143 



it is natural to us to ask how he knows even that it is a 

 'Equality" of matter at all? That is a pure assumption. 

 If then, the human mind in its scientific imagina- 

 tions is permitted to "look behind the germ/^ and siatency ^°with 

 think of " the genesis/^ or the pre-phenomenal H^^^^^ *°*^^* 

 origin, we cannot understand why religious thought 

 may not also move in the same direction, without being subject 

 to that unreasonable scorn which it is easy indeed to assume, 

 but impossible for thoughtful persons to feel. 



Dr. Tyndall tells us that some of the chemists recoil from 

 certain of his notions as to atoms and molecules, while they 

 are reverting without hesitation to the undulatory theory of 

 light ( — not yet, perhaps, quite triumphant) — (p. 136). He 

 points out to them, we think rightly, the vagueness and im- 

 possibility of that theory, if the atomic system be denied. He 

 bids us " ask our imagination, if it will accept a vibrating 

 multiple proportion, a numerical ratio in a state of oscillation ? 

 Let us ask him, in our turn, to be as clear and distinct as he 

 would have his chemical friends to be. If he " will focus his 

 seeking intellect so as to give definition without penumbral 

 haze (we use his own terms) " he will hardly be able to crown 

 his edifice with such abstractions as motion and force/' — or 

 "push,'' or "pull." 



16. To our mind then. Dr. Tyndall's own admissions convict 

 him of inconsistency, which is a very serious thing, as it implies 

 a powerful animus stirring him to unreasonable op- ^j^j^ 

 positions and dislikes. We appeal to himself and previoaa ad- 

 all competent thinkers, whether he has any right as a 

 scientific man, or any foundation as a reasoner, when he indites 

 a vigorous passage at page 93 of his book, as a sort of " Lay 

 Sermon ; for if we admit the first half of that passage, we shall 

 find that we destroy all excuse for the rest. " If you ask me '' 

 (he says), "whether science has solved, or is likely in our day 

 to solve, the problem of this universe, I must shake my head in 

 doubt. You remember the first Napoleon's question when the 

 savans who accompanied him to Egypt discussed in his pre- 

 sence the origin of the universe, and solved it to their own 

 apparent satisfaction. He looked aloft to the starry heavens and 

 said, ^ It is all very well, gentlemen ; but who made all these ? ' 

 That question still remains unanswered, and science makes no 

 attempt to answer it. As far as I can see, there is no quality in 

 the human intellect which is fit to be applied to the solution of 



the problem. It entirely transcends us Behind, and 



above, and around all, the real mystery of this universe lies un 

 solved, and as far as we are concerned, is insoluble,'^ Su 

 being the avowal of science; the writer then goes off 



