MATTER AND FORCE. 73 



whether in the organic world or the inorganic, whether 

 in the coal-beds and forests of the earth, or in the 

 brains and muscles of men, the physical philosopher 

 will make good his right to investigate them. It is 

 perfectly vain to attempt to stop enquiry in this direc- 

 tion. Depend upon it, if a chemist by bringing the 

 proper materials together, in a retort or crucible, could 

 make a baby, he would do it. There is no law, moral 

 or physical, forbidding him to do it. At the present 

 moment there are, no doubt, persons experimenting on 

 the possibility of producing what we call life out of in- 

 organic materials. Let them pursue their studies in 

 peace; it is only by such trials that they will learn the 

 limits of their own powers and the operation of the 

 laws of matter and force. 



But while thus making the largest demand for free- 

 dom of investigation while I consider science to be 

 alike powerful as an instrument of intellectual culture 

 and as a ministrant to the material wants of men; if 

 you ask me whether it has solved, or is likely in our 

 day to solve, the problem of this universe, I must shake 

 my head in doubt. You remember the first Napoleon's 

 question, when the savans who accompanied him to 

 Egypt discussed in his presence the origin of the uni- 

 verse, and solved it to their own apparent satisfaction. 

 He looked aloft to the starry heavens, and said, 'It 

 is all very well, gentlemen; but who made these?' 

 That question still remains unanswered, and science 

 makes no attempt to answer it. As far as I can see, 

 there is no quality in the human intellect which is 

 fit to be applied to the solution of the problem. It 

 entirely transcends us. The mind of man may be com- 

 pared to a musical instrument with a certain range of 

 notes, beyond which in both directions we have an infi- 

 nitude of silence. The phenomena of matter and force 



