THE ANSWER FROM THE MICROSCOPE.
1. It is not my business, nor my intention, to criticize the remarkable
work of Chalmers to which I have so often referred. But I may say, that
the arguments there employed by him, so far as they go upon astronomical
or philosophical grounds, are of great weight; and upon the whole, such
as we may both assent to, as scientifically true, and accept as
rationally persuasive. I think, however, that there are other arguments,
also drawn from scientific discoveries, which bear, in a very important
and striking manner, upon the opinions in question, and which Chalmers
has not referred to; and I conceive that there are philosophical views
of another kind, which, for those who desire and who will venture to
regard the Universe and its Creator in the wider and deeper relations
which appear to be open to human speculation, may be a source of
satisfaction. When certain positive propositions, maintained as true
while they are really highly doubtful, have given rise to difficulties
in the minds of religious persons, other positive propositions,
combating these, propounded and supported by argument, that they may be
accepted according to their evidence, may, at any rate, have force
enough to break down and dissipate such loosely founded difficulties. To
present to the reader's mind such speculations as I have thus
indicated, is the object of the following pages. They can, of course,
pretend to no charm, except for persons who are willing to have their
minds occupied with such difficulties and such speculations as I have
referred to. Those who are willing to be so employed, may, perhaps, find
in what I have to say something which may interest them. For, of the
arguments which I have to expound, some, though they appear to me both
very obvious and very forcible, have never, so far as I am aware, been
put forth in that religious bearing which seems to belong to them; and
others, though aspiring to point out in some degree the relation of the
Universe and its Creator, are of a very simple kind; that is, for minds
which are prepared to deal with such subjects at all.
2. As I have said, the arguments with which we are here concerned refer
both to Natural Religion and to Revealed Religion; and there is one of
Chalmers' arguments, bearing especially upon the former branch of the
subject, which I may begin by noticing. Among the thoughts which, it was
stated, might naturally arise in men's minds, when the telescope
revealed to them an innumerable multitude of worlds besides the one
which we inhabit, was this: that the Governor of the Universe, who has
so many worlds under his management, cannot be conceived as bestowing
upon this Earth, and its various tribes of inhabitants, that care which,
till then, Natural Religion had taught men that he does employ, to
secure to man the possession and use of his faculties of mind and body;
and to all animals the requisites of animal existence and animal
enjoyment. And upon this Chalmers remarks, that just about the time when
science gave rise to the suggestion of this difficulty, she also gave
occasion to a remarkable reply to it. Just about the same time that the
invention of the _Telescope_ showed that there were innumerable worlds,
which might have inhabitants requiring the Creator's care as much as the
tribes of this earth do,--the invention of the _Microscope_ showed that
there were, in this world, innumerable tribes of animals, which had been
all along enjoying the benefits of the Creator's care, as much as those
kinds with which man had been familiar from the beginning. The telescope
suggested that there might be dwellers in Jupiter or in Saturn, of giant
size and unknown structure, who must share with us the preserving care
of God. The microscope showed that there had been, close to us,
inhabiting minute crevices and crannies, peopling the leaves of plants,
and the bodies of other animals, animalcules of a minuteness hitherto
unguessed, and of a structure hitherto unknown, who had been always
sharers with us in God's preserving care. The telescope brought into
view worlds as numerous as the drops of water which make up the ocean;
the microscope brought into view a world in almost every drop of water.
Infinity in one direction was balanced by infinity in the other. The
doubts which men might feel as to what God could do, were balanced by
certainties which they discovered, as to what he had always been doing.
His care and goodness could not be supposed to be exhausted by the
hitherto known population of the earth, for it was proved that they had
not hitherto been confined to that population. The discovery of new
worlds at vast distances from us, was accompanied by the discovery of
new worlds close to us, even in the very substances with which we were
best acquainted; and was thus rendered ineffective to disturb the belief
of those who had regarded the world as having God for its governor.
3. This is a striking reflection, and is put by Chalmers in a very
striking manner; and it is well fitted to remove the scruples to which
it is especially addressed. If there be any persons to whom the
astronomical discoveries which the telescope has brought to light,
suggests doubts or difficulties with regard to such truths of Natural
Religion as God's care for and government of the inhabitants of the
earth, the discoveries of the many various forms of animalcular life
which the microscope has brought to light are well fitted to remove such
doubts, and to solve such difficulties. We may easily believe that the
power of God to sustain and provide for animal life, animal sustenance,
animal enjoyment, can suffice for innumerable worlds besides this,
without being withdrawn or distracted or wearied in this earth; for we
find that it does suffice for innumerable more inhabitants of this earth
than we were before aware of. If we had imagined before, that, in
conceiving God as able and willing to provide for the life and pleasure
of all the sentient beings which we knew to exist upon the earth, we had
formed an adequate notion of his power and of his goodness, these
microscopical discoveries are well adapted to undeceive us. They show us
that all the notions which our knowledge, hitherto, had enabled us to
form of the powers and attributes of the Creator and Preserver of all
living things, are vastly, are immeasurably below the real truth of the
case. They show us that God, as revealed to us in the animal creation,
is the Author and Giver of life, of the organization which life implies,
of the contrivances by which it is conducted and sustained, of the
enjoyment by which it is accompanied,--to an extent infinitely beyond
what the unassisted vision of man could have suggested. The facts which
are obvious to man, from which religious minds in all ages have drawn
their notions and their evidence of the Divine power and goodness, care
and wisdom, in providing for its creatures, require, we find, to be
indefinitely extended, in virtue of the new tribes of minute creatures,
and still new tribes, and still more minute, which we find existing
around us. The views of our Natural Theology must be indefinitely
extended on one side; and therefore we need not be startled or disturbed
at having to extend them indefinitely on the other side;--at having to
believe that there are, in other worlds, creatures whom God has created,
whom he sustains in life, for whom he provides the pleasures of life, as
he does for the long unsuspected creatures of this world.
4. This is, I say, a reflection which might quiet the mind of a person,
whom astronomical discoveries had led to doubt of the ordinary doctrines
of Natural Religion. But, I think, it may be questioned, whether, to
produce such doubts, is a common or probable effect of an acquaintance
with astronomical discoveries. Undoubtedly, by such discoveries, a
person who believes in God, in his wisdom, power, and goodness, on the
evidence of the natural world, is required to extend and exalt his
conceptions of those Divine Attributes. He had believed God to be the
Author of many forms of life;--he finds him to be the Author of still
more forms of life. He had traced many contrivances in the structure of
animals, for their sustentation and well-being; his new discoveries
disclose to him (for that is undoubtedly among the effects of
microscopic researches) still more nice contrivances. He had seen reason
to think that all sentient beings have their enjoyments; he finds new
fields of enjoyment of the same kind. But in all this, there is little
or nothing to disturb the views and convictions of the Natural
Theologian. He must, even by the evidence of facts patent to ordinary
observation, have been led to believe that the Divine Wisdom and Power
are not only great, but great in a degree which we cannot fathom or
comprehend;--that they are, to our apprehension, infinite: his new
discoveries only confirm the impression of this infinite character of
the Divine Attributes. He had before believed the existence of an
intelligent and wise Creator, on the evidence of the marks of design and
contrivance, which the creation exhibited: of such design and
contrivance he discovers new marks, new examples. He had believed that
God is good, because he found those contrivances invariably had the good
of the creature for their object: he finds, still, that this is the
general, the universal scheme of the creation, now when his view of it
is extended. He has no difficulty in expanding his religious
conceptions, to correspond with his scientific discoveries, so far as
the microscope is the instrument of discovery; there is no reason why he
should have any more difficulty in doing the same, when the telescope is
his informant. It is true, that in this case the information is more
imperfect. It does not tell him, even that there are living inhabitants
in the regions which it reveals; and, consequently, it does not disclose
any of those examples of design which belong to the structure of living
things. But if we suppose, from analogy, that there are living things in
those regions, we have no difficulty in conceiving, from analogy also,
that those living things are constructed with a care and wisdom such as
appear in the inhabitants of earth. It will not readily or commonly
occur to a speculator on such subjects, that there is any source of
perplexity or unbelief, in such an assumption of inhabitants of other
worlds, even if we make the assumption. It is as easy, it may well and
reasonably be thought, for God to create a population for the planets as
to make the planets themselves;--as easy to supply Jupiter with tenants,
as with satellites;--as easy to devise the organization of an inhabitant
of Saturn, as the structure and equilibrium of Saturn's ring. It is no
more difficult for the Universal Creator to extend to those bodies the
powers which operate in organized matter, than the powers which operate
in brute matter. It is as easy for Him to establish circulation and
nutrition in material structures, as cohesion and crystallization, which
we must suppose the planetary masses to possess; or attraction and
inertia, which we know them to possess. No doubt, to our conception,
organization appears to be a step beyond cohesion; circulation of living
fluids, a step beyond crystallization of dead masses:--but then, it is
in tracing such steps, that we discern the peculiar character of the
Creator's agency. He does not merely work with mechanical and chemical
powers, as man to a certain extent can do; but with organic and vital
powers, which man cannot command. The Creator, therefore, can animate
the dust of each planet, as easily as make the dust itself. And when
from organic life we rise to sentient life, we have still only another
step in the known order of Creative Power. To create animals, in any
province of the Universe, cannot be conceived as much more
incomprehensible or incredible, than to create vegetables. No doubt, the
addition of the living and sentient principle to the material, and even
to the organic structure, is a mighty step; and one which may, perhaps,
be made the occasion of some speculative suggestions, in a subsequent
part of this Essay; but still, it is not likely that any one, who had
formed his conceptions of the Divine Mind from its manifestations in the
production and sustentation of animal, as well as vegetable life, on
this earth, would have his belief in the operation of such a Mind,
shaken, by any necessity which might be impressed upon him, of granting
the existence of animal life on other planets, as well as on the earth,
or even on innumerable such planets, and on innumerable systems of
planets and worlds, system above system.
5. The remark of Chalmers, therefore, to which I have referred,
striking as it is, does not appear to bear directly upon a difficulty of
any great force. If astronomy gives birth to scruples which interfere
with religion, they must be found in some other quarter than in the
possibility of mere animal life existing in other parts of the Universe,
as well as on our earth. That possibility may require us to enlarge our
idea of the Deity, but it has little or no tendency to disturb our
apprehension of his attributes.