754 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



terialisru, that a paper had to be circu- 

 lated, and eminent names obtained, 

 certifying that it was all right, and 

 that Dr. Carpenter was quite sound 

 and safe in his views. As regards the 

 present address, its main point involves 

 the explicit acceptance of the view 

 currently designated as "Darwinian." 

 The metaphysical conflict into 

 which the doctor has thrown himself 

 has reference to the mode of origin of 

 our ideas. One school affirms that 

 they are not a part of the order of Na- 

 ture, that is, they do not come into ex- 

 istence by natural processes of growth 

 and development. They are held to be 

 intuitive, and formed directly by the 

 Creator in a supernatural or extra- 

 natural sphere. The opposite school 

 maintains that ideas are not a part of 

 the preconstituted original furniture of 

 our minds, but grow and arise by ex- 

 perience in the regular order of Na- 

 ture. Thus the intuitional hypothesis 

 and the experience hypothesis are an- 

 tagonist doctrines. Dr. Carpenter here 

 proposes a compromise by calling in 

 the principle of hereditary influence, 

 or the power of habit to originate in- 

 tuitive ideas in the course of genera- 

 tions. But, strange to say, Dr. Car- 

 penter puts forth this view as his own, 

 without recognizing that it is an old 

 and fundamental doctrine of Herbert 

 Spencer. It will surprise many that, 

 upon so conspicuous and important an 

 occasion, a theory of such undoubted 

 moment in philosophy could have been 

 put forth by Dr. Carpenter without 

 the scrupulous recognition of its true 

 authorship. Mr. Spencer's doctrine, 

 long maintained, and fully elaborated 

 in his system of Synthetic Philoso- 

 phy, is that intuitions originate by 

 slowly-organized experiences in the 

 race, which are confirmed and ac- 

 cumulated through hereditary trans- 

 mission as a part of the working of the 

 great principle of Evolution. Dr. Car- 

 penter indorses this view, and cites 

 Mr. Mill as having recently given his 



Adhesion to it, and his position is there- 

 fore substantially the same as that 

 of Prof. Gray and the developmental 

 school. But, in common with many 

 others who hold to this theory, he 

 strongly urges that it does not exclude 

 the conception of efficient causation 

 or of a supreme cause by which Nature 

 is controlled, and, like Dr. Gray, he 

 takes broad issue with the atheists. 

 His view is summed up in the follow- 

 ing closing passage of the address: 

 "The science of modern times, how- 

 ever, has taken a more special direc- 

 tion. Fixing its attention exclusively 

 on the order of Nature, it has sepa- 

 rated itself wholly from theology, 

 whose function it is to seek after its 

 cause. In this, science is fully justified, 

 alike by the entire independence of its 

 objects, and by the historical fact that 

 it has been continually hampered and 

 impeded in its search for the truth as 

 it is in Nature, by the restraints which 

 theologians have attempted to impose 

 upon its inquiries. But when science, 

 passing beyond its own limits, assumes 

 to take the place of theology, and sets 

 up its own conception of the order of 

 Nature as a sufficient account of its 

 cause, it is invading a province of 

 thought to which it has no claim, and 

 not unreasonably provokes the hostili- 

 ty of those who ought to be its best 

 friends. For, while the deep-seated 

 instincts of humanity and the pro- 

 foundest researches of philosophy alike 

 point to mind as the one and only 

 source of power, it is the high preroga- 

 tive of science to demonstrate the unity 

 of the power which is operating through 

 the limitless extent and variety of the 

 universe, and to trace its continuity 

 through the vast series of ages that 

 have been occupied in its evolution." 



EERBEET SPENCER AND DR. CAR- 

 PENTER. 



Since the foregoing remarks were 



put in type, we have heard again from 



the other side, and find that Dr. Car- 



