9 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



fact, involving alike every department of Nature ; and more especially 

 evolution of the organic kingdom, and the origin of species by deriva- 

 tion, must be regarded as an established truth of science. But, remem- 

 ber, evolution is one thing and materialism another and quite a different 

 thing. The one is a sure result of science ; the other a doubtful infer- 

 ence of philosophy. Let no one who is led step by step through the 

 paths of evolution, from the mineral to the organic, from the organic to 

 the animate, and from the animate to the rational, until he lands logi- 

 cally, as he supposes, into blank and universal materialism let no such 

 one, I say, imagine for a moment that he has been walking all the way 

 in the domain of science. He has stepped across the boundary of sci- 

 ence into the domain of philosophy. Yet the step seems so easy, so 

 natural, so inevitable, that most do not distinguish between the teach- 

 ings of science and the inference of philosophy, and thus the whole is 

 unjustly accredited to science. Now, as most people not only do not 

 make, but have never imagined, any such distinction, I am anxious to 

 make it clear to you. This I can best and most briefly do by some sim- 

 ple familiar illustrations. 



It is curious to observe that no sooner do we find out, in any work 

 of Nature, how it is made, than we all say that it is not made at all ; it 

 made itself. So long as the origin of species was a mystery, every one 

 admitted that species must have had an intelligent Maker. But no 

 sooner did we discover the process, than every one seemed to think that 

 no Maker is necessary at all. Now, the whole object of science is to dis- 

 cover processes by which things are done ; or how things are made. Is 

 it any wonder, then, with this perverse tendency of the present mind, 

 that science should ever and anon seem to destroy belief in a Supreme 

 Intelligence ? 



Again, it is curious to observe how an old and familiar truth, com- 

 ing up in a new form, startles us as an impossible paradox. I well 

 remember some twenty-five years ago, when the little instrument the 

 gyroscope first made its appearance, how it startled everybody by its 

 seeming violation of the laws of gravity. Imagine a heavy brass wheel 

 rotating rapidly at one end of an axle, while the other end is supported 

 on a vertical column. So long as it rotated, the heavy wheel, instead 

 of falling, remained suspended in mid-air, revolving meanwhile slowly 

 about the point of support at the other end of the axle. At first sight 

 it seems as wonderful and as paradoxical as the body of Mr. Home, the 

 spiritualist, sailing in mid-air in full view of his gaping and noble audi- 

 ence. In the case of Mr. Home, we suspect some mistake or deception; 

 but there is no mistake about the gyroscope. Yet this strange para- 

 dox, which startled people so, and which so flooded scientific literature 

 with explanations, is an old familiar fact in a new form. The problem 

 is precisely the same as that of the boy^s top, which spins and leans, and 

 slowly revolves in its leaning, but does not fall so long as it continues 

 to spin. 



