appearance is this union with the body! Sensation extends to every part
of it, every fibre is instinct with life, and the direction of the will
is absolute and immediate over every muscle and joint, as if the whole
fabric and its tenant were one homogeneous system. The will tires not of
its supremacy, and is not wearied with the number of volitions required
of it to keep every joint in action, and every organ performing its
proper function. It would not delegate the control of the fingers to an
inferior power, nor contrive mechanical or automatic means for moving
the extremities. Within its sphere, it is sole sovereign, and is not
perplexed with the variety and constant succession of its duties,
extending to every part of the complex structure of which it is the
animating and directing spirit. Sensation is not cumbered with the
multitude of impressions it receives, nor is the fineness of perception
dulled by repeated exercise. The sharpness of its edge rather improves
by use, and we become more heedful of its lightest intimations. Is it
irreverent, then, to suppose that this union of body and soul shadows
forth the connection between the material universe and the Infinite One?
How else, indeed, can we attach any meaning to the attributes of
omnipresence and omnipotence? The unity of action, the regularity of
antecedence and consequence in outward events, which we commonly
designate by the lame metaphor of _law_, then become the fitting
expression of the consistent doings of an all-wise Being, in whom there
is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. The Creator, then, is no
longer banished from his creation, nor is the latter an orphan, or a
deserted child. It is not a great machine, that was wound up at the
beginning, and has continued to run on ever since, without aid or
direction from its artificer. As well might we conceive of the body of a
man moving about, and performing all its appropriate functions, without
the principle of life, or the indwelling of an immortal soul. The
universe is not lifeless or soulless. It is informed by God's spirit,
pervaded by his power, moved by his wisdom, directed by his beneficence,
controlled by his justice.
"Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet."
The harmony of physical and moral laws is not a mere fancy, nor a forced
analogy; they are both expressions of the same will, manifestations of
the same spirit.
The objection, that it is beneath the dignity of the Almighty--[Greek:
autourgein hapanta]--to put his hand to every thing--is founded on a
false analogy, as is seen by the form in which Aristotle states it. "If
it befit not the state and majesty of Xerxes, the great king of Persia,
that he should stoop to do all the meanest offices himself, much less
can this be thought suitable for God." The two cases do not correspond
in the very feature essential to the argument. An earthly potentate,
unable to execute with his own hand all the affairs of which he has
control, is obliged to delegate the larger portion of them to his
servants; selecting the lightest part for himself, he gratifies his
pride by calling it also the noblest, though the distinction is
factitious, there being no real difference, in point of honor or
dignity, between them. Omnipotence needs no minister, and is not
exhausted or wearied by the cares of a universe. Power in action is more
truly sublime than power in repose; and surely it is not derogatory to
divine energy to sustain and continue that which it was certainly not
beneath divine wisdom to create and appoint. Rightly considered, to
guide the falling of a leaf from a tree is an office as worthy of
omnipotence, as the creation of a world. "Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your
Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."
Equally lame is the oft-repeated comparison of the universe to a machine
of man's device, which is considered the more perfect the less mending
or interposition it requires. A machine is a labor-saving contrivance,
fitted to supply the weakness and deficiencies of him who uses it. Where
the want does not exist, it is absurd to suppose the creation of the
remedy. Human conceptions of the Deity are for ever at fault in imputing
to him the errors and deficiencies which belong to our own limited
faculties and dependent condition. Hence the idea of the Epicureans,
that sublime indifference and unbroken repose are the only states of
being worthy of the gods. Viewed in the light of true philosophy, no
less than of Christianity, how base and grovelling does this conception
appear! The sublime description of the pagan poet becomes the fitting
expression and defence of the very theory it was designed to
controvert:--
"Nam (proh sancta Deum tranquilla pectora pace,
Quae placidum degunt aevum, vitamque serenam!)
Quis regere immensi summam, quis habere profundi
Indu manu validas potis est moderanter habenas?
Quis pariter coelos omneis convertere? et omneis
Ignibus aetheriis terras suffire feraceis?
Omnibus inque locis esse omni tempore presto?
Nubibus ut tenebras faciat, coelique serena
Concutiat sonitu? tum fulmina mittat, et aedeis
Saepe suas disturbet?"
Returning to the theory of our author, may we not now characterize it as
at once unfounded in its details, inconceivable in its operation, and
vulgar and mechanical in its design? Considered in their proper aspect,
and by the light of a sound philosophy, whatever well accredited facts
or legitimate deductions he has gleaned from the whole field of modern
science afford the most striking evidence and illustration of that view
of creation which is directly at variance with his own hypothesis. He
has, in fact, exposed the insufficiency of what are called organic or
mechanical laws to supply the losses, and bridge over the interruptions,
that have occurred in the world's history. Geology has rendered at
least one signal service to the cause of natural religion, by
effectually doing away with the old atheistic objection, that, for aught
we know, the present constitution of things never had a beginning, but
has gone on for ever renewing itself in an endless series of
generations. Science now tells us distinctly, that time was when "the
earth was without form and void," no animated thing appearing "upon the
face of the deep"; that afterwards, "the waters were gathered together
unto one place, and the dry land appeared." Then "the earth brought
forth grass, and herb yielding seed _after his kind_, and the tree
yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind." Next was
fulfilled the command, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving
creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the
open firmament of heaven." Then appeared "the beast of the earth after
his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth
upon the earth after his kind." Last of all, "God created man in his own
image, male and female created he them." We are not merely quoting
Scripture; we are repeating the facts positively affirmed by the
geologists, and incorporated by our author into his "history"--as
authentic leaves taken from the "stone book"--_in the same order_ in
which they are narrated in the first chapter of Genesis. The coincidence
in the order of succession is certainly remarkable.
Geology farther informs us, that, at different times, all the animated
tribes which had peopled the earth's surface passed away, or became
extinct, and were replaced by new species of different organization and
characteristics; and probably at many other periods, as well as on
occasions of some great catastrophe in the earth's crust, races wholly
unlike any that had preceded them were introduced, from time to time, as
new inhabitants of the globe. Here, then, was an absolute necessity for
the continuous operation of an intelligent creative power, apart from
the blind mechanical laws, which, at the utmost, could only allow each
species, once introduced, to continue its kind. The marvellous
adaptations of these new races to the altered conditions of the earth's
surface when they appeared, then, become additional proofs of the wisdom
and constant oversight of a designing Creator. They came not till all
things were ready; they appeared when the extinction of former tribes
had left a gap for them in the scale of being. The gradual development
of what are called the powers of nature,--or, to speak more
intelligibly, the successive improvements in the habitations intended
for higher and higher races of animated life,--and the similarity of
plan on which these races were organized, the scheme being preserved in
all its essential features through countless generations, show unity of
design, and prove that the works of creation, however separated in time,
must be attributed to _one_ intelligent author. The same conclusion
follows almost irresistibly from the gradations at present observable
both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, so that all the races may be
arranged, not indeed in a linear series, but in families or groups,
bearing analogous relations to each other, and showing a general
progress from the more simple to the more complex forms. Surely, these
facts, so clearly explained by our author, instead of sustaining the
corpuscular philosophy, directly militate with it, and afford the most
satisfactory proof of the doctrine of the theist, and the theory of
continuous divine agency. We have hardly ever met with a book that
furnished more complete materials for its own refutation.
After all, the question is a very simple one. We have only to decide
whether it is more likely, that the complex system of things in the
midst of which we live,--the beautiful harmonies between the organic and
inorganic world, the nice arrangements and curious adaptations that
obtain in each, the simplicity and uniformity of the general plan to
which the vast multitude of details may be reduced,--was built up, and
is now sustained, by one all-wise and all-powerful Being, or by
particles of brute matter, acting of themselves, without direction,
interference, or control. We cannot now say, that possibly the system
never had a beginning, but has always existed under the form in which it
now appears to us; geology has disproved _that_ supposition most
effectually. Choose ye, then, between mind and matter, between an
intelligent being and a stone, for the parentage and support of this
wonderful system. For our own part, we will adopt the conclusion of one
of the most eloquent of those old pagan philosophers, on whose eyes the
light of immediate revelation never dawned:--"_Hic ego non mirer esse
quemquam, qui sibi persuadeat, corpora quaedam solida atque individua vi
et gravitate ferri, mundumque effici ornatissimum et pulcherrimum ex
corum corporum concursione fortuita? Quod si mundum efficere potest
concursus atomorum, cur porticum, cur templum, cur domum, cur urbem non
potest, quae sunt minus operosa, et multo quidem faciliora? Certe ita
temere de mundo effutiunt, ut mihi quidem nunquam hunc admirabilem
coeli ornatum, qui locus est proximus, suspexisse videantur._"
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: _N. A. Review_, Vol. LVI., pp. 339-351.]
[Footnote 2: "It is inconceivable, that inanimate brute matter should,
without the mediation of something else, which is not material, operate
upon and affect other matter without mutual contact, as it must, if
gravitation, in the sense of Epicurus, be essential and inherent in it.
And this is one reason why I desired you would not ascribe innate
gravity to me. That gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to
matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance through a
_vacuum_, without the mediation of any thing else, by and through which
their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so
great an absurdity, that I believe no man, who has in philosophical
matters a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it. Gravity
must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain
laws."--_Newton's letter in Bentley's Works_, Vol. III., pp. 211, 212.]
[Footnote 3: And yet, so strong is the propensity to metaphor, that
scientific men talk of the _vis inertiae_ as a true force, though the
ideas expressed by the two Latin words are certainly incongruous. The
mistake here arises from confounding inertness, or resistance to
force,--a merely negative idea,--with the true force which is necessary
to overcome it; or rather, since force can only be measured by its
results, and must always be adequate to the effect produced, inquirers
have adopted the convenient hypothesis of two antagonistic forces, not
always recollecting that one of them is merely passive.]