PROFLSSOR TYND LL ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 424, 4 February 1875, Page 2

PROFLSSOR TYND LL ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION.

This evening Pi ofessor T\ndall deliveied the first ol a series oi six science, iecturt s to the people at the J/i-ee Trade Hall here. The subject was " Crystalline and Molecular Forces." Profe&sor Tyndall introduced some beautiful experiments Bhowmg the struct^nral power of molecular forces. At the conclusion of one ot the experiments he said : — Perhaps I may have expressed myself too strongly in ca3iing

-«.*,«»•, .•M-wiAXUUiUX , X JLAJUOU lay, although I have seen it, to apeak moderately without feelings of astonishment — (cheers) — depend upon it that the revelations of science are not in the least degree calculated to lessen our feelings of surprise. We are surrounded by^ wonders and mysteries | everywhere. I havguflpmetimeS — not sometimes, but/^Cten-^inihe'sprin^ime watched the advance j df 'the sprouting leaves, and of grass, and of flowers, and observed the general joy of openiug lue in nature, and I have asked myselt this question : 1 Can it be that there is no being or thing in nature that? Jnipwa more about these tilings tnan 1 dpK Do I in my ignorance represent the higheafr know'— ledge of ; these tilings*.^dating in this universe'?" Lattlesand^eiitlemeni the man who puts that quesfuiriy to himself, if he be not a snaliow man, n lie oe a man ca^aoits ox beiiiff penetrated i\y prmwmtff-yiougJity-^v^it-iTCrver axis wei" the question by pioiess>a_, w.iLto oieed 01 atueiom which xja.-» oeen so ngnuy jA"ijj»ji to jj, (Ljui cueeiH, which were j&gain ii_a^-u-A IV3 I ) tfeJrf i will only detain you one moment more.- .Everywhere througlfaut our planeo .ye nonce this tendency oi Urn uiumate p«u-uolas->oi matter "to' run into symmetric toruib. In© very molecular ioiues appear lubpneu witb a debire 'for" union and' givwiij, and| tue question ol questions at the pi «_ sent day i&-t-tUiu iv is one, i tear,, wincu wiJi not ut> &<^lveu in our day, buti|wiii continue to agitate and occupy thinking minds attier we jhave departeu— |-this of quebtioiiS la how iar does jthis v*oiiUious dikpiay ot molecular iorce extend i I>otb it give us movement ot the sap oi, trtes'f 1 it ply with confidence/ asbiuedly it does. Does it give us the "beating of our own breasts, the warmth of our owu bodies, the ciiculationj of ' our blood, and all that theifeupon depends 'I This \B a point on which I ofler no opinion to-night. 1 have brought you to tLe edge ot a battle-held into which 1 don't intend to enter, and from which I have barely escaped, somewhat bespattered and begrimed, but without much loss of head or hope. (Cheeis). It now only remains for me not to enter this battle-field, but to point out to you the position of the contending hosts. You can pass on by almost imperceptible gradations from this wonderful display of iorce that I haWbeen able to make manifest to your eyes lfare to-nrarfc, to the lowest forms of vegetable liie^\LC]opa^B^froin them to other forms higher, and soNjip to the highest. I have spoken of contending hosts, and their position is this — one class of thinkers supposes that all these actions of crystals that you have seen formed before you, that the passage from the crystalline aotion to the lowest forms of vegetable life, and from them to higher forms still foreign to the highest, — I say one class of thinkers regaids this as the growth of a single natural process j they grasp, as it were, this act of life, this development of life, as an, indissolobly connected whole — one great organic growth from the beginning. Others again say that it is not possible to pag|i from the inorganic, as we are pleased to call it — for, re. member it is only human language we can use — to the organic without a distinct creative act, and so with regard to the forms that we observe not only to the fossil world. r J hese forms, it is alleged or considered, also require for their introduction special creative acts. Here then are two distinct positions i and if you look abroad, you will find r^en of equal earstnestness, equal intelligence, winging themselves on two opposite sides in relation^*) Olfes question, which are right and which are wr Jng. \s I submit a question for grave consideration, \^\ not for abuse and hard names. (Cheers.) I^am at^aid that many of the fears that are now entartained on these subjects really have their roots in a scepti cism. It -is not only those who are charged with scepticism that are the real sceptics — (hear, hear, and cheers) — and I confess it is a matter of some grief tome to see able, useful, and courageous men running to and fro upon the earth wringing their hands over the threatened destruction of their ideals. I would exhort them to cast out scepticism, for this frar has its root in scepticism. In the human mind we have substratum ot all ideals, and as surely as string responds to stiing when the proper note is sounded, so surely, when the words of truth and [ noUeiMbS are utteied V,y a Ihing human sou], will the^e wurtshave :i resonant response in other souls, ! and in this faith I abide, and in this way 1 leauthe question. (LGud-cLeeis.) Pioiebbor Ro^oe then expressed ihe thaiiks.of the BGeethg to Pio tfessor Tyndall for his lecture, and the proceedings terminated. — Manchester, Gctobet 28.