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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ter's views, particularly those bearing upon 

 the relations of theological and scientific 

 thought, underwent in the course of his tran- 

 sition from strict teleologism to the full ac- 

 ceptance of the theory of evolution. He 

 received his early education under the su- 

 perintendence of his father, a Unitarian min- 

 ister, who was accustomed to insist in his 

 teaching on the importance of bringing the 

 reasoning powers to bear upon observed 

 facts — a principle which the philosopher ap- 

 plied well in his after-studies. In his six- 

 teenth year he became interested in Mr. Ex- 

 ley's " New Theory of Matter," a book de- 

 voted to showing that " all the attractions 

 of gravitation, cohesion, electricity, chemi- 

 cal, magnetic, etc.," can be explained upon 

 the same principles. It was a first attempt 

 to demonstrate the correlation of forces. 

 While Dr. Carpenter was active in prosecut- 

 ing his physiological investigations, and had 

 already touched upon the similarity in the 

 character of the laws regulating vital and 

 physical phenomena, the affairs of his re- 

 ligious society obtained a nearly equal share 

 of his interest. He cultivated music, particu- 

 larly organ music, with great assiduity. With 

 this taste, and partly directing it, perhaps, 

 was associated the preparation of a collec- 

 tion of psalm-tunes for his little chapel at 

 Edinburgh. His adherence to the Unitarian 

 faith barred him from a professorship in the 

 university, for which he desired to be a can- 

 didate. When he had removed from Edin- 

 burgh, he felt the loss of public worship 

 more than any other inconvenience of his 

 situation, and wished he could be back at his 

 old post, where he could take his part in lead- 

 ing the "devotional feelings of the congre- 

 gation." When the " Vestiges of Creation " 

 appeared, a few of its conceptions were 

 found to be so similar to thoughts that he 

 had expressed, that some readers attributed 

 it to him ; but he was not prepared to ac- 

 cept the main doctrine of that book, and an- 

 swered it by saying that, as we had script- 

 ural authority for believing that the Creator 

 formed man out of the dust of the earth, he 

 must confess his predilection for believing 

 that the Creator had at some period " en- 

 dowed certain forms of organic matter with 

 the properties requisite to enable them to 

 combine at the fitting season into the hu- 

 man organism " — rather that that we are 



descended from a chimpanzee. He taught 

 that a common designed plan reigned in the 

 evolution of the solar system, of human 

 forms, and of the entire organic world ; be- 

 lieved thoroughly in the reality of miracles ; 

 and held that man is accountable to the Cre- 

 ator for all his acts, even those that are re- 

 ally God's own. While this was going on, his 

 views concerning the correlation of forces 

 were taking more definite shape, his studies 

 of the nervous system were becoming ex- 

 panded and leading him to modified opin- 

 ions concerning the will and moral responsi- 

 bility. When Darwin's " Origin of Species " 

 appeared, "he was well fitted to appreciate the 

 general argument," for he had long thought 

 on the subject of modification by descent, 

 and while he had rejected the theory of the 

 " Vestiges," " it had been on the grounds of 

 insufficient evidence and physiological error, 

 not from theological prepossession." He 

 had written to his brother Russell in 18*74, 

 that one of his great desires was " to be of 

 some use as a mediator in the conflict which 

 has now distinctly begun between science 

 and theology. I see quite clearly that it is 

 of no use to try to grapple with the subject 

 unless one thoroughly masters the question 

 on both sides." His views on the questions 

 raised by Darwin's theory are specifically ex- 

 pressed in a semi-autobiographical article on 

 " Darwinism in England," which he published 

 in Malta in 1881, and which is given in Mr. 

 Estlin Carpenter's "Memorial." His theo- 

 logical views were disturbed by this course 

 of thinking, but he wrote in a letter : " I 

 believe that these difficulties are a necessary 

 result of the habits of thought which have 

 been growing up with me ; and, as they never 

 obscure my view of duty, I find it better not 

 to trouble myself too much about them, but 

 to apply myself to the business of the time." 

 Through these difficulties, Dr. Carpenter, we 

 are told, " after no long interval, worked his 

 way. The strong religious needs of his na- 

 ture found their satisfaction in the view of 

 the world depicted in the later essays in this 

 volume." Of the essays in the present col- 

 lection, five relate to physiology, the brain, 

 muscular movement, and force ; three, to 

 man as the interpreter of nature, the psy- 

 chology of belief, and the " Fallacies of Tes- 

 timony in Relation to the Supernatural " ; 

 two, to human automatism ; one, to " The 



