24, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



besuuled flesh and proof of Immortality; still, the idea of the 



blamolesa and beautiful as the lily, illumined as the starry 

 heavens) is, in ita way, grand. 



Perhaps I may be thought incon.sisteut, but in these tentative 

 contributions I am labouring, rather feeling my way, to the part 

 as it were of judge, if possible, if I may say so, not Advocate 

 for or against : though I confess that the Theory of Natural Selec- 



inde'ed, the theory of Evolution (from one) itself, in spite of the 

 vastness of the plausibility of its generalisation. For e.^iample, 

 the very suie -JiiJ non of his theory is ; — i/ a victor-variation 

 happens to show itself:— but, now," it occurs to afterthought 

 that this very if may not take place, not be the modus operandi 

 and scheme of things ; but, on the contrary, that, like the "Solar 

 System," (even in its inconceivable flight towards Hercules) all 

 may sivinj together : that no perturbation can occur in the sub- 

 Bolar system without compensation ; that the Imminent Cause, from 

 everlasting to everlasting, in all, may take order for it (I do not 

 hero say consciously) ; that imri passu shall be the order of the 

 day, of the tremendous slow march, that one of its dearest words 

 shall be and abide, as before quoted, that from the lips of the 

 Chrysostom, «it; Poet, greatest Humility and greatest Heroism, "Not 

 a sparrow falleth to the ground but what your Heavenly Father 

 knoweth it !" Alexander Teetgen (" Commentator "). 



NOTE ON INDIAN TERMITES. 

 [1827]— In my paper on Indian termites, I alluded to the indomit- 

 able energy and perseverance with which white ants annexed the 

 bell-beam in the church tower, or the beams of the house built over 

 their nest. Recently I witnessed this energy in another direction. 

 An ant-hill had been levelled to make way for a long line of road- 

 ballast; this, made up of laterito fragments, ran parallel to the 

 road, and its width and height were four feet and eighteen inches 

 respectively. Offended at having been thus slighted, the termites, 

 in one night, rebuilt their hill, runnimj it through the densebi-paclied 

 laterite, and raising it eighteen inches, with a base of thirty-six 





Now, think for 



t what this 

 ipon, and sc 



nplios 



and this tliey did. Consider the enormous labuui luiplicd lu uach 

 termite wriggling through the rough angular masses of laterice, 

 each laden with its pellet of mud ; and not only is the mud to be 

 carried for the heap on top of the ballast, but also for the sides of 

 the tortuous passages through the closely-piled laterite. Except 

 for their aspirate excelsior craving, these indefatigable workers 

 conld have pushed their works on each side of the ballast-heap; 

 but their doing so would be contrary to their principles, and imply 

 defeat. R. F. Hutchinson, M.D. 



Pachmari, June 21, 1885. 



VITAL FORCE. 



[1828]— If it were not so sad in its consequences, it would be 

 amusing to note how disbelief, in order that it may put on a certain 

 seeming of respect.ability, clings to tenets only to be reconciled 

 with belief. " F. W. H." appears to be incapable of discerning 

 that the doctrine of necessity totally ^excUi.ies the conception of 

 right and wrong, for whatever sIh.uM li.i!;.!i ly nrcrs.iity could 

 happen in no other way. Theft, niiir! • ,' nil bo in the 



anaiterable course of things. Wo ■■ ; ns of 





belief ii 



1 Suprt 



in ought and ought ; 

 Dy no possibility do wrong, n ne c'.nn ni; : . >i i niiin-, nuiria.\ or 



by nature's compulsion, iu the nuuir.il ,,i.i ,■ i,l iliiii^:«, and bo 

 blameless.* Hence my piteous appeal, a.") ' I . \\ . II ." is ploascd to 

 call it. Your correspondent says, " kuowlfdLro mipcrsudi's belief ; " 

 that is quite true, but, unfortunately, your scientific pundits too often 

 forgot that that knowledge which they deem eo very absolute and 



positive, is only the outcome of a heUef-al a belief in the existence 

 of an external world, of matter, &c. This belief in a material 

 universe is as much a belief as that in the existence of a Supreme 

 potentiality. There is, in fact, no positive knowledge but that of 

 our own existence and of the mathematics. Sir John Herschel 

 aptly termed the mathematics, " the very soul of science." How 

 any one who has adopted the teaching of the Doctrine of Necessity 

 can be so illogical as to talk of transgressing the laws of nature is 

 truly surprising ; there can be no transgression under necessity. 

 It will come to be seen that from the standpoint of my letter 

 (1759) on Vital Force that the evidences of a Ruling Power are as 

 strong as the evidences of a material universe. Berkeley and 

 Lewes have been frequently referred to in your correspondence 

 columns, but the writers in every case appear to me to have 

 missed the point of their teaching with respect to " Idealism," 

 which was that the existence of matter could no more be demon- 

 strated than the existence of a Ruling Spirit. In both cases you 

 have to rest on belief ; and, if nothing else should move men to 

 cling to the doctrine of a Ruling Power, the very utility of such a 

 belief should. Meteb. 



[* See Professor Clifford's Essays on " The Ethics of Belief" 

 and "The Ethics of Religion," in the collected edition of his 

 " Lectures and Essays." — Ed.] 



INSIDE OR OUT? 



[1&29]— " J. S." (1801) is mistaken in supposing that my views 

 are in any way modified. I would point out that the words 

 " external " and "independent " are not synonymous. The former 

 involves the assumption that the relation of the world to the mind 

 bears an analogy to the relation between two bodies in space ; 

 the latter simply implies that the world continues to exist when we 

 cease to be conscious of its existence, and that it did so exist during 

 the untold ages when sentient life was not. It is clear, however, 

 that this cannot be true of the phenomenal world which we know, 

 and with which alone we are concerned ; since this is composed of 

 our own sensations and thoughts. When I said that " every valid 

 ojucept must certainly be correspondent with a thing," I used the 

 word " thing " in the sense of " object " -i.^., a synthesis of sensa- 

 tions. This, of course, cannot properly be said to "represent" 

 anything, since a sensation is the simplest element of conscious- 

 ness. An object is not a re-presentation, but a direct presentation. 

 That a concept may be " non-valid " is clearly proved by the 

 concept of idealism in the mind of "J. S." It is especially funny 

 that he should commend to my notice a passage from G. U. Lewes, 

 which is not even Hylo-idealism, but pure Berkeleyism. C. N. 



[Following the argument of " C. N." to its logical conclusion, it 

 would seem that the sole difference between the audible suggestion 

 of the Demon of a gentleman in Hanwell, and a speech of Mr. 

 Gladstone is, that the one "is composed of the sensations and 

 thoughts" of an individual in confinement, and the other of those 

 of a reporter at large — Ed.] 



GASES AND GRAVITY. 



[1830]— In letter 1,805, What does " Hallyards " mean? Take 

 the case of a jar full of carbonic acid and hydrogen ; both gases 

 are resting on the ground. Why is this an exception to the uni- 

 versality of gravitation 'i " Hallyards " says that " carbonic acid 

 gas should always be the lowest." This seems equivalent to saying 

 that in a room full of people those of sixteen stone "should" be 

 on the floor with the lighter people sitting on them ! F. G. S. 



[Not quite ! Shake oil and water together in a bottle for half- 

 an-hour, and then set the bottle " on the ground," and you will 

 find that the oil will at once separate from the water and float on 

 the top of it.— Ed.] 



THE GENESIS OF THE MOON. 



[1831]— If there is " nothing impossible " in the "extravagant 

 paradox " cited by " Hallyards " (see letter 1770) concerning the 

 pre-lunar origin of the Arcadians, and the extraneous origin of the 

 moon, it is at least a paradox at variance with the few facts we 

 possess concerning the moon's early history, and the many 

 reasonable deductions which have been inferred from geology and 

 the consideration of the tides. 



That the tides are older than the possible age of man is scarcely 

 upeu t.i doubt, liivers, storms, glaciers, lic, are all inadequate to 

 acci'uut f.T ilu' xiiiirl |ihcnomena of geological formations. The 

 tiil.Hi an- a rii|iii>iii' au'riit, and not merely tides such as wo now 

 K<i', but tidi's uf luiuli f,'icater magnitude and power. In necessary 

 Bcquenco it is generally held that the tides are gradually subsiding, 

 a fact only to be explained by the supposition that the moon ia ever 

 widening its orbit, and that in earlier times it was in much closer 



