. deaths and marriages are not
anairs OF the biologist, but OF humanity; they
went on before single one OF them was un.
derstood, before a vestige of science existed
We ourselves are the laboratory In which men
OF science. psychologists and others. make ex
perinents- Ihey can formulate our processes
Oh digestion, and the material concomitants OF
willing. OF sensation. of thinking; but the hid.
nen guiding entities they do not touch.
80, also, II any philosopher tells you that YOU
40 not exist, or that the external world does
not CIT or that You an automaton without
,ree wiz, that all your actions determined
oy outside causes and that you are not re-
sponsibe-or that body cannot move out OF
It's place or that Achilles cannot catch tor
.olse- the: IN all those cases appeal must be
mace 10 Twelve average men. unsophisticated
by special studies. There is always a danger
OF 'rror In interpreting experience or In draw.
irg differences from 1t; but in a matter of bare
fact based own hrst-hand experience.
We are able to give verdict. We NAV be
mistaken as to the nature of what we see
Stars may look to US like bright specks In q
dome, but the fact that We see them admits ~
no doubt. So. also, consciousness and will ara
realities OF which we directly aware lust
directly az we are OF motion and force lust
as clearly as VIC apprehend the phlosophizine
utterances OF On agnostic. The process of seeing
me plain man does not understand he does not
recognize that II is method OF ethereal teleS-
raphy: re knows nothing OF the ether and It's
ripples. nor OF the retlna and its rods and
he sees and he hears and he touches. and he
wills and he thinks and is onscious. This is
not an appeal to the mob against the phil
osopher; 1t is an appeal TO the experience OF un.
told ages as against the studies OF a generation.
How consciousness became associated with
matter, how life exerts guidance over chem.
Ical and physical forces. how mechanical mo.
lions are translated into sensations--ali these
things are puzzling and demand long study.
But the fact that these things are so admits OF
no doubt. and difficulty OF explanation is no
argument against them. The blind
stored to sight had no opinion to how he
was healed. nor could he vouch for the moral
character of the healer. but he plainly knew
that whereas he was blind now he saw. About
nat act he was the best possible Judge. So
II is also with this main miracle that thou art
the world.
But although life and mind may be excluded
from physiology. they are not excluded from
science or course not. II Is not reasonable to
say that things necessarily elude investigation
merely because we do not knock against them.
Yet the mistake is sometimes made. The ether
makes no appeal to sense. therefore some are
beginning to say that 1t does not exist. Mind
is occasionally put into the same predicament.
Life is not detected in the laboratory. save in
It's physical and chemical manifestations; but
we may have to admit that 1t guides processes
nevertheless. 1t may be called a catalyto
agent.
To understand the action OF life itself. the
simplest plan is not to think of microscopic
organism or any unfamiliar animal, but to
make use OF our own experience as living
beings Any positive instance serves to stem
d
mind and guidance and plan is denied because
they make no appeal to sense. then think how
the world would appear to an observer to whom
the existence OF men was unknown and undis.
coverable. while yet all the laws and activities
Of nature went they do now.
Suppose then. that man made no appeal to
the senses OF an observer OF this planet. Sup
pose outside observer could see all the
events occurring in the world, only that he
could not see animals or men. He would de.
scribe what he much as We have to de-
scribe the activities initiated by life.
If he looked at the Firth of Forth. for in.
stance. he would see piers arising in the water.
beginning to sprout reaching across In strange
manner Till they actually join joined by
pieces attracted up from below to complete the
circuit d "a solid circuit round the CURRENT He
would see a sort OF bridge or flament thus
constructed from one shore to the otker, and
across this bridge insect-like things crawling
and returning for very obvious reason.
Or let him look at the Nile and recognize
the neritorious character OF that river in pro-
noting the growth of vegetation in the desert
Then let him kind of untoward crystal.
lization growing across the beginning to dam
the benefcent stream Blocks fly to their
places ny some kind of polar forces; I'VE can
not doubt" that 1t Is by hello or other tropism.
There IS no need to go outside the laws of
mechanics and physics; there Is difficulty
about supply or energy-none whatever-ma-
terials in tin cans arc consumed which amply
account for all the energy, and all the laws Of
physics are obeyed. The absence of any design,
too is manifest. for the effect of the structure
Is 10 flood an area upstream which might have
been useful, and to submerge q structure OF
some beauty. while down stream its effect ia
likely to be worse. for It would block the course
OF the river and waste 1t on the desert were
u not that fortunately some leaks develop and
sufficient supply still goes down-goes down
In fact more equally than before, so that the
ultimate result Is beneficial to vegetation and
Stimulates intention.
If told concerning either OF these structures
that an engineer, a designer In London called
benjamin Baker, had anything to do with II the
idea would be preposterous. One conclusive
argument Is final against such a superstitious
hypothesis-he is not there and thing plainly
cannot act where 1t Is not. But although We
with our greater advantages. perceive that tho