OCR Text |
Show 288 EXPL \.NATIONS. less easHy replied to. It has appeared ~o various crtttctt particularly to the writer in the Ed in burgh Review, that very sacred princi plcs are threatened by n. doctrine of uni ... vcrsallaw. A natural orio-in of life, and a natural basi~ in on;anization for the operations of the human mind, speak to them of fatalism and materialism. And, strange to say, those who ev?ry day gi_ve views of physical cosmogony altogt-ther d1screpent In appearance with that of lVIosrs, apply hard names to my book for t;ugge::~ting an m·ganic cosmogony in the s<nne way liable to inconsidm ·ante odi urn. I must firmly protest against this nwde of meeting speculations regarding nature. The object of my book, whatever may be said of the manner in which it i:s treated, is purely scienti lie. The views w ltich I give of this history of organization stand exactly on the same ground upon \vhich the geological doctrines stood fifty years a~~o. I am n1cr ly cndea vori ng to read ario·ht another chapter of the IllY~ tic book which God has placed und r the attention of his creatures. A little liberality of judrrment would enable even an opponent of my particular hypothc~is to sec that <luestions us to reverence and irreverence, piety and impiety, are prac· tically d termincd very 1nueh by special impr ·ssions upon particular rnind . He would sec, for exam))le, that the idea of attaching irreverence to a doctrine of natural la·.y is only likely to m·js..., in a n1ind 'vhich has been traineci by }lab it to regard the divine workin~ as more pecial in its nature-precisely as, fmding the Edinbure;h re· view r spcakinu· of the whole vvor1·s of the Deity as'· vul· gar natur"" (p. 5? .) I £ ·l that the impiety which such an idea express' , to my s 'nse i' only itnpicty to rne, who cannot 8cparatc n:-ttnrL from Gml him elf, but it is not n cc '."arily .. o to him. who tJ ducation ba ~ivcn him pe ·uliar, and a I third· rron ous conceptions on this :11bje t. Tltc au cnc , howev ·r, ot alllibcr:.tlity on these point in my r -:.vi ,w r~ is striking, and e"peci;.tlly so in tho. c whose o· olon·ical doctrj n-·' have exposed them to simihr mi ~ con ·trlld.ion::-~. If tlu .. men n ·wly emerged fl'om the odium which was tlnown upon N ewton's theory of the planetary motion hacl ruJ1ed fun c1rd to turn th~t odium upon the patrons of the dawning science of~ ology, 1 hey wo 1ld ha vc b en prcfiguri ng the .concl uct of several ur mv critic , themselves hardly escaped from the rude .lands of the narrow-rnind d, yet eager to j11in that rabbla 'J<:KNJJENC,Y. ~F THE NEW DOCTRINE. 289 ngainst a new and equal1y unfdended stranger, as if such were the best means o_f pur~hasing impunity for themselves. I tr_ust th.at a little ttme will enable the public to pe!lct~ate this pol.tcy, and also the real bearin~ of all such obJect~ons. Th~y mus~ soon see that, if a literal interpretatiOn of Scnpture IS an insufficient ar(}'ument arrainst the.true gcognos_tic history of our earth, so ::,also must it be aga1nst all associa!ed phenomena, supposing they are presented on good evidence. "So!Yle persons,'' says one of my revie1vers, " have a vague 1dea th~t ther~ is something derogatory in the lowest ~orm of antmal l1~e to hav~ its origin in merely inorganlC elements; an Idea whiCh results, p0rhaps, not so much fro!ll any su.btle and elevated conceptions of life as from an ~magu;tation 1~nawakened to the dignity and the marvel o~ the In?rganic world. ·what is motion but a sort of hfe 1 .a life of activity, if_ not· of feeling. Suppose-~ hat,· Indeed, nowhere e~Ists-an inert matter, an~ fet It be suddenly endowed vnth motion, so that two pa1 bcles should .fly towards each other from the utmost bounds of the un1vers.e; were not this almost as stranrre a property as t~at wh1ch endows an irritable tissue, or ~n organ of seeret~o~ ?. Is. not the wodd one-the creature of one G?d-d1V1d1ng Itself, with constant interchanr.re of parts, 1nto the sentient and the non-sentient in ord~· so to speak, to become conscious of itself? Are we t~ pla~~ a great ch~sm between the sentient and the nonsentient, s_o that It shall be derogation to a poor worm to {:a~e ~o htgher genealogy than the eler.l ent which is the 1g tD:mg oi heaven, and too n1uch honJr ~ the subtle che!ll1stry of the earth, to be the father of a crawlin s~bJe?t 1f tome bag, or sack, or imperceptible globul~ 0 . a.mma 1fe. .No: we have no recoil against this enet ati~n o~ an . ani!llalcule ~y the w?nderful chemist!~ of God' out obJection to tlus doctnne is that ·t . y t proved."* , 1 Is no As one exampl~ o[ the weakness of the opposition rel! lented by the Edlnburgh reviewer on this ground I ~, quote a P.assa.~e in which he has also aimed at con~icti~~ me of be1ng enamored of resemblances, and allowinO' m 0 senses to be cheated by empty souncs ,, Ev .. ~ r, say h "h h . .t. · I) one s ?.' . as card of the q mckness of tbolt()'ht and . h has no. heard()[ the velocity of the <ra.lvan.ic flju1·d' ~ Tl- }V 0 c • 1.1ere- ,. Blackwood's Mag~zine, April, 1845 |