SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 20 



What the man of science asserts is that 

 he will not admit that anything is ' arbi- 

 trary.' "It was the ignorance of man's 

 reason that begat this very name, and by a 

 careless term miscalled the Providence of 

 God ; for there is no liberty for causes to 

 operate in a loose and straggling way."* 



Belief that everything in nature is me- 

 chanical is neither more nor less than belief 

 that everything in nature is orderly and 

 what might have been expected ; and if any 

 one thinks that discovery that things do 

 take place in order is any reason why they 

 should, his distrust of science is only rea- 

 sonable ; for science is not for such minds 

 as his. 



It is in my mind to ask a question. Will 

 any amount of knowledge of matter and 

 motion tell the evolutionist whether I shall 

 ask it or pass it by and go on to another 

 subject ? If he answer Yes I ask my ques- 

 tion : How does he know ? If he assure me 

 that a being so reasonable as I am known 

 to be will not ask anything that might not 

 have been expected I thank him for the 

 compliment, for I try to be a reasonable 

 creature. But if he assert that his confidence 

 in my thoughts and actions proves that they 

 are necessary I must ask him how he knows ; 

 for I fail to see how proof that an event is 

 mechanical and neither less nor more than 

 might have been expected shows that it is 

 necessary; nor can I see any more reason 

 why my confidence in my freedom proves 

 that my acts are arbitrary. 



The man of science quarrels with no 

 man's opinions, but he will not be held 

 responsible for perplexities which are none 

 of his making. 



I am unable to share the dread of the 

 evolutionist that the basis of science may 

 be destroyed if we do not admit that all na- 

 ture must be determinate. All agree that 

 the past is determinate, so far as the word 

 means anything to us, and there seems to 



* Eelia:io Jledici. 



be valid ground for the belief that every 

 part of the material universe contains a 

 permanent record of every change which 

 has ever occurred in any part. 



" If on a cold polished metal, as a new 

 razor, any object, such as a wafer, be laid, 

 and the metal be breathed upon, and, when 

 the moisture has had time to disappear, the 

 wafer be thrown oidf, though now the most 

 critical inspection of the polished surface 

 can discern no trace of any form, if we 

 breathe once more upon it, a spectral image 

 of the wafer comes plainly into view, and this 

 may be done again and again. Nay, more, 

 if the polished metal be carefully put aside, 

 where nothing can deteriorate its surface, 

 and be kept so for manj' months, on 

 breathing upon it again the shadowy form 

 emerges. A shadow never falls upon a 

 wall without leaving thereupon a perma- 

 nent trace, a trace which might be made 

 visible by resorting to proper processes. 

 Upon the walls of our most private apart- 

 ments, where we think the eye of intrusion 

 is altogether shut out, and our retirement 

 can never be profaned, there exist the 

 vestiges of all our acts."* 



Babbage has pointed out ( ' Ninth Bridge- 

 water Treatise,' pp. 113-115) " that if 

 we had power to follow and detect the 

 minutest efifects of any disturbance each 

 particle of existing matter would furnish a 

 register of all that has happened. The 

 track of every canoe, of every vessel that 

 has as yet disturbed the surface of the 

 ocean, whether impelled by manual force 

 or elemental power, remains forever reg- 

 istered in the future movement of all suc- 

 ceeding particles which may occupy its 

 place. The furrow which it left is, indeed, 

 instantly filled up by the closing waters, 

 but they draw after them other and larger 

 portions of the surrounding element, and 

 these again, once moved, communicate mo- 

 tion to others in endless succession. The 



* Draper, ' Conflict of Science and Religion. ' 



