1868.] NEWBERRY. — SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION. 291 



the reproduction of species are totally at variance and incompatible 

 with those which mark the action of material laws. Why, in 

 physical circumstances differing toto coelo, does the germ produce 

 a plant or animal so closely copying the parent ? and whence this 

 tenacity of purpose in the germ which reproduces, through a long 

 line of posterity, the trivial characteristics of a remote ancestor ? 

 Even within our limited observation we have been struck by the 

 reappearance in the grandchild of the voice, the gesture, the 

 stature, the features, or some other marked peculiarity of his 

 grandsire. Whence comes the force of the axiom that ' blood will 

 tell ' ? — and how incomprehensible that, by the action of only 

 material laws, mental force, or, it may be, moral infirmity, is 

 transmitted from generation to generation, in spite of the system 

 of infinitesimal dilution through which it passes ! 



And now, even with this hurried and sadly imperfect exposition 

 of the tendency of modern science, the time at our command has 

 been consumed. Before leaving the subject, however, I crave 

 your indulgence for a word to those who, wholly absorbed in the 

 study of the laws which regulate the material universe, are so 

 deeply impressed with their universality and potency, that they 

 forget that law is but another name for an order of sequence, and 

 has in itself no force. These are they who, in their pride in the 

 achievements of the human intellect, fail to realize that the uni- 

 verse furnishes conclusive proof that all our philosophy, all our 

 logic, all our observation are utterly inadequate to solve the 

 problems that are presented to us ; inadequate not simply from 

 the limited nature of our powers of observation, but because the 

 human mind, though forced to confess the existence of the infinite 

 is utterly unable to grasp it; and that while the logic of reason 

 and the logic of numbers suffice for a qualified understanding of 

 the manner in which material forces work, of the origin and nature 

 of these forces we are and must "ever remain ignorant, unless 

 gifted with higher powers than we now possess. As has been 

 stated, seen from the stand-point of our modern materialists and 

 judged by the criteria which they have adopted, spiritual existeuce 

 and supernatural phenomena, even if as all-pervading as the most 

 devout religionist believes, must, from a priori considerations, be 

 utterly ignored. Of those who are thus led by their regard for 

 the dignity of material laws to reject the idea of a creative and 

 overruling Deity, I would ask, Is not man himself a disturbing 

 element in your universe ? Whatever may be said in regard to 



