------
THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF MENTAL AND MORAL PROGRESS.[12]
It is not highly necessary after what has been already said in these pages,
to adduce much evidence to show that scientific discoveries, either
directly or through the medium of the inventions based upon them, have been
a great cause of mental and moral progress. As however there are many
persons who do not perceive the dependence of such progress, and especially
of moral advance, upon science, a few of the chief relations of those
subjects to each other may be pointed out.
The dependence of mental progress upon science may be rendered manifest in
several ways:--1st. By showing that new scientific knowledge is continually
extending and modifying our views of existing things. 2nd. That inventions
based upon scientific discoveries have aided and extended our mental
powers:--3rd. That mental phenomena may be made the subject of experiment,
observation, analysis, and {84} inference:--4th. That the criteria of
truth, and the mental powers and processes employed for discovering and
detecting truth, are the same in mental as in physical science, and, 5th.
That mental action is subject to the great principles and laws of science.
And moral progress may be proved to have a scientific basis:--1st. By
shewing that moral actions are a class of mental actions, and therefore
subject to the same fundamental laws and influences:--2nd. That the
discovery of new scientific knowledge, and the use of inventions based upon
it, often conduce to morality:--3rd. That moral phenomena may be made the
subject of experiment, observation, analysis, and inference:--4th. That the
criteria of truth, and the mental faculties and processes employed, in
discovering truth, are the same in moral as in physical science:--5th. That
the fundamental rules of morality are subject to the great principles of
science:--6th. That moral improvement follows in the wake of scientific
advance:--and 7th. By showing the moral influence of experimental research
in imparting "the scientific spirit;" promoting a love of truth; dispelling
ignorance and superstition; detecting error; imparting certainty and
accuracy to our knowledge; inculcating obedience to law; producing
uniformity of belief; aiding economy and cleanliness, promoting humanity,
&c, &c. Each of these will be treated with extreme brevity.
MENTAL PROGRESS.
The chief object of this chapter is only to shew {85} that mental action is
largely consistent with the great principles of science; not that in our
present state of knowledge, mental phenomena can be entirely explained by
them, or that mental actions involve nothing more than physical and
chemical processes.
That mental progress is advanced by scientific discovery is a common
circumstance. Our ideas of facts, our knowledge of general principles, our
views of man, of nature, and of the Universe; and even our modes of
thought, have been gradually and profoundly changed by the new knowledge
acquired by means of scientific research. This truth is capable of being
most extensively illustrated by a multitude of facts in the whole of the
sciences, and in the arts, manufactures, and other subjects dependent upon
science. For example, in astronomy, great changes, produced by the results
of scientific discovery have taken place in our ideas respecting the
magnitude of Space and of the Heavenly bodies, the constitution, form, and
motion of the Earth, the functions of the Sun and Moon, the distances of
the Sun and fixed Stars, the nature of eclipses and comets; and a great
many other matters. In terrestrial physics, the mental advances have been
equally great in our ideas respecting the causes of tides and of winds, the
pressure of the atmosphere, the existence and course of the Gulf Stream,
the physical conditions of the Equator and Poles, the conditions upon which
day and night, summer and winter depend, the depth of the ocean, the height
of the atmosphere, the cause of rainbows, of {86} rain, hail, snow, mist
and dew, of thunder and lightning, the composition of air, water, mineral,
and organic substances, and other most numerous and varied phenomena. In
the subjects of heat, light, electricity, magnetism, chemistry, vegetable
and animal physiology, psychology and morality, and the more concrete
subjects depending upon them, such as politics, trade, commerce,
government, &c., our ideas have equally advanced, in consequence of
scientific research; and to fully describe the mental progress resulting
from discovery in nearly all branches of human knowledge would require a
series of books to be written on the History of all the Sciences.
Other causes also, which I need hardly mention, besides scientific
discovery, have of course contributed to the mental progress of mankind. We
arrive at true ideas, not only by the more certain and systematic process
employed in scientific research, but largely also by the uncertain method
of trusting to instinct and habit, by adopting dogmatic opinions, and by
the semi-scientific plan of following empirical rules.
Dogma and empiricism, in nearly all subjects, has rendered immense service
to mankind. Contemporaneously with the progress produced by new knowledge,
the mental condition of man has been maintained and prevented from
receding, by the combined influence of hereditary mental proclivity,
acquired habit, promulgation of dogmatic opinions and empirical rules, and
by previously known verified truth. Religious {87} belief has thus been the
forerunner of Science. Dogma and empiricism are indispensable agents of
civilization; they cannot be dispensed with by the great mass of mankind,
who have not the time at command, nor possess the other means, necessary
for acquiring verified knowledge. They afford rough and ready guides and
useful "rule of thumb" methods, though less certain and less accurate than
those afforded by verified and definite science.
That various inventions, based upon scientific discoveries, have greatly
aided and extended our mental powers is quite certain. The discovery of the
properties of a mixture of solution of nutgalls and green vitriol, has,
through the invention of ink, exercised an immense influence in promoting
the mental developement of mankind; and the discovery of the properties of
esparto grass and other materials for making paper has contributed to this
result. Every discovery also resulting in inventions which facilitated the
transmission of intelligence has had a similar effect. Amongst these are
magnetism, which, in the mariner's compass greatly assisted navigation and
the conveyance of letters by sea; and the steam engine which facilitated
the transmission of letters by land and by water; the electric telegraph,
the telephone, and other contrivances for transmitting ideas, have also
greatly promoted mental advance. The steam engine, by largely abolishing
physical drudgery, gave time for study and mental and moral improvement. It
has been said that "it is impossible to lay down a {88} railway without
creating an improved intellectual influence. It is probable that Watt and
Stephenson will eventually modify the opinions of mankind, almost as
profoundly as Luther and Voltaire." Photography has exercised an immense
intellectual influence of an improved kind, by making common to all mankind
views of the beautiful scenery of all parts of our globe, and portraits of
individuals of all nations and of all classes of society. Processes of
printing from electrotype plates, pictures and letter-press, upon the paper
wrappers used by grocers and other tradesmen, have also carried into the
homes of millions of poor persons truthful ideas and an improved
intellectual influence. The invention of steel pens, of which a thousand
millions are made yearly in Birmingham alone, must also have considerably
aided intellectual progress. The various calculating machines used by
merchants, the copying presses, papyrographs, and the numerous inventions
for copying and multiplying letters and circulars and for domestic
printing, have saved intellectual toil, and promoted the diffusion of
intelligence. These are only a few of the numerous ways in which inventions
based upon scientific discoveries, have resulted in mental progress.
Less perhaps has been done in the way of actual definite scientific
experiments upon mental actions and processes than in almost any other
department of science, and this is partly accounted for by the fact that
the other sciences require to be largely advanced before we can use them to
examine mental action, {89} and partly also because (as occasionally
happens) the latter has been a neglected subject of research. During the
past few years however, various experimental investigations have been made,
especially by Donders in Holland, and Mosso in Turin, for the purpose of
elucidating the physical conditions of mental action; and it has been found
that instead of an act of thought being instantaneous, as was formerly
believed, it requires a variable time.[13] Numerous desultory experiments
made upon dreamers, and with drugs, alcohol, &c., upon persons in the
waking state, also prove that mental phenomena are amenable to scientific
research. F. Galton has even proposed experiments and methods for measuring
the mental faculties of different persons.[14] The effects of exciting
different parts of the brain of animals by means of electric currents, and
the localization of the functions of the brain effected by the experiments
of Ferrier, Hirtzig and others, also tend to throw further light upon
mental phenomena. The fact alone that mental actions and conditions may be
made the subject of experiment, and consequently of observation,
comparison, analysis and inference, proves that they may be rendered
sources of new facts and principles, and are therefore within the domain of
science. As the dependence of mental phenomena upon physical conditions has
been clearly demonstrated, an extensive reduction of them to scientific
laws is only a question of time and labour.
{90}
The principles of nature and the modes of mental action are the same for
all men. It necessarily follows from the essential nature of truth and the
invariability of the chief methods of detecting it, that the criteria of
truth in mental science, and the mental powers and processes by which truth
is arrived at and detected in that science, are essentially the same as in
the physiological, chemical, and physical ones. In each of these subjects,
we first, either with or without the aid of experiment, make observations,
record facts, compare them, and draw conclusions from our comparisons; we
also group the facts, and the conclusions, in every possible way, and then
draw other conclusions; we also analyse, combine, and permutate the various
truths arrived at, and cross examine the evidence in every possible manner
in order to extract from it the greatest amount of new knowledge. And in
each case we employ as the criteria of truth, the test of consistency with
the whole of the evidence bearing upon the case, and especially with the
great principles of science. We determine what is true, chiefly by
comparison with those principles, because they are the most firmly
established true ones and the most universal. There is no royal road to
truth, and no special mental faculty for detecting it in any subject; and
it is in consequence of our mental faculties being so very finite that we
have no easier way of arriving at truth.
No dogmatic teaching can ever, except by accident, fully explain to man the
true nature of mind; and {91} only in proportion as man becomes enlightened
by extension of new scientific knowledge, especially in physiology, will he
be able to view himself in a true aspect apart from his consciousness.
Science penetrates deeper than metaphysical speculation, into the nature of
mental action, chiefly because metaphysics deals only with old ideas,
whilst science furnishes us with new experience and therefore with new
conceptions and wider evidence.
Fallacies are very prevalent, every subject of human study is liable to a
very large class of errors arising from the extremely imperfect state of
our knowledge, and in very few subjects is our ignorance as great as in
that of mental and moral phenomena. Every different subject of study also,
has, in consequence of its special peculiarities, its own peculiar class of
fallacies, into which the student of it is likely to be led, unless he is
previously guarded against them. In accordance with this truth, the study
of man's nature, especially the mental and moral portions, is particularly
liable to a class of errors arising from the circumstance, that the
phenomena to be observed and the observing power are intimately connected
together, each influencing and disturbing the other. The obstacles to our
arriving at truth in the study of mental and moral actions, are greater and
more frequent, the more nearly and intimately related the phenomena to be
observed and contemplated, are to the observing and contemplating faculty,
or rather to the contemplative action. When the two mental {92} actions are
extremely intimate, as when attention is directed to the action of will
(which is itself a conscious act of attention) undisturbed thought becomes
very difficult; and when further, the contemplative faculty attempts to
contemplate itself, as when consciousness attempts to observe
consciousness, in order to define it, the attempt results in almost
complete failure, probably because the two actions (observing and being
observed) being opposite in kind, cannot coexist at the same time in the
same structure. Knowledge of the exact nature of consciousness therefore,
will probably only be arrived at by indirect means, when physiological and
other knowledge is sufficiently advanced.
Consciousness, when uncorrected by sufficient knowledge and inference, is a
great source of error. That which we feel, we think exists whether it does
or not, until the subject is correctly explained to us. The incessant and
irresistible obtrusion of consciousness exercises dominion over every mind,
even of our greatest thinkers, and causes disturbance and interruption in
nearly every train of thought. It is largely the cause of some of our most
general ideas and emotions and insensibly influences our views of man and
nature. It produces true impressions as well as erroneous ones. It is a
cause of the feeling that an occult spirit exists within us independent of
our material structure. Combined with the almost equally persistent
impression of the uniformity of nature, it largely produces the idea that
the spirit within us, {93} will live and be active for ever. And by uniting
with the frequent impressions of failure of our efforts and desire for more
perfect enjoyment, it largely originates the idea of everlasting happiness.
It is in accordance with modern scientific knowledge, to view the mind, not
as a collection of distinct faculties, but rather as a single kind of
power, like each of the physical forces, having several different modes of
action; and as that which perceives, thinks, and wills. Its oneness is
shewn by its inability to be simultaneously occupied by several diverse
feelings, thoughts, or volitions, and by our incapacity to think of many
varied ideas at once; the more ideas also or objects we attempt to perceive
at once, the less we realize of each. In proportion as the mind is engaged
upon one idea, so is it also unable to be occupied with another. Strong
feelings exclude intellectual action. The mind can only execute several
actions at a time, provided they have been rendered more or less automatic
by habit, &c., but as all mental acts are in different degrees imperfectly
automatic, and require more or less attention, and each individual mind is
limited in its power, every such act withdraws a portion of attention from
the more engrossing ideas. Power of mind and power of maintaining attention
are nearly synonymous.
The recognised fundamental elements of mind are Receptivity and Perception
of impression: Retentiveness of impression: Perception of agreement (or
similarity) of impression: and Perception of difference {94} of impression.
All purely mental acts appear to be resolvable into these.
Many persons still entertain the idea that mental actions are largely
independent of the natural conditions to which physiological, chemical, and
physical phenomena are subject. The unscientific mind is readily beguiled
by easy schemes of mental action, or simple systems of mental and moral
philosophy, unaware that great abstract truths often require deep thought
to discover them, or even to perceive them when discovered and published.
"A false notion, which is clear and precise, will always meet a greater
number of adherents in the world than a true principle which is obscure."
It is not until unscientific persons have become used to advanced
scientific ideas and nomenclature, and knowledge as so far progressed as to
enable thinking men to illustrate those ideas freely in familiar language,
that great abstract truths are believed by the public. The ordinary and
simple theory of the operations of the human mind is, that they often arise
without any cause, and are frequently not obedient to ordinary influences,
and this idea is still entertained and promulgated even by some of our most
popular ministers of truth. It is therefore necessary in order to further
prove that new scientific knowledge is really a basis of mental progress,
to point out a few of the chief ways in which mental action essentially
depends on scientific principles, and to adduce a few instances in which
other substances than brain exhibit essentially similar phenomena. To {95}
shew this however in a more satisfactory manner would require a large
treatise to be written upon the subject.
The human brain and mind are evidently subject to the ordinary laws of
matter and energy. Receptivity and retentiveness of impression is not only
a property of brain, but of all solid matter without exception. Moser's
pictures, and Chinese mirrors, the impressions on each being reproducible
by warm breath, are examples of this. And as these two properties are
fundamental elements of mind, they must be present in and essential to,
every mental action.
All phenomena require time and all matter occupies space; thought and brain
are no exception to this. Whilst all persons say "I must have time to
think," many believe that thought is instantaneous. Time is a necessary
condition of all thought, and therefore of all comparison, inference,
imagination, and mental analysis; it takes time even to form an idea, or
draw an inference from it, and the two cannot be formed simultaneously.
Professor Donders, of Utrecht, has invented what he terms a Noematachograph
for registering the amount of time occupied in mental processes, and by the
aid of that instrument has ascertained that the time required by a man of
middle age to perform a single act of simple thought is about one
twenty-fifth part of a second. It has also been ascertained that the time
required is longer in some persons than in others; and longer if the {96}
subject of thought is one with which the thinker is not familiar. Mosso, by
means of an instrument which he calls a Plethysmograph, has shewn, that
during mental action, either in the waking state, or in dreaming, there is
a greater amount of blood determined to the brain, and more during
difficult than during easy mental action. These are instances of scientific
research casting a light upon mental processes.
Coexistence of matter and energy is another great truth which appears to be
applicable to all nature; wherever there is matter, there is either active
or stored up power; and as particular forms of energy are in some cases
most exhibited by particular kinds of substance, (as magnetism by iron), so
mind is associated with living brain. As also we never see the physical
powers exhibited except by material substance, so have we never yet
observed mental action in a space devoid of material. The most perfect
vacuum yet produced contains many millions of particles of substance in
each cubic inch. Of all the countless number of scientific phenomena
observed since men have been able to reliably investigate, not one has
afforded us conclusive evidence of mental action entirely independent of
these conditions. In accordance also with the usual truth in science, that
complicated action requires complex structures; mind, being the most
intricate action, is manifested by the most complicated body.
Mind, like each of the physical forces may be {97} viewed as a mode of
energy; it is essentially dynamic; activity or change, within or without
us, appears to be the original source of all our mental impressions, and
the cause of their re-excitement in an act of memory. A man's mind, being
continually excited by circumstances, must be active whether he will or no,
and if it does not possess sufficient truthful ideas entirely to occupy it,
it must be more or less occupied with erroneous ones. "We can neither feel,
nor know, without a transition or change of state--and every cognition,
must be viewed as in relation to some other feeling, or cognition," (Bain.
Mental and Moral Science, p. 83); _i.e._ the mental effect of impressions
upon us depends upon our immediately previous mental state; consciousness
and perception appear to be based upon cerebral change or activity; after
strong excitement of consciousness an increased amount of acid products is
found in the secretions. "It is a general law of the mental constitution,
more or less recognised by inquirers into the human mind, that change of
impression is essential to consciousness in every form," (Bain. Emotions
and Will, 3rd edi. p. 550). A sufficient degree also of such change is a
necessary condition of conscious perception; it is the stronger or more
rapid only of mental changes that excite our consciousness.
We perceive nearly all things by means of a difference of impression which
they make upon us; by contrast. That which makes no such difference of
impression, such as the great uniformities of time and {98} space, makes no
immediate impression upon us. We only know of the existence of those
uniformities by inference from our perceptions of sequences or of relative
difference. Although the Earth moves at the rate of 62,000 miles an hour in
its orbit, consciousness does not perceive it. If also there was no error,
we should be less immediately able to discern truth, without pain we should
lose much of the enjoyment of pleasure. Without the contrast of
imperfection we could not directly appreciate perfection.
This principle of "relativity," or of change of impression, operates both
in the phenomena of dead and living matter and in those of mind; the
selenium in a photophone is kept in a state of motion or activity, not by a
beam of uniform light, but only by one which changes; electrical action is
excited by a relative difference of friction, of temperature, of chemical
action, &c.; chemical action also often results from a relative difference
of property of two bodies. That the most inscrutable phenomenon of mind,
viz., consciousness, is largely dependent upon relative physical and
chemical conditions, is proved by the powerful influence which alcohol,
chloroform, opium, haschish, and other substances, have in exciting or
depressing it. These facts prove that excitement of consciousness or mental
action depends upon precisely the same general condition, viz.: change of
impression, as the excitement of some of the physical forces; and that mind
possesses a similar property to the physical forces of being changed by
inequality of impression. {99} Whilst copious evidence is available to shew
that the mind is excitable by physical causes, no more conclusive proof
exists that a mental impression arises without a natural cause, than that a
physical one, such as a photographic impression, arises in that way.
Abundant evidence of non-creation of ideas out of nothing might be adduced;
even imagination and invention are subject to this limit, because an
unlimited number of new conceptions cannot be formed from a limited number
of previous ideas.
The dependence of the mind (like any other mode of energy) upon physical
conditions, is further proved by the fact that the mental and moral states
of a man are largely governed by sensation; if the latter is unhealthy it
makes the mind so, and it makes some difference what the part of the body
is in which the sensation exists; most commonly it is the viscera. The mind
is also intimately dependent upon the physical condition of the brain, and
is largely affected by the quantity and quality of the blood in that organ.
The most fundamental principle which pervades every one of the sciences,
and agrees with the actions of every natural form of energy without
exception, including mind, is, that of consistency or non-contradiction. No
machine or scientific apparatus of any kind can perform two contradictory
acts at the same time. It is both a physiological and psychological fact,
that we cannot experience two contradictory sensations, nor perceive two
contradictory ideas at the {100} same instant. We can neither feel,
perceive, nor observe, one thing, whilst we are feeling, perceiving, or
observing, one of a contradictory nature; nor can we perform any two
contradictory acts of comparison, inference, imagination, or volition,
simultaneously. As also two mental actions are often not exactly alike, or
entirely harmonious, they must so far as they are really contradictory, be
mutually exclusive; and one of them must partly prevent the other, the
strongest one prevailing, and this general truth is commonly though not
explicitly, recognised in the maxim, that to do anything well, we must do
only one thing at a time. In accordance with the universal truth, that
contradictions cannot co-exist, it is well-known that one disease
frequently expels another from our frame, and the action of
counter-irritants is based upon the same principle. The fortitude of
martyrs may probably be explained by this power of one set of ideas and
feelings to exclude another, and the facts of mental physiology afford
plenty of other examples.
It is probably because we cannot simultaneously perform two contradictory
actions, that we cannot contemplate consciousness, or think of an idea and
at the same time think of that act of thought. In accordance with this,
even Newton, and other great geniuses, have been unable to accurately
describe the mental processes by means of which they arrived at their most
difficult results. In consequence also of this, we cannot define
consciousness, and are often {101} unable to directly observe or analyse
our mental actions, especially those of a very abstruse or complex kind.
Much of the knowledge of the operations of our mind, we are therefore
obliged to obtain by indirect means; by analogies, and inferences from the
phenomena of nature, &c., and in this way our knowledge of mental action
largely depends upon our acquaintance with physical and chemical science,
and can only advance as it advances. To clearly understand one subject we
are often obliged to study several others. Ignorance of science in general,
and of cerebral physiology in particular, is the chief obstacle to our
acquiring a more accurate knowledge of mind.
Next to consistency, the great principle of causation constitutes the most
essential part of all natural truth, and to deny the operation of this
principle in particular cases of mental action, simply because we, with our
very finite powers, cannot in the extremely imperfect state of our
knowledge, yet fully explain some of the most difficult, complex,
transient, and ever-changing phenomena of will and consciousness, is
contrary to the most weighty evidence. "The Will" is a conscious mental
effort to effect an object, the idea of which is already in the mind, and
being a mental "effort" it absorbs the mind and thereby incapacitates it at
the moment from observing its own action.
If any phenomenon (such as mental action) is essentially dependent upon
another, it must be connected {102} with it in a never-failing or
indissoluble manner, so that when the one occurs the other is always
present, otherwise it would not be essentially dependent. The only known
connections of this kind are those causation and continuity of phenomena,
according to which every phenomenon has a cause, and all phenomena are
indissolubly connected in endless series. The evidence of the truth of
these principles is so vast, that even all mankind thinking through all
ages, and after having made an almost infinite number of definite
experiments and observations, have never yet met with a single well
verified instance of their failure; and we are therefore justified in
inferring that they are universal. There are however instances in the
physical and chemical sciences, as well as in mental action, where the
dependence of phenomena upon those principles is not very apparent, and has
not yet been sufficiently proved, but it is probably in consequence of our
imperfect knowledge and limited faculties, that we are unable as yet to
fully trace such dependence. The history of science, abundantly proves that
we should not assume that a phenomenon arises without a natural cause,
simply for the reason that it is very difficult to trace its origin, but
wait patiently for more knowledge respecting it. It is unphilosophic and
contrary to reason to attribute to occult agencies, effects which may be
explicable by ordinary causes, or to refuse to believe in more abstruse
causes where the assumption of simple ones is contradicted by some of the
evidence. {103}
The principle of causation forms the basis of many minor ones, such as
selection, evolution, differentiation, &c. Plurality of causes also is a
very common circumstance in all the sciences, and especially in concrete
phenomena, and in the complex ones of animal life; the arrival of a ship
for example at a distant port, is a result of many conditions. Similarly
with most of our mental actions, they are compounds of feeling and
intellect, and produced by many causes, such as hereditary tendency,
acquired habit, internal and external mental excitants, dogmatic belief,
knowledge of empirical rules, and occasionally of verified principles.
Several of these causes also frequently conspire to produce a single idea
or decision.
Various general principles of lesser magnitude arise from the combined
action of two or more of the greater ones, and these also appear to operate
in mental actions as well as in physical ones. Thus by the combined
influence of causation and of the principle that every phenomenon occupies
time, "effects often lag behind their causes;" and in some cases during a
long period. The greatest heat of summer for example usually occurs several
weeks after mid-summer. The mental effects of early mistakes are often not
fully experienced until old age. The decline of a nation also follows a
long time behind the period of action of the chief causes which produce it.
Although effects are indissolubly connected with their causes, they
frequently do not occur in an active form until a long period after them.
In such cases {104} they are stored up in what is termed a potential or
latent state, ready for liberation at a future occasion, when the suitable
conditions are present; the storage of chemical power in gunpowder, of
solar heat in coal, and its subsequent liberation in our fires, are
suitable examples. The principle of deferred activity and storing up of
power, occurs also in vital and mental phenomena; potential heat is stored
up in our food, and is afterwards evolved by oxidation in our tissues.
Muscular power is stored up during sleep, ready to be evolved during
labour. The storage also of cerebral impressions, and cerebral energy,
ready to call forth ideas, and thereby powerful emotions, by the exciting
action of memory, may also be viewed as an instance of similar kind
belonging to mental phenomena. A new and striking instance of the storage
of energy has been shewn in Faure's improved form of secondary voltaic
battery, in which the most powerful voltaic current may be (at least
practically) stored up (in a box containing lead plates immersed in dilute
sulphuric acid) and conveyed to a distance with little loss, and then
liberated.
Exciting causes operate very extensively in mental actions as well as in
physical ones, a mere look or word from an eloquent speaker will excite the
passions and liberate the muscular power of a multitude. Every part of the
human body, especially the muscles and nerve centres, is a store-house of
power always ready to be set free by the slightest suitable causes; this is
strongly illustrated in the irrepressible activity {105} of children, and
in the excitable passions of young men and women. The more immediate cause
of this power is the oxidation of assimilated food; and the source of power
in the food is the heat of the Sun stored up in the plants and animals they
have eaten.
The subsequent liberation of power under the influence, often of very
slight causes, long after the original cause has ceased to act, has led us
to conclude erroneously that causes are not always proportional to effects.
Proportionality of effect to cause appears to be universal; it probably
operates in mental as well as in physical actions, our faith in education
as a means of intelligence is based upon this; the more complete the
education of a particular individual, the greater usually is his degree of
intelligence. Proportionality of cause to effect is apparently disobeyed
not only in physical but also in mental phenomena. Throughout the whole
realm of nature, minute circumstances often act as exciting, deflecting,
and guiding causes, and contribute to the production of apparently
disproportionate effects. Thus a spark will discharge the largest cannon; a
touch determine the most distant electric signal; a word or look, excite
the strongest emotions; the little change of position of a railway point
will direct a train either to distant North or South; the minute change of
contact of the telegraph switch, will determine the signal to places wide
asunder; one false idea also at a critical moment will often lead a man or
woman to ruin; and in all these classes of cases, {106} whilst trifling
causes _appear_ to produce great effects; the real causes are the stored up
latent powers set free or directed. It is astonishing how small a
circumstance will excite an idea, and deflect the entire current of our
thoughts; and it is equally surprising what great physical and chemical
effects are often started by most minute exciting or deflecting conditions;
the explosion of seven tons of dynamite at Hell-gate, near New York, by the
pressure of a child's finger closing an electric circuit is a suitable
example.
Every phenomenon therefore whether physical or mental, is probably
connected in an indissoluble manner with some preceding phenomenon, either
immediately in point of time, or remotely through some static condition,
usually that of stored up power. In this sense the great principle of
continuity of phenomena appears to be universal, and the present state of
the Universe is said to implicitly or potentially contain all the future
states of the Universe. Mind also in this way, like each of the physical
forces, often acts as a link in an endless chain of causes and effects, and
is connected with non-mental phenomena in accordance with the great
principles of science.
Science has demonstrated what has been termed the "Convertibility of
Forces," or, that when one form of energy disappears, another form (or
forms) of energy, and in precisely equivalent amount, is produced in its
stead, either in a latent or active state. The equivalent quantities of the
various forms of {107} energy have also been discovered by actual
experiment and measurement. A pound weight falling through 772 feet gives
forth as much energy as would (in the form of heat) raise the temperature
of one pound of water one Fahrenheit degree. We know that so much
mechanical power is equal also to so much electric current, chemical
action, &c., and a large amount of evidence exists to show that these
transformations of energy occur in all the organs of living creatures, and
in obedience to the law of their equivalents. How far mental power is a
"mode of energy" transformable, and obedient to the laws of equivalence,
are interesting questions for future research.
The mechanical principle of action and reaction is another which can be
traced in mental as well as in physical phenomena. Mental excitement is
often succeeded by mental depression, "after pleasure follows pain." The
power of mental self-guidance and self-education is largely dependent upon
the two well known scientific principles of latent energy, and action and
reaction. We are able to liberate energy, not only in cases where it will
influence inanimate matter but also ourselves. The principle of
self-guidance is not restricted to living creatures, nor is self-regulation
limited to mental power. The principle of self-regulation operates in
clocks, watches, musical boxes, the governors of steam engines, water
regulators, gas regulators, &c., &c., and upon an immense scale in the
movements of the heavenly {108} bodies. With the electric locomotive, the
greater the load it has to draw, or the steeper the incline it has to
ascend, the more strongly does it exert its strength, up to the full limits
of its power. Neither in physical nor in mental actions can a body or force
usually act directly upon itself to change its state whether of activity or
rest. In both classes of cases however we meet with plenty of instances
where, a body by an almost imperceptible expenditure of energy on its own
part either alters some surrounding conditions, or excites a powerful
liberation of energy in another body which then reacts upon it to change
its state. In this way the action of clock-work in the self-exploding
apparatus of a torpedo liberates at a particular moment a spring, and
causes an explosion which destroys the apparatus. Similarly, whilst a man,
in many cases, is unable to _directly_ alter his mental state, to increase
or diminish his mental activity, to cause sleep, &c., he is able
_indirectly_ to change his mental condition by drinking stimulants or by
adopting means of self-education; and to induce sleep by means of opium,
suitable exercise, &c.
The principles of indestructibility or conservation of matter and energy,
flow from the preceding ones, and are exhibited in mental actions as well
as in physical ones. Whilst the universal experience of mankind has not yet
afforded us a single well verified instance of actual creation or
destruction of matter or energy, it has supplied us with plenty of examples
of apparent destruction and creation of each of them. {109} But scientific
knowledge corrects the uncertain testimony of consciousness; whilst we see
coal burn and be apparently destroyed, science proves to us that the
elements composing it remain undiminished. We observe also that the heat of
the fire dissipates and is apparently lost for ever; but science again
proves that it is either stored up in the latent state, ready to be again
liberated at a future time, or else converted into other forms of energy. A
given atom of matter or a portion of energy, therefore, to the best of our
knowledge, continues and persists for ever. As we cannot either create or
destroy matter so also can we not create or annihilate energy, and this
truth probably holds good with regard to mental as well as to physical and
chemical power. Great changes of state in bodies (as in the combustion of
wood &c.) have led us to erroneously think that the substances are
destroyed; and great apparent differences of property, such as those of
diamond and charcoal, have led us similarly to conclude that they are
entirely distinct and independent of each other when they are not.
As the cerebrum of man is composed of matter, and during excitement, its
parts are active, we might confidently predict that its particles obey the
First law of Motion, viz.: that a body in a state of rest or motion will
continue in that state of rest or motion until some cause arise to prevent
it. So it has been found that the action of the vital and mental forces
have a degree of persistence, like the physical ones. It has been
experimentally found that portions of {110} living bone transplanted to
fleshy parts of animals where there was no bone, continued to grow for a
time by a life of their own, and increased by formation of additional bone,
like a crystal grows in its medium; but after a time they diminished and
disappeared. In a similar manner we are all of us aware of the persistency
of ideas, even in opposition to the will, after the cause of them has been
removed. Sometimes we cannot retain an idea because of the persistence of
others; and at other times we cannot get rid of one, for a similar reason.
Our mental habits also have often very great persistence.
The principle of heredity may be viewed as a result of the First law of
Motion, and appears as Persistency of state, either of structure, form, or
mode of action. It appears both in inanimate bodies, living structures, and
in mental phenomena; in the latter, as hereditary mental peculiarities. The
principle of Persistency of structure and Heredity of form and property,
during repeated or even continual dissolution and aggregation of a material
substance, is more or less manifest nearly throughout the whole of nature.
In the formation of crystals it is clearly seen; each crystallizable
substance will only grow into its own shape or shapes; each particle of
common salt, during an endless series of successive solutions and
aggregations into the solid state, always forms a more or less perfect
cube; that of silica a hexagon; and so on throughout the entire series of
thousands of different crystalline bodies. As each {111} form of crystal
only produces crystals of like form and property (or at most in certain
cases a limited number of modified forms, as in the instance of calcic
carbonate, &c.) so also each seed, both of animals and vegetables, only
produces its own particular essential shape and collection of functions.
The same principle shews itself in the transmission of particular types of
disease, and of eccentricities of organization, from one generation to
another of animals. Peculiar malformations of body and characteristics of
mind often persist in families from generation to generation. This
persistency or heredity of structure and of property is not limited to
solid bodies, but exists also in liquids: "The effect of vaccine virus upon
the liquid blood, in producing a permanent and organic change in its
constitution and character, which continues to exercise a protective
influence against small-pox, in the great mass of cases, through a long
life, during which time the blood must have undergone, many thousands, if
not millions of changes and modifications." (F. Winslow. "Obscure diseases
of Brain and Mind," page 432). The same persistency of structure and
property of structure, has even been detected in vapours; the vapour of red
iodide of mercury for example, deposits only crystals of red iodide, whilst
that of the yellow deposits only yellow (see Gmelin's Handbook of
Chemistry, vol. 1, p. 100.)
We often appear to mentally select when we only yield to causes acting upon
us, _i.e._, to the strongest influence or motive. That "self-preservation
is the {112} first law of nature," is not only true of living creatures,
but largely also of dead substances. Inanimate as well as animate matter,
appears to usually select what is good for itself. Apparent selection,
which is manifested in the phenomena of instinct, is exhibited not only by
brain, but by all material substances. Acids appear to select bases, North
magnetism rejects North and prefers South magnetism. Also if a piece of
zinc is put into a mixed solution of the nitrates of silver, magnesium,
calcium, strontium, barium, lithium, sodium, potassium, and rubidium, it
will select the silver only with which to form a "metallic tree," and
reject all the other metals. Everything which aggregates or grows to a
definite shape, appears to select its material; if a crystal of a
particular salt is placed in a mixture of saturated solutions of different
salts, it will only select and assimilate to itself suitable material,
either particles of the same composition as itself, or those which are
isomorphous with it, _i.e._ belonging to the same crystalline system. In
living bodies also, the same principle operates; Living tissues, whether of
animals or vegetables, usually select from their nutrient fluids, and
assimilate, particles only of those kinds of matter which are suitable for
their structure; in this way, a bone assimilates lime and phosphoric acid
from the multitude of different substances conveyed to it by the blood. And
in all these cases, the selecting material appears to act as if it
possessed the powers of instinct, perception, comparison, judgment, and
{113} volition. The act of self-repair is clearly connected with this, and
is not limited to living structures; Sir David Brewster observed that if a
portion of the surface of a perfect crystal of alum is very slightly
abraded by dissolving a film from it, and the crystal be then immersed
during a very brief period in a saturated solution of alum, the abraded
portion repairs itself. The subjects of "malformation of crystals," and
"diseases of crystals" have been scientifically investigated. The power of
selection (or rather of apparent selection) is no doubt a result of the
combined action of causation and of the inherent properties of bodies, and
depends, like consciousness, upon difference of impression, the strongest
suitable influence determining. If apparent selection can thus be performed
by inanimate matter, we should not, except for a very sufficient reason,
assume the existence in living creatures, of a special occult power to
perform the same function. In the selection of ideas also the intellect
acts according to the purely scientific method.
We frequently appear to mentally adapt ourselves to particular
circumstances when we are really determined by causes; and this apparent
adaptation is also seen in ordinary physical and chemical phenomena. The
course of a river for instance, adapts itself to the configuration of the
country through which it flows, and if it cannot pass wholly by one
channel, as in seasons of flood, or on occasions of accidental obstruction,
it travels through several; and a similar result {114} occurs with the flow
of the blood when an artery is tied or becomes obstructed. A plant when
growing in a dark recess, bends itself towards the light as if it preferred
light; and its roots adapt themselves to the forms of existing obstacles. A
decapitated frog jumps away from a source of irritation, as if he still
possessed sensation, volition, and choice. A man seeking his way through a
crowd avoids the course in which the throng is densest. The human mind
also, chooses as it were, the easiest way of solving a problem, and usually
adapts itself to altered circumstances.
The principle of evolution also operates both in physical and mental
actions, and is a result of that of causation. Complexity of structure and
function is evolved out of simplicity of composition and property by
plurality of causes and conditions. For instance, many complex forms of
crystals of ice are produced from water. Calcspar crystallizes in more than
one hundred varieties of form, (all derived from an obtuse rhombohedron)
under the influence of a number of slightly different conditions of
temperature, impurities in the solution, &c. The most complex bodies are
evolved out of the simplest, the bodily frame of man himself (and that of
other animals) is constructed of less than twenty of the elementary
substances. The same simple substances are capable of yielding very
different and more complex bodies under different conditions; thousands of
different chemical compounds are composed of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon
only. In the development of {115} living forms from ova, the ultimate form
produced does not exist in the germ, any more than a crystal exists in its
solution, but is a natural consequence of the forces acting in and upon the
germ, like the cubical form of a crystal of common salt is a result of the
forces acting in its constituents under the conditions of its environment,
especially those of pressure and temperature. The extent to, and manner in
which, the force and principle operate, depend upon the material substance,
and its conditions internal and external.
It is a common circumstance, both in physical, mental, and moral subjects,
for the apparent to be the very opposite of the real. This general truth
has been repeatedly illustrated in an incidental manner in this book, and
need not be much further elucidated. Phenomena are none the less real,
however, because they are not readily manifest; our earth is as much tied
to the sun by the invisible power of gravity, as if it was attached to it
by visible material chains. Mistaking the apparent for the real, largely
explains the persistency of certain beliefs, and why it is that persons
unacquainted with science, cling to self-deception, and resist some of the
most firmly established truths. The more evident but untrue explanation is
believed, whilst the less apparent but true one is rejected. It is the
chief cause of the belief that "the will is a supernatural power." To a
scientific man however, apparent contradictions are not unfrequently a sign
of truth; too accurate results sometimes {116} indicate that they have been
artificially made to appear correct.
Sympathetic action or propagation of similar influence by immediate
impulse, is a property of all the natural forms of energy, as well as of
mind. Similar actions are propagated thus in all kinds of dead substances,
as well as in the living brain. Matter is sympathetic to sound in the
phenomena of singing-flames, and a vibrating string responds to a
particular note in obedience to well-known laws. Iodide of nitrogen may be
caused to explode by the influence of a particular note from a fiddle. In
the phenomena of light, with a spectroscope, a luminous gas is sympathetic
with, and emits and absorbs, only particular kinds of luminous rays. In
chemical action also, combustion excites combustion, ferment excites
ferment, infection communicates infection, and the similar chemical change
is transmitted from molecule to molecule. Mental excitement and disease in
one person, often excite similar phenomena in another, as is seen in
"religious revivals," and well-known epidemics, such as the "dancing
mania," "preaching epidemics," the "leaping ague," the "mewing contagion,"
etc., etc., (See "Epidemics of the Middle Ages," by Hecker; Sydenham
Society publications; also Carpenter's Mental Physiology, p. 312.) Like
excites like in the actions of each of the forces of nature; both in
physical, chemical, and mental action, the kind of impulse transmitted is
similar, unless conditions exist which transmute it. Dynamite, {117}
started into combustion by a flame, burns slowly away; but when started by
a detonating substance, detonates violently. Guthrie has also discovered
that if a melted cryohydrate (_e. g._ a chilled saturated aqueous solution
of a solid salt) is cooled to a certain greater extent, it will not
solidify--nothing separates out, although the solution is four or five
degrees below its proper solidifying point. If a little crystal of ice be
then thrown into it, nothing separates but ice, which comes to the surface.
If we throw in a little anhydrous salt, nothing but the anhydrous salt
separates out, and that sinks to the bottom. But if we throw into it a
crystal of a previous crop of cryohydrate, then nothing but the cryohydrate
separates. In this case also, like evidently excites like only, in
obedience to physical laws. (Addresses, Science Conferences; South
Kensington Museum, 1876; Vol. 2, p. 108). Even two clocks, when hung near
each other, against a board or surface which readily transmits vibrations,
have been known to exhibit, by synchronous action, an apparent sympathy,
which changed their rate of going.
Periodical phenomena, also, brought about by definite causes, occur in
mental, as well as in physical phenomena. In the former we have the
phenomena of sleep, and in the latter, definite causes produce summer and
winter, day and night, the tides, cycles of solar spots, maxima and minima
of magnetic intensity, etc., etc.
Conversely to the manifestation of the principles of {118} inanimate matter
by living bodies and in mental action, so have modern inventions
demonstrated the possibility of the performance by inanimate substances and
apparatuses, of the functions, not only of our bodily organs, (as of
locomotion by the steam engine,) but also of our senses and intellect, and
in some cases, to a degree far surpassing unaided human power. Apparatus,
sensitive to sound, have been constructed, as in the microphone and
singing-flames; others capable of reproducing articulate speech, as in the
phonograph, telephone, etc.; others again sensitive to light, as in the
production of visible images by photography, and reproducing them at a
distance through wires by means of the photophone; the power of indicating
or foretelling future events has also been embodied in instruments called
"tide predictors," and that of evolving inferences has been shewn in
Jevon's "Logical machine."
The various facts mentioned in this chapter prove that mind agrees with the
various forms of physical energy in many essential points, and obeys many
of the same laws or principles. Examine whatever general phenomena of the
mind we may, we can always detect some apparent or real connection of them
with the great principles of inorganic nature; and in order to prove the
dependence of them upon the great principles of science it is not necessary
to show that all such actions are subject to those principles. Until the
whole is explained however, there will always remain mysterious phenomena
to cavil about. {119}
MORAL PROGRESS.
At the present time few competent persons have largely investigated the
fundamental relations of morality to Physical Science, consequently moral
actions are usually considered not to have a scientific basis, and the
doctrine is still extensively taught that some moral phenomena are
essentially supernatural.
As new scientific knowledge has increased, belief in witchcraft, sorcery,
demonology, exorcism, evil influences and omens, unseen spirits, a God of
evil, supernatural and occult powers, supernatural sources of strange
diseases, evil presages from comets and eclipses, fetishism, worship of
images and of the Sun, a belief that the Earth is the chief body in the
Universe, that man is the "Lord of Creation," &c, &c. have largely passed
away, and beliefs more consistent with facts and with true inferences drawn
from them, have taken their place. Belief in the supernatural nature of the
human will however is still largely retained. A writer on morality,
says--"In every genuine volition we have a phenomenon not law-determined,
law-regulated, and law-explained."[15] A popular expositor of religion
says--"The phenomena of the human soul are essentially different from the
phenomena with which the student of science is most familiar, and must be
investigated on other principles and by other methods." "The voluntary
activity of man lies beyond the limits of science." "Every language man has
ever spoken--no matter how {120} perfect or how rude--the literature of the
ancient and the modern world, the indestructible instincts of the human
soul, the testimony of consciousness, unite to affirm that the human will
is independent of natural law." "The will is a supernatural power." "I
myself am not under the dominion of natural law;" "my moral life is
essentially a supernatural thing." "As soon as you approach the
intellectual and moral life of man, you enter a region in which you have to
do with a new order of facts." &c.[16]
Morality, the subject of duty, or of right and wrong-doing in conscious
creatures, is usually considered to relate only to those actions over which
a man has or might have had control, and which it was his duty either to
perform or avoid, and not to those which are entirely beyond his influence,
it is therefore essentially dependent upon the power of selection or
choosing. As then all moral actions require voluntary choice between right
and wrong, and every act of choice is a mental one of comparison of two or
more things, all moral actions are mental ones. We cannot compare things
which have not made any mental impression upon us. We know further, and the
evidence already given proves, that mental actions are intimately dependent
upon the principles of nature operating within and around us. If then all
acts of morality (or immorality) are mental ones, and if all mental actions
are intimately dependent upon the great principles of nature; then all acts
of morality {121} are dependent upon those principles. Morality also cannot
be properly understood without a knowledge of various sciences, especially
biology, because it relates to human creatures, all of whom are morally
affected by the various forces and substances belonging to the physical and
chemical sciences.
Having shown that moral actions are mental ones, and adduced evidence to
prove that mental actions are largely subject to scientific principles;--it
follows as a necessary consequence, that moral actions also largely obey
those principles, and I need not repeat that evidence.
The extension of scientific knowledge conduces in a very general way to
moral progress, by diffusing the "scientific spirit," increasing our love
of truth, facilitating the attainment of greater certainty and accuracy,
enabling us to more perfectly avoid error, reducing our ignorance,
dispelling superstition, inculcating obedience to law, diminishing
difference of opinion and thereby lessening strife, conducing to humility,
to greater economy of means, to increased cleanliness, &c, &c. Scientific
research also, by disclosing to man his true position in nature, enables
him to act in harmony therewith, and thus increase his morality and general
happiness.
Knowledge is as free as the air, once diffused it becomes impressed upon
the brains of men and cannot be easily destroyed or restrained; and the
greatest moral effects of science are cosmopolitan ones. Inventions based
upon new scientific truths are gradually {122} breaking down the barriers
between the various nations of the Earth, and infusing common interests
amongst all mankind. Nothing is uniting the sympathies of different
nations, increasing the friendly feelings between them, and diminishing the
probability of war, more than the increasing facilities of communication
brought about in a great measure by the developments of science and art;
more particularly by ocean steam navigation, rapid postal communication and
the telegraph, (see p. 51). At the present time there are about six
Atlantic telegraph cables in use, and an almost daily service of passenger
steam ships across that ocean. The use of inventions based upon scientific
discovery has aided moral progress in various ways. All inventions are made
with the object of supplying some real or supposed want, and nearly
everything which supplies a common want, conduces to contentment and
happiness and the general progress of mankind. No one can possibly measure
or estimate the advantage of the inventions of writing and printing, in
helping men to avoid quarrels, to settle differences of opinion, to
sympathise with suffering, to give advice: &c. Similar moral functions are
also performed by the electric telegraph, and a few specimens of some of
the messages sent through the wire would clearly illustrate this fact.
Great moral progress has also resulted from cheap daily intelligence,
collected largely with the aid of the telegraph; and of cheap books
produced by means of the steam engine. It is estimated that 250 millions
{123} of copies of newspapers are yearly published in Great Britain. The
Bible and Religious Tract Societies could hardly have existed had not the
properties of the ingredients of ink been discovered. The present
multiplicity of testaments, prayer-books, hymn-books, &c., has also been
rendered possible by the invention of printing. As darkness is favourable
to crime, so the invention of gaslight has conduced to morality. The
numerous sources of intellectual and moral enjoyment, developed by
inventions based upon scientific discovery, have attracted mankind from
more sensual and less moral amusements, and the invention of the
piano-forte has operated largely in a similar manner.
In many respects, the poor man of to-day can command social comforts,
conveniences, and pleasures, which an emperor could not in former times.
Who can estimate the amount of beneficial moral influences of an indirect
kind obtained by means of modern science? The relief from pain by
chloroform and other new medicines, the diminution of domestic toil by the
sewing machine; the increased health and pleasure obtained by access to the
country and seaside by means of railways; the diminution of anxiety
resulting from more speedy conveyance of letters, and especially of
messages by telegraphs, the increased pleasure of life resulting from being
surrounded by objects of beauty multiplied cheaply by means of scientific
processes, such as photography?
The human mind cannot greatly resist impression, the various effects of
scientific research necessarily {124} produce an influence upon it. Whilst
great deep-seated truths make a powerful impression on the minds of
philosophers, the great practical effects of science in inventions, &c.,
profoundly impress the mass of mankind. One of the chief influences of the
discovery of important scientific truths and of their practical application
in some wonderful way, such as in the telescope and microscope, phosphorus
matches, photography, electro-plating, the electric light, the
spectroscope, microphone, telephone, &c., is to produce a profound and
wide-spread impression of the existence of a great and mysterious
influence, which produces (or enables us to produce) such striking effects.
Whilst also the novelty of the practical effects of new scientific truths
in inventions, astonish persons in general; the definiteness of scientific
phenomena, and the certainty with which they may be reproduced convince all
competent persons who examine them, that they are rigidly subject to
definite laws. In this way the antique belief that natural phenomena are
produced by supernatural agencies, is gradually being abandoned, and the
more moral conviction of the omnipresence and universality of law has been
largely established in its stead. Every new scientific fact and invention
thus becomes a new proof of the universality of law. Belief in the
supernatural has diminished in proportion as scientific knowledge has
advanced; instead of natural phenomena being erroneously ascribed to
demons, spirits, supernatural {125} powers, and occult causes, they have
been proved to be results of natural powers, acting in accordance with
known principles. Assertions which have been made, that "the will is a
supernatural power, independent of natural law" &c., are not supported by
evidence at all equal in cogency to that in proof of the statement, that
our mental and moral powers as a whole act in accordance with the great
principles of science.
That moral phenomena, like those of the physical sciences, are capable of
being made the subject of experiment, observation, comparison, analysis,
and inference, is very manifest. Every case of bribery may be viewed as an
experiment in morality. The very common case where an employer tests the
honesty of a servant by some contrivance, is also a trial of a similar
kind. The dependence of the moral powers upon scientific conditions, is
clearly seen in the influences of intoxicating drinks. A mere natural
substance could not possibly overcome the influence of a power which exists
entirely independent of it; _i.e._, a "supernatural" one. Even the greatest
believer in the "supernatural" power of the human will, deplores the
serious injury which the abuse of alcoholic liquors produces upon mankind,
rendering the will powerless, and debasing the moral sentiments. The
effects of opium, haschisch, &c., are other examples. A vast number of
experiments remain to be made of the effects of drugs and organic
compounds, both solid, liquid and gaseous, upon moral actions; {126} which
will probably prove a still greater degree of dependence of those actions
upon purely physical and chemical conditions.
The "order of facts" in the subject of morality requires precisely similar
mental treatment to those to which scientific investigation has been
already applied with such great success, and which include all phenomena
admitting of observation, comparison, analysis and inference; and not only
those in which we are able, but also those in which we are not able to
produce by means of experiment, the phenomena to be observed, such as those
of astronomy and geology. Different subjects also are experimental in
different degrees, physical science is more experimental, physiology is
more observational; morality is partly experimental, and therefore capable
of reduction to scientific system by means of our intellectual powers.
In consequence of the essential nature of truth being the same in all
subjects, and of the fundamental processes of mental action in the
determination of truth being also alike in all, the essential modes of
arriving at and detecting moral truth are the same as those employed in
research in the physical sciences. We possess therefore no special faculty,
call it "conscience," or what we may, by which we are enabled to infallibly
arrive at truth in moral questions. What is right and good, and what is
wrong and evil, are determined by precisely the same general means as what
is true; our much vaunted consciousness alone does not infallibly tell us;
reason alone, {127} acting upon the evidence, is the final arbiter in any
doubtful or disputed case. The truth of moral questions must be examined
and tested by precisely the same mental faculties and processes as those
employed in physical science, viz:--by the faculties of perception,
observation, comparison, and inference, acting upon the whole of the
evidence; and by the processes of observing facts, comparing them,
inferring conclusions; by analysing and cross-examining the evidence in
every possible way, and extracting from it the largest amount of consistent
knowledge.
Although we cannot detect moral truth by any other than intellectual
processes, we may however arrive at correct moral conduct in two ways,
viz:--either blindly or intelligently. We arrive at it blindly or
automatically by the process of trusting to our inherited and acquire
tendencies and dogmatic beliefs; and intelligently by the conscious use of
our knowledge and intellectual powers; and each of these methods has its
advantages. The former process being an empirical one, is very uncertain
and cannot be employed for the judicial detection of truth, or the certain
discrimination of it from error, it has however to be trusted to in all
cases where we are deficient in knowledge, or have not time for
investigation. Truthful ideas and correct conduct also, which at first
require the exercise of considerable intellect and much self-discipline, in
order to arrive at them, become by habit so completely converted into
acquired tendencies as to be automatic. It is not improbable {128} that
many of our truthful ideas and correct tendencies were originally arrived
at by intellectual processes; and have become incorporated into our mental
and physical structure by habit, education, and inheritance.
The scientific basis of morality is further shewn and essentially proved by
the fact that the fundamental rules of morality are dependent upon
scientific principles. According to Dr. Clarke, the two fundamental "rules
of righteousness" which regulate our moral conduct are, first, that we
should do unto another what we would, under like circumstances, have him do
unto us; and second, that we should constantly endeavour to promote to the
utmost of our power, the welfare and happiness of all men (to the latter
might well be added, the welfare of all sentient creatures). The first of
these rules is essentially dependent upon the scientific principle of
causation, viz:--that the same cause, acting under the same circumstances,
always produces the same effect, if what we did for another person under
like circumstances might produce a different effect to what it would when
done for ourself, the rule could not be depended upon and would be of no
use. The second also agrees with the great principles of science, for the
more we obey those principles, the more do we really "promote the happiness
and welfare of all men." The first of these rules however in the form
usually stated, is incomplete, because it does not provide for the
circumstance, that many persons desire to have done unto themselves, not
that which {129} is most right, and really most for their welfare and that
of mankind in general, but that which would most please them. The desire of
immediate pleasure or consolation is greater than the love of truth in
nearly all men, and this is connected with another fact, viz:--that persons
unacquainted with the great principles of science, have not the advantage
of the moral sustaining power of those principles, and are compelled in
circumstances of trial to seek extraneous mental relief.
The desire to do right is not the primary source of morality; there must be
a cause for that desire, and this fact also shews that moral phenomena are
dependent upon the scientific principle of causation. We can also much
better understand a subject, especially a complex one like that of morals,
when we can co ordinate its facts in a scientific manner, by referring them
to some general principle which governs or includes them. Referring moral
actions to a verified scientific principle, is more satisfactory than
referring them to a less definite source such as "conscience"; the
"testimony of consciousness"; or "the indestructible instincts of the human
soul," because a principle affords a more consistent explanation than a
dogmatic idea. The fact also that the discoveries of science usually
precede the developments of the moral advantages of science to mankind, is
in harmony with the general truth that effects follow their causes, and
with the conclusion that moral rules and moral progress have a scientific
basis. {130}
In a general way, the influence of science upon moral progress is connected
with what has been termed, "the scientific spirit." This characteristic
consists mainly of an intense love of truth, a desire to acquire new
knowledge, to arrive at certainty and accuracy; also an obedience to law in
general, and a consequent philosophic resignation to inevitable ills.
Science inculcates these qualities, and it is well known that scientific
discoverers have usually been highly moral persons, truthful, accurate, law
abiding, patient, persevering, temperate, &c. On the other hand, the most
lawless persons are usually those who are most ignorant of the great laws
which govern their actions, who over-estimate human power and ability, and
are impelled by ill-regulated enthusiasm or feeling.
Belief in and obedience to law, being a fundamental moral quality, is in
its turn the source of other moral qualities of less importance; for
instance, it tends to produce calmness, resignation, contentment, patience,
submission to the inevitable, &c. No man can be highly moral who disobeys
the great principles of nature. We may however obey those laws either
intelligently, by acquiring a scientific knowledge of them; empirically, by
obeying rules framed in accordance with them; or blindly, by obeying dogmas
which happen to agree with them. Those who do not understand laws cannot of
course intelligently obey them, and those who most disobey them, consist
nearly wholly of those who do not understand them. {131} Superstition,
ignorance of natural law, and a belief in occult powers, encourages
lawlessness, injures the moral sentiments, and is often attended by
bigotry, associated with strife, schism, and sectarian dispute.
Probably the greatest influence which scientific discovery has had upon the
moral progress of mankind, has been by inculcating an intelligent love of
truth on account of its own intrinsic goodness; in this respect it stands
pre-eminent. Love of truth is a fundamental virtue because it is the basis
of many smaller ones. It is more virtuous, also, to pursue truth on account
of its own intrinsic and unqualified goodness in all respects, than for any
narrow extrinsic quality, such as the personal pleasure or utility it may
afford, or on account of any personal gain or loss, reward or punishment,
which may result from pursuing or neglecting it. In the present imperfect
state of civilization however, the great bulk of mankind unavoidably employ
less noble, as well as the noblest motives, as a means of improvement. Most
men can only be moved to do right by means of inferior motives, one of the
most effectual of which in a commercial nation is "small investments, large
profits, and quick returns;" an expectation of great reward in return for
small self-sacrifice.
The discovery and dissemination of verified scientific knowledge is a purer
kind of occupation than the promulgation of any kind of dogma, because the
statements of verified science are usually capable of demonstration, whilst
those of doctrine, being often {132} contradictory, may, or may not be
true; mere affirmation also, when not based upon proof, is often dangerous
to morality. In dogmatic subjects a man may tell untruths with impunity,
because no one can disprove or convict him; but in demonstrable ones, a man
dare not utter falsehoods, because others will prove his statements to be
erroneous. It is demonstration rather than doctrine that is of divine
origin. A man also who practises scientific research is largely compelled
to adopt the most truthful views of nature, in order to enable him to make
discoveries.
Real science is largely independent of opinion or faith. Whether we believe
or not that a piece of clean iron immersed in a mixture of oil of vitriol
and water, evolves hydrogen gas, the fact itself remains unaltered. It is a
great and glorious circumstance for mankind, that human progress depends
essentially upon a knowledge of new verified truth. As verified
experimental knowledge can only come from the great source of all that is
good, to doubt the value of new demonstrable truth, is practical atheism.
Those also who systematically investigate sources of verifiable truth, are
much more likely to ultimately arrive at the fountain of all truth, than
those who employ unsystematic methods, or prefer unproved beliefs to
verified knowledge.
Another of the most powerful ways in which scientific discovery has
promoted moral progress has been an indirect one, viz., by diminishing
ignorance. Deficiency of knowledge is the parent of a vast {133} amount of
evil and failure. "There is no instance on record of an active ignorant
man, who, having good intentions, and supreme power to enforce them, has
not done far more evil than good." (Buckle, "History of Civilization," vol.
1, p. 167). Ignorance largely precludes happiness, and intelligence is an
indispensable condition of the highest morality. There are plenty of
difficult positions in life in which the desire to do right is not alone
sufficient, we must intelligently know what is the right course to pursue.
We are all of us ignorant in different degrees, and must be content in many
matters to walk by faith until we can walk by sight, and to act according
to rule and precept until we have discovered general principles to guide
us:--blind dogmatic morality and "rule of thumb" method is vastly better
than none, and has rendered great services to mankind. Whether comforting
doctrines are true or not, the great bulk of mankind prefer them because
they afford immediate relief; and whether they be erroneous or truthful,
men will be benefited by them and continue to believe in them, until their
minds are sufficiently advanced to receive a knowledge of verified
principles. Rules of morality however, when presented to us with a basis of
demonstrable truth, come with a degree of divine authority, and possess
greater claim to our observance, than the same rules presented to us as
empirical or dogmatic statements only.
In proportion to our ignorance the more we dislike to be apprised of our
defects and the more inclined are {134} we to continue uninformed; because
the less intelligent we are the less are we able to perceive the evil
effects of our blindness or the advantages of knowledge. As also the
present state of civilization is very imperfect, and unsolved problems
exist in all directions, ignorance and all its evil consequences are
extremely prevalent. It causes the great mass of mankind to neglect better
objects for the sake of money. It indirectly constrains lawyers to neglect
moral evidence. It induces medical men to withhold truth from ignorant
patients. It causes ministers of religion to prefer doctrine to
demonstration. It would therefore be comparatively easy to compose lists of
our moral deficiencies, and of improvements urgently needed in morality,
far more extensive than the very incomplete ones of our material
shortcomings already given (see pp. 68 to 78). To enumerate however the
imperfections in the moral conduct of mankind, the frauds in trades, the
undue advantage taken of the defenceless, the deceit and empiricism in
professions, the professional trading on human weakness, the cruelty of
field sports, the hollow motives of social, political, and religious life,
the propagating as infallible truth, doctrines which may be fallacious, is
not the object of this Chapter; but rather to make clear the fact, that the
extension of the domain of verified truth by means of scientific research
is highly conducive to moral progress.
The extension of new scientific knowledge is influencing morality and
gradually reducing the selfishness {135} of mankind, by proving that there
exist no royal roads to happiness, and that the greatest amount of
individual and national success can only be secured by a genuine pursuit of
truth, as an individual and cosmopolitan duty. Increased knowledge is
gradually proving to mankind that the purest happiness is to be obtained by
intelligent and virtuous conduct. By shewing Man the unreasonable character
of some of his fears and hopes, and substituting for them a greater variety
and extent of intellectual pleasures, science is slowly making him more
satisfied with his lot on this Earth. Meanwhile the great mass of mankind
are still pursuing the ever retreating phantom of an easy way to happiness;
the great laws of nature however cannot be evaded, the avoidance of evil
and the attainment of good can only be secured by obeying all the great
laws which govern our nature.
Progress in morality is largely dependent upon the diffusion of belief in
the universality of scientific laws. When men understand those laws, know
that their action is irresistible, and that they have no alternative but to
obey them or suffer, they acquire a habit of obeying them. Universality of
law in moral actions is often considered to be incompatible with the
existence of freedom of the will in selecting ideas, and choosing courses
of conduct; but we are free or not, according to circumstances, both to
think and to act. All things are free to be active or not, in accordance
with their properties and surrounding conditions, but not in {136}
contradiction to them; and the human will is no exception to this
statement. The "will" is only free within certain limits; it cannot act in
opposition to its strongest motives or causes of action. We believe
ourselves to be much more free than we are, because we often do not know
the causes which determine us, and we frequently fail to detect those
influences, because we cannot think, and at the same time clearly observe
our act of thought and its motives. Freedom of the will does not enable us
to set aside laws: entire freedom from law in any instance is probably only
apparent. This limited degree of freedom of the will indicates the
dependence of volition upon scientific laws, because a supernatural power,
being entirely independent of natural law, could not be limited by it. To
affirm without proof that the human will is a "supernatural power" is to
implicitly deny the universality and constancy of natural laws. New
knowledge developed by Science, imparts to us liberty, but not license;
and, so far from diminishing the freedom of the will, increases it by
showing us what conditions we must fulfil and obey in order to effect our
objects. We acquire power by being first obedient; and this is in
accordance with the principles and facts of science; we must obey nature
before we can make nature obey us; the elementary bodies, also, usually
acquire the free state, latent power, and the ability to evolve heat and
electric energy, only by being first subjected in their crude state to a
process of reduction and purification. {137}
Few circumstances connected with the discovery of new truths of science,
have had a greater moral effect, than the very high degree of certainty of
such truths. The moral result of this is a corresponding degree of
confidence in the statements of science. Trustworthiness is a great moral
quality. Uncertainty is a continual hindrance to action and enjoyment; and
many persons are driven to believe in error, and hence to commit sin,
rather than remain in suspense. Contradictions of doctrine, and the
consequent uncertainty of belief, in any subject, are fertile sources of
strife. Science consists, not merely of opinions and words, but also of the
tangible realities which those opinions and words represent, the forces,
substances and phenomena of the material Universe. Some persons however
fancy that the results of science are as uncertain as those of the
undemonstrable subjects with which they are familiar.
Another way in which science has contributed to moral progress, has been by
requiring greater accuracy in nearly all human actions, and thereby
diffusing greater exactitude of language and of conduct, which has spread
itself throughout all civilised society. Previous to the use of watches and
clocks, persons were no doubt much less exact in fulfilling their
appointments; the establishment also in our chief towns, of electric
time-keepers regulated from Greenwich Observatory, is increasing exactitude
in our large communities. Since the introduction of railways, millions of
persons have been compelled to be more {138} exact in their movements, by
the risk they incur of missing their train. Numerous inventions and
processes based upon scientific discoveries could not be worked at all
unless men possessed habits of greater accuracy than formerly. Workmen now
require higher moral and intellectual education, and their duties require
more intelligence and involve greater responsibility.
Science diminishes error, and the avoidance of error is a large step
towards the attainment of truth. There is no tyranny equal to that of false
ideas. Error often produces immoral acts, and every act of immorality is a
mental error. "The ignorant justice-loving man, enamoured of the right, is
blinded by the speciousness of wrong." "Inaccuracy of thought is the cause
not only of the errors we meet with in the sciences, but also of the
majority of the offences which are committed in civil life,--of unjust
quarrels, unfounded law suits, rash counsel, and ill-arranged undertakings.
There are few of those which have not their origin in some error, and in
some fault of judgment, so that there is no defect which it more concerns
us to correct."[17]
Our senses and consciousness are often great deceivers, and unless
corrected by sufficient knowledge, are frequently as great a source of
error in moral questions as in mental ones.[18] Their incessant influence
is a cause of selfishness, and of the fallacious tendency existing in
nearly every man, to exaggerate the importance of himself and of everything
relating to him. {139} It has led man to consider himself "the Lord of
Creation";--to believe that his volitions are not subject to natural laws
&c.:--and has given rise to the comparatively narrow-minded idea "the study
of mankind is man." The fact that consciousness frequently misleads men of
energetic temperament who feel their energy, indicates its connection with
a physical basis.
Consciousness is also an essential condition of what we term evil. If we
define evil as that which produces pain or discomfort in sentient
creatures, then evil is that influence only which unpleasantly affects
consciousness. And if we admit this, then all evil is relative, and there
is no absolute evil; because, if there were no sentient creatures, there
would be no evil. It is manifest also, that if the existence of evil is
dependent upon that of sentient creatures, and if the existence of such
creatures depends upon physical conditions, and upon the operations of the
great principles of science, then the existence of evil must itself depend
to that extent upon those conditions and principles. What we term Evil, is
caused, not only by the actions of man, but also on a large scale by the
operation of the simplest forces of matter, in earth-quakes, storms,
volcanic outbursts, droughts and famines, pestilences, etc. Evil (as well
as good) may therefore be viewed as a result, to some extent, of the
operation of the laws of the Universe; and here again we are compelled to
recognise a scientific basis of morality. {140}
That the same causes, acting under different conditions, produce different
and even opposite effects, is a well-known scientific truth. The same heat
of summer which causes our foods to decay, promotes the growth of plants in
the soil; the same cold of winter which increases the pain of bronchial
affections, and cuts short the lives of aged and infirm persons, acts as a
stimulant and a source of pleasure to the young and healthy. We need not
therefore be surprised, that the same physical conditions and principles of
nature, act as causes or conditions both of what we term evil and what we
term good. If, also the theory of relativity in physical and mental action
is true, that change of impression is a necessary cause or condition of
consciousness, and that previous experience of pain increases the
perception of pleasure, we possess in that theory, as one of the general
ideas of science, a partial basis of morality. All these remarks tend to
shew, that in order to obtain a truly scientific view of the nature of man,
and of man's position and duties in the Universe, we must avoid the errors
caused by uncorrected consciousness.
Another great moral effect of the continual discovery of new truth in
science, is the gradual production and diffusion of uniformity of belief,
first amongst scientific men, and then amongst the mass of mankind. This
uniformity of belief is a necessary result of the invariability of fact and
law; it does not extend to scientific opinions, hypotheses or theories,
because they are not necessarily facts, and may be {141} erroneous. A
knowledge of science tends to remove differences of opinion between man and
man, because it enables every honest examiner to obtain essentially similar
results. Scientific research will gradually disclose what is true and what
is untrue in doctrine and empirical rules; and what is true will be
retained. A universal religion or a scientific philosophy which is composed
of contradictory creeds cannot be wholly true. Science is gradually
superseding unreasonable beliefs, and inaugurating a true universal gospel
in which all men will eventually think alike in fundamental matters. The
continued discovery of new truth must of necessity sooner or later lead
mankind to the source of all truth and to universal satisfaction and
happiness. It has been frequently stated that science is antagonistic to
religion; it is evident however that as science is so conducive to
morality, it cannot be opposed to true religion, but only to false or
unfounded beliefs. Nothing shews more plainly a weakness of moral
confidence and a deficiency of faith in an over-ruling power, than a fear
that the pursuit of scientific truth will lead to results injurious to
mankind. What we most need to fear is, not that our most cherished
doctrinal beliefs may be proved to be mistakes, but that we through
deficiency of knowledge may be led to do wrong.
There are plenty of questions, especially in matters of theory and doctrine
in concrete subjects, which science cannot directly and absolutely decide
either one way or the other, but respecting which, by the {142} aid of new
knowledge and of inference based upon it, science gradually accumulates so
large a preponderence of evidence as conclusively settles them to the
conviction of every unprejudiced and reasonable person. Many of the most
deeply interesting questions in mental science and morality are of this
kind; and will probably be settled in this manner. It is well-known also to
scientific men that the indirect conclusions of the intellect and reasoning
power are often more certain than the direct evidence of the senses and
consciousness; we are more certain for instance that the Earth is a sphere
than that it is a plane, although the former conclusion is arrived at
largely by inference, whilst the latter is the direct testimony of
uneducated consciousness. Whilst our senses and consciousness inform us
that the Earth is a fixed body, inference proves to us that it is rushing
through space at an immense velocity. Sense and consciousness are not
intellect, although they are often treated as such. Their functions are to
perceive and observe, to act as witnesses, to supply evidence to the
judgment, and not to usurp the reasoning power. Even the universal
consciousness of all mankind is insufficient to overthrow the final
decisions of the intellect, or to decide what is true or false, because the
senses and consciousness cannot compare or infer. As it is the force and
repitition, and not the truthfulness of mental impressions, which largely
determines belief, we are capable of believing error as well as truth, and
we believe much that is erroneous until the {143} corrections of the
intellect are applied to the evidence of the senses and feelings. The
correctness or otherwise of our present beliefs will be tested in the
future as others have been in the past, and the new experiences requisite
for the purpose will probably be obtained by means of original research. It
is a great mistake to suppose that the warrantable inferences deduced from
scientific knowledge will not sooner or later profoundly influence
questions relating to the highest hopes and aspirations of the human race,
such as the independent existence and immortality of the human soul; that
of a personal Ruler of the Universe; freedom of the will; the origin of
evil; future reward and punishment; &c. By extension of knowledge a
scientific system of morality will be formed. The great principles which
govern the phenomena of all bodies are gradually being discovered, and when
found we deductively apply them to ourselves, and thus arrive at a
knowledge of our true position in nature, our duties, our proper course of
conduct, &c. Science also by disclosing to us the true relations of matter
to mind in the human brain, will probably not only make known to us the
true limits of our mental powers and of the knowable, but also help to
solve the problems of the relations of the Universe and of Man to an
intelligent Creator. It will decide such questions, largely by shewing us
whether or not the ideas we entertain respecting them are consistent with
the more extensive knowledge evolved by research. A part of the data from
which we may {144} safely predict that science will in the future exercise
so great a moral influence over mankind, is the fact that its chief
principles are fundamental guides and regulators of human action.
Probably nothing has a greater effect in making a man humble and reverent
than a thorough knowledge of science. By the inventions of the telescope,
microscope, spectroscope, telegraph, microphone, telephone, &c., the
extremely finite extent of all our faculties has been abundantly
demonstrated. Whilst the wonders of the telescope have developed an
intelligent sentiment of reverence, by revealing to us a portion of the
vast amount of the Universe of matter and energy, those of the microscope
have strengthened that sentiment by affording us an insight into the almost
endless complexity of minute creatures, substances and actions. Whilst also
these and other scientific instruments and appliances have proved the
excessively limited extent of our senses; the inscrutable character and
immense number and variety of problems of nature yet unsolved, equally
demonstrate the extreme feebleness of our mental powers. To obtain an
accurate acquaintance with science also, and especially to discover new
scientific truths, it is absolutely necessary to set aside human pride, and
approach the subject like a little child; no other course is possible.
A knowledge of geology and astronomy also makes a man humble and reverent.
The fact that this globe must have existed myriads of years; and is always
moving at the immense velocity of more than 62,000 {145} miles an hour in
its orbit, is sufficient to convince any unprejudiced person of his own
transient physical existence and his comparative physical feebleness and
insignificance. Hitherto, man has largely been accustomed, through the
influence of uncorrected impressions and other causes, to view all nature
as having been expressly provided for him, but science informs us that
whilst this Earth is suitable for his abode, and Nature ministers to his
necessities and pleasures, it is only on condition that he first obeys the
great laws of matter and energy, and adapts himself to their requirements.
The operation of those laws often ruthlessly destroys thousands of men by
pestilence, famine, drought, and other great calamities, and man can do
nothing which is incompatible with them without suffering a penalty.
Science shews that man is but one out of at least 320,000 different species
of animals; it also discloses the fact that the entire human population of
this globe constitute only about one 50,575,785 millionth part of the
Earth, and proves to us that the Earth itself is but a speck in the
Universe, one out of at least 75 millions of worlds; and that not only is
it merely a planet revolving round the Sun, but that the Sun is only one of
a multitude of Suns, and is itself, with all its planets, revolving round a
still more distant centre in space.
There is scarcely a faculty man possesses, which is not immeasurably
limited in comparison with the powers and capabilities of inanimate nature.
His physical energy, when compared with that of the {146} momentum of this
Earth, is so exceedingly small that it can hardly be conveyed to our minds
by means of figures; even the steam engine, excessively wasteful as it is
of power, far surpasses him in strength. The duration of his existence is
to that of the world he inhabits, as nothing to infinity. His power and
speed of locomotion are also very limited; the globe to which he is fixed
by gravity, moves in one hour through a distance greater than he could walk
in twenty years. Practically, by circumstances, he is almost rooted like a
vegetable to the locality where he exists; comparatively few men have
walked even a hundred miles from their homes, or have been conveyed round
this little globe by the aid of all our improved means of transport. A
balloon can ascend in the air, but a man cannot; without the aid of that
apparatus he is absolutely fixed to the surface of the Earth, and with the
assistance of all the appliances of science, he cannot yet ascend even ten
miles into the atmosphere, nor dive more than a few fathoms into the sea.
His senses are equally contracted; his perceptions of touch and sound are
far less delicate than that of the microphone; a photographic surface will
detect vibrations of light which he cannot at all perceive, and record
images more quickly than his brain; and for the detection of magnetism and
the chemical rays of light he possesses no sense whatever:--electrometers
and galvanometers can detect thousands of times smaller quantities of
electricity than he can perceive:--whilst a bolometer renders manifest a
one {147} hundred-thousandth of a Centigrade degree change of temperature,
he can hardly detect a difference of an entire degree; and whilst carbon
and platinum may be heated to whiteness without material change, a rise or
fall of about five Fahrenheit degrees in his temperature endangers his
life. His mental and intellectual powers are as limited as his senses; he
can hardly reckon without making an error even a single million, nor can he
conceive an adequate idea of a billion; a million miles or a millionth of
an inch are each quite beyond his immediate perception; an extremely minute
circumstance also is capable of disturbing and entirely diverting his train
of thought. He cannot create or destroy even a particle of dust, nor form
out of nothing a single idea. The velocity of transmission of his nervous
power, and the speed of his execution of will, are also extremely slow in
comparison with that of an electric current in a copper wire. Every person
is aware that he can only very slowly receive and understand a new idea.
His mental advance is as tardy as his locomotion, a sixth part of his life
is spent in acquiring the merest rudiments of universal knowledge. Whilst
his reasoning power, when applied to actual and truthfully stated
experience, is truly "the great guide" of his life, it only renders
explicit what was already contained in that experience; for when he draws
an inference, he usually only states in one form of words, what he has
already implicitly included in the propositions; and if the inference
contains more than this it is {148} unwarranted. His mental helplessness in
the absence of knowledge, is equal to his physical incapacity in the
absence of light. Nearly every problem of nature also is so complex, and
affected by so many conditions, that his reasoning power only enables him
to advance a very minute step at a time in the discovery of new knowledge;
he is then obliged to halt, and have recourse to new experiences obtained
either by means of experiment and observation, or by the latter alone.
Man's moral actions are largely the effect of circumstances; his thoughts
and actions are probably the whole of them limited by law. He is never free
from the influence of causation. His mental and moral freedom are limited
by the epoch in which he lives, by the customs of his nation, by the
individuals by whom he is immediately surrounded, by the alcoholic
stimulants of which he partakes, and by his own physical and mental
constitution, his degree of intelligence, &c., &c. Whether he is willing or
not, he is incessantly compelled to receive sensuous and mental
impressions, and be influenced by an almost infinite number and variety of
agencies acting upon him both from within and without:--To be mentally and
physically active, and perform all the bodily functions and acts necessary
to his existence:--To live on this globe in presence of all its phenomena,
and be carried through space at an immense velocity:--To undergo through a
long series of generations a progressive existence and development of
civilization, &c., &c. {149} He is more subject to the laws of the Universe
than those laws are subject to him; and he can only exercise his will
successfully and become their master by first obeying them.
Under the influence of the light and heat of the Sun, the entire population
of this planet (about fifteen hundred millions) are renewed out of the
crust of the Earth every few years, by breathing the air, drinking the
water, feeding upon plants which take their constituents from the Earth,
water and air; or by eating animals which have lived upon plants; and if
that heat and light, or that supply of food and air, were to cease, all
those human beings would die, and all the moral phenomena of man on this
globe would terminate. Whilst man cannot exist without the support of
inanimate nature and the operation of its laws, inanimate nature and its
laws can exist without him. That also which is naturally ordained by
Creative power to be dependent, cannot be essentially more important than
that upon which it depends for its existence. The essential importance of
man in relation to the Universe, exists only in his own imagination.
These facts shew that the principles of science, and the physical and
chemical properties of substances, lie at the very basis of man's existence
and activity and it would therefore be incorrect to say that the physical
system of the Universe is unimportant in comparison with the moral
phenomena of mankind.
That science conduces to humanity by preventing {150} and alleviating
animal suffering has been already alluded to (p. 80-81). True humanity
consists not in the abolition of experiments upon living creatures, but in
the judicious employment of them. Instead of barbarously treating our
suffering fellow creatures by indolently and ignorantly allowing causes of
disease and pain to continually occur and take their course, it urgently
enforces upon us the duty of extending our knowledge of physiology by means
of new experiments, observations and study. It would be untruthful to say
that experiments purposely made upon men and other animals do not yield new
and valuable information;--Pharmacopoeias and Materia-Medicaes are full of
descriptions of the properties of curative agents discovered by these and
other scientific methods.
Amongst the lesser virtues which have been greatly promoted by means of
scientific research is that of cleanliness. The origin of soap was the
discovery of the detergent properties of a boiled mixture of fat and
alkali. The numerous inventions which have cheapened the most important
soap-producing material, viz., washing soda, and those which have cheapened
oil of vitriol, the chief substance consumed in making washing-soda, have
all contributed to the cleanliness of mankind; and it has been stated that
the degree of civilization of a nation might be ascertained by the amounts
consumed of those substances.
Even the minor virtue of economy has been greatly promoted by the results
of scientific research. New {151} scientific truth has through inventions
taught us how to obtain greater effects with less expenditure of space, of
time, of materials, and forces. It has enabled us to effect our objects
quicker and with a diminution of waste. In the sugar manufacture for
example, by means of the centrifugal machine, the sugar is deprived as
perfectly of molasses in three minutes, as it was previously in three days,
and the necessary manufacturing apparatus has been so much reduced in
magnitude as not to require more than one half the space. The process of
bleaching linen, which formerly required weeks, has by the discovery of
chlorine been reduced to hours. Journeys which at one time occupied weeks
now only require days. Messages are now transmitted in hours which formerly
required months. Multitudes of instances might be adduced of the diminished
cost of the comforts and conveniences of life, resulting in consequence of
discovery of new scientific knowledge. Ultramarine for example, which at
one time cost from ten to twenty pounds an ounce, has by means of chemical
research been reduced in price to a few pence per pound; phosphorus, which
formerly cost several guineas an ounce, now costs only as many pence.
Numerous substances which were formerly thrown away, destroyed, or
neglected, are now utilized. Coal tar and gas-water, which were at one time
waste products in the making of gas, and which when thrown away were the
causes of costly litigation to gas-companies, by polluting streams and
wells, &c., {152} are now sources of very large income to those companies.
Those substances yield great quantities of salts of ammonia, the beautiful
aniline dyes, paraffin, benzene, napthaline, alizarine, and other valuable
products. Glycerine also, which formerly was a most offensive waste product
in soap-making, is now purified and used, to an extent of twenty millions
of pounds annually, for a great number of purposes; as an emollient for the
skin; as a source of nitro-glycerine and dynamite, used in blasting rocks,
in warfare, &c. The immense beds of native sulphide of iron also, notably
those of Tharsis and Rio Tinto in Spain, and of many other places, are now
utilized, literally in millions of tons, for the production of sulphur,
copper, oxide of iron, &c. A long list of instances of this class might be
adduced if it were necessary, some of them of very great importance.[19]
The promotion of morality by enabling us to detect crime, is one of the
smaller influences of scientific research, and may be referred to as a
set-off against the bad uses sometimes made of scientific knowledge. The
telegraph is very commonly employed to assist in tracking and capturing
criminals. Photography is also largely used in our gaols as a means of
recognising offenders.
Knowledge of science conduces also to self-discipline and self-mastery, it
tends to bridle our vicious passions by making known to us the penalties
which must be paid for their indulgence; it limits our self-will by shewing
us that we must respect and obey the {153} laws of nature whether we are
willing or not, no man can improperly manipulate dangerous substances or
forces with impunity; it moderates our bigotry by exhibiting to us the
great uncertainty of unproved opinions; it restrains undue credulity in
men's assertions, by shewing us their frequent fallacy; it gives us
confidence in the laws of nature, by proving to us their uniformity; it
withdraws us from self-deception by compelling us to accept the truths of
nature as they exist ready made for us, whether they harmonise with our
preconceived ideas or not; men cannot argue with nature, as they can with
their fellow-men, but must submit to the influence of verified truth. It
supplies us with principles instead of empirical "rule of thumb" methods as
guides of morality. Whilst it liberates us from the terror of irrational
fears, it cautions us against entertaining unreasonable hopes. It
substitutes for ignorant wonder and awe, an intelligent appreciation of
created things; and when fully developed it will probably satisfy all the
reasonable instincts and desires of men.
Whilst law, medicine and divinity, direct man's attention almost
exclusively to matters concerning himself, and thus tend to limit his
sphere of perception and knowledge, and unconsciously impress him with the
idea that all other existences are less important than himself, science not
only enlightens him respecting all the departments of his own nature, but
extends his mental vision in all directions by exciting his mind to observe
and reflect upon all other bodies {154} and actions throughout the
Universe. Whilst also music, painting, sculpture, poetry and the drama,
afford excitement and pleasure to his senses, feelings and sentiments, and
are largely personal; science not only constitutes the basis of those arts,
but shews the relations of them to Man and to the external Universe, and
thus more largely cultivates the intellect and corrects and refines the
senses, feelings and sentiments.
New scientific knowledge affords advantages to all classes of men; to the
minister of religion, by supplying him with new illustrations of Creative
power, in the greatness, smallness, and vast variety of nature; to the
physician, by explaining to him more perfectly the structure and phenomena
of the human body, and by providing him with new remedies; to the statesman
and politician, by making known to him the great and increasing relations
of science to national progress, by its influence upon wages, capital, the
employment of workmen, the art of war, the means of communication with
foreign countries, &c.; to the philanthropist, as an endless source of
employment for poor persons, by the development of new discoveries,
inventions, and improvements in arts and manufactories; to the military
man, by affording him new engines and materials for warfare and defence; to
the inventor, by supplying him with new discoveries upon which to found
inventions; to the merchant and man of trade, by the influence of new
products and processes upon the prices of his commodities; to the
manufacturer, as a means of improving his materials, {155} apparatus, and
processes; and to the investor of money, by assisting him to judge what new
technical schemes are likely to succeed.
As the domain of rational enjoyment afforded by means of science gradually
enlarges, that derivable from less intellectual sources will probably be
modified; indeed this change is already progressing, and is manifested in
the alterations occurring in theological views, and in the extensive
adoption of scientific entertainments by religious bodies. The recognition
of science by professors of religion is also shewn by the already extensive
use of railways on Sundays as a means of conveyance to churches and
chapels; also by the publication by the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, of Manuals of Electricity, Astronomy, Botany, Chemistry,
Crystallography, Geology, Physiology, Zoology, Matter and Motion, the
Spectroscope, &c.
Having shewn some of the chief modes in which new scientific truth is a
basis of mental and moral progress, it is not necessary to say much
respecting the evil uses sometimes made of science, because every good
thing is liable to be abused by ignorant or ill-intentioned persons. The
abuses of scientific knowledge do not arise from the true spirit of
research, viz., a desire for new knowledge on account of its intrinsic
goodness and value to man, but from an absence of that sentiment. The
Bremerhaven explosion, the assassination of the Czar, the uses of
photography to forge letters of credit, and of the {156} telegraph in
swindling operations, the employment of electro-gilding and silvering in
coining base money, &c., &c., are all attributable to motives other than a
love of science.
All the facts mentioned in this chapter, and the various points of
essential similarity between physical, physiological, and mental phenomena,
justify the conclusion that both moral and other mental actions, like
physical and chemical ones, are obedient to the great principles of
science. And from the evidence here adduced and alluded to, it is certain
that those principles influence human progress, not only in a few
conspicuous direct ways, but in a multitude of varied, deep-seated, and
indirect ones.
If the statements made in this Chapter are true, that the innate properties
of matter really are motive powers of the human organism, and the
principles of science are regulators of mental and moral action; that Man
is a feeble epitome of the principles and powers of inorganic matter; that
the laws of Nature operate in utter disregard of his erroneous beliefs;
that nearly all man's sins and sufferings are traceable to his ignorance
and limited powers; that in proportion to his ignorance of science so is he
unable to foresee the more remote consequences of his thoughts and acts;
and if new knowledge does correct erroneous beliefs and purify human
thought and action, it behoves teachers of morality to make themselves
adequately acquainted with the principles and newest developments of
science.
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