CONSERVATION.--THE RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD.
(_Continued._)
Of the various hypotheses which seek to dispense with the immediate
agency of God, and to explain the conservation of the world by
"secondary" or natural agencies, the second is that of _active Force
communicated to matter at its creation_. This force being transformable,
and at the same time indestructible, is regarded as adequate to the
conservation of the universe.
This hypothesis must not be confounded with the Dynamical theory of
matter propounded by Leibnitz, and more fully elaborated by Boscovich,
which regards matter as a mere phenomenon or function of force; on the
contrary, it conceives of matter as a distinct entity moving under the
action of a primary impulse communicated by "the Creator's fiat at the
beginning." This hypothesis in its fundamental conception and its
further elaboration is purely mechanical. It represents the universe as
a machine first set in motion by the Deity, and conserved by the actions
and reactions of its several parts. All subsequent motions, changes, and
configurations are the prolonged results of the original impulse,
without any further direct action or control on the part of the Creator.
A more precise and accurate statement would require that the term
"Energy" should be substituted for "Force." In the language of modern
physics, _Force_ is "that which _originates_ or tends to originate
motion or change," and "is _wholly expended_ in the action it
produces."[255] All energy has its origin in force, but force can not
pass into energy except under conditions in which it is at liberty to
act. For instance, the _force_ of gravity produces the _energy_ of
motion of a falling body, but gravity can not produce motion unless
there is space through which the body can fall. _Energy_, therefore, is
defined as "the power of doing work."[256] The work done is the
resistance overcome, and in overcoming resistance the energy is
transformed, but not annihilated. In every case in which energy is lost
by resistance, heat is generated; and we learn from Joule's
investigations that the quantity of heat generated is a perfectly
definite equivalent for the energy lost. It is therefore claimed that
the total quantity of energy in the universe is constant, and that the
material system is dynamically conservative. The universe is a
self-acting and self-sustained machine, and perpetual motion is a
necessary consequence.
A little reflection, however, ought to convince any one that this
conception of the universe--as a machine which is kept in perpetual
motion by the reciprocal action of its parts--is a false analogy. And
its fallacy is apparent from this, that the moving force of every
machine is not inherent in the machine, but some natural primary force
distinct from the machine, such as gravity, or the primary atomic forces
of attraction and repulsion; and consequently the very idea of mechanism
_assumes_ the existence of those primary forces of which it is the
professed object of a mechanical theory of the universe to give an
explanation. A machine "can no more create energy than it can create
matter;" its sole function is "to transform energy into a kind most
convenient for us."[257] "We may with the greatest ease convert
mechanical work into heat, but we can not by any means convert all the
energy of heat back again into mechanical work. In the steam-engine we
do what can be done in this way, but it is a very small portion of the
whole energy of the heat that is convertible into work, for a large
portion is dissipated, and will continue to be dissipated however
perfect our engine may become. Let the greatest care be taken in the
construction and working of a steam-engine, yet we shall not succeed in
converting one fourth of the whole energy of the heat of the coals into
mechanical work."[258] It is impossible to construct a machine that can
do work without parting with energy; and when the energy is all parted
with, any machine whatever must necessarily cease to do any more work
unless a fresh supply of energy be brought in from without. It is
impossible to make a water-mill work without a constantly renewed supply
of water, or to make a steam-engine work without a constantly renewed
supply of fuel. "Every one who understands mechanics knows that any such
inexhaustible supply of energy is impossible by means of merely
mechanical arrangements; but it is equally true, though not perhaps
equally so evident, that it is impossible by means of any arrangement of
thermal, electric, or chemical forces."[259]
But we are told that modern science has proved that the law of the
Conservation of Energy is an absolute law of the universe, and that
though man can not construct a machine which will realize the dream of
perpetual motion, the material universe is in reality such a machine.
It becomes us to speak with some degree of diffidence in regard to a
question which lies outside of our special department of study.
Nevertheless we must confess that we have a growing suspicion of all
so-called "absolute laws" in the domain of physical nature. And we are
confirmed in this mistrust by the fact that physicists themselves are
not agreed in regarding this law of conservation of energy as
universally true. "That the amount of energy in the world is
unchangeable, the sum of the actual or kinetic and potential energies
being a constant quantity, has been by some writers overstrained. It may
be taken as a postulate, and is probably true, but it is a proposition
equally incapable of proof and of disproof."[260] "This principle," says
Sir J. Herschel, "so far as it rests upon any scientific basis as a
legitimate conclusion from dynamical laws, is no other than the
well-known dynamical theorem of the conservation of _vis viva_ (or of
'energy,' as some prefer to call it), _supplemented to save the truth of
its verbal enunciation_ by the introduction of what is called 'potential
energy,' a phrase which I can not help regarding as unfortunate,
inasmuch as it goes to substitute a truism for the announcement of a
dynamical fact. No such conservation, in the sense of an identity of
total amount of _vis viva_ at all times and in all circumstances, in
fact, exists. So far as a system is maintained by the mutual actions and
reactions of its constituent elements _at a distance_ (_i. e._, by
force), _vis viva_ may temporarily disappear, and be subsequently
reproduced between certain limits. Collision, indeed, between its
ultimate particles or atoms, regarded as absolutely rigid, and therefore
inelastic (_for that which can not change its figure can have no
resilience_), can not take place without producing a permanent
destruction of it, which there exists no means of repairing.... If,
indeed, we could be assured _à priori_ that the system [of the universe]
is one of simple or compound periodicity, in which a certain lapse of
time will restore every molecule to identically the same relative
situation with respect to all the rest, we should then be sure that in
the nature of things there would take place, so to speak, a winding up
from a lower to a higher state of potential energy, to be subsequently
exchanged for newly created _vis viva_. But, as we can have no such _à
priori_ assurance, can only assume such restoration to be possible, and
can see no means of effecting it, if possible, otherwise than by
foresight and prearrangement; the one equally with the other is an
unknown function, variable within unknown limits, and susceptible of
fluctuation to an unknown extent; nor can we have any, the smallest,
right to assert that what is expended in one form _is_ necessarily laid
up for further use in the other. It would be very difficult, I
apprehend, to show whether, in the winding up of a clock or the building
of a pyramid, taking into consideration all the various modes in which
_vis viva_ disappears and reappears in the expenditure of muscular
power, the evolution of animal heat, the consumption of the materials of
our tissues, the propagation of vibratory motions, and a thousand other
modes of transfer, the total _vis viva_ of this our planet is increased
or diminished. That it should remain absolutely unchanged during the
process is in the last degree inconceivable. The amount of _vis viva_
latent in the form of heat or molecular motion in the sun and planets in
our immediate system may bear, and probably does bear, a by no means
inappreciable ratio to that more distinctly patent in the form of bodily
motion in the periodic circulation of the planets round the sun, and
the sun and planets round their axes. The latter amount fluctuates to
and fro according to laws easily calculable, _but the former we have no
means whatever of computing, and to what extent, or within what limits,
it may be variable, we are altogether ignorant_."[261]
The two dynamical laws of Conservation of Energy and Transformation of
Energy can not therefore be regarded as universal and absolute laws;
they are particular and derivative laws subject to limitations which are
supplied by the third dynamical law--the Dissipation of Energy. The law
of the conservation of energy simply asserts "that the whole amount of
energy in the universe, or in any limited system which does not receive
energy from without, or part with it to external matter, is invariable;"
in other words, that every material system subject to no other forces
than actions and reactions between its parts is a dynamically
conservative system. But Sir William Thomson has shown that "in nature
this hypothetical condition is apparently violated in all circumstances
of motion. A material system can never be brought through any returning
cycle of motion without spending more work against the mutual forces of
its parts than is gained from these forces, because no relative motion
can take place without meeting with frictional or other forms of
resistance."[262] "There can be but one ultimate result for such a
system as that of the sun and planets, if continuing long enough under
existing laws, and not disturbed by meeting with other moving masses in
space. That result is the falling together of all into one mass, which,
although rotating for a time, _must in the end come to rest relatively
to the surrounding medium_."[263]
The law of the transformation of energy is "the enunciation of the
empirical fact that in general any one form of energy may by suitable
processes be transformed, wholly or in part, to an equivalent amount in
any other given form." This law, however, is subject to limitations
which are supplied by the dissipation of energy. "No known natural
process is exactly reversible, and whenever an attempt is made to
transform and retransform energy by an imperfect process, part of the
energy is necessarily transformed into heat and _dissipated_, so as to
be incapable of further useful transformation. It therefore follows
that, as energy is constantly in a state of transformation, there is a
constant _degradation_ of energy to the final unavailable form of
uniformly diffused heat, and that will go on until the whole energy of
the universe has taken this final form."[264] No mechanical work can be
done by heat in a state of equilibrium; as a dynamical agent it is
_dead_. "Thus the inexorable laws of mechanics indicate that the store
of force in our planetary system, which can only suffer loss and not
gain, must be finally exhausted."[265]
So far, then, as the conservation of energy has any scientific meaning,
it is inadequate to account for the origin or explain the continuance of
the existing order of nature. It is true we may conceive that every atom
of matter was endowed at the Creation with a certain store of potential
energy--"the potential energy of gravitation"[266]--which it has ever
since given out; but as every motion which has resulted from its action
has been attended with the expenditure of a certain amount of the
original endowment, it must have been continually undergoing a
diminution. There is, says Professor Norton, no escaping this conclusion
but by taking the ground that _the primary atomic forces_ (as
gravitation, and the atomic repulsion and attraction by which atoms are
aggregated into bodies of sensible magnitude) are correlated with the
_living forces_ (or various forms of energy) which are involved in the
motions that have resulted from the previous operation of the primary
atomic forces. "But," he says, "_no evidence has been obtained of any
such correlation_." The primary force of attraction (if it be regarded
as a primary force) may be the cause of motion in bodies which are
separated in space, and part of that energy of motion may be transformed
into the energy of heat or light or electricity, but the primary force
of attraction is not transformed. Energy is convertible into other forms
of energy, but heat, light, and electricity are not transformable into
primary force. The correlation of force and energy is therefore a
scientific heresy.[267]
Modern physicists are agreed that visible motion, heat, electricity,
magnetism, and radiance (radiant light and heat) are forms of actual
_energy_ which are correlated and capable of mutual conversion. Any one
form may, by suitable processes, be transformed, wholly or in part, to
an equivalent amount of any other form of energy. So much is generally
accepted by scientific men.
But in regard to the primary _force_ or forces in which these forms of
energy have their origin, there is not the same agreement among
physicists. Some regard gravitation, cohesion, and chemical affinity as
the three primary forces of nature; while others suggest that the last
two are related with and probably derived from the first.
There is also a respectable school of physicists who teach that atomic
attractions and repulsions are the universal cosmic forces which
originate all molecular and mechanical motions. Then, again, each of
these forms of force have their special advocates. On the one side it is
affirmed, as an important generalization, that all primary force is
_attractive_; "there is no such thing in nature as a primary repulsive
force."[268] Universal attraction is the one world-forming and
world-conserving energy. On the other side it is contended that
gravitation is not a primary, but a secondary and derivative force, and
that the grand primal force is a universal force of _repulsion_.[269]
It is beyond our province to discuss the merits of these conflicting
theories. Our position is that no purely physical hypothesis is adequate
to account for the conservation of the universe, and therefore it is of
little consequence to our argument which of the above theories may find
most favor with scientific men. The tendency of modern scientific
thought is toward the conception of "one primordial form of matter, and
but one primary form of force," as the simplest basis upon which a
physical theory of inanimate nature can be erected. The ultimate nature
of this one primary force is a question for pure metaphysics. From the
stand-point of physical science it can only be thought "as a _pull_ or a
_push_ in a straight line."[270] Universal attraction or universal
repulsion must be the ultimate dynamical conception for the pure
physicist.
1. Let us consider the first hypothesis. It is claimed that gravitation,
or universal attraction, is the great conserving and sustaining
principle of the universe. A stone falls to the earth, a round body
rolls along a plane inclined toward the horizon; a liquid mass, as a
brook or a large river, flows on the sloping surface which forms its
bed. All these phenomena are the varied manifestation of a universal
_tendency_ in all bodies to fall one toward the other. In virtue of this
tendency the great orbs which hang suspended in space gravitate toward
one another; the moon and the earth fall toward each other, and they
both gravitate toward the sun. All the planets of our solar system
continually act one on the other, and on the immense sphere which shines
at their common focus. By its enormous mass, the sun keeps all of them
in their orbits. If we ask why one body _falls_ toward another which is
more than ninety millions of miles off, in preference to moving in any
other direction, the answer given is that, "Every particle of matter in
the universe _attracts_ every other particle with a force whose
direction is that of the line joining the two, and whose magnitude is
directly as the product of their masses, and inversely as the square of
their distance from each other." This force of attraction is the
universal bond which holds the universe together, and sustains its
physical life.
To the superficial thinker, the language of the Newtonian philosophy
appears to sanction the materialistic notion that gravitation and
attraction are active powers essential to and inherent in matter. Such,
however, was by no means the doctrine of Newton, and he was careful to
guard his readers against any such misapprehension of his meaning. "The
words attraction, repulsion, or tendencies of whatever kind toward a
centre, I use indifferently and without distinction for each other,
considering these forces not physically but metaphysically. Wherefore
let not the reader suppose that by words of this kind I any where mean
a species or mode of action, or cause, or physical reason; or that I
really and in a physical sense assign forces to centres (which are only
mathematical points), even though I may say that centres _attract_, or
that _forces belong to centres_."[271]
The history of scientific opinion on the point before us furnishes a
striking illustration of the manner in which language reacts on the
ideas which it is intended to express, and thus men fall into the habit
of talking nonsense without knowing it. The conception of atoms having
the property of exerting various forces across a void space seemed to
follow as a matter of course from the discovery of the law of
gravitation, and from the language in which it is expressed. After
Newton a school arose which taught that atoms have the property of
_exerting force at a distance_, and that this property must be inherent
in the atoms, just as Lucretius taught that hardness and elasticity were
original indefeasible properties of the primordial elements, the "semina
rerum," or seeds of things. But Newton did not teach this; he stated a
fact, but did not devise an hypothesis; he attempted no explanation of
the law of gravitation.
"The law of gravitation considered as a _result_ is beautifully simple;
in a few words it expresses a fact from which most numerous and complex
results may be deduced by mere reasoning--results found invariably to
agree with the records of observation; but this same law of gravitation
looked upon as an axiom or first principle is so astonishingly far
removed from all ordinary experience as to be almost incredible. What!
every particle in the whole universe is actively attracting _every other
particle_ [that is, every particle in the universe with the same force,
without any expenditure of force], through void, without the aid of any
communication by means of matter, or otherwise--each particle, unchecked
by distance, unimpeded by obstacles, throws this miraculous influence to
infinite distance without the employment of any means![272] No particle
interferes with its neighbor, but all these wonderful influences are
co-existent in every point in space! The result is apparent at each
particle, but the condition of intermediate space is exactly the same as
though no such influence were being transmitted across it! Earth
attracts Sirius across space, and yet the space between is as if neither
Earth nor Sirius existed! Can these things be? We think not; and Newton
himself did not affirm this."[273] On the contrary, he earnestly rejects
any such hypothesis. "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
do if gravitation, in the sense of Epicurus, be essential to and
inherent in matter.... That gravitation 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._"[274]
The ancient axiom that "Matter can not act where it is not any more
than when it is not," was universally believed till Newton's time, and
Newton himself regarded it as a self-evident truth. Some of his
disciples asserted that gravitation must be considered as an essential
property of matter, and they were under the necessity of assuming that
atoms can exert a force upon one another across a void. This to Leibnitz
was either miraculous or absurd; and in modern times the doctrine is
rejected by the first physicists--by Faraday, Helmholtz, Thomson, Tait,
and Maxwell.[275] Sir William Thomson, the Newton of modern physics,
says emphatically, "I have no faith whatever in attractions and
repulsions _acting at a distance_ between centres of force according to
various laws."[276] And Clerk Maxwell, in his lecture on "Action at a
Distance,"[277] explains how Faraday, by his discovery of magnetic
rotation of polarized light, and by his showing how lines of force arise
in media, "rudely shook the theory of attraction and repulsion at a
distance across a void."
If, now, "direct action at a distance" is rejected by scientific men as
inconceivable and absurd, how can it be that the sun _pulls_ the earth
toward it, and holds the planets in their orbits? The verbal statement
of the law of gravitation is no answer to this question. It expresses a
fact, but it does not assign a cause. Gravitation is a phenomenon which
demands an explanation, and some of the first scientists of the day are
engaged in devising a theory which shall afford a rational answer to the
question, What is the _cause_ of gravity?[278]
The first and most fundamental presupposition for any physical
hypothesis which seeks to explain the action of gravitation is that some
_medium_ of communication exists. This is suggested by every physical
analogy. Sound is communicated through a medium. The influence which is
exerted at a distance by heat, light, electricity, and magnetism is
effected through media. The most plausible suggestion yet made is that
"a single omnipresent fluid, _ether_, fills the universe," which by
various forms or modes of motion transmits light, radiant heat,
magnetism, and electricity.[279] May not gravitation, it is asked, be
transmitted by the _same_ fluid? may it not consist of or result from
actual recurring impulses propagated in ethereal waves?
The hypothesis that gravitation is transmitted through the same medium
as light, or indeed through any medium, is encumbered with serious if
not insuperable difficulties. All transmission of whatever kind--of a
letter by the post, a gunshot, a sound, a wave of light, an
electro-magnetic disturbance--_occupies time_. It has a
velocity--sometimes a very great one, as in the case of light; still it
is a measurable velocity. But, according to Herschel, the pull which the
sun exerts on the earth is delivered _instantaneously_. Were it not so
there would be "a continually progressive increase of the major axis of
the earth's orbit, and therefore of the length of the year."[280] Surely
it must be obvious to every one that the _instantaneous_ transmission of
the sun's attractive force to the planet Neptune, three thousand
millions of miles distant, through a physical medium like the ether,
would be as great a miracle as action at a distance through a perfect
void. But the advocates of this hypothesis have not thereby escaped the
difficulties of action at a distance. The majority of physicists regard
the luminiferous ether as consisting of "discrete
particles"--"elementary molecules of inconceivable minuteness and
tenuity." These ultimate particles or atoms of highly attenuated matter
must have some magnitude, some extension, however inconceivably minute.
If extended, they must have some form, and must occupy separate
positions in space. If they are capable of motions--undulatory,
rotatory, or spiral motions--they can not be in mutual contact.
Conceive, then, two such atoms, and draw around each an imaginary
circle. Let these circles touch at the middle point between the two, and
ask yourself the question, What exists there? On the hypothesis under
consideration you are bound to answer pure, empty space--that is, pure
nothing. "But if there is no matter between the atoms, then all their
actions, one upon the other, must be exerted across a void--that is,
through a medium of nothingness;" in other words, through no medium at
all. Now the size of the interval makes no difference in the argument.
"Whether that interval be the 92 billionth of an inch, or the 92
millions of miles or thereabouts between the earth and the sun, it is
still action at a distance, and no escape."[281]
The physicist who regards the ether as consisting of discrete particles
not in bodily or actual contact, and at the same time finds himself
logically compelled to reject this "mystical action at a distance," has
no alternative but to accept the doctrine of Newton that the action of
one particle of matter upon another is mediated by an agent which is not
_material_. "If it be true that the conception of _force_ as the
originator of motion in matter without bodily contact ... is essential
to the right interpretation of phenomena; and if it be equally true, on
the other hand, that its exertion makes itself manifest to our personal
consciousness by that peculiar sensation of _effort_ which is not
without its analogue in purely intellectual acts of the mind, it [_i.
e._, force] comes not unnaturally to be regarded as affording a point of
contact, a connecting link between these two great departments of
being--between mind and matter--the one as the _originator_, the other
as the _recipient_ of force."[282]
There are distinguished physicists--as Helmholtz, Thomson, Challis, and
Maxwell--who seek to escape the difficulties of action at a distance by
the assumption that the ether is absolutely continuous (and therefore
does not consist of atoms)--a perfectly homogeneous, incompressible,
frictionless fluid which fills the universe. This fundamental
presupposition as the basis of a physical theory of the universe
necessitates the further assumption that "_motion is the very essence of
what has been hitherto called matter_."[283] All quantitative and
qualitative phenomena, all statical and dynamical phenomena, are due
solely to varied modes of motion in the primordial fluid. "By various
motions of the nature of eddies [ring-vortices], the qualities of
matter--cohesion, elasticity, hardness, weight, mass, or other universal
properties of matter--are given to small _portions_ of the fluid which
constitute the _chemical atom_, and these, by modifications in their
combinations, form, and motion, produce the accidental phenomena of
_gross matter_.... On this view, gross matter would be merely an
assemblage of _parts_ of the medium moving in a peculiar way, groups of
ring-vortices having inertia.... The primary fluid by other motions
transmits light, radiant heat, magnetism, and _gravitation_."[284]
It may be regarded as an act of presumption in an obscure critic to
offer an opinion of the theories of these great masters in science. We
venture, however, to suggest that most men will find a difficulty in
conceiving how space absolutely full of matter can be made to contain
more, or how a truly continuous substance can be capable of
condensation. The most tenuous ether, if it be absolutely continuous,
occupies the whole of the space in which it lies--that is, there is no
point of the space which is not occupied by a point of matter.[285] But
the hardest iron can do no more than this, and, therefore, on this
hypothesis it seems impossible to account for its greater density. It is
suggested that if molecules are mere assemblages of parts of the ether
moving in a peculiar way, then greater density may be due to a
modification in the motion of molecules, and not merely to the greater
frequency of the eddying molecules in a given space. But how can a truly
continuous substance have _parts_, and how can relative motion occur in
an absolute plenum? The very notion of particles is quite inconsistent
with the continuity of matter; and in a universe absolutely full no
motion whatever would be possible. We are told that Sir William Thomson
and Professor Tait find no difficulty in all these, to our minds,
contradictory conceptions, and therefore we must conclude that our
intellect is not properly "focussed so as to give definition without
prenumbral haze."
Granting, then, the absolute continuity of all matter, and the
possibility of motion in an absolute plenum, the question which concerns
us most in this essay is, How is motion generated and sustained? One of
the greatest lights of this new school tells us that "all we can affirm
of matter is that it is the _recipient_ of impulse and of energy."[286]
They no longer regard the atom "as a mystic point endowed with inertia
and the attribute of _attracting_ and _repelling_ other such centres
with forces depending on the intervening distances."[287] They have "no
faith whatever in _attractions_ and _repulsions_ acting at a distance
between centres of force."[288] Force, then, is not regarded by these
leading physicists as an inherent attribute of matter. The primary
fluid, originally inert and motionless, must have been set in motion by
some force, by some agency external to and distinct from itself. An
"original impetus" _from without_, according to Maxwell,[289] or a
"pressure" of the universal ether "from somewhere _outside_ the world of
stars," according to Challis,[290] must be the source of all motion and
all forms of energy in the universe.
It is a fundamental principle of dynamics that "force is wholly expended
in the action it produces,"[291] therefore, if all the forms of energy
in the universe are the result of pressure, that pressure must be
_continuous_; if they are the result of impulses, these impulses must be
_incessantly renewed_, and must recur with immeasurable rapidity. On
either supposition, "the universe is not even temporarily automatic,
but must be fed from moment to moment by an agency external to itself,"
and "the preservation of the universe is effected only by the unceasing
expenditure of enormous quantities of work;"[292] that is, it is
ceaselessly sustained by Divine Omnipotence--"He upholdeth all things by
the word of his power."
So much with respect to the first form of this hypothesis which regards
atomic _attraction_ as the sole world-forming and world-conserving
force. We turn now to that form of the hypothesis which considers atomic
_repulsion_ as the grand primal force in which all the other physical
forces, even gravitation itself, have their origin.
This view is presented by Professor W. A. Norton, in his articles "On
Cosmical and Molecular Physics" in the _American Journal of Science and
Arts_. His theory rests essentially upon the following principles:
1. The doctrine of _inertia_ applied to all matter.
2. The existence of a single primary force of _repulsion_ exerted by
every atom upon every other atom.
3. The existence of but one primary form of _elementary matter_, viz.,
the universal or luminiferous ether; the atoms, so called, of ordinary
matter, and of the electric ether being but different masses of
condensed luminiferous ether.
4. The doctrine of the _interception of force_ by matter. This is a
necessary consequence of the fact that a certain portion of the
propagated force is instantly expended in imparting motion to the
molecules or atoms which it encounters, and is therefore abstracted from
this force.
5. The primary force of repulsion is made up of _impulses recurring with
an immeasurable rapidity_. This is no new hypothesis. In all treatises
on Mechanics, gravity and all incessant forces are conceived to consist
of an indefinitely great number of impulses taking effect in a finite
interval of time.[293] "The ever-recurring pulses of the primary
cosmical force, emanating from all the atoms of the one primary form of
matter, are directly _consumed_ in communicating opposite movements, or
virtual movements, to every atom in the universe. It is, as I conceive,
because in the existing condition of things the distribution of matter
is unequal in different directions round a point, and therefore the
partial interception of the impulses of the cosmical force along the
different lines of direction is unequal, that an effective gravitating
force exists.[294] The entire amount of the cosmical force consumed in
any interval of time is the amount intercepted by all the atoms of
matter, and is independent of the motions that result from the
inequalities just noticed. Gravitation, and molecular and chemical
attractions, which originate in the gravitation of electric ether toward
atoms of ordinary matter, are then _derivative_ forces incidental to the
direct actions exerted by the cosmical force upon the atoms."[295]
In a communication from Professor Norton to the author, he furnishes the
following further exposition of his theory: "If, as I conceive, the
primary atomic force is of the nature of a perpetual emanation from each
atom, and is expended in the act of producing motion, we must thence
infer that the atom is an entity through which a stream of force is
_perpetually flowing from the Infinite Source of all power and all
existence_. That the primary force is a force of repulsion, and that the
immediate source of all the forces that are known to take effect upon
ordinary matter is the action of recurring repulsive impulses upon the
atoms of the universal ether, and their subsequent propagation and
partial interception by the atoms which they encounter, I infer from the
fact that this conception furnishes a rational explanation of all the
known forces and phenomena of inanimate nature."
It will thus be seen that the theory of Professor Norton gives no
countenance to the materialistic tendencies of the physical science of
the age. He is decidedly of the opinion that "force is _not_ an inherent
and essential attribute of matter," and he "devoutly acknowledges that
in following the chain of cause and effect into the precincts of that
most deeply hidden of all mysteries, the origin of force, _we have come
into the presence of the Infinite Spirit who puts forth unceasingly,
from every point in the realms of space, his creative and sustaining
power upon the subtile matter that fills all space, and is the essential
substance of all worlds_."[296]
3. The third hypothesis is that of a _plastic nature_, intermediate
between God and the material universe, by which all the phenomena of
visible nature are produced.
This hypothesis was first presented (at least in modern times) by Ralph
Cudworth, in his "True Intellectual System of the Universe."[297] In
opposition to Democritus, who explained all phenomena by means of matter
and motion; and also in opposition to Strato, who taught that matter is
the only substance, but at the same time a living and active force,
Cudworth maintains that there is a _plastic nature_--a vital and
spiritual, but unconscious energy, distinct from and created by the
Deity, which "doth drudgingly execute that part of his providence which
consisteth in the regular and orderly motion of matter,"[298] and in the
organization and development of plants and animals, "according to laws
prescribed for it by a perfect intellect, and impressed upon it."[299]
This _plastic nature_ is an "inferior kind of life or soul," destitute
of all consciousness,[300] which, though it "acts for the sake of ends,"
does "not know the reason of what it does," and therefore operates
"fatally and sympathetically."[301]
The arguments urged by Cudworth in support of this hypothesis are mainly
of a negative character. On the one hand he endeavors to show that force
and vitality are not essential attributes of matter, and on the other
hand that the motion and life of the universe can not be properly
regarded as the direct action of the Deity upon matter. It is with this
latter part of the argument that we are here immediately concerned. He
urges (1) that if every thing in nature were done immediately by God, it
would render Divine Providence "oporose, solicitous, and distractious;"
and, furthermore, it would be unbecoming the Divine Majesty, and
"indecorous," for God "immediately to do all the meanest and triflingest
things Himself drudgingly." He maintains (2) that if God do all things
immediately, then he does them "_miraculously_"--that is, "forcibly and
violently." And (3) that the immediate agency of God is inconsistent
with that slow and gradual development of things we see in nature, which
would seem to be a "trifling formality" if the agent were omnipotent,
and especially inconsistent with "those errors and bunglings which are
committed when the matter is inept and contumacious." "Wherefore it may
be concluded that there is a plastic nature under God which, as an
inferior agent, doth drudgingly execute that part of his providence
which consists in the regular and orderly motion of matter, yet so that
there is also a higher providence, which, _presiding_ over it, doth
often supply the defects of it, and sometimes _overrule_ it; forasmuch
as the plastic nature can not act electively nor with discretion." So
that, after all, as Plato says, God "is the beginning and end and middle
of all things," and therefore their being is "_as much to be ascribed to
his causality as if Himself had done all things immediately_ without the
concurrent instrumentality of any subordinate natural cause."[302]
There is nothing original in this hypothesis of a plastic nature except
perhaps the name. It is the old _anima mundi_ of the Platonic physics, a
vital soul of the world, distinct from but created by the Supreme God.
It has reappeared under various names in the history of natural science,
especially in that department which is now comprehended under the
general name of Biology. The "_motus tonico-vitalis_" of Stahl, the
"animating principle" of Harvey, the "_materia vitæ_" of John Hunter,
the "organic force" of Müller, and the "organic agent" of Dr. Prout, are
all but separate names "for an imaginary principle, or entity,
possessing powers and properties which (however men may try to impress
themselves with a contrary notion) would entitle it to rank as an
intelligent agent. It is true that, according to most of the advocates
of this doctrine, this power is supposed to be superintended and
controlled by the Deity himself, and by this supposition they have
screened themselves against the accusation of attributing to a creature
the powers of the Creator."[303]
Cudworth's hypothesis of a plastic nature has been recently reproduced,
without the slightest recognition of its paternity, by Joseph John
Murphy, under the name of "_unconscious intelligence_"--"a power
transcending the ordinary properties of matter and adapting means to
purposes, presiding over all vital actions, whether formative, motor, or
mental, directing each action to its specific end."[304] Mr. Murphy is
very solicitous that we should not understand him to teach that "the
formative intelligence" which in nature adapts structure to function is
Divine. "I believe," he says, "that the Creator has not separately
organized every structure, but has endowed vitalized matter with
intelligence, under the guidance of which it organizes itself."[305]
This "unconscious intelligence," which builds the tissues and fashions
the organs of plants and animals, becomes conscious of itself in the
deliberate thought of man.[306]
It is worthy of note that this hypothesis commends itself to the mind of
Murphy by considerations akin to those which are urged by Cudworth; and
especially because it is supposed to relieve certain moral difficulties
connected with the belief of a Divine purpose in creation--as, for
example, the existence of parasitic worms which inflict pain and disease
on beings endowed with sensation and consciousness, and the presence of
"immoral instincts" in higher forms of animal life.[307]
We readily grant that the relation of God to the existing order and
economy of the world is mysterious; and we believe that no conceivable
hypothesis can deprive it of this mysteriousness. There are numerous
difficulties which arise from the imperfection of our knowledge and the
limited range of our powers. We see through an obscure medium, and we
know only in part. There are also difficulties peculiar to individual
minds--intellectual, ethical, emotional difficulties--which are the
products of a peculiar culture, or the offspring of certain theoretical
prepossessions. Some of these difficulties may be relieved by the
hypothesis of "unconscious intelligence," but on a further examination
it will be found that this hypothesis is embarrassed with still greater
difficulties and open to more serious objections both intellectual and
moral.
First, there is the difficulty of forming any conception of
"_unconscious_ intelligence." This has been felt by the ablest minds.
"The hypothesis," says Wallace, "has the double disadvantage of being
both unintelligible and incapable of any kind of proof."[308] Mivart
observes that the phrase will "to many minds appear to be little less
than a contradiction in terms; the very first condition of an
intelligence being that, if it know any thing, it should at least know
its own existence."[309] Mr. Murphy tells us that this unconscious
intelligence "adapts means to ends," "it presides over all vital
actions, directing each action to its specific end."[310] But an
intelligence adapting means to ends without any knowledge
(consciousness) of either the ends to be secured or the means to be
employed to secure the end surpasses all comprehension and all belief.
We can readily believe, with Hamilton, that the human mind "exerts
energies and is the subject of modifications" of which it is not
immediately conscious, the combined results of which are manifested in
the complex fact of consciousness. But to call that _intelligence_
which never had a perception, a thought, an emotion; which has no
knowledge of self or of any thing else; in short, which is not and never
was conscious, is to reduce philosophic terminology to chaos, and
tantalize thought by meaningless words. An intelligent agent is one who
_understands_, who distinguishes between subject and object, who knows
things in their relations, who can unite the terms of a relation in
thought, and judge of their congruity or incongruity, all of which are
conscious operations. Intelligence is consciousness (conscientia =
relational knowledge); unconscious intelligence is unconscious
consciousness, unintelligent intelligence, which is a contradiction and
an absurdity.
Secondly, in endeavoring to find the mental stand-point of Mr. Murphy,
in order that we may fairly estimate his hypothesis, we encounter the
still more serious difficulty of conceiving how unconscious intelligence
can exist apart from some _subject_ or substratum in which it inheres.
We are aware that "the tendency of modern thought" is to hypostatize
force and intelligence, and conceive them as entities. We have
conscientiously made the attempt again and again to realize this
conception, but we must confess we can only conceive of force and
intelligence as properties or attributes of some subject. It is beyond
our ability, and we imagine it is beyond the ability of Mr. Murphy, to
conceive of force without something that exerts force, of intelligence
without a being who is intelligent. Indeed, Mr. Murphy concedes that
"where there are properties there must be a _substance_,"[311] and by
substance, he says, he understands "_underlying reality_."[312]
Unconscious intelligence, if there be such a thing, must be an
attribute or quality inherent in some underlying substance. But Mr.
Murphy asserts "there is no scientific basis for the old belief in a
distinct _mental substance_"[313]--that is, if we understand him aright,
so far as finite mind is concerned. On the other hand, he distinctly
affirms that this unconscious intelligence is not Divine intelligence.
The power and intelligence which work in the world of matter and mind
"are not the Divine power and intelligence."[314] Unconscious
intelligence, then, must be an "endowment of vitalized matter;"[315] and
"life has its origin in no secondary cause, but in the direct action of
creative power."[316] Now the question arises, What is matter? On this
point we must be careful not to misunderstand or misrepresent Mr.
Murphy. "Matter, whether viewed from a metaphysical or from an inductive
point of view, is known only as a function of force, and can be
described only in terms of force. In other words, _the universe is
nothing but a manifestation of force_." And now we ask, Of what force?
"Force," says Mr. Murphy, "is known to us by immediate consciousness as
a function of our own mind and will; that is to say, the mind, acting in
will, is conscious of itself as a force--and we are able to conceive of
force in no other way; the only conception of force which we are able to
frame is that of voluntary force, or the exertion of will. _Either the
force manifested in the universe is the force of a Creative Will, or we
are able to form no conception of it whatever._"[317] Can there be any
possibility of misunderstanding this language? Matter itself is not an
entity, not a _substance_; it is a phenomenon, not a reality. Matter is
"a function of force." Force is a "fact of mind, and therefore
spiritual." Consequently "matter can only be conceived as
_spiritual_."[318] And now let us recall the statement of Mr. Murphy
that there is no finite, created, underlying reality for the phenomena
of mind and will--"_no distinct mental substance_." If we hold to this
doctrine, then we must say with Mr. Murphy again that "the powers of
matter and mind alike are the result and expression of a Living
Will--and if a Living Will, then also an Intelligent Will."[319] The
final and only conclusion is that God, "the Self-existent Being," is the
one only underlying reality or _substance_ in the universe; all the
force in the universe is "the force of the Creative Will," and all the
intelligence in the universe a modification of the Divine Thought.
This, however, is Pantheism, even according to that very defective
definition of Pantheism given by Mr. Murphy: "Pantheism is the
identification of the Divine power and intelligence with the powers and
intelligences that work in the world of matter and mind."[320] Still,
Mr. Murphy declares, "I am not a Pantheist;" and we are bound to accept
his disclaimer--"the power and intelligence which work in nature are not
identical with the Divine power and intelligence." Be it so; then there
is power, and there is intelligence in nature, which are not attributes
of any reality, and which do not inhere in any substance; and we come
round to the original difficulty of conceiving of an attribute apart
from a subject.
The reader can not have failed to see that Mr. Murphy has been leading
us round a vicious circle. "Force is a function of matter, and matter is
a function of force."[321] "Matter is only explicable as a function of
force, force only explicable as a function of conscious mind,"[322] and
mind is "one of the functions of matter."[323] "It is perfectly
certain," says Mr. Murphy, "that inductive psychology gives no hint of
any mental _substance_ as distinguished from the material substance of
the brain."[324] But the material substance of the brain after all is
not material; "matter can only be conceived as _spiritual_"[325]--that
is, as _force_. There is no underlying reality which men call "matter,"
and there is no underlying reality which men call "spirit." Matter is
spirit, spirit is matter; but in reality neither the one nor the other
has any substantial reality. If all finite existences are but modes of
the Infinite Being, we have a consistent Pantheism at any rate. But if
all finite existences are simply phenomena without any underlying
reality, then "perception is a dream, and my existence the dream of that
dream."
Thirdly, the hypothesis of an "_unconscious intelligence_," distinct
from the Supreme Intelligence, which does "the drudgery of Providence,"
and to which the defects and disorders and "immoralities" of nature are
ascribed, is neither adequate nor satisfactory.
The conceit of Cudworth that it is unbecoming the Divine Majesty to be
immediately concerned in every thing that takes place in nature is
scarcely worthy of consideration: "If it were not congruous in respect
of the state and majesty of Xerxes, the king of Persia, that he should
condescend to do all the meanest offices himself, much less can this be
thought decorous in respect of God."[326]
Human conceptions of what is great or small, dignified or indecorous,
are merely relative conceptions which vary with our knowledge, culture,
and taste; but--
"There is no great and no small
To the soul that maketh all."--_Emerson_.
For the Creator of all things an atom is an ample field in which to
display the resources of his omnipotence. The more the microscope and
spectroscope reveal of the "infinitely little," the more do we see of
the greatness and glory of God. So of men's conceptions of what is
dignified or indecorous; it may be that, in a land and an age where
labor is held in contempt, it becomes the state of an Eastern monarch
that he should live in voluptuous ease, but the followers of Him who
said, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," have learned to believe
in the dignity of labor, and to regard all true work as divine. An
imperfect human ruler can not do every thing, therefore he must employ
agents and ministers; the Omnipotent Ruler of the universe can do all
things, and needs no subordinate ministry. A finite mind can not know
every thing, and often staggers beneath the burden of its limited
acquisitions; the Infinite Mind _must_ know all things, and can not be
perplexed amid the boundless profusion of its own creations. It is only
a childish impotence or a barbaric vanity which sees the need of
supplementary agencies to add to the splendor and efficiency of the
Divine government of the world. "Are not two sparrows sold for a
farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your
Father." "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." Such views
exalt rather than diminish our reverence for the majesty of God. But
there is neither congruity nor dignity in the hypothesis that God has
associated with Himself an agent which is "_unconscious_," whose action
He must direct,[327] and whose "shortcomings and defects" He must
supply.[328] Dr. Mosheim, the annotator of Cudworth's "Intellectual
System," pertinently remarks: "That master has enough to do who must
continually take care that the servants he employs, unskillful and
devoid of reason, do not err; who must preside over the actions of his
agents, and continually remedy the defects and mischiefs they
occasion.... That master is the happier man who possesses the power of
conducting his own affairs, who can do all things himself, and needs no
servants whatever." But if subordinate agents are needed, or if it
please the Supreme Being to employ them, the presumption is certainly in
favor of rational conscious agents, rather than blind unconscious forces
which can neither conceive a purpose nor adapt means to secure it. If we
must have formative agents, we prefer the "junior divinities" of Plato
or the "higher intelligences" of Mr. Wallace.[329]
But even admitting there are "defects, deformities, and superfluities"
in nature, we are at a loss to conceive how the hypothesis of an
"unconscious intelligence," working necessarily, removes the blame (if
there be any blame) from the Author of nature. Does not every theist
believe that the Creator of matter "saw and knew every purpose which
every particle and atom of matter should subserve in all suns and
systems, and through all coming æons of time?" Must not that Intelligent
Will, which is the fountain-head of all the force that sweeps like a
tide of life through the universe, have known every form of energy which
could result therefrom, and foreseen all the possible effects which
would arise from the composition of any and all systems of forces? Did
not He who created this supposed "organizing force," who ordained all
its laws, and who directs and controls all its actions, know with
mathematical precision every consequence which could possibly arise from
its prearranged and necessitated adaptations? If God is the creator of
this unconscious, necessitated "plastic nature," if He always observes
what it does, if He directs and overrules it, if He supplies some of its
defects and corrects most of its mistakes, must not He be regarded as
the real cause of all things which, in popular language, are said to be
done by nature? If we believe with Mr. Murphy that
"Nature is but the name for an effect
Whose cause is God,"
we shall find no relief from the difficulties and mysteries of Divine
providence by interposing between the first creative volition and the
last phenomenal result a series of secondary causes which are themselves
only effects of the primal creative act. It were better far to leave the
mystery untouched, and take refuge in faith; better to confess the
difficulties are insoluble, and
"Still trust that God is love indeed,
And love Creation's final law;
Though nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravin, shrieks against our creed."
We are brought finally to the question whether, in reality, there is any
thing defective or any thing superfluous in the normal products of
organic nature? or, in other words, whether the Author of nature has
made any thing inadequate to its purpose, or which fulfills no purpose
whatever? We venture to suggest that inductive science is not in
possession either of the facts or the principles which are necessary to
a correct judgment. To be competent to deal with this question, science
should not only know all the purposes which may be fulfilled by a single
organism, but also the ultimate purpose which is subserved by the
wondrous play of all the means and relative ends which constitute the
entire cosmos. Far be it from us to depreciate the achievements or dare
to set limits to the possibilities of inductive science. But, assuredly,
the most enthusiastic scientist will admit that, compared with the
vastness and complexity of natural phenomena, human knowledge is
exceedingly limited and very imperfect. As to the final purpose of
creation--the ultimate end of the Creator in the existence of the
universe--modern science does not even claim to have an opinion.[330]
With no knowledge of the ultimate purpose of creation, with a limited
acquaintance with the general plan of the universe, with an imperfect
knowledge of the reasons and ends of individual existences, it seems
little less than impertinence for science to sit in judgment on the
works of God, and unceremoniously condemn this as defective and that as
unnecessary. As Baden Powell observes, "How can we undertake to affirm,
amid all the possibilities of things of which we confessedly know so
little, that a thousand ends and purposes may not be answered, because
we can trace none, or even imagine none, which seem to our short-sighted
faculties to be answered."[331] In view of the fact that hitherto the
belief in "purpose" or "final cause" has been the guiding light of
science, and the further fact that science is every day making new
discoveries as to the utility of existences and organs of which before
we were ignorant, scientific men might learn a profitable lesson, and
manifest less "audacity."[332] Meantime we shall be content with the
assurances of Scripture that "the works of God are _perfect_," and that
"He hath made nothing _in vain_."
We may now gather up the several threads of thought which run through
this essay, and state our final conclusions:
1. Matter is the merely passive or statical condition for the action of
force.[333] The most fundamental condition or characteristic of matter,
"perhaps its only true indication, is _inertia_."[334] "All that we can
affirm of it is that it is the _recipient_ of impulse and of
Energy."[335] All the attempts which have been made to reduce matter to
a function or phenomenon of force have ended in failure. Motion
necessarily implies a _something_ which is moved by the action of force.
Even that most wonderful and subtile of all "modes of
motion"--light--necessarily implies an entity which is moved. "The
magnetic rotation of the plane of polarized light, discovered by
Faraday, implies an _actual_ rotatory motion of something." "The seeing
intellect," says Mr. Tyndall, "when properly focused, must realize this
conception at last." Matter must consist of ultimate continuous atoms or
molecules possessing inertia and capable of being moved in space. By
virtue of its extension and inertia it can intercept force, transform
force into energy, and transmit energy. The various forms of energy
(heat, light, electricity, magnetism, etc.) are transformations of force
resulting directly or indirectly from the interception of force by inert
matter, and "all the phenomena of material nature result from the action
of force _upon_ matter."[336] "Matter," says M. Claude Bernard, "does
not generate the phenomena which it manifests. It is only the
substratum, and does absolutely nothing but give to phenomena the
conditions of its manifestation."[337]
2. Force is that which originates or tends to originate motion, or
changes or tends to change the state of a body with regard to motion. It
is not and can not be a property of matter. The doctrine that force is
an attribute of matter is disproved by the fact of inertia. Inert matter
can have no spontaneous power--it can not change its own state of motion
or rest. Neither is motion capable _per se_ of producing motion. It is a
fundamental axiom of natural philosophy that motion can not be generated
by motion itself, any more than by the negation of motion. Inertness and
exertion, passivity and activity, are contradictory attributes, and can
not be affirmed of the same subject. To say that matter is inert, and at
the same time that it can exert force, is to violate the law of
non-contradiction to the uttermost.
Force is an attribute of mind or spirit, and of mind or spirit alone.
Spirit-force is the only force in the universe. It is a doctrine as old
as the hills that mind is the first cause of motion. Νοῦς μὲν ἀρχὴν
κινησέως.[338] It is a doctrine toward which all modern science tends
with remarkable unanimity that all motion is the product of mind; and,
though continued and transformed and transmitted through various means,
it never commences except in a volition either of the Supreme Mind or of
a created mind. "The deep-seated instincts of humanity and the
profoundest researches of philosophy alike point to _Mind as the one and
only source of power_."[339] "The conception of force as the originator
of motion in matter, without bodily contact or the intervention of any
intermedium, is essential to the right interpretation of physical
phenomena;... its exertion makes itself manifest to our personal
consciousness by the peculiar sensation of _effort_;... and it [force]
affords a point of contact, a connecting link between the two great
departments of being--between mind and matter--the one as its
_originator_, the other as its _recipient_."[340]
3. All the forms of energy manifested in the universe are only
transformations of the one omnipresent force issuing from the one
fountain-head of power--_the Divine Will_. The final disclosure of
modern science is the convertibility and homogeneity of all forms of
physical energy--"a dynamical self-identification masked by
transmigration." Of this wonderful transformation of energy many
striking illustrations may be given; we select the following from the
"Lecture Notes" of Dr. A. F. Mayer (p. 64): "The heat developed by the
'falling force' of a weight striking the terminals of a compound thermal
battery (formed by pieces of iron and German-silver wire twisted
together at alternate ends) caused a current of electricity through the
wire which, being conducted through a helix, magnetized a needle (which
then attracted iron particles), caused light to appear in a portion of
the circuit formed of Wollaston's fine wire, decomposed iodide of
potassium, and finally moved the needles of a galvanometer."[341] Here
we have visible kinetic energy transformed into sensible heat, then
absorbed heat converted into electricity, then electricity transformed
into magnetism, also into light, and still further into the energy of
chemical separation, while some portion of it returns to the form of
visible energy of motion. Of course, some of the energy is dissipated in
the form of radiance (radiant light and heat), but no energy is either
created or destroyed. All the various forms of energy are thus reducible
to _unity_; they are one force transformed by mechanical arrangements.
"Electricity and magnetism, heat and light, muscular energy and chemical
action, motion and mechanical work, are only different forms of one and
the same power.... Moreover, chemical union of the elements of matter,
the attraction of gravitation in all the bodies of the universe, are but
varied forms of this universal motive force."[342] If it be asked, What
is that one form of force which is to be taken as the type of all the
rest? the explicit answer of the first scientists of the age is, "Force
must be regarded as the direct expression of that mental state which we
call _Will_. All force is of one type, and that type is mind."[343] This
is conceded even by Herbert Spencer: "The force by which we ourselves
produce changes, and which serves to symbolize the cause of changes in
general, is the final disclosure of analysis."[344] The whole
conception is summed up in one comprehensive statement by Professor
Norton, of Yale College: "I regard the primary force of repulsion as
incessantly outstreaming in every direction from every ethereal atom
(which is incessantly renewed), and as it spreads outward ever tending
toward evanescence on each radiating line by the mere result of its own
expansion--_a perpetual stream of force flowing from the Infinite Source
of all power_, vanishing ultimately by diffusion in the infinite expanse
of the universe. It breaks incessantly against the atoms of bodies, and
so furnishes the secondary streams of force that maintain the
constitution and determine the phenomena of the material universe."[345]
Force, then, is the act of the immanent Deity, who puts forth
unceasingly from every point in the realm of space his creative and
sustaining power.
4. All the phenomena of molecular life (bioplasmic phenomena) are the
result of the immediate presence and direct agency of God.[346]
This is the doctrine which must finally be accepted, whether vitality be
regarded as a mode of energy--a transformation of chemico-physical
forces--or as a distinct and special force. Dr. Carpenter has long held
that the physical and vital forces are mutually convertible, but he
regards both as the result of the direct action of the Deity. "Believing
that all force which does not emanate from the will of created sentient
beings _directly and immediately proceeds from the will of the
Omnipotent and Omnipresent Creator_; and looking on the (what we are
accustomed to call) physical forces as so many _modi operandi_ of one
and the same agency, the creative and sustaining will of the Deity, I do
not feel the validity of the objections urged against the idea of the
absolute metamorphosis or conversion of forces."[347] Inasmuch, however,
as the advocates of this theory have failed to establish either a
_quantitative_ or a _qualitative_ relation between the vital and
physical forces, but, on the contrary, the most exact and careful
biological researches show them to be inconvertible and antagonistic, we
are constrained still to hold the doctrine maintained by Dr. Beale.
The ancient doctrine that "Life is the cause, and not the consequence of
organization,"[348] still maintains its ground against all assaults.
Harvey's famous maxim, _Omne vivum ex ovo_--as amended by Charles Robin,
_Omne vivum ex vivo_--stands yet unrefuted; and, as Sir William Thomson
remarked in his inaugural address before the British Association of
Science, "This seems to me as sure a teaching of science as the law of
gravitation. I confess to being deeply impressed by the evidence put
before us by Professor Huxley, and I am ready to adopt it as an article
of scientific faith--true through all space and all time--that _life
proceeds from life, and nothing but life_."[349] Life has its origin in
no secondary cause, but in the immediate presence and direct action of
the Deity. God is the author and giver of Life--the constant sustainer
of all vitality; "in Him we live and move and are."
The final conclusion to be drawn from these propositions is that God is
not simply the _transitive_ but the _immanent_ cause of the universe.
He is in nature, not merely as a _regulative_ principle impressing laws
upon matter, but as a _constitutive_ principle, the ever-present source
and ever-operating cause of all its phenomena. If by the term nature we
understand the totality of necessary and uniform phenomena, God is the
immediate cause of all uniform and necessary phenomena. If by nature we
understand the varied forms of energy which underlie the phenomena, and
are manifested in the phenomena, these forms of energy are but various
modes in which the omnipresent power of God reveals itself. God is
immanent in matter, and his ceaseless energy produces all the phenomena
of nature. Nature is more than matter: it is matter swayed by Divine
power, and organized and animated by the Divine life.
But the question may be here raised, Is not this identification of the
dynamical life of the universe with God, Pantheism? We answer in the
language of James Martineau: "It certainly would be so if we also turned
the proposition round and identified God with no more than the life of
the universe, and treated the two terms as for all purposes
interchangeable. If in affirming the Divine _immanency_ in nature we
deny the Divine _transcendency_ beyond nature, and pay our worship to
the aggregate of all its powers, the law of its laws, the unity of its
organism,... then undoubtedly we do pass from part to whole, and rest in
a dream of future science instead of emerging into immediate
religion."[350] The theory which represents the Deity as the transitive
cause of the universe--a Δημιουργός mechanically fashioning the
materials supplied to his hands, and then leaving it to the working of
its own inherent forces--is rank Deism. The hypothesis which regards
the Deity as _no more_ than the dynamical life of the universe--an
informing and organizing soul associated with matter--is naked
Hylozoism. The theory that reduces all existence, material and mental,
to phenomenal manifestations of one eternal self-existent substance
which evolves itself according to an inward law of necessity, and which
is elusively called God, is Pantheism. But the doctrine which embraces
the two conceptions of _transcendence_ and _immanence_, and while it
teaches the immanence of God in matter, proclaims the infinite
distinctness in essence between matter and God, and the infinite
omnipresence of a personal God above and beyond the limitations of
matter, is Christian Theism.[351]
And now, in conclusion, may we not say that this dictum of faith that
the universe exists only in virtue of the continued Will of its Creator,
is coming more and more to be recognized as a scientific fact. The will
of God is the one primal force which streams forth in ever-recurring
impulses with an immeasurable rapidity at every point in space--an
incessant pulse-beat of the Infinite Life.[352] The disposition and
collocations of matter are simply the conditions necessary to the
manifestation of this primal force. The chemical atom, "already quite a
complex little world,"[353] is a mechanism for the interception,
transformation, and transmission of force. All the varied forms of
energy are but secondary and derivative streams of force--forms of
energy which are conceivable only as effects, and which by mere
accommodation we may be permitted to call "causes," yet with this
specific reservation that "they are not vicegerents outside of the
Divine Will, but are held within the Divine Will." "The word '_cause_'
may be used in a secondary and concrete sense as meaning antecedent
forces, yet in an abstract sense it is totally inapplicable; we can not
predicate of any physical agent that it is abstractedly the cause of
another; and if, for the sake of convenience, the language of secondary
causation be permissible, it should only be with reference to the
special phenomena referred to, as it can never be generalized." "The
common error, if I am right in supposing it to be such, consists in the
abstraction of cause, and in supposing in each case a general secondary
cause--a something which is not the First Cause, but which, if we
examine it carefully, _must have all the attributes of a first cause,
and an existence independent of and dominant over matter_." "CAUSATION
IS THE WILL OF GOD."[354] The Divine conservation of the world is the
_simple, universal, uniform efficiency of God_.