To establish even the faintest analogy to the Christ-life which is assumed, it would be requisite to prove that higher types have invariably been evolved from lower ones, by some miraculous influence transforming at once a certain number of favored individuals. Directly the contrary is known to be the case. Types have arisen, flourished, in some cases decayed and died out, in others been transformed, not by any sudden process, but by the slow accumulation over long periods of time, of individual peculiarities, accumulated and fixed by the action of heredity and environment. Bird-life was not always bird-life; it began as reptilian life, and the Archaeopteryx is more of a lizard than of a bird. If "conformity to type" really taught anything, it would tell rather in favor of death than of life, for it is certain that many highly organized types of life have died out and disappeared during past geological ages, and science, in the case of the moon, which being a smaller body than the earth has gone though its course of evolution quicker, points rather to ultimate death than to the passage into a higher stage of existence, of all suns, planets, and their inhabitants. But it would be as unscientific to draw conclusions from this, or from the law by which all energy tends to run down into one uniform ocean of rest, as temperatures become equalized, in favor of death as the law. of the Unknown, as it is for Professor Drummond to draw from the same premises the conclusion of a Christ-life. It is either altogether unknown, or known only by revelation, and the first condition of the problem is to prove the revelation. Parasitism and semi-parasitism. These chapters give, in much detail, instances of the natural law by which organisms who take life too easily and lean on others for support, degenerate and fall low in the scale of existence. Thus the hermit crab, who is too lazy to make his own shell, and borrows the cast-off shell of some mollusk, loses the shell-secreting faculty, and falls behind the more laborious common crab. This is called semi-parasitism, while parasitism proper extends to the cases where the animal lives in another living animal, and degenerates into a mere sac, absorbing nourishment and laying eggs. The conclusions drawn from this collection of interesting facts are certainly most extraordinary. "Roman Catholicism is an organization specially designed to induce the parasitic habit in the souls of men. It offers the masses a molluscous shell." Even more startling it is to be told that " one of the things in the religious world which tends most strongly to induce the parasitic habit is going to church." The italics are not mine but the Professor's. And again: "In those churches, especially when all parts of the worship are subordinated to the sermon, this species of parasitism is peculiarly encouraged." Nay, more, the better the preacher the greater is the danger, and if "Providence had not mercifully delivered the Church from too many great men in its pulpits," the consequences would have been most disastrous to a large circle of Christian people. Church-going Christians may perhaps find some consolation in the obvious fact, that if parasitism be such a deadly danger its extremest form would be found in the very spiritual life which Professor Drummond is attempting to prove. A more complete analogy, to the parasitic sac cannot be found than that of a man who, fastening on to the Calvinistic creed, and arriving at the conviction that he is one of the elect, proceeds, as the Professor advises, "to die as much as he can," and abstracts himself from all the interests and duties of his natural environment. The chapters are chiefly interesting as showing the length to which a learned and sincere man, who starts from the predetermination to believe a particular creed, can go on inventing arguments in its support, which, if they were worth anything, would really be most conclusive against it. Classification. The argument of this last chapter is not very apparent. No doubt all the facts of the inorganic and organic worlds, and those relating to natural man, admit of being arranged and classified. Religions also may be classified so far as they relate to known facts. Thus Mahometanism and Christianity may be classified as two of the world's religions, for there is no doubt of the fact that there are many millions both of Mahometans and of Christians. Or, again, religions may be classified as monotheistic or polytheistic, for, as a matter of fact, both have existed. But this tells us nothing of their intrinsic or relative truth. So, if we assume the existence of Professor Drummond's spiritual world, those who belong to it, or even without assuming its existence, those who believe in it, may fairly be classed as a distinct sect from the rest of mankind. But this no more proves its reality than the classification of negroes as fetish-worshippers proves the truth of fetish worship. As usual, he has to fall back on texts, and quotes from St. John and St. Paul, sayings which seem to establish the reality of a wide distinction between carnal and spiritual life. It might fairly be asked how we can be certain that many of these sayings are not merely the highly-colored metaphorical expressions in which the Eastern mind invariably clothes its ideas, and whether they ought to be taken in the strict and literal sense, which the words present to the more practical and scientific European intellect. But apart from this question, how does the fact that natural phenomena admit of classification, advance in the slightest degree the proposition that, in addition to the known inorganic and organic kingdoms, there must be a third unknown kingdom, which may be best designated as the "Kingdom of God?" There may or may not be such a kingdom, but assuredly, apart from revelation, we can no more prove or disprove from natural laws, that we shall live after death, than we can that we have lived before birth. It would be easy, taking each chapter in detail, to show the fallacies involved in many of the analogies, and the extent to which scientific facts have been disturbed by the preconceived determination to make them square with the theory of a "Spiritual Life." For instance, when in order to prove the doctrine of eternal life, we are told, "that as we ascend in the scale of life we also rise in the scale of longevity," forgetting that, in this case, the parrot and the tortoise would take precedence of man as heirs of immortality. Or again, when to prove original sin and redemption, we are told that there is in human nature a principle constantly dragging it down to a lower level, which can only be counteracted by the Christ-life; forgetting that long before Christ appeared, humanity had risen, intellectually, from the fabrication of stone hatchets to the perfection of tools and technical skill shown in the pyramids; and morally, from the cannibal feasts of the cavern of Chaleux to the ethics of a Socrates and a Plato. But objections of detail are irrelevant, when it is so obvious that the whole edifice of Professor Drummond's superstructure rests on the assumption that the spiritual life of his definition is a proved and undoubted fact. This again rests on the assumption that certain texts, quoted almost entirely from the writings of two of the many writers whose works constitute the Bible, St. Paul and St. John, are inspired revelations of the word of God, and therefore absolutely and certainly true. Take this away, and nothing remains of the peculiar "Spiritual World" and "Christ-life," which are the axioms upon which he builds up every one of his supposed analogies to natural laws. For we can hardly call proof the assertion that these axioms are self-evident to what he admits to be an almost infinitesimally small portion of the whole world, and even of the Christian world. If this were proof it would apply equally to every religion and every superstition, or sect of religion, that has ever existed in the world. And in the same manner the analogies would apply as well, or in many cases better, to other totally different forms of religious belief. This has been already shown generally of his main proposition, and it can be shown in detail of each one of the natural laws which form the subject of the separate chapters. For instance, those of degeneration and parasitism fit in far better with what may be called the Catholic Christianity of the great majority, which places works above faith, and seeks to rise to a higher level by strenuous and persistent effort, than with a theory which makes salvation depend on a sudden miraculous act of Divine grace, fixed by predestination, or "blowing where it listeth." Or, if a learned Brahmin or Buddhist read the chapter on mortification, he would exclaim: "Why, here is my faith, aud the essence of my religion." Why does the holy fakir sit naked in the rain and wind, with his hands clasped till the nails grow through the flesh, or upraised till the muscles become rigid, if it be not to "die as much as he can," detach himself from the evil environment of the natural world, and so anticipate the time when his little rill of illusive individual existence may be absorbed in the mighty ocean of the universal Spirit? And so of each of the chapters. Better analogies could readily be found for each of them in other creeds; better, because they would not be mutually contradictory, as these are in assigning in one place persistent effort, and in another, asceticism and passive acquiescence in predestined grace, as the conditions of attaining spiritual life. The truth is, as we have already said, that Professor Drummond, like so many other theological writers, begins at the wrong end. There is absolutely no foundation for his superstructure, except in the assured belief: First, in revelation as taught mankind by an inspired book; Secondly, in the particular interpretation given to it by the Calvinistic creed. Let him begin at the beginning, and lay the foundation stone, solidly and securely, and it will be time to examine whether the edifice he has built upon it is likely to stand, or is destined to be one of the many enthusiastic speculations, which, in his own words, speaking of his own creed, "rise into prominence from time to time, become the watchwords of insignificant parties, and die down ultimately for want of lives to live them." The Humboldt Library of Science Is the only publication of its kind, the only one containing popular scientific works In this series are well represented the writings of And other leaders of thought in our time. The books are Complete and Unabridged Dcuble Numbers, THIRTY Cents. By No. 16. On the Origin of Species. No. 17. Progress: Its Law and Cause. No. 18. Lessons in Electricity, (sixty illus- No. 19. Familiar Essays on Scientific No. 21. The Physical Basis of Life, with No. 22. Seeing and Thinking. By William No. 23. Scientific Sophisms. A review » No. 24. Popular Scientific Lecture, No. 27. The History of Landholding No. 23. Fashion in Deformity, as illustrated in the customs of Barbarous and Civilized Races, (numerou illustrations). By William Henry Flower, F.R.S. No. 29. Facts and Fictions of Zoology, No. 30. The Study of Words. Part I. By No. 31. No. 32. |