SCIENCE AND MAN. 



100 



known some of the most pronounced among them 

 not only in life but in death — seen them approach- 

 ing with open eyes the inexorable goal, with no 

 dread of a " hangman's whip," with no hope of a 

 heavenly crown, and still as mindful of their du- 

 ties, and as faithful in the discharge of them, as 

 if their eternal future depended upon their latest 

 deeds. 



In letters addressed to myself, and in utter- 

 ances addressed to the public, Faraday is often 

 referred to as a sample of the association of reli- 

 gious faith with moral elevation. I was locally 

 intimate with him for fourteen or fifteen years 

 of my life, and had thus occasion to observe how 

 nearly his character approached what might, 

 without extravagance, be called perfection. He 

 was strong but gentle, impetuous but self-re- 

 strained; a sweet and lofty courtesy marked his 

 dealings with men and women; and though he 

 sprung from the body of the people, a nature so 

 fine might well have been distilled from the flower 

 of antecedent chivalry. Not only in its broader 

 sense was the Christian religion necessary to 

 Faraday's spiritual peace, but in what many would 

 call the narrow sense held by those described by 

 Faraday himself as " a very small and despised 

 sect of Christians, known, if known at all, as 

 Sandemanians," it constituted the light and com- 

 fort of his days. 



Were our experience confined to such cases, 

 it would furnish an irresistible argument in favor 

 of the association of dogmatic religion with mor- 

 al purity and grace. But, as already intimated, 

 our experience is not thus confined. In further 

 illustration of this point we may compare with 

 Faraday a philosopher of equal magnitude, whose 

 character, including gentleness and strength, can- 

 dor and simplicity, intellectual power and moral 

 elevation, singularly resembles that of the great 

 Sandemanian, but who has neither shared the 

 tbeologic views nor the religious emotions which 

 formed so dominant a factor in Faraday's life. I 

 allude to Mr. Charles Darwin, the Abraham of 

 scientific men — a searcher as obedient to the 

 command of truth as was the patriarch to the 

 command of God. I cannot, therefore, as so 

 many desire, look upon Faraday's religious belief 

 as the exclusive source of qualities shared so con- 

 spicuously by one uninfluenced by that belief. 

 To a deeper virtue belonging to reviled human 

 nature in its purer forms I am disposed to refer 

 the excellence of both. 



Superstition may be defined as religion which 

 has grown incongruous with intelligence. " Su- 

 perstition," says Fichte, " has unquestionably 



constrained its subjects to abandon many per- 

 nicious practices and to adopt many useful ones." 

 The real loss accompanying its decay at the pres- 

 ent day has been thus clearly stated by the same 

 philosopher : " In so far as these lamentations do 

 not proceed from the priests themselves — whose 

 grief at the loss of their dominion over the hu- 

 man mind we can well understand — but from the 

 politicians, the whole matter resolves itself into 

 this, that government has thereby become more 

 difficult and expensive. The judge was spared 

 the exercise of his own sagacity and penetration 

 when, by threats of relentless damnation, he could 

 compel the accused to make confession. The 

 evil spirit formerly performed without reward 

 services for which in later times judges and po- 

 licemen have to be paid." 



No man ever felt the need of a high and en- 

 nobling religion more thoroughly than this pow- 

 erful and fervid teacher, who, by-the-way, did 

 not escape the brand of " atheist." But Fichte 

 asserted emphatically the power and sufficiency 

 of morality in its own sphere. " Let us con- 

 sider," he says, " the highest which man can pos- 

 sess in the absence of religion — I mean pure mo- 

 rality. The moral man obeys the law of duty in 

 his breast absolutely, because it is a law unto 

 him ; and he does whatever reveals itself to him 

 as his duty simply because it is duty. Let not 

 the impudent assertion be repeated that such an 

 obedience, without regard for consequences, and 

 without desire for consequences, is in itself im- 

 possible and opposed to human nature." So 

 much for Fichte. I would add that the muse of 

 Tennyson never reached a higher strain than 

 when it embodied the same sentiment in "iEnone :" 



" And, because right is right, to follow right 

 Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence." 



Not in the way assumed by our dogmatic teach- 

 ers has the morality of human nature been built 

 up. The power which has moulded us thus far 

 has worked with stern tools upon a very rigid 

 stuff. What it has done cannot be so readily 

 undone ; and it has endowed us with moral con- 

 stitutions which take pleasure in the noble, the 

 beautiful, and the true, just as surely as it has 

 endowed us with sentient organisms which find 

 aloes bitter and sugar sweet. That power did 

 not work with delusions, nor will it stay its hand 

 when such are removed. Facts rather than dog- 

 mas have been its ministers — hunger and thirst, 

 heat and cold, pleasure and pain, fervor, sym- 

 pathy, shame, pride, love, hate, terror, awe — such 

 were the forces whose interaction and adjust- 

 ment throughout an immeasurable past wove the 



