148 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



^witli its lens, and its humors, and its miraculous retina behind. 

 Consider the ear with its tympanum, cochlea, and Corti's organ an 

 instrument of three thousand strings, built adjacent to tlie brain, and 

 emjjloyed by it to sift, separate, and interpret, antecedent to all cun- 

 sciousness, the sonorous tremors of the external world. All this has 

 been accomplished not only without man's contrivance, but without 

 his knowledge, the secret of his own organization having been with- 

 held from him since his birth in the immeasurable past, until the 

 other day. Matter I define as that mysterious thing by which all 

 this is accomplished. How it came to have this power is a question 

 on which I never ventured an opinion. If, then. Matter starts as " a 

 beggar," it is, in my view, because the Jacobs of theology have de- 

 prived it of its birthright. Mr. Martineau need fear no disenchantment. 

 Theories of evolution go but a short way toward the explanation of 

 this mystery; while, in its presence, the notion of an atomic Manufact- 

 urer and Artificer of souls raises the doubt whether those who enter- 

 tain it were ever really penetrated by the solemnity of the problem 

 for which they offer such a solution. 



There are men, and they include among them some of the best of 

 the race of men, upon whose minds this mystery falls without pro- 

 ducino; either warmth or color. The *'drv light" of the intellect 

 sufiices'for them, and they live their noble lives untouched by a de- 

 sire to give the mystery shape or expression. There are, on the 

 other hand, men whose minds are warmed and colored by its pres- 

 ence, and who, under its stimulus, attain to moral heights which have 

 never been overtopped. Different spiritual climates are necessary 

 for the healthy existence of these two classes of men; and different 

 climates must be accorded them. The history of humanity, liow- 

 ever, proves the experience of the second class to illustrate the most 

 pervading need. The world will liave religion of some kind, even 

 though it should fly for it to the intellectual whoredom of " spiritual- 

 ism." What is really wanted is the lifting power of an ideal ele- 

 ment in human life. But the free play of this power must be pre- 

 ceded by its release from the torn swaddling-bands of the past, and 

 from the practical materialism of the present. It is now in danger 

 of being strangled by the one, or stupefied by the other. I look, 

 however, forward to a time when the strength, insight, and elevation, 

 which now visit us in mere hints and glimpses during moments " of 

 clearness and vigor," shall be the stable and permanent possession of 

 purer and mightier minds than ours j^urer and mightier, partly be- 

 cause of their deeper knowledge of matter and their more faithful con- 

 formity to its laws. 



