MODERN THOUGHT.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1707, 26 March 1913, Page 5

MODERN THOUGHT.

" A GREAT CHANGE." THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. TBy Hector macpjiehson in "Everyman."! Within the last forty years the altitude of leading scieutists towards Nature has undergono a great change. At tho time when Tyndall delivered his famous Belfast address, the mechanical theory of Nature was much in vogue. Science, with its ether, atoms, and molecules, was supposed to have readied the fundamental material from which, by a gradual process of increasing complexity, tho entire Cosmos had been evolved. Upon this conception Spencer based his "First Principles," in whieli he set himself to trace the transformation of matter and energy from gaseous nebulae to the highest forms of Sivilisation, or, as Grant Allen once put .it,. from star to soul. On the sanio lines was Huxley's memorable lecture on Protoplasm. Vigorous protests against tho attempt to interpret Nature by means of mechanical analogies were made by British representatives of the Hegelian philosophy, notably by llutchisou, Stirling, Green, the two Cairds, and Professor Pringle Pattison. From a somewhat different standpoint,- Jlr. Balfour, in his "Defence of Philosophic Doubt," carricd the war into the camp of the enemy, with the result that in the writings of tho present generation of scientists materialism is at a discount.

In his later years Spencer felt the inadequacy of tho mechanical theory when made to do duty as philosophy. I remember how, in conversation with me, he was anxious to emphasise the view that the philosophic preliminary' to "First Principles" had no real organic connection with his theory of Evolution, which rested purely 011 a scientific basis, and for its acceptance was independent of metaphysical interpretations. In the later editions of his "First Principles" and "Principles of Biology," we find Spencer departing from the mechanical and leauln;; decidedly to tho 1 dynamic theory. The substitution of the dynamic for the mechanical theory of the Cosmos was foreshadowed by Spencer when he made energy, not matter, the basal factor in Evolution, thereby paving the way for the spiritual interpretation of Nature. The changed tone from the Mid-Victorian School of Science is reflected in such books as Professor Arthur Thomson's

"The Bible of Nature" and "The Spiritual Interpretation of Nature," by Professor J. Y. Simpson. In this suggestive volume Professor Simpson seeks to press biology into the service of religion. When Spencer described the world of phenomena as the manifestation of an Infinite and Eternal Energy, he was on the road to Theism, luul he not allowed himself to be hampered by the Agnosticism of the Hamiltonian The supreme question is this, Is the Universe essentially unknowable? Can nothing whatever bo predicated of the Infinite and Eternal Energy? In the Universal Scheme of things, can. there be traced no all-pervading purpose? * Is the life of humanity a thing of sound and fury signifying nothing, a chaotic procession in which tragedy and comedy .mingle in be T wildering confusion ? Or does the truth lie with poets and theologians when they tell «s that through the, ages an increasing purpose runs, that death does not end all, that the high aspirations of the soul are not delusive by-products of material energy, but rather prophetic hints of a life that will bloom and blossom otherwise? ' . Professor Simpson, treating l these high themes from the standpoint of Science, is in full agreement with the poet ana theologian. In dealing with inorganic Nature, a plausible case can bo mado out for the mechanical theory. Given matter and "energy, and ilie laws of mechanics, and the attempt may bo made to exnlain phenomena along purely material lines, but the enso is altered when we come to deal with life. There are those who think that some time in tlio dim past life may have been evolved-from non-living matter. Spencer at one time evidently held some such opinion, but his mature thought led him to the view that "life in essence cannot bo conceived in physico-chemical terms." This declaro-

lion finds justification iu tho final chapter of Prowssor Simpson's book, dealing with lift! in which as the outcome ol' Inoogical study lio conics to tho following inclusion: "talc acts as a directive clianiel along which energy can Hon- to accomilish speciiiu work. Life is unceasing irectivc, and selective control of energy; iko some invisible charioteer it stands thwart a complex of moving forces, contraining and controlling tlieni/ Tho materialist theory breaks down ,'hen tho attempt is made to account for Consciousness. We aro long since xiast ho dogmatism of James Mill when ho ot himself to make tho human mind as iluin and intelligible as Meet Street. J. 1. Mill laboured hard, by means of the ssociation-of-ideas formula, to explain Consciousness. Ji'rom tho standpoint of iiaterialisin no intelligible explanation of Consciousness is possible. Neither Mill, ,-itii his association-of-ideas, nor Spencer, ,-ith his theory of mental evolution, gives n answer to tho supreme cjucstion— low cay Consciousness at one and ho smno timt, bo tho product ml the interpreter of experience? ipencer, after struggling hard to internet mind in terms of matter and energy, owes at last to the conclusion that i-hat we know as Consciousness cannot ib identified with waves of molecular notion; "a unit of feeling has nothing n common with a unit of motion." To 'rofessor Simpson's book we must refer he reader for a comprehensive treatnent of Consciousness in its biological spect— treatment which greatly strengthns the plea for a spiritual interpretation f Nature. , What is tho naturo of tlie spiritual irincipal which modem scientific thinkl'S find in the Universe? Is it immovable, as Spencer says? If not, liow s knowledge of it possible? If wc apiroach tho problem from the. point of •iew of materialism, we are apt to think t is solved when wo reduce tho complex ! ihenoinena of Nature to atoms, modules, and ether, but scientific, as ".veil ,s philosophic, method demands that wo nust seek the meaning of Nature in its lighest, not its lowest, manifestations. \ T o amount of study of. the acorn will liable us to understand the oak; leither will knowledge of ■' atoms, mole;ules, and ether help us to understand ifo in its highest development in tho nind of man. In mind we have yie key o the Cosmos. The fact that wo unlerstand Naturo sliow-s that between it nil the mind there is a rational and ntelligiblo connection, that in a word hey are both manifestations of one undamental principle. In the, words' of lie lato Professor - Pfleiderer, "the two lave their root in a divine thinking, in a xeative Keason, which manifests itself jartly in the real world,, and partly in ;ho thinking of our understanding, as it copies that order." And so in the end ve come back to the truth which inspires :he poetry of Goethe, and our own Words,vorth, that Nature and the mind find heir-unity in an all-embracing Spiritual Being, who is the inner soul of all things.

, How , does man stand related, to tlio "Soul of all the Worlds"? In the material universe, according to science, there i» no such tiling as isolated phenomena; all forms of existence are dynamically related. In that; case between the "Soul of all the Worlds" and the mind of man there 1 must he affinity. Here, too, AVordsworth anticipates modern religious and scientific thought when 110 declares that the external world is in correspondence with the mind, which, moreover, responds to the great fundamental facts, of life, truth, goodness, beauty, love, faith; and hope. ■ According to Wordsworth, we are not condemned to worship, as Huxley has it, at the altar of the unknowable; "wo live by Admiration, Hope, and Love, and even as these are well and wisely fixed in dignity of being wo ascend." 11l Goethe's poems, too, we find vivid expression of the conception of the oneness of Nature. What is the science of to-day but, a confirmation of tlio sublime utterance of Goethe, with its piercing insight into the unity of tilings? "As all Nature's thousand changes But one changeless God proclaims, So in Art's wide Kingdom ranges One solo meaning still the same; This is Truth, Eternal Reason, Which from Beauty takes its dress; And serene through timo and season, , Stand for aye in loveliness."