THE NEGLECT OF METAPHYSICS. 



By J. E. CAIRNS, B.Sc. 



The latter half of the nineteenth century beheld a startlingly 

 sudden advance of science unparalleled in the history of the 

 world before; a true Scientific Renaissance. It was the publi- 

 cation of " The Origin of Species " which probably pulled the 

 trigger and released the vast stores of energy which threatened 

 to change completely the face of the world ; but the mines 

 had been laid long before, and the time had at last grown 

 ripe for their discharging. The world called for men and the 

 men came. In biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, giant 

 intellects sprang to the fore ; discovery followed discovery, 

 theories were conceived only to be supplanted before their 

 birth, and the array of new facts grew so amazingly that the 

 mind was stunned and bewildered before the dazzling display 

 of treasures that were heaped before it. Though confounded 

 at first by its " sudden joy," the mind soon took on a some- 

 what calmer mood in which it could appreciate its new riches, 

 and it conned them over and over again with ever-widening 

 and ever-deepening delight, till at last the wild excitement of 

 attainment gave place to the wilder excitement of possession. 

 Then ensued a period of what to us now appears like intel- 

 lectual debauchery : a time of rash assertion, of bitter con- 

 troversy between those who were conceited with their 

 knowledge and those who were conceited with their ignorance; 

 a pitifully hysterical display of nouveanx riches, a cruelly 

 uncompromising attitude of oracularism. 



In those days — they seem so long ago, though in truth so 

 recent ! — one heard on every hand the stupendous promises of 

 science ; that it alone was capable of explaining away all the 

 problems of the Universe, and that it would make for mankind 

 a bed on which to lay his perplexed head in peace, — a hard 

 bed perhaps, but surely preferable to the soft "pillow of 

 obscure ideas " on which he had dreamed so restlessly so 

 long ! Science was rapidly assuming the role of the fairy- 

 godmother, that unworthy role which Huxley so bitterly 

 deprecated. 



So it was then ; and now, at the beginning of the second 

 decade of the twentieth century, what has it all come to ? the 

 sweat of the conflict, the paeans of the victors, the woe of the 

 vanquished — what has come of them all ? For now the 

 struggle is over, save for some inconsequential skirmishes that 

 still go on among those who have not yet realised that the 

 whole war was but the striving of phantoms over a shadow ; 

 it is over and forces have been reviewed, losses told and 

 trophies counted. And here both sides have found that their 

 losses proved to be their gains, and their trophies were so 

 stained with the marks of meaner passions that they were 

 ashamed to vaunt them. But what of the grandiloquent 

 promises that science made to its partisans ? Have these 

 been redeemed, and are the great world-riddles all answered ? 



We know now the promises were vain ; the boasted 

 omniscience but the empty wisdom of intoxication. The 

 phase has passed, and now we know that science has not 

 answered, and cannot answer the clamouring questions 

 regarding human destiny. Soul, mind, consciousness — 

 death, immortality, God, — of these, the physical science that 

 has spoken so loudly for itself knows nothing. Indeed, it has 

 not even a satisfactory criterion of reality to apply to the 

 subject-matter of its own studies ; it assumes reality where it 

 knows only appearance. These other vitally important 

 questions it cannot in the very nature of things hope to 

 answer, and they are left to a few enthusiasts whose feeble 

 voices have been almost drowned in the swelling triumph 

 hymn of their brothers in the physical camp. There are 

 aspects of the universe which are not amenable to investiga- 

 tion by retort, microscope or galvanometer, and this the 

 physicist must remember and thereby calm his too-arrogant 

 enthusiasm. 



Let us enquire for a moment into the grounds for this 

 enthusiasm of the scientific man — always meaning by that 



term the student of the physical or material aspect of the 

 universe. At first sight these seem very solid, and the 

 enthusiastic assertions quite justifiable. We think of the 

 theory of natural selection ; of the discovery of radio-activity ; 

 of the hypothesis of the electro-etherial constitution of matter; 

 and the thrill of intellectual satisfaction we experience shows 

 us that these things are good for man to know. We remem- 

 ber wireless telegraphy, X-rays, the transmutation of the 

 elements, the possibility of utilising the almost infinite stores 

 of energy that is within the atom, and science becomes the 

 fairy-godmother again. 



We cannot praise too highly the genius and the patience of 

 those who have learned these things from nature and given 

 them to man. The splendour of the results achieved by 

 modern science is fully appreciated by us all, and to the 

 modern scientific man all pay their homage. It is when he 

 is raised to be a brother of the gods, with his fingers on all the 

 springs that direct the cosmos, that justifiable enthusiasm 

 degenerates into rank hysteria. 



For in these results, which as records of human ingenuity 

 are so splendid, no really vital interests are touched. True, 

 the idea of unity and of beautiful inter-dependence which 

 they give reflects back on our moral life and influences our 

 conduct ; but it is only a reflexion, not a direct effect. They 

 have made the great mysteries of the whence ? the why ? the 

 whither ? no clearer ; and these are for mankind the real 

 vital questions, to which the nature of Nature is only an 

 embellishment. 



The value of the work that has been done in science none 

 can gainsay, but it sinks into comparative insignificance before 

 the value of the work that has not been done. For mankind, 

 the study of the physical universe is of great importance, but 

 still its importance is only secondary to the knowledge of the 

 things that are not seen but are eternal. Not that we want a 

 Comte of the spiritual, obstructing all knowledge save such as 

 seems useful. It is a conceited presumption that pretends to 

 be able to demarcate useful from useless knowledge. Our 

 insight — especially of us physicists of the West — is not 

 sufficiently clear to justify such a position. Yet at the same 

 time, while not absolutely decrying any knowledge, we may 

 easily see that some things are of more importance to mankind 

 than others are. And here is the parting of the ways ; this is 

 the question that splits the company, the question that 

 Herbert Spencer asked explicitly, and every other philosopher 

 asked implicitly — What knowledge is of most worth ? 



Spencer answered this question to his own satisfaction by 

 the single word — Science ! This was, without doubt, the true 

 answer for the time. Science was then the knowledge of most 

 worth, it was the knowledge the world needed most. But it is 

 not the true answer now. The world has had its science, and 

 has thriven upon it ; but now, after a gorgeous feast, repletion 

 is approaching. 



Science is growing stultified and engendering stultification. 

 Having neglected things of the spirit and concentrated its 

 attention on matter and force, it has become " of the earth, 

 earthy." Man is growing dissatisfied with the description of 

 himself in terms of chemical equations and mathematical 

 formulae, and nothing more. He knows there is something 

 more, and consequently is annoyed when his darling science 

 persistently ignores it, and sometimes denies it. And, as well, 

 there is a rankling vindictiveness against this science, which 

 cut the wings of his airy fancies thirty or forty years ago, and 

 left him to crawl along the ground since. 



There is a feeling of unrest, of incipient rebellion ; a stirring 

 of resentment against the salt that has lost its savour. The 

 very men of science themselves are casting about after wider 

 things. 



If we look plainly at the fact then we must admit that 

 science has failed. It has given us a world without a God, a 



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