Religion and Science Part 12

[38] Darwin, _Life_, Vol. I, p. 93.

[39] "If we wish to fix a definite point to describe as the end of the idealistic period in Germany, no such distinctive event offers itself as the French Revolution of July, 1830" (Lange, _History of Materialism_, E.T., Vol. II, p. 245).

[40] A famous book which, though negative in its conclusions, places its author alongside Schleiermacher as one of the founders of the modern science of Religious Psychology.

[41] Balfour, _Theism and Humanism_, p. 36.

[42] "Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion, during which the matter pa.s.ses from an indefinite incoherent h.o.m.ogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity, and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation."

[43] Spencer confessed that of the _Synthetic Philosophy_ "two volumes are missing," the two important volumes on Inorganic Evolution, leading to the evolution of the living and of the non-living (cf. criticisms by Professor James Ward in his _Naturalism and Agnosticism_, Lecture IX).

[44] For an instance of the masterly work turned out by this school and of the attractiveness of their propaganda, read Huxley's lecture, "On a Piece of Chalk," delivered to the working men of Norwich during the meeting of the British a.s.sociation in 1868.

[45] For this famous encounter, see _Life of Huxley_, Vol. I, pp.

179-89, and _Life of J. R. Green_, pp. 44, 45.

[46] As we shall subsequently find, this cosmic pessimism is less well grounded than Huxley believed. Still, Spencer's own scientific presuppositions were the same as Huxley's, so that the pa.s.sage remains a pertinent criticism of the Evolutionary Philosophy as elaborated by him.

[47] It is instructive to observe that a similar note of latent pessimism is struck by the last notable survivor of the School we have endeavoured to describe. Viscount Morley at the end of his _Recollections_ (1917), questioned as to the outcome of those generous hopes entertained with such confidence by his contemporaries, is compelled to e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.e with philosophic brevity, _circ.u.mspice_, as he contemplates a spectacle of unparalleled horror.

[48] Storr, _Development of English Theology in the Nineteenth Century_, p. 329. See which book for a valuable chapter upon Coleridge.

[49] _Foundations of Belief_, p. 98.

[50] _Foundations of Belief_, p. 309.

[51] For this summary of Lotze's doctrine, see Merz, Vol. III, p. 615 and ff.

[52] Quoted by Ward in _Pluralism and Theism_, p. 103. For a brief yet adequate treatment of Mach's criticisms see Hoffding's _Modern Philosophers_, pp. 115-21.

[53] R. B. Perry, _Present Philosophical Tendencies_, p. 351.

[54] It is impossible to go deeper into James' "theory of knowledge"

without using technical language. A few of his own phrases, however, may help to elucidate things. "Abstract concepts ... are salient aspects of our concrete experiences which we find it useful to single out"

(_Meaning of Truth_, p. 246).

Elsewhere he speaks of them as things we have learned to "cut out" from experience, as "flowers gathered," and as "moments dipped out from the stream of time" (_A Pluralistic Universe_, p. 235).

I owe these quotations to Perry, op. cit.

[55] _Creative Evolution_, p. 325.

[56] _A Pluralistic Universe_, p. 237.

[57] _Creative Evolution_, p. 174.

[58] i.e. Intellect is not (as it is generally represented to be) a developed form of instinct, nor instinct an embryonic form of intellect.

[59] The extraordinary and miraculous phenomena of instinct--especially as celebrated by the distinguished French scientist Fabre--cannot be rightly understood by trying to interpret them in terms of intellect.

This is to misread them completely.

[60] Bergson's characterisation of Spencerian Evolutionism (_Creative Evolution_, p. 391).

[61] _Creative Evolution_, p. 286.

[62] Other notable pluralists in England are F. C. S. Schiller and Dr.

MacTaggart.

[63] The _logical_ conclusion, we say, though this may not be the ultimate truth about the matter. The most attractive theories are often the most superficial.

[64] Professor Cunningham in Pearson's _Grammar of Science_, Part I, p.

356.

[65] Quoted by W. C. D. Whetham in his _Recent Development of Physical Science_, p. 280. No reference is given by him.

[66] One theory attributes the existence of matter to occasional misfits among these grains.

[67] Quoted by Bishop Mercer. _Problem of Creation_, Appendix B.

[68] In _Theism and Humanism_.

[69] Mercer, op. cit., p. 106.

[70] _Mechanism, Life, and Personality_ (1913), p. 81.

[71] Op. cit. pp. 64, 66.

[72] Professor J. Arthur Thomson, in an article ent.i.tled, "Is there one Science of Nature?" (_Hibbert Journal_, Oct., 1911).

[73] _The Science and Philosophy of the Organism_, Vol. II, p. 338.

[74] Op. cit. p. 101.

[75] Other names of distinguished scientists holding this view are: Sir W. Crookes the Physicist and Sir W. F. Barrett, F.R.S., in England, Dr.

Hodgson and Prof. James Hyslop in America, Lombroso in Italy, Richet in France.

[76] From his _Duplik_. Quoted by Hoffding, _History of Philosophy_, Vol. II, p. 21.

[77] F. H. Bradley on "Phenomenalism" (_Appearance and Reality_, p.

126).

[78] Hoffding, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 129.

[79] Feuerbach, _Essence of Christianity_, p. 21.

[80] We now learn that conceptions of s.p.a.ce of a highly unorthodox character are entertained by physicists and mathematicians, as the result of recent researches in the sphere of the gravitation of light.