SCIENCE. 



SCIENCE: 



A Weekly Record of Scientific 

 Procr ess. 



JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 



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 SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1882. 



We refer our readers to another column of this issue 

 where a letter written by Professor George S. Morris, A. 

 M., of the University of Michigan, and Lecturer in 

 the Johns Hopkins University, may be found. This 

 letter is a reply to an editorial in the Popular 

 Science Monthly for January of this year, which 

 repudiates the assertion that Herbert Spencer is 

 an atheist, or that his writings have an atheistical 

 tendency, the writer claiming for Spencer that the 

 world is under an obligation to him for elevating 

 man's conceptions of the character of the Deity, 

 and that Spencer, so far from being an atheist, has 

 contributed new and powerful arguments for the 

 existence of an "Infinite and Eternal Spirit," and 

 further that Spencer is ever bringing us to the under- 

 lying truth and therefore doing the highest religious 

 work. 



As a masterpiece of special pleading the article in 

 the Popular Science Monthly to which we refer, 

 will be read with interest, and if it were possible to 

 reason or talk an Augean stable into cleanliness, the 

 editor of the Popular Science Monthly might have 

 succeeded in the task he had in hand. Professor 

 Morris has torn off the hypocritical mask of divinity 

 assumed by the editor of the Popular Science Monthly 

 for Herbert Spencer, and exposed the real nature of 

 his teachings. Had the editor of the Popular Science 

 Monthly merely claimed some mitigating circum- 

 stances,or some underlying truths in Spencer's teach- 

 ings which merited recognition, he might have suc- 

 ceeded in deceiving his readers, who he evidently 

 believes are at the mercy of his sophistry, but to 

 claim for Spencer, the position of a great reli- 

 gious teacher was proving too much, and gives a 



ludicrous aspect to the whole discussion. As Shake- 

 speare says : 



'Tis too much prov'd, — that with devotion's visage 

 And pious action, we do sugar o'er 

 The devil himself. 



Let us calmly examine what Herbert Spencer really 

 teaches, and to those who desire to follow us, and have 

 no time to wade through Spencer's voluminous works, 

 we advise a perusal of Professor Morris's valuable work, 

 " British Thought and Thinkers," published by S. C. 

 Griggs & Co. of Chicago. We will now make a few 

 quotations from this work, and as the author is a 

 teacher of this subject in two of the leading Univer- 

 sities in the United States, he may be acceptable as 

 an authority sufficient for our purpose. 



What is the "Infinite and Eternal Spirit" which 

 Spencer would have us accept as God ? Spencer 

 merely terms it u the unknowable" a something or a 

 nothing, which "is absolutely beyond our knowledge." 

 Whatever it may be " it does not come within the 

 range of sensitive consciousness." In plain English 

 this " unknowable " may be a God, a Devil, or it may 

 be an ether, electricity or anything else. One thing is 

 certain, that it is not spiritual and is devoid of intelli- 

 gence. 



All that relates to mind or matter is purely mechan- 

 ical in Mr. Spencer's estimation. He contemplates 

 man in common with the whole universe as the sub- 

 ject and scene only of purely mechanical, automatic, 

 irresponsible and unreasoning processes, in fact the 

 whole knowable universe is brought under the one 

 category of mechanism. 



Man is simply " sensitive flesh and blood alone," 

 his very individuality denied, for Spencer says that " ..he 

 reality of a belief in self admits of no justification." 

 Mind is a mere bundle of phenomena of a mechani- 

 cal nature, and consciousness simply " molecular oscil- 

 lations and the transmission of motion in the nervous 

 system," and as if to strike from man the last vestige of 

 his humanity, morality is annihilated, for good and evil 

 are measured by the amount of pleasure or pain 

 which results. Thus the perfect man, like the perfect 

 hog, is the one whose nervous organization is perfectly 

 adapted to surrounding physical conditions, the man 

 and the brute on one level, soulless and devoid of any 

 spiritual nature. 



Such is the Spencerian theology. Readers, picture 

 to yourselves such a God, and man as we have 

 described, and then knowing the real nature of his 

 teachings, imagine Herbert Spencer elevated to the 

 rank of a spiritual teacher who " is ever bringing us 

 near to the underlying truth, and therefore doing the 

 highest religious work," and the sickening hypocrisy 

 of this whole business is apparent. 



Well did the rugged philosopher Carlyle exclaim, 

 " There is but one thing without honor; smitten with 

 eternal barrenness; inability to do or be : Insincerity, 

 Unbelief. He who believes nothing, who believes 

 only the show of things, is not in relation with Nature 

 and Fact at all." 



Much more could and perhaps should be said on 



