SIR OLIVER LODGE ON LIFE AND DEATH.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 199, 11 August 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

SIR OLIVER LODGE ON LIFE AND DEATH.

The following is an abridged report oi an open lecture on "Life and Death,"' delivered by Sir OUvsr Lodge to the Birmngham University Guild of Undergraduates on the 16th May last. S:r Oliver, who w<*« ccrdiat/y recaved by & crowded audience, said that to-day Death was the one transcendent item of intelligence. There were few families in the land that hadl not one death to dep'ore, and every day anx'ous eyes scanned the newspapers to see wno more was gone, or -who more was wounded, or still worse, who more was

missing. In the course of his address, Sir Olive? said:—

1 bre-n with the meaning of the teim "Life* Used in many .significations, it is uniikelv we can escape ambiguity I use"Si term "Life" as the. vivifying principle which and differentiates it from what * often called dead matter. We must-admit that the term "dead matter" is often misapplS. particular/in to purev inanimate things like Stones; nobody eve? thought tluSe things" were alive, and norgVc is-aIT tbat= » meant. -Dead;' implies absence of the vivifyinc nnneiplc. ~ Igam, when animations ceased the "thing wa properly A "dead" rot hte complete? organism but that "serial portion'which is left behind. Ve know too little about-this vivifying orinciple to be able to make safe genKl!irtions. LifeitseM fealways bevond our ken; we can but know -ts SfNation.' I«fe has to be considered 'sui generis,' nor can it be expiessed in terms of something else. Electricity * & the -same ; pred cament. Peple sometimes say, "hat J electricity " ; Well, it is itself; it » else/ What is matter? Again, it 'is itself, I suppose. These thWcannot be expressed m terms ot something else. 'No more can magnetism; no more can liteLife is not energy any more than it is matter. It directs energy. From ihe sea-shell to the cathedral specific distributions of energy take place--from a firefly to.an .electric arc, irom tnTsong of a cricket to an orator o, life make* use of any automate activity or transferences or.declensions ot eriergv that are going on. By declensions I mean the law of dissipation ot eiv-M-gy-that energy is always trend.ng downhill. Life can make use of :t. Jn Sal it makes use of the ether tremors which reach the earth from the sun It does not work itself, but it causes effective work in that organism that ;t eonteols and vivifies. It ft™^ 1 what direction that work shall be.done. It ?s a plain matter of fact that it does this; we do not understand the method. And thus indirectly life interacts with trie material world One way of putting U is to say that it times and it directs. It runs ara - way engine, let us say, not like a loco, motive, but like a general manager So it enters into battle vrth a walk-ing-stfek, but guns are fired to its order. It may be said to aim and to fire One of its functions is to discriminate between friend and foe. Energy controlled by He is not random energy. The kind of ton Vr personal structure built by it Si'upon the kind of life unit it is training, not upon the pabulum which is sur*ol"ed. , ,- We may sav that in the> process ot evolution 'there have been some great stages like Mendelian mutations Start'"n-r with a uniform ether you may first suppose it organised into specks which we call electrons; then these electrons associate themselves into systems constituting atoms of matter, and irom matter comes the who e inorganic universe Then an astonishing departure comes, the living cell or protoplasmic complex which life can utilise tor manifestation or development, until consciousness becomes possible, with Hiibseouent sublimation of consciousness into-th : cs, philoophy, and religion. Something of tins kind of evolution must have gone on in the mysterious course of t : mc. . Now 1 Come to the meaning ot the term "Death." Whatever life may really be, it is to us an abstraction, for the word is i Generalised term signifying that winch Ts common to animals and plants as well as to num. To understand life, we must studv living things to sec what is common to them all. An organ-sin is alive when it moulds matter to a characteristic form and uilises energy to it? own purposes; a living organism, so tar as alive, preserves its complicated structure from dcteriorat : on ot ueeay. Death is the cessation, of that controlling influence over matter and en. ersv eo that thereafter we see the effects of .uncontrolled when chemical and physical forces supervene. Death is departure, or separation, or severance of the abstract principle irom the concrete residue. The term applies to that which has been living Death may therefore be called dissolution, separation—the separation ot the controlling entity from the phystco ehem-cal organism. It may be spoken of in general and vague terms as the sepauat : on of soul and body—a soul is used in its lowest denomination. \t any rate, death ''s not extinction Neither'the soul nor the body is dead or out of existent*. The body weighs just as much as before; the only properties it loses at the moment or d -nth are potential property's. And all we can assert concerning the vital prnriple is that it no longer animates that pa'-U-u'ar organism. As vitalitv diminishes the bodily detor:oration results in death. It turns , ut on I'nquirv, that old age and death p.-.' not essential to living organisms, Thev represent the wearing out ot cor tn'n rowers sn tliat organism is ham- * P?r«l and cannot achieve results thai tli.. younger mnchine could. Tlie parts which wear out are accret ~.1 f, r supnlemonlarv port : ons aprt'-o-priateto developed earth Vfe. ft doe, !,, , r probahl- that the progress ol discovery will postpone the detenorn lion which we call old ago for a longei time ulian at present. Drnth anpears to be the prorogatum of \)i'r higher organisms, and seem-- to | iav «. been introducedbecause it we« „ .frl I i th" l-'ce. Contnued I-to ..r the individual'-Vvoncln' ) certain stnj* ,vm not oractVallv' useful. So with tinI,;'.'-.. •• ergin : ' : it'- death was introduced. " .. t fi-oeT absolute intrinsic n >cess'ty, , Wo'sniann, "hut on grounds -.1

When we say a body is dead we may be speaking accurately. When we say a person is dead, we are using an ambiguous term. We may bo referring to his (iscarded body and speaking with precision. When the reference is to the person himself, though we are speaking popularly we are not speaking quite accurately. He has gone, he has passed on—or, as Browning says, "He has passed through the body and gone." But he certainly is not dead in the same sense as the body is dead. It is his absence which allows the body to decay. He Irmself need be subject to no decay. Rather, he is emancipated, freed from the burdsn of the flesh, though he lias also lost the terrestrial activity which bodily mechanism conferred upon him. His accustomed machinery for activity has been lost, or rather :t <s out of action, it is dead.

And after dealing with the abuses and superstitions which had resulted from associating the idea of continued personality with the dead body and concentrating attention on graves, worms, and epitaphs, Sir Oliver said :

There is no extinction. The change called death is the entrance to a new stage of existence. Life is continuous; the cond ; tions of soul existence remain precisely before. Circumstances have changed for the individual, but only in the sense that he is now aware of a different group of facts. The change of surroundings .is a subjective one. The universe : s one, not two. Literally, there is no other world, unless you mean other planets. The universe is one; we exist in it continuously all the time, sometimes conscious one way; sometimes conscious another; sometimes aware of a group of facts on one side of the partition, sometimes on the other; but the partition is a subjecive one. We are all one family, all the time as long as the link of affection is not broken. And for thos.e who believe m prayer, to cease from praying for the welfare of their lost friends because of their physical inaccessibility though spiritually they may be more accessible —is to succumb to an evil based upon ecclesiastical errors and to lose an opportunity of happy service.