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NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
THE
FIRST & THE LAST CATASTROPHE ;
A CRITICISM
ON SOME RECENT SPECULATIONS ABOUT THE
DURATION OF THE UNIVERSE.
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
SUNDAY LECTURE
SOCIETY,
ON
SUNDAY
AFTERNOON,
12 th
APRIL,
1874.
BY
Professor W. K. CLIFFORD, F.R.S.
Reprinted from the ‘ Fortnightly Review,' by hind permission of the Editor.
LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY THE SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY.
1875.
Price Threepence.
�SYLLABUS.
Professor Clerk Maxwell, in his lecture on
“ Molecules,” delivered to the British Association at
Bradford, argued from the absolute similarity of
certain molecules in the Sun and Stars and upon
the earth’s surface, that they can neither have been
evolved by any natural process nor have existed
from all eternity. In the first part of the lecture it
will be argued that we have no evidence of such
absolute exactness as would warrant the first con
clusion, and that a theory of the evolution of matter
may yet be looked upon as a possibility.
Sir William Thomson has remarked that if,
assuming Fourier’s laws of the conduction of heat,
we endeavoui’ to calculate the past history of any
portion of matter, this calculation is only successful
for a limited time, and that at a certain date this
portion of matter must have been in a state which
cannot have resulted by the conduction of heat from
any previous state. Some writers (Mr. Murphy,
'Scientific Bases of Faith;’ Professor Jevons,
' Principles of Science,’ p. 438) have inferred from
this that we have evidence either of a beginning of
the universe or of a change in the laws of nature at
a distant date. The Second Part of the Lecture will
be devoted to showing that this inference is not a
valid one, and that we have no such evidence of a
beginning of the present order of things.
Finally, it will be pointed out that the field of
healthy human interest is limited to so much of the
past as can serve as guide to our actions, and so
much of the future as may be appreciably affected
by them.
�THE
FIRST & THE LAST CATASTROPHE;
A CRITICISM
ON SOME RECENT SPECULATIONS ABOUT THE
DURATION OF THE UNIVERSE.
PROPOSE in this lecture to consider speculations of
quite recent days about the beginning and the end of
the world. The world is a very interesting thing, and I
suppose that from the earliest times that men began to form
any coherent idea of it at all, they began to guess in some
way or other how it was that it all began, and how it was
all going to end. But there is one peculiarity about these
speculations which I wish now to consider, that makes them
quite different from the early guesses of which we read in
many ancient books. These modern speculations are
attempts to find out how things began, and how they are
to end, by consideration of the way in which they are
going on now. And it is just that character of these
speculations that gives them their interest for you and for
me; for we have only to consider these questions from the
scientific point of view. By the scientific point of view,
I mean one which attempts to apply past experience to new
circumstances according to an observed order of nature.
So that we shall only consider the way in which things
began, and the way in which they are to end, in so far as
we seem able to draw inferences about those questions
from facts which we know about the way in which things
are going on now. And, in fact, the great interest of the
subject to me lies in the amount of illustration which it
offers of the degree of knowledge which we have now
attained of the way in which the universe is going on.
I
�4
The First and the Last Catastrophe.
The first of these speculations is one set forth by Pro
fessor Clerk Maxwell, in a lecture on Molecules, delivered
before the British Association at Bradford. By a coinci
dence, which to me is a happy one, at this moment Pro
fessor Maxwell is lecturing to the Chemical Society of
London upon the evidences of the molecular constitution
of matter.
*
Now, this argument of his, which he put
before the British Association at Bradford, depends entirely
upon the modern theory of the molecular constitution of
matter. I think this the more important, because a great
number of people appear to have been led to the conclusion
that this theory is very similar to the guesses which we
find in ancient writers—Democritus and Lucretius. It so
happens that these ancient writers did hold a view of the
constitution of things which in many striking respects
agrees with the view which we hold in modern times.
This parallelism has been brought recently before the
public by Professor Tyndall in his excellent address at
Belfast. And it is perhaps on account of the parallelism,
which he pointed out at that place, between the theories
held amongst the ancients and the theory now held amongst
the moderns, that many people who are acquainted with
classic literature have thought that a knowledge of the
views of Democritus and Lucretius would enable them to
understand and criticise the modern theory of matter.
That, however, is a mistake. The difference between the
two is mainly this : the atomic theory of Democritus was
a guess, and no more than a guess. Everybody around
him was guessing about the origin of things, and they
guessed in a great number of ways ; but he happened to
make a guess which was more near the right thing than
any of the others. This view was right in its main hypo
thesis, that all things are made up of elementary parts,
and that the different properties of different things depend
rather upon difference of arrangement than upon ultimate
difference in the substance of which they are composed.
* See Nature, vol. viii., pp. 441, and vol. xi., pp. 357,374.
�The First and the Last Catastrophe.
$
Although this was contained in the atomic theory of
Democritus, as expounded by Lucretius, yet it will be
found by any one who examines further the consequences
which are drawn from it, that it very soon diverges from
the truth of things, as we might naturally expect it
would. On the contrary, the view of the constitution of
matter which is held by scientific men in the present day
is not a guess at all.
In the first place I will endeavour to explain what are
the main points in this theory. First of all we must take
the simplest form of matter, which turns out to be a gas,
—such, for example, as the air in this room. The belief
of scientific men in the present day is that this air is not
a continuous thing, that it does not fill the whole of th®
space in the room, but is made up of an enormous num
ber of exceedingly small particles. There are two sorts of
particles : one sort of particle is oxygen, and another sort
of particle nitrogen. All the particles of oxygen are as
near as possible alike in these two respects ; first in weighty
and secondly in certain peculiarities of mechanical struc
ture. These small molecules are not at rest in the room,
but are flying about in all directions with a mean velocity
of seventeen miles a minute. They do not fly far in one
direction ; but any particular molecule, after going over an
incredibly short distance—the measure of which has been
made—meets another, not exactly plump, but a little on
one side, so that they behave to one another somewhat in
the same way as two people do who are dancing Sir Roger
de Coverley; they join hands, swing round, and then fly
away in different directions. All these molecules are con
stantly changing the direction of each other’s motion;
they are flying about with very different velocities, although,
as I have said, their mean velocity is about seventeen miles
a minute. If the velocities were all marked off on a scale,
they would be found distributed about the mean velocity
just as shots are distributed about a mark. If a great
many shots are fired at a target, the hits will be found
thickest at the bull’s-eye, and they will gradually diminish
�6
The First and the Last Catastrophe.
as we go away from that, according to a certain law, which
is called the law of error. It was first stated clearly by
La Place ; and it is one of the most remarkable conse
quences of theory that the molecules of a gas have
their velocities distributed amongst them precisely accord
ing to this law of error. In the case of a liquid, it is
believed that the state of things is quite different. We
said that in the gas the molecules are moved in straight
lines, and that it is only during a small portion of their
motion that they are deflected by other molecules ; but in
a liquid we may say that the molecules go about as if they
were dancing the grand chain in the Lancers. Every mole
cule after parting company with one finds another, and so
is constantly going about in a curved path, and never gets
quite clear away from the sphere of action of the surround
ing molecules. But notwithstanding that, all molecules in
a liquid are constantly changing their places, and it is for
that reason that diffusion takes place in the liquid. Take
a large tank of water and drop a little iodine into it, and
you will find after a certain time all the water turned
slightly blue. That is because all the iodine molecules
have changed like the others and spread themselves over
the whole of the tank. Because, however, you cannot see
this, except where you use different colours, you must not
suppose that it does not take place where the colours are
the same. In every liquid all the molecules are running
about and continually changing and mixing themselves up
in fresh forms. In the case of a solid quite a different
thing takes place. In a solid every molecule has a place
which it keeps ; that is to say, it is not at rest any more
than a molecule of a liquid or a gas, but it has a certain
mean position which it is always vibrating about and keep
ing fairly near to, and it is kept from losing that position
by the action of the surrounding molecules. These are
the main points of the theory of the constitution of matter
as at present believed.
It differs from the theory of Democritus in this way.
There is no doubt that in the first origin of it, when
�The First and the Last Catastrophe.
7
it was suggested to the mind of Daniel Bernouilli as an
explanation of the pressure of gases, or to. the mind of
Dalton as an explanation of chemical reactions, it was a
guess; that is to say, it was a supposition which would
explain these facts of physics and chemistry,.but which was
not known to be true. Some theories are still in that posi
tion ; other theories are known to be true, because they
can be argued back to from the facts. In order to make
out that your supposition is true, it is necessary to show,
not merely that that particular supposition will explain the
facts, but also that no other one will. Now, by the efforts
of Clausius and Clerk Maxwell, the molecular theory or
matter has been put in this other position. Namely,.instead
no.w of saying, Let us suppose that such and such things are
true, and then deducing from that supposition what the con
sequences ought to be, and showing that these consequences
are just the facts which we observe ; instead of doing that, I
say, we make-certain experiments, we show that certain facts
are’undoubtedly true, and from these facts we go back by a
direct chain of logical reasoning, which there is. no way of
getting out of, to the statement that all matter is made up
of separate pieces or molecules, and that in matter of a
given kind, in oxygen, or in hydrogen, or in nitrogen, these
molecules are of very nearly the same weight, and have
certain mechanical properties which are common to all of
them. In order to show you something of the kind of
■evidence for that statement, I must mention another theory
which, as it seems to me, is in the same position; namely,
the doctrine of the luminiferous ether, or that wonderful
substance which is distributed all over space, and which
carries light and radiant heat. By means of certain experi
ments upon interference of light, we can show, not by any
hypothesis, not by any guess at all, but by a pure interpre
tation of the experiment—we can show that in every ray
of light there is some change or other, whatever it is,
which is periodic in time and in place. By saying it is
periodic in time, I mean that at a given point of the ray
of light, this change increases up to a certain instant, then
�8
The First and the Last Catastrophe.
decreases, then increases in the opposite direction, and
then decreases again, and so on alternately. That is
shown by experiments of interference; it is not a theory
which will explain the facts, but it is a fact which is
got out of observation. By saying that this pheno
menon is periodic in space, I mean that, if at any given
instant you could examine the ray of light, you would
find that some change or disturbance, whatever it is
has taken place all along it in different degrees.
It
vanishes at certain points, and between these it increases
gradually to a maximum on one side and the other alter
nately. That is to say, in travelling along a ray of light
there. is a certain change (which can be observed by
experiments, by operating upon a ray of light with other
rays of light), which goes through a periodic variation in
amount. The height of the sea, as you know if you travel
along it, goes through certain periodic changes ; it increases
and decreases, and increases and decreases again at definite
intervals. And if you take the case of waves travelling
over the sea, and place yourself at a given point, say you
put a cork upon the surface, you will find that the cork
will rise up and down, that is to say, there will be a change
or displacement of the cork s position, which is periodic in
time, .which increases and decreases, then increases in the
opposite direction, and decreases again. Now, this fact,
which is established by experiment, and which is not a
guess at all, the fact that light is a phenomenon, periodic
in time and space, is what we call the wave theory of
light. The word theory here does not mean a guess; it
means an organised account of the facts, such that from
it you may deduce results which are applicable to future
experiments, the like of which have not yet been made.
But we can see more than this. So far we say that
light consists of waves, merely in the sense that it consists
of some phenomenon or other which is periodic in time
and in place ; but we know that a ray of light or heat is
capable of doing work. Radiant heat, for example, striking
on a body, will warm it and enable it to do work by ex*
�The First and the Last Catastrophe.
9
pansion; therefore this periodic phenomenon which takes
place in a ray of light is something or other which possesses
mechanical energy, which is capable of doing work. We
may make it, if you like, a mere matter of definition, and
say: Any change which possesses energy is a motion of
matter; and this is perhaps the most intelligible definition
of matter that we can frame. In that sense, and in that
sense only, it is a matter of demonstration, and not a
matter of guess, that light consists of the periodic motion
of matter, of something which is between the luminous
object and our eyes.
But that something is not matter in the ordinary
sense of the term, it is not made up of such molecules
as gases and liquids and solids are made up of. This
last statement again is no guess, but a proved fact.
There are people who ask, Why is it necessary to
suppose a luminiferous ether to be anything else except
molecules of matter in space, in order to carry light
about ? The answer is a very simple one. In order that
separate molecules may carry about a disturbance, it is
necessary that they should travel at least as fast as the
disturbance travels. Now we know by means that I shall
afterwards come to, that the molecules of gas travel at a
very ordinary rate, about twenty times as fast as a good
train. But, on the contrary, we know by the most certain
of all evidence, by five or six different means, that the velo
city of light is 200,000 miles a second. By that very simple
consideration we are able to tell that it is quite impossible
for light to be carried by the molecules of ordinary matter,
and that it wants something else that lies between those
molecules to carry the light. Now remembering the
evidence which we have for the existence of this ether,
let us consider another piece of evidence, let us now
consider what evidence we have that the molecules of ~a
gas are separate from one another and have something
between them. We find out, by experiment again, that the
different colours of light depend upon the various rapidity
of these waves, depend upon the size and upon the length
�io
The First and the Last Catastrophe.
of the waves that travel through the ether, and that when
we send light through glass or any transparent medium
except a vacuum, the waves of different lengths travel
with different velocities. That is the case with the sea;
we find that long waves travel faster than short ones. In
much the same way, when light comes out of a vacuum
and impinges upon any transparent medium, say upon
glass, we find that the rate of transmission of all the light
is diminished, that it goes slower when it gets inside of
a material body ; and that this change is greater in the
case of small waves than of large ones. The small waves
correspond to blue light and the large waves correspond to
red light. The waves of red light are not .made to travel
so slowly as the waves of blue light, but, as in the case of
waves travelling over the sea, when light moves in the
interior of a transparent body the largest waves travel
most quickly. Well, then, by using such a body as will
separate out the different colours—a prism—we are able
to affirm what are the constituents of the light which
strikes upon it. The light that comes from the sun is
made up of waves of various lengths; but making it pass
through a prism we can separate it out into a spectrum,
and in that way we find a band of light instead of a spot
coming from the sun, and to every band in the spectrum
corresponds a wave of a certain definite length and definite
time in vibration. Now we come to a very singular
phenomenon. If you take a gas such as chlorine and
interpose it in the path of that light, you will find that
certain particular rays of the spectrum are absorbed, while
others are not. Now how is it that certain particular rates
of vibration can be absorbed by this chlorine gas while
others are not ? That happens in this way, that the
chlorine gas consists of a great number of very small struc
tures, each of which is capable of vibrating internally.
Each of these structures is complicated, and is capable of a
change of relative position amongst its parts of a vibratory
character. We know that molecules are capable of such
internal vibrations, for this reason, that if we heat any
�The First and the Last Catastrophe.
11
solid body sufficiently it will in time give out light; that
is to say, the molecules are got into such a state of vibration
that they start the ether vibrating, and they start the
ether vibrating at the same rate at which they vibrate
themselves. So that what we learn from the absorption of
certain particular rays of light by chlorine gas, is that the
molecules of that gas are structures which have certain
natural rates of vibration which they absorb, precisely those
rates of vibration which belong to the molecules naturally.
If you sing a certain note to a string of a piano, that string if
in tune will vibrate. If, therefore, a screen of such strings
were put across a room, and you sang a note on one side,
a person on the other side would hear the note very weakly
or not at all, because it would be absorbed by the strings ;
but if you sang another note, not one to which the strings
naturally vibrated, then it would pass through, and would
not be eaten up by setting the strings vibrating. Now this
question arises. Let us put the molecules aside for a
moment. Suppose we do not know of their existence, and
say, is this rate of vibration which naturally belongs to the
gas, a thing which belongs to it as a whole, or does it
belong -to separate parts of it ? You might suppose that it
belongs to the gas as a whole. A jar of water if you shake
it has a perfectly definite time in which it oscillates, and
that is very easily measured. That time of oscillation
belongs to the jar of water as a whole. It depends upon
the weight of the water and the shape of the jar. But
now, by a very certain method, we know that the time of
vibration which corresponds to a certain definite gas, does
not belong to it as a whole, but belongs to the separate
parts of it, for this reason : that if you squeeze the gas you
do not alter the time of vibration. Let us suppose that we
have a great number of fiddles in a room which are all in
contact, and have strings accurately tuned to vibrate to
certain notes. If you sang one of those notes all the fiddles
would answer ; but if you compress them you clearly put
them all out of tune. They are all in contact, and they will
not answer to the note with the same precision as before.
�12
The First and the Last Catastrophe.
But if you have a room which is full of fiddles, placed at a
certain distance from one another, then if you bring them
within shorter distances of one another, so that they still
don’t touch, they will not be put out of tune, they will answer
exactly to the same note as before. We see, therefore, that
since compression of a gas within certain limits does not alter
the rate of vibration which belongs to it, that rate of vibra
tion cannot belong to the body of gas as a whole, but it must
belong to the individual parts of it. Now, by such reason
ing as this it seems to me that the modern theory of the
constitution of matter is put upon a basis which is abso
lutely independent of hypothesis. The theory is simply an
organised statement of the facts, a statement, that is, which
is rather different from the experiments, being made out
from them in just such a way as to be most convenient for
finding out from them what will be the results of other
experiments. That is all we mean at present by scientific
theory.
Upon this theory Professor Clerk Maxwell founded a
certain argument in his lecture before the British Associa
tion at Bradford. It is a consequence of the molecular
theory, as I said before, that all the molecules of a certain
given substance, say oxygen, are as near as possible alike
in two respects—first in weight, and secondly in their times
of vibration. Now Professor Clerk Maxwell’s argument
was this. He first of all said that the theory required us
to believe not that these molecules were as near as may be
alike, but that they were exactly alike in these two respects—
at least the argument appeared to me to require that. Then
he said all the oxygen we know of, whatever processes it
has gone through—whether it is got out of the atmosphere,
or out of some oxide of iron or carbon, or whether it belongs
to the sun or the fixed stars or the planets or the nebulae—
all this oxygen is alike. And all these molecules of oxygen
we find upon the earth must have existed unaltered, or
appreciably unaltered, during the whole of the time the
earth has been evolved. Whatever vicissitudes they have
gone through, how many times they have entered into
�The First and the Last Catastrophe.
13
combination with iron or carbon and been carried down
beneath the crust of the earth, or set free and sent up
again through the atmosphere, they have remained stead
fast to their original form unaltered, the monuments of
what they were when the world began. Now Professor
Clerk Maxwell argues that things which are unalterable,
and are exactly alike, cannot have been formed by any
natural process. Moreover, being exactly alike, they cannot
have existed for ever, and therefore they must have been
made. As Sir John Herschell said, “they bear the stamp
of the manufactured article.”
Now, into these further deductions I do not propose to
enter at all. I confine myself strictly to the first of the
deductions which Professor Clerk Maxwell made from the
molecular theory. He said that because these molecules
are exactly alike, and because they have not been in the
least altered since the beginning of time, therefore they
cannot have been produced by any process of evolution.
It is just that question which I want to discuss. I want
to consider whether the evidence that we have to prove
that these molecules are exactly alike is sufficient to make
it impossible that they can have been produced by any
process of evolution.
The position, that this evidence is not sufficient, is
evidently by far the easier to defend; because the negative
iS proverbially hard to prove ; and if any one should
prove that a process of evolution was impossible, it would
be an entirely unique thing in science and philosophy.
In fact, we may see from this example precisely how
great is the influence of authority in matters of science.
If there is any name among contemporary natural philo
sophers to whom is due the reverence of all true students
of science, it is that of Professor Clerk Maxwell. But if
any one, not possessing his great authority, had put
forward an argument founded apparently upon a scientific
basis, in which there occurred assumptions about what
things can and what things cannot have existed from
eternity, and about the exact similarity of two or more
�14
The First and the Last Catastrophe.
things established by experiment, we should say, “ Past
eternity; absolute exactness; this won’t do; ” and we should
pass on to another book. The experience of all scientific
culture for all ages during which it has been a light to men,
has shown us that we never do get at any conclusions of that
sort. We do not get at conclusions about infinite time or
infinite exactness. We get at conclusions which are as
nearly true as experiment can show, and sometimes which
are a great deal more- correct than direct experiment can
be, so that we are able actually to correct one experiment
by deductions from another ; but we never get at con
clusions which we have a right to say are absolutely exact;
so that even if we find a man of the highest powers
saying that he had reason to believe a certain statement to
be exactly true, or that he believed a certain thing to have
existed from the beginning exactly as it is now, we must
say, “It is quite possible that a man of so great eminence
may have found out something which is entirely different
from the whole of our previous knowledge, and the thing
must be inquired into.- But, notwithstanding that, it
remains a fact that this piece of knowledge will be abso
lutely of a different kind from anything that We knew
before.”
Now let us examine the evidence by which we know
that the molecules of the same gas are as near as may be
• alike in weight and in rates of vibration. There were
experiments made by Dr. Graham, late Master of the
Mint, upon the rate at which different gases were mixed
together. He found that if he divided a vessel by a thin
partition made of black-lead or graphite, and put different
gases on the two opposite sides, they would mix together
nearly as fast as though there was nothing between them.
The difference was that the plate of graphite made it
more easy to measure the rate of mixture; and Dr.
Graham made measurements and came to conclusions
which are exactly such as are required by the molecular
theory. It is found by a process of mathematical calcula
tion that the rate of diffusion of different gases depends
�The First and the Fast Catastrophe.
15
upon the weight of the molecules. A molecule of oxygen
is sixteen times as heavy as a molecule of hydrogen,
and it is found upon experiment that hydrogen goes
through a septum or wall of graphite four times as fast as
oxygen does. Four times four are sixteen. We express
that rule in mathematics by saying that the rate of diffu
sion of gas is inversely as the square root of the mass of
its molecules. If one molecule is-thirty-six times as heavy
as another—the molecule of chlorine is nearly that multi
ple of hydrogen—it- will diffuse itself at one-sixth of
the rate.
This rule is a deduction from the molecular theory, and
it is found, like innumerable other such deductions, to come
right in practice. But now observe what is the conse
quence of this. Suppose that, instead of taking one gas and
making it diffuse itself through a wall, we take a mixture of
two gases. Suppose we put oxygen and hydrogen into one
side of a vessel which is divided into two parte by a wall of
graphite, and we exhaust the air from the other side, then the
hydrogen will go through this wall four times as fast as the
oxygen will. Consequently, as soon as the other side is full
there will be a great deal more hydrogen in it than oxygen
•—that is to say, that we shall have sifted the oxygen from
the hydrogen, not.completely, but in a great measure, pre
cisely as by means of a screen we can sift large coals from
small ones. Now, suppose when we have oxygen gas
unmixed with any other, the molecules are of two sorts
and of two different weights. Then you see that if we
make that gas pass through a porous wall, the lighter par
ticles would pass through first, and we should get two dif
ferent specimens of oxygen gas, in one of which the mole
cules would be lighter than in the other. The properties
of one of these specimens of oxygen gas would necessarily
be different from those of the other, and that difference
might be found by very easy processes. If there were any
perceptible difference between the average weight of the
molecules on the two sides of the septum, there would be
no difficulty in finding that out. No such difference has
�16
The First and the Last Catastrophe,
ever been observed. If we put any single gas into a
vessel, and we filter it through a septum of black-lead into
another vessel, we find no difference between the gas on
one side of the wall and the gas on the other side. That
is to say, if there is any difference it is too small to be
perceived by our present means of observation. It is
upon that sort of evidence that the statement rests that
the molecules of a given gas are all very nearly of the
same weight. Why do I say very nearly ? Because evi
dence of that sort can never prove that they are exactly
of the same weight. The means of measurement we have
may be exceedingly correct, but a certain limit must
always be allowed for deviation ; and if the deviation of
molecules of oxygen from a certain standard of weight
were very small, and restricted within small limits, it would
be quite possible for our experiments to give us the results
which they do now. Suppose, for example, the variation
in the size of «the oxygen atoms was as great as that in the
weight of different men, then it would be very difficult
indeed to tell by such a process of sifting what that dif
ference was, or in fact to establish that it existed at all.
But, on the other hand, if we suppose the forces which
originally caused all those molecules to be so nearly alike
as they are, to be constantly acting and setting the thing
right as soon as by any sort of experiment we set it wrong,
then the small oxygen atoms on one side would be made
up to their right size, and it would be impossible to test
the difference by any experiment which was not quicker
than the processes by which they were made right again.
There is another reason why we are obliged to regard
that experiment as only approximate, and as not giving us
any exact results. There is very strong evidence, although
it is not conclusive, that in a given gas—say in a vessel
full of carbonic acid—the molecules are not all of the
same weight. If we compress the gas, we find that when
in the state of a perfect gas, or nearly so, the pressure
increases just in the ratio that the volume diminishes.
That law is entirely explained by means of the molecular
�The First and the Last Catastrophe.
iy
It is what ought to exist if the molecular theoryIf we compress the gas further, we find that the •
pressure is smaller than it ought to be according to this law..
This can be explained in two ways. First of all we may sup
pose that the molecules are so crowded that the time during
which they are sufficiently near to attract each other sensibly
becomes too large a proportion of the whole time to be
neglected; and this will account for the change in the
law. There is, however, another explanation. We may
suppose, for illustration, that two molecules approach one
another, and that the speed at which one is going relatively
to the other is very small, and then that they so direct one
another that they get caught together, and go on circling,
making only one molecule. This, on scientific principles,
will account for our fact, that the pressure in a gas which
is near a liquid state is too small—that instead of the
molecules going about singly, some are hung together in
couples and some in larger numbers, and making still larger
molecules. This supposition is confirmed very strikingly
by the spectroscope. If we take the case of chlorine gas,
we find that it changes colour—that it gets darker as it
approaches the liquid condition. This change of colour
means that there is a change in the rate of vibration which
belongs to its -component parts; and it is a very simple
mechanical deduction that the larger molecules will, as a
rule, have a slower rate of vibration than the smaller ones
—very much in the same way as a short string gives a
higher note than a long one. The colour of chlorine
changes just in the way we should expect if the molecules
instead of going about separately, were hanging together
m couples; and the same thing is true of a great number
of the metals. Mr. Lockyer, in his admirable researches
has shown that several of the metals and metalloids have
various spectra, according to the temperature and the
pressure to which they are exposed; and he has made it
exceedingly probable that these various spectra, that is,
the rates of vibration of the molecules, depend upon the
molecules being actually of different sizes. Dr. Roscoe
theory.
is true.
B
�18
The First and the Last Catastrophe.
has, a few months ago, shown an entirely new spectrum of
the metal sodium, whereby it appears that this metal exists
in a gaseous state in four different degrees of aggregation,
as a simple molecule, and as three or four or eight mole
cules together. Every increase in the complication of the
molecules—every extra molecule you hang on to the aggre
gate that goes about together, will make a difference in
the rate of the vibration of that system, and so will make
a difference in the colour of the substance.
So then we have an evidence, you see, of an entirely
extraneous character, that in a given gas the actual mole
cules that exist are not all of the same weight. Any
experiment which failed to detect this would fail to detect
any smaller difference. And here also we can see a reason
why, although a difference in the size of the molecules
does exist, yet we do not find that out by sifting. Suppose
you take oxygen gas consisting of single molecules and
double molecules, and you sift it through a plate ; the
single molecules get through first, but when they get
through, some of them join themselves together as double
molecules; and although more double molecules are left on
the other side, yet some of them separate up and make
single molecules ; so the process of sifting, which ought to
give you single molecules on the one side anti double on the
other, merely gives you a mixture of single and double on
both sides ; because the reasons which originally decided
that there should be just those two forms are always at
work, and continually setting things right.
Now let us take the other point in which molecules
are very nearly alike; viz., that they have very nearly the
same rate of vibration. The metal sodium in the common
salt upon the earth has two rates of vibration ; it sounds
two notes as it were, which are very near to each other.
They form the well-known double line D, in the yellow
part of the spectrum. These two bright yellow lines
are very easy to observe. They occur in the spectra
of a great number of stars. They occur in the solar
spectrum as dark lines, showing that there is sodium in
�The First and the Fast Catastrophe.
i9
the outer rim of the sun, which is stopping and shutting
off the light of the bright parts behind. All these
lines of sodium are just in the same position in the
spectrum, showing that the rates of vibration of all these
molecules of sodium all over the universe, so far as we
know, are as near as possible alike. That implies a
similarity of molecular structure, which is a great deal
more delicate than, mere test of weight. You may weigh
two fiddles until you are tired, and you will never find out
whether they are in tune; the one test is a great deal more
■delicate than the other, Let us see how delicate this test
is. Lord Eayleigh has remarked that there is a natural
limit for the precise position of a given line in the spec
trum, and for this reason. If a body which is emitting a
sound comes towards you, you will find that the pitch of
the sound is altered. Suppose that omnibuses run every
ten minutes in the streets, and you walk in a direction *
opposite to that in which they are coming, you will
obviously pass more omnibuses in an hour °than if you
walked in an opposite direction. If a body emitting light
is coming towards you, you will find more waves in a
certain direction than if it was going from you; conse
quently, if you are approaching a body emitting light, the
waves will come at shorter intervals, the vibration will be
of shorter period, and the light will be higher up in the
spectrum—it will be more blue. If you are going away
from the body, then the rate is slower, the light is lower
down on the spectrum, and consequently more red. By
means of such variations in the positions of certain known
lines, the actual rate of approach of certain fixed stars to
the earth has been measured, and the rate of going away
of certain other fixed stars has also been measured. Suppose
we have a gas which is glowing in a state of incandescence,
all the molecules are giving out light at a certain
specified rate of V.bration; but some of these are
coming towards us at a rate much greater than seven
teen miles a minute, because the temperature is higher
when the gas is glowing, and others are also going
�20
The First and the Last Catastrophe.
away at a much higher rate than that. The consequence is,
that instead of having one sharply defined line on the spec
trum, instead of having light of exactly one bright colour,
we have light which varies between certain limits. If
the actual rate of the vibration of the molecules of the
gas were marked down upon the spectrum, we should not
get that single bright line there, but we should get a
bright band overlapping it on each side. Lord Eayleigh
calculated that, in the most favourable circumstances, the
breadth of this band would not be less than one-hundredth
of the distance between the sodium lines. It is precisely
upon that experiment that the evidence of the exact
similarity of molecules rests. We see, therefore, from the
nature of the experiment, that we should get exactly the
same results if the rates of vibration of all the molecules
were not exactly equal, but varied within certain very
small limits.
If, for example, the rates of vibration
varied in the same way as the heads of different men,
then we should get very much what we get now from the
experiment.
From the evidence of these two facts, then, the evidence
that molecules are of the same weight and degree of
vibration, all that we can conclude is that whatever
differences there are in their weights, and whatever differ
ences there are in their degrees of vibration, these
differences are too small to be found out by our present
modes of measurement. And that is precisely all that we
can conclude in every similar question of science.
Now, how does this apply to the question whether it is
possible for molecules to have been evolved by natural
processes ? I do not understand, myself, how, even sup
posing we knew that they were 'exactly alike, we could
infer, for certain, that they had not been evolved;
because there is only one case of evolution that we know
anything at all about—and that we know very little about
yet__namely, the evolution of organised beings.
The
processes by which that evolution takes place are long,
cumbrous, and wasteful processes of natural selection and
�The First and the Last Catastrophe.
21
hereditary descent. They are processes which act slowly,
which take a great lapse of ages to produce their natural
effects. But it seems to me quite possible to conceive, in
our entire ignorance of the subject, that there may be
other processes of evolution which result in a definite
number of forms,—those of the chemical elements,—just
as these processess of the evolution of organised beings
have resulted in a greater number of forms. All that we
know of the ether shows that its actions are of a rapidity
very much exceeding anything we know of the motions
of visible matter. It is a possible thing, for example,
that mechanical conditions should exist, according to
which all bodies must be made of regular solids, that
molecules should all have flat sides, and that these sides
should all be of the same shape. I suppose that it is just
conceivable that it might be impossible for a molecule to
exist with two of its faces different. In that case we
know there would be just five shapes for a molecule to exist
in, and these would be produced by process of evolution.
Now the forms of various matter that we know, and that
chemists call elements, seem to be related one to another
very much in that sort of way; that is, as if they rose out
of mechanical conditions which only rendered it possible
for a certain definite number of forms to exist, and which,
whenever any molecule deviates slightly from one of these
forms, would immediately operate to set it right again. I
do not know at all—we have nothing definite to go upon
—what the shape of a molecule is, or what is the nature
of the vibration it undergoes, or what its condition is com
pared with the ether; and in our absolute ignorance
it would be impossible to make any conception of the
mode in which it grew up. When we know as much about
the shape of a molecule as we do about the solar system,
for example, we may be as sure of its mode of evolution
as we are of the way in which the solar system came
about; but in our present ignorance all we have to do is to
show that such experiments as we can make do not give us
.evidence that it is absolutely impossible for molecules of
�22
The First and the .Last Catastrophe.
matter to have been evolved out of ether by natural
processes.
The evidence which tells us that the molecules of a
given substance are alike, is only approximate. The theory
leaves room for certain small deviations, and consequently
if there are any conditions at work in the nature of the
ether, which render it impossible for other forms of matter
than those we know of to exist, the great probability is,
that when by any process we contrive to sift molecules of
one. kind from molecules of another, these very conditions
at once bring them back and restore to us a mass of gas
consisting of molecules whose average type is a normal one.
Now I want to consider a speculation of an entirely dif
ferent character. A remark was made about thirty years ago,
by Sir William Thomson, upon the nature of certain pro
blems in the conduction of heat. These problems had been
solved by Fourier, many years before, in a beautiful
treatise. The theory was that if you knew the degree of
warmth of a body, then you could find what would happen
to it afterwards, you would find how the body would
gradually cool. Suppose you put the end of a poker in
the fire and make it red hot, that end is very much hotter
than the other end, and if you take it out and let it cool,
you will find that heat is travelling from the hot end to
the cool end, and the amount of this travelling, and the
temperature at either end of the poker can be calculated
with great accuracy. This, comes out of Fourier’s theory.
Now suppose you try to go backwards in time, and take the
poker at any instant when it is about half cool, and say,
“ this equation,—does it give me the means of finding out
what was happening to it before this time, in so far as the
present state of things has been produced by cooling?”
You will find the equation will give you an account of the
state of the poker before the time when it came into your
hands, with great accuracy up to a certain point, but beyond
that point it refuses to give you any more information, and
it begins to talk nonsense. It is in the nature of a problem
of the conduction of heat, that it allows you to trace the
�The First and the Last Catastrophe.
23
forward history of it to any extent you like ; but it will
not allow you to trace the history of it backward, beyond
a certain point. There is another case in which a similar
thing happens. There is an experiment in the excellent
manual, ‘ The Boy’s Own Book,’ which tells you that if you
half fill a glass with beer, and put some paper on it, and
then pour in water carefully, and draw the paper out
without disturbing the two liquids, the water will rest on
the beer. The problem then is to drink the beer without
drinking the water, and it is accomplished by means of a
straw. Let us suppose these two liquids resting in contact ;
we shall find they begin to mix, and it is possible to write
down an equation which is exactly of the same form as
the equation for the conduction of heat, which would tell
you how much water had passed into the beer at any given
time after the mixture began. So that given the water and
the beer half mixed, you could trace forward the process of
mixing, and measure it with accuracy, and give a perfect
*
account of it; but if you attempt to trace that back you
will have a point where the equation will stop, and will
begin to talk nonsense. That is the point where you took
away the paper, and allowed the mixing to begin. If we
apply that same consideration to the case of the poker,
and try to trace back its history, you will find that the
point where the equation begins to talk nonsense is the
point where you took it out of the fire. The mathematical
theory supposes that the process of conduction of heat has
gone on in a quiet manner, according to certain defined
laws, and that if at any time there was a catastrophe, one
not included in the laws of the conduction of heat, then
the equation could give you no account of it. There is
another thing which is of the same kind, namely, the
transmission of fluid friction. If you take your tea in
your cup, and stir it round with a spoon, it won’t go on
circulating round for ever, but will come to a stop ; and
the reason is that there is a certain friction of the liquid
against the sides of the cup, and of the different parts of
the liquid with one another. Now the friction of the
�24
The First and the Last Catastrophe.
different parts of a liquid or a gas is precisely a matter of
mixing. The particles which are going fast, and are in
the middle, not having been stopped by the side, get mixed,
and the particles at the side going slow, get mixed with
the particles in the middle. This process of mixing can
be calculated, and it leads to an equation of exactly the
same sort as that which applies to the conduction of heat.
We have, therefore, in these problems a natural process
which consists in mixing things together, and this always
has the propei’ty that you can go on mixing them for ever,
without coming to anything impossible ; but if you attempt
to trace the history of the thing backward, you must
always come to a state which could not have been produced
by mixing, namely, a state of complete separation.
Now upon this remark of Sir W. Thomson’s, the true
consequences of which you will find correctly stated in
Mr. Balfour Stewart’s book on the ‘ Conservation of
Energy,’ a most singular doctrine has been founded.
These writers have been speaking of a particular pro
blem, on which they were employed at the moment.
Sir W. Thomson was speaking of the conduction of
heat, and he said this heat problem leads you back
to a state which could not have been produced by the
conduction of heat. And so Professor Clerk Maxwell,
speaking of the same problem, and also of the diffusion of
gases, said there was evidence of a limit in past time to
the existing order of things, when something else than
mixing took place. But a most eminent man, who has
done a great deal of service to mankind, Professor Stanley
Jevons, in his very admirable book, the ‘ Principles of
Science,’ which is simply marvellous for the number of
examples illustrating logical principles which he has drawn
from all kinds of regions of science, and for the small
number of mistakes that occur in it, takes this remark of
Sir W. Thomson’s, and takes out two very important
words, and puts in two other very important words. He
says, “We have here evidence of a limit of a state of
things which could not have been produced by the previous
�The First and the Last Catastrophe.
2.5
state of things according to the known laws of nature.’’
It is not according to the known laws of nature, it is
according to the known laws of conduction of heat, that
Sir William Thomson is speaking; and from this . we
may see the fallacy of concluding, that if we consider
the case of the whole universe we should be able, suppose
we had paper and ink enough, to write down an equation
which would enable us to make out the history of the
world forward, as far forward as we liked to go, but if we
attempted to calculate the history of the world backward,
we should come to a point where the equation would begin
to talk nonsense, we should come to a state of things which
could not have been produced from any previous state of
things, by any known natural laws. You will see at once
that that is an entirely different statement. The same
doctrine has been used by Mr. Murphy, in a very able
book, 1 The Scientific Basis of Faith,’ to build upon it an
enormous superstructure—I think the restoration of the
Irish Church was one of the results of it. But this doctrine
is founded, as I think, upon a pure misconception. It is
founded entirely upon forgetfulness of the condition
under which the remark was originally made. All these
physical writers, knowing what they were writing about,
simply drew such conclusions from the facts which were
before them as could be reasonably drawn. They say
*
here is a state of things which could not have been pro
duced by the circumstances we are at present investigating.
Then your speculator comes, he reads a sentence and says,
Here is an opportunity for me to have my fling. And he
has his fling and makes a purely baseless theory about the
necessary origin of the present order of nature at some
definite point of time which might "be calculated. But if
we consider the matter, we shall see that this is not in any
way a consequence of the theory of the conduction of heat;
because the conduction of heat is not the only process that
goes on in the universe.
If we apply that theory to the case of the earth, we find
that at present there is evidence of a certain distribution of
�26
The First and the Last Catastrophe.
temperature in the interior of it; there is a certain rate at
which the temperature increases as we go down, and no
doubt if we made further investigations, we should find that
if we went deeper an accurate law would be found, accord
ing to which the temperature increases in the interior.
Now, assuming this to be so, taking this as the basis of
our problem, we might endeavour to find out what was the
history of the earth in past times, and when it began
cooling down. That is exactly what Sir William Thom
son has done. When we attempt it, we find that there is a
definite point to which we can go, and at which our equa
tion talks nonsense. But we do not conclude that at that point
the laws of nature began to be what they are; we only
conclude that the earth began to solidify. Now solidifica
tion is not a process of the conduction of heat, and so the
thing cannot be given by our equation. That point is
given definitely as a point of time, not with great accuracy
but still as near as we can expect to get it with such means
of measuring as we have, and Sir William Thomson has
calculated that the earth must have solidified at some time
a hundred millions or two hundred millions of years ago;
and there we arrive at the beginning of the present state
of things; the process of cooling the earth which is
going on now. Before that it was cooling as a liquid, and
in passing from the liquid to the solid state there was a
catastrophe which introduced a new rate of cooling. So
that by means of that law we do come to a time when the
earth began to assume its present' state. We do not find
the time of the commencement of the universe, but simply
of the present structure of the earth. If we went farther
back, we might make more calculations and find how
long the earth had been in a liquid state. We should
come to another catastrophe, and say at that time, not that
the universe began to exist, but that the present earth
passed from the gaseous to the liquid state.. And if we
went farther back still we should probably find the earth
falling together out of a great ring of matter surrounding
the sun and distributed over its orbit. The same thing is
�The First and the Last Catastrophe.
27
true of every body of matter : if we trace its history back,
we come to a certain time at which a catastrophe took
place, and if we were to trace back the history of all the
bodies of the universe in that way we should continually
see them separating up into smaller parts. What t ey
have actually done is to fall together and get solid. If we
could reverse the process we should see them separating
and getting fluid, and, as a limit to that, at an indefinite
distance in past time, we should find that all these Jodies
would be resolved into molecules, and all these would be
flying away from each other. There would be no limit to »
that process, and we could trace it as far back as ever we
liked to trace it. So that on the assumption, a very large
assumption, that the present constitution of the laws of
geometry and mechanics has held good during the whole ot
past time, we should be led to the conclusion that at an
inconceivably long time ago the universe did consist of
ultimate molecules, all separate from one another, and
approaching one another. Then they would meet together
and form a great number of small hot bodies. Then you
would have the process of cooling going on in these bodies,
exactly as we find it going on now. But you will observe
that we have no evidence of such a catastrophe as implies
a beginning of the laws of nature. We do not come to
something of which we cannot make any further calcula
tion- we find that however far we like to go back, we
approximate to a certain state of things, but never actually
get to it.
„
Here, then, we have a doctrine about the beginning ot
things. ' First, we have a probability, about as great as
science can make it, of the beginning of the present state
of things on the earth, of the fitness of the earth for habi
tation ; and then we have a probability about the beginning
of the universe as a whole which is so small, that it is
better put in this form, that we do not know anything at
all about it. The reason why I say that we do not know
anything at all of the beginning of the universe, is that
we have no reason whatever fob believing that what we
�28
The First and the Last Catastrophe.
at present know of the laws of geometry and mechanics
are exactly and absolutely true at present, or that they have
been even approximately true for any period of time,
further than we have direct evidence of. The evidence we
have of them is founded on experience, and we should have
exactly the same experience of them now, if those laws
were not exactly and absolutely true, but were only so
nearly true that we could not observe the difference. So
that in making the assumption we may argue upon the
absolute uniformity of nature, and "suppose these laws to
e have remained exactly as they are, we are assuming some
thing we know nothing about. My conclusion then is, that
we do know, with great probability, of the beginning of
the habitability of the earth about one hundred or two
hundred millions of years back, but that of a beginning of
the universe we know nothing at all.
Now let us consider what we can find out about the end
of things. The life which exists upon the earth is made
by the sun’s action, and it depends upon the sun for its
continuance. We know that the sun is wearing out, that
it is cooling, and although this heat which it loses day by
day is made up in some measure, perhaps completely at
present, by the contraction of its mass, yet that process
cannot go on for ever. There is only a certain amount of
energy in the present constitution of the sun, and when
that has been used up, the sun cannot go on giving out
any more heat. Supposing, therefore, the earth remains
in her present orbit about the sun, seeing that the sun
must be cooled down at some time, we shall all be frozen
out. On the other hand, we have no reason to believe
that the orbit of the earth about the sun is an absolutely
stable thing. It has been maintained for a long time that
there is a certain resisting medium which the planets have
to move through, and it may be argued from that, that in
time all the planets must be gradually made to move
in smaller orbits, and so to fall in towards the sun.
But, on the other hand, the evidences upon which this
assertion was based, the movement of Encke’s comet and
�The First and the Last Catastrophe.
<1$
others, has been quite recently entirely overturned by
Professor Tait. He supposes that these comets consist of
bodies of meteors. Now, it was proved a long time ago,
that a mass of small bodies travelling together m an orbit
about a central body, will always tend to fall in towards it,
and that is the case with the rings of Saturn. So that,
in fact, the movement of Encke’s comet is entirely accounted
for on the supposition that it is a swarm , of meteors, with
out regarding the assumption of a resisting medium. On
the other hand, it seems exceedingly natural to suppme
that some matter in a very thin state is diffused about the
planetary spaces. Then we have another consideration,
just as the sun and moon make tides upon the sea, so the
planets make tides upon the sun. If we consider the ti e
which the earth makes upon the sun, instead of being a
great wave lifting the mass of the sun up directly under
the earth, it is carried forward by the sun’s rotation ; the
result is, that the earth instead of being attracted to tha
sun’s centre, is attracted to a point before the centre. The
immediate tendency is to accelerate the earth s motion,
and the final effect of this upon the planet is to make
its orbit larger. That planet disturbing all the other
planets, the consequence is that we have the earth gradually
going away from the sun, instead of falling into it.
*
In any case, all we know is that the sun is going out.
If we fall into the sun then we shall be fried; if we go
away from the sun, or the sun goes out, then we shall be
frozen. So that, so far as the earth is concerned, we have
no means of determining what will be the character of the
end, but we know that one of these two things must take
place in time: But in regard to the whole universe, if we
were to travel forward as we have travelled backward in
time, consider things as falling together, we should come
finally to a great central mass, all in one piece, which
would send out waves of heat through a perfectly empty
* I learn from Sir W Thomson that the ultimate effect of tidal defor
mation ona number of bodies is to reduce them to two, which move as if
they were rigidly connected.
�jo
The First and the Last Catastrophe.
ether, and gradually cool itself down. As this mass got
cool it would be deprived of all life or motion ; it would
be just a mere enormous frozen block in the middle of the
ether. But that conclusion, which is like the one that we
discussed about the beginning of the world, is one which
we have no right whatever to rest upon. It depends upon
the same assumption that the laws of geometry and
mechanics are exactly and absolutely true ; and that they
will continue exactly and absolutely true for ever and
ever. Such an assumption we have no right whatever to
make. We may therefore, I think, conclude about the
end of things that so far as the earth is concerned, an end
of life upon it is as probable as science can make any
thing ; but that in regard to the universe we have no right
to draw any conclusion at all.
So far, we have considered simply the material existence
of the earth; but of course our greatest interest lies
not so much with the material life upon it, the organised
beings, as with another fact which goes along with that,
and which is an entirely different one—the fact of the
consciousness that exists upon the earth. We find very
good reason indeed to believe that this consciousness
in the case of any organism is itself a very complex
thing, and that it corresponds part for part to the action
of the nervous system, and more particularly of the
brain of that organised thing. There are some whom
such evidence has led to the conclusion that the destruc
tion which we have seen reason to think probable of all
organised beings upon the earth, will lead also to the final
destruction of the consciousness that goes with them.
Upon this point I know there is great difference of opinion
amongst those who have a right to speak. But to those
who do see the cogency of the evidences of modern physio
logy and’ modern psychology in this direction, it is a very
serious thing to consider that not only the earth itself
and all that beautiful face of nature we see, but also the
living things upon it, and all the consciousness of men,
and the ideas of society, which have grown up upon the
�The First and the Last Catastrophe.
3i
surface, must come to an end. We who hold that belief
must just face the fact and make the best of it; and 1
think we are helped in this by the words of that Jew
philosopher, who was himself a worthy crown to the
splendid achievements of his race in the cause of progress
during the Middle Ages, Benedict Spinoza. He said
“ The free man thinks of nothing so little as of death, and
his wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life.
ur
interest lies with so much of the past as may serve
to guide our actions in the present, and to intensify our
pious allegiance to the fathers who' have gone before us
and the brethren who are with us ; and our interest lies
with so much of the future as we may hope will be
appreciably affected by our good actions now. Beyond
that, as it seems to me, we do not know, and we ought no
to care. Do I seem to say, “ Let us eat and drink, for
to-morrow we die ? ” Far from it; on. the contrary I say,
“ Let us take hands and help, for this day we are alive
together.”
PRINTED BY C. IV. REYNELL, LITTLE PULTENBY STREET, HAYMARKET.
�SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY,
To provide for the delivery on Sundays in the Metropolis, and
to encourage the delivery elsewhere, of Lectures on Science,
physical, intellectual, and moral,—History, Literature,
and Art; especially in their bearing upon the improvement
and social well-being of mankind.
THE SOCIETYS LECTURES
AKE DELIVERED AT
ST GEORGE’S HALL, LANGHAM PLACE,
On SUNDAY Afternoons, at FOUR o'clock precisely.
(Annually—from November to May).
Twenty-Four Lectures (in three series), ending 23rd April,
1876, will be given.
Members’ £1 subscription entitles them to an annual ticket
(transferable and admitting to the reserved seats), and to eight
single reserved-seat tickets available for any lecture.
Tickets for each series (one for each lecture) as below,_
To the Shilling Reserved Seats—5s.
6d.
To the Sixpenny Seats—2s., being at the rate of Threepence
each lecture.
For tickets apply (by letter) to the Hon. Treasurer, Wm. Henry
Domville, Esq., 15 Gloucester Crescent, Hyde Park, W.
Payment at the door:—One
(Reserved Seats) One Shilling.
Penny ;—Sixpence ;—and
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The first & the last catastrophe : a criticism on some recent speculations about the duration of the universe : a lecture delivered before the Sunday Lecture Society, on Sunday afternoon, 12th April, 1874
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Clifford, William Kingdon [1845-1879]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 31 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Printed by C.W. Reynell, Little Pulteney Street, London. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Cosmology
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Universe
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https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/ec055bf377bca67e4bd3d46dd8d7f3fc.pdf?Expires=1780531200&Signature=sN9gMHNr370cas8yr13%7EG%7EZiYWbQCh5bcGMjR6U2YPBCmvC8-IuDd2Ok5-hkY8RDFPOiZTif2hoJSxi1q7sBhsv0Lhj9ALyNDx4PkZeM4ud7E68BGZRABBJtU-sfFDeejOt7MatTtkV4JuAzXXiZgZyiY9QJJtk%7EcKb8Uf3nXaGAU%7EI3MQDpHYrty55pvXAdsgpwgl7MkJd1FwnbL0FfQEn3s%7EHWJ1-VmnyP7rA7vieFD8SqDzSXCOAASoTRgtHHxTqZo79ASDtap1UtGEBCOqKIjSTegfrQSNtjhPC8MuSY1cJ1dZ1%7E5VJ7MGZIW16Zfsw3dpLMBEpB76JGS-QQAA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
aafbea0f1451edad055bd153a8e2e7ca
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Text
THE
SUPREME POWER
IN THE UNIVERSE.
BY
T. L. STRANGE.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS
SOOTT,
11 THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD, UPPER NORWOOD,
LONDON, S.E.
' .* '
1877.
Price Sixpence.
�LONDON :
FEINTED BY C. ~W. BEYNELL, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET,
HAYMARKET, W.
�THE
SUPREME POWER IN THE UNIVERSE.
--------_4_-------
HE subject upon which I venture to embark is
one which attracts the attention of every
earnest and reflecting mind, while it is apparent that
it involves considerations surpassing the powers of
the human intellect to apprehend or compass. The
finite cannot grasp the conditions of the infinite, and
yet the sense of the infinite forces itself upon us as
an imperious necessity. For example, we all see
that there must be an eternity of time and an infini
tude of space, because it is impossible that it should
be otherwise. Put time back to any limit, or space
to any bounds, and there must have been time and
space lying beyond the terms contemplated. And
there are other such conditions. Space must be
characterized by eternity equally as time, for such a
state as the absence of space is not imaginable. But
what does space involve ? It has been well observed
that the conception of “ nothingness ” is an impossi
bility. The space, therefore, in all its parts, muBt
have been occupied by something, and that some
thing we must accept as matter, however attenuated
in substance. Matter then has been eternal, as time
and space. But matter cannot be disassociated from
those properties which to our experiences are inherent
to it. That is, it must be what is capable of combina
tion, dissolution, and imparted motion. Being sus
ceptible of being acted upon by what is exterior to it,
it is fair to assume that what may operate upon it,
namely force or energy, is also vested with eternity.
Matter, occupying all space, and therefore immeasur
able in its possible dimensions, is also capable of being
brought to infinitesimal proportions. Reduce an atom
T
�4
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
to any scale, however minute, it cannot be denied
that with adequate means the process of reduction
may be continued perpetually. Thus time, space,
matter, the properties of matter in expansion and
divisibility, and force or energy, are all apparently
associated with infinitude. These are the circum
stances to be recognized in dealing with the important
■subject before us. Thegreat question to be consideredis
whether, beyond the elements sensibly working around
us, there is a higher power, supremely endowed, ope
rating in the universe and governing all things—a
power that has designed and constructed all that we
behold, and that directs all for the accomplishment of
intelligent ends ?
The bulk of mankind, deriving their ideas from
primitive and uninstructed times, have decided
this question by figuring to themselves an
imaginary being to take the place to be filled in
the constitution of the universe as its creator and
•ruler. They have formed this being, as might be
■expected, upon human models, in realization of human
standards of power and excellence, and its special
image is transmitted to them in company with the
'Country, language, and national sentiment with which
they happen to be personally linked. On the
other hand, among the thinking classes there is a
considerable and an increasing body who occupy
themselves with the finite, practically remitting what
is infinite to the precincts of the unreal. What they
can establish to the satisfaction of their senses, upon
positive experience, in connection with the operations
in nature taking place around them, they will ac
knowledge ; what cannot, in the same method and
■degree, be exactly demonstrated, they are content
either to disallow, or to disconnect themselves with
as to them unapproachable. They stand thus in the
opposite extreme to the emotional image worshipers.
But, in their process of negation, these would-be exact
thinkers may prove, possibly, to have placed them-
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
5
selves at greater disadvantage relatively to the truth
than those who have satisfied their desires with wellmeant but fanciful representations, transmitted to
them through ancestral channels, and accepted by
them without questioning.
In such an examination as the present, the
argument from design must assert itself, however
often it may hitherto have been presented, and, as
some think, disposed of. Admitting that there are lawsinherent in nature which must prevail to whatever
use natural materials may be put, we are to consider
how matter may be acted upon and turned to account
without invading these laws. Man works in this
manner with the substances around him, ever con
forming himself to the laws affecting matter, but
converting the substances operated upon, and sub
jecting them to endless combinations, in order toproduce in shape, colour, texture, and adaptabilityy
whatever he desires to effect and serve himself of.
He is able to act even upon organized forms, altering
and improving them within certain limits. Wild
grasses are turned by him into edible grain, sour or
tasteless fruits are developed into delicious products,
flowers are diversified in structure and colour, and
domestic animals are varied and brought to high
standards of excellence. Attention to natural courses
in culture, supplies of nutriment, and conservation of
species or breed, brings about these remarkable results.
Some particular form is aimed at, and in time the
growth is moulded to acquire it. Thus we have
grey-hounds, race-horses, toy-terriers, &c. A change
of colour in the feathers of pigeons, or an alteration
of their bony structures, Mr. Darwin informs us may
be obtained premeditatedly by the proper measures.
But there is a point beyond which the operations of
man cannot extend themselves. In the organic
world he can act upon what exists, inducing varieties,
but he can create nothing. He cannot project
novel forms, or command the sources of life. He
�6
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
can improve but not originate. He cannot even con
ceive a new shape for an animal or a plant, but has
ever to . draw his ideas from existing shapes. The
objects in nature, organized and unorganized, are
endlessly diversified, but he is incapable of suggesting,
far less of producing and adding to these groups, one
purely original structure.
’
In the natural forms there are obvious evidences
of design and adaptation meeting us at every turn,
pointing to some unrevealed power that has planned
and executed the whole. Each object has its appro
priate place, and is surrounded by what is suitable
and necessary to it. Plants propagate themselves by
methods established for them, and take up nutriment
from the soil, the air, and the water supplies, by means
of organs provided them, and assimilate this and con
vert it into their various tissues by instrumentalities
specially constructed for such purpose. Great are
the diversities in the vegetable kingdom, but each
member of the innumerable family keeps its appointed
place and grade. The rose never has the sting of the
nettle, or the proportions of the lordly denizen of the
forest. The fig-tree does not produce the grape, or
the grape the thistle. The projected order is pre
served as by the edict and hand of a law-giver.
Though each form has apparently similar constituent
parts, none of these go astray to invade or disarrange
existing species. A plant is not engrafted on an
animal, nor a bird or fish upon a quadruped. Among
the animal tribes the evidences of what is entitled to
be called design are still more precise. These are put
together with complicated arrangements of articulated
bones, ligaments, vessels, fibres, and external cover
ings, all indispensable to the objects so provided, and
not to be interfered with, injured, or removed, with
out entailing serious sufferings and risks to the being
so operated upon. They are capable of locomotion
and volition. Some move on earth, some in air, some
in the waters, and they are specially framed for their
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
7
respective elements. Appropriate food supplies are
provided them on which they can feed and sustain
their bodily frames. The adaptability of the sexes,
their propensity for each other, the care of offspring,
the instrumentalities given for attack and defence,
and the sagacity and methods of confederated com
munities such as the bees, ants, and beavers, exhibit
the agency of a designing, controlling, and protect
ing power in operation to fit them in organization and
■endowment for the ends of their existence.
In the highest of these vitalized forms, namely
mankind, there are superadded the manifestations of
mind, with the emotions and moral perceptions, to a
degree to set this race on a level of their own, and
give them the supremacy over all that is around them.
The intellect of man examines all things, weighs
consequences, draws conclusions, shapes therefrom
designed courses calculated to attain desired ends,
and stores, imparts, and thus perpetuates its acqui
sitions, raising ever to higher and higher standards
the fabric of human knowledge and excellence. Ad
vancing from what we can judge to have been the
condition of one in the stone age, living in caves,
clothing himself with the skins of animals, and occu
pying himself with but little else than the means of
satisfying his physical wants in the coarsest manner,
we see man in the present day raised to a compara
tively high level through the exercise of the faculties
with which he stands provided. He has surrounded
himself with conveniences and luxuries of habitation,
food, and clothing, and stored himself abundantly
with resources to minister to his ease, enjoyment, and
pleasure ; he enlarges his mind with useful and agree
able knowledge; he transports himself from place
to place, by land and water, in luxurious vehicles
anrl vessels moved without effort from himself, and
sends his messages, to whatever distances, with, a
speed resembling that of the lightning; he. supplies
himself with fuel, metals, and other materials, from
�8
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
the bowels of the earth, pierces mountains to forge
passages through them, spans rivers with roadways,
and transforms the surfaces of the earth to suit his
convenience and secure his ends; his skill sets at
nought physical difficulties, and his power is multi
plied thousands of fold by mechanical means adjusted
to meet with accuracy every purpose ; he exa-mi-neg
nature in her grandest and minutest forms by aids
enormously surpassing the measure of his natural
visual organs ; he analyses everything, ascertaining
its properties to serve himself of them; thus he puts
to use all that he comes in contact with, expanding
his knowledge and improving his status; he en
deavours to understand himself as well as all with
which he is associated; and in this pursuit he is ever
conscious of conditions that transcend the powers of
his apprehension, speaking to him of a supremacy of
knowledge, power, and goodness surpassing the ut
most limits of his conceptions.
Though the universe, in respect of time, space,
matter, and force, is constituted with infinitude, the
objects coming under our observation, one and all, it
is apparent, are of finite order. Whatever may be
their endings, it may be concluded that all have had
their beginnings. The orbs in space express to us
forms obtained by consolidation of matter. We see
vast nebulae floating about in shapeless masses, and
observe some of them in spiral motion, apparently
undergoing conversion into globes such as belong to
our own methodized system. The spectroscope re
veals to us that other spheres are constituted with
materials similar to our own; all seem to be governed
by the same laws, and the presumption is that all
have had a like origin. The crust of the earth speaks
to us of development by superadded matter, ever ad
vancing the capabilities of our globe. At first no
life existed on it; then the waters gave forth marine
products; then dry land appeared and terrestrial
products were generated; and the advance was
�The Supreme Po-wer in the Universe.
9
ever made from inferior to superior conditions, until
at length the stage of excellence in which we stand
was arrived at. Within some circumscribed period,
during the immeasurable expanse of time, everything
we behold, from the vastest orbs in the heavens to
the minutest objects upon earth, has had its beginning.
How have these forms been devised and projected,
with their successions and diversities, and their adap
tations each to its place and sphere ? If the proper
ties in matter were left to uninfluenced operation,
what could have resulted but shapeless combinations
and disruptions effected with ever recurring same
ness ? Could there have been changes of scene and
the constant introduction therein of fresh actors of
endlessly varied form and diversified characteristics ?
Could these have sprung into being, each from its
origin outlined and suitably and adequately endowed
for the position it had to fill ? And could all have
been arranged from the first in nicely-adj us ted correspondence with well-contrived, instrumentalities and
intelligently directed action ? It seems impossible,
with any degree of fairness, to attribute to insentient
matter such high results. Matter is but ingredient
constituted to be put to use by composition. It obeys
the control exercised over it by applied power, as in
stanced in the industrial works of man. In the
sphere that lies beyond his ability to influence, has
it been its own ruler, with capacity to originate diver
sities, fitting these with complicated appliances
specially constituted to secure definite ends ? We see
no signs anywhere, in the well-ordered and compre
hensive system in which we stand, of fortuitous or
eccentric results, of tentative efforts, or failures, and
the conclusion should be inevitable that chance opera
tions of insentient matter have nowhere prevailed,
but that all has been due to intelligence accomplish
ing predetermined ends in supremacy of wisdom and
of power.
_
The operations of man within the range of his
�io
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
means afford indications how, possibly, higher mani
festations, lying beyond the limits of his powers,
may have been brought about. The materials of
which all organized forms are composed exist abun
dantly in the treasuries of nature. In some manner
these are brought together and formulated into living
plants and animals, and again the tie that unites the
■components is severed and they fall into their former
separated or atomic condition. Man, making use
of the materials around him, applies these, according
to their properties and adaptabilities, to develop,
alter, and improve living organisms. He acquires
by experience a knowledge of what these substances
■are capable, and, putting them to use, advances
gradually to perfect his ends. He thus effects very
remarkable changes of form and character in the
objects operated upon, so that the original types
become scarcely recognizable. The process through
which the added matter on these forms is imposed
and incorporated, may be that by which their primi
tive constructions were framed and realized, namely,
the designed use, application, and consolidation,
of those materials of which, at their dissolution,
they are seen to have been composed. If thoughtful
supplies and adaptations are necessary to vary and
improve the plant and animal, thoughtful adaptations
and compositions, it seems fair to conclude, have
been necessary for the formation of the original
structures.
The conditions of life and thought claim special
attention. Some suppose that they are generated
in matter, occurring from its associated properties,
while others maintain they must be derived from
some superior source lying beyond the range of our
observation, and that the material combinations of
which we know are merely channels and instruments
through which the life and the thought act and are
exhibited. The appeal to experience gives us no aid
in arriving at the former conclusion, while, as far as
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
11
it goes, it supports the latter. We see and are
conscious of the operating processes, while of the
sources of life and of thought we have no know
ledge. The manifested action depends upon the
character and condition of the instrumentality, but
we have no means of satisfying ourselves that the
instrumentality generates the action. Where the
organization is feeble, injured, or otherwise defective,
the expression of life, motion, and thought will be
correspondingly lowered, distorted, or imperfect.
A crooked or injured limb will assuredly exhibit
lameness, and a mal-organization or lesion of the
brain weak or perverted thought; and with degenera
tion of thought disturbance of the moral senses may
ensue. But it would be an obvious error to attribute
the source of motion, whatever its character, dis
torted or otherwise, to the limb itself; and equally
may it be viewed as error to ascribe the source of
thought, whether acting normally or abnormally, to
the tissues of the brain. There comes a moment
when the connection between the life and the
thought with the physical organization is snapped,
the latter being left and the former gone, and
then it should become evident that the sentient
properties stand with an origin independent of the
frame which has been once their habitation but has
ceased to hold them.
The prevalence of centralization in the orderings
of nature is a circumstance bearing upon the present
inquiry. The sun visibly rules the movements of
our globe and its associated planets, and, it may be
judged, is the source of supply of their most
important necessities. In like manner the principal
planets rule the movements of their satellites. The
sun, revolving on its centre, is apparently under the
governance of some superior sphere situated in the
expanse beyond it. The solar system, and the
countless orbs in space, are thought to be circling
round some common centre. The mineral, vegetable,
�12
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
and animal kingdoms are held within their proper
bounds, and every species connected with them has
its limits which cannot be transgressed. Each
organized object, whether plant or animal, has some
inward power caring for its existence, ministering to
its . wants, and directing it in efforts for its good.
Is it to be supposed that the law of centralization is
wanting Just where it is most required, and that the
great universe, with its multifarious and complicated
contents and arrangements, all working together in
associated regulation and mutuality of support, is left to
the influence of laws acting casually and independently
in matter without any central governor to watch
over and direct the whole ? Could the well-appointed
system, with all its diversified and orderly details,
which we witness, have resulted from natural forces
abandoned to fortuitous action ? And, were such
the process, should we not have seen tame uniformity
commonly prevailing, varied with confused inter
mixtures and calamitous catastrophes ?
When it is maintained that there is a power, the
author of all the structures we behold, having all in
his keeping and under his governance, and standiug
thus, in a measure, responsible for whatever is and
whatever happens, it is constantly objected, in view
of surrounding evil, weakness, and misery, that, per
mitting or necessitating such results, he cannot be
possessed of those attributes of perfect wisdom, capa
bility, and goodness, which should belong to such a
being, and which are universally ascribed to the
Creator by those who recognize his existence.
It is apparent, when we contemplate the circum
stances of our globe, that it has attained its existing
condition through a process of advancement from low
to higher results. It was, seemingly, shapeless
nebula, till consolidated into its present form; at first
it was without life upon its surfaces, then came
marine organizations, and afterwards those that are
terrestrial. The primitive was not the perfected con-
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
13
flition, but all had to be developed through graduated
elaborations. Man himself forcibly illustrates this
principle in nature of progress from inferior to
superior stages. He has had to better himself
as to his food, clothing, habitation, conveniences,
knowledge, by exercising intelligent industry, all
that he requires having to be wrought out by his
own exertions, where nothing was presented to him
ready fashioned for his use. And as he has had to
provide for his physical wants, so also has he had to
minister to those demanded by his intellectual and
moral constitution.
In the processes of the physical advancements in
nature, it is remarkable how, by an evident law, one
object serves itself of others for purposes of self
advantage. The minerals and the gases of the
atmosphere feed upon allied substances, disintegrating
and absorbing matter standing in affinity to them;
the vegetables appropriate what they require from
the minerals and the atmosphere, adding their
acquisitions to their own systems ; and the animals
freely consume the vegetables, and also devour one
another, none being more destructive of lower life
than the intelligent beings standing at the head of
the created forms. To accomplish such ends in the
vegetable kingdom, leaves and rootlets, acting as
absorbents, are supplied, and in the animal, muscles,
talons, and fangs; while man is endowed with inge
nuity enabling him to fashion weapons, placing all
other living beings at his mercy. If we are to object
to evil and suffering in the world, the weak falling
sacrifices to the strong, consistency would require us
to demand that an end should be put to all these
operations whereby the superior orders receive their
supplies at the expense of the inferior.
Another objection taken is that the exercise of
free-will by man interferes with the idea entertained
of an omnipotent Creator. If man, it is observed,
is a free agent, he cannot be under the control of a
�14
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
supreme director; if not a free agent he is not a
responsible being. The attribute of free-will, or some
thing analogous thereto, belongs to spheres below that
of the human race. Wherever there is independent
action, there is an operation resembling, however
distantly, the expression of will in man. The attrac
tions and repulsions in organic matter act with
invariable certainty, and so far these substances may
be said to be left to their own courses. In organic
forms these properties take the shape of the affections
and antipathies, inducing the correspondent action of
love and hatred. The plants have a faculty resem
bling the will of animals whereby they may be said
to govern themselves for their good. They extend
their branches in the direction of the light, courting
its influences, and their roots in that of their nutri
ment ; trees will incline their stems so as best to
resist, prevailing winds, and the sensitive plant
exhibits aversion to touch such as might characterize
one of the animal tribe. Every animal, however low
in type, has the means of selecting and appropriating
what is calculated to serve for its sustenance, and it
is only specimens of the very lowest order which have
not liberty to move about as they may please. We
see among them, as plainly as in mankind, the exer
cise of the affections, the display of the antipathies,
sexual and parental love, rapaciousness in securing
their prey, or ingenuity in avoiding seizure, the whole
being manifestations of free-will operating among
them within the bounds of their natural capacities.
In man the scope of the will has more extended
action. Where the creature is low in scale its wants
are limited, and its occasions for ruling itself are
proportionately few, and therewith its liability to
error is reduced. The animals are therefore com
monly governed by a faculty of nearly unerring
quality, which we term instinct rather than rea
son. When there is the gift of high intelligence,
as in man, the field of the wants and the temptations
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
15
is greatly enlarged, and he being left to fulfil his
desires through the exercise of his mental endow
ments, the risk of misdirecting himself is propor
tionately increased. He is conscious of two powers
within him, the one inclining him to what is right,
the other to what is wrong ; and his judgment is apt
to form erroneous conclusions respecting matters on
which it is exercised. Thus, while animals, as a rule,
are seen shaping their way in a natural and healthy
manner, man is liable to misuse his powers and to
plunge himself habitually into what is detrimental to
him. The question is how far the supreme Creator
and director contemplated can be held responsible
for the evil with which mankind are associated.
The laws of nature, whereby mankind have to rule
themselves, are so unvarying in their constitution,
that they cannot be broken without entailing, to a
certainty, corresponding unfavourable results. If
man, exercising his reason and free-will, misjudges
these laws, or disregards them, be it in ignorance or in
hardihood, he brings upon himself, inevitably, the
consequences attaching to the violation. If he walks
heedlessly into a river or over a precipice, his life is
endangered or destroyed ; if he deliberately puts his
finger into the fire he is burnt, or into a snake’s mouth
poisoned. He feels himself free to do all this or to
abstain from so doing. If he habitually gorges him
self with unwholesome food his health will suffer;
if he constantly inebriates himself his entire system
will be overthrown. The moral constitution, equally
as the physical, has its laws which cannot be invaded
with impunity. The man addicted to lying, stealing,
lust, violence, or any vice, debases himself, wounds
his conscience, forfeits his own self-esteem, and is
despised and avoided by all the respectable portion of
his fellow-creatures. He unfits himself for any honest
pursuit, is trusted by none, and becomes amenable to
the offended laws of his country. Unhappily the
degeneration of the parent, whether physically or
�16
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
morally, may be transmitted to his stock, and much
of man’s infirmities and obliquities belong to him
constitutionally through ancestral influences. Some
of his forefathers have disobeyed the laws of nature
in their own persons, and the injurious consequences
have been transmitted to their offspring. Much
depravity is also induced by the force of circum
stances and of example, whereby the individual is
enslaved in early youth before he has had sense or
fortitude to resist surrounding influences or assert
his independence. It is then asked, in respect of the
asserted author of our beings, whether, if not directly
responsible for the evil invading man, he is not so
indirectly, from having involved man in conditions to
incur the evil, and formed him weak and liable to be
prejudicially acted upon, duped, and betrayed into
what is hurtful to him ?
The answer to this question may perhaps be best
given by suggesting the converse of the condition
objected to. To be insusceptible of evil, man must
be so constituted as not to admit of evil invading
him, and the elements must be restrained from in any
way presenting evil to him. To fulfil the conditions
demanded, man must be established perfect in wis
dom, knowledge, and power, or, in a word, placed on
a level with his contemplated maker. The world,
and all connected therewith, must be altered to suit
beings so privileged. There must be no extremes of
climate, no storms, floods, or earthquakes ; water
must not drown, fire must not burn, food must be
never otherwise than beneficial, and all poisons must
be expelled; the animals must be harmless to man
and to each other, sustaining themselves in some
wholly innocuous manner, or rather made capable of
living without reducing other elements to destruc
tion, vegetal or animal, for the sake of supporting
themselves; there must be no catastrophes or acci
dents of any description, and death itself, with its
attendant debility to the dying man, and woe to the
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
17
survivors, must be abolished. Thus the arrangements
of the creation must be put aside, and an entirely
new system introduced, in order that man may be
preserved free of the possibility of experiencing evil.
And what would be gained by the change ? There
•would be no sense of right and wrong where wrong
could have no room; there would be no appreciation
of virtue or wisdom where there was no vice and no
folly; all being perfect in body and mind, none
could require anything of another; there would be
no sympathies, no interchange of thought, no
stimulus to exertion ; all would be on the dead level
of unalterable equality.
The tenets of the Christians and the Secularists
leave both parties without the means of accounting
for existing evil. The Christians consign the greater
part of mankind to everlasting torment, whatever
they may have suffered on earth, making the very
existence of these rejected ones a continuous expres
sion of unrelieved and aimless evil; the Secularists,
seeing no future for man, leave all present evil ulti
mately remediless. The race, they say, may improve
in the course of ages to an infinite extent, but for
individual suffering in the meanwhile there is no
compensation ; and bitter are their complaints against
the ordering of creation which entails such results.
But if it may be believed that there is a future in store
for man, and that the entire race have been created
for final good, there are considerations, of an obvious
character, to clear the question of its difficulties.
Every transgression against the laws of nature,
physical and moral, being followed by disadvantage
ous and frequently painful consequences, it is appa
rent that the sufferings induced are designed to guide
the individual to other courses not entailing such
consequences ; that is, the evil visits the transgressor
for the purposes of correction and instruction, and
thus is enforced a system consistent with the pre
sumption that man has been created for good and
�18
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
not for evil; and as the desired results are not secured
in this life, it also becomes reasonably probable that
a future state of existence, when he has ended his
days on earth, is awaiting him, wherein the fruits of
his discipline will become apparent, and the training
needful for him be carried on continuously. Free-will,
within certain bounds, is thus necessary to man to
allow of the treatment in aid of his moral culture to
which he is subjected being maintained. If he could
not take action with spontaneity for his own govern
ance, he would be a mere automaton, executing his
appointed offices, but learning nothing. But with
liberty of action permitted him, and the consequences
of acting rightly or wrongly brought home to his ex
periences, the course of instruction necessary for his
advancement is plainly instituted. If his welfare
consists in his directing himself due north, every
deflection to the east or the west carries him out of
his way. Were no bad consequences to ensue from
his taking a wrong direction, he would pursue it to the
end and never reach his proper destination; but when
evil comes upon him at his first step in a wrong line,
he receives a warning which should arrest his course
and induce him at once to turn to a better path. The
process speaks of a moral governor and director pre
siding over human conduct and interests. The indi
vidual is subjected to constant discipline, here and
probably hereafter, in view of elevating his nature
and fitting him to be a recipient of boundless blessing.
To pause upon the circumstances of this fleeting life
and pass thereupon an ultimate judgment, is an
obvious mistake, if there is such a future before us ;
and without such future it is impossible to understand
why the discipline undergone should have been im
posed. We may take an illustration from the culti
vation of the vine. Its shoots are pruned away, its
roots are laid bare to the cold of winter, offensive
refuse is presented to it for its sustenance, and its
first efforts at production are balked, its clusters
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
19
being nipped off and cast away as rubbish. At this
time, any one ignorant that there was a future
for the plant, would say an enemy is dealing with it;
but when at a later period it is seen spreading itself
around, its branches covered with luscious fruit, the
mystery is cleared up, and it is found to have ever been
in the hands of one caring for it, aiming at its good,
and knowing effectually how to attain his end. The
sour and uninviting wild grape, through the treat
ment it has undergone in interference with its natural
impulses, has been converted, by seemingly harsh but
really beneficial measures, into the first of fruits. In
like manner the gold, if it had a voice, might com
plain of the furnace of the refiner, while the process
for its purification is but a passing stage, necessary to
have it accepted and put to use as the most precious
of the metals. Just so is it with the human race, who
have to be advanced through the school of suffering
from their original low standard, scarcely lifting
them above the brutes around them, to the expression
of the highest excellence. To be turned from error
they have to be made sensible of the painful results
induced by error, and their spirits have to be lowered
and rendered ductile, apprehensive, and teachable;
and each has to learn his lessons for himself. A father
would gladly transfer to his son the advantage of the
experience he has earned, but the son would then be
a mere copy of the father, whereas, to be stable, he
must have a character of his own ; and it is only by
his individual training that this can be sealed to him
and be made to him an enduring benefit.
Is man, in the onward path marked out for him,,
which he has to pursue under such constant attention
to the circumstances in his way, left altogether to his
own resources unwatched and uncared for by any supe
riordirector? Is it in his case an assiduously maintained
culture unfollowed by a harvest ? Does he strive, at
whatever sacrifice, for spiritual advancement, and end
by obtaining no recognition? There are fields of know-
�20
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
ledge, apparent to him, lying beyond the reach even
of his apprehension. The conditions of measureless
expanses of time and space, and infinite resources of
matter and power, occur to him as necessities, but he
is unequal to grasp and comprehend such circum
stances. As he examines the roots of things he finds
himself incapable of fathoming any of them. He can
observe with tolerable accuracy immediate causes, but
the ultimate causes are always out of his reach. He
knows not how his food is assimilated, how life
enters his own or any other system, how any seed or
ovum fructifies and is developed into its appropriate
form. There are then founts of knowledge, of which
he is conscious, but which are unapproachable to him
in his present state of constitution. In the moral
field his apprehensions and desires are equally high
and aspiring, and his capacity for attaining the ends
he has in view in like manner limited and insufficient.
He can conceive standards of excellence too exalted
to be reached by any human effort. Govern himself
how he will he is always sensible of shortcomings.
He knows he might do better, but his inadequate
powers prevent his acting up to his recognized prin
ciples. He has aspirations of an indefinable nature,
proper to himself, in which others, whatever their ex
periences or maturity, are ill-qualified to take part.
These are the struggles of the inner man for expan
sion, recognition, satisfaction, which can be directed
only to some quarter external to and above himself,
where he may claim sympathy and support, and be
sure of being met and dealt with free of risk of mis
apprehension. Is there such a quarter in the unseen
world to which he may go for the relief and supply of
those his ultimate needs that he fully feels can never
be met and satisfied in any other direction ?
We are conscious, in our own systems, that mind
has command over matter, the direction of our
thoughts and studies, every movement of our limbs,
every action of which we are capable, being initiated
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
11
and regulated by the power o£ will implanted m us.
One of superior will, intellect, or tone of feeling,
readily impresses and influences those around him,
and there are occasions when the dominion of ope
mind over other minds is evidently exerted with in
tention and success. If the physical forms around us
have been devised and put together by some unseen
constructor qualified to accomplish his designs in
whatever he thus undertakes, may we not believe that
those higher faculties belonging to man, his intelli
gence, emotions, and moral sentiments, which are not
accidents of his nature, but belong to all m various
degrees, under an universal law, proceed from a like
source and are subjected to a like governing agency t
And as the physical man is sustained by resources of
supply outside himself, may we not conclude that the
inner man, equally requiring sustenance and growth,
receives supports from a direction external to his
System, and is in the hands of a superior power,
cognizant of his wants, and ever ministering to him
for his good ?
.
•
i
The conscience is a faculty influencing our moral
condition, the existence of which all must recognize.
Fairly and honestly used its dictates will ever be in
the right direction, nor are its indications given in
uncertainty or weakened by compromise. As if by
the finger of a supreme director, . to the true anc*earnest seeker the proper path will be pointed out
and commended for adoption. And if the indications
given are disobeyed, ordinarily the thoughts of the
disobedient will be troubled till they yield and pursue
the course they are made to feel is the right one. If,
however, the teachings of the inward monitor are set
at nought, its action becomes weakened, the moral
perceptions are obscured or perverted, and the indivi
dual sinks into indifference or degradation; but the
witness is merely quelled and silenced, not absolutely
extinguished, the conscience of the most hardened
being always susceptible of awakenment by some
�22
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
visitation lowering and searching out his spirit,
or by some monition and appeal addressed to him
reaching his inmost apprehension. Is not this re
markable property, which< is common to man, just
such a medium as a superior power may make use of
to come into contact with us in order to stimulateour thoughts and direct our actions for our ultimate
good ?
It must in the end be conceded that whatever has
been offered in these pages as reasonable possibilities,
can only be accepted properly by those who are able
to believe and act upon the conditions spoken of. If
the Creator is to work sensibly upon the creature, it
is a first necessity that the existence of such a beinoas the Creator should be recognized. There are
multitudes who avow that there is such a being, but
who approach the subject no further. Theirs is an
acknowledgment based upon no personal persuasion,
but such as is merely due to the prevalence of com
mon consent. The Securalist may be forgiven for
challenging a creed not supported by better founda
tions, especially when it is seen to take its shape from
the crude anthropomorphic models of the ancients.
To feel that there is such a power as I presume to
point to, the sense of his being must be expressed by
habitual dependence upon his rule. He does not
show his hand to those who are not prepared to take
home to themselves the fact of his interpositions.
Nor can any trace his dealings in discipline of their
spirits who have not submitted their interests to his
direction and keeping.
The whole race, laden with infirmities and sur
rounded by temptations, are in a position to requirethe ruling hand of this supreme and infallible director,
and access to him must therefore be free to all.
There can be no gate to be closed or opened, the
mere circumstances of existence giving all a title to
approach their Creator, and receive at his hands the
satisfaction of their wants. Addressing themselves
�The Supreme Power in the Universe.
23
to the same being, the experiences of all resorting to
him, should be, and are, necessarily alike. And alike
also are their ultimate hopes. Setting aside all
artificial distinctions, and fancied stepping-stones,
deliverance from evil, and establishment in final
blessing, are the aims, in all their several forms of
worship of the devout, whatever their denominations,
whether Catholic, Protestant, Theist, Jew, Mahommedan, or Pagan. A common creed, based upon
natural and universal testimonies, awaits the accept
ance of mankind when they may bring themselves
to be satisfied with it—a creed full and comprehen
sive ; sufficing for every need and every desire;
giving no room, when once apprehended, on which
doubt, distrust, or divison can find a standing place ;
round which the whole race may range themselves
in assured union ; resting on foundations wide
-enough for all, adaptable to all, and which can be
disturbed only when the universe itself, with all its
associated conditions, is overthrown. It is a belief
that the Almighty Being standing as the author and
the ruler of all is our ever-present and unalterable
friend. Such a confidence should reconcile us to
every form of temporal evil, and bind us together in
the recognition of a brotherhood rooted in him—often
professed, but hitherto never realized. Every other
creed yet resorted to has introduced some inter
mediate agency, a circumstance necessarily occasioning
isolation, and promoting discord. This creed alone
is stamped with simplicity, grandeur, universality, and
every element of demonstrable truth ; suitable to the
merest child; sufficient for the most matured and en
lightened intellect; and holding out considerations and
prospects to tranquillize and satisfy every mind. It
provides the one who is governed by it with
grounds to reconcile him to the present life and its
manifold ills, and hopes to cheer and support him in
view of a life that has to come. The Secularist is
without either source of consolation ; evils unredressed
�24
The Supreme Power in the Universe.
embitter the thoughts he has of existing conditions,
and a future is not before him. The artificial creeds,
it is now apparent, cannot stand the knowledge of
the day, and are being manifestly subverted. It be
comes ns to supply their place with sufficiently broad
and solid foundations. We must not be content to
recognize and obey the intellect and disown the
emotional part of our systems, any more than we
should think of feeding the emotions at the expense
of the intellect. The whole man must be met in all
his requirements, and the sense that we are in the
hands of a beneficent creator, under training for
future blessing, is that which alone can compass us
in our varied conditions, remove all difficulties in our
paths, and fulfil our every need. If this be the true
faith, to this faith we may rest assured we all shall
come. Then the world at large will be introduced
to confidences and hopes it has never had, and its
advancement in all that should characterize it as the
work of him who has made it, will, it may be safely
concluded, be fairly initiated and prosper onwards
and for evermore.
PRINTED BY C. W. RBYNELL, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET, HAYMARKET.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The supreme power in the universe
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Strange, Thomas Lumisden
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 24 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Printed by C.W. Reynell, Little Pulteney Street, London. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Thomas Scott
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1877
Identifier
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G5522
Subject
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Cosmology
Theism
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The supreme power in the universe), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Space and Time
Theism-History of Doctrines
Universe