prove that vital force destroys physical action? Does it prove that the living animal is enfranchised from those physical laws which regulate the transmission of heat? Not in the least. The more complex conditions have produced a phenomenon different from that witnessed under simpler conditions; but an inorganic substance may manifest an analogous independence (or what seems such) of these laws of transmission, if it be heated by a galvanic current, or by an internal chemical reaction. Again, when we see an animal leap into the air, has he enfranchised himself from the laws of gravitation? Not more than the needle when it leaps to the magnet.* Physiologists appear to have made this mistake in speaking of Life: they have enumerated certain functions, and have called such enumeration life; now function is not life, but the result of life; it is vital organ in action. Bichat defined life as "the sumtotal of the functions which resist death: " which amounts merely to this-that life is life. Bichat's definition of life is manifestly faulty in this-that it ignores the essential co-operation of the medium or surrounding circumstances in which organization is placed, and is, therefore, as one-sided and useless as any definition would be which might ignore the organism, and enumerate the circumstances as life; circumstances and individual are correlative, both in psychical and organic life; and man's life, mental and organic, is the result of such correlation. This is what Coleridge indicated, when, in his Hints towards the formation of a more comprehensive theory of Life, he defined life as "the Principle of Individuation." This is a plagiarism from the Germans, (in this case from Schelling,) as was most of Coleridge's philosophy. THE AUTHOR OF OUR BEING. Dr. Thomas Woods, of Parsonstown, observes: "If we look at the constitution of matter, the impossibility of a mass being formed, even though atoms might have been in existence, without the interference of some agency different from any at present operating; viewing its arrangements, measured out and bounded with mathematical precision, we must admit that some Being greater than any on this earth, and more powerful than the supposed laws of nature, has formed it. Seeing, also, that in all departments of creation, the object pre-eminently provided for is the welfare and preservation of man, and that the same method is everywhere manifested in carrying it out, we must likewise conclude that the same power which made the arrangements in matter is also the Author of our being. "As in the animate creation, the organization of every living thing is made from one type, so in creation generally, one plan is * Saturday Review, April 25, 1857. The Divine Eternity. taken for the working out of all its details; and whether we examine the combustion of coal, the growth of the living body, or the final destination of the soul throughout eternity, we see the same principle followed out in the accomplishment of each, and we are forced to ascribe a common authorship to all. It is abundantly evident that one mind, and at one time, conceived and set in motion the entire fabric of creation; and that everything, from the smallest particle of matter to the highest organization and disposition of life and power in every stage of its existence, depends for its continuance on Him, and that in everything we do or think we do, we only use the power He has given; and therefore, in all our ways we are indebted to Him, and in all our works, however unconsciously, we worship Him. Whether we pride ourselves on the power of our steam-engines, the rapidity of the telegraph, or the beauty and excellence of photography,the results of Heat, Light, and Electricity we only declare the wonder of the mechanism He has provided, and the perfection of the arrangements He has made. And as, by virtue of these arrangements, the coal and air when favourably placed together evolve heat, the zinc and acid electricity, and the sunbeam and sensible salt the photograph, so does food taken into the body by virtue of the vital power continue life, and enable the animal to move; and so the blood of Christ applied to the soul, makes also that alive and capable of acting. "In every word we speak, we praise Him, in everything we do, we must acknowledge Him; we trace in all creation the same hand, in all its arrangements the same mind, and therefore in everything we think or act, to Him be all the Glory."-The Existence of the Deity evidenced by Power and Unity in Creation; from the Results of Modern Science. THE DIVINE ETERNITY. There are many passages in the Bible, the tendency of which is to give us a view of the Divine Existence, far elevated above any successive duration similar to our own. The self-existent Jehovah revealed his name to Moses as the "I AM," the abiding, not the on-moving existence. Our Divine Redeemer, during his mission on earth, spoke sometimes as man, other times as God. When He spoke from his manhood, He spoke as a being of time, having a past, a present, a future. But when He spoke from his Godhead, He repeated the language of Jehovah to Moses: "Before Abraham was, I AM," not I was. St. Peter's words, "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," seem to be more than * In Baron Bunsen's Bible for the People, the word JEHOVAH has its deep significance brought out by being rendered THE ETERNAL. relative, in regard to the inadequacy of all periods of time, the longest as well as the shortest, to measure the Divine duration. May we not consider them absolute, as implying the entire absence of succession in that sublime existence which has neither beginning nor end? The same observation is applicable to the words of Moses in the 90th Psalm : "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." As in God there can neither be past nor future, nor any succession of duration, it follows that in HIM there can be no series, or sequency of actions. For if in HIM there could be one act after another, then to Himself would some of his acts be past, and others future and we should thus relapse into the misconception of attributing to Him a successive duration like our own. What, as regards ourselves, is truly a series of acts or dispensations, the Creation of Man, the Deluge, the call of Abraham, the birth of the Messiah, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, all these must be to God, not a series of acts or dispensations, but one eternal, simultaneous energy. His perception of the successive development of his dispensations, as apprehended by his creatures, does not make them successive as regards Himself. But these contemplations of the Divine Eternity reach no further than the negation of the limits and imperfections of all created minds. We can form no conception of the HOW of that glorious existence which transcends the relations of Time and Space. If the Cherubim themselves veil their eyes before the HOLY ONE, how much more must his glory be incomprehensible to man!-Cronhelm on Predestination. THE DIVINE PERFECTIONS. The "metaphysical qualms" entertained in the present day at our partial conceptions of the Divine Perfections are strangely contrasted with the language of the inspired Writers. They expatiate in wonder and praise on the little we can conceive—in awe and adoration on the much beyond our conception. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." His And then the Psalmist turns from the wonders of Creation to those of Revelation. "The law of the Lord is perfect, convert The Creation of Matter. 5 ing the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." So, after a sublime effusion on the power and wisdom of the great Creator, Job concludes: "Lo, these are parts of his ways; but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand ?" So also St. Paul: "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.... For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." Far from denying the truth of our partial conceptions in this life, the Apostle points to their progressive development hereafter. The metaphor borrowed from the semi-opaque glass of the ancients, and the indistinct vision which it afforded, is singularly appropriate and instructive.-Cronhelm on Predestination. CHANGE-BEARING LAWS OF NATURE. Mr. Owen* thus ingeniously advocates the probability of the existence of what he terms "change-bearing laws of nature." In a world whose characteristic is change, "and which, for aught we know, may continue to endure for countless ages, laws of such a character, self-adapted to a changeful state of things, may be regarded as of likely occurrence. "Modern science is revealing to us glimpses that may brighten into positive proof of this hypothesis.' Sir John Herschel, writing to Sir Charles Lyell, the geologist, and alluding to what he calls "that mystery of mysteries, the replacement of extinct species by others," says: For my own part, I cannot but think it an inadequate conception of the Creator, to assume it as granted that His combinations are expanded upon any one of the theatres of their former exercise: though, in this, as all his other works, we are led by all analogy to suppose that He operates through a series of intermediate causes, and that, in consequence, the origination of fresh species, could it ever come under our cognizance, would be found to be a natural, in contradistinction to a miraculous, process; although we may perceive no indication of any process, actually in progress, which is likely to issue in such a result.Sir John Herschel's Letter, Feb. 20, 1836: Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, by Babbage. THE CREATION OF MATTER. The Atomic Theory of Democritus, as defined by Boscovich, and since more fully developed by that eminent philosopher, the late Dr. Samuel Brown, offers an hypothesis for the Creation of * In his Footfalls on the Boundary of another World. 1860. Matter, which, in a subject so far beyond the region of certainty, possesses many features of probability; particularly in getting rid of the vexed question of the substratum. That the primary atoms are merely centres of force, i.e. mathematical points encircled with powers of repulsion and attraction, and that from the endless variety of combinations of repulsive and attractive forces the whole material universe is constructedis a theory alike simple, comprehensive, and sublime. To accomplish the dissolution of Nature, her Almighty Creator would only have to cancel the repulsive and attractive forces that encircle the Atomic centres; and instantaneously, without an audible crash, without a visible wreck, the glorious fabric of the earth and the heavens would disappear from existence! * When, in past ages, it was supposed that matter was perishable, it became a difficulty of belief that such material origin could escape material extinction. The discoveries of chemistry have, however, gradually dissipated these fears. We are now satisfied of the indestructibility of matter, and that although substances may be decomposed and disappear, they do not cease to be, but pass into other forms of existence. Whatever incredulity remained resolved itself into a questioning of His ability to raise the Human Dead: but Sure the same power That reared the piece at first, and took it down, There is ONE, "in whom we live, and move, and have our being," and who works, on our behalf, this standing miracle; and can we suppose Him incapable of resuscitating after death whatever he had once made actively and consciously existent? "Is anything too hard for God?” But matter, it may be said, if indestructible, by its changes, loses its identity, and how can the substance remain the same in the lapse of ages which may intervene between death and the described resurrection? But the Humanity which rises again will be the same Humanity with that which ran on earth its mortal career; but only as the man of fourscore years and upwards, committed to the tomb, is the same with him who commenced life as an infant. Though a corporeity still, it will then be a * Cronhelm on Predestination. As a first principle of all chemistry, it is to be kept in mind that no matter is either created or lost, whatever the changes or combinations taking place. In clearly fixing this principle, which was imperfectly apprehended before, Lavoisier rendered an invaluable service to science. Plutarch ascribes to Empedocles a passage which is well descriptive of this great principle of chemistry.-Quarterly Review, vol. lxxxiii. |