THE BELFAST ADDRESS 



27 



a change the most exemplary man may 

 be converted into a debauchee or a mur- 

 derer. My very noble and approved 

 good master had, as you know, threaten- 

 ings of lewdness introduced into his 

 brain by his jealous wife's philter ; and 

 sooner than permit himself to run even 

 the risk of yielding to these base prompt- 

 ings he slew himself. How could the 

 hand of Lucretius have been thus turned 

 against himself if the real Lucretius 

 remained as before ? Can the brain or 

 can it not act in this distempered way 

 without the intervention of the immortal 

 reason? If it can, then it is a prime 

 mover which requires only healthy regu- 

 lation to render it reasonably self-acting, 

 and there is no apparent need of your 

 immortal reason at all. If it cannot, 

 then the immortal reason, by its mis- 

 chievous activity in operating upon a 

 broken instrument, must have the credit 

 of committing every imaginable extrava- 

 gance and crime. I think, if you will 

 allow me to say so, that the gravest 

 consequences are likely to flow from 

 your estimate of the body. To regard 

 the brain as you would a staff or an 

 eyeglass to shut your eyes to all its 

 mystery, to the perfect correlation of its 

 condition and our consciousness, to the 

 fact that a slight excess or defect of 

 blood in it produces the very swoon to 

 which you refer, and that in relation to 

 it our meat, and drink, and air, and 

 exercise have a perfectly transcendental 

 value and significance to forget all 

 this does, I think, open a way to innu- 

 merable errors in our habits of life, and 

 may possibly, in some cases, initiate and 

 foster that very disease, and consequent 

 mental ruin, which a wiser appreciation 

 of this mysterious organ would have 

 avoided." 



I can imagine the Bishop thoughtful 

 after hearing this argument. He was 

 not the man to allow anger to mingle 

 with the consideration of a point of this 

 kind. After due reflection, and having 

 strengthened himself by that honest 

 contemplation of the facts which was 

 habitual with him, and which includes 



the desire to give even adverse reasonings 

 their due weight, I can suppose the 

 Bishop to proceed thus : " You will 

 remember that in the Analogy of Religion, 

 of which you have so kindly spoken, I 

 did not profess to prove anything abso- 

 lutely, and that I over and over again 

 acknowledged and insisted on the small- 

 ness of our knowledge, or rather the 

 depth of our ignorance, as regards the 

 whole system of the universe. My object 

 was to show my deistical friends, who 

 set forth so eloquently the beauty and 

 beneficence of Nature and the Ruler 

 thereof, while they had nothing but scorn 

 for the so-called absurdities of the Chris- 

 tian scheme, that they were in no better 

 condition than we were, and that, for 

 every difficulty found upon our side, 

 quite as great a difficulty was to be found 

 upon theirs. I will now, with your per- 

 mission, adopt a similar line of argument. 

 You are a Lucretian, and from the com- 

 bination and separation of insensate 

 atoms deduce all terrestrial things, includ- 

 ing organic forms and their phenomena. 

 Let me tell you in the first instance how 

 far I am prepared to go with you. I 

 admit that you can build crystalline 

 forms out of this play of molecular force ; 

 that the diamond, amethyst, and snow- 

 star are truly wonderful structures which 

 are thus produced. I will go farther, and 

 acknowledge that even a tree or flower 

 might in this way be organised. Nay, if 

 you can show me an animal without 

 sensation, I will concede to you that it 

 also might be put together by the 

 suitable play of molecular force. 



" Thus far our way is clear, but now 

 comes my difficulty. Your atoms are 

 individually without sensation ; much 

 more are they without intelligence. May 

 I ask you, then, to try your hand upon 

 this problem ? Take your dead hydrogen 

 atoms, your dead oxygen atoms, your 

 dead carbon atoms, your dead nitrogen 

 atoms, your dead phosphorus atoms, and 

 all the other atoms, dead as grains of 

 shot, of which the brain is formed. 

 Imagine them separate and sensationless ; 

 observe them running together and 



