Oct. 9, 1885.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



^^ AIM ILLJS-RATED ^Jt^ 



MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE^ 



MUINLYWORDED-EXACTLrDESCRlBED = 



LONDON: FRIDAY, OGTOBEE 9, 1885. 



CoNTKNTS OF No. 206. 



THE MYSTERY OP LIFE.* 



Br TUE Bisuop OF London. 



rrr^HE Bishop of London said that he desired to take 

 L X that opportunity of setting forth some traits in the 

 character of a religious physician — an outline, as it were, 

 of that ideal which shouUl ever be before the eyes of a 

 medical student who desired to be really worthy of the 

 noble profession to which he was devoting himself.] 



Look at the study, [Bishop Temple proceeded], by 

 which you are to prepare yourselves for the exercise of 

 yoiir future duty. The subject of that study is by far 

 the mo.st coiii|ih x, flir Tiuist finished, of all the works 

 of God. Lifi' itself is till- most mysterious thing we 

 know in the world of n; it lire. It seems to have no 



In so far as matter is subjected to any kind of either 

 mechanical or chemical action, these may involve almost 

 any degree of change in outer form, but the substance 

 appears to remain the same. As a proof of this, what- 

 ever may be done in this way may be undone. What has 

 been compounded may be resolved, what has been resolved 

 may bo ro-c(iiiii"'ini'l<Ml. Tlirro is no progress whatever, 

 although tlur.' iii;i\ In' inlinit.' viriely of combination. 

 There 'is no Iimt, isr . r |.o :,-il,,lii_\ ..f increase of the forces 



: uf tllr 



od . 



■ f I 



and xvlKit.vrr f,. 

 exactly what it n 

 and no particle 



no |,;,riirlr of it is annihilated 

 iiiMiil. Science seems equally 

 I Ik- oriL;lu;il quantity of force, 

 bL-iui;-, passing through every 

 variety of change, somutiiues showing itself in heat, 

 sometimes in light, sometimes in electricity, and some- 

 times in visible motion, nevertheless remains always the 

 same. Thus motion may be converted into heat, but 



be 



whatever heat is thus produced a corresponding amount 

 of motion must be destroyed. 



From this restraint life is free. It exists, it 

 communicated, it can be destroyed. But the 

 cation of life by one living form to another by no means 

 mvoh OS the destruction of life in that which first pos- 

 stsstdit 



And as life stands alone in its power of indefinite 

 incrtast .md diminution, so does it stand alone in the 

 mysttiy of its origin. The theory of spontaneous gene- 

 ration has been upset in every instance whenever it 

 seemed for a moment to be established. 



And while life is thus mysterious in its origin, how 

 wonderful also is it in its development. Nothing else 

 shows itself capable of such progressive ascent from 

 lower forms to higher, from simple to complex, from 

 plain to beautiful, from weak to powerful, from blind to 

 intelligent. Nothing else has in it the same wonderful 

 promise for the future to correspond with all that we 

 know or can reasonably infer from its history in the past. 

 The lui'iuirst liviuL;- creuture seems potentially far above 

 •lie 'J r::i;.|i -I IN i~~ ..f i 1 1: , 1 1 i I ; ill f c matter. 



' i ;,: . i ; ! I self, be thus marvellous, how 



I ■ I , II, I',, I', ' I- et perfect form when, in the. 



nd . 



iltic 



.if s-i 



of ii 



of the 



I .1 r 



each in succession rising abo\' ' utilwepass 



beyond the physical to the sjiirii i ■ ,' .ml lind our- 

 selves contemplating a being \\l:i.-:i. eL.::.-;;uition makes. 

 him akin to the Creator of all things, capable of under- 

 standing the laws according to which all things have been 

 made, of appreciating the order, the beauty, the sublimity 

 rie:.-ii- llie niiu und purpose to 



whi. 



iIm 



This is I lie : ■! I r 1 '■■ ! i'l ~iei ,n's ,ind the surgeon's 

 study, no otler e:,;i m:. l,i_'!ier. With what manly 

 revennce, ei|ii:illy removed from shallow and vulgar 

 coarseiies, an. I from silly superstition, will the religious 

 student i-eu;a-«l the human body which he studies, and' 

 which he daily iiuds more clearly proved to be the most 

 perfect of all Gud's works on earth ! In his studies he is 

 perpetually on the confines of that mysterious interval, 

 whatever it may be, which sefiarates mind from matter, 

 the spiritual from the physical. 



It is impossible for any lengthened investigation, 

 especially if we are examining disease, not to find mind 

 acting xivy seriously on matter in ways outside what we 



Ai. 1 " , , ' : : near connection of 



the I I- e : e , , i;, 1,. ,:, ,•. 1 1 | , i i , , ■ ' ^ i u' ious lif 6 aud w it ll 

 the pill .1 y, r. The tendency 



of SCI nee 11! , III,-: the proper subject 



of iiiiyei lo : I i' , : \ A this, not because 



there i> i!ie .i_; ,. :, ,,i,,ied by Science for 



ilonhiin-' ihe [nn^ei of i..iod, Lui I'lcuisc science leads us 

 nn re anil more to the belief that such interference is 

 exeee.linjly rare, and, therefore, that frequent inter- 

 fei-i me is not in accordance with the character of God's 

 government. The revertut and dutiful soul will shrink 

 from asking what there is real reason to believe tluxt it is 

 not His ivill to do. 



If we pr.iy for our friends in illness, yet there are 

 limits to what we can r. verently pray for. We could 

 not pray thai a man who had lest an arm should have 

 another in its ) lai c. The laws of our physical consti- 

 tution may be for purposes of .science we rightly assume 

 that they are — similar in character to all other physical 

 laws. But the spiritual comes in so strangely and some, 

 times so powerfully that we never know what may be 



