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HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 


LIBRARY 


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MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 


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TRANSACTIONS 


OF THE 


ALBANY INSTITUTE. 


VOL. VIII. 


A ALBANY : 
J. MUNSELL, 82 STATE STREET. 
1876. 


cat xo ri 


ee pe 
, 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
Officers of the Albany Institute, 1875, - - - - V 
The Water Supply of Constantinople, by Henry A. Homes, 1 
Chief Justice Taney, A Sketch and a Criticism, by Isaac Ed- 
wards, Esq., - - - - : c : 19 
The Alchemy of Happiness, by Mohammed Ghazzali; _trans- 
lated from the Turkish, by H. A. Homes, - - : 38 
Report of the Second Class in the Second Department, Botany, 
by Charles H. Peck, Chairman of the Class, - - 152 
The Water Supply of Albany, by Peter Hogan, - Sm AGT 
A new Form of Rotator, by Prof. L. C. Cooley, - - 179 
Detection of Heat by Convection, by Prof. L. C. Cooley, - 181 


Annual Report of the Class in Philology, Ethnology and An- 
thropology, by Wm. H. Hale, Ph.D., Chairman of the Class, 183 


Supplement to the Calculus of Operations, by John Paterson, 
A.M., SNR hod 2 ot aE TE te ene 191 


Notice of Peter Hasenclever, an early Iron Manufacturer, by 
Henry A. Homes, LL.D., - - - : : - 199 


The Geological Evidence of the Origin of Species by Evolution, 
by Prof. Charles Callaway, - - - 4 4 207 


iv Contents. 


Mr. Otto Meske’s Collection of Lepidoptera, by Mr. J. A. 
Lintner, - . - . . - : - : - 215 


Thoughts on Causality; with Rerences to Phases of Recent 
Science, by Alexander Winchell, LL.D., _ - - - 221 


Portable Boats, by Verplanck Colvin, - - - - - 25 
The Mohawk and Hudson River Railroad, by Joel Munsell, 267 
The Black Spruce, by Charles H. Peck, A.M., — - . - 283 


Errata, - = = : 2 - = a z e 802 


Index, - - - ” 2 ; . - - - 303 


OFFICERS OF THE ALBANY INSTITUTE 
| FOR 1875. 


President, 
JOHN V. L. PRUYN, LL.D. 


Treasurer, 
JOEL MUNSELL. 


Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, 


DANIEL J. PRATT, Pi.D. LEONARD KIP. 


First Department — Physical Science and the Arts. 
President, and ex-officio one of the Vice Presidents of the Institute, 
THOMAS HUN, M.D. 
Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, 
GEORGE T. STEVENS, M.D. WILLIS G. TUCKER, M.D. 


Libravian, 
DANIEL J. PRATT, Pu.D. 


Second Department — Natural! History. 
President, and ex-officio one of the Vice Presidents of the Institute, 
JAMES HALL, LL.D. 
Vice President, 
ARTHUR BOTT. 
Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, 
MERRILL E. GATES. VERPLANCK COLVIN. 
Third Department — History and General Literature. 
President, and ex-officio one of the Vice Presidents of the Institute, 
ISAAC EDWARDS, LL.D. 
Vice President, 
JOSEPH H. RAMSEY. 
Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, 
Wo. H. HALE, Px.D. JOHN W. McNAMARA. 


Curators of the Collections in Natural History and the Arts. 


J. A. LINTNER, CHARLES M. JENKINS, 
ROBERT P. WHITFIELD, PETER HOGAN, 
MAURICE E. VIELE, CHARLES 8. HOYT, M.D., 
PHILANDER DEMING, JAMES MacNAUGHTON, 


CHARLES F. WHEELER. 


Publishing Committee. 
HENRY A. HOMES, LL.D., EDWARD DANFORTH, 
ROBERT MACFARLANE, 


TRANSACTIONS. 


The Water Supply of Constantinople. By Henry A. 
HoMEs. 


[Read before the Albany Institute, June 4, 1872.] 


In eastern countries pure water is ever atheme of popular -~ 
interest. The numerous “dry and thirsty lands where no 
water is,” and the liability to droughts in more favorable 
positions, will always make the question of a supply, of 
water of the utmost importance. The simple habits of the 
people, using no beverage in large quantity but water, 
render the matter of its abundance and quality, a fertile 
topic of conversation. The population that now inhabit 
Asia Minor and European Turkey, emigrating from a more 
arid country, retain as a hereditary gift an anxiety about, 
and a love for water, not because they need it more or use 
it more than other people, but because they appreciate it 
with more intense emotions. The records of the Bible are 
full of references to artificial arrangements for water by 
wells and cisterns, even for rural or nomadic tribes. The 
selection of the sites of the great cities of the old world of 
Asia has been controlled by their easy supply of water, 
such as Broosa, Cairo and Damascus. But when Constan- 
tinople was determined upon as the new capital of the 
Roman empire, the fact of its position as a place from 
whence to command two continents predominated over all 
considerations of an abundance of water. Before giving 
an account of its supplies of water, allow me to recall to 
your minds the prominent features of its geography. 

Trans. viii. } 1: 


’ 


2 ~ The Water Supply of Constantinople. 


Constantinople is built on the rocky heights of seven hills 
on the north shore of the sea of Marmora, and just west. of 
where the Bosphorus strait opens into that sea from the 
Black sea. The distance between the Black sea on the 
north and the Marmora on the south, is not more than 
twenty miles, for a distance of thirty miles from the Bos- 
phorus towards the west. The general height of the table- . 
land in the vicinity of Constantinople is about 150 to 200 
feet, which is intersected with valleys, where are still, or 
have been small streams. | 

Down to the northern shore of the Bosphorus, from the 
west, comes a spur of the Hemus or Balkan range of 
mountains, its water-shed to the north and south being at 
a distance of five or six miles from the Black sea, and 
fourteen miles from the city. Nearly all the artificial ponds 
for the aqueduct water supply of Constantinople are close 
upon the south side of this range of hills, the highest point 
of which may be about 770 feet. This region is commonly 
called the forests of Belgrade, and has acquired a pro- 
minence in English literature on account of the letters 
written from the village of that name by Lady Mary 
Wortley Montague, while residing there in 1717. A vast 
quantity of moisture in the form of snow and rain falls in 
this region during the winter season, which naturally 
collects in the ravines, in two small streams, that finally 
becoming one, empty into the harbor of the city, the Golden 
Horn. 

When, in the year 330, Constantine the Great came to 
Byzantium, and founded New Rome, which the Greeks 
preferred to call Constantinople, in addition to the one hill 
of Byzantium, he enclosed six contiguous hills; and re- 
calling the unsurpassed length and grandeur of the aque- 
ducts of old Rome, and stimulated by an ambition full of 
reminiscences of its magnificence, he commenced imme- 
diately on the same imperial scale with all his expenditures, 


The Water Supply of Constantinople. 3 


to provide water for the crowds that were flocking to this 
queen city. And the lofty aqueduct which was built by 
him more than fifteen hundred years since, is still the chief 
channel for water from Belgrade to the capital. 

The well water of the city was then and still is bitter ; 
the water of the two seas was salt ; and the only river near 
by was far too small to afford an adequate quantity. The 
plan then adopted by his engineers, and the constructions 
then made, have been retained, with expansions by suc- 
cessive kings and sultans, to the present time. 

The course adopted was to make dams across the mouths 
of the upper valleys, arresting the smallest rill in its pro- 
gress. From the ponds thus formed, the water was con- 
ducted in channels of cylindrical tiles to larger reservoirs 
formed by larger dams. Those of the lower reservoirs 
were most solid constructions of marble, eighty and a hun- 
dred feet in height. The banks were left in their natural 
state, the trees growing down to the edges of the lakes. 

The people give the name of dam or bendt to the lake 
formed by the dam; the Persian word bendt being perhaps 
the same in its etymology as our words band, bind and bond. 
The water from one set of bendts is conducted by the 
Crooked aqueduct to the aqueduct of Justinian, and the 
water from another set of dams which are farther to the 
west, is conducted by the Long aqueduct, also to the aque- 
duct of Justinian. ! 

The Crooked aqueduct, so called because it makes a turn 
or elbow in crossing the valley, is nearly 1,000 feet long, 
670 feet on one length and 800 feet on the other. It rests 
upon three tiers of arches, having a breadth at the base of 
twenty-one feet, and at the top of eleven. It isa rustic 
work in fine taste stretching across a valley 600 feet wide. 
There is an arched passage way through the upper tier of 
twenty-one arches by which one can cross from one side of 


4 The Water Supply of Constantinople. 


the valley to the other. The whole height of this aqueduct 
is 110 feet. eds 

The Long aqueduct has two tiers of arches, fifty in the 
upper tier, and forty-eight in the lower one. Its whole 
length is about 2,229 feet, its height 85 feet, and it is twelve 
feet thick at the top. This aqueduct was built by Sulei- 
man the Magnificent in 1550, as a farther supply for the 
city. It is supplied with water from bendts in a different 
direction from those which supply the Crooked aqueduct, 
but the waters of both proceed in stone channels by the 
sides of the hills, winding with their curves till they reach 
and unite in the aqueduct called equally that of Constan- 
tine and of Justinian. All these aqueducts have gilded in- 
scriptions in Turkish which speak of their being built or 
restored by Turkish sultans. 

Theso-called aqueduct of Justinian, believed by historians 
to have been built by Constantine, is about twelve miles 
from the city. It is a very high aqueduct through its 
whole length, being 112 feetinheight. It is 840 feet long, 
and 15 feet thick at the top.. It has four large arches of 
fifty feet span each at the bottom, four similar arches in the 
second tier, and between each arch and at the ends, three 
tiers of smaller arches. A gallery pierces the square 
columns of the first story, giving a passage through its whole 
length for promenaders. After leaving Justinian’s aque- 
duct, the water follows the right bank of the river Cydaris 
on the table land, now crossing a ravine on a single arch, 
and anon piercing through a hill for a hundred or more 
feet by a tunnel, till it reaches the elevated plain just out- 
side of the city gates at Daoud Pasha, where it is discharged 
into a receiving reservoir and thence by pipes of diverse 
construction, stone, tile or lead, to various parts of the city. 

In the early days of Constantinople, an aqueduct, which 
still remains to constitute a conspicuous object as you gaze 
from Galata upon the centre of the city, was built by the 


The Water Supply of Constantinople. e 


Emperor Valens, which was intended to convey the water 
of Justinian’s aqueduct from the fourth to the third hill of 
the city. In the year 370, the Emperor Valens, wishing to 
revenge himself on the city of Chalcedon, just opposite to 
Constantinople, razed its walls, and took the stones to 
build this aqueduct. For some unrecorded reason, it has 
long ceased to be used for the purpose for which it was 
erected. It rises prominent in the city, dark, hoar and 
massive, overgrown with blackberry vines, ivy and over- 
hanging bushes, which are ever kept fresh by the water 
oozing from the stones. A path may be followed on its 
top extending for the length of a mile. Here you find 
that pipes are laid, by means of which water crosses its 
path, the aqueduct being used instead of columns, at va- 
rious distances for the support of pipes, which constitute 
a kind of inverted syphon. Of these syphonsI will speak 
more particularly in connection with the next and only re- 
maining aqueduct. 

This last aqueduct is of purely Turkish origin, and was 
built, in the name of the mother of Mustapha III, the 
Validé Sultan, a little more than one hundred years since. 
It conveys water from the eastern end of the range of hills 
of Belgrade, to Pera, Galata, and the villages on the 
Bosphorus. It commences, as do the others, with dams or 
bendts to form lakes in the valleys. The lower dam of 
this one is of marble, 400 feet long, sixty feet wide at the 
bottom, and 130 feet high. The promenade on this struct- 
ure is protected by a stone balustrade four feet high; the 
marvellous effect of its size is heightened by buildings two 
stories high at each end for the use of royal parties. The 
water soon after leaving the bendt crosses a valley by an 
aqueduct supported on two tiers of arches, eighty feet high _ 
and 400 feetlong. A public road passes underit. Its top — 
is covered with marble slabs; the channel is fifteen inches 
wide and eighteen inches deep; the velocity of the water, 


6 The Water Supply of Constantinople. 


six feet in a second. It has been calculated to be able to 
supply 6,000,000 of gallons in twenty-four hours. 

In the winding course of the canal towards the south, there 
are several breaks or alterations of level, said to have been 
devised for the sake of exposing the water in its fall to con- 
tact with the air. Branches go off from it to villages on 
the Bosphorus; and as it approaches Pera on the hill, its 
water branches off to four or five villages of which it is the 
centre, from a receiving reservoir 200 feet square. 

No one of the engineers of these aqueducts availed him- 
self of the fact that water would safely run in pipes and 
channels having curves of rise and fall. They had not a 
knowledge of the strength of cast iron pipes, and could only 
use lead, or tiles joined with cement, which might yield to 
the pressure of the column of water; and this may have 
been the sufficient reason for their choosing to depend on 
a uniform descending flow of the water. There was an 
experiment, however, which they tried in bringing the 
water of this aqueduct to the city, which has been uniformly 
noticed by travelers, and the reason for which it is difficult 
to understand, nor have Lever known it to be satisfactorily 
explained. When the. water canal reached the edge of a 
. valley which it must necessarily cross, it was allowed to 
descend the hill to the foot of a stone column thirty to 
seventy feet high according to circumstances; then a pipe 
of lead conveyed it to the top of the column into a small 
open basin; from this basin it overflowed into a second 
pipe likewise open at the top, and descending passed under 
ground some hundred feet to a second column of the same 
height, where the same process was repeated; and so on 
till the top of the opposite hill or rise of ground was reached. 

As we know that the water could in no case rise higher 
than the level of the last column from which the water had 
flowed, the question arises what advantage did the en- 
gineers expect to gain by the contrivance? Did they be- 


The Water Supply of Constantinople. 7 


lieve that their pipes would not burst in the circumstances 
in which they had disposed them, but would burst if carried 
continuously down and across the valley? Or did they 
think that they could raise the water higher than they 
otherwise could at the delivery end of the aqueduct ? 

The name they themselves gave to these columns was 
sou-terazou, or water balance, which may be a clue to their 
theory. Andréossi observes respecting them: ‘ It requires 
but little attention to perceive that this system of conducting 
tubes is nothing but a series of syphons open at their upper 
part and communicating with each other. The expense 
of a conduit by water balances is estimated at only one- 
fifth of an aqueduct with arcades.” George Buchanan, 
civil engineer, thinks that Andréossi has misconceived the 
nature of this device. 

These are all the artificial means of bringing water to 
the city from without, except what is reported to be 
brought from certain springs five or six miles to the west, 
from Kavasskieui and Chalcali. But from the little that 
has ever been said regarding them, I am confident that the 
number of persons supplied from thence must be very few. 

At the present time the government is engaged upon a 
new scheme for an additional supply, the deficiency being 
felt in proportion as the population increases. The stream 
which empties into the harbor, is to be dammed up, and 
from the surface of the pond created, the water is to be 
raised by steam power, one hundred feet, and conducted to 
the city by pipes. 

We now leave the aqueducts and come to the distribu- 
tion of the water in the cities and villages. It is distributed 
into covered cisterns, to the public fountains, and to the 
mosques and khans; but not to private houses, with few 
exceptions. 3 

Of cisterns and basins, in the time of the Greek Empire, 
there were nineteen large ones established in the elevated 


8 The Water Supply of Constantinople. 


parts of the city. But owing to the carelessness of the 
Turks, and possibly to different notions of the best method 
of disposing of the water, they may be said to be all of 
them either in ruins or not used for the purpose for which 
they were created. Thelocation of them allisnow known, 
and can be pointed out. Some of them have been unroofed 
(if they were ever covered), and converted into vegetable 
gardens, or filled with houses; in one is a mosque. Into 
others'one can grope, as into the subterranean regions of 
a palace in ruins. The most famous of these cisterns is 
the Bin bir direk, or Thousand and One Columns, which is 
still complete in its outline. You descend from the street, 
to the bottom of it, about fifty feet, and find a few score of 
people, squalid and unhealthy, availing themselves of the 
humidity of the atmosphere, to pursue their profession of 
twisting silk. Its vaulted roof is supported by 224 marble 
columns, symmetrically arranged, about twenty feet apart, 
and seventy feet high; one-third of their height being 
buried in accumulations of earth. Grated openings have 
been made in angles at the top to furnisha dim light. At 
three points near the top may be seen channels worn where 
the water formerly ran in. It has been estimated to cover 
an area of 20,000 square feet, and that it would have con- 
tained 1,238,000 cubic feet of water, and would alone have 
sufficed for the consumption of the city for fifteen days. 
The pillars bear occasionally an inscription in Greek, Huge 
Philoxene: Hail! stranger’s friend! 
Another cistern, the knowledge of which has been gained 
and lost several times since the Mohammedan conquest, is 
called the Yéré Batan Serai, or the sunken or engulfed 
palace, such is its vastness and the mystery with which the 
perhaps fabulous reports of its extent cause it to be re- 
garded. Itis in the neighborhood of the Mosque of St. 
Sophia, and was built by Constantine. It has alsoa vaulted 
roof, and is supported, as far as examined, by 336 granite 


The Water Supply of Constantinople. 9 


columns, each of a single block, with Corinthian capitals, 
and fifteen feet apart; the length of it is marked by rows 
of sixteen columns, and its width by rows of twenty-eight, 
being about 275 feet wide by 475 feet long. The cistern 
usually appears to the traveler, with the columns hidden 
to two-thirds of their height in water, but that portion of 
them which is visible is covered with sculptured ornament- 
ation. The spot from which you gaze over its waters is 
not a regularly constructed opening, nor is it known where 
there is one; this has been made by the failure of some of 
the pillars to sustain the superincumbent mass. The roof 
has failed in several other directions, not visible from the 
place where you lookin. It is not known who or how 
many have the means of obtaining water from this cistern. 
Boats have at times been in use for the curious traveler, 
and an Englishman is said on one occasion to have followed 
a canal from the cistern in a boat for two hours in a right 
line, and returned without reaching a termination. 

One quite perfect but empty cistern is the Budrum. It 
is not as large as some of the others, but is very beautiful 
in itsarchitecture. Its columns are three times the circum- 
ference of those in other cisterns, each of a single block. 
It is also occupied by silk spinners, like that of the Thou- 
sand and One Columns. 

The original solidity, the number, the capacity for hold- 
ing water, and even the architectural beauty of these 
cisterns, render them a most remarkable branch of the 
earliest Constantinople water system. They were designed 
as cisterns of reserve, either to enable the city to stand a 
protracted siege, or to respond to the necessities of the 
population, when in consequence of drought or accident 
the water in the reservoirs outside should be exhausted. 
But the conquerors of the infidels never believed in a com- 
ing time when they should be besieged, and their under- 

Trans. viit. | 2 


‘ 


10 The Water Supply of Constantinople. 


takings in architecture were almost entirely religious or 
commercial. Although they have suffered these cisterns 
to be disused or ruined, they might some of them be con- 
verted to their original purpose. The ground on which the 
houses stand has been gradually raised by the debris of 
four centuries, and in digging for the foundations of 
modern edifices, accidents occasionally reveal crushed 
cisterns of greater or less extent. 

The large use of the public water for public fountains 
appears to be the Turkish substitute for the public cistern. 
The word fountain as employed in Turkey never suggests 
the mere use of water in an ornamental jet d’eau. Itrefers 
to the place where the water carrier or the people may go, 
and by means of a faucet draw water for themselves, im- 
mediately closing the faucet. The structure over and 
around the pipes may be the most costly, of the richest 
stones and covered with gilding, so that one is astonished 
at its elaborateness and magnificence, yet no water is freely 
flowing, except when some one is waiting with a vessel to 
be filled. The fountain is but a public pump. 

Some of the fountains, especially in the Christian quar- 
ters, are as plain as itis possible for stonework to be made. 
In the Mohammedan quarters they are very numerous, 
because there is no pious work in which a rich man so 
readily engages as the construction of a fountain, which 
bears his name inscribed in poetical lines, for the benefit 
of the people of his quarter, although the water is drawn 
from the public aqueducts. 

The water-carriers are under the control of the water 
superintendent, and receive a fixed and moderate price for 
each skin of water which they empty at your house. 
Twenty years since it was not more than a penny, ora 
penny and a half according to the distance for the ten 
gallons of water the skin would hold; the water itself is 
public and free without tax of any kind. In my own house 


The Water Supply of Constantinople. 11 


this water used to be emptied into a large mouthed earthen 
jar, as large as those in which the Forty Thieves hid them- 
selves. They are sometimes made as large as a hogshead. 

The water is frequently discolored after rains with the 
light loam of the fields; but I never knew it to have a dis- 
agreeable odor or taste derived from microscopic plants. 

The whole direction of the bendts or lake reservoirs, 
aqueducts and fountains is under an officer of high rank 
who has three to four hundred Turks and Christians con- 
stantly employed under him. The pipes, as large as three 
inches in diameter, are of lead, cemented at the joints with 
hemp and a glutinous mixture. Some have attempted to 
calculate the cost of the various public water works and 
have estimated it as high as $50,000,000. 

Thus much as regards the public provision of water. 
But the record of their experience has long since taught 
people of all classes and especially the more provident 
Christian races, not to rely on the aqueducts.alone. 

In all the mosques, churches, khans, and in most of the 
private houses, there are both wells and cisterns. The 
water of the wells is obtained without digging to great 
depths, twelve to thirty feet, but it is invariably disagree- 
ably bitter. It is thoughtfully used for gardens, for cleaning 
the house and laundry purposes; but never for drinking or 
cooking. 

In constructing a cistern, it is built of stone or brick, well 
cemented, and of the greatest possible size that the ground 
of the edifice or house willallow. The cisterns receive all 
the water they can possibly coliect from rain during six 
months of the year, and the master of the house carefully 
keeps the key that the water may not be wasted before the 
dry season arrives. The surface of the roofs is large in 
proportion to the number of houses, because the houses 
are usually not more than two stories high. The water of 
the first rains of autumn is carefully turned off from the 


12 The Water Supply of Constantinople. 


cistern for the sake of maintaining its purity. In conse- 
quence of this and the absence of coal smoke the water is 
remarkably pure. 

When the American Robert College was building last 
year at Constantinople, under Dr. Hamlin’s supervision, 
his first care was to have a large cistern dug in its central 
court, the building being more than 100 feet square. He 
both saves the water of the roofs, and obtains the privilege 
in winter of filling it from the aqueducts. It is large 
enough and receives water enough for a three months 
supply and with some to spare, for a family of two hundred 
and fifty persons, through the period when there might not 
have been a drop of rain. A well in addition has been 
dug upon the premises, from which water may always be 
obtained by means of a horse pump. 

In the vegetable gardens, water is drawn from wells 
which are from 50 to 75 feet deep, and 20 feet diameter at 
the bottom, by means of large water wheels with buckets, 
which are turned by a horse, and occasionally one may 
see the old fashioned well-sweep. 

In addition to the supply for houses from the aqueducts, 
there is an arrangement for most of the larger houses in 
the villages on the banks of the Bosphorus, which has not 
been noticed by any travelers. The shores of the Bos- 
phorus rise more or less precipitously to the hight of a 
hundred feet or more, and then the land stretches out in 
a plain. The owners of houses owning lands up the hills 
tunnel the rocky ledges a distance of from fifty to one 
hundred and fifty feet, and construct receiving reservoirs 1n 
the rock on the sides of the hills, and conducting the water 
by means of cylindrical tiles down the hill from one reser- 
voir to another, they obtain usually from the percolation 
of the water through the slaty sandstone, or the flow from 
the hollows in the plains above an abundant supply for the 
year, available on every story of their houses. 


The Water Supply of Constantinople. 13 


There is a fountain on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus 
at Beikos, which is day and night pouring out four inch 
streams of water, from several brass pipes. This water 
filled into barrels is floated down the current in barges for 
the wants of all the shipping and the Imperial fleet. In 
fact, if Constantinople were only attacked by land, the 
supply of water from this and other magnificent and in- 
exhaustible springs on the eastern side of the Bosphorus 
would be abundant for its wants. 

The facts already mentioned give a general view of the 
nature of the arrangements of the water supply for Con- 
stantinople. There are still some additional observations 
worthy to be made, if they have not already suggested 
themselves to your minds. 

1. The catchment basins receive water from only a 
very limited surface. As it can be traced upon the map, 
it extends to a very small number of square miles. 

. 2. The sides of the hills are all covered with forests of 
oak and chestnut, and also far beyond the spots whence 
any water could flow to the reservoirs. This devoting so 
large a space to forest wildness within ten miles of a million 
of inhabitants is no mystery tothe people. It is the result 
of a custom, and a stringent law enforced for 1,500 years, 
and not anew discovery. The edicts of the Greek em- 
perors were very early issued requiring the planting of 
trees and forbidding any person other than the authorities 
to cut down a single tree, and the Turks enforce the same 
law. There may be, there are differences of opinion as to 
the physical laws by which the perpetuation of forests se- 
cures rain and preserves moisture, but there is no difference 
as to the fact that with the devastation of the forest on the 
hill-side, the usual and regular flow of water is greatly di- 
minished. The subject is discussed in more than 200 pages 
in Marsh’s Man and Nature, in which is a compilation 
from many authors on the influence of denudation on the 


14 The Water Supply of Constantinople. 


land as regards moisture, and of the conflicting influences 
which operate. Norecord exists of the destruction of these 
forests on any occasion except once in 1823, when the Janis- 
saries were destroyed by Sultan Mahmoud. It was a ques- 
tion of life or death, and to drive the remmant of them out 
of these forests, they were set on fire; and miles of trees, 
hundreds of years old, were consumed, and the fleeing Janis- 
garies were shot. 

Other edicts prohibited under severe penalties the di- 
verting of any portion of the water by any individual, and 
as is extravagantly reported, requiring a pound of gold for 
each ounce of water stolen. 

8. The quantity of water furnished by these aqueducts 
is very small when compared with that furnished for the 
modern cities of Europe and America. Andréossi, form- 
erly French ambassador in 1814, the most exact of all who 
have written upon the subject, estimated that the quantity 
supplied for each man, woman and child from all the aque- 
ducts was 400,000 cubic feet a day, which is equal to 
3,200,000 gallons; and on the supposition that the city 
proper contains 600,000 inhabitants, is only two-thirds of 
a foot or five gallons a day to each person. We know that 
in many of our cities the draft from the aqueducts ranges 
from forty to ninety gallons for each person. Dr. De Kay’s 
calculation, one of less exactness, was that 15,000,000 
gallons were supplied each day. F 

4, Water is only provided for domestic purposes and 
drinking, and religious ablutions. It is not provided for 
steam engines or breweries. There are no hydrants. The 
fire engines, carried on the shoulders of four men, squirt the 
water poured into them only from the skins of water- 
carriers, 1n case of a fire. They will hold about a barrel. 
The water of the Albany aqueduct is used by 144 steam 
engines, 86 breweries and malt-houses, 313 street hose, and 
for other similar purposes. 


a 


The Water Supply of Constantinople. 15 


5. The Constantinopolitans by no means make as lavisb 
a use of water as is frequently represented by travelers. 
Of course the amount that would be brought to any family 
by a water carrier and paid for, must be very small when 
compared with the quantity used where it runs freely in a 
house from several and many faucets. And they do not 
use nearly as much in baths or in religious ablutions as 
would be supposed. While it is true that in every quarter 
there are public baths which are greatly used, and private 
baths of the same kind are not unfrequent, yet it must be 
remembered thatthey are only hot vapor baths. The inner 
room is occasionally highly heated and the air kept moist 
by the evaporation of water at times thrown upon the hot 
floorand walls, to make the heat agreeable and endurable. 
One room serves for all the customers. After an abundant 
perspiration, the person goes to a marble bowl and is 
washed or washes himself in warm water. But the quan- 
tity of water employed by any person taking a cold or warm 
bath by immersion is probably three or four times as great 
as would be used by a customer in a public bath in Turkey, 
Besides, the baths are not used by the public generally dur- 
ing more than eight hours in a day. 

Inthe case of ablutions before prayer five times a day. 
it is purely ceremonial and very little water serves the pur- 
pose. In the courts of the Grand mosques fifty faucets 
in a row give out when opened a tiny thread of water, and 
the intending worshipper, crouching before it, touches his 
ears, arms and ankles with the fluid, not perhaps consum- 
ing more than half a pint. 

6. A famine of water is not unfrequently experienced in 
Constantinople; a want of water is constantly feared. This 
is in great measure owing to the neglect and disuse of the 
public cisterns which were expressly designed to receive the 
overplus of the water from the winter rains. In the sum- 
mer and autumn months it is not unusual that three, four 


16 The Water Supply of Constantinople. 


or five months pass without any fall of rain that can be col- 
lected. At such times of course water is sold at high prices 
by those who have cisterns or who bring it from the peren- 
nial springs of the Asiatic Bosphorus. 

When water runs low in the reservoirs, nine out of ten 
of the public fountains will be closed by the water super- 
intendent; those left open will be surrounded by the public 
water carriers, who almost monopolize the one faucet from 
which the small stream can be drawn, while a crowd of men 
and women press clamorously for a turn to draw it into 
their own private vessels. 

Atsuch times of drought, notwithstanding the interpreta- 
tions usually given to the doctrines of the Mohammedans, as 
if they were absolute fatalists, an interpretation we have 
given on account chiefly of their former fatuity in the matter 
of submission to the plague, yet when a drought becomes 
serious the monarchs have issued proclamations calling 
upon the faithful to assemble and pray for rain. And they 
have been assembled in consequence by tens of thousands 
on the open plains around the city, including all the child- 
ren of the public schools, and there invoked the God of 
heaven to send rain. 

On the summit of the Giant’s mountain on the east shore 
of the Bosphorus there is a convent of dervishes, where in 
such times of drought a dervish watches the approaching 
answer to prayer, looking across the waters of the Black 
sea to the north, to see the first rising of the cloud big with 
rain. And his report is quickly heralded to the anxious 
citizens. 

In illustration of the remarks with which I commenced, 
I must again allude to the admiration and love of the people 
for pure, sweet water. Ifit is not the sole beverage, still, 
its place is not supplanted by mingling it with spirituous 
liquors, nor by using tea or coffee as a substitute for it. 
Tea is drunk by not one in a thousand, and coffee, from 


* 


The Water Supply of Constantinople. 17 


cups holding much less than a gill, and spirituous liquors, 
by the few that use them, are swallowed without adding any 
water. : 

All the fountains are supplied with cups; at the mosques, 
water may frequently be found ready poured out in long 
rows of cups for each passer-by to take what he needs, 
without pay; this provision being made in consequence of 
the pious legacy of some individual. 

In the business streets,there are shops devoted principally 
to the sale of water, by the keg, or by the glass, at one-tenth 
of a penny for a glass, the water being brought in such 
eases from well-known and favorite springs, from ten or 
fifteen miles distant. 

I once spent a few days at Alem Dagh, or “ mountain 
of the world,” a village twelve miles from the city, near 
the hill of thatname. From the foot of the hill, in different 
ravines, burst out small springs of water, each of great 
purity, but with a slightly differing taste. The citizens 
passing the summer there, in the morning or evening, 
give their orders regarding the water to be brought to them. 
And thus one would say, bring me water from Silver spring, 
another, bring me from Apple spring, and another, from 
Diamond spring, andso on. And when the waters were 
brought, each one could distinguish the taste of his favorite 
water, from that of each of the other springs. 

Pic-nics and summer excursions are all devised primarily 
to visit a fountain or spring in the country, rather than to 
visit a grove ora hill. 

. I will close with only one or two remarks suggested by 
our circumstancesin Albany. Having in mind the various 
schemes for a fuller supply of water proposed by the worthy 
Water Commissioners, the question presents itself, whether 
something might not be accomplished by maintaining the 
water shed of our reservoirs carefully covered with a forest, 

Trans. viii.] 3 


18 ~The Water Supply of Constantinople. 


and thus protect the soil from the influence of the sun 
and winds, and insure the regularity and permanence of the 
flow. These forests at the same time might aid in protect- 
ing the vicinity of the city from the spread of the dunes or 
sands. And, lastly, the restriction of the use of public 
water to the amount specifically paid for, being only a ques- 
tion of time, all are interested to provide for the different uses 
of city life,.such an amount of water as can be obtained 
from wells and cisterns on their own premises. Others 
also might be maintained at the public expense. 


Chief Justice Taney—A Sketch and a Criticism. 
By Isaac Epwarps, Esq. 


[Read before the Albany Institute, January 7, 1873.] 


The recent publication of a memoir of Chief Justice 
Taney, naturally attracts attention. I do not propose a 
review of that work. My purpose is rather to draw atten- 
tion to the true features and characteristics of a distin- 
guished man, in a candid and truth loving spirit. 

There are some characters, in history, apparently con- 
demned by destiny to fight in a lost cause. The stars in 
their courses fight against them. The Emperor Julian, 
nicknamed the apostate (and rechristened the apostle by 
an erudite Lord Chief Justice of England), is a conspicuous 
representative of the ill-starred company; a unique figure 
in history, with genius and virtues that qualify him to 
shine as the ruler of an empire, he stands condemned and 
stained by an epithet of infamy, because he strove to re- 
store the fading glories of pagan Rome, and entered into 
controversy with a new and subtle power, which had the 
promise of the future, and was already growing into the 
empire of mind. He could conquer the open enemies of 
Rome, but he could not extinguish the Christian faith. 
With all his power and enthusiasm for the old pagan faith, 
he could not bring back the worship of Jupiter and Mi- 
nerva. All that battle, therefore, with infinite skill and 
pious fraud and smoking altars, was delivered in a lost 
cause. 

Roger Brooke Taney, was born on the 17th of March, 
1777, in Calvert county, Maryland. He was the third child 
and second son in a family of seven children. His ances- 


20 The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 


tors were among the early emigrants to that state ; Roman 
Catholics seeking refuge from the severe penal laws of 
England. His father, Michael Taney, was educated in the 
Jesuits’ college at St. Omers; he returned home and was 
married to Monica Brooke, daughter of a neighboring 
planter or farmer, a little while before the commencement 
of the American Revolution. The Brookes were an 
English family, of the same faith, and among the early 
emigrants to the Catholic colony of Lord Baltimore; they 
appear to have settled first on the banks of the Patuxent, 
and were a family of a large estate in lands. The mother 
of the future chief justice was a very pious woman, of ex- 
cellent judgment, and great gentleness. Her influence 
upon the character of her son, appears to have been deep 
and lasting; it shows itself long afterwards, in the wish 
expressed by him, that he might at last be buried by her 
side near the little Catholic Church in Frederick city. 

His father owned a good landed estate, and slaves. 
Though not rich, his property was sufficient to enable him 
to live comfortably and educate his children. He loved 
the amusements of the country, and he was fond of fox 
hunting; asport in which the circumstances of the country 
enabled him to indulge with great freedom. 

The son was prepared for college, mainly, by the aid of 
private tutors; he entered Dickinson college at Carlisle, 
in Pennsylvania, in 1792, a little more than fifteen years 
of age, and graduated three years after. He returned 
home but twice during his college course, walking on both 
oceasions from Carlisle to Baltimore, about eighty miles. 
From his own account of his college life, his studies were 
prosecuted with reasonable diligence. Dr. Nesbit, the pre- 
sident of the college, a Scotch Presbyterian, appears to 
have been a favorite with the class; under him our stu- 
dent was trained in Ethics, Logic, Metaphysics and Criti- 
cism. He was a close student, of an active habit, and, as 


The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. at 


he tells us, read much not prescribed in the college course. 
His standing in college may be inferred from the fact that, 
though much younger than many in his class, he was elected 
to the second honor, in a class of about twenty-five. 

The winter after he left college was spent at home, 
chiefly in the amusement of hunting. Inthe spring it was 
necessary for him to enter upon a new course of life. It was 
his father’s plan to give his landed estate to the eldest son, 
and throw the rest of his children upon their own resources; 
thus working out in his own family the good and evil flow- 
ing from the English law of primogeniture. 

In the spring, after an idle winter, he commenced the 
study of law at Annapolis, in the office of Jeremiah 
Townley Chace, then one of the judges of the General 
Court of Maryland, a court of general jurisdiction, which 
held four sessions a year for the trial of causes; two at 
Annapolis with a jury summoned from the western shore, 
and two at Easton, with a jury summoned from the eastern 
shore. Annapolis, being the chief centre of population and 
commerce, was naturally the place where the most im- 
portant litigation was carried on, and where eminent law- 
yers and judges either resided or attended court. It was 
therefore considered the place of all others in the state 
where a man should study law. His mode of study here © 
is noteworthy. It is an admonition worth remembering. 
He says himself: “I associated only with the students, and 
studied closely. I have, for weeks together, read law twelve 
hours in the twenty-four. But I am convinced that this 
was mistaken diligence, and that I should have profited 
more, if I had read law four or five hours, and spent some 
more hours in thinking it over, and considering the prin- 
ciples it established, and the cases to which it might be 
applied.” With an ordinary man the mode of reading 
pursued by him, ends in a dismal swamp, in much vague 
knowledge, without any clear apprehension of principles. 


22 | The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 


On the other hand, following the plan he recommends, and 
studying the law distributively, in its application to subjects 
and transactions as they arise in the ordinary course of life, 
as a system of principles founded in reason and justice and 
public policy, even an ordinary man may get on with some 
success. The question is interesting. How can a man 
grasp and appropriate the reason and spirit of the law? 
A. verbal answer may be easily given: it can be done by 
drawing largely upon the fountains of the law, by deep in- 
sight into the nature and wants of man, as an individual 
and as a member of society; and by an earnest inquisition 
into the intent and purpose of the law. It can be done as 
Kent did it, and Marshall and Mansfield; it requires expe- 
rience, the wisdom of practical knowledge; it is gained 
through all the powers of the mind, preéminently through 
the moral sense. 

Mr. Taney was admitted to practice in the spring of 
1799, after a clerkship of three years. He was now twenty- 
two years of age, ambitious of distinction, full of courage 
and high hopes. He had witnessed the professional efforts 
of many distinguished lawyers, Luther Martin, William 
Pinkney and -several others, who held almost equal rank 
with them, and he aspired to a like eminence. And yet 
we find him, on his own confession, so oppressed with a 
species of morbid sensibility that he could not rise to address 
a jury or an audience with calmness and self possession. 
This quality, this susceptibility to the influences that con- 
verge upon the advocate in his highest efforts at the bar, 
is worthy of note ; he was never able to conquer it. Every 
address, every argument cost him an effort of his firm and 
resolute will. 

He was tall and slender, and his health was infirm from 
his earliest years; in his later years, his frame became 
very much attenuated. | 

Soon after his admission to the bar, he was chosen from 


The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 23 


Calvert county, a member of the House of Delegates, the 
popular branch in the legislature of Maryland. He was 
elected as a federalist, and served with credit in the session 
commencing in November, 1799. He was a candidate for 
re-election the next year, and failed on account of the de- 
cisive change then occurring in the politics of the state. 
This defeat was probably one of the most fortunate events 
in the course of his life. He now betook himself to the 
practice of the law; choosing Frederick city as the field 
of his labors, because it seemed to offer better opportuni- 
ties to a young man than a larger city like Baltimore. 
His choice was a wise one; it gave him a pleasant home 
in a beautiful valley, in the midst of a prosperous commu- 
nity; it gave him opportunities for study and a fair share 
of business; it brought him into close and intimate rela- 
tions with the whole body of the people; and this in turn 
gave to him the strength which every wise-hearted man 
derives from the consciousness that he is working in his 
measure for the common welfare. He was not indifferent 
to his own interests; but diligent and studious. After a 
practice here of about five years, like a sensible man as he 
was, he married him a wife, Anne Phebe Charlton Key, 
a sister of the author of the “Star Spangled Banner,” of 
a family residing in the immediate neighborhood on a 
plantation, owning slaves, without forgetting the nature 
of the African or his interests. Let me say here, lest I 
forget it, that Mr. Taney inherited slaves as property, and 
manumitted them. 'This marriage was a happy one; it was 
cemented by a genuine affection to the end of life, and it 
was embellished through more than forty years by a 
beautiful courtesy, in spite of the fact that the husband 
was a devoted catholic, and the wife a devout protestant. 

Mr. Taney rose steadily in his profession, and was em- 
ployed in many important causes. He acted as counsel 
for Gen. Wilkinson, tried before a military court at Freder- 


4 


24 The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 


ick, in 1811; the General being, at the time, under a cloud 
in consequence of the part he played in connection with 
Aaron Burr. The charges were not sustained, and his 
sword was restored to the accused, rather against the pub- 
lic judgment. Some time after this (in March, 1819), we 
find him engaged in the defence of Martin Gruber, a 
Methodist minister from Pennsylvania, indicted for attempt- 
ing to incite an insurrection among the slaves. In the 
course of his sermon this minister had used these words: 
‘‘ But are there not slaves in our country? Do not sweat 
and blood and tears say there are? The voice of my 
brother’s blood crieth; is it not a reproach to a man to 
hold articles of liberty and independence in one hand and 
a bloody whip in the other, while a negro stands and trem- 
bles before him, with his back cut and bleeding? ” 

‘We Pennsylvanians think it strange, and it seems 
curious to read the prints or newspapers from some states 
and find — For sale, a plantation, a house and lot, horses, cows, 
sheep and hogs; also a number of negroes,— men, women and 
children, some very valuable ones ; also a pew in such and such 
achurch. In this inhuman traffic and cruel trade, the most 
tender ties are torn asunder, the nearest connections 
broken.” 

The counsel’s conduct of the defence was manly and 
noble. He did not attempt to take back the words of his 
client; he could not do that; for they had been bravely 
spoken, in the open light of day, to a large and mixed 
audience; he therefore justified them, before a jury of 
slaveholders. He maintained the right of his client to 
entertain and to express his convictions freely, on all moral 
and religious questions; he went further, he more than 
justified the words charged in the indictment. He spoke 
‘“‘ with abhorrence of those reptiles who live by trading in 
human flesh, and enrich themselves by tearing the hus- 
band from the wife, the infant from the bosom of the 


The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 25 


mother.” ‘“ A hard necessity,” said he, ‘‘ compels us to en- 
dure thé evil of slavery for a time. It was imposed upon 
us by another nation while we were yet in a state of colo- 
nial vassalage. It cannot be easily or suddenly removed, 
yet, while it continues, it is a blot on our national charac- 
ter; and every real lover of freedom confidently hopes 
that it will be effectually, though it must be gradually, 
wiped away, and earnestly looks for the means by which 
this necessary object may be best attained.”. The jury © 
after being out only a few minutes, returned with a verdict 
of not guilty. A report of the trial was at once published, 
with a letter from Mr. Gruber, in which he says: “ I hope 
while I keep my senses I shall consider involuntary, per- 
petual slavery, miserable injustice ; a system of robbery and 
theft.” 

Mr. Taney stood high in the public estimation; he was 
a popular man, trusted and confided in by the people. 
The purity of his life, and the integrity with which he 
discharged his duties as a citizen, and as a lawyer, were 
never called in question. He was regarded as a true rep- 
resentative or leader of opinion ; he was twice put in nomi- 
nation as the candidate of the federal party during his 
residence at Frederick; once for the house of delegates, 
and once for congress. Though defeated on both occa- 
sions, his allegiance to his party remained unchanged; he 
stood by his opinions in the day of adversity like an honest 
man. He remained a federalist until the war of 1812 had 
gone on for some time; and until the leaders of that party 
in the eastern states had, by opposing the war during its 
progress, begun to cripple the government. The attack 
upon Washington and Fort Henry had aroused deep feel- 
ing inthat part of the country. His party began to divide; 
some opposing the war utterly, as in the beginning, and 
some supporting the government in its prosecution. 


Trans. viii. | 4 


26 The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 


Naturally and justly, as we think, he held it to be the duty 
of the citizen to support the country against the enemy, 
without stopping to discuss the wisdom of the acts leading 
to the war. He interpreted his duty correctly in the light 
of public law ; ; for by that law as declared by the highest 
court of our state, in the days of Kent and Spencer, every 
man is a party to the acts of his government. This may 
appear theoretical; it certainly raises a question of morals, 
precisely the same question as that raised by Decatur’s 
famous toast,— My country, right or wrong.” The opposite 
view, my country only when it is right according to my 
theory, leads to anarchy and national humiliation; it 
denies the unity of the Republic, and it repudiates the just 
authority of government. _ 

Just at the close of the war, (in 1816), Mr. Taney was 
elected by common consent a member of the senate of 
Maryland; and served out his term of five years with great 
advantage to the state, and apparently with much satisfac- 
tion to himself. His biographer tells us, he was not fond 
of public life, and did not much value or seek after political 
honors. Without this assurance and judging solely from 
the facts of his life, we should have inferred exactly the con-_ 
trary. Nevertheless, we must admit that these facts are 
consistent with a higher love for his profession, and that 
he rose steadily to the highest position at the bar in his 
native state. He had become a supporter of General 
Jackson for the presidency, and he was in 1827 appointed 
attorney general of Maryland. This appointment was made 
by Gov. Kent, a warm supporter of the administration of 
Mr. Adams; it conferred upon him considerable power and 
influence; and it imposed upon him a heavy burden of 
hard work, work which he peed with ability and un- 
flagging industry. 

When the cabinet of Gen. Jackson broke up, in 1831, 
some two years after his inauguration and under rather 


The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 27 


singular circumstances and influences, Mr. Taney was 
appointed attorney general of the United States, and thus 
came into association and friendly relations with one of 
the most remarkable men ever chosen to the presidency. 
Without going into particulars, it is clear that his appoint- 
ment was suggested and brought about through the in- 
fluence of his friends; and that he afterwards won the 
confidence of Jackson. Martin Van Buren did the same 
thing. And yet these two men, of about equal powers and 
with some points of resemblance, were utterly unlike each 
other in the real substratum of character, and they were 
both utterly unlike the old hero of New Orleans, whose 
inflexible will appears everywhere as the chief element, 
the main strength of his nature. 

Every one knows the steps of Taney’s advancement ; 
how President Jackson waged war on the United States 
bank; how the bank used its means, its peculiar weapons 
of offence without scruple or conscience ; how the president 
resolved on the removal of the United States deposits to 
the state banks; how his secretary of the treasury, William 
J. Duane, refused to make the order to that effect; how 
Jackson removed him at once and appointed Taney in his 
stead ; how the latter immediately made the order, appoint- 
ing certain state banks as the depositories of the public 
funds ; how this act was justified in the president’s message 
to congress, and criticised by that body; how the appoint- 
ment of the new secretary of the treasury was sent to 
the senate for confirmation, and instantly rejected by that 
body; and how Mr. Taney thereupon resigned the office 
and went home to Baltimore, a political martyr, as Mr. 
Van Buren came home from England. 

Early in 1835, a vacancy happening on the bench of the 
United States Supreme Court, the president at once nomi- 
nated Mr. Taney for the place, and the nomination was 
indefinitely postponed.”” The warof parties went on; the 


28 The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 


great Chief Justice MARSHALL died in the summer, and the 
president, in December, nominated Roger B. Taney to fill 
his place. The majority in the senate had passed over to 
the side of the administration, and in March, 1836, the 
nomination was confirmed. The boy that had walked home 
from college, eighty miles in two days, was now chief 
justice of the United States. 

We have had a good many presidents; only a few chief 
justices. Joun Jay, an honored namein the history of New 
York, held the office till 1794, when he was sent minister 
to England. 

JoHN Rutiepes, of South Carolina, was then appointed, 
and held the office one term; his appointment was not 
confirmed. 

O.iveR ELtsworta, of Connecticut, succeeded, and held 
the office till ?99, when he was sent minister to France, as 
Jay had been sent to England. In January, 1801, Joun 
MarsHALL, of Virginia, was nominated to the office, and 
unanimously confirmed. It is worthy of notice that these 
four men were federalists, that they were not men of ex- 
treme opinions, but men of large experience and great 
natural capacity. The fifth in the line was educated in 
the same school of politics. Not until the great rebellion 
had been well nigh conquered, not until 1864, was that 
high office filled by a man, Salmon P. Chase, educated in 
the political faith of Thomas Jefferson. 

For many years Chief Justice Taney administered the 
law, and discharged the duties of his office, with great 
satisfaction to the country. It was thought by some that 
he showed a leaning towards the doctrine of State Rights, 
a tendency to limit the powers of the genera] government 
to the strict letter of the constitution. He certainly showed 
no disposition to enlarge the jurisdiction of that great 
court over which he presided; an excellent virtue this, in 
the judge of a court constituted like that; the more ex- 


The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 29 


cellent because it involves a voluntary restraint upon the 
natural ambition and love of power incident to men and 
courts in all ages, and because a love of power indulged in 
this branch of the government must work harm in the 
action of the others, and so destroy the equilibrium of the 
whole. To appreciate the obligations of his office, ajudge 
of this court must be a statesman, he must comprehend the 
relation in which the states stand to each other, and to the 
Union ; and he must also, in the administration of justice 
between man and man, mingle or interpret the rules of 
law with good sense and sound reason. 

I shall not dwell upon, or even enumerate the import- 
ant public questions that came before the court while 
Judge Taney held aseat upon the bench. They were met 
as they arose, with candor and fairness. 

But there is one novel case, of no sort of public interest, 
tried before him at the circuit in Baltimore, which I must 
mention. It involved a question of copyright. Reed of 
Boston had copy-righted the air to the song known as the 
‘Old Arm Chair ; and as the piece was popular, Carusi 
of Baltimore adapted the words to a similar air, and was 
selling the song in this, its new form; and the action was 
brought by Reed for an infringement of his copyright. 
The question for trial was one of fact; viz. whether the 
defendant’s new air was really a new and original compo- 
sition, or a mere evasive imitation of the old one? It was 
a question relating to the fine art of music, and it could 
only be determined by experts. So witness after witness 
was called on the question, and their testimony, like that 
of their fellows everywhere, was not very harmonious ; 
finally the plaintiff’s counsel proposed that Mr. John Cole, 
a professional singer, should be sworn and required to sing 
the two songs to the jury, so that they might judge whether 
the two airs were similar or not. After a long debate the 


30 The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 


motion was agreed to by the court, and Mr. Cole under 
oath proceeded to sing to the judge and jury: 


“J love it, I love it, and who shall dare 
To chide me for loving that old arm chair !” 


After hearing both songs, the jury, solid men of Balti- 
more, were unable to distinguish between the two, and 
therefore gave their verdict for the plaintiff. We see no 
fault to find with the ruling; the plaintiff was only al- 
lowed to read the two compositions to the jury, and surely 
it was their business to decide on this question of fact. 

The chief justice possessed many elements of greatness ; 
a mind of singular grasp and subtle discrimination.. He 
had been distinguished at the bar for his rare capacity as 
a special pleader. He was equally distinguished on the 
bench for his readiness and facility, in dealing with ques- 
tions of form and practice, presented in cases coming up 
from so many different states. His intelligence and intel- 
lectual activity were of a high order; and he was a wise 
man, after his type of character. He was a good presiding 
officer; his opinions were well considered, and written in 
the clear judicial style, becoming a high court of justice. 
He was a man of pure life, the desires and pursuits of his 
raind were not corrupted by that reasonable alloy of ambi- 
tion which entered into the pure gold of his character. 
Through all the earlier years of his administration, he 
bore himself calmly in his high office, with dignity and 
discretion. He had gained the confidence of the country ; 
he was respected and trusted as a capable and worthy ad- 
ministrator of justice and law. 

Without much personal or affirmative power, he pos- | 
sessed the influence accruing to him from his high position, 
and an immense power as a check on the action of con- 
gress. It may be that, as he advanced in years, his pride 
was flattered by the unassailable position he held, and by 


The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 31 


the exercise of such high prerogatives. One does not like 
to assert an ungracious thing; but we must all admit that, 
had this been the truth, it would have been only natural. 

It was his fortune to come upon a great duty, in the 
ordinary course of judicial administration. Oddly enough 
it came in the form of a civil suit for an assault. The 
action was brought in the United States Circuit Court by 
Dred Scott, a resident of Missouri, against John F. A. 
Sandford of New York, for the act of arresting and im- 
prisoning the plaintiff and his wife, and their two children, 
Eliza and Lizzie, one of them seven, and the other fourteen 
years of age. The defendant interposed a plea to the 
jurisdiction of the court, on the ground that Scott was: 
not a citizen of Missouri, but a negro whose ancestors 
were brought into the country and sold as slaves. Scott 
admitted the facts alleged against his ancestors, by a de- 
murrer; and the court held that these facts were not suffi- 
cient to call fora dismissal of the suit. The defendant then 
pleaded to the merits of the action, and averred that Scott 
and his family were his slaves, his lawful property. 

The answer of Scott presented his claim to freedom on 
these grounds; that in 1834, he was the slave of Dr. Emer- 
son a surgeon in the army, and was taken by him first to 
the military post of Rock Island in Illinois, a free state, and 
from there to-Fort Snelling on the west bank of the 
Mississippi river, in the territory of upper Louisiana, 
north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes of north 
latitude; where he remained two years, and where he was 
married to his wife who had also been taken there as the 
slave of a major inthe army; their oldest child being born 
on the river, north of Missouri, and the younger after they 
were brought back into the state of Missouri. On these 
facts a verdict was rendered affirming the defendant’s right 
to Scott and family, as his slaves. 

This was the celebrated case that came up before the 


r 


32 The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taneij. 


Supreme Court at Washington for review. A cause more 
important in its bearings or more simple in form, never 
came up for decision before this august tribunal. The 
real parties plaintiff, were four million strong, and the 
real defendants numbered about sixty thousand. On the 
side of the plaintiffs, was the silent divine sense of justice ; 
on that of the defendants there was law, capable of being 
wielded either in favor of freedom or slavery. 

The indictment and trial of the seven bishops played 
an important part in English history; the recoil against 
the government, created by the verdict of the jury, de- 
veloped an opinion, born of mingled reason and passion, 
which at length drove James the Second from the throne. 
It was a government prosecution, and it brought in a new 
line of kings. 

The decision in the Dred Scott case was foreshadowed 
in the inaugural message of President Buchanan; it was 
hailed by him as the voice of authority that was to settle 
forever the vexed question of slavery or freedom in the 
territories of the Union. 

Let us recall the situation: ever since the Missouri com- 
promise of 1820, for more than a generation, slavery had 
been prohibited in the territories of the Union, by a law of 
congress, north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes. 
By a mad act of folly and ambition, this statute, whose 
validity was not previously questioned, was repealed in 1854, 
when the territories of Kansas and Nebraska were or- 
ganized. ‘The repeal reopened a great debate, and brought 
in a fierce conflict; a debate on the merits and rights of 
slavery throughout the union, and a conflict on the terri- 
tory of Kansas to secure the organization of the new state. 
This controversy was going on with great heat and passion 
when this remarkable cause was heard, and when Mr. 
Buchanan was sworn into office. 

It was not a fictitious case, the facts were real; but the 


; 
’ 
¥ 


The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 33 


question as to the jurisdiction of the United States Circuit 
Court, was argued in St Louis in April, 1854, while the 
question of the repeal of the Missouri compromise was 
pending before congress. 

On review the cause was twice argued. It was capable of 
being decided on the ground that the courts of the United 
States had nojurisdiction; or on the ground that the laws of 
Missouri, from which state the appeal came, were control- 
ling and conclusive. But because one of the parties plaint- 
iff was born above the line of 36° 30’ it seemed to give the 
opportunity to discuss and decide on the validity of the 
act of congress prohibiting slavery north of that line, and 
consequently upon the right to hold slaves in all the terri- 
tories of the union. 

The court had no sympathy with the enslaved people. 
A majority of the judges came forward, beyond the issues 
presented, to uphold and maintain the institution in its 
utmost rigor. They decided first on the question of juris- 
diction, that a negro man could not be a citizen, and there- 
fore could not bring a suitin the United States Circuit Court 
against the citizen of another state; that he could not be 
treated as a citizen because he was regarded by the framers 
of the constitution as having no rights, and no lot or part 
in the body of the people; not even so good a status as a 
private corporation, a mere creature of the law has; and 
second, that while congress may organize and make all 
needful rules and laws for the government of a territory, 
it could not exclude slavery or legally establish the famous 
Missouri compromise of 1820; and that the people of a 
territory were equally without power to act upon the sub- 
ject, because the constitution carried or recognized the in- 
stitution as already existing in all the territories. From 
such a skillful combination of negative conclusions, with 
one daring affirmative, the inference was easy that Scott 

Trans, viit.] 4) 


34 The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 


could not acquire his freedom by being taken into the 
territory north of the historic line of 36° 30’ and that his 
oldest child born above that line was nevertheless a slave." 

We do not question the personal integrity or good faith 
of these judges. Without being aware of it, they were 
being carried forward on a mighty current of opinion; in 
truth, as in theory, they delivered an impersonal opinion’; 
they declared the law as they had been trained and educated 
toapprehendit. Thedissenting judges did thesame thing ; 
coming to an exactly opposite conclusion. Perhaps no 
decision ever pronounced in America, shows more clearly 
the animus or what Montesqieu calls the spirit of the law ; 
meaning thereby the natural drift and purpose of the law 
creating mind in a state or nation. 

It is now only sixteen years since the decision was pro- 
nounced ; and it stands there in the nineteenth volume of 
Howard’s Reports as obsolete and dead as the slave code 
of Rome; the record of it has been blotted out with the 
blood of a civil war, and on its page has been written the 
new law of equal rights for all men. 

There are two considerations bearing upon the decision 
which perhaps ought not to be overlooked ; one relates to 


1 Chief Justice Taney, Md., Leading Opinion. 
Wayne, Ga., agreeing with him. 


Greer, Pa., iy 4 and with Nelson ; prima facie jurisdiction. 

Daniels, Va., . “ 

Campbell, Ala., “ :' (does not touch question of jurisdiction). 

Catron, Tenn., “ on other grounds; asserts power of con- 
gress on other subjects. 

Nelson, N. Y., “ 33 Hardly touches the power of congress, goes 
upon the laws of Mo., and question of 
jurisdiction. 


McLean, O., Dissents totally. 
Curtis, Mass., ad 

Conclusion : “ that it appears by the record that the plaintiff is not a citi- 
zen of Missouri, and that the Circuit Court ofthe United States for that reason 
had no jurisdiction in the cause and could give no judgment init. Judg- 
ment for that reason reversed, witha direction that the suit be dismissed 
for want of jurisdiction.” 


The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 35 


citizenship, and the other to the merits and defects of a 
written, and therefore inflexible constitution. From the 
earliest times the term citizen has carried with it the notion 
of privilege. During its early history, the citizens of home 
constituted a real aristocracy. Following out the law of 
her development, thé rights of citizenship were at length 
extended to the body of the people, to other communities 
and even to distant towns and cities. We find the word 
conveying a similar sense in modern times. It flashes out in 
‘the first French revolution, a name of such potential charm 
that it ends, after a while, in a citizen king. Noone stops to 
inquire precisely what rights belong to him as a citizen. 
We all assume without debate, we have been educated up 
to this point, that whoever has the right to vote and own 
the soil he cultivates, is a citizen; and yet we all know 
that a woman and a child is compassed about with the 
rights of citizenship. 

The consequences flowing from a written constitution 
meet us every day. They assume the features of sharply 
defined statute law; and so we often find a great question 
of public and state policy hinge upon the interpretation of 
a single word or phrase. The court is under oath, sworn 
to uphold the constitution ; it is not free to seek out the 
path of reason ; it must ‘go by the written law. Under an 
unwritten constitution, like that of England, the courts, 
and every branch of the government, have much greater 
freedom; reason, guided by precedent, playsa more import- 
ant role; the constitution is not amended by a positive act, 
itis developed, like the common law, by the inspiring reason 
which gives form and character to every growing people. 

The memoir of the chief justice is written, as its author 
tells us, to vindicate the chief against the unjust aspersions, 
hatred and calumny, which were provoked by this celebrated 
decision. It reproduces the opinion, and aims at a reversal 
of the public judgment; unwisely, as we think, it attempts 


36 The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 


to justify the uncalled for decision of a bare majority of the 
court, denying to congress the right of affirmative legisla- 
tion over a territory, on one subject only. The fame of 
the chief justice is secure, if it be left to the main current 
and tenor of his life: it is not so secure when it is made 
to hinge on the correctness of ajudgment hardly supported 
by the strict letter of the law, with an adverse action upon 
a disfranchised race. 

The chief justice had presided over the court now more 
than twenty years, and he was in the eightieth year of his 
age when the opinion was pronounced. It is scarcely fair 
to his memory, to seize upon the decision as a just crite- 
rion of his merits as a magistrate. It may show, it certainly 
does show, great intellectual vigor. 

It is claimed in his defence, and the remark is often 
made, that he did not express it as his personal opinion that 
‘a negro has no rights which a white man is bound to re- 
spect.” And this claim is literally true; he attributes this 
opinion to the people and age in which the constitution 
was framed: the apology is nevertheless one of verbal cri- 
ticism, rather than one of substance; because, as we under- 
stand the subject, it is the opinion then pronounced by the 
court which was relied upon to infuse that opinion into 
the constitution. A plain man cannot find the sentiment 
in the words of that great document; and if he deal 
candidly with the history of those times, he will be slow, 
he will hesitate to impute to its framers an opinion so 
iniquitous and so at war with historic truth. 

We have here a peculiar phase of character. This emi- 
nent man refused to own a slave, and yet gave the weight 
of his office and juridical skill to strengthen an evil heritage. 
Full of clemency towards the individual, he almost created 
a common law to uphold the system. 

Let us however deal justly with hismemory. Heshowed 
no bias of mind in his ordinary duties as a judge. He 


ee dl 


The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 37 


lived to the great age of eighty-seven, discharging the 
duties of his office with all fidelity. He lived in charity 
and good will towards men, and died at last without a stain 
upon his personal character. He saw the light before the 
battle of Saratoga had been fought, and, well stricken in 
years, he heard also the thunders of Gettysburgh. 


The Alchemy of Happiness. By Mohammed Ghazzali. 
Translated from the Turkish. By H. A. Homes. 


The remarkable treatise, which I introduce to your 
notice, is a translation from one of the numerous works of 
the Arabian Philosopher, Abou Hamid Mohammed ben 
Mohammed al Ghazzali, who flourished in the eleventh 
century. He was born about the year A. D. 1056, or 450 
of the Mohammedan era, at Tous in Khorasan, and he died 
in the prime of life in his native country about the year 
1011, or 505 A. H. Although educated by Mohammedan 
parents, he avows that during a considerable period of his 
life he was a prey to doubts about the truth, and that at 
times he was an absolute sceptic. While yet compara- 
tively young, his learning and genius recommended him 
to the renowned sovereign Nizam ul Mulk, who gave him 
a professorship in the college which he had founded at 
Bagdad. His speculative mind still harassing him with 
doubts, in his enthusiasm to arrive at a solid foundation 
for knowledge, he resigned his position, visited Mecca and 
Jerusalem, and finally returned to Khorasan, where he 
led a life of both monastic study and devotion, and conse- 
crated his pen to writing the results of his meditations. 

Mohammedan scholars of the present day still hold him in 
such high respect, that his name is never mentioned by 
them without some such distinctive epithet, as the ‘‘Scien- 
tific Imaum,” or ‘‘ Chief witness for Islamism.”’ His rank 
in the eastern world, as a philosopher and a theologian, had 
naturally given his name some distinction in our histories 
of philosophy, and it is enumerated in connection with 
those of Averroes (Abu Roshd) and Avicenna (Abu Sina) 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 39 


as illustrating the intellectual life and the philosophical 
schools of the Mohammedans. Still his writings were less 
known than either of the two others. His principal work, 
The Destruction of the Philosophers, called forth in reply 
one of the two most important works of Averroes entitled 
The Destruction of the Destruction. Averroes, in his com- 
mentary upon Aristotle, extracts from Ghazzali copi- 
ously for the purpose of refuting bis views. A short treatise 
of his had been published at Cologne, in 1506, and Pocock 
had given in Latin his interpretation of the two funda- 
mental articles of the Mohammedan creed. Von Hammer 
printed in 1838, at Vienna, a translation of a moral essay, 
Hyuha el Weled, as a new year’s token for youth. 

It has been reserved to our own times to obtain a more 
intimate acquaintance with Ghazzali, and this chiefly by 
means of a translation by M. Pallia, into French, of his Con- 
fessions, wherein he announces very clearly his philosophic- 
al views; and from an essay on his writings by M. Smolders. 
In consequence, Mr. Lewes, who in his first edition of the 
Biographical History of Philosophy, found no place for Ghaz- 
zali, is induced in his last edition, from the evidenee which 
that treatise contains that he was one of the controlling 
minds of his age, to devote an entire section to an exhibi- 
tion of his opinions in the same series with Abelard and 
Bruno, and to make him the typical figure to represent 
Arabian philosophy. For a full account of Ghazzali’s 
school of philosophy, we refer to his history and to the two 
essays, just mentioned. We would observe, very briefly how- 
ever, that like most of the learned Mohammedans of his age, 
he was astudent of Aristotle. While they regarded all 
the Greek philosophers as infidels, they availed themselves 
of their logic and their principles of philosophy to maintain, 
as far possible, the dogmas of the Koran. Ghazzali’s mind 
possessed however Platonizing tendencies, and he affi- 
- liated himself to the Soofies or Mystics in his later years. 


\ 


40 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


He was in antagonism with men who to him appeared, like 
Avicenna, to exalt reason above the Koran, yet he himself 
went to the extreme limits of reasoning in his endeavors 
to find an intelligible basis for the doctrines of the Koran, 
and a philosophical basis for a holy rule of life. His cha- 
racter, and moral and intellectual rank are vividly depicted 
in the following extract from the writings of Tholuck, a 
prominent leader of the modern Evangelical school of Ger- 
many. 

“‘ Ghazzali,”’ says Tholuck, “if ever any man have de- 
served the name, was truly a divine, and he may justly be 
placed on a level with Origen, so remarkable was he for 
learning and ingenuity, and gifted with such a rare faculty 
for the skillful and worthy exposition of doctrine. All 
that is good, noble and sublime, which his great soul had 
compassed, he bestowed upon Mohammedanism ; and he 
adorned the doctrines of the Koran with so much piety 
and learning, that,in the form given them by him, they 
seem in my opinion worthy the assent of Christians. What- 
soever was most exgellent in the philosophy of Aristotle 
or in the Soofi mysticism, he discreetly adapted to the 
Mohammedan theology. From every school, he sought the 
means of shedding light and honor upon religion; while 
his sincere piety and lofty conscientiousness imparted to 
all his writings a sacred majesty. He was the first of 
Mohammedan divines.” (Bibliotheca Sacra, v1, 238). 

Sale, in the preliminary discourse to his translation of 
the Koran, shows that he had discovered the peculiar traits 
of Ghazzali’s mind; for wherever he gives an explanation 
of the Mussulman creed, peculiarly consonant to universal 


1 PauLia, Mémoire sur le manuscrit Arabe de la Bibliothéque Royale de © 
Paris, No. 884, contenant un traité philosophique d’ Algazali. Mém. de I’ 
Institut de France. Tome 1, Savants étrangers. Paris, 1841, 4°. 

SMOLDERS, Essai sur les écoles philosophiques chez les Arabes et notam- 
ment sur la doctrine d’ al Ghazzali. Paris, 1842. 8°. 


\ 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 41 


reason and opposed to superstition, it will be found that 
he quotes from him.’ | 

This treatise on the Alehemy of Happiness, or Kimiai 
Saadet, seems well adapted to extend our knowledge of 
the writings of Ghazzali and of the opinions current then 
and now in the Oriental world. Although it throws no 
light on any questions of geography, philology or political 
history, objects most frequently in view in translations 
from the Oriental languages, yet a book which exhibits 
with such plainness the opinions of so large a portion of 
the human race as the Mohammedans, on questions of 
philosophy, practical morality and religion, will always be 
as interesting to the general reader and to a numerous 
class of students, as the facts that may be elicited to com- 
plete a series of kings in a dynasty or to establish the site 
of an ancient city can be to the historian or the geographer. 
I translate it from an edition published in Turkish in 1845 
(A. H., 1260), at the imperial printing press in Constan- 
tinople. As nobooksare allowed to be printed there which 
have not passed under the eyes of the censor, the doctrines 
presented in. the book indicate, not only the opinions of 
eight hundred years since, but also what views are re- 
_ garded as orthodox, or tolerated among the orthodox at 
the present day. It has been printed also in Persian at 
Calcutta. 

In form, the book contains a treatise on practical piety, 
but as is the case with a large proportion of Mohammedan 
works, the author, whatever may be his subject, finds a 
place for observations reaching far wide of his apparent 
aim, so our author is led to make many observations which 
develop his notions in anatomy, physiology, natural phi- 
losophy and natural religion. The partisans of all sorts of 
opinions will be interested in finding that a Mohammedan 


*Sale’s Koran, vol. 1, p. 326, and note. 
Trans. viit.] 6 


42 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


author writing so long since in the centre of Asia, had oc- 
casion to approve or condemn so many truths, speculations 
or fancies which are now current among us with the re- 
putation of novelty. Many of the same paradoxes and 
problems that startle or fascinate in the nineteenth century 
are here discussed. He came in contact, among his contem- 
poraries, with persons who made the same general objections ~ 
to natural and revealed religion, as understood by Moham- 
medans, as are in our days made to Christianity, or who 
perverted and abused the religion which they professed for 
their own ends, in the same manner as Christianity is 
abused among us. And he engaged with earnestness now 
truthfully, and now erroneously, in refuting these men. 
His usual stand-point in discussion is equally removed 
from the most extravagant mysticism, and literal and for- 
mal orthodoxy. He attempts a dignified blending of rea- 
son and faith, requiring of his fellow men unfeigned piety 
in the temper and tone of an evangelical Christian. -He 
reminds his readers, in these discourses, that they are not 
Mussulmans if they are satisfied with merely a nominal 
faith, and treats with scorn those who are spiritualists only 
in language and dress. 

It is too narrow a view to-adopt, in regard to a man of 
the sublime character of Ghazzali, that he obtained his 
ideas from any one school of thinkers, or that being 
in fellowship with the Soofies, that he was merely a . 
Soofi. He was living in the centre of Aryan peoples and 
religions. Hemay have had his doctrine of the future life 
shaped by Zoroaster, and have been influenced by the mis- 
sionaries of the Buddhists. 

The practical religion taught in these homilies will give 
a favorable opinion of the state of mind of the more intelli- 
geut Mussulmans. They contain not the Mohammedanism 
of the creed or the catechism, but of the closet and the 
pulpit. The tenor of the book. establishes the truth of 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 43 


Ibn Khallikan’s remark in his Biographical Dictionary that 
“ Ghazzali’s ruling passion was making public exhorta- 
tions.” 

While perusing these pages, and noticing how much of 
the language of Ghazzali corresponds in its representations 
of God, of a holy life and of eternity, with the solemn in- 
structions to which we have listened from our infancy, we 
may think of the magicians who imitated the miracles of 
Moses with their enchantments. Yet assuredly a vivid 
and respectful interest must be awakened in our minds for 
the races and nations, whose ideas of their relations as im- 
mortal beings are so serious and earnest. 

The translation I have endeavored to make a close trans- 
cript of the meaning of the Turkish; having especially 
sought to find appropriate equivalents for native idioms. 
I have designated the chapter and verse of nearly every 
passage quoted from the Koran. The omissions in the 
text, which are made apparent by signs, are limited to 
digressions of the author, to repetitions and to some of the 
illustrations; so that there is no interruption of the con- 
tinuity of thought in the themes discussed. The Turkish 
edition itself was but a portion of the original work. Two 
or three notes are added, either explanatory of the text or 
illustrative of the author, from Oriental sources. 


The Alchemy of Happiness : by Mohammed Al Ghazzali. 


CHAPTER I.— ON KNOWLEDGE OF THE SOUL, AND HOW KNOWLEDGE OF 
THE SOUL IS THE KEY TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 

O seeker after the divine mysteries! know thou that 
the door to the knowledge of God will be opened to a man 
first of all, when he knows his own soul, and understands 
the truth about his own spirit, according as it has been re- 
vealed, ‘‘he who knows himself knows his Lordalso.” And 
God proclaims in his holy book: ‘ We will display our 
miracles in the different countries of the world, till it shall 
be demonstrated to them that the Koran is the truth,’’? 
that is, let us show men in the visible world, and in their 
own souls, the wonderfulness of our works and the perfec- 
tion of our power, that they may learn to know that the 
Lord God is Almighty and true, and that everything else 
besides is vanity. 

O seeker of the mysteries! since there is nothing nearer 
to thee than thyself, and that still with thy soul alone, thou 
canst not discriminate anything, and art impotent to find 
out and know thyself, in what way canst thou become ac- 
quainted with anything else, and with that which is even 
separate from thyself? And how should’st thou be able to 
comprehend God, who in his nature cannot be compre- 
hended, and of whose absolute essence it is not possible 
to give thee any explanation. If thou should’st say, “I 
perfectly know myself,” we reply, that we have no doubt 
that what you are acquainted with is your own hand and 
foot, with your eye and mouth, and animals even have this 
kind of knowledge. You know also that if you are hun- 


1§ura 41 : 53. 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 45 


gry, your stomach craves food, and that if you are cold, 
you desire clothing; but other animals also understand 
these things. 

However, that knowledge of the soul which leads to the 
knowledge of God, is not of this kind. The knowledge 
which you need to possess is, to know what you are; how 
you are created; whence you are; for what you are here; 
whither you are going; in what your happiness consists, 
and what you must do to secure it; in what your misery 
consists, and what you must do to avoid it. And further, 
your internal qualities are distributed into animal, feroci- 
ous, demoniacal and angelic qualities. You need to know, 
therefore, what qualities predominate in your character, 
and in the predominance of which your true happiness 
consists. If your qualities are chiefly animal, the essence 
of which is to eat and drink, you will day and night seek 
after these things. If your qualities are of the ferocious 
kind, the essence of which is to tear and rend, to injure 
and destroy, you will act accordingly. If you are endowed 
chiefly with the qualities of devils, which consist in evil 
machinations, deceit and delusion, then you should know 
and be aware of it, that you may turn towards the path of 
perfection. And if you possess angelic qualities, whose 
nature it is to worship God in sincerity and continually to 
await the vision of His beauty, then like them you should un- 
ceasingly, resting neither day or night, be zealous and strive 
that you may become worthy of the vision ofthe Lord. For 
know, O student of the mysteries! that man was created 
to stand at the door of service in frailty and weakness, 
and wait for the opening of the door of spiritual union, and 
for the vision of beauty, as God declares in his holy word: 
*‘T have not created the genii and men except that they 
should worship me.’ 


*S. 51: 56. 


46 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


These qualities, whether animal, or ferocious or demo- 
niacal have been bestowed upon man, that by their means 
the body might be adapted to be a vehicle for the spirit, and 
that the spirit, by means of the body which is its vehicle, 
while herein this temporary home of earth, might seek after 
the knowledgeand love of God, as the huntsman would seek 
to make the pheenix and the griffin his prey. Then, when it 
leaves this strange land for the region of spiritual friend- 
ship, it shall be worthy to partake of the mystery contained 
in the invitation, ‘‘enter in peace, O believers!”? and 
which is in the homage, ‘ Peace is the word they shall 
hear from the merciful Lord.’” People in general suppose 
that this refers to Paradise. Woe to him who has no por- 
tion in this knowledge! Thereis great danger in his path. 
The way of faith is veiled from his eyes. 

If you wish, O seeker of the way! to know your own 
soul, know that the blessed and glorious God created you 
of two things: the one is avisible body, and the otheris a 
something internal, that is called spirit and heart, which 
can only be perceived by the mind. But when we speak 
of heart, we do not mean the piece of flesh which is in the 
left side of the breast of a man, for that is found in a dead 
body and in animals:-it may be seen with the eyes, and 
belongs to the visible world. That heart, which is em- 
phatically called spirit, does not belong to this world, and 
although it has come to this world, it has only come to leave 
it. Itis the sovereign of the body, which is its vehicle, 
and all the external and internal organs of the body are its 
subjects. Its especial attribute is to know God and to 
enjoy the vision of the beauty of the Lord God. The in- 
vitation to salvation is addressed to the spirit. The com- 
mandment is also addressed to it, for it is capable of 
happiness or misery. The knowledge of what it is in 


*§. 50: 33. 78. 36: 58. 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 47 


reality, is the key to the knowledge of God. Beloved, 
strive to obtain this knowledge, for there is no more pre- 
cious jewel. In its origin it comes from God, and again 
returns to him. It has come hither but for a time for in- 
tercourse and action. 

Be sure, O seeker after knowledge! that it is impossible 
to obtain a knowledge of the heart, until you know its 
essence and its true nature, its faculties, and its relations 
with its faculties,— nor until you know its attributes, and 
how through them the knowledge of God is obtained, and 
what happiness is, and how happiness is to be secured. 
Know then, that the existence of the spirit is evident and 
is not involved in doubt. Still, it is not body, which is 
found in corpses and in animals generally. If a person 
with his eyes wide open should look upon the world and 
upon his own body, and then shut his eyes, everything 
would be veiled from his view, so that he could not see 
even his own body. But the existence of his spirit would 
not be at the same time shut out from his view. Again, 
at death, the body turns to earth, but the spirit undergoes 
no corruption. Still it is not permitted to us to know 
what the spirit is in its real nature and in its essence, as God 
says in his Holy Word: “They will ask you about the 
spirit. Answer, the spirit is a creation by decree of the 
Lord.”* The spirit belongs to the world of decrees. 

All existence is of two kinds, one is of the world of de- 
crees, and the other is of the world of creation. ‘To him 
belongs creation and decree.” ” The matters which belong 
to the world of decrees are those which have not superficies, 
quantity, or form: to the world of creation belong those 
which do have both quantity and form. The creation 
spoken of in the verse is in the sense of foreordination and 
not of actual formation. Hence those who say that the 


SS. PC Bi. oT sae 


48 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


. 8pirit is created, and is also from all eternity are in error, 
for nothing is eternal except the being and attributes of 
God. | 
Those also, who say that the spirit is but an accident, 
are in error, for the spirit exists by itself in the body, and 
an accident is that which subsists with something else. 
And those who say that the spirit is matter are in error, 
for matter is that which can be divided, and spirit is not 
susceptible of division. There is spirit, beloved, which 
is called animal spirit, which is susceptible of division. It 
is found in animals, But that spirit, which has the pro- 
perty of knowing God, and which is called the heart, is 
not found in beasts, nor is it matter or an accident. The 
heart, on the contrary, has been created with angelic quali- 
ties. It is a substance of which itis difficult to apprehend 
the essence. The law does not permit it to be explained, 
but there is no occasion for the student being acquainted 
with it at the outset of his journey. That which is neces- 
sary to the student is pious ardor and zeal, and this must 
be called into exercise in perfection. It is God who gra- 
ciously teaches the student what spirit is, as we find in the 
Holy Book: ‘We will direct in our way, all those who 
shall strive to propagate our worship.”? And if aman does 
not strive earnestly for the faith, there is no use of explain- 
ing to him the essence of spirit. It is, however, lawful to 
explain to him the instruments by which it operates. 
Know, O seeker after the divine mysteries! that the body 
is the kingdom of the heart, and that in the body there are 
many forces in contrariety with the heart, as God speaks 
in his Holy Word: ‘ And what shall teach thee the forces 
of thy Lord?” The heart was destined to acquire a know- 
ledge of God, in which its happiness consists. But we 


/ 


18. 29: 69. 


i “ P 4 
ee a a 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 49 


cannot grow in the knowledge of God, unless we under- 
stand the works of God. 

The works of God are apprehended by the senses, which 
are five, hearing, sight, taste, smell and touch. For such 
an arrangement of the senses, there was also need of a 
body. The body itself iscomposed of four diverse elements, 
water, earth, airand fire. Being, therefore, liable to decay, 
itis in continual danger of perishing from the external and 
internal enemies that perpetually assail it. Its external 
enemies, are such as wild beasts, drowning and conflagra- 
tions; its internal enemies, such as hunger and thirst. For 
the purpose of resisting these, it was in want of various in- 
ternal and external forces, such as the hand and foot, sight 
and hearing, food and drink. And in this connection, for 
eating and drinking, it is in want of internal and external 
instruments like the hand, the mouth, the stomach, the 
powers of appetite and digestion. In addition to these in- 
struments, there was need of means to guide in their occa- 
sional use, that is, for the internal senses. These are five, 
the faculties of perception, reflection, memory, recollec- 
tion and imagination. Their home is in the brain, and 
each has a specific function, as is well known to the learned. 
If to any one of all these faculties and instruments an in- 
jury occurs, the actions of man are defective. Now all 
these are the agents of the heart and subject to its rule. 
If, for example, the heart gives permission to the ear, hear- 
ing results; if it gives permission to the eye, there follows 
sight; if it gives permission to the foot, there is move- 
ment. All the other members are obedient in the same 
manner to the commands of the heart. The divine plan 
in all this arrangement is, that while the members preserve 
the body for a few days from harm, the heart, in its vehicle 
the body, should pursue its business of cultivating the seeds 


18. 74: 34. 
Trans. vitt.] 7 


50 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


of happiness for eternity and prepare for its journey to its 
native country. So long as the various forces of the body are 
obedient to the dictates of the heart, in like manner as the 
angels obey in the presence of God, no contrariety of action 
can arise among them. 

Know, O student of wisdom! that the body, which is the 
kingdom of the heart, resembles a great city. The hand, 
the foot, the mouth and the other members resemble 
the people of the various trades. Desire is a standard 
bearer; anger is a superintendent of the city, the heart is 
its sovereign, and reason is the vizier. The sovereign 
needs the service of all the inhabitants. But desire, the 
standard bearer, is a liar, vain and ambitious. He is always 
ready to do the contrary of what reason, the vizier, com- 
mands. He strives to appropriate to himself whatever he 
sees in the city, which is the body. Anger, the superin- 
tendent, is rebellious and corrupt, quick and passionate. 
He is always ready to be enraged, to spill blood, and to 
blast one’s reputation. If the sovereign, the heart, should 
invariably consult with reason, his vizier, and, when desire 
was transgressing, should give to wrath to have power 
over him (yet, without giving him full liberty, should make 
him angry in subjection to reason, the vizier, so that pass- 
ing all bounds he should not stretch out his hand upon the 
kingdom), there would then be an equilibrium in the con- 
dition of the kingdom, and all the members would perform 
the functions for which they were created, their service 
would be accepted at the mercy seat, and they would ob- 
tain eternal felicity. 

If you desire, inquirer for the way, with thankfulness 
for these mercies, to obtain eternal happiness in the future 
mansions, the heart must enthrone itself like a sovereign 
in its capital, the body, must stand at the door of service 
and direct its prayers to the gate of eternal truth, seeking 
for the beauty of the divinity. It must take reason for its 


: 
| 
: 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 51 


vizier, desire for its standard bearer, anger to be the 
superintendent of the city, and taking the senses of reason 
as its spies, it must make each one of them responsible in 
its sphere. The perceptive faculties which are foremost 
in the brain, it must make to be chiefs of the spies, that 
they may convey to the spies notices of what occurs in the 
world. The faculty of memory, which is next in order in 
the brain, it must use as a receptacle in which it may trea- 
sure up whatever is noticed by the spies, and, as occasion 
requires, may inform reason, the vizier. The vizier, in 
accordance with the information received, will administer 
the kingdom. When he sees any one of the soldiers re- 
volting and following his own passions, he will represent it 
to the sovereign, that he may be controlled and conquered. 
He must not, however, be destroyed, for each one of us 
has received, from his original country, a definite commis- 
sion, and in that case this service must remain unfulfilled. 
But, alas! if the heart should swerve from its sovereignty, 
and not make use of reason as its vizier, and should be re- 
duced by the standard bearer, desire, and the superin- 
tendent, anger, all the forces would then follow in the train 
of desire and anger, the kingdom would fall into disorder, 
and everlasting ruin would be the result. 

If you inquire, O student! how it is known that the 
heart of man has been created in accordance with the quali- 
ties of angels, seeing that the most of the qualities and 
attributes of angels are foreign to it, Lreply, you know that 
there is not, in truth, any creature on the face of the earth 
more noble than man, and that it belongs to the dignity 
and perfection of every creature, to work out persever- 
ingly that service for which it was created. The ass, for 
instance, was created to bear burdens. If he carries his 
load well, without stumbling or falling, or if he does not 
throw off his load, his qualities are in perfection, and his 
service is accepted. The horse was designed also for war 


52 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


and military expeditions, and has strength to carry bur- 
dens. If he performs his duty well, in time of war, in 
running, fleeing and going to meet the enemy, his service 
is accepted, and he will be treated with attention in his 
accoutrements, grooming and feeding. Butif he performs 
his service imperfectly, a pack saddle will be put on his 
back, as on the ass, from day to day he will be employed as 
a beast of burden, and he will be carelessly and deficiently 
provided with food, and poorly taken care of. 

Besides, beloved! if man had been created only to eat 
and drink, it would follow that animals are of greater worth 
and excellence than man; for they can eat and drink more 
than man can, and they have useful services devolved upon 
them of drawing burdens, tilling the ground, and giving 
meat, butter and milk for food. If also man had been 
created to fight, kill and domineer, it would follow that 
beasts of prey are nobler than he, for they are mightier in 
their ferocity and their power of subjugating other animals. 
There are, moreover, many animals of manifest utility, as 
the dog to watch and hunt, and the skins of some of them 
for clothing. It follows, therefore, that man was not 
created for these things, but rather to serve God and to 
grow in the knowledge of him. 

It is plain that mind, discernment and reason were be- 
stowed upon man, that when he looks upon the world and 
sees in every object illustrations of various forms of perfec- 
tion, and much to excite his wonder, he might turn his 
attention from the work of the artist, to the artist himself; 
from the thing formed to him that formed it; that he might 
comprehend his own excessive frailty and weakness, and 
the perfection of the wisdom and power, yea, of all the 
attributes of the eternal Creator, and that, without ceasing, 
he might humbly supplicate acceptance in his frailty and 
weakness on the one hand, and on the other might seek to 
draw near to the King of kings, and finally obtain rest in 


Ghazzal’s Alchemy of Happiness. 53 


the home of the faithful, where the angels are in the pre- 
sence of God. If men refuse to recognize their own dig- 
nity, if they neglect their duty and prefer the qualities of 
devils and beasts of prey, they will also possess, in the future 
world, the qualities of beasts of prey, and will be judged 
with the devils. Our refuge is in God! 

Know, thou seeker of divine mysteries! that there is no 
end to the wonderful operations of the heart. For, to 
pursue the same subject, the dignity of the heart is of two 
kinds; one kind is by means of knowledge, and the other 
through the exertion of divine power. Its dignity by 
means of knowledge is also of two kinds. The first is 
external knowledge, which every one understands: the 
second kind is veiled and cannot be understood by all, and 
is extremely precious. That which we have designated as 
external, refers to that faculty of the heart by which the 
sciences of geometry, medicine, astronomy, numbers, the 
science of law and all the arts are understood; and 
although the heart is a thing which cannot be divided, 
still the knowledge of all the world exists in it. All the 
world indeed, in comparison with it, is as a grain compared 
with the sun, or as a drop in the ocean. In a second, by 
the power of thought, the soul passes from the abyss to the 
highest heaven, and from the east to the west. Though 
on the earth, it knows the latitude of the stars and their 
distances. It knows the course, the size and the peculiari- 
ties of the sun. It knows the nature and cause of the 
clouds and the rain, the lightning and the thunder. It 
ensnares the fish from the depths of the sea, and the bird 
from the end of heaven. By knowledge it subdues the 
elephant, the camel and the tiger. All these kinds of 
knowledge, it acquires with its internal and external senses. 

The most wonderful thing of all is, that there is a 
window in the heart from whence it surveys the world. 
This is called the invisible world, the world of intelli- 


54 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


gence, or the spiritual world. People in general look 
only at the visible world, which is called also the present 
world, the sensible world and the material world; their 
knowledge of it also is trivial and limited. And there 
is also a window in the heart from whence it surveys 
the intelligible world. There are two arguments to 
prove that there are such windows in the heart. One of 
the arguments is derived from dreams. When an indivi- 
dual goes to sleep, these windows remain open and the in- 
dividual is able to perceive events which will befall him 
from the invisible world or from the hidden table of de- 
crees,' and the result corresponds exactly with the vision. 
Or he sees a similitude, and those who are skilled in the 
science of interpretation of dreams understand the meaning. 
But the explanation of this science of interpretation would 
be too long for this treatise. The heart resembles a pure 
mirror, you must know, in this particular, that when a man 
falls asleep, when his senses are closed, and when the heart, 
free and pure from blameable affections, is confronted with 
the preserved tablet, then the tablet reflects upon the heart 
the real states and hidden forms inscribed upon it. In that 
state the heart sees most wonderful forms and combina- 
tions. But when the heart is not free from impurity, or 
when, on waking, it busies itself with things of sense, the 
side towards the tablet will be obscured, and it can view 
nothing. For, although in sleep the senses are blunted, 
the imaginative faculty is not, but preserves the forms re- 
flected upon the mirror of the heart. But as the percep- 
tion does not take place by means of the external senses, 
but only in the imagination, the heart does not see them 
with absolute clearness, but sees only a phantom. But in 
death, as the senses are completely separated ‘and the veil 
of the body is removed, the heart can contemplate the in- 


2See note A. 


_ 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 55 


visible world and its hidden mysteries, without a veil, just 
as lightning or the celestial rays impress the external eye. 

The second proof of the existence of these windows in 
the heart, is that no individual is destitute of these spiritual 
susceptibilities and of the faculty of thought and reflection. 
For instance every individual knows by inspiration, things 
which he has neither seen nor heard, though he knows not 
from whence or by what means he understands them. 
Still, notwithstanding the heart belongs to the invisible 
world, so long as itis absorbed in the contemplation of 
the sensible world, it is shut out and restrained from con- 
templating the invisible and spiritual world. 

Think not, thou seeker after the divine mysteries! that 
the window of the heart is never opened except in sleep 
and after death. On the contrary, if a person calls into 
exercise, in perfection, holy zeal and austerities, and puri- 
fies his heart from the defilement of blameable affections, 
and then sits down in a retired spot, abandons the use of 
his external senses, and occupies himself with calling out 
“OQ God! O God!” his heart will come into harmony with 
the invisible world, he will no longer receive notions from 
the material world, and nothing will be present in his heart 
but the exalted God. In this revelation of the invisible 
world, the windows of the heart are opened, and what 
others may have seen in a dream, he in this state sees in 
reality. The spirits of angels and prophets are manifested 


_ to him and he holds intercourse with them. The hidden 


things of earth and heaven are uncovered to him, and to 
whomsoever these things are revealed, mighty wonders are 
shown, that are beyond description. As the prophet of 
God says: “I turned towards the earth, and I saw the 
east and the west.” And God says in his word: “ And 
thus we caused Abraham to see the kingdom of heaven 
and earth,’ which is an example of this kind of revelation. 


18. 6: 75. 


56 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


Probably the knowledge of all the prophets was obtained 
in this way, for it was not obtained by learning. . . . 

When the heart is free from worldly lusts, from the 
animosities of society and from the distraction occasioned 
by the senses, the vision of God is possible. And this 
course is adopted by the Mystics.!. It is also the path 
followed by the prophets. But it is permitted also to ac- 
quire the practice of it by learning, and this is the way 
adopted by the theologians, This is also an exalted way, 
though in comparison with the former, its results are in- 
significant and contracted. Many distinguished men have 
attained these revelations by experience and the demon- 
stration of reasoning. Still let every one who fails of 
obtaining this knowledge either by means of purity of de- 
sire or of demonstration of reasoning, take care and not 
deny its existence to those who are possessed of it, so that 
they may not be repelled from the low degree they have 
attained, and their conduct become a snare to them in the 
way of truth. These things which we have mentioned con- 
stitute the wonders»of the heart and show its grandeur. 

Think not that these discoveries of truth are limited to 
the prophets alone. On the contrary every man in his 
essential nature is endowed with attributes rendering him 
capable of participating in the same discoveries. What 
God says, “Am I not your Lord ?’’? refers to this quality. 
And the holy saying of the prophet of God: “ Every man 
is born with the nature of Islamism; but his ancestors , 
practised Judaism, Nazarenism or Magianism,” is an indi- 
cation of the same thing. 

The heart of man while in the spiritual world knew its 
maker and creator; it had mingled with angels and knew 
for what service it was created; and in the assembly where 
they said, ‘‘ Yes,” it was intoxicated as with wine at the 


1See note B. *S. 72 Te 


a ry 2 
Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 57 


interrogation, “Am I not your Lord?” As at that mo- 
ment, it was seen with the eye of certainty, no person had 
any doubt on the subject, as God says in his holy word: 
‘“< Tf you ask them, who created the heavens and the earth, 
they will answer thee, the wise and holy God.”!? All the 
prophets were apparently of the same nature as other men 
without any difference, as we find in God’s holy word: 
“Say, I ama man like you: it was revealed to me.”? 
Afterwards the heart descended from the world of divine 
union to this house of separation, from that assembly of 
love to this station of sorrow, and from the spiritual to the 
material, and entering within the curtain of the senses, it 
became occupied with the care of the body and was over- 
come by the animal affections and material pleasures. The 
heart of man, veiled with the garments of heedlessness, 
forgot the assembly with which it had been familiar, and 
imagining that this miserable place was to be its mansion 
of rest, it chose to establish itself here in this world of 
perdition, as if this was its home. Still the veil of heed- 
lessness disappeared from the eyes of those to whom the 
grace and guidance of the Eternal and unchangeable gave 
aid and support, and the discovery of the invisible world 
was not concealed from the view of some of those who 
came into this material world, but was anew revealed to 
them, after a measure of exertion of spiritual ardor. 

To whomsoever this revelation has been vouchsafed, if 
it direct him to reform the world, to invite the nations to 
turn to God, and to a peculiar way of life, that person is 
called a prophet, and his way of life is called a law; and 
that influence which proceeds from him, which transcends 
what is ordinary, is called a miracle. If he has not been 
appointed to invite the nations, but worships in accordance 
with the law of another, he is called a saint, and that which 


19,43: 8. 2§.,18: 110. 
Trans. viit.] 8 , 


58 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


proceeds from him, which transcends what is ordinary, is 
called a manifestation of grace. The miracle performed by 
a saint is accounted a miracle of that prophet whose law 
he follows. He who has received, by whatever means, a 
revelation of the invisible world, is capable of being or- 
dained to the office of a prophet. And if he is not ap- - 
pointed by God, the reason will be either, that at the time 
the existing law had been newly revealed, and that there 
was no occasion for a prophet, or else that there may be a 
peculiarity in prophets which is not found in the saints. 
It follows that it is our duty not to deny either the saint- 
ship or the miracles of the saints, but to acknowledge them 
as real. 7 

You should be aware, however, that this alchemy of 
happiness, that is, the knowledge of God, which is the oc- 
casion of the revelation of truth, cannot be acquired with- 
out spiritual self-denial and effort. Unless a man has 
reached perfection and the rank of Superior, nothing will 
be,revealed to him, except in cases of special divine grace 
and merciful providence, and this occurs veryrarely. Nor, 
except by divine condescension, is revelation obtained even 
by all who by effort reach the rank of Superior. And 
whosoever would attain holiness can only reach it by the 
path of difficulty. 

You have now learned, student of the divine mysteries, 
the dignity of the heart through knowledge, and what kind 
of knowledge it possesses. Now listen and learn its dignity 
through divine power and on account of the greatness of 
which it is capable, that you may see how precious you are 
in yourself, and yet how vile and contemptible you make 
yourself by your own choice. Know then, that the heart 
is endowed with properties like those of angels and such 
as are not found in animals; and just as the material world 
is subjected by divine permission to the angels, and when 
God wills it, the angels send forth the winds, cause rain to 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 59 


fall, bring forth the embryo in animals, shape their forms, 
cause seeds to sprout in the earth and plants to grow, 
many legions of angels being appointed to this service, so 
also the heart of man being created with angelic proper- 
ties must have influence and power over the material world. 
In man’s own body, which is peculiarly his own world, its 
control and influence are very evident. The hand, for 
example, does not in writing move of itself, but depends 
for motion on volition proceeding from the heart. And in 
eating, it is the heart which by an exertion of its will, causes 
moisture to rise in the mouth from under the tongue, to 
mix with the food that it may be swallowed and digested. 
These facts clearly substantiate the dominion and control 
of the heart, and the subordination of the body. 

Know also, that if the heart should not be tarnished with 
the rust of rebellion, and if the animal and ferocious quali- 
ties should not be dominant, that it would be capable, on 
account of the presence in it of angelic properties, of mani- 
festing this same influence over other bodies. If it should 
look upon a lion or tiger with severity, they would become 
weak and submissive. If it should look with kindness 
upon one who is sick, his infirmity might be changed to 
health. Ifit should look upon the vigorous with majesty, 
they might become infirm. The reality of the existence of 
these influences is known both by reason and experience. 
Sorcery with the eyes, is of this kind of power. If for ex- 
ample, a man of a malicious disposition look upon some 
little thing with envy, and if while he is looking, the de- 
struction of the object should come into his mind, an influ- 
ence upon it may be observed immediately, and directly or 
after a while that object will be destroyed: the prophet of 
God has said: “the eye brings man to the grave and the 
camel to the seething pot.” 

In whomsoever these influences are shown to have power, 
if he éccasion misery in the exercise of this, power, he is 


60 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


designated a sorcerer. Although as has been seen, the 
power of performing signs, miracles and sorceries belongs 
to the heart when its faculties are in perfect operation, 
yet there are important destinctions between these powers. 
And whoever is of a narrow mind will not be able to ap- 
preciate that signs and miracles are influences proceeding 
from the heart of man, unless he should learn it by exter- 
nal teaching. 

The heart has dominion and control through three chan- 
nels. One is through visions, by which revelations are 
made to all men. But the kind of mysteries generally re- 
vealed to people in visions, are revealed to prophets and 
saints in the outward world. The second kind is through 
the dominion which the heart exercises over its own body, 
a quality, which is possessed by all men in general, though 
prophets and saints for the good of the community, possess 
the same power over other bodies than their own. The 
third source of dominion of the heart is through knowledge. 
The mass of men obtain it by instruction and learning, but 
it is bestowed by God upon prophets and saints directly, 
without the mediums of learning and instruction. It is 
possible also for persons of pure minds to acquire a know- 
ledge of some arts and sciences without instruction, and it 
is also possible that some persons should have all things 
opened up to them by the will of God. This kind of know- 
ledge is called “infused and illuminated,” as God says in 
his word: “we have illuminated him with our know- 
ledge.”? These three specialities are all of them found in 
certain measure in some men, in others two of them are 
found, and in others, only one is found: but whenever the 
three are found in the same person, he belongs to the rank 
of prophets or of the greatest of the saints. In our Lord 
the prophet Mohammed Mustafa, these three specialities 


1§., 18: 64. 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 61 


existed in perfection. The Lord in bestowing these three 
properties upon certain individuals, designates them to 
exhort the nations and to be prophets of the people. To 
every man there is given a certain portion of each one 
of these peculiarities, to serve as a pattern. 

Man cannot comprehend states of being which transcend 
his own nature. Hence none but the great God himself 
can comprehend God, as we have shown in our Commen- 
tary upon the “ Names of God.” So also the prophets can- 
not be comprehended by any but the prophets themselves. 
No person, in short, can understand any individual who 
belongs to a scale of rank above him. It is possible that 
there is a peculiarity in prophets, of which no pattern or 
model is found in other persons, and therefore, we are in- 
capable of understanding them. If we knew not what a 
vision is, and an individual should say to us, that a man, 
at 2 moment when he can neither move, see or hear, can 
perceive events which are to occur at a future period, and 
yet might not be able to perceive the same while walking, 
listening or looking, we should not in any wise be able to 
persuade ourselves of the truth of it, as God says in his 
Holy word: “They treat as a lie that which they cannot 
comprehend with their knowledge.’? And you, do you 
not see that he who comes blind into the world, does not 
understand the pleasure which is derived from seeing? 
Let us not regard,:therefore, as impossible all those states 
ascribed to the prophets which we cannot understand: for 
they are the accepted and praiseworthy servants of God. 

From all which has been said, Seeker after the divine 
mysteries, thou hast learned something of the dignity of 
the nature of man, and that the way of the Mystics is holy 
and honorable. But I have heard that the Mystics say 


‘that external knowledge is a veil upon the way to God, and 


*8., 10: 40. 


62 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


a hindrance in the journey to the truth. Take care and do 
not deny that they are correct in what they say. For, ex- 
ternal knowledge is derived from the sensuous world, and 
all objects of sense are a hindrance to him who is occupied 
with spiritual truth; for whoever is attending to sensual 
objects, indicates that his mind is preoccupied with exter- 
nal properties. And it is impossible that he who would 
walk in the way of truth, should be for a moment unem- 
ployed in meditation, upon obtaining spiritual union and 
the vision of Beauty. 

Know, student of the divine mysteries, that the heart is 
like a reservoir into which five streams flow: these streams 
at one time run clear, and at another, turbid, and hence the 
bottom of the reservoir contains much mud. Ifa person 
wish to cleanse the reservoir and to get rid of the mud in 
the bottom, he must first dam up the course of the running 
streams, and then stir up and put in motion the mud, and 
until the muddy water has been carried off by the pure 
water that gushes up at the bottom of the reservoir, he 
will not allow any other water to run in. Now the exter- 
nal senses resemble those running streams, from which 
various kinds of knowledge, notions and prejudices pro- 
ceed to the heart, of which some are pure and purifying, 
and some are corrupt and corrupting, and until these have 
been dammed up, the windows of the heart cannot be un- 
covered so that the illuminating knowledge from God can 
be revealed to it. 

If a person possessing great knowledge of the outward 
world, should use his knowledge as a means of progress in 
the way of truth, instead of being satisfied with such dis- 
putes as of buying and selling, marrying and divorcing, 
and should be assiduous in gaining divine knowledge, 
which is the end of all other knowledge, it is all well and 
good. His knowledge of the outward world will give him 
strength in his course, and will serve as a guide to him in 


————- | 


EE 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 63 


the way to eternal truth. For if the pilgrim do not un- 
derstand the grounds of the respect due to, and the law- 
fulness of his food and drink, his dwelling and his clothing, 
if he do not understand the causes which impair or render 
complete acts of purification and devotion, what has a 
tendency to give strength to the blameable affections of the 
soul, and what is their nature and their remedy, he can de- 
rive no advantage from the sciences of spiritual exercise, 
discovery and revelation. In short toanignorant pilgrim, 
the least doubt may operate as a hindrance in his course 
for many years. If, however, he should fall into a spirit of 
disputation, and should say, “‘ knowledge implies nothing 
else than to be able to study a book and to correct the 
composition, the punctuation and the declensions,”’ he will 
certainly be frustrated from obtaining and discovering in- 
ward knowledge,—that is, he will not attain to the 
knowledge of God, which is the object of all knowledge, 
which is the most sublime knowledge, and compared with 
which all other knowledge is but husks. Therefore, when 
we hear some good man, who has travelled far on the road of 
spiritual discovery affirm, that knowledge of the external 
world, in the sense which we at first alluded to, is a 
hindrance in the way of truth, we ought to be careful not 
to deny the truth of what he says. 

There are, however, in our times certain weak persons 
and indifferent to religious truth for the most part, who in 
the guise of soofees,' after learning a few of their obscure 
phrases and ornamenting themselves with their cap and 
robes, treat knowledge and the doctors of the law’ as in- 
imical to themselves, and continually find fault with them. 
They are devils and deserve judicial death. They are ene- 
mies of God, and of the apostle of God. For God has 
extolled knowledge and the doctors of the law; and the 


‘Mystics. * Ulema, the clerical and theological class. 


64. —C; Ghazzali’sAlchemy of Happiness. 


established way of salvation, with which God has in- 
spired the prophets, has its basis in external knowledge. 
These miserable and weak men, since they have no ac- 
quaintance with science, and no education, and knowledge 
of external things, why should they indulge in such corrupt 
fancies, and unfounded language? They resemble, beloved, 
a person who having heard it said that alchemy was of more 
value than gold, because that whatsoever thing should be 
touched with the philosophers’ stone would turn to gold, 
should be proud of the idea and should be carried away 
with a passion for alchemy. And when gold in full bags 
is offered him, he replies. ‘Shall I turn my attention to 
gold, when I am dissolving the philosophers’ stone?” 
And he finishes with being deprived of the gold, and with 
only hearing the name of the philosophers’ stone. He be- 
comes forever a miserable, destitute, and naked vagabond, 
who wastes his life upon alchemy. 

The science then of revelation, or of infused spiritual 
knowledge, resembles alchemy, and the science of the doc- 
tors of the law resembles gold; butit is folly and pure loss 
not to accept and be satisfied with solid gold, on account 
of one’s ardor to discover the philosophers’ stone, which 
latter knowledge is not acquired by one in a thousand. 

There is still one farther observation that deserves to be 
made. Ifa person by the payment of a thousand pieces of 
gold, could become master of alchemy, yet the condition 
of the man who is absolutely master of ten thousand pieces 
of gold would be better and preferable. And this illus- 
trates the position of the soofees. Ifa person follow their 
method and attain to the knowledge of some things, he still 
does not equal in excellence, the doctors of the law. Just 
as we see, that books on alehemy, and students of alchemy 
are very numerous, while those who are successful are the 
least of few, so the path of mysticism is sought for by all 
men, and longed for by all classes of society, yet those who 


—— 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 65 - 


attain to the end are exceedingly rare. Perhaps, as in the 
ease of alchemy, it only exists now in name andform. The 
greater part of the notions and fancies of most of the mys- 
tics, which they esteem as revelations and mysteries, are 
nothing but vain triflings and pure self complacency ; just 
as that while visions are areality, still mere confused dreams 
are very abundant. The mystic, however, who by spiritual 
revelation has learned all that a doctor of the law has been 
able to learn after many years of study, and who has no re- 
maining doubtsin matters ofinternal or external know- 
ledge, is certainly more excellent than the doctor of the 
law who is learned only in external knowledge, and this 
should not be denied. And it follows that the way of the 
mystics must be acknowledged to bea true one, and that 
you must not destroy the belief of those weak minded and 
vain persons who follow them; for, the reason why they 
cast reproaches upon knowledge and calumniate the doctors 
of law is that they have no acquirements or knowledge 
themselves. 

O, inquirer after divine mysteries! do you ask how it is 
known that the happiness of man consists in the know- 
ledge of God, and that his enjoyment consists in the love of 
God? We observe in reply, that every man’s happiness is 
found in the place where he obtains enjoyment and tran- 
quility. Thus sensual enjoyment is found in eating and 
drinking and the like. The enjoyment of anger is derived 
from taking revenge and from violence. The enjoyment 
of the eye consists in the view of correct images and agree- 
able objects. The enjoyment ofthe ear is secured in listen- 
ing to harmonious voices. In the same way the enjoyment 
of the heart depends upon its being employed in that for 
which it was created, in learning to know every thing in its 
reality and truth. Hence, every man glories in what he 
knows, even if the thing is but of little importance. He 

Trans. viti.] 9 


a? ee 
— es 


66 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


who knows how to play chess, boasts over him who does 
not know: and if he is looking on while a game of chess 
is played, it is of no use to tell him not to speak, for as soon 
as he sees an improper move, he has not patience to restrain 
himself from showing his skill, and glorying in his know- 
ledge, by pointing it out. ... 

Now that it is clear that the happiness of the heart con- 
sists in the knowledge and love of God, we may say that the 
heart that does not feel the necessity of the knowledge of 
God, and a longing for the love of God, but rather craves 
after and seeks the world, resembles a sick person who has 
no appetite for food, but even prefers such things as 
earth and clay to meat, regarding them as necessary, not- 
withstanding they have uo nourishing qualities. If no 
remedy can be found, speedily, to recover his appetite 
for food, and if he continue indulging in perverse notions 
of what is necessary, his malady will grow in strength; 
until if he continue in this state, he will perish and 
lose the joys this world can give. In the same manner 
the heart which does not feel a necessity for the knowledge 
and love of God, and where the love of other objects reigns, 
isa heart that is sick and ready to perish, unless a remedy 
be applied, unless its affections be turned away from other 
things, and the love of God become predominant. Future 
bliss will be lost and eternal misery will be its portion. 
Our refuge is in God! 

You should know also that the enjoyments of this world 
that are procured through the senses are cut off at death. 
The enjoyment of the love and knowledge of God, which 
depends upon the heart, is alone lasting. At death the 
hindrances that result from the presence of the external 
senses being removed, the light and brilliancy of the heart 
come to have full play, and it feels the necessity of the 
vision of beauty. What has hitherto been said is suffi- 
cient to enable a person of intelligence to comprehend the 


—Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 67 


dignity of the heartof man. The subject could not be dis- 
cussed more at large in this short treatise. 

While the heart is one of the pillars of man, the body is 
another pillar. In the constitution of man’s body, there is 
an infinity of most wonderful things to be observed. Each 
internal and external organ has various curious uses, of 
which man is entirely uninformed. Know, that in the body 
of a man there are thousands of veins and nerves: there are 
many bones, each of a particular shape and each one cre- 
ated for a particular purpose and effect. You are ignorant 
of all this, and you only know that the hand was formed 
to take hold with, the foot to walk with, and the tongue to 
speak with. Butin reference to the hand, you know noth- 
ing about its blood, its bones, the number of its nerves and 
veins, and the uses of each one: nor in reference to 
the eye, do you know that it is composed of ten layers, nor 
of what the layers are composed, nor what is the use of 
them. And if the eye should meet with an injury in one 
of the layers, you could not tell the cause of it. You know 
nothing either of the internal organs in the belly, such as 
the spleen, the liver, the gall-bladder and the kidneys. 
While these have been given to you to perform functions 
in which they are continually engaged, you are entirely 
unconcerned about it. 

Know then, beloved, that the varieties of food you eat 
descend to the stomach, and thence to the liver, and that in 
the liver they are mixed and brought to the form of blood. 
Upon the liver may be seen something black and frothy 
which is called black bile. The spleen attracts the black 
bile and changes it intoitself. The blood being still mixed 
with water, has no consistence, and the kidneys draw the 
water from the blood and purify it. This blood is then 
diffused to the seven parts of the body, and brings and con- 
veys strength to the limbs. If the spleen become affected 
with any disorder, so that it cannot separate the black bile 


68 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


from the blood, such diseases as leprosy, insanity, inflam- 
mation of the spleen and remittent fever are the conse- 
quence. If any derangement happen to the gall-bladder 
so that it cannot secrete the bile, bilious disorders follow. 
If the kidneys get disordered, so that they cannot abstract 
the water from the blood, dropsy and similar diseases are 
the result. It all depends, however, on the will of God. 
In the same manner, all the organs of the body have a 
specific function. If it were not so, the body would 
PSTD. «oe 

Our intention has been to show you that man is a great 
world, and that you might know what a multitude of ser- 
vants his body has to minister to him: so that you might 
realize while in your enjoyments, in walking, in sleeping 
or at rest in your world, that by God’s appointment, these 
numerous servants in your employ never suffer their func- 
tions to cease fora minute. Listen now for a moment can- 
didly. If you had a servant who had been faithful to you 
during his whole life, with whose servicés you were not 
able to dispense, while he could at any time find a better 
master—yet if he should only for a single day disobey 
your orders, you would get angry, beat him, and wish to 
get rid of him. But God has been abundant in kindness 
to you, and has given you so many servants, and has in no 
wise any need of you. How then can it be just that you 
should become enslaved to yourself, and follow your own | 
passions, and that forgetful of pleasing the infinite God, 
you should rebel against your Creator and Benefactor, and 
that you should render obedience to Satan, who is your en- 
emy and the enemy of God? 

Many and even innumerable books, O student of the di- 
vine mysteries, have been written in explanation of the organ- 
ization of the body and the uses of its parts: but they have 
no more made the subject clear and exhausted it, than a 
drop can illustrate the ocean, or an atom illustrate the sun. 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 69 


It is impossible for the thing formed to understand the 
knowledge of him that formed it. And how is it possible, 
that he who is of yesterday, should comprehend the secrets 
of the operations of the Ancient of days? 

The science of the structure of the body is called ana- 
tomy: itis a great science, but most men are heedless of 
it. Ifanystudy it, itis only for the purpose of acquiring skill 
in medicine, and not for the sake of becoming acquainted 
with the perfection of the power of God. But whoever 
will occupy himself with anatomy, and therein contemplate 
the wonders of the works of God, will reap three advan- 
tages. The first advantage will be, that in learning the 
composition of the thing made, and thereby gaining a com- 
prehensive and condensed view of all other things like it he 
will see that it is impossible to discover imperfection or 
incompetence in the being who has created him in such 
perfection. The Creator himself will be acknowledged to 

be almighty and perfect. The second advantage will be, 
that he will see that it is impossible that a being who has 
created an organization so intelligent, capable of compre- 
hension, endowed with beauty, and useful, should be other- 
wise than perfect in knowledge himself. And lastly, we 
shall understand the mercy, favor and perfect compassion 
of God towards us. Nothing that is either useful or orna- 
mental has been omitted in the framing of our bodies, 
_ whether it be such things as are the sources of life, like the 
spirit and the head; or such as sustain life, as the hand, the 
foot, the mouth and the teeth: or such as are a means of 
ornament, as the beard, elegance of form, black hair and 
the lips. It is to be observed that similar organs have 
been provided not only for man, but for all creatures, so 
that nothing is wanting to initiate and sustain life in the 
mouse, the wasp, the snake and the ant. God has done 
all things perfectly, and may his name be glorified ! 


The investigator of truth this fact well knows, 
That he himself is endowed with every perfection. 


70 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


The knowledge of anatomy is the means by which we be- 
come acquainted with animal life: by means of knowledge 
of animal life, we may acquire a knowledge of the heart, 
and the knowledge of the heart is a key to the knowledge 
of God. But the knowledge which we obtain of God is li- 
mited and contracted in comparison with the knowledge 
which the heart has of itself. The knowledge possessed by 
the heart in comparison with the knowledge of God himself, 
is but as an atom when compared with the sun. 

The body is but an animal to be ridden by the heart, 
which is its rider, while the heart’s chief end is to acquire 
a knowledge of God. The dignity of any thing depends 
upon what itis in itself. A person therefore who does not 
understand his own body, heart and soul, and yet pretends 
to the knowledge of God, resembles the bankrupt, who, 
although he has nothing to eat himself, should yet plan a 
feast for all the poor of the city. In short, man ought to 
make every possible exertion to gain the knowledge of God, 
because the knowledge of God necessitates the love of God. 
Just in the same manner as when you see a beautiful spe- 
cimen of calligraphy or some elegant verses, you praise the 
person who made them, you feel a love for him in your 
heart and desire eagerly to see him. 

Since you have learned, O inquirer after the divine 
mysteries, the dignity and nobleness of the heart, know 
also that this precious jewel has been confided to you and 
wrapped in a veil, that you may preserve it from too close 
a contact with the world, and may lead it to perfection and 
to its place of rest, making it a partaker of manifest happi- 
ness in the eternal mansions. In the house of reunion you 
will have reached an eternal rest, where no evil enters, 
a joy where no pain mingles, a strength without infirmity, 
a knowledge without doubt, and a vision of the Lord, the 
enjoyment of which shall be endless. 

Tf the heart strive not after its own glory and dignity, but 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 71 


inclines to the cares of the world and sensual pleasures, 
no creature is more feeble, infirm and contemptible than 
man. At one time he will be the slave of disappointment 
and melancholy, at another suffering from disease and 
misfortune; at one time exposed to hunger and _ thirst, 
and at another the slave of avarice or ambition. He is not 
indulged with the enjoyment of a single day in peace. 
And when he is disposed to partake of the pleasures of the 
world and stretches out his hand to them, for a long time 
he cannot succeed in freeing himself from calamity. Even 
the pleasure of eating will be attended with oppression and | 
pain, and afterwards be followed by some adverse ac- 
cident. In short, of whatever enjoyment he partakes, 
regret is sure to followit. Ifwe regard knowledge, power, 
will, beauty and grace of form as constituting the glory 
and honor of this world, what is the wisdom of man? If 
his head pain him, he knows not the cause or the remedy. 
If he have pain at his heart, he knows not the occasion of 
it, or why it increases, or what will cure it. He sees the 
plants and medicines that could cure it, perhaps even holds 
them in his hands, and is not aware of it. He knows no- 
thing of what will happen to him on the morrow, nor what 
action will be a source of enjoyment to him, nor what will 
be to him asource of pain. Ifyou look only to the strength 
of a man, what is more impotent than he is. If a fly or 
mosquito molest him, he cannot get rid of it. If he is at- 
tacked by disease, he has no remedy to meet it with. He 
has no power to preserve himself from destruction. If you 
look at the firmness and resolution of man, what is more 
contemptible than he is! If he see any thing more extra- 
ordinary than a piece of money, he changes color and loses 
his presence of mind. If a beggar meet him, he turns 
away, and dares not look him in the face. If you look at 
the form of man, you see that it is skin, drawn over blood 
and impurity... . 


72 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


In short, man in this world, is framed in infirmity and im- 
perfection. But if he desire and will to free himself from 
animal propensities, and ferocious and satanic qualities, he 
may attain future happiness, will be more exalted and 
excellent than a king and will be enriched with the vision 
of the beauty of the Lord. But if he incline towards the 
world, and retain only the qualities of animals and wild 
beasts, his future state will be worse even than theirs. For 
they turn to dust, and are delivered from pains and tor- 
ment. Our refuge is in God! 

From the moment, O beloved! that you have learned 
in what the dignity and nobleness of man consists, and 
what constitutes his vileness and meanness, you have learned 
at the same time how the knowledge of the soul, is the 
key to the knowledge of God. 


CHAPTER II.— ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF GoD. 


In the books of former prophets it is written, ‘‘ Know 
thine own soul, and thou shalt know thy Lord,” and we have 
received it in a tradition, that “ He who knows himself, 
already knows his Lord.” This is a convincing argument 
that the soul is like a clean mirror, into which whenever a 
person looks, he may there see God. If you say, however, 
that there are many who have studied themselves, and have 
learned that they are creatures, and still they do not know 
their Lord, I reply, that to pass from the knowledge of the 
soul to the knowledge of God, and to demonstrate the latter 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 73 


from the former, may be accomplished by two methods. 
The first method is most deep and profound. The most ex- 
alted in wisdom and the most penetrating among men are 
far from understanding it, even when they apply themselves 
to it, both with science, practice and a pure life. How then 
should those ignorant persons understand it, who are 
utterly destitute of a knowledge of external things! Let 
us, therefore, pass to the second method and explain that: 
for he who possesses a discriminating mind, even if he 
were blind, is capable of understanding it. 

Know, therefore, that man from his own existence knows 
the existence of a Creator; from his own attributes, he knows 
the attributes of his maker; from the control which he has 
over his own kingdom, he knows the control that God exer- 
eises over all the world. The reason of this is, that when a 
man looks at himself, beginning at the time when there was 
no trace or notion of his existence, and contemplates his cre- 
ation with attention, he sees that he had his origin froma drop 
of water. He had neither mind or understanding: and nei- 
ther fat, flesh nor bones. Afterwards by divine operation 
and sovereign power, most strange and wonderful internal 
changes took place, and strong organs, passions, affections, 
and agreeable qualities rose up all adorned with beauty. 
When man comes to look upon his organs and members, 
whether upon the external, as the hand, the foot, the eye, 
the tongue and the mouth, or upon the internal organs, as 
the liver, the stomach and the spleen, he sees that each is 
the result of a special wisdom, that each one has been 
created for some peculiar use, and that each one is in its 
place and perfect. After a man has observed these things, 
he knows that the Creator has power to do what he 
pleases with all things, that his knowledge includes and 
embraces in perfection whatever is to be known of crea- 

Trans, viit.] 10 


74 | Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


tures either externally or internally, and that his power 
and wisdom pervade every organ and particle. 

Beloved, in proportion as a man analyzes the nature of 
his body and the variety of uses of its several members, his 
reverence and love for its Creator and Maker will increase, 
Let a man observe, for example, that his hands are made 
like columns and separated from the body, to serve as an 
instrument to seize, or take hold of, or to defend it from 
anenemy. At the extremity of the hands are five fingers, 
four of which are in a row, and some long and some short, 
so that when they take hold of anything, they may come 
equally together in the palm of the hand. The thumb, 
which is opposite to the four fingers, is shorter than any 
of them and stronger, that it may be a help to the whole 
and render them capable of retaining and grasping. The 
four fingers have three joints each, and the thumb has but 
two, that when contracted they may become like the bowl 
of a spoon or ladle, and that when open they may become 
like a plate, and so discharge an infinity of services. The 
front teeth were formed sharp, to cut and separate the food : 
the side teeth were formed broad to mash and grind the 
food. The tongue was formed like a spoon to throw the 
food into the throat. There is, also, under the tongue, an 
organ by which water is poured out, and the food is made 
of the consistence of dough, that it may be more easily 
swallowed and digested. All the organs, in short, have 
been devised with the best arrangement and form for use, 
and each one of them is punctual day and night in dis- 
charging its function. Think not, that they are lazy or 
sleeping. If the minds of the intelligent, the science of 
the learned, and the wisdom of the sage had been united 
and had been employed since the beginning of the world, 
in reflection and contrivance, they could not have discov- 
ered anything more excellent than the present arrange- 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. T5 


ment, nor any forms more useful and beautiful. If the 
eye had been attached to the top of the head, or the ear to 
the nape of the neck, or the mouth to the back of the body, 
or if three fingers had been given instead of four, it is plain 
to a person of intelligence that the existing advantages 
would not have been secured, and the present beauty of 
form and appearance would have been imperfect. 

Let us notice, also, the daily necessities of man, his need 
of food, of clothing and of a dwelling; his need of rain, 
clouds, wind, heat and cold: and that he needs the weaver, 

the cotton-spinner, the clothier and the fuller to provide 

him with clothing; and that each one of these has need of 
so many instruments, and of so many trades, like those of 
the blacksmith, the farmer, the carpenter, the dyer, and 
the tanner; and besides, their need of iron, lead, wood and 
the like. Notice at the same time, the adaptation of these 
workmen to their instruments, and of the instruments to 
the trades, and how each art has given rise to several 
others, and the mind is astonished and distracted. The 
adaptation of all these instruments comes from the pure 
grace and perfect mercy of God, and from the fountain of 
his benevolence. Moreover, God’s creating prophets, send- 
ing them to us, and leading us to their law and to love 
them, is a perfume of His universal beneficence. He pro- 
claims himself, “‘ My mercy surpasses my anger,” and the 
Prophet has said: “ Verily, God is more full of compassion 
to his servants, than the affectionate mother to her nursing 
child.” 

It has been shown that man from his own existence, 
knows the existence of his creator, that from his analysis 
of the materials of which his body is composed and of its 
distinctive characters he understands the almighty power 
of God, that from the uses, the arrangement and the com- 
bination of his organs, he knows the omniscient wisdom 
of God, and that his clemency and compassion extend to 


. 
me 
4 “" 


76 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


all. He knows, also, that these many mercies and boun- 
ties are bestowed upon him without his seeking or care, 
from God’s rich and overflowing grace. Now in this way 
it is possible that the knowledge of the soul should become 
the key to the knowledge of God. For just as from a sur- 
vey of your own being and attributes, you have in a con- 
tracted form learned the being and attributes of God, it is 
also possible to understand how the freedom and the holi- 
ness of God, bear a resemblance to the freedom of your 
soul. 

Know, that God exists exempt from and independent of 
the notions that enter the mind, and the forms that are 
produced in the imagination, that he is not subjected to 
reasoning, and time and place cannot be ascribed to him. 
Still his exercise of power and the manifestation of his 
glory is not independent of place. But in the same man- 
ner, this independence and freedom is possible in your 
soul. The spirit, for example, which we call heart is ex- 
empt from the entrance of fancies and imaginations, and 
also from size and divisibility. Nor has it form or color, 
for if it had, it could be seen by the eye, and would enter 
into the sphere of fancy and imagination, and its beauty or 
ugliness; its greatness or littleness would be known. If 
any one ask you about your soul, you may answer, “It 
exists by the will of God: it has neither quantity or phy- 
sical quality ; it is exempt from being known.” Beloved, 
since you are incapable of knowing the spirit which is in 
your body, how shouldit be possible for you to know God, 
who created spirits, bodies and all things, who is himself 
foreign to all of them, and who is not of their class and 
kind? It is one of the most important things, yea, a most 
necessary duty, to treat of God as holy, independent and 
free. 

How many things there are in your body in reference to 
which you do not know their reality and essence, such as 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 7T 


desire, love, misery and pleasure. Their existence is ad- 
mitted, but their quantity and quality cannot be measured. 
If you desire to learn the absolute truth about them, you 
cherish a vain longing; and it is the same, if you desire to 
know the absolute nature of voice, nutrition or hear- 
ing. As that which is perceived by the eye has no re- 
lation to voice, and as that which is perceived by the ear 
has no relation to form, and as that which is perceived by 
the sense of smelling has no relation to taste, so that the 
one can be known by means of the other, in the same man- 
ner that which is perceived through the medium of the 
mind or of divine power, cannot be perceived by the senses. 
Again, as the spirit exists and controls the body, and yet 
we know not the mode and essence of it, so God is present 
in all things, and controls and governs all things, but his 
form, essence and quality are exempt from being known. 
Exemption and freedom may be illustrated in still another 
manner. In the same way that the spirit pervades all the 
limbs and the body, and the body is entirely subject to its 
control, and that the spirit is indivisible, while the body is 
divisible, so also in relation to God, all that exists, springs 
from him, all creatures exist by his word, and in all possi- 
ble things his operations are seen, yet still he is not related 
to place, nor does he reason about anything, and he is free 
from relation or affinity to any quality of bodies or to 
quantity. | 

This topic of exemption and freedom, beloved, cannot 
be perfectly explained, until the mystery about the soul 
shall have been developed. The law, however, gives no 
permission to develop this secret, and it is not lawful to 
stretch out one’s hand to do what the legislator forbids. 
But the language of his excellency the glory of the world,’ 
** God created man in his own image,” cannot be explained 


? Mohammed. 


78 — Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


until the mystery about the nature of the soul or spirit has 
been explained. 

And now, student of the divine mysteries, that you have 
in general understood, as far as your mind can reach, the 
being and attributes of God, by having your own soul as 
an example, it is important that you should become ac- 
quainted with the influence of the word, government and 
sovereignty of God in the world. This is called knowledge 
of operation. You ought to understand, also, as far as rea- 
son can go, the government that he exercises over the 
body, so that you may comprehend in what way creatures 
obey the word and the will of God, in what way the angels 
by his decree convey their ministrations from heaven to 
earth, in what way the movements of the heavens and the 
revolutions of the constellations are effected, and what is — 
the key to the method by which the orders of demons are 
effected. But unless you know in what way you exercise 
authority over your body, what probability is there that 
you can understand how God exercises control over all 
things. 

«Know thyself, and thou shalt know thy Lord.’ Ob- 
serve then that when you desire to write upon paper the 
phrase, In the name of God, there arises first of all an in- 
clination and a decision in the heart to write it. Next in 
order, that inclination and decision by means of the animal 
spirit is carried to the brain. When that decision has 
reached the brain then the image of the phrase, Jn the name 
of God is formed in the faculty of imagination in the brain. 
Afterwards the image reaches a nerve resembling a white 
thread, and descends by means of it to the ends of the 
fingers. Finally by means of the senses the fingers 
write the phrase Jn the name of God, in the form in 
which by the will of the heart, it exists in the treasury of 
the imagination. Again, also, when the will of God is 
suspended to anything, a token of it rises and appears in 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 79 


the empyreal heaven. And there is an essence called both 
the Spirit of Power, and the Holy Spirit, by means of 
which it arrives at the throne in the heavens. As the 
phrase, In the name of G'od, appears in the treasury of the 
imagination, so the image of the thing dependent on the 
will of God appears upon the Preserved Tablet. The 
angels appointed to servein the empyrean and at the throne, 
cause it to descend to the inferior world, and by means of the 
periods and hours of the constellations, it is made to appear 
through the four elementary qualities — heat, cold, moist- 
ure and dryness. As the phrase Jn the name of God is 
written down by first dipping the pen in the ink, so the 
thing which God wills, comes to light by mixing heat and 
cold with water and earth. As paper is so adapted to writ- 
ing as to preserve the forms which are written upon it, so 
dryness and moisture are recipient of those other forms and 
preserve the images that are produced. If moisture did not 
exist, forms and images could not be preserved. In the 
same manner as by the will of the heart and by the method 
above mentioned, the image Jn the name of G'od, which is 
in the treasury of the imagination is painted with the pen 
upon paper, so also the will of God, which is an image 
produced upon the Preserved Tablet in the empyrean, is 
produced and made visible in the material world, by means 
of the angels, the constellations and the elemental qualities 
of water and earth. 3 

At the time when the heart of man had control over all 
the organs and members, and they were all obedient to it, 
some thought that man was a dweller in his own heart. 
When the empyrean in like manner, ruled over all things 
by the will of God, they reasoned that man was seated in 
the empyrean. But like as man has dominion over his 
own heart in the administration of his kingdom, the body, 
God also rules over the empyrean in the administration of 
the affairs of created beings, which he has committed to 


80 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


the empyrean. Thus God declares in his holy word, “ He 
sat upon the empyrean to govern the universe.”? You 
should know, also, that what we have been maintaining is 
convincingly established. It is known to men of penetra- 
tion by revelation. 

“ God created man in his own image.” What does this 
mean, and how is: it known to be true? Know, beloved, 
that the sovereign recognizes no other person except the 
sovereign himself. Ifthe Lord had not appointed you to 
be sovereign over the body as over a kingdom, if he had 
not confided to you the affairs of its government, and had 
not given you this brief copy as a model, how would you 
have been able to comprehend the sovereign, who is inde- 
pendent of reasoning and of place, and who cannot be 


known by argument or hypothesis or in any other way? © 


Thanks and praises be given to him who is without begin- 


ning and eternal, to him whois unceasingly beneficent, tohim 


who made you sovereign over yourself, who subjected your 
body to you for a kingdom, who made your heart to be an 
empyreal throne, and made the animal spirit which is the 
fountain of the heart, to bea seraphic messenger. He ap- 
pointed the brain to be the throne, and the treasury of the 
imagination to be the Preserved Tablet. He made the 
cupola of the brain, which is the source of the nerves and 
the mine of the faculties, to be like the vault of heaven and 
the stars. He appointed the fingers and the pen to serve 
the elemental qualities of nature, and subjected them to 
your order. He made you more excellent and noble than 
all other creatures, and to exercise rule over all possible 
things. He has bidden you to beware and not to be heed- 
less of your soul, which is your kindom and dominion: for 
to be regardless of your soul, is to be regardless of your 
Creator and Benefactor. | 


18, 10: 38. 


. 
| 
: 


. 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 81 


Know, however, that there is an immense distance and 
wide interval between perceiving the beauty of the Lord, 
and understanding that which constitutes its soul, marrow 
and essence. O seeker of the divine mysteries, those im- 
potent astrologers and physicists, who, shut out from the 
knowledge of God, ascribe changes and events to the 
stars and to nature, resemble an ant, that seeing a pen 
making marks upon paper, should be overjoyed and cry 
out, ‘‘I have found out the secret of the effect. Itis the 
pen that causes the marks.” This class of men in another 
point resembles the natural man, who ascribes the influ- 
ences in nature to heat and cold, water and earth: so a 
second ant looking on with attention, sees that the pen 
does not move of itself, but rather by the will of the hand: 
and he turns and says to the first ant, ‘‘ You were mistaken ; 
you did not perceive the real nature of the thing: you 
thought the marks and movements were caused by the pen. 
It is not so; the whole influence proceeds from the fingers 
and the pen is subject to the fingers.” Beloved, this ant 
resembles the astrologer, who ascribes effects to the con- 


_ stellations. He does not know that he also is mistaken, 


and that the stars and the constellations are subject to the 
angels, and that the angels can do nothing without the 
command of God. } 
In the same manner as there is falsity, in the way in 
which the material world is regarded by the natural man 
and the astrologer, there is also a diversity of views among 
those who survey the spiritual world. There are some 
who, just as they are upon the point of entering upon the 
vision of the spiritual world, seeing that they discover no- 
thing, descend back to their old sphere. There is also a 
difference of view between those who do succeed in reach- 
ing the spiritual or invisible world by meditation, for some 
have an immense amount of light veiled from them. Every 
Trans. viit.] 11 


82 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


one in the sphere to which he attains, is still veiled with a 
veil. The light of some is as of a twinkling star. Others 
seeas by the lightof the moon. Others are illuminated as 
if by the world-effulgent sun. To some the invisible world 
is even perfectly revealed, as we read in the holy word of 
God: “ And thus we caused Abraham to see the heaven 
and the earth.”! And hence it is that the prophet says, 
“There are before God seventy veils of light; if he should 
unveil them, the light of his countenance would burn 
everything that came into his presence.” ? 

Still the miserable naturalist, who ascribes effects to the 
influences of nature, speaks correctly. For, if natural 
causes had no operation, the art of medicine would have 
been useless, and the holy law would not have allowed to 
have recourse to medical treatment. The mistake which 
the naturalist makes, is that he contracts his sphere of vision, 
’ and is like the lame ass, that left his load at the first stop- 
ping place. He does not know that nature also is subjected 
to the hand of the power of God, and is a kind of humble 
servant, such as a shoe is to the ass. The astrologer also 
says, that the sun isa star, which causes heat and light 
upon the earth. If there had been no sun, the distinction 
between day and night would not have existed, and vege- 
tables and grain could not have been produced. The moon 
also is a star, and if there had been no moon, how many 
things connected with the requirements of the Law of the 
Koran, would have been impracticable, such as fasting, 
alms and pilgrimage, since there would have been no dis- 
tinction of weeks, months and years. The colors and per- 
fumes of herbs and fruits exist also from itsinfluence. The 
sun is warm and dry; the moon is cold and moist. Saturn 


"8.0: ran. 
?The author has commented upon this in his work, Meshkuwet el enwar 
we masnafat el esrar. Tr. 


er 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 83 


is cold and dry, Venus is warm and moist. And the school 
of astrologers is to be credited in these representations ; but 
when they ascribe all events to influences proceeding from 
the heavenly bodies, they are liars. They do not perceive 
that they all alike are subject to the almighty power of God 
as God says in his word: ‘And the sun, moon and stars 
are subject to his command.”? There is also an influence 
exercised by the stars, which resembles the control, exer- 
cised by the nerve that comes from the brain over the fin- 
ger in writing; while the force of nature is like the control 
exerted upon the pen by the finger. ... 

When the health of a person undergoes a change, and 
he becomes the prey of melancholy and suspicion, and the 
pleasures of the world become distasteful, so that from dis- 
gust with it, he withdraws from all society, his physician 
says, “this person is diseased with melancholy; he must 
take an infusion of dodder, of thyme and bark of endive as 
a medicine.” The naturalist says: ‘ As this person’s ma- 
lady is of a dry nature, it arises from a predominance ot 
dryness, which has settled on the brain. The occasion of 
his having a dry temperament is the season of winter. 
Until spring comes, and dry weather predominates, there 
is no possibility of a cure.” The astrologer says, “ this 
person being under the influence of melancholy, which 
arises from a hurtful conjunction between Mars and Jupi- 
ter, there will be no favorable change in his health until 
the conjunction of Jupiter with Venus shall have reached 
the Trine.”” Now know, beloved, that the language of all 
these persons is correct, for they all speak and believe ac- 
cording to the degree and reach of their reason and under- 
standing. However, the rea] and essential cause of the 
malady may be stated thus. When fortune is favorable 
to any person, and the Deity desires to guide him into the 


18. 16: 12. 


84 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


possession of it, he deputes two powerful ministers to that 
effect, Jupiter and Mars. These in turn, control the light 
footed ministers, the elements, and command dryness for 
example to fasten its bridle to the neck of the person, and 
cause dryness to attack his head and brain. He is thus 
made to become weary of the world by means of the scourge 
of melancholy and suspicion, and so with the bridle of the 
will may be impelled towards the Deity. These circum- 
stances can never be understood in this sense, either by 
medicine, or by nature, or by the stars. One may, how- 
ever, learn to understand them by knowledge and the pro- 
phetic power combined. For they embrace the whole 
kingdom of the universe with its deputies and servants, 
and possess the knowledge of the end for which every- 
thing was created: they know to whose command all things 
are subjected, to what men are invited and what they 
are forbidden to do. 

The Lord invites the servants whom he loves to the con- 
templation of his glory, at one time by sending misfortune 
and affliction, and at another by melancholy and sickness: 
and he says to them, ‘‘ my servants, what you regard as mis- 
fortune and affliction, is but the bridle of my love, by which 
I draw those whom I love to a spirit of holy submission, 
and to my Paradise.” It is also found in a tradition that 
‘‘misfortune is first of all the lot of the prophets, then of 
the saints and then of those who are like them in succes- 
sive lower degrees. Look not then upon these things as 
maladies, for they are my favored servants.” 

O seeker after the divine secrets, now that you have 
learned that within the body of man, there is a sovereign 
who possesses. and controls it, it is time that you should 
learn the meaning of the sentences, ‘‘ Glory to God,”’ “ God 
be praised,” “‘ There is no God but God,” and “ God is the 
greatest.” These sentences are very current on the tongues 
of men, but they do not know the signification of them. 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 85 


Although these four sentences are in appearance very short, 
yet there are no others that embrace so much of the know- 
ledge of God. Since from the consideration of the free- 
dom and independence of your own spirit, you have learned 
the freedom and independence of God, you have in conse- 
quence learned the meaning and import of the sentence, 
‘‘Glory to God.” Seeing that from the sovereignty which 
you exercise over your own spirit, you have learned the 
sovereignty which God exercises, and know that all causes 
and instruments are subject to his power, and that all out- 
ward and inward mercies, which are incalculable and in- 
numerable, are from him, you therefore know the meaning 
and import of the phrase, “‘ God be praised.” As you know 
also that all things are of his creation, that his government 
extends over all things, and that without his will no motion 
or change can affect any thing, you see the meaning of the 
words, ‘‘ There isno God but God.” Listen now to the ex- 
planation of the sentence, ‘“‘ God is the greatest. ”’ 

Do not suppose that, from all that has hitherto been 
said, you can understand the greatness of God. His great- 
ness and power are above and beyond the comprehension 
of the mind and wisdom of man. Moreover the phrase 
“ God is the greatest”’ does not mean that God is larger 
than other things: it is a sin to indulge in such a belief. 
It is as much as to say, that there are large things, but that 

God is larger than they are. The holy meaning of the 
phrase “‘ God is the greatest’ is that God is so great, that 
he cannot be known or comprehended by the mind or un- 
derstanding, or be compared with any thing,—that the 
knowledge of God cannot be attained by means of the know- 
ledge which a man has of his own soul (which God forbid! ), 
that a knowledge of his attributes cannot be attained from 
a knowledge of the attributes of man, and that his inde- 
pendence and holiness cannot be compared with the inde- 
pendence and holiness of man in any form whatever. God 


86 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


forbid that His sovereignty and government should be com- 
‘pared and measured. The doctors of the law have been al- 
lowed however, in the way of illustration to explain in a 
certain degree the knowledge, power, excellence and sove- 
reignty of God to man, who is frail and weak in under- 
standing. 

Thus, let us suppose that a person had been born and 
brought up in darkness, where he had never seen the rays 
or light of the sun, but had merely heard a description of 
the sun. If sucha person should ask to have the light and 
mode of shining of the sun explained to him, how would it 
be possible in any way to explain to him what it is? If 
however, there should happen to be in that dark place 
many glow worms, the person addressed, taking one of 
them up in his hands, might say, “ the light of the sun re- 
sembles this,”’ although in reality it has not a particle or 
an atom of resemblance. Takeanother example: suppose 
a child incapable of making distinctions, should inquire of 
us about the pleasure derived from exercising authority 
andsovereignty. We, knowing the impossibility of explain- 
ing the matter to him, might answer that the pleasure of 
ruling was like that obtained from playing with nuts or at 
ball, although it does not resemble them in any particular. 
From these examples we may learn that it is impossible 


for any being, except God himself, to know God. “ God 


is witness! God is witness! No one knows God, except 
God himself. ” 

Finally, seeker after divine mysteries, know that the paths 
to the knowledge of God, are as numerous as the souls of 
creatures, and their number is known to God alone. But 
we have spoken so much as is found above, for the sake of 
both warning and stimulating the seeker after the know- 
ledge and love of God. 

The happiness of man consists in the knowledge, obedi- 
ence and worship of God. Only a little previously we have 


Pa a a ae _——— ™ 


eg a a 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. . 87 


shown, how it is that man’s happiness consists in the know- 
ledge of God. We now proceed to observe, that it is an 
argument to prove that the happiness of man consists in 
obedience and devotion, the fact that when a man dies, his 
destination is to return to where God is. Every thing 
which concerns man is with God, and his works will all be 
presented before Him. Whenever all the affairs of a per- 
son are in the hands of another, and his employments and 
his home are with him — when he is near to him and con- 
tinually has need of bim, there will be perfect harmony be- 
tween the two, and abiding friendship and love. Whoever 
be the person whom we love, we shall find our happiness 
with him. There is nothing more delightful than to meet 
with and look upon an object that we love. But we ought 
to know that the love of God will never reign in the heart 
of aman until first the knowledge of God reigns there, and 
until the remembrance of God becomes unceasing. If one 
individual love another, he is continually thinking of him, 
and by this continual remembrance, his love is increased. 

The remembrance of God will be predominant in the 
heart that is always engaged in devotion: and the heart 
will be engaged in devotion and worship, whenever it 
withdraws from worldly lusts and sensual pleasures: it 
will withdraw from worldly lusts, when it refrains from 
sins. To abstain from sins of rebellion, brings peace to 
the heart: to be constant in worship, is a means of remem- 
brance of God; and» both are a means of growing in the 
love of God, which is the seed of happiness. And so the 
Lord speaks in his word : ‘‘ Blessed is the man who keeps 
himself pure, who repeats the name of the Lord and 
prays.” 1 

Know also that all our acts cannot be devotional. Those 
acts only are devotional which harmonize with the law. 


18. 84: 14, 15. 


88 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


But it is not possible to be totally exempt from sensuous 
passions, for if the body should be deprived of food and 
drink for example, it would perish. There is occasion 
therefore for making distinctions between our acts; but 
these distinctions, the individual is not capable of making for 
himself, because the animal soul necessarily casts a veil 
over the truth and inclines it to vanity. On this account 
we are obliged to follow after and imitate others — such 
persons as the prophets. They have been purified and 
enlightened by the eternal Truth Himself, and have been 
sent forth to communicate precepts and laws, and to de- 
cide upon all circumstances. Every one is therefore bound 
to imitate them within the limits of the law, and in the 
regulation of his moral conduct, that he may attain felicity 
and be preserved from danger of eternal destruction. 

- Those careless and indifferent persons, O seeker after 
the divine mysteries, who from ignorance, stupidity and 
sin have turned away from God and his prophet, and have 
wandered from the path of religion, may be arranged in 
seven classes. 

To the first class belong those who do not believe in 
God. They had desired to find him out in his essence and 
attributes, by speculations and fancies, by comparisons and 
illustrations. And because they have not succeeded in 
understanding him, they have referred his acts and his gov- 
ernment to the stars and tonature. They have fancied that 
the soul of man and of other animals, and this wonderful 
world with its marvellous arrangements came of themselves, 
and that they are eternal; or that they are effects from na- 
tural causes, and that there is no creator beyond the sphere 
of the world. This class of people resembles the man who 
seeing a writing, fancies that it was written of itself, and 
infers that it was not written by a penman or by a super- 
natural power: or else that it is eternal and that no.one 
knows whence it comes, It is impossible to recover from 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 89 


the path of delusion, persons whose ignorance, error and 
stupidity have reached such a degree as this. 

The second class of errorists are those who deny a day of 
resurrection andassembly. Theyallege that man and other 
animals are like vegetables, and do not enter into another 
body when theydie. They say, that aresurrection, in which 
spirits and bodies shall be reassembled in one place, is im- 
possible, and that there will be neither discipline or pun- 
ishment, recompense or reward. The errors of this sect 
arise from their inability to understand of themselves their 
own souls. They imagine that the spirit is an animal spirit | 
only, and that the heart, which is in reality the spirit of 
man, is the place for the knowledge of God, and that no 
evil can happen to it. except that it will be separated from 
the body. They call this separation, death. This sect is 
unconcerned about this spirit, and in proof of this we shall 
discourse, if it please God, in the fourth chapter. 

The third class of errorists are those who indeed believe 
in God and a future life, but whose faith is weak, because 
they do not understand the requirements of thelaw. They 
say that “‘ God is able to do without our worship. There 
is neither any profit to God from our worship, or any injury 
done him by our disobedience. If we worship God, we 
shall learn what good it did in the future world; and if we 
do not worship him, there -will neither be any advantage 
orharm. God himself so declares in his holy word, ‘‘ Who- 
soever keep himself pure, does it for his own advantage,” ! 
and in another place, “ He who does well, does it for his 
own profit.””? Although it is better to worship God, yet 
as God has no need of our worship, therefore if we do not 
worship him, what harm is there in it?” These ignorant 
people resemble the sick man, who when the physician 
says to him, “ you should be abstinent, if you wish to be 


18-35-19. 28. 41: 46. 
Trans. vw. | 12 


90 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


cured of your malady,” should answer,“ what advantage ° 


is it to you whether I am abstinent or not”? Now though 
the sick man is right when he says that there is no advan- 
tage to the physician from his abstinence, yet if he’is not 
abstinent, he will perish. This class regards obedience and 
transgression as of the same degree in value. But in the 
same manner as disease may occasion a man’s destruction, 
so transgression defiles the heart, and will cause it to ap- 
pear in the future world in a state of woe. And just as 
abstinence and medicine restore the body to health, so to 
avoid acts of transgression and sin and to be obedient to 
God, are means of securing salvation. 

The fourth class of men who indulge in error, are those 
who indeed receive the law, but in some peculiar and 
erroneous sense. They wrongly say, ‘‘ The law commands 
us to keep our hearts pure from pride, envy, hatred, anger 
and dissimulation. But this is a thing which it is impos- 


sible to do. For the soul has been created with these 


qualities and affections, and human nature cannot be 
changed. It is just as impossible to make a black material 
white by scraping it, as for the human heart to be free from 
these qualities.” These ignorant men do not know and 
understand, that the law does not command that these 
qualities should be entirely effaced and expelled from the 
heart, but rather requires that they should be brought under 
subjection to the heart and the reason, to the end that they 
may not act presumptuously, go beyond the limits set by 
the law, and indulge in mortal sins. It is possible even to 
change these qualities, by doing only what reason requires, 
and by respecting the restrictions of the law. Manydevout 
men in past times have secured this change of the affections 
of the soul. These qualities once existed in the prophet 
of God, but they were corrected, as we learn from the tradi- 
tion: “Iam aman like you. I become angry, as a man 
becomes angry.” And God speaks in his holy word of 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 91 


*‘ those who control their wrath, and who pardon the men 
who offend them.”! Notice, that in his eternal word, God 
praises those who dissipate their anger and irritation: he 
does not praise those who had no anger or rage, since man 
cannot be without them. 
The fifth class of persons in error are those who say 
that, “ God is merciful and ready to pardon, loving and 
compassionate, and more pitiful to his servants than a father 
and mother to their children, and therefore he will pardon 
our faults and cover our transgressions.” They do not 
consider that notwithstanding God is bounteous and mer- 
ciful, there are still multitudes of poor and miserable peo- 
ple in the world, multitudes who are infirm and helpless, 
and many who are subjected to suffering. This is a mys- 
tery which is known only to God. But it shows us, that 
though God is disposed to cover and hide sin, still he is an 
absolute sovereign and anavenger. While he is bounteous 
and beneficent, he is at the same time dreadful in his chas- 
tisements: while he is a benefactor, and provides the neces- 
saries of life, at the same time he who does not seek to 
gain, obtains no store: and he who is not industrious, ac- 
complishes nothing in the world. Beloved, these ignorant 
men, in the affairs of the world, in their schemes of living, 
and in their business, manifest no trust in the bounty of 
God, nor do they leave off for one moment their buying 
and selling, their trades or their farming, although God has 
decreed the means of their existence many years before they 
were born, and has made himself surety that it should be 
provided for them. Hé announces in his eternal word and 
book of mighty distinctions, that “ there is no creature on 
the earth, for whom God has not taken upon himself to 
provide nourishment.” ? Still they make not the least ex- 
ertion in reference to their relations and condition in eter- 


18.3: 128. Vortt >. 8. 


92 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


nity, but merely rely upon the mercy of God, notwithstand- 
ing God declares in his holy word, “‘ man can have nothing 
without exertion.’’ 1 When they say that God is gracious 
and merciful, they speak correctly. But they are not aware 
that Satan is deceiving them with it, hindering them from 
obedience and worship, and preventing them from en- 
gaging in that cultivation and commerce that would pre- 
pare them for eternity. 

The sixth class who indulge in error, are those who, ex- 
alted with pride, think that they have already attained and 
are perfect: and they say, “ we have reached such a state 
that transgressions do us no harm: we are like the sea, 
which is not polluted by filth falling into it.” These fool- 
ish people are so ignorant, that they do not know that‘ to 
be like the sea,” means to attain such a degree of calm 
that no wind can put them in movement and that nothing 
can cause any perturbation in their minds. These persons 
on the contrary, if an individual fail to treat them with 
honor and respect, or if in conversation the individual do 
not address them as, my lord or dear sir, or speak a word 
that touches their reputation, they bear him a grudge fora 
long time, and even perhaps attempt to do him an injury. 
And if a person take a piece of money or a morsel of bread 
from them, the world becomes too straight for them, and 
every thing looks dark. These foolish people have not 
even yet reached manhood. They are weak in their own 
souls, and are in subjection like slaves to passion and anger. 
If it were not so, how could they be so inconsiderate and 
presumptuous? Beloved, the falsehood and error of these 
people appear from this consideration. When inadver- 
tently any of the prophets fell into sin, even a little and 
venial sin, they would spend years in mourning and lament- 
ation over it, and occupied themselves in endeavors to obli- 


1§. 58: 40. 


 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 98 


terate their faults, and to obtain pardon and forgiveness. 
Filled with fear and dread, they became blind from their 
tears; from their long continuing perturbation and dis- 
traction of mind, you would think they had lost the use of 
their reason. As for the companions of the prophet, and 
their immediate successors who were faithful witnesses 
for the truth and the beloved of God, they were so afraid 
in their suspiciousness of doing wrong, that they abstained 
in their anxiety, from doing even what was lawful. Do 
not these ignoramuses know that their degree of attain- 
ment does not equal that of the prophets and apostles, and 
that they are even at a great distance from them? Why 
then do they not shrink in fear and awe from the shining 
vengeance of the glorious God ? 

If they urge, however, that the transgressions of the pro- 
phets were doing them no injury, but that they were exer- 
cising prudence and carefulness for the sake of other people, 
we then reply, that you also ought to be careful, lest other 
people seeing your actions, should imitate your example. 
And if they respond, we do not belong to the rank of pro- 
phets, that men should walk in our steps, or that any injury 
should befall us, on account of the sins which they may 
commit, we would again reply, that it is better that no in- 
jury should come to you in consequence of the sins done 
from imitating you, than that injury should not befall the 
prophets from the sins done in consequence of imitating 
them; for they are the praised and accepted servants of 
God; their earlier and their later sins have been pardoned, 
and they are blessed in Paradise. Why, then, was it so 
necessary that they should abstain from forbidden things, 
from things of a doubtful nature and even from permitted 
things? It is said that one day some ripe dates were 
brought to the prophet, and he took one and put it in 
his blessed mouth. But immediately a doubt entered his 
mind, as tothe manner in which the dates had been obtained, 


94 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


and he took it out of his blessed mouth and would not eat it. 
On another occasion a cup of milk was brought to the 
faithful witness Aboo Bekir by his slave, and he took it 
and drank it. After drinking it, he inquired, “ where did 
you get the milk ?” The slave said, ‘I told a man his 
fortune, and he gave me the milk in return.” As soon as 
the faithful witness heard this, he frowned severely upon 
his servant, inserted his blessed finger down his mouth, and 
threw up the whole of the milk, so that none of it remained 
on his stomach. He then said, “I fear that if any of the 
milk should remain on my stomach, God would expel 
knowledge and love from my heart.” Now what harm 
could result to other people from their eating those dates 
or drinking that milk, that they should have been so care- 
ful about such little things? And since they did abstain 
from such little things, regarding them as injurious, how 
should it be otherwise than injurious to these foolish people 
to drink wine, in full bowls and even by the jar full ? 

They know that the wisdom, piety and abstinence of the 
prophets and saints were not less than theirown. Can 
there be any.more astonishing folly than that of these men 
who dare to compare themselves with the sea, because they 
are not disturbed by drinking several bowls of wine, while 
they compare the prophet of God, to a little water, which 
is changed in its taste by a single date? They are just 
worthy that Satan should seize hold of them by the beard 
and mustachios, and drag them after him both in this world 
and the next, making them a shame and reproach. 

Now the faithful, truthful and experienced in religion, 
who are mindful that the soul is treacherous, deceptive, 
perfidious, malicious and false, always watch carefully over 
their own souls, lest they should do something that tran- 
scends the commands of the law, or that is contrary to rea- 
son. The soul is always disposed to say to itself, ‘I am 
obedient to the truth: I am submissive tothe holy law: 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 95 


and I am well instructed in knowledge.” But thou, with- 
out being puffed up by this deceitful language of the soul, 
must constantly look to all its thoughts and states. If it is 
walking in the path of the law and of the prophets and | 
saints, it is well! and happy is he that is faithful to his — 
word! But if the soul begin to have an inclination for 
self-indulgence, to explain away or exceed the limits of the 
law and to contradict clear and plain knowledge, you must 
regard it as a machination of the devil and a temptation 
to the soul. In short, man, until he descends to the grave, 
must always watch over his soul with attention, to discover 
in what degree it is obedient to the holy law and in har- 
mony with knowledge. Whoever does not thus watch over 
and guard himself, is most surely in a delusion and in the 
way of ajust destruction. It is the first step in Islamism, 
that a man should keep his soul subject to the law. 

The seventh form of error, beloved, is that of the class 
whose mistakes arise from ignorance and carelessness, 
while they have never heard any thing of these doubts of 
which we have been speaking. They merely wear the 
garments, cap and quilted robes of the mystics (soofees), 
and after learning some of their words and phrases, they 
pretend to have attained saintship and supernatural powers. 
And although apparently they have no evil intentions, yet 
because they do not properly respect the holy law, but 
practice their devotions in a lax way, their course leads 
them to corrupt doctrines and errors. They are always in- 
clined to do whatsoever their corrupt disposition would lead 
them to do, such as yielding to the love of frivolous prac- 
tices, or to sensual indulgences, or assenting to transgression 
andsin. Inthepresence of the multitude, they putonaholy 
mien and do not approve of error and sin, but they do not 
withdraw their hearts from the pleasure of wine, nor from 
adulterous and licentious society, nor withdraw their hands 
from the business of gaining the world. Although in 


96 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


these associations there may be no overt sin, yet they do 
not consider that such thoughts are but satanic suggestions 
and sensual importunities. They are not capable of dis- 
tinguishing actions and circumstances, or right and wrong. 
Beloved, to this class belong those of whom God declares 
in his holy word,‘ We have covered their hearts with more 
than one envelop, that they may not understand the Koran 


and we have put deafness upon their ears. Even if thou 


shouldst call them to the right way, they would never fol- 


low it.” ! It is better to talk with a sword, than to talk 


with this class of people, for they are not open to con- 
WIOLION.'.: 4 


CHAPTER III.—ON KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD. 


Know, that this world is one stage of our life for eter- 
nity. For those who are journeying in the right way, it is 
the road of religion. Itis a market opened in the wilder- 
ness, where those who are travelling on their way to God, 
may collect and prepare provisions for their journey, and 
depart thence to God, without sorrow or despondency. 

Know, that the state previous to death is called the 
world, because mortality is close at hand. The state after 
death is called the future, because its rest is permanent. 
The purpose and design of the world, is to afford an op- 
portunity to make provision for the future, to acquire know- 
ledge, and to worship God. Man as at first created, was 
destitute of works, and void of perfection: but he was made 


18.18: 55, 56. 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 97 


capable of reaching perfection and attaining felicity, so 
that while in a material world he could look forward to a 
spiritual world, understand whence he came, whatare his du- 
ties, that he is soon to depart, and might be always ready. 
Man’s felicity, which consists in the contemplation of the 
beauty of God, cannot be vouchsafed to him, until the eye 
of his judgment is opened. But the eye of judgment is 
opened by the contemplation of the works of God, and by 
understanding his almighty power. The contemplation of” 
the works of God is by means of the senses, which become 
the key to all knowledge of God. The senses subsist by 
means of the body, and the body is composed of four dif- 
ferent elements. Those therefore who are endowed with 
understanding, conscious of the frailty of their bodies 
should make all diligence to quit this kingdom of corruption 
and to enter permanently into the unchanging kingdom. 

Know, O inquirer after the divine secrets, that there are 
two things needful to manin this world; first of all, he 
needs to acquire spiritual food to preserve his heart from 
perishing. The aliment of the heart consists in the love 
and knowledge of God; for whatever is a necessity of the 
nature of any one, that he loves, as we have before men- 
tioned. The ruin of the soul consists in the predominance 
of some other love over the love of God, which veils the 
divine love. Our refuge isin God ! 

The second thing needful for a man is, that the body 
should be preserved and tended with care, since it is 
the frame of the heart. As a camel is to a pilgrim, 
so the body is like an animal upon which the heart rides. 
The pilgrim is obliged to give food and water to his camel, 
and to treat it with attention, that he may reach the end of 
his journey in safety, and by its means be successful in the 
object for which he travels. But the attention bestowed by 

Trans. viit.] 13 


98 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


the pilgrim upon his camel, should be only in that propor- 
tion which is really necessary. If he should be busy with 
his camel day and night, and should expend all his capital 
in feeding it, he would not reach his destination, but would 
ultimately become separated from his caravan, would lose 
all that he possessed, and in view of the injury he had sus- 
tained, he would be the victim of unceasing regrets, and 
ruin would ensue. Just so is it with man in general. If 
he pass all his days in attending to the preservation of 
the body, and spend the capital of his life, in providing 
food and drink for the body, he will not reach the mansions 
of felicity, but will wander in the wilderness of destruction, 
without capital, penniless and a naked vagabond. 

Now the body needs in this world three things, one is 
food, another is clothing, and the third is a home: and by 
means of these, it can be preserved from injury and ruin. 
If the food provided for the body is excessive, the body will 
be destroyed: but let the food provided for the spirit be 
ever so much, still is it well. On account, therefore, of 
man’s need of clothing and food, God has appointed sensu- 
ous desire to act as a commissary, that the animal, that is, 
the body, may not perish from hunger, cold or heat. But 
as desire, under the control of the animal soul, would not 
be satisfied with a sufficient quantity, but would crave to 
spend its life in eating and drinking, God afterwards com- 
mitted the animal soul into the charge of the reason, that 
desire might not transgress the proper limits. Yet as the 
animal soul and desire, on account of their intimate rela- 
tions with the body, are so essential to it, their influence 
would still have been predominant. But God, the holy de- 
fender, in accordance with his bounteousness and grace, 
(‘my mercy has surpassed my anger,’’) has sent his law by 
the tongues of prophets, that it might become strength to 
the reason, and prevent the animal soul and desire from 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 99 


passing beyond ‘the due limits, and on the contrary might 
dispose the soul to rest satisfied with the degree of energy 
and force necessary for it, and by learning the design for 
which it had come into the world, might spend its days ac- 
cordingly. 

After you haye learned, O student of the divine mys- 
teries, what this world in its meaning really is, it is import- 
ant that you should look at the world in detail, Every 
thing in the world of matter which grows, has been in- 
cluded under three classes, animal, vegetable and mineral, 
which are called the three generations or kingdoms. An- 
imals were created some for riding, some for food, and some 
for tilling. Vegetables were created to afford food and 
‘conveniences to man, and sustenance to various animals. 
Minerals, like gold, silver, copper and iron, were created to 
serve as instruments to provide means of sustaining life in 
man. It was designed that by means of these three king- 
doms, the spirit of man, while dwelling fora few days in the 
body, should be employed in making preparation for the 
future world. Man, however, forgetful of the end for 
which he had come hither, heedless of the fact that he was 
soon to depart, and that he would then repent to find that 
he was going unprepared, became engaged in strife with 
his fellowsabout the things of the world, fellin love with 
its ways, and attempted to gain its wealth. In consequence 
various qualities began to appear in the heart, such as 
avarice, envy, ambition and hatred, which are sources of 
its ruin. Finally the heart, forgetful of the duties for the 
performance of which it had come into the world, exhausted © 
all its energies in building up the world. 

As man’s primary necessities in the world are three, viz: 
clothing, food and shelter, so the arts of the world are 
three, viz: weaving, planting and building. The rest of 
the arts serve either for the purpose of perfecting the others, 
or for repairing injuries. Thus the spinner aids the work 


100 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


of weaving, the tailor carries out that work to perfection, 
while the cloth-dresser adds beauty to the work. In the 
arts, there is need of iron, skins and wood, and for these 
many instruments are necessary. .No person is able to 
work at all kinds of trades, but by the will of God, upon 
one is devolved one art and upon another two, and the 
whole community is made dependent, one member upon 
the other. When avarice, ambition and covetousness hold 
sway in the hearts of men, because some are not pleased to 
see others obtain honors, and because they do not endeavor 
to quell their wants, envy and hatred arise among them. 
Each one, dissatisfied with his own rights, plots against the 
property and honor of his fellows. On this account there 
was a necessity for three farther distinctions, viz: sove- 
reignty, judicial authority, and jurisprudence, which con- 
tains the digest of the law. But alas! poor and wretched 
man coming under the influence of all these causes, motives 
and instruments, spends his life in collecting wealth and lays 
up for himself sources of regret. And just as the pilgrim, 
who on his way to the Kaaba of Mecca, was engaged day 
and night in taking care of his camel, got separated from 
the caravan, and perished in the desert, so those who know 
not the real nature of the world and its worthlessness, and 
do not understand that it is the place where seed is sown 
for eternity, but spend all their thoughts upon it, are cer- 
tainly fascinated and deceived; as the apostle of God de- 
clares. “The world is more enchanting than Harout and 
Marout : let men beware of it.’”? 

After you have learned that the world is delusive, en- 
chanting and treacherous, you need to know in what way 
its delusions and enchantment operate. I will, therefore, 
mention some things which are illustrative of the world. 
The world, beloved, is like an enchanter, who exhibits him- 


1 Teachers of arts of enchantment. 


a) a ee —=_ 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 101 


self to you as though he would dwell with you and would 
forever be at your side; while in truth this world is always 
upon the point of being snatched away from you, notwith- 
standing you are tranquilly unconscious of it. The world 
is like a shadow, which, while you look at it, seems fixed, 
although in reality, itis in motion. Life is like a running 
water, which is always advancing, yet you think that it is 
still and permanent, and you wish to fix your abode by 
it. The world again is like an enchanter who performs 
for you acts of friendship and manifests love for you, for 
the sake of winning your affections to him: but as soon as 
he has secured your love, he turns away his face from you 
and plots to destroy you.... 

The world resembles those imposters, who decorate them- 
selves externally and conceal the sorrows and curse they 
bring, while the ignorant, looking only at the outside, are 
fascinated and deluded. The world resembles the old wo- 
man who arrayed herself in silk stuffs and flowered bro- 
cades, and with ornaments, and covered her head with a 
beautiful embroidered veil, so that those who should see 
her from a distance, and notice only her garments and her 
form, might be deceived. And whenever she has suc- 
ceeded in inducing a person to follow after her and to de- 
cide upon joining himself to her, she takes off her robes 
from her back and her veil from her head, and immedi- 
ately her concealed ugliness is brought to light, and the 
person who had been seeking her, becomes subject to eter- 
nal regret and sorrow. We have received it also by tradi- 
tion, that the world will be brought to the great assembly 
at the last day, in the form of a woman with livid eyes, 
pendent lips, and deformed shape, and all the people will 
look upon her, (we take refuge in God,) and will exclaim, 
“what deformed and horrible person is that, whose aspect 
alone is severe torture to the soul?” And they will be an- 
swered. ‘It was on her account that you were envying and 


102 Ghazezali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


hating one another, and were ready toslay oneanother. It 
was on her account that you rebelled against God, and de- 
based yourselves to every sort of cofruption.”” And then 
God will order her to be driven off to hell with her fol- 
lowers and her lovers... . 

Know, that the world consists of a certain number of 
stages between the world of spirits and the future world. 
The first stage is the cradle, and the last is the grave, and 
every period between these is also a stage. Hach month 
represents a league, each hour a mile, and each breath a 
step. Itis always flowing on like running water. Manin 
his excessive heedlessness thinking himself to be perma- 
nently established, engages in building up the world: and 
though he has no assurance ofa half-hour of time, he makes 
preparations for dwelling here for many years, aud never 
once brings himself to make the necessary preparation for 
dislodging and moving to another land, — 

Behold, another likeness of the world. Know, beloved, 
that the pleasures of the world, and the pains and tribula- 
tions which are the counterpart to these pleasures in the 
future world, resemble the man who should eat very largely 
of rich and delicate food and find great delight therein: 
but on account of his excesses, he suffers from indigestion, 
his stomach is irritated, vomiting and sickness ensue and 
he has a great deal to endure before he can recover his 
health. Herepents of what he has been eating, and in pro- 
portion as he ate extravagantly, and found enjoyment, he 
now suffers corresponding pain and disappointment. Now 
then, in proportion as any one in the world has indulged in 
the pleasures of life and dissipation, so much the greater 
will be his anguish and torment at the moment of death. 
He who possesses gardens and fields, house, lands, and — 
money, servants and horses, will be subject to regret and 
affliction at death, in proportion to their amount. This 
misery does not close with death, but on the contrary after- 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 103 


wards increases. The Lord Jesus (upon whom be peace!) 
declares that the world is like the man who drinks sea- 
water. The more he drinks, the more his internal heat in- 
creases. And unless he stops, he will destroy himself by 
drinking. . 

Man in this world resembles the guest who was invited 
to partake of the hospitality of a rich man. In token of 
respect, the servants set before him silver washing-basins, 
vessels of costly stones, perfumes of musk and amber with 
chafing dishes. The poor guest is overjoyed at the sight 
of these things, thinking that they have been made his own 
property, and he lays hold of them with the intention of re- 
taining them. The next day, when heis upon the point of 
departure, they are all taken from him by force, and the 
measure of his disappointment and regret is clear to every 
person of discrimination. Seeing that this world is itself a 
mansion built for travellers, by the road over which they 
are to pass, that they may make a halt, and lay in provisions 
preparatory to leaving it again, he is a wise guest who does 
not lay his hand upon other things than his necessary pro- 
visions, lest on the morrow when about to move on, they 
take them out of his hands, and he expose himself to regret 
. and sorrow. 

The people of this world are also like the passengers in 
a ship, who while sailing upon the sea, arrive at an island. 
The sailors draw the ship to the shore, and then call out and 
say, “‘ whoever wishes for water or other provisions, let him 
leave the ship and go and procure them: let him not delay, 
for the ship will notremain long. It is besides a dangerous 
place, and whoever remains here will perish.” After re- 
ceiving this warning, the passengers leave the ship, and are 
all scattered about, one in this direction and another in that. 
The wise passengers, remembering the admonition of the 
sailors, attended quickly to their affairs, and immediately 


104 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


returned to the ship. They selected,the places in the ship 
that pleased them best, and sat down calm and tranquil. 
Some of the passengers, however, gazed at the trees, the 
flowers and the fruits of the island, listened to and admired 
the notes of the birds, and became absorbed in looking at 
the wonderful curiosities found there. They delayed so 
long, that when they came to the ship, they found every 
place in the ship occupied, and no room for them to sit down. 
They finally entered, and found a corner with great diffi- 
culty, where they could just press themselves in. Others, 
not satisfied with gazing around, loaded themselves with 
stones that had the appearance of being precious, and after 
a time returned to the ship. They found it completely 
full, and absolutely no place to sit down. After they had 
entered, they were compelled from necessity to stow them- 
selves in a dark place at the bottom. As for the stones 
which they had thought were jewels, they lost their color, 
putrefied, and sent forth such a disagreeable odor, as to af- 
fect the passengers to nausea. It was impossible to expel 
the odor and they remained to the last with its disagreea- 
bleness in the midst of them. Others still took so much 
pleasure in looking about the island, that they said to them- 


selves, ‘‘ where shall we be able to finda more delightful re-_. 


treat than this? It is not clear that the place where we are 
going is better than this.” And so they chose to remain 
there; and after the departure of the ship some of them per- 
ished with hunger and thirst, and some were devoured by 
wild beasts. Not one of them was saved. In the future 
world they will certainly suffer pain and retribution. 

Do not suppose, beloved, that every thing in the world is 
to be despised; for there are some things that are estima- 
ble and valuable, which belong to the world: viz: know- 
ledge, worship, war in defence of the faith, and abstinence : 
and also asufliciency of food, drink and clothing, marriage, 


ee a ee 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 105 


domestic shelter and other things; seeing that they are 
helps on the journey to the future world and in the path of 
knowledge, they are all of them exceedingly important and 
necessary. Delight in knowledge, delight in worship, de- 
light in prayer and delight in communion with God are 
things of this world, but still they are for the sake of 
the future world. It follows, therefore, that the pleasures 
of the world are not all of them blamable, but only those 
which entail punishment in the future world, or which are 
not in the path to paradise, and so the apostle declares, 
“The world is a curse and all that is in it is a curse, ex- 
cept the remembrance of God and that which is the 
object of his love.” 


CHAPTER IV.—ON KNOWLEDGE OF THE FUTURE WORLD. 


Know, beloved, that we cannot understand the future 
world, until we know what death is: and we cannot know 
what death is, until we know what life is: nor can we un- 
derstand what life is, until we know what the spiritis. . . . 

If youwish, O student of the mysteries of God, to learn 
the essential facts about death, you must know that there 
are in man two kinds of spirit, one of which is of the na- 
ture of the spirit in animals and which we call animal spirit, 
and the other is of the nature of the spirit of angels, which 
we call human spirit. The fountain of the animal spirit is 
in that heart which is in the left side of the breast, and is 
a piece of flesh. It is a delicate exhalation from the hu- 
mors within the animal. Its constitution is fixed in certain 

Trans. viti.] 14 


106 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


proportions, just as is that of oxymel, which is composed 
oj honey and vinegar that on being mixed, while they lose 
their own flavor, acquire anew, delicate and useful flavor, 
so also, by the blending of the various elements of the body, 
a delicate exhalation is the result, which finds its home in 
the heart. It gains other delicate qualities from the heart, 
and from thence the blood channels, which are the veins of 
pulsation, are supplied. The exhalation passes by their 
means to the brain and from thence flows to all the mem- 
bers. It is exceedingly hot, but in its passage to the brain, 
it loses some of its heat and becomes tepid. By the distri- 
bution of this spirit through the body, the eye sees, the ear 
hears, the tongue tastes, the nose smells, and the rest of 
the organs are endowed with their proper movements and 
perform their appropriate functions. .. . 

So long as the spirit works in equilibrium, it is capable 
of delicate operations and effects ; but so soon as excess of 
heat or cold destroys the equilibrium, the exhaled fluid is 
diminished, and it becomes incapable of movement and 
sensation... . 

That cause which throws the constitution out of balance 
and occasions the complete absence of the exhalation, is 
called the Angel of death, who is also a creature of God. 
Most persons merely know his name... . 

The second kind of spirit, which is called both human 
spirit and heart, is not a body, and is not susceptible of di- 
vision. It is the seat of the knowledge of God. In the 
same manner, God himself is one, is not susceptible of sepa- 
ration into parts and the place of his knowledge isone. .. . 

Even if the action of the larger part of the members 
should be paralyzed, it is still possible that life should con- 
tinue inaman. Death occurs, when, after the ruin of the 
constitution, the delicate exhalation on that very account 
is no longer transmitted to the members, and they are all 


os ~ ‘ 
gt er ee ee Se 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 107 


paralyzed together and cease from movement. Although 
you still remain in being, you possess neither sensation nor 
motion. You know, also, that in infancy the ingredients 
of your body were drawn from pure blood. These under- 
went a change and disappeared, and the ingredients de- 
rived from food took their place. You know moreover 
that the form which you had on your entrance into the 
world, and your present form are not the same. It fol- 
lows therefore that there is no necessity of your perishing 
on account of the perishing of the body. The body is 
earth and must therefore return toits original earth. Your 
spirit, however, is of an angelic nature, and you must there- 
fore mingle with your original spirit. If the influences of 
the world operate with such power that you are sepa- 
rated from your original spirit, it is fixed and sure that you 
will have to endure the torment of separation and misery. 

It should be kept in mind, that you possess two classes 
of qualities or attributes. One class includes those which 
result from the union existing between your body and your 
spirit, viz: hunger, thirst, sleep, eating and drinking. 
These qualities become useless at death. The other class 
includes qualities belonging solely to your spirit, such as 
the knowledge of God, and the love of God, and the qual- 
ities which tend to secure these two, as gratitude, submis- 
sion and supplication. These are qualities of your individ- 
ual self, which do not pass away with death, but on the 
contrary the fruits of them will be ever growing and devel- 
oping. The language of the blessed God in the words, 
“the permanent things are the holy virtues”’’ points to 
these qualities. That spirit is also enduring and eternal, 
which is destitute of love and knowledge, which indeed 
knows nothing and has no delight in or affection for these 


1§.18: 44. 


108 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


things, but it will be blind and wretched : as God declares 
fn his word: ‘‘ He who was blind in this world will be blind 
in the future world, and in a most fatal path of error.” * 
The nature of death cannot be understood, unless we are 
acquainted with these two kinds of spirit and with the 
relations of dependence between them. Know, then, O 
seeker, that the animal spirit belongs to the inferior world. 
The elements of its four humors, blood, phlegm, bile and 
black bile, are fire, air, waterand earth. The animal spirit 
is a product of a delicate exhalation from these elements. 
The variations in the measure of a man’s health depend 


on the variations of heat, cold, drynessand moisture. Hence | 


it is the object of the science of medicine to preserve these 
four elements in their due proportions, so that they may 
serve as instruments to secure perfection to the human 
spirit. ? 

The human spirit belongs to the superior world and is 
of an angelic substance. It has come into this world a 
stranger, and has descended from its original state to this 
temporary home, to receive its destiny from divine direc- 
tion, and for the purpose of acquiring the knowledge of 
God. In accordance with this, God declares in his holy 
word, “‘ We said to them — leave paradise all of you just 
_ as you are: a book destined for your guidance will come 
to you from me: fear shall never befall those who will 
follow it, and they shall not be afflicted.”? And that 
which God says in another place, points to the different de- 
grees of worlds: ‘I create man of clay: and when I shall 
have formed man of clay and shall have breathed my spirit 
in him, prostrate yourselves before him in adoration.” 4 
First of all in his saying “ from clay ” he points to a material 
body. The phrase “TI shall have formed” indicates the 
animal spirit. The phrase ‘shall have breathed my spirit 


78.17: 74. ?See Good’s Physiol. Proem *°8.2: 86. 48.15: 28, 29. 


a i a i 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 109 


in him,” means that I have given to the body of mana well 
balanced constitution with power and motion. I have 
made it capable of receiving the law, and to be a home for 
the knowledge of God. 

In the same manner as the equilibrium of the inferior 
spirit is to be preserved by the science of medicine, the 
equilibrium of the human spirit is to be preserved by vir- 
tue, self-denial and holy zeal, that it may not be destitute 
of the love of God and perish. 

It is plain, then, that a knowledge of the future world 
cannot be acquired, until we have learned the true nature 
of the two spirits. We cannot obtain, for example, a know- 
ledge of God, unless we previously possess a knowledge of 
the soul. But as Islamism consists essentially in believ- 
ing and confessing the Lord God and the future world, it 
becomes our duty to acquire a knowledge of the future 
world as far as the thing is possible. There is, however, a 
mystery regarding the future world, which the holy law 
has not authorized to be explained or to be mentioned, be- 
cause it could not possibly be understood. Seeing then 
that the knowledge of the future world cannot possibly be 
acquired, until that mystery is revealed, strive that it may 
be revealed in your own soul by pious endeavor, self-denial 
and divine guidance. You cannot learn it by any possible 
efforts from any other person by the hearing of the ear. 
Many persons have heard this mystery, which repre- 
sents one of the attributes of God, but they did not acknow- 
ledge it as true, and said that it was impossible, not be- 
cause it was in its nature exempt from being known, but 
because it was an unemployed mystery. It is not named 
either in the Koran or in the Traditions. God commanded 
the prophets not to inform the people of the essence of his 
attributes, saying “ for they will not understand them, will 
accuse you of falsehood, and will do injury to themselves.” 


110 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


It has been clearly shown to you, student of the myster- 
ies, that the human spirit in its essence and attributes is to 
live forever, and that it is able to exist without a frame, 
that the meaning of death is not the annihilation of the 
spirit, but its separation from the body, and that the re- 
surrection and day of assembly do not mean a return to a 
new existence after annihilation, but the bestowal of a new 
form or frame to the spirit, which shall be under its con- 
trol in the second period, as the body was under its con- 
trol in the first period. ... 

In saying that in the second period, the control of the 
spirit is easy, it is said in respect to our contracted under- 
standings, and in comparison with our operations, and to 
make the matter intelligible to others. When God says 
in the powerful Koran, “It is easier,” and “ For me it is 
easy,” he uses the phraseology only for the sake of being 
understood by man. On the contrary in the first period, 
there was nothing difficult for God: it would have been 
nothing to him to have created without matter, in a mo- 
ment, a thousand worlds like this which we inhabit. 

It follows from what has been said, that it 1s not a ne- 
cessary condition of the resurrection and restoration that 
the spirit should possess exactly the original mould. For 
that which we seek is not the vehicle of the spirit, but 
the spirit itself. This mould undergoes change even in 
this world. Thus, for example, the materials derived from 
the condensation of the exhalations and the inspissation of 
the blood in the stomach of the mother are changed by 
food, and new flesh is produced. Many questions may be 
asked of those who say that the identical mould must re- 
turn and rise in the resurrection, and that its absence can 
in no wise be tolerated, and they will find much difficulty 
in answering them. One may ask for example, if one man 
eat another man, and the man eaten become a portion 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 111 


of the man who ate him, will that portion rise with the 
eater or with the man who was eaten?.. . 

They say, moreover, that man is created from seed, that 
seed is derived from food, and that food is derived from 
the milk, the fat or the flesh of an animal: now with which 
of all these will the ingredient rise up ? Again, suppose the 
hand of a thief has been cut off, and he afterwards leads a 
life of good works and enters Paradise. Must he enter 
Paradise, where nothing maimed or defective can enter, with- 
out his hand, or will he enter with his hand, notwithstand- 
ing his good works were not performed when he possessed 
that hand? The source of all these perverse speculations is 
in the pretence of those who say that in the day of assem- 
bly, the mould reappears and that the spirit follows in its 
train, that if it was not for the mould there would be no 
semblance of man, and that the permanency of the spirit 
results from its connection with the body. 

If, O seeker, you say that the well known language of 
the wise in the law and in discourse is, that at death a man 
becomes non-existent, and that he exists afterwards in the 
resurrection with this identical body, and that our lan- 
guage contradicts theirs, we reply. He who merely follows 
in the track of the language used by others, will never ac- 
quire a knowledge of the truth. However, the words you 
have cited are not those, either of people of intelligence or 
of imitators. For the intelligent and Jearned know that 
the body is not annihilated at death, but that the ma- 
terials of which it is composed are separated, and that it is 
this separation which they call death. The imitator has 
likewise heard from the doctors of the law, that the spirit 
lives eternally after death. 

It is well known that spirits are divided into two classes, 
in one of which all blessed spirits are embraced and in the 
other all miserable spirits. With respect to the blessed spi- 
rits God says, “ Think not that those who have been slain on 


112 Ghazzal’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


the divine road are dead: they are alive near their Lord 
and are sustained by him.”? In regard to the miserable 
spirits, the apostle of God came to the infidels who had 
been slain in the battle of Bader,? and called upon each 
by name, and said, ‘*O! such a one, son of such a one, I 
have found the victory and triumph which my Lord pro- 
mised. And you, have you found that latter end and tor- 
ment of which the Lord assured you, or have you not found 
it?” His honored companions having remarked to him, 
“they are dead and how can they hear and how can they 
speak ?”’, the glory of the world replied, “ By the truth of 
God who has commissioned me to be a true prophet, they 
are better able to hear than yourselves: there is only this 
difference, that they are not able to answer.” And the 
prophet of God declared that the spirits of martyrs are in 
lanterns under the empyrean: and according to another ac- 
count that they are suspended to the fruits of the trees of 
Paradise in the craws of green birds. In brief, whoever 
will study carefully the verses of the Koran, the Traditions 
and recollections that have reached us respecting death, and 
will consider the well substantiated accounts of the move- 
ments of the dead in grave yards, he will know, in a man- 
ner that should remove all doubt, that the dead clearly do 
not become non-existent. .. . 

Hence it happens, that when a person becomes breath- 
less and is entranced, as sometimes happens in the first ex- 
ercises among the Soofees, he bas a delightful vision of the 
state after death, notwithstanding the animal spirit contin- 
ues inthe enjoyment of health. Yet if, while in that state, 
fear and terror should happen to predominate and deprive 
him of feeling and motion, and if he become so far like 
the dead that he perceives no external object, the same 


18.3: 163. 
? First victory of the Mussulmans near Medina. 


—— 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 113 


things may be revealed to him which are revealed to oth- 
ers afterdeath. It is sometimes permitted, after he returns 
from that state to the sensible world, that all he has seen 
should remain in his memory, or that if he does not remem- 
ber it, traces of it should remain in his mind. Tf he saw 
hell, he will retain traces of despondency, sadness, heavi- 
ness of spirit, suspicion and melancholy. If in the trea- 
sury of his imagination he has preserved these traces, it is 
lawful for him to communicate them to others... . 

The torments of the grave, O seeker after the divine 
mysteries, are of two kinds: one kind is spiritual and the 
other is material torment, and they have been repeatedly 
explained. 

The spiritual torment cannot be understood, until a per- 
son is acquainted with his own soul and spirit. His soul 
exists in its own individuality: it is not dependent upon 
form or mould: it has neither hand or foot, nor eye or ear. 
The external senses which it possessed were dependent 
on the body, and remain inactive and useless after death, 
and all the enjoyments resulting from them become en- 
tirely null. Wife, children, friends, property, slaves and 
domestics, equipage, cattle, éstates and fields were form- 
erly sources of enjoyment to it. Andif he were a lover of, 
and aseeker after these things, so that he had been always oc- 
cupied with them, the torment of separation from them will 
make a deep impression upon his soul, and he will be most 
certainly the subject of sorrow and lamentation. But ifhis 
heart was untrammeled by these delights, and was inclined 
towards the future world and was always awaiting death, 
if the enjoyments of the world were distasteful to him, 
while he was always occupied with the wants of the soul, 
which are to find out God — then, in the event of death, 
he will have attained his longing and his love, and have 
reached rest, joy and happiness. 

Trans. viti.] 15 


114 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


Call to mind now, that the spirit of a man is eternal: 
it has not perished at deatb. Can you doubt then, that 
that spirit which had chosen the glare and glitter of the 
world for its beloved object, and had been absorbed heart 
and soul in the occupations of the world — when in a mo- 
ment of time, all that which it had been gaining day after 
day, which it had obtained with great perseverance and. 
industry, and which it had been coveting and striving for 
during many years, is taken out of its hands by death, 
can you doubt that it will be the prey of endless sorrow 
and grief, of abundant mortification, regret and remorse ? 
This accords with what the apostle of God declares, ‘‘ Love 
what thou hast loved: but thou shalt be separated from 
it.” But when aman realizes that this world is a stage of 
a journey, and that the purpose of his coming hither is to 
attain the knowledge and love of God, and when he is day | 
and night occupied with this, forsaking the world before 
death arrives, and perhaps even envying and longing for 
death, there can be no doubt that in the event of death, 
he is delivered from all pain and sorrow, and obtains rest 
and spiritual union. 

From what has been said, it follows that the torments 
of the grave are for the friends of this world and the 
seekers of the world, and not for the devout and pious. 
And here we find an explanation of what the prophet of 
God said: that “ the world is the prison of the believer and 
the paradise of the infidel.” 

Since you have now learned, O student, that the torment : 
of the grave is occasioned by love of the world, know also 
that there are different degrees of it. It is in proportion 
to each person’s affection and love for the world, and will 
come upon some with great severity. ... 

If, for example, a person possess a female slave to whom 
he is exceedingly attached, and on account of his being. 
every day by her side, he is not conscious of his attach- 


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Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 115 


ment, and then if suddenly he should become offended 
with her and sell her to another person, and should after- 
wards become conscious of his concealed love, his heart 
would hourly assail him and sting him like a serpent. 
The fire of regret and rage would burn within him, 
so that he might be not only sick from its effects, but might 
even die. Nowif itis possible that such results should 
follow from the loss of a female slave, consider what must 
be the degree of grief and affliction of a man who is sud- 
denly called upon to part with all his beloved objects in a 
moment. Just as it might happen that the master of the 
female slave should throw himself into the water to drown 
himself, or cast himself into the fire to burn himself, all on 
account of his separation from her, so those spirits of men 
whoare in their graves utter many wishes, exclaiming, “ Ah! 
would that these scorpions and serpents, like those in the 
material world, would only sting us and destroy us, that at 
least we might be delivered from this torment.” 

Pain in the world is an accident of the body, and passes 
from the body to the spirit, and thus the spirit participates 
in thetorment. But in the future world, pain has its home 
in the spirit itself, and hence it is excruciating. 

Every one bears away from this world within himself 
the essence of his torment, but men are not aware of it. 
God says in his eternal word, “ Ah! if you knew by in- 
fallible knowledge, you would see hell, you would see it 
with the eyes of certainty,” and again He says in another 
place in the glorious Koran, “ Truly hell encompasseth the 
infidels.”? He does not say, it shall encompass, but rather 
that it already surrounds them... . 

If you say, O student of the mysteries, that “the tor- 
ments of the grave are occasioned by the relations arising 
from this present world, from which no one can be exempt, 


7 102 > 4E: 
28.9: 49. 


116 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


since every one has either children, a house, horses or ser- 


vants, and that it results, without doubt, in causing a feel- 


ing of dependence upon them: and hence, no person will 
be able to escape the torments of the grave,’ we observe, 
in reply, that what you say is correct, but then there are 
persons who have no relations of dependence upon the 
world, and who always desire death from the Lord God. 
The prophets themselves did not pass away from the world 
until they longed for death. You should know also, that 
the rich who are attached to this world are of two classes. 
One class includes those, who although they have a love 
for the world, yet they Jove the blessed God more. An 
illustration of the character of men of this class, may be 
found in the man who owns a house in each of two cities; 
while living in one of them he has no longing to remove 
to the other. But it happens that an office is conferred 
upon him in that other city, and immediately he is over- 
joyed, and is eager to go there, and makes every prepara- 
tion to remove thither and to forsake his first house. His 
longing for an office, leads him to move, and takes away 
all desire of remaining where he was previously. Now 
although men of this class have an inclination to the world, 
yet as on the other side the love of God preponderates, 
they prefer to go to the future world, and would not in- 
deed, if it were possible to do otherwise, remain here a day. 


When persons of this class die, whose affections prepon- ~ 


derate towards the other world, they do not experience the 
torments of the grave. 

The other class, beloved, includes those who are entirely 
absorbed in the love of the world, and of pleasure. This 
class cannot escape from the torments of the grave, as the 
Lord in his everlasting word declares: ‘ There are none of 
you who will not be precipitated.”' But some of this class 


occasionally have a leaning towards eternal truth, especially 


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Ghazzal’s Alchemy of Happiness. 117 


if there is any trace of the love of God remaining in their 
hearts, and when they are about to leave the world, they 
forget it and never more yearn towards it. In that case 
they also are saved from the tribulations of the grave. A 
picture of this class is found in the person who also has a 
house in each of two cities, and as long as he is living in 
the one, he has no longings for the other. But at last 
some necessity compels him to quit his first house, and to 
go and reside in the second. After a few days residence, 
the love he had for the first house dies away from his heart 
and it appears better to him not to return thither. This 
class suffer torment in the grave up to the point where they 
forget the world, but after familiarizing themselves with 
the mansions of the future world, they are freed from their 
pain. Those, however, whose hearts were immersed in the 
pleasures and cares of the world, and whose hearts bore no 
trace of the love of God, or of thoughtfulness for the future 
world, and who preferred this world to the other, will 
never be delivered from torment. 

There is not a person in the world who will admit that 
he does not love God, or but that will pretend that he does 
love God. But this pretention can be brought to a touch- 
stone and standard and found out by experiment. Just 
look at his actions and ‘conduct, and see whether he will 
do a thing which has the holy approbation of God, or 
whether he will abstain from doing a thing which has not 
the divine approbation, notwithstanding the strong oppos- 
ing inclinations of his soul, and thus show his reverence 
for the Holy Law. If he does thus oppose the desires of 
his soul, he is correct when he affirms, “I love God.”” But 
if he is following the inclinations of his soul, and is only 
saying with his tongue that he loves God, his declaration 
is a lie. When a person in this state of mind utters the 
confession, “‘ There is no God but God,” a voice from God 
addresses him saying, ‘“‘ You are a liar, for your actions 


118 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


are opposed to your words.” In this state of mind there 
is no use in making the declaration, ‘I love God.” The 
prophet of God says however, that it is not an idle act to 
utter the phrase ‘“‘ There is no God but God”’ for the sake 
of preserving « man from the divine vengeance, so long as 
the man is’ one who does not prefer worldly works to the 
works of the future world.... 

Let those, then, who wish to be saved from the torments 
of the grave, be earnest in cutting off the ties of the world; 
and let them acquire a habit of being satisfied with just 
that which is of actual necessity. Be satisfied for example 
with that amount of food and drink which is necessary to 
give strength for devotional exercises; be Satisfied with 
the amount of clothing necessary to protect the body 
from cold and heat; and so in everything else. Ifa man 
cannot purify his heart from attachment to the world let 
him at least be assiduous in devotion and in calling upon 
God, and show a preference for cultivating an intimacy 
with the love of God. Let him look with fear and dread 
upon trust in the world, and weaken and relax the demands 
of sense by strict obedience to the law. If notwithstand- 
ing he should prefer to yield to the animal soul and to trust 
in this world, let him prepare himself to experience the 
torment of the grave and the terrors of the future world. 
And may the grace and merey of God which embrace all 
men, and his pardon and forgiveness which extend to rich 
and poor, to great and small, reach and save him! 

The material tormenis of the grave, O seeker after the 
divine mysteries, are those which are addressed to the 
body and through the body to the spirit. Spiritual tor- 
ments are those which reach the spiritonly. The language 
of God, ‘It is the fire of God, the lighted fire which shall 
reach the hearts of the reprobates,” refers to spiritual tor- 
ments which affect the heart. The spiritual hell then is 
of three kinds. The first is the fire of separation from the 


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Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 119 


lusts of the world; the second is the fire of shame, igno- 
miny and reproach; and the third is the fire of exclusion 
from the beauty of the one Lord. These fires only burn 
the soul and do not touch the body. 

There is in the world a cause or source of each kind of 
torment. Then let us examine the cause of the fire of se- 
paration from the lusts of the world. In explaining pre- 
viously the torments of the grave, we said that they arose 
from love of the world. Love and desire constitute the 
Paradise of the heart. So long as the heart is with its be- 
loved object, it is in paradise, and as soon as the heart is 
separated from its beloved object, it isin hell. The men 
of this world, by their supreme love of the world, have 
made it to be their beloved object, and as long as they are 
in the world it is a real paradise to them; but as soon as 
death comes and separates them from their beloved, their 
state is a real hell tothem. Believers, by loving God and 
the future world, have made them their best beloved, and 
as long as they are separated from them they are in hell. 
But as soon as this separation is annihilated, and they leave 
this world and go to the other, having attained their chief 
purpose and desire, they are in paradise in reality. 

Suppose a person, a prince, had been passing his life in 
banqueting and pleasure, and every one around him had 
been submissive and obedient to hisorders. But an enemy 
comes and deprives him of his principality, enslaves his 
wife and servants, and they plunder him of his money and 
property before his eyes. His pearls and jewels are wasted 
upon trifles, and his beautiful studs of horses and his re- 
tinue are dispersed. He becomes a subject in his own city, 
is compelled to wear coarse clothing in the presence of his 
former servants, and is appointed to guard and feed the 
dogs. Oan youin any wise appreciate the misfortune into 
which the prince has fallen, and how deeply he must be a 
prey to anguish? Probably he exclaims many times in a 


120 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


day, ‘‘ Would rather that I had fallen into the abyss of the 
earth and perished!’ The severity of his torture is 
in proportion to the amount of sensual enjoyments in 


which he had participated while he was a prince. And it 


is plain that this torture is not inflicted on the body, but 
upon only the spirit, and that it is more excruciating than 
any pains of the body would be. 

So long as a man is attached to the things of this world 
engrossed with the care of his body, and gives over his 
nature to intercourse with sensual enjoyments, he will not 
care for the warnings his spirit receives in this world, nor 
for the torment that it will incur in the future world. A 
sick man for example will not be so excessively despondent 
about his malady in the day time, because his senses are 
interested in other things, and as his heart follows in their 
train, he in some measure forgets his malady. In the 
night, however, when his senses have nothing to be em- 
ployed about, his thoughts about his malady do not leave 
his mind free for one moment, and his pain increases. So 
also in death, the cares and thoughts of the world and the 
external senses cease entirely to operate on account of the 
torment of the spirit, and then the perfect torment of the 
spirit becomes manifest. 

The second kind of torment in hell, beloved, is the fire 
of ignominy and shame. In illustration of this, suppose 
that a prince receives into his friendship a poor and hum- 
ble man, treating him with great honor and making him 
the favorite among all his confidential servants. He gives 
into his hands the keys of all his treasuries, commits his 
honor and wife and family to his care, and in short confides 
all his affairs into his hands, in full reliance upon him. 
Then, suppose that the poor man, after being elevated to 
this high rank, should be puffed up with pride, and should 
be disposed to betray the honor of the prince,— that he 
should begin to indulge in unworthy conduct with his wife 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 121 


and servants, and should open his coffers and spend his 
property for his own pleasures. Suppose farther that he 
should even be consulting with the prince’s enemy who has 
designs upon the principality, and should enter into a com- 
pact with him. Just at this point the prince from a con- 
cealed retreat espies his conduct in his family, and learns 
how he has wasted his money and his possessions, and in 
short becomes acquainted with everything he has done. 
The man also learns that for some time the prince has 
been aware of his course of conduct, but that the reason of 
his delaying and postponing punishment was that he might 
see what other crimes he would commit, that he might pun- 
ish him accordingly. In these circumstances the reflecting 
can easily appreciate what would be the confusion and mor- 
tification of thisindividual. He would think it a thousand 
times better to fall from a precipice and be dashed to pieces, 
or that the earth should open and he sink into the abyss, 
than that he should continue to live. So alsois it with you. 
How many actions you perform, of which you say, “it is in 
private and no one sees it,”’ or of which Satan cloaks over 
the guilt from your mind, by persuading you that it is all 
right and fair. But at last, when death comes and makes 
_ your sin manifest, then the fire of ignominy and shame 
- makes you captive to fierce torments and long continued 
misery... . 

Suppose you should throw a stone over against a wall, 
and some one should come and inform you that the stone 
had hit vour own house, and had put out the eye of your 
son. When yourush to your house and find that it is even 
80, can you conceive of the fire of repentance and anguish 
you will have to meet? ... 

Nor can the overwhelming nature of the remorse or the 
pain of the punishment be compared with the pain of put- 
ting out your son’s eye, because the former is eternal. 
The pains and sorrows of the world are but for a few days 

Trans. viti.] 16 


122 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


and then pass away, while thoughts upon the advantage 
and profit in the future world of pains endured here, will 
bring joy to those who reflect upon*them: Your happi- 
ness does not depend upon your son’s eye nor upon your 
own eye, but upon being accepted of God, and being hon- 
ored and enriched with a vision of the divine beauty and 
excellence. 

Another illustration of the fire of shame and ignominy 
is, to suppose that a prince is giving his son in marriage, 
and that after many days spent in feasting and rejoicing on 
the occasion the moment has come for the son to receive 
his bride. The son, however, has secretly withdrawn with 
some of his friends and become so intoxicated as to be in- 
capable of reasoning. But at last he concludes that it is 
time for him to return, and that he will go secretly and 
alone. He sets out, therefore, on his return home, out of 
his mind and unconscious of what he is about. Ue walks 
on until he reaches a door through which he sees lights 
burning. He fancies that it is his own house, and straight- 
way he enters in. He looks around and observes that 
there is not the least movement, not even a breath, but 
that all have gone to sleep. At last in the middle of the 
court he sees some one covered over with damask silks 
and brocades, from whose body is exhaled the odor of 
musk. He fancies and exclaims that this must be his law- 
ful bride, and he kneels down before her and kisses her 
lips. He observes that his mouth is damp with moisture 
that exudes from her lips, and that he is touching some- 
thing.wet. The mouth of his beloved is wounded and 
bloody, and he thinks that it is rose water, and continues 
to caress her, till he is stupified with sleep. After a while 
he awakes and comes into his right mind, and perceives 
that he is in a sepulchral chapel of the fire-worshippers, 
and that what he had embraced was nothing but the body 
of an old woman ninety years old, who had died six months 


eri Mi e:-- 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 123 


previously. On that night they had anew changed the 
coverings, burned incense and lighted the candles.! 

When the prince’s son sees himself in this condition, 
shame and mortification overwhelm him to such a degree, 
that he is upon the point of destroying himself. But still 
severer anguish lays hold of him, lest, when he should leave 
the place in this filthy state, he should be seen by some 
person. While he isasking himself what he should do, his 
father who knew nothing as to the place where his son had 
been, but who had left his palace with his friends and his 
suite in search of his son, meets him just at the moment 
he is coming out of that house in that state. Imagine now 
the shame of the son and what must be his feelings. No 
doubt but that he would have given his life to any one who 
could have offered him a refuge and deliverance from his 
shame. Yousee that the torment here is spiritual and not 
material; for there is not an iota of pain here that affected 
the body. 

In like manner the men of this world when they go to their 
graves, will see that what they called pleasure was flesh 
and corruption which they had unlawfully taken into their 
mouths. They will see that that beloved object, dressed 
in rich clothing, obtained by illicit means and stained with 
pollution, is but the old hag the world, with her disgusting 
face and horrid smell and putrefied corruption, on account 
of whom so many drowned in illusions have become vic- 
timsto shame and remorse. Still more bitter torment will 
that be, beloved, which will be the lot of man, when in the 
day of resurrection aud assembly all these crimes and sins 
shall be laid open before all the angels and prophets. Our 
refuge is in God! 

Think not that the shame and remorse of the future 
world is only of the kind that we have been describing. 


*The fire-worshippers did not bury their dead. 


124 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


For we have before said that nothing belonging to the 
future world can be understood in the present world, or 
be rightly conceived of by our minds. The doctors of the 
law however (upon whom may God show mercy!), for the 
sake of warning and admonition in the world, and so far 
as the mind can appreciate it, have spoken in parables and 
illustrations, and they have in various ways compared the 
ignominy and remorse of the future world to the shame 
and misery existing in the present world, notwithstanding 
the misery in this world is but for a moment or a few days, 
while the other is everlasting. 

We come now, beloved, to the third fire, the fire of 
separation from the divine beauty, and of despair of attain- 
ing everlasting felicity. The cause of this fire, is that con- 
duct and stupidity which led the individual, while in the 
world, not to acquire a knowledge of God, to neglect puri- 
fying the mirror of his heart from the consuming cares of 
the world and from the rust of sensual pleasures, and to 
omit those austerities and exertions by which his blamable 
inclinations and dispositions might be changed to laudable 
ones. The individual did not act in accordance with the 
tradition which says, “‘ Acquire a character resembling the 
character of God,’’ and by means of which he might have 
been worthy of the vision of the beauty of the Lord, and 
of being received at the king’s court. The heart which is 
full of the love of the world, and of the rust of worldly 
cares and transgressions, will see nothing in the future 
world, must be shut out from all kinds of felicity and will 
rise blind at the resurrection. Our refuge is in God! 

An illustration of this fire of reprobation and banish- 
ment may be found in this world, by supposing that a 
company travelling by night should come into a valley 
that was very stony, and as they went on their way, they 
should hear a voice calling out, ‘Take good heed and 
carry away with you an abundance of these stones; you 


oe a oe re 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 125 


will have occasion to use them at some future time.” 
Some of those who heard the voice, exercised prudence, 
and carried off as many stones as they could; others for 
the sake of saving themselves trouble, carried off only a 
few. Others still, did not carry away any, saying, “it is 
folly to take pains and trouble for the sake of an advantage 
that is future and prospective: indeed it is not clear that 
there will be any advantage at all.” Besides, they treated 
as stupid and foolish those who did carry any away, and 
said, ‘‘ look at those insane people, who, from pure cupidity 
and craving for what is impossible, load themselves down 
like asses, and give themselves useless pains. We are the 
comfortable ones, who go on our way free, joyful and with- 
out concern for the future.”” When the light of day dawned, 
they saw that all the stones were invaluable rubies and 
sapphires, each one of which was worth at least three 
thousand drachms of silver. Then those who had brought 
away stones, exclaimed, “alas! that we were not able to 
bring away any more.” But those who had brought away 
nothing and had traveled with comfort and ease, were over- 
whelmed with the fire of reprobation; they strike their heads 
upon the ground with the energy of remorse, and are filled 
with sighs and lamentations. Those who had brought away 
stones, arrived at the city whither they had been going, and 
bought estates and slaves, jewels and rich and pleasant 
eatables and all kinds of raiment, and gave themselves up 
to banqueting and enjoyment, while those who had not 
brought away any stones, became so hungry, destitute and 
naked, that they went about desiring to perform for them 
some kind of service. But when they begged of them 
either food or drink, they said, in accordance with what 
God says in his ancient word. ‘ The dwellers in fire shall 
call out to the inhabitants of Paradise, ‘ pour out upon us 
a little of your water and of the enjoyments God has be- 
stowed upon you.’” They willanswer, “God has forbidden 


126 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


the unbelievers either.”? ‘* No, we shall give you nothing, 
for God has prohibited you from having anything. Yes- 
terday you were laughing at us, to-day we laugh at you: 
as God declares in his eternal word, ‘ If you mock at us, we 
will in our turn mock at you, as ye have mocked at us,’”’? 

This illustration of the enjoyments of Paradise has been 
made in very brief and comprehensive language, to serve 
as an example, but it is impossible by any similitude to 
give an idea of what it is to be separated from the contem- 
plation of the beauty of the Lord. For whoever has but 
once experienced the delight of being near to God, and 
has enjoyed the vision of the beauty of the Lord, would 
perish if he should be for one moment separated from it. 
Even the last and least person who quits hell will receive 
a mansion from the Lord God which is equal to ten of these 
worlds. But we do not mean to say ten worlds in surface 


or in amount by number and weight, but ten worlds in © 


value and in the beauty they display and the pleasure they 
afford. 

Having now become acquainted with the three kinds of 
spiritual torment, know, O student of the divine mysteries, 
that these spiritual fires of which we have been speaking, 
are more severe than the fires which burn the body. The 
body does not itself perceive pain, and until pain reaches 
from the body to the spirit, it does not make a trace or 
impression. If, then, the anguish that is occasioned to 
the spirit through the channel of the body is so agonizing, 
imagine how intense must burn the fire of that anguish 
which has its origin in the centre of the soul. The pain 
which any thing suffers is occasioned by the excess of 
something contrary to the nature and necessities of its 
constitution. 


‘S. Fis a8. 
28. 11: 40. 


a 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 127 


The necessities of the constitution of the spirit are to 
know God and to contemplate his beauty and excellence. 
But if stupidity and blindness, which are opposed to this 
tendency of the spirit, become predominant, the soul will 
be vexed and tormented, and there will be no end to the 
torment. If it were not that the body is subject to mala- 
dies in the world, the fact of this blindness and stupidity 
would have been visible and apparent to the soul in this 
world also, and it would also have been the source of im- 
mense anguish, and torment would at no moment have 
ceased to afflictmen. Just as when a person has a severe 
sore upon the hand or foot, if besides it should be cut with 
a knife or fire should be put upon it, he would not feel the 
pain of the knife or the fire, on account of the pain of the 
sore, so likewise the maladies of the body, such as hunger 
and thirst, or such maladies as love of possessions and 
family, combined with the absorbed attention of the senses 
to these things, prevent the soul from being conscious of 
its disquiet and distress. But when in death, the torment 
to which the body was subject is taken away, it will be 
seen how excruciating is the torment of the soul. And 
thus also God announces in his holy word: “Ah! if you 
knew it with infallible assurance. But you will see hell: 
you will see it with the eyes of certainty.’ 

You should know, O inquirer, that the many arguments 
we have adduced to prove that spiritual torment is more 
severe than material torment, and the many illustrations 
of it that we have developed, are understood by intelligent 
and discerning minds, but the mass of the people under- 
stand nothing about them. Suppose, for example, that the 
son of a prince has begun to go to school, and he is ad- 
monished thatif he do not study, his father will not give 
him the principality. The boy does not understand the 


*$. 102: 5, 6, 7. 


128 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


import of the warning, and continues busy in playing with 
tops and nuts. But, if he is told instead, if you do not 
learn to read and write, your master will whip you or pull 
your ears, from that moment, understanding the force of 
the admonition, he leaves his sport and play, and is dili- 
gent in his studies. Since, therefore, the commonalty 
cannot understand the torment of being forbidden and 
shut out from the vision of the beauty of God, the doc- 
tors of the law and the preachers, frighten them with ser- 
pents and scorpions, and with the fire of hell; for they 


are not capable of understanding anything else. In the 


other case, how should the “look out! take care!” from 
the mouth of the master, with the pain of one or two boxes 
on the ear, have any relation or resemblance in the mind 
of the boy with the loss of the principality? ... 

The heavenly pilgrim must forsake his own city, and 
not fix himself for permanence in the place where he hap- 
pens to be. And by the word city, worldly cares and em- 
ployments are designated. He must quit them, and find 
his home in the path of obedience, and forsake the land of 
tribulation: for the prophet has said, “‘ Love of country 
is an article of religion.” 

This road has four stages: the things of sense belong to 
the first stage; the things of fancy belong to the second 
stage; the things of speculation to the third, and those of 
reason to the fourth stage. ... 

The view which man obtains of things in the visible 
world is through matter, as in the contemplation of a pros- 
pect on land. But in the fourth stage, which is that of 
the reason, man’s view is entirely through the medium 
of pure spirit, as when a man looks into water. But the 
view he takes, and the intercourse he enjoys in the world 
of speculation, is as if he was looking at an object from a 
ship. There is, besides, in the sphere of reason a still 
higher degree of sight and vision, which is enjoyed by the 


F 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 129 


prophets, the saints, and the most devout, which may be 
compared to a prospect in the clearest weather. Hence, 
when some one observed to the apostle of God, that Jesus 
(upon whom be peace!) walked upon the waters, he re- 
plied, that “if his faith had been greater, he would have 
walked in the air.” 

The view that can be taken by the heart of man, em- 
braces all things that lie in the world of perception and 
understanding. Its sphere of action and exercise is the 
whole world. The ascent of man from the rank of beasts 
to that of angels, is an ascent where he is always exposed 
to danger and todestruction. He may, with the guidance 
of the divine guide, mount up to the highest heaven, or 
may descend through the deceits of Satan to the lowest 
hell. And the prophet has warned us of this danger in 
these words: “ We have proposed to the heavens, to the 
earth and to the mountains to accept the deposit of the 
faith: they trembled to receive it. Man accepted the 
charge, but he became stupid and a wanderer in darkness.” 

Know, farther, that inanimate objects are the lowest in 
rank in the quantity and degree of happiness they obtain, 
and it is a happiness which knows no change. The place 
of beasts is in the lowest abyss and there is no path by 
which they can ascend out of it. The mansion of the 
angels is in the highest heavens where they ever continue 
in the same condition, there is neither abasement or as- 
cent from their place. And God also says in his eternal 
word, ‘“‘ And what have we except for each one a certain 
and appointed habitation.”? The position of man is be- 
tween the rank of angels, and that of animals, because he 
partakes of the qualities of both. No other rank except 
man accepted the deposit of the true faith, and indeed no 


eat 2 02. 
* 8. 38 : 164. 
Trans. viii.] 17 


130 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


other had the qualities and capacities necessary for the ac- 

ceptance of it. In accepting the deposit man became 
bound at the same time to accept the dangers and penal- 
ties connected with it. 

The doctors of the law have not commented upon these 
topics to the people in general. But this is not to be won- 
dered at, when we consider that the mass of the people 
regard themselves as fixed in their character and position, 
and not as pilgrims and travellers toa higher state. There 
isno possibility of unveiling the things of truth, to those who 
settle down without desiring to make any progress, and 
who are contented with the first stages and degrees of the 
sensible world and of the world of fancy. They can nei- 
ther attain to a spiritual state, nor understand spiritual 
laws and precepts. We have ventured, however, to unveil 
a little of the mysteries, as a type of the knowledge be- 
longing to the future state, so that men might be prepared 
to understand the questions and affairs relating to that 
state. Butif we had entered into any farther develop- 
ments, they would not have been able to understand us, 
for none but those who are endowed with penetration and 
experience can by any possibility understand the topics to 
which we have alluded. 

There is a class of foolish people, O inquirer after the di- 
vine mysteries, who have neither capacity for knowledge, 
or sound judgment to be able to understand anything of 
themselves, and who have remained doubting and specu- 
lating about the nature of the future state, till they have 
become bewildered. Finally, as the lusts of the world 
harmonized with their natures, they have yielded to the 
whisperings of Satan, and deny that there is any future 
state. They pretend that the only need there is of speak- 
ing of heaven and hell, is for the sake of correcting and 
guiding the conduct of the people, and they regard as folly 
the course of those who follow the law and are constant 
in their devotions. 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 131 


If these foolish persons have one jot of sense, it will be 
easy to convince them with a single word. One hundred 
and twenty-four thousand prophets more or less, the whole 
multitude of the saints and all the learned doctors of the 
law have faithfully followed the Holy Law, have been dili- 
gent in their devotions, and with prudent anxiety and 
dread about the future state, they have endured much 
pain and suffering. And how does it happen that you, 
who are so ignorant and stupid, have found out that they 
were mistaken and in error? What should lead you to 
prefer your baseless and corrupt fancies to their knowledge 
and science, and to say that the spirit has no real exist- 
ence and that it does not continue to live after death? 
Perhaps you do not even admit that there is any material 
punishment. Truly the health of your moral being is so 
corrupted and depraved, that there is nocure for you; you 
belong to that class of whom God says in his holy word: 
«¢ Even when thou shalt call them into the right path, they 
will never follow in it.’ 

If one of these men should, however, reply: ‘ Indeed I 
do not know for a certainty, but why should I on account 
of an uncertainty, pass my precious life in devotional au- 
sterities, and forbid myself the delights and pleasures of 
the world?” We observe in return. According to your 
principles, the probabilities are balanced as to whether the 
events spoken of as belonging to the future world will or 
will not happen. It follows then as a most rational con- 
clusion, that you ought to act in the same way you would 
do, if you wished to preserve yourself from a great risk 
and danger. For, if these events should take place, you 
may thereby be saved from intense torment and obtain 
eternal felicity; whereas, if they should not occur, you 
will have suffered no injury from your precautions. We 


18. 18: 56. 


132 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


have, besides, the inspired word which declares that all 
these things will take place; and all the prophets (upon 
whom be peace! ) and all the saints and teachers of religion 
(upon whom may God have mercy!) have testified to the 
truth of them. 

Do you not see that if you were desirous to partake of 
food and were just stretching forth your hand to take it, 


and some one should say, ‘‘ Beware, and do not eat of that. 


food, for it is deadly poison,” or ‘‘a serpent has vomited 
upon it,” that although there was a doubt in your mind 
' whether what he said was true or false, still you would 
believe him and refrain from eating the food? You would 
say to yourself: “If Ido not eat it, I have nothing to 
suffer but to remain hungry for awhile longer, but if I eat 
it, I may kill myself. Jt is prudent, therefore, for me to 
refrain from it.” 

Again, if you were sick, and a person who writes ma- 
gical phrases and charms, should say to you, “ give me a 
drachm of silver, and I will write for you a well tried 
charm by means of which you will immediately get well,” 
although you know that there is no relation of fitness be- 
tween an external charm, and an internal disorder of the 
stomach for instance, and that there is little probability of 
your recovering by its means, you are still disposed to take 
it. And you say, ‘‘ Come, let me have it, if it act as a 
medicine, I shall be a gainer by so many drachms of silver, 
and if it do me no good, I shall only have lost a single 
drachm. I ought therefore to try it.” 

Once more, if an astrologer should say to you, “if you 
will drink this bitter and disagreeable medicine, you will 
not be attacked with illness during the whole of this com- 
ing year, for the moon is in such a station among the hea- 
venly bodies,” notwithstanding the lie of the astrologer 
should be very clear to your mind, and you: have no confi- 
dence in what he says, you would reply, ‘well, let me 


ve a ae ae 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 183 


drink it and see; if it do me no good, it will do me no 
harm.” And with the fancied hope of advantage from it, 
you swallow down the bitter and unpalatable potion as if 
it were sugar. 

Now come and be candid with yourself; you give credit 
to a false physician, to a false writer of charms and to a 
false astrologer, for the sake of being delivered from a day 
or two of illness in this world, and you even undergo suf- 
fering for the sake of it. But the learned in religion, for 
the sake of saving you from the malady of stupidity and 
rebellion and bringing you to everlasting health and feli- 
city, have exerted themselves to make the verses of the 
Koran and the holy traditions to serve as a medicine to 
deliver you from bitter torment. Still you attach no credit 
to their words. You treat the Koran and the traditions 
with entire disregard, neither clinging to the command- 
ments of God, nor avoiding forbidden things. You fol- 
low the bent of your own inclinations, instead of follow- 
ing the example and law of the prophet of God, and you 
indulge in many acts of transgression. Nor do you call to 
mind what will be your condition in the end of it all, nor 
how long a time you have yet to live in the world, nor 
what eternity is compared with this world. Do you not 
know that by choosing a very little pain in the business of 


religion during this short life and in this worthless world, 


you may gain eternal felicity, and riches that cannot be 
taken from you? The pain which we may suffer in this 
world, however severe, yet does not weigh the amount of 
an atom in comparison with the pains and torment of the 
other world. This world isa fading shadow, but the future 
world is abiding and eternal. 

The following is an illustration of the duration of eter- 
nity, so far as the human mind can comprehend it. If the 
space from between the empyreal heaven to the regions 
below the earth, embracing the whole universe, should be 


134 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


filled up with grains of mustard seed, and if a crow should 
make use of them as food and come but once in a thousand 
years and take but a single grain away, so that with the 
lapse of time there should not remain a single grain, still 
at the end of that time not the amount of a grain of mus- 
tard seed would have been diminished from the duration 
of eternity. 

Beware, therefore, beloved of exposing yourself to eter- 
nal torments; call to mind the great risk and danger you 
- are to encounter in the future world: address to your soul 
serious admonitions, before you come to be ashamed and 
fall into captivity and chastisement: ask your soul, saying, 
“OQ rebellious soul, how much misery thou dost undergo 
for the sake of gaining the world! What long and distant 
journeys thou dost undertake, how often dost thou remain 
hungry and thirsty, notwithstanding thou are both transi- 
tory thyself and all thou dost gain is transitory; and yet 
all this time God himself has engaged to supply all your 
needs. But on the other hand what hast thou done to se- 
cure eternal salvation in the mansions of the future world, 
to be delivered from misery and reach unchanging felicity ? 
If thou art not able to endure the least pain or toil for re- 
ligion in this world, how wilt thou be able to bear in the 
future world both material and spiritual torments, together 
with the torments of the imagination ?” 

Every man ought to take as the subject of his thoughts, 
the things which concern the future state,— the pains of 
its torments, the joys of its felicity, the delight and ecstasy 
of the vision of the beauty of the Lord, and finally the fact 
that these states are eternal. Now, is it not strange folly 
and sottishness to be proud of the transitory pleasures of 
the world in a life which lasts but for one or two days, and 
to turn our backs upon future eternal joys? If you are 
wise you will acknowledge the frailty and errors of your 
soul, and with an understanding of the purpose for which 


tot 
eo 


Ghazzalis Alchemy of Happiness. 135 


it was created, you will meditate upon your soul, and upon 
the almighty power and greatness of God as far as the 
human mind can comprehend them. Recognizing that 
God’s design in creating you was, that you should know 
him and love him, you should never cease for one moment 
to walk with humility and prayer in the path of obedience. 
Regard this world us the place to sow seed for eternity, 
and after taking such a portion from this world as may 
give you strength to take the journey to the other world, 
turn away from whatever is more than this. Realize that 
the future world is the place for enjoyment and happiness 
which is eternal, and the land to behold the excellence and 
beauty of the Lord; and make it your purpose, divine 
and omniscient grace assisting you, never to cease from 
the pursuit of them, but to secure as your prey, the phenix 
of felicity and happiness. 


CHAPTER V.— ON THE LOVE OF GoD. 


O traveller on the way and seeker after the love of God! 
know thatthe love of Godisa sure and perfect method forthe 
believer to attain the object of his desires. It isa highly 
exalted station of rest, during the journey of the celestial 
traveller. It is the consummation of the desires and long- 
ings of those who seek divine truth. It is the foundation 
of the vision of the beauty of the Lord. 

_ The love of God is of the most binding obligation upon 
every one. It is indeed the spirit of the body, and the 
light oftheeye. The prophet of God declares that the faith 
of the believer is not complete, unless he love God and his 
prophet more than all the world besides. The prophet was 


r~. 


136 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


once asked, what is faith? He replied,‘ It is to love God and 
his prophet more than wife, children and property.” 
And the prophet was continually in the habit of praying, 
‘‘O my God! I ask for thy love, I ask that I may love 
whomsoever loves thee, and that I may perform whatso- 
ever thy love makes incumbent upon me.” 

On the resurrection day all sects will be addressed by 
the name of the prophet whom each followed, ‘“‘O people of 
Moses! O people of Jesus ! O people of Mohammed!”’ even 
to all the beloved servants of God, and it will be proclaimed 
tothem, ‘‘O Friends and beloved of God,come to the blessed 
union and society of God! Come to Paradise and partake 
of the grace of your beloved!” When they hear this pro- 
clamation, their hearts will leap out of their places, and 
they will almost lose their reason. Yahya ben Moa’z says, 
‘< Tt is better to have as much love of God, even if only as 
much as a grain of mustard seed, than seventy years of de- 
votion and obedience without love.” Hassan of Basra says, 
‘¢ Whoever knows God, will certainly love him, and who- 
ever knows the world, will shun it.” 

O thou who seekest the love of God! know that this 
jove is founded upon two things: one is Beauty, and the 
other is Beneficence. Beauty acts as a cause to produce 
love, because the being, the attributes and the works of God 
possess beauty, and every one loves that which is beautiful. 
There is a tradition which says “ Verily, God is beautiful 


and he loves beauty.” And the prophet says, ‘‘ Desire to — 


transact your affairs with those who have beautiful counte- 
nances.”’ It is on this account that the spirit in man has 
been created in accordance with the image of beauty, so 
that whenever it either hears or sees anything beautiful, 
it may have a propensity towards it, and seek for com- 
munion with it. 

But you should also know, that beauty is of two kinds, 
one of which is beauty of form, and the other beauty of 


-. 


A eT 


Siw wy ACE Resta 


Ie. 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 137 


moral character. And know, O beloved, that the reason 
why man must love beauty of form in his own species, and 
has an inclination to admire external beauty, is that God 
created the spirits of men out of a drop of his own light, 
as he says. “‘ when I have breathed my spirit into him.” ? 
And as the spirit has thus been created out of the light of 
the Lord God, it is so essentially beautiful, that if man 
were capable of seeing the degree of its beauty, he would 
become bereft of reason and perhaps would perish from 
the effects of the impression. 

This also should be known, that beauty of form belongs 
to the spirit, and not to the body. It is a proof that there 
is nothing agreeable in the body by itself, that when the 
spirit is separated from the body by death, no one has any 
inclination afterwards to look upon the face of the dead, 
but on the contrary his teelings repel him and he turns 
away from it. And however near a friend or rela- 
tive the person may be, we have no disposition to approach 
his side again. The body of man is created*of opaque 
earth, and the spirit by entering into the body is entirely 
veiled, so that it can neither be seen or known. 

It is clear then that the beauty of form possessed by 
man and the beauty of many other things arise from their 
being created from the light ofthe Lord. Consider then, as 
far as human reason can reach, if such beauty and elegance 
exist in spirits formed out of one drop of the light of the 
blessed God, what must be the beauty and splendor 
of the Lord God himself. Since then the beauty of every 
beloved object is derived from his light, and that the 
beauty of every thing that is beautiful is from him, it fol- 
lows that he who is wise, ought not to permit himself to 
be deceived by the soul which passes away, and to be at- 
tracted to that beauty which is fleeting, but that he should 


18.15: 29. 
Trans. viti.] 18 


138 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


turn to the contemplation of that painter who is full of all 
perfection, and of that maker with whom is no change, 
and earnestly seek after the vision of his beauty with his 
whole heart. Let him continue day and night with burn- 
ing and consuming desire in humble prayer, longing after 
his beauty and after union with him. 


I have made a home for thy love in my heart, 

While affection for something else hovers around the home. 

But it is folly to contract friendship, with aught else than 
thy beauty, . 

For there is none to be loved but the eternal Friend. 

He who has made thee to be his happiness and refuge, 

Has already joined himself to the perfect excellence. 


O! seeker of divine love, that which renders man favora- 
bly inclined to persons of virtuous character, is the fact 
that God has created man after his own character; as it 
has come to us in the tradition that, “‘ verily God created 
man after his own image.”? Hence whenever man sees or 
hears of a quality belonging to his own race and kind, as 
justice, generosity, forgiveness or patience, he will certainly 
have a sympathy with that quality and exercise love to its 
possessor. If we hear for instance that in a certain country 
there is a just sovereign or a just vizier, we heartily love 
that king or vizier, and we are always praising his excel- 
lence and worth, although there is not the least probability 
of any advantage accruing to us from his justice. Such 
a sovereign was Nushirvan, who notwithstanding he was 
an infidel yet as he was just, the heart of every man is 
drawn towards him. If again we hear of the knowledge, 
science, clemency or munificence of any persons, as of the 
Imam Abu Hanifé, of the Imam Shafei, of Bayézid of Bis- 
tan, or of Junéid of Bagdad, the spirit of a man will be at- 
tracted towards them on account of those qualities, he will 
love them, and he will certainly desire to see them and to 
be with them. If we hear of a generous man, although he 


| 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 139 


may be in a foreign country, and we have no hope of any 
advantage from him or of any token of his generosity to 
ourselves, yet still from necessity we will love him, and 
whenever his name is mentioned we will invoke blessings 
upon him and praise him. It is thus with Hatem Tai 
whose name, though he was an infidel, is upon every 
tongue, because he was a generous and benevolent man, and 
all hearts are irresistibly led to love him... . 

Wesee then that the love we bear to persons endowed 
with the virtuous qualities of man, is not bestowed by us 
for the sake of any fancied advantage from them or any 
hope of gain, but that on the contrary it is because the spirits 
of men are created in correspondence with the character 
of God, and when we see a trace or mark of a quality or 
affection of a kind like our own, we cannot help being at- 
tracted towards it, and must necessarily love it. 

In this view of the subject, O seeker of the truth, and 
friend who longs for the bright vision, when you consider 
what an impulse we have to admire and to love man who 
is encompassed with so many defects, and whose qualities 
are subject to decay, — be candid and reflect, that all the 
attributes of God are perfect, that all his titles are glorious, 
and: that all his works are made in infinite wisdom, and 
how then can there be a man of such animal affections and 
propensities as not to love him with all his heart and soul! 
And how can a person having the appearance of a man, 
be such a stone, as not to be willing to make a sacrifice of 
his head and even of his soul, impelled by his absorbing 
affection for Him? 


Separation from thee, would quickly destroy me, 
Separation from one’s friends is fatal. 

If thou shouldst separate from me still would I 

Be occupied with thee, ever active Friend, 

Who art the object of my desires and my researches ; 
For thou wilt not turn away from him who loves thee. 


140 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


You should know also that in the world of spirits, God 
had ennobled man with beauty and its qualities, and had 
made him sufficiently acquainted with Himself and His 
attributes ; and the spirits continued for a long time par- 
ticipating in enjoyment in the land of affection, intoxicated 
and in ecstacy with the cup of love and the wine of celes- 
tial union. Afterwards in accordance with divine wisdom 
and by soverign decree, they fell from that exalted world 
to this lower world,— from the world of union to the world 
of separation. In this world of trial, having entered into 
bodies and become entangled with the things of sense and 
with worldly occupations, and shut out from the spiritual 
world, they forgot its intimate friendships and the joys of 
its society. Being so far distant from that world, the 
being and character of God became completely veiled from 
the view of some, and the love and union which had ex- 
isted in their hearts from all eternity disappeared. None 
the less however, it is still the case, that when man sees 
beauty and perfection, the spirit cannot help admiring it. 
But as the intimacy and friendship which had formerly 
existed have been clouded over, and the animal impulses, 
passions and lusts have become predominant, they ima- 
gine that the love of pleasure belongs to the delights of re- 
ligion, and regard it as a necessity of the soul. 

The spirits of some men, however, in becoming attached 
to a body, retained the divine guidance, and the spiritual 
world in consequence was not concealed from their view, 
nor did they forget its friendly society or the attributes 
and qualities of its holy spirits. And as the glory of the 
infinite being and his attributes was not veiled from their 
eyes, their desire for the blessed union and longing for 
the vision of beauty increased daily. In accordance with 
this, it is related by Soheil Testeri (may God’s mercy be 
upon him!) that “from the moment that the blessed God 
in the world of spirits and the assembly of holy union 


a a 


s 


asked the spirits “Am I not your Lord?” and they 
called out in an answer “yes!” that loving answer has 
never waned or decayed within my soul. When I was 
only three years old, I used to spend all night in the wor- 
ship of the Lord God, without giving any slumber to my 
eyes.” 

O thou who longest after the love of God! the second 
eause of love in man which we have mentioned, viz: 
beneficence, operates through the state of poverty and need 
in which man has been created. Both in the affairs of the 
world and in the concerns of religion, man is in want of 
an infinite variety of things, as God says in his word, 
“Verily, God is rich, but ye are poor.”.2 Hence a man 
always loves and honors whatever person enables him to 
obtain any object of which he stands in need, or who 
makes it probable that he will obtain it. This will be the 
case especially, if the same individual has at various times 
supplied his necessities. He will then be enslaved to him, 
heart and soul, and whenever his name is mentioned will 
chant his praise and invoke blessings upon him. The 
proverb says, ‘‘ man is a slave to beneficence.” 

In matters of religion, man has need of helpers of two 
kinds. The first class are the great expounders of doc- 
trine,? who instruct him in religious precepts, and preserve 
him from the darkness of ignorance and the dangers of 
doubt. They also make him acquainted with the restric- 
tions of the law, and the regulations and ceremonies of 
worship. They explain to him what conduct corresponds 
with rectitude, and what is improper,— what is lawful and 
what unlawful. The second class of helpers to man are 
the venerable preachers.‘ It is their province to throw 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 141 


ay oe Yo 2§. 417: 40. 
8 <« Ulema”’—the learned in the Divine Law. See Noite D. 
* Sheikhs, @. ¢. elders, who are the preaching class. . 


142 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


light upon the nature of the way of life, and upon the true 
condition in which man is placed. They point out the 
means and methods by which the slave of desire may secure 
a change of his vicious inclinations, and by which the dis- 
ordered soul may obtain a pure and virtuous character. 
They set forth the transitory nature of the world and the 
shame and sin of being attached to it. They endeavor to 
persuade men that the design of their entrance into the 
world is that they may love and know God; and they 
strive to turn them away from following the world, by 
giving them ideas of the joys and rest of the other world, 
and of the delight and preciousness of the vision of the 
beauty of the Lord, that so they may live as pilgrims to 
eternity. The whole reason why the apprentice loves his 
master, and every disciple loves his teacher, and why the 
wise and excellent love the experienced Sheikh whose les- 
sons they hear, or love the doctors of the law and the 
saints of olden time is that they have been beneficent, and 
have supplied their wants. 

In matters pertaining to the world, beloved, the neces- 
sities of man are of such kinds that there is no occasion 
for our entering into any details. Do you not realize for 
instance, through how many hands the food you put into 
your mouth passes, before it is brought to you, and how 
many persons have been employed in the service of pre- 
paring it for you? And man has, in short, the same kind 
of need of helpers in his clothing, home, and in all the arts 
and trades, as has before been mentioned. He needs, 
also, the winds and rain, the sun and moon, the earth and 
sky, as we find in the verses of Sheikh Saadi: 

The clouds, wind, moon, sun and stars are working ever : 


Therefore if a loaf of bread comes into your hands, eat it not 
without gratitude. 


And after we have eaten our food, how many agents we 
need to digest it, and to convert it into fat, milk and blood. 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 143 


We have before remarked upon the number of servants 
there are within your body, of which you have no know- 
ledge. 

And now, student of the celestial way, and seeker after 
the love of God, come and consider a little with the eye 
of reverence and the mind of thoughtfulness. Ifa person © 
should give you a drachm of silver, or a suit of clothes, or 


serve you for a single day and conclude some business 


which concerned you, you would love him as long as you 
lived, and you would always speak well of him wherever 
his name was mentioned, although the service he had per- 
formed for you, and his act of beneficence was only effected 
through the will of God and by his power. Be sincere 


_ now and say, why should you not love and sacrifice every 


thing for the sake of God, who created the heavens and the 
earth, who has taken care of all your affairs long before you 
desired it of him, who has provided for all your necessities 
before you had any notion of them, who gives you so many 
thousand mercies at every breath, who has not ceased to 
sustain you, even when you were disobedient to his com- 
mandments and rebellious, and who has covered your 
shame, for the sake of the Friend of God? Ought you 
not to praise him with your tongue, and love him with 
your heart? Is it right, overwhelmed as you are with his 
unfailing mercies and infinite bounties, that you should re- 
gard these mercies as coming from other source than God, 
and that you should thank some other one than Him for 
these services and favors, and that you should love some 


other one instead of him ? 


It is in vain that the eyes watch for any other love than thee. 
It is a loss for the eyes to weep for any other friend. 

Thou art the true friend! If thou deign to look upon me, 

It will be well with me, as if my eyes had never wept. 


What shall I do with that life which is not passed in remembrance 
of thee ? | 


What shall I do with the eye that is not sad with longing after thee ? 


144 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


What shall I do with the heart that is not the home of thy love? 
What shall I do with the soul that does not make itself a sacrifice 
in thy Way? 


O inquirer after the love of God! The love of God ex- 
ists in every heart, though it lies concealed, just as fire 
exists in the flint stone, until it is drawn out. If you take 
the steel of desire and affection into your hands, and with 
it strike the heart, you obtain fire by the means, and your 
soul will be filled with light. The malice, deceitfulness, 
hatred, vileness, envy and strife that are in the heart will 
be burned up, and it will be freed and purified from sen- 
sual perturbations. Butif you are careless and do nothing 
and pass several days without seeking, the heart will again 
become like fire covered over with ashes, which by remain- 
ing a long time unused, will finally be extinguished. So 
at last the heart, becomes encased with sensual impurities 
and with the blackness of the passions, and is no longer 
capable of being enlightened with the light of ot Our 
refuge is in God! 

O, faithful friend, who art worthy to be loved! know, 
that the love of God is a standard that leads to victory. 
Whoever seeks refuge under it, will be a sovereign in two 
worlds, and lord of a throne at the king’s court. This love 
is a universal solvent to secure happiness. Whoever se- 
cures it, is richer than in the possession of both worlds. 
God is always rich, notwithstanding all the world is pro- 
vided for through him. The heart which bears no traces 
of the love of God, is like a dead corpse, which knows 
nothing of its own spirit. Still there is no person among 
reasonable beings who will say that he does not love God, 
or who will not make pretensions to possessing a love for 
him. But it is like an empty claim, upon which no deci- 
sion can be based and, unless the witness is a faithful one, 
no conclusion can be formed. If you should be asked, do 
you love God, beware and give noanswer. For if you say 


- ; 
Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 145 


I do not love him, (our refuge is in'God), you would make 
yourself an infidel. And if you say in answer, “I love 
him,” yet you have no signs or tokens of your loving Him. 

Now know that there are seven signs of love to God. In 
whomsoever these marks are found, his pretensions to lov- 
ing God are to be regarded as well founded. 

The first sign of love to God is, not to be afraid of death, 
and to be always waiting forit. For death unites the 
friend to his friend,—the seeker to the object which he 
seeks. As long as attachment to and dependence upon 
the world cannot be broken off, the traces of love to God 
cannot be visible. If aperson, however, is afraid of death 
and does not feel a readiness to go into the presence of 
God, and yet is making every provision for his journey 
into the other world, it does not follow that he does not 
possess the love of God. It is, on the contrary, an evidence 
that he does love God. 

It is a second sign of love to God, when a man prefers 
the love of God to any worldly object, chooses whatsoever 
draws him near to God, and forsakes whatsoever has a 
tendency to turn him away from God. He desires always 
to actin accordance with his will and with his approbation. 
But it is not an indication that a person is entirely destitute 
of love to God, because he is not in every circumstance 
submissive to the holy will of God. For, in some persons 
love may exist in perfection, while in others it may be in 
‘some measure defective. It is said, for example, that dur- 
ing the life of the apostle of God, one of his companions 
was a wine drinker, and he had oftentimes been punished 
for it. Another of his companions one day vexed at his 
conduct, cursed him. The prophet happened to hear him 
eurse him, and knocked for him to come in. When he 
had come into his presence he said, ‘‘ Why do you curse 
thatman? He is both a friend of God and of his prophet, 
and loves them.” 

Trans. viit.] 19 


™ 


The third sign of a man’s love to God is that the remem- 
brance of God is always fresh in his heart. He never 
ceases to meditate upon God. Every man thinks upon 
and calls to mind an object in proportion to his love to it. 
If a person’s love and affection is perfect he never forgets 
that object. If a person say,I love both God and a 
certain worldly object, attention should be paid tosee which 
of them he loves the most. And then that object can be 
said to rule in his heart which he loves the most. Gradu- 
ally from day to day, the object which preponderates will 
efface little by little all affection for the other. 

The fourth sign of love to God is, to love and respect 
the powerful Koran, regarding it as the word of God. A 
man ought to praise and love the prophets and saints, as 
the friends of God. He should love all men, saying that 
they were all created by the will and power of God. 
Whatever person attains to this point, his feelings of envy 
and hatred and even his coldness of looks will be quelled 
and disappear, and he will treat all individuals as his 
friends. 

The fifth sign of love to God is that a man will choose 
the closet and retirement and have an eagerness for secret 
prayer. He will long and wait for the night, that the avo- 
cations and hindrances of the world may be banished, that 
he may be embarrassed by no distractions in his supplica- 
tions to his incomparable and unique Friend, and that he 
may be alone in familiar intercourse with God. 

It is reported that in the days of the children of Israel, 
there was a slave who prayed every night from evening © 
until morning, but he went out and performed his morn- 
ing prayer under atree. God spoke by inspiration to the ~ 
one who was the prophet at that time and said, ‘*Go and © 
speak to that slave my servant thus:— You abandon — 
prayer to me in secret and come out here to pray under © 
this tree, for the sake of the pleasure you derive from the 


146 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 147 


music of the birds over your head. But in so doing you 
mutilate as it were my love and you will not again obtain 
it perfectly.” It is also reported that God once said to 
David, “ O! David, that man is a liar, who pretends to 
love me and yet goes to bed and sleeps the whole time till 
morning. For does not a friend desire to see the counte- 
nance of his friend, and is he not eager to have intercourse 


with him? Whoever wishes to see me, will seek me and 
will find me.” 


The sixth sign of love to God, is when a man finds the 
worship of God to be easy, inviting and delightful. It is 
related that a certain preacher’ used to say, ** | have served 
God in worship sixty years withirksomeness and constraint. 
I afterwards served him yet sixty years more, and my de- 
votions were to me spiritual food; and in the absence or 
disuse of them, I did not enjoy a moment’s peace or quiet 
of mind.” 

The seventh sign of love to God is, that a man loves the 
sincere friends and obedient servants of God, and regards 
them all as his friends. He regards all the enemies of God 
as his enemies and abhors them. And God thus speaks 
iu his eternal word. ‘‘ His companions are terrible towards ' 
the infidels, and tender towards each other.’* A Sheikh 
was once asked ‘“ who are the friends of the exalted and 
blessed God?” He replied: “The friends of God are 
those who are more compassionate to the friends of God 
themselves, than a father or a mother to their children.” 


1 Sheikh. 
2§. 48: 29. 


148 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


& 


Note A, p. 54. 


PRESERVED TABLE. This record-tablet of Mohammed, may have 
been suggested to his mind by the two tables of stone of the Ten 
Commandments of Moses. A clear view of what this table is, may 
be obtained from the following extract from a treatise of Berkevi 
explaining the Mussulman dogmas, which is at the present day a 
text-book in the Turkish schools. 

“Tt must be confessed, that good and eviland every thing in short 
happens from the predestination and foreknowledge of God,— that 
all which has been and will be, was decreed from eternity and is 
written upon the preserved table,— that nothing can happen con- 
trary to it,—that the faith of the believer, the piety of the pious 
man and his good works are foreseen, willed, predestined and de- 
creed in writing on the preserved table, are produced, accepted and 
loved by God ;— but that the infidelity of infidels, the irreligion of 
the wicked and their bad actions happen indeed with the foreknow- 
ledge of God, by his will, and as an effect of his predestination in- 
scribed upon the preserved table, and by the operation of God, — 
but not with his satisfaction or affection.” 


Note B, p. 56. 


Mystics. Wherever this word is found in this treatise, it is to be 
understood that the original word is soofee, and sometimes the word 
has been allowed to stand untranslated. Soofee does not necessarily 
mean any one particular society of Mussulmans, but includes all 
persons as well as orders and congregations, who embrace mystical 
or transcendental modes of interpreting the Koran and who conform 
their life in a greater or less degree to their mystical notions. Soofee, 
Dervish and Fakir, are different words for various classes of ori- 
ental monks and mystics. They are found wherever there are 
Mussulmans, and the differences between them and other Mussul- 
mans bear a considerable relation to the differences developed by 
mystics, pietists or puritansin Christian churches. They differ also 
much among themselves in their modes of spiritualization and in 
their ceremonies and practices. There is also much jealousy of each 
other, between the dominant orthodox clergy and doctors of religion, 


and the mystics, dervishes and preachers. The orthodox clergy 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 149 


admit only the grammatical and literal — the external meaning of 
the Koran ; but many Soofees pretend that the outward meaning is 
but the shell, and that they seek for and expound the inward or 
mystical meaning. The reverence and esteem for the Soofees and 
Monks is so great with the people, that the clergy and doctors usu- 
ally conceal their opposition and jealousy. 

“ Soofeeism has existed in one shape or other in every age and re- 
gion ; its mystical doctrines are to be found in the schools of ancient 
Greece and in those of the modern philosophers of Europe. It is 
the dream of the most ignorant and the most learned: it is to be 
found in the palace and the cottage, in the luxurious city, and the 
pathless desert.” 

The fundamental doctrine, and the great object of longing of the 
oriental mystic is union with God. The whirling Dervishes as they 
are popularly called, imitate the founder of their particular order 
and whirl around on their toes for an hour to the sound of soft music 
and muttered chants: and they imagine that the dizziness which is 
created and the prostration which follows is an inspired ecstacy and 
an approximation to the desired union. Mussulman mystics are ex- 
tensively accused as are also a class of perfectionists in the Chris- 
tian church, of regarding external actions as morally indifferent to 
those who are spiritually enlightened. Their doctrines have been 
abused among themselves by fanatics to lead them to the commission 
of crime, as in the case of the attempt to assassinate the shah of Per- 
sia by the Babis. We should no more be led to think that there 
was any tendency to abuse for evil purposes from reading this trea- 
tise of Ghazzali, than to infer the same from devotional and mystic 
writings of the western world. Ghazzali, is as much disposed to 
censure hypocritical pretence among Soofees, as some writers on Per- 
sia have been to class nearly the whole body as hypocrites. 


Nore C, p. 82. 


The Mohammedan calendar being regulated by the lunar months, 
every twelfth lunar month is devoted to fasting, and it is of the 
greatest importance that the very first appearance of the moon should 
be watched, to know just when to commence the fast. Certain 
months and daysof the month are peculiarly appropriate to works of 
charity. The days on which the caravans of pilgrims ought to ar- 
rive at Mecca, and the days for going around the black stone of the 
Caaba, occur also on certain fixed days of lunar months. The 

advantages and moral ends of having a moon, must be looked at 


150 Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 


from the point of view of the theological theory of the author, which 
is nothing less than that the moon was created on purpose to render 
possible, and to aid in carrying into effect, the ordinances of the un- 
created Koran. 


Nore D, p. 14. 


INTERPRETATION OF THE Koran. The extract below from the 
work of Ghazzali, the Tehafeti Felaséfé or Destruction of Philoso- 
phy, while it shows the position he assigns to the doctors of the 
law, exemplifies also the character of his genius, and the measure 
of independent thought tolerated among Mussulmans. He fearlessly 
adopted whatever discoveries in science could be established by 
proofs, and defended them even when apparently opposed to the 
language of the Koran : the dogmatical interpretation of the Koran 
must yield to stubborn, undeniable facts in science. I translate it 
from Hajji Khalfa’s Jihant Numa, or View of the World, where it 
was introduced by him to enforce the claims of scientific evidence 
to be received by the faithful. 

‘“ Know that the differences of opinion between philosophers and 
mankind generally are of three kinds. The first kind of difference 
is simply a verbal one. As for instance they speak of the maker of 
the world as essence or substance (jouhar), while at the same time, 
they explain the word to mean that which exists by itself and inde- 
pendent of place. 

‘“‘ The second kind of difference refers to questions, where there is 
no difference between their system and the principles of our religion, 
and where there is no occasion of appealing to the prophets in con- 
firmation of the matter in dispute. For instance the philosophers 
say, that an eclipse of the moon is an indication that its light is ob- 
structed on account of the earth’s coming between it and the sun, 
seeing that the moon derives its light from the sun, and that the 
earth is a sphere surrounded by the sky on all sides, and therefore 
when the moon falls into the shadow of the earth, its light is cut 
off. The Philosophers also say that an eclipse of the sun arises 
from the moon’s standing between the observer and the sun, and 
from a conjunction of the two at the same moment. 

‘The same may be said in regard to this language as was observed 
in reference to the disputes about words — that one need not be 
anxious about refuting it. Whoever imagines that it is a religious 
duty to dispute upon this subject, has in fact attacked religion, and 
injured his own cause. For in truth these positions are fortified by 


a oe 


byte Witee 


Ghazzali’s Alchemy of Happiness. 151 


mathematical proofs, about which there can be no doubt. Who- 
ever investigates an eclipse, can establish it by demonstration, and 
can point out its peculiarities, the period of its commencement, the 
extent of it, and the period of duration until the reillumination be- 
gins. And ifsome one tell him that the demonstration is contrary 
to doctrine, let him not doubt the demonstration, but rather let him 
doubt the interpretation given to the law (of the Koran). The 
wrong done to the law by those who defend it with false interpreta- 
tions, is greater than the wrong which is done to it by those who 
find fault with it on a correct interpretation — as says the proverb, 
_ ‘a wise enemy is better than a foolish friend.’ 

‘Tf some person should argue, that as according to a tradition, the 
Prophet once said, ‘ When God manifests his glory upon anything, 
it humbles itself before it,’ and that therefore this is to be taken as 
an indication that an eclipse arises from an act of humility in the 
presence of God, we reply, that this report is not a genuine tradi- 
tion, and that even on the supposition of its genuineness, it would 
be better to throw light upon its meaning, than to make use of it 
for altercation in categorical premises. For when the proofs are 
definite, we ought not to be controlled to such an extent by unex- 
plained texts of the Koran. It is a cause of great joy to the infidel 
when the apologist for the faith pretends that such views are con- 
trary to the faith, for it then makes it easy for him to refute the 
law. The world is now disputing whether it is a genuine tradition 
or merely ancient. But if its genuineness should be established, it 
would still be a matter of indifference, whether the earth were round 
or flat, or whether the heavens above and what is below are more 
or less than thirteen layers —— seeing the thing sought to be proved 
is, that at any rate they are all the work of God. 

“ Wecome next to the third difference of opinion, in which the mat- 
ters disputed about are at the foundation of religion, as the creation 
of the world, the attributes of the creator, and the resurrection of 
the body. In this case it is without doubt our duty to refute the 
error with convincing arguments.” 

The work of Degerando, Histoire comparé des syst?mes de philoso- 
phie, tome iv, Paris, 1823, may properly be referred to, for com- 
parison with Smélders’s Hssaz, to aid farther in appreciating the 
principles of Ghazzali in interpreting the Koran, and the grounds 
of his opposition to Aristotle. His picture of the stand-point of 
Ghazzali seems accurate and just. See also, Whewell, History of 
the Inductive Sciences, 3d edition, 1857. 


a fp sot gl! 
tl 


Report of the Second Class in the Second Department— 
- Botany. By Cuarues H. Peck, Chairman of the Class. 


[Read before the Albany Institute, March, 18, 1873.] 


Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Albany Institute : 

It is scarcely to be expected that an annual report which 
should simply record the indication of progress in any one 
science for a single year would be along one. The mere 
results of many years of investigation may sometimes be 
expressed in a fewsentences. Progress in the development 
of any natural science is necessarily slow. Nature’s works 
are so vast, so numerous, so various and so complicated in 
their relations, while her investigators, her patient ob- 
servers and persevering inquirers are so few that great and 
rapid advances are not possible. Besides, the method of 
investigation is almost always such as to require slow and 
cautious steps. We are compelled first to seek out and 
carefully ascertain a vast number of facts and then from 
these we are to deduce the great underlying truths and 
principles upon which the phenomena rest. If we attempt 
to theorize we are as liable to build upon the sand as upon 
arock. Our theories are reliable only so far as they are 
sustained by facts. In the vegetable kingdom, especially, 
there are so many exceptions to general rules, so much 
that is peculiar to each group and even to each species that 
we need to study the most minute details. 

The earlier botanists devoted themselves chiefly to the 
study of the higher orders of plants, i. e., the phenogamia 
or flowering plants, to the work of describing and classify- 
ing, grouping and arranging them into a system which 
should indicate their relations to each other and facilitate the 
acquisition of knowledge concerning any particular species 


4 ] 
2 
* 
m4 
4 
s 


Report on Botany. 153 


or group. Butin these later days the facilities for the study 
of cryptogamic plants have been so increased by improve- 
ments in microscopes that the realm of botanical investiga- 
tion has been widely extended, and now no small part of 


the attention of botanists is devoted to the exploration of 


those hidden fields which the microscope reveals and makes 
accessible. Here we are ushered, as it were, into a new 
world of beauty and of wonder, here is opened a door 
within whose portals we may find abundant food for thought 
and marvelous evidences of wisdom and design that chal- 
lenge our highest admiration. Accustomed as we are to 
consider these diminutive plants as very low in the scale 
of being, it is with no little gratification that we find them 
endued with characters so varied and yet so constant as to 
afford abundant means for systematic classification and 
specific identification. Though they may be of less direct 
value than other plants in an economic point of view, still 
they are not without value and some on the other hand are 
not to be deemed wholly uninjurious. The attacks of the 
injurious ones are more to be feared because they are the 
attacks of a hidden enemy. So minute are the germs, so 
secret their dissemiuation, so untraceable their move- 
ments and so immense their numbers that it is difficult to 
contend with them. Similar relations exist in the animal 
kingdom. Thus we suffer greater pecuniary loss from the 
ravages of such minute creatures as the wheat midge and 


the Hessian fly than from the inroads of larger but less nu- 


merous depredators. Numbers avail more than strength. 
Canada thistles and white daisies are less to be dreaded by 
the farmer than the rusts and smuts of the grain fields. 
Such considerations ought to have some influence in direct- 
ing attention to the development of the science of crypto- 
gamic botany. As an indication of an increasing interest 
in this direction we may briefly refer to the following pub- 
lications of the past year. 
Trans. viii. | 20 


154 Report on Botany. 


Ist. The translation, for the Transactions of the New 
York State Agricultural Society, of Dr. Fisher’s Contribu- 
tion to the Biology and History of the Development of the 
Ustilaginee, makes this work available to those who are 
conversant with the English language only. The species 
of Ustilago, are somewhat numerous and two of them, U. 
Carbo and U. Maydis, are especially injurious to our crops 
of grain and Indian corn. Itis this power they have to 
affect us in our material interests that. causes the most 
practical as well as the scientific mind, to hail with satis- 
faction every new acquisition of knowledge concerning 
these parasites, every new discovery that tends to bring 
them under our control. From Dr. Fisher’s contribution 
we learn that he was able in some cases to trace the my- 
celium of the parasite in and through the tissues of the 
supporting plant from its earliest growth up to the time 
and place of the spore formation. It was found, even in 
parts of the supporting plant, beneath the surface of the 
ground, although the spores of the parasite are never pro- 
duced in such parts. Hence the conclusionis that the 
parasite enters its host plant at a very early period of its 
existence. But how it enters, just when and under what 
conditions, is a problem yet to be solved, and upon the 
solution of it would seem to depend the intelligent applica- 
tion of a remedy. Ifthe germ of the parasite isin or upon 
the seed of the supporting plant, ready to attack the sprout- 
ing embryo and grow with its growth, we must take care 
to plant only unaffected seed. If it requires peculiar condi- 
tions for its development it is desirable that we understand 
those conditions in order to avoid or counteract them. 

2d. Genera Lichenum, an arrangement of the North 
American Lichens, by Prof. E. Tuckerman, is a valuable 
repository of information in the department of botany of 
which it treats. It not only discusses the arrangement of — 
the genera but also to some extent the grouping of species. 


Report on Botany. 155 


Tribe, family and generic descriptions are given, several 
new species described and the value of spore characters 
has received due consideration. This work, with the 
synopsis of the species of North American lichens which 
is expected to follow it as soon as the health of the author 
will permit, will doubtless give a new impulse to the labors 
of lichenists in this country. 

3d. We must not pass, without notice, Grrevillea a 
monthly journal devoted exclusively to cryptogamic botany. 
Although published in a foreign land it bids fair to con- 
tain much that will be interesting to American students. 
Already the Rev. M.J. Berkeley has commenced a series of 
articles in it entitled Notices of North American Fungi. 
In these articles many new species are described, species that 
in somé instances were detected years ago by the late Dr. 
Curtis and his fellow workers, but that have until now 
been known by mere cabinet or manuscript names. These 
we now believe are to be fixed by good definite descrip- 
tions. It certainly augurs well for cryptogamic botany 
when an illustrated periodical of the character of Gre- 


_villea is regularly issued and generously sustained. If 


we turn our attention to phenogamic botany we have no 
new issue of American works to record. 

The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical club has just com- 
pleted its third year. Itis our only periodical devoted 
exclusively to botanical subjects. It has met with such 
favor and is so manifestly needed as a medium of commu- 
nication between botanists that its managers are not only 
disposed to continue it, but if possible to enlarge its 
pages and its sphere of usefulness. 

Interesting and able botanical articles have from time to 
time appeared in our various scientific and agricultural 
journalsand reports. Tospecify them all would be tedious. 
As a whole they tend to show that more thought and at- 
tention is now bestowed upon this science than a few years 


156 Report on Botany. 


ago, its friends dared to anticipate. Among the important 
ones we merely mention the botanical contributions of 
of Prof. Asa Gray, in the Proccedings of the Academy of 
Arts and Sciences, and the address of the same before the 
American Association forthe Advancement of Science; the 
former containing descriptions of several new species from 
the western part of the country, and some valuable notes 
on synomymy; the latter, some exceedingly interesting 
thoughts on the redwoods of California and on plant dis- 
tribution. 

Let us pass now from the consideration of publications 
to that of collections. We express no new thought when 
we say that an herbarium of specimens properly selected, — 
well prepared, systematically arranged and authentically 
labeled is in some respects more valuable than an extensive 
botanical library. For the study of structural characters, 
for the ready identification of unknown or unrecognized 
species, as a repository of typical specimens, its place can 
not easily be supplied by books. Even in the field the 
facilities for comparison, for grouping and systematizing — 
are scarcely equal to those afforded by an herbarium in 
which plants of different climes and remote localities are — 
brought together before the eyes. The student’s opportu- — 
nity and the plant’s occurrence are not always coincident, — 
but the contents of an herbarium may always be accessi- — 
ble. Especially are snch collections desirable in the more — 
advanced institutions of learning where they may be of © 
much aid in the illustration of lectures and in the enfore- — 
ing of instruction. Our colleges are not indifferent in this — 
matter. From time to time we hear of the purchase by 
or of the donation to, one or another of these institutions - 
of some large and valuable collection of plants. We have 
been informed that recently a magnificent herbarium o ‘ 
sixty-three thousand species has been purchased for the 
Torrey Botanical club, but it is expected that it will be 


— 
- 
' 

A 7 


Report on Botany. 157 


made available also for the use of Columbia College. This 
together with the extensive herbarium of Dr. Torrey will 
place Columbia College in a most enviable position in re- 
spect to facilities for botanical instruction. 

The opening of the western territories has made acces- 
sible a vast and most interesting field of operations, which 
botanists as well as other scientists have not been slow to 
occupy. The exploring expeditions carried on under 
the auspices of the general government have usually 
been accompanied by a botanist or by some one whose 
duty it was to collect and preserve specimens of the plants 
discovered. The magnificent volume noticed in a former 
report had its origin in one of these expeditions. The 
botanist connected with Dr. Hayden’s geological expedi- 
tion in the Yellowstone region the past season, unlike some 
of his predecessors, did not make collections of flowering 
plants alone, but also included in his acquisitions numer- 
ous specimens of cryptogamic plants. Private enterprise 
also extends its researches into these distant localities as 


is attested by the collections of Mr. Elihu Hall in 1871 and 


of Dr. C. C. Parry in 1872. 

The additions to our own State herbarium the past year, 
are two hundred and sixteen species by collection, forty- 
eight by contribution, two hundred and sixty-four in all. 
This herbarium in the last five or six years has grown 
from a representation of about fourteen hundred species, 
of which about fifty were cryptogamic, to one of about 


three thousand five hundred species, nearly two thousand 


of which are cryptogamic plants. Of these there are in 
round numbers seventy-five ferns and fern allies, three 
hundred mosses, sixty liverworts, one hundred and sixty 
lichens, one hundred alge and thirteen hundred fungi. It 
is with no little gratification that we refer to this collection, 
not because of its magnitude, for it claims to illustrate the 
botany of this one state alone, but because of its com- 


158 Report on Botany. 


pleteness. All classes of plants, save the wholly ee 
scopic desmids and diatoms, are represented init. The 
best specimens in all cases of choice have been selected, 
and the purpose has been, not to show merely a stem or 
branch bearing leaves and flowers, as is too often the case 
in herbaria, but to exhibit the whole plant, including root, 
fruit and seeds, also all the marked varieties of variable 
species. In the case of the fleshy fungi, which generally 
shrink and change color notwithstanding the best efforts 
at drying them, colored sketches of the fresh plant are 
placed on the species sheet with the dried specimen. To 
the specimens of minute species magnified sketches of the 
plant and its characteristic organs are often added. Be- 
sides this the collection contains the type specimens of 
more than three hundred new species of fungi, a fact 
which gives to the herbarium an unusual value and which 
in future years will cause it to be eagerly consulted and 
confidently resorted to as an arbitrator in cases of doubt, 
perplexity and dispute. 

In pursuing the investigations that have been under- 
taken by one of your committee, most interesting disco- 
veries are sometimes made. We will venture to speak 
briefly of one or two of these made the past year, partly 
because every new discovery adds something to the sum 
of our knowledge and partly because such discoveries tend 
to encourage further inquiries into the mysteries of na- 
ture. 

In a certain part of the great wilderness known as the 
North woods, a small whitish mushroom-like fungus was 
found. It had every appearance of being an Agaricus be- 
longing to the subgenus Clitocybe. The only remarkable 
feature about it was caused by the presence of a few long, 
straight, stiff hairs scattered over its surface, an unusual 
character in a Clitocybe. As it was desirable to have 
spores of the plant to place in the herbarium with the 


' 


bs 
L 
? 
* 
4 
PY 


a pall 
ee rs, 


a 


Report on Botany. 159 


dried specimens, a pileus was placed upon a piece of black 
paper in the usual manner. The result was unexpected. 
The deposited spores were colored, not white as in all spe- 
cies of Clitocybe and as there was reason to suppose they 
would be in this case. An examination of the collected 
specimens revealed the fact that the lamelle, i. e., the ra- 
diating plates on which the spores are produced, had 
changed in color from white to a‘kind of rusty-brown ap- 
proaching snuff color. It was evident that the plant could 
no longer be considered a Clitocybe nor any other member 
of the genus Agaricus. Further investigation served to 
locate it exactly midway between the two genera Lepista 
of Smith and Paxillus of Fries. In the former the lamelle 
are distinct and the spores are white, in the latter the 
lamelle’ anastomose near the base and the spores are co- 
lored. In our plant the lamelle are distinct but the spores 
are colored. Thus it admirably connects the two genera 
and serves to support and confirm the opinion of the vene- 
rable Fries, the father of mycology, who had placed Lepista 
as a subgenus under Paxillus. The union, so neatly accom- 

_ plished by thisintervening species, is the more interesting be- 
cause the genus Paxillus is connected by Lepista with the ge- 
nus Agaricus and on the other hand by intervening forms 
with the genus Boletus. Thus we have a complete series of 
transitional forms uniting the extreme genera Agaricus 
and Boletus. Thus it is that new discoveries serve to fill 

_ up gaps in the system and bring us nearer to truth 

__and to a realization of that harmony and unity of design 
that pervades all of Nature’s works. 

It is not uncommon in spring and early summer to find 
upon the branches of the shrub usually called pinxter flower, 
Azalea nudiflora, fleshy, succulent excrescences or gall-like 
bodies of a somewhat globular, though frequently irregu- 
lar form. They are of a pale green color, smooth, of a 

uniform texture throughout and generally one or two 


160 Report on Botany. 


inches in diameter. They are not unpleasant to the taste 
and are sometimes eaten by voracious school boys to whom 
they are known as May apples, and by whom they are 
often supposed to be the real fruit of the shrub. So com- 
monly is this production observed that older and more 
thoughtful minds have wondered and sometimes even asked 
why it is that no mention is made of it in any of our bota- 
nies. The idea seems to have been entertained by some 
that like most other gall-like excrescences, they are of in- 
sect-origin, but we have never been able to find anything 
published concerning them. Having therefore somewhat 
carefully examined them with a view to ascertain their 
cause for ourselves, we have come to the conclusion that 
they are fungus-galls, and as such they have been described 
and the fungus named in the last botanical report made to 
the Board of Regents of the University. 

A careful dissection of many galls failed to reveal any 
signs of insects or larve in them, neither in old and with- 
ered galls do any apertures or places of exit appear, as they 
certainly should if any insect had escaped therefrom. Oc- 
casionally an insect larva may be found concealed in the 
external cavities of the gall, and sometimes they eat into 
its pulpy substance from the outside, but these could have 
nothing to do in producing it. On the other hand there 
are evidences of a fungoid origin. The galls soon become ~ 
covered with a white bloom or minute mealiness, whichis _ 
found by microscopical examination, to be the spores of — 


a fungus. A further investigation shows that from the ~ 
whole surface of the gall elongated cells protrude upon the 


apices of which these spores are borne. The mycelium of © 


- the fungus was not satisfactorily traced in the substance of 


the gall, but there can scarcely be a doubt that by skillful — 


manipulation it may be detected, especially in the younger 


galls. Similar galls occur upon Andromeda ligustrina and 


on some species of Vaccinium. Itis worthy of mention 


that these are all Ericaceous plants. In like manner the 
species of Podisoma attack only the junipers on which 
they produce the fungus galls known as Cedar apples, 
and the black knot fungus produces its excrescences on 
plum and cherry trees only. Each gall-producing fungus 
has its own habitat beyond which it cannot go. 

The subject of plant fertilization continues to receive a 
share of the attention of botanists. Without entering into 
details let it suffice to say that the tendency of discoveries 
in this direction is to show that self fertilization is much 
more rare and fertilization by the agency of insects is more 
common than has generally been supposed. Various sin- 
gular and beautiful contrivances have been detected which 
were evidently designed to secure cross fertilization. 
Hence it is that some plants, when removed beyond the 
reach of those insects that aid in their fertilization, seldom 
or never bear fruit unless fertilized by artificial means. 
What a view of mutual dependence does such a fact pre- 
sent. The plant is necessary to the insect for sustenance, 
the insect is necessary to the plant for propagation. The 
continuance of each depends upon the other. Who can 
consider such intimacy and the beauty of such relations 
and yet fail to wonder and admire! But it is not to be 
supposed that this mutual dependence extends to all plants. 
By a wise provision many of those plants that have become 
the great sources of food-supply for man and beast are 
exempt from the hazards of insect fertilization. The pol- 
len of our corn fields, grain fields and meadows is sown 
broad cast by the winds. A kind of wholesale fertilization 
is necessary here where insects, unless they should swarm 

‘in countless myriads, would be inadequate to the task. 

In a former report it was intimated that there were dif- 
ficulties to be encountered in the study of fungi. The 
truth of this might be inferred from the fact that although 
we were not entirely without descriptive lists of our ferns, 

Trans. viii.) 21 


Report on Botany. 161 


162 Report on Botany. 


mosses, lichens and alge no successful attempt had been 
made to give us a manual of fungi. It may not be out of 
place to allude briefly to some of these difficulties. Not 
that we would discourage any or divert them from the pur- 
suit of this most interesting branch of botany, we desire 
rather to encourage and commend, but because difficulties 
are more easily overcome when we know exactly where 
they are, and what they are, and because in this way the 
direction in which efforts should be made to elucidate and 
simplify the gubject may be indicated. 

The vast number of the species with which the student 
should form an acquaintance has tended to retard the de- 
velopment of the science of mycology. The species of 
fungi outnumber all the other eryptogams combined. The 
British species now known exceed twenty-eight hundred. 
The North Carolina species, according to Dr. Curtis, are 
more than twenty-three hundred, but all the other crypto- . 
gams of that state are not quite six hundred. In our own 
state the fungi now known are about thirteen hundred 
species, but little less than twice the number of the re- 
maining eryptogams, and almost as many as the species 
of flowering plants. In the introduction to Centuries of 

orth American Fungi, published by Rev. M. J. Berkeley 
and Rev. M. A. Curtis, in the Annals and Magazine of 
Natural History, they say: “It was intended, at first, to 
publish the whole in an especial work dedicated to North 
American Mycology, but it was found impossible to pre- 
pare so voluminous a book as a complete account of the 
Fungi of the United States, within any fixed time, and we 
have, therefore, thought it right to publish the multitudes 
of new species which exist in our Herbaria, by way of 
Prodromus.” 

The immense number of species in some genera is a 
source of difficulty. It is well known to botanists, that 
those genera which abound in species are the most diffi- 


Report on Botany. 163 


cult to master. Aside from the mere matter of numbers, 
the species in such genera seem more subject to variation 
than in others, and appear to run close to, if not into each 
other. Thus it is in flowering plants with the genus Carex, 
which of itself is a study of considerable difficulty, and one 
capable of absorbing the whole attention. And yet, in 
our state, there are not half as many species of Carex as 
there are of Agaricus. Nearly two hundred and fifty spe- 
cies of Agaricus have already been detected in this state, 
and doubtless there are twice that number in the United 
States. In the Epicrisis of Fries, nine hundred and eighty 
species are described. Probably no other botanical genus 
contains as many species as the genus Agaricus. So nu- 
merous are they, that when an undescribed species is 
found, it is not always easy to select an appropriate specifte 
name for it, to such an extent have the available names 
been preoccupied. Indeed, it seems quite clear, that the 
necessities of the case, will soon require that the subgenera 
of this unwieldy genus be raised to genera. Some idea of 
the difficulties experienced by the celebrated Fries, in his 
early study of this genus, may be formed from his intro- 
ductory remarks in his Systema Mycologicum. He says in 
substance, when [ commenced the study of this genus the 
species were vague, the definitions inadequate, the descrip- 
tions repetitious, and scarcely a tenth part of the synonymy 
was accurately determined. Behold, candid reader, in this 
work the fruits of the labor of ten years. 

The variations in the species are sometimes exceedingly 
perplexing. Two or three common varieties of the fly 
agaric, Agaricus muscarius, are so well marked as to sug- 
gest the question of their specific distinction. They vary in 
color, in the character and consistency of the warts, and 
especially in size, the pileus being sometimes one inch 
across, sometimes ten; the stem varying from one fourth 
of an inch to nearly two inches in diameter. Equally 


164 Report on Botany. 


wonderful are the variations in the honey agaric, Agaricus 
melleus. In these plants, favorable conditions seem to 
transform pigmies into giants. 

Another difficulty is found in that singular phase of life 
called dimorphism. It is by no means of rare occurrence 
among fungi, yet it is not always easy to trace the connec- 
tion between the dissimilar forms. Especially is this the 
case when the two forms are developed on different sup- 
porting plants or when they are increased to three or four 
distinct conditions. In many instances these dimorphic 
forms were at first described as distinct genera and species, 
but more recent investigations are tracing their specific 
union and rapidly reducing the number of so called species, 
It is manifest therefore that the science of mycology is to 
a certain extent unsettled and as it were in a transitional 
state. What is needed is the elimination of these super- 
fluous genera and species as soon as possible or rather their 
‘incorporation with and union in permanent ones. This 
will go far toward simplifying and systematizing the 
science. Such work might be hastened by a series of ex- 
periments, but, owing to the extreme tenuity of the spores 
and the invisible manner in which they are disseminated 
everywhere by air and wind, experiments are difficult and 
very liable toerror. It is for this reason that some eminent 
mycologists receive with hesitation and evident distrust 
the conclusions drawn from the inoculating experiments 
of Prof. CArsted, Hoffman and others. 

In flowering plants there is a certain degree of perma- 
nency of existence and location that enables us to make 
repeated observations on themif desirable. A rare flower- 
ing plant may be discovered in some distant locality but 
the opportunity may be wanting for learning its whole 
history immediately. The next season we may repair to 
the locality at the proper season with a reasonable hope of 
finding the plant and completing our observations. But 


: 


it is not so with agarics. An abundant supply may occur 
in a given locality one year, and not a single specimen be 
found there the next year. Some species are like some 
insects, appearing plentifully one season then disappear- 
ing for several. Some are quite ephemeral, coming forth 
during the night and decaying during the day. Others 
appear only late in the season and continue but a few days, 
so that it is not always convenient for the observer to be 
at the right place at the right time. 

Besides, the minute size of many fungi brings into requi- 
sition the habit of close attention in their study, a careful 
training of the eyes to detect them, a sharp discrimination 
of their essential characters and a most patient use of the 
microscope, faculties that generally require considerable 
exercise before they can be readily employed. The difii- 
culty with which specimens of fleshy fungi are preserved 
must be added as an obstacle to be encountered by the 
mycologist. Of all plants the Agaricini and some alge 
are the only ones that can not be satisfactorily preserved 
by drying under pressure. The former must be dried first 
and pressed afterwards. Even then they lose much of 
their color, character and beauty. If we would preserve 
all their characters the spores must be gathered anda 
colored sketch made of the fresh plant. To do this re- 
quires considerable time, but toilsome methods of acquiring 
and preserving a thorough knowledge of these things cease 
to be irksome when the heart is in the work, 

The final and in some respects the most formidable 
hindrance to the American student of mycology is the 
want of a satisfactory text book or manual of our species, 
to guide and aid him in his researches. The nearest 
approach we have to this desideratum is the Handbook of 
British Fungi, but this being a manual of British species, 
describes but a part of our species. Such descriptions of 
species peculiar to this country as have been published, 


Report on Botany. 165 


166 Report on Botany. 


are scattered through various magazines, reports and jour- _ 
nals, some of which are foreign and not easily accessible — 
or procurable. Some are in Latin only and hence una- 
vailable to many, some were written in the earlier days 
of the science when microscopes were thought less neces- — 
sary than now, consequently the spore characters, often 
very important ones, are entirely omitted, some are so 
brief that they scarcely serve to distinguish the speciesin — 
a satisfactory manner. 

Such are some of the hindrances to the study of my- 
cology, but instead of operating as discouragements they 
should act as incentives. Is the field a broad one, thereis — 
spacefor more laborers ; is the work surrounded by special 
difficulties, there is opportunity for the exercise of special 
talents ; has it been passed by and neglected, there are more 
favorable chances for usefulness, for new discoveries and 
new additions to our stock of knowledge. Itis not the 
simplest problems that engage the attention of the earnest 
mathematician, not the most monotonous landscapes that — 
give the most pleasure to the beholder, neither is that 
science the most attractive that requires in its pursuits 
but feeble exertion and the exercise of but few of our 
faculties. In the numerous inquiries for mycological works, — 
in the frequent requests for aid in determining species of — 
fungi and for information upon various matters connected 
with their study, we think we have sure indications of a. 
growing interest in this branch of botanical science and of — 
the rise of a corps of students and investigators, who will 
do. much toward overcoming all difficulties and placing the 
mycology of this country in a far more satisfactory condi- 
tion than that in which we now find it. ; | 


a 
al 
= 
3 

4 

; 


eblamiace 


a. pare = > 


The Water Supply of Albany. By Peter HocGan. 


#26 


[Read before the Albany Institute, May 20, 1873.] 


iz The subject of a water supply for large cities, involving 
sit does not only the pecuniary advantages for manufac- 
“tur ing purposes, fire protection and domestic use, but also 
_ the sanitary condition of acommunity, is a problem which 
in many cases is rendered difficult to solve. 
- its varied condition of vapor, liyuid and solid form, 
yater is constantly performing some of the most essential 
a nd important functions of nature and of the physical pur- 
poses of life. It is ever present in the atmosphere, supply- 
‘ an essential element in the air we breathe. It is present 
in our food, both liquid and solid, constituting in some of 
he latter from 75 to 96 per cent of the totalamount. The 
guman body itself has full 50 per cent of water in its 
ormation. It is not sufficient, therefore, in providing for 
‘water supply to simply guard against a Chicago or a 
Boston disaster! The varied requirements for manufac- 
iring purposes and domestic use, as well as a proper fire 
protection, should be provided for; but in selecting a source 
of upply the essential sanitary requirements incident to a 
lensely populated district should be strictly regarded. 
The importance of this subject is daily becoming more 
PE ent. Recent investigations have finally discovered 
€ immediate cause of many of the epidemics,— typhoid 
fever er, cholera and other similar diseases, which have long 


be | 


eT PEF 


TR 


1 We have just received intelligence of a terrible conflagration at Isaka, 
Japan; in which many lives were lost; the fire raging a whole day and 
night ; and also of a still greater conflagration at Hong Kong, China, cov- 

ring an area of 44 acres of buildings, rendering 5,000 people homeless. 


168 The Water Supply of Albany. 


remained in obscurity, tracing the same directly to the well, 
_ spring, or river waters in use. 

In arecently published communication upon this subject, 
Dr. Stephen Smith, Health Commissioner of New York 
city, says: 

‘The causation of typhoid fever, though long enveloped 
in obscurity is now well known. It is one of the so called 
filth diseases of modern sanitary writers. Its most ordinary 
exciting cause is air or drinking water befouled with excre- 
mented matters.” 

It is also quite certain that a person suffering from this — 
fever, may himself infect the air of his room or the water 
which receives his excreta with germs of disease so as to 
transmit it to others. 

The facts illustrating the origin of typhoid from excre- 
mental matters in drinking water are now very numerous 
and very instructive. 

The following examples illustrating the methods of com- 
municating the fever are presented by Dr. Smith. 

“Jn a small German settlement in the upper part of 
the city there was a severe outbreak of dysentery and 
typhoid fever. A physician, called to attend some of the 
cases, set to work to find out the cause. On inquiring as 
to the water supply, he was directed to a spring, on low 
ground, in the midst of the settlement, so situated as to 
receive the surface drainage. The water was pure and 
sparkling to the sight and taste, and was loudly praised by 
the owner of the spring. A quantity put in a bottle and 
allowed to stand a few hours threw down a thick sediment 
of most offensive matter. The people ceased to use the 
water and the epidemic ceased at once. 

“Tn a neighboring village typhoid fever broke out and 
prevailed with great violence in a given locality. Search 
was then made for the cause, by the attending physician, 
but in vain. He appealed for aid to the health authorities 


The Wuter Supply of Albany. 169 


of New York ; and an expert officer examined the history 
of the outbreak and the locality and predicted that a cer- 
tain hydrant which supplied the victims with drinking 
water communicated at some point with house drains or the 
sewer. The water pipe was examined, and at a distance 
from the hydrant a house drain was found to communicate 
with the same. The necessary repairs were made and the 
epidemic ceased.” 

The Medical Department of the London Local Govern- 
ment Board, have just issued an important report on the 
cause of typhoid or enteric fever in London: of the vari- 
ous ways in which water may be made the vehicle for dis- 
tributing the fever. The report gives the following as 
illustrations : 

At Terling Place ten persons were attacked with enteric 
fever, and all these persons, and these only ofa large family 
drank water from a particular well into which it was dis- 
covered that a cesspool leaked. 

At Dickens Bonet in Essex, a certain well was polluted 
and out of eighty-eight drinkers from that well, forty-two 
persons were attacked; while only one other person out 
of a population of two hundred and six in the village, was 
attacked. At Nunnery, a village in Somersetshire, hav- 
ing a population of eight hundred and thirty-two, Dr. 
Ballard records seventy-six cases of enteric fever as occur- 
ing in four months. The cases were limited in a remark- 
able way to families who obtained their water supply from 
asmall rivulet which received the sewage of several houses 
up stream. At Hawkesbury Upton, in Gloucestershire, a 
village of six hundred and forty-seven inhabitants, within 
a short period ninety-five cases and fourteen deaths from 
enteric fever occurred in groups, following the successive 
pollution of different wells in'the village. Burbage, a village 
in Leicestershire, as recorded by Dr. Guinne Harris had 
an outbreak of enteric fever from the same cause last year. 

Trans. viti.] 22 


170 The Water Supply of Albany. 


No one took the fever in the village except persons who 
certainly or presumedly drank water from a particular 
pump and every house supplied from this pump was sub- 
ject to infection. 

It has been estimated that upwards of 150,000 people 
are annually affected by typhoid fever in England. 

In speaking of the cholera which visited London in 
1848-9 and 1853-4, a writer upon this subject says: “* The 
influence which the purity or impurity of water has upon 
the health of people using it was strikingly shown during 
the above periods. The Lambeth company pumped water 
from the higher parts of the Thames and the supply was 
equal to any furnished at that time by the other companies. 

The Southwark and Vauxhall company drew their sup- 
ply from lower down the river and the water then furnished 
by them has been stated to have been the filthiest stuff 
ever drank by a civilized community.” 

The Lambeth company supplied 24,854 houses contain- 
ing about 166,906 people, and among these the deaths from 
cholera amounted to 611, or were at the rate of 0.37 per 
cent of the population. The Southwark and Vauxhall 
company supplied 39,726 honses, containing 268,171 inhab- 
itants of whom 38,476 died from cholera. The death rate 
being, in this case, 1.3 per cent or about three and one-half 
as high as in the districts supplied with purer water. 

That the difference in the mortality in the two districts. 
mentioned was mainly due to the difference in quality of 
the water supplied to them is curiously corroborated by 
observations made in 1848-9. At that date the water fur- 
nished by the Lambeth company was worse than that sup- 
plied by the Southwark and Vauxhall company, and the 
proportionate death rate in the former, was then greater 
than in the latter district. 

In 1866 cholera carried off at least 10,000 of the popula- 
tion of London ; while Glasgow, Manchester, and Sheffield, 


The Water Supply of Albany. 171 


supplied with pure water, were comparatively exempt from 
the scourge. 

Mr. Chairman: The limited time allotted to this paper 
will not permit further examples of the evil effects pro- 
duced by an improper water supply, excepting as it is con- 
nected with a branch of the subject in which we are now 
interested, 

‘The history of all large cities which are the centres of 
commerce and trade are identical in many particulars. 
Their gradual growth from the plain and insignificant ham- 
let with narrow and contracted thoroughfares, into densely 
populated ‘districts, have of necessity carried with the same 
certain improvements, prominent among which has been 
the introduction of pure water from points, eufficiently re- 
moved from the natural sources of contamination. 

Rome in her palmy days constructed immense aqueducts. 
The first of which, Appia Claudia, was built B.C. 331 
years, conveying the water from a point eleven miles dis- 
tant. Subsequently other aqueducts were constructed con- 
veying water fifty seven miles to the imperial city. 

Rome had nine aqueducts, whose aggregate length was 
255 miles, affording a daily supply of 377,000,000 gallons. 
Three of these supplied modern Rome, viz: Aqua Vir- 
ginia, constructed 22 years B. C.: Aqua Felice, 146 years 
B. C.. and Aqua Paoli, A. D. 14. 

Ancient Rome has furnished us with many lessons in 
sanitary science: but Rome of the present day, through 
successive political changes, the ravages of war, and neg- 
lected sanitary requirements “ lies beneath a pestilential 
pall, and death is borne on every breeze which is wafted 
over the once proud capital of the Cesars.”’ 

In stating that the history of all large cities are identi- 
cal, it is particularly so with reference to the sanitary re- 
quirements embracing a proper water supply. Gradually 
but surely, asthe limits of acity become extended, the well, 


172 The Water Supply of Albany. 


spring and river water become contaminated, and are ren- 
- dered unfit for domestic use.? 

Paris, the pioneer city of modern improvements, in ad- 
dition to her double system of spring water and river sup- 
ply, has recently completed a second aqueduct over sixty 
miles in length. Madrid and Glasgow have followed with 
similar improvements, and London, as a matter of absolute 
necessity will soon be compelled to construct an aqueduct 
from the Welsh mountains, one hundred and eighty-three 
miles distant, or from Ulswater near Cumberland which is 
two hundred and forty miles from the metropolis. 

Repeated and constant attempts have been made both 
in England and in France to mechanically purify the river 
waters by filtering and other processes, but notwithstand- 
ing the great amount of time, skill and labor employed 
and the expenditure of vast sums of money, protected by 
acts of parliament, and subsidies from numerous wealthy 
corporations, all these efforts have proved to be unsuccessful. 

Dr. Frankland and Angus Smith, eminent chemists, the 
former for many years, and at present, in the employment 
of the British government, have frequently reported sew- 
age in the water supplied at the city of London, “ after it 
has passed an act of parliament and the fitter bids of the 
water companies.”’ 

Iu speaking of the project of dispensing with the present 
system of pumping, and adopting the gravitating plan, Dr. 
Frankland says: ‘‘ The schemes are very costly. Mr. 
Bateman’s plan which is to bring water from the mount- 
ains of North Wales is calculated to cost for a supply of 
220,000,000 gallons per day, the sum of £10,850,000, 


1 Previous to the construction of the present Albany City Water Works, 
an analysis was made of the well water at various points. The pump well 
at the old State House contained 36 grains of organic matter. The well at 
the Exchange 64.68 grains, and the pump well at the Capitol Park 65.62 
grains of organic matter to each gallon of water. 


Se ee ee eee 


tere Se See ee 


The Water Supply of Albany. 173 © 


($52,514,000,00); while the schemes of bringing water 
from the Lakes of Cumberlund is put down for 250,000,000 
gallons per day at £13,500,000 ($65,340,000,00). Now 
these are startling figures but I imagine that all we have 
to look at is the simple question :— how much shall we 
have to pay for the water when these schemes are carried 
out? Dr. Frankland says: That from the estimates made 
it actually follows that after expending this enormous 
amount upon the works, we will be supplied with this very 
pure water ata less cost than that which we pay at the 
present moment. In speaking of the present pumping 
system he says: The gigantic and magnificent engines 
employed at the present moment for raising this vast vol- 
ume of water, 100,000,000 gallons daily, are painful forthe 
philosopher to contemplate. You have here a stupendous 
waste of power in doing over again an amount of work 
which was previously executed for us gratuitously. The 
sun, in his prodigality of power, flings up far above the 
Cross of St. Paul’s the daily supply of 100,000 gallons, and 
we in our imbecility allow it to soil itself by flowing down 
again near to the level of the sea, and then we erect im- 
mense pumping engines and expend 200 tons of coal daily 
to raise this water a fraction of the height from which we 
had previously allowed it to fall; all of this will be saved 
by the proposed schemes.” In nearly all of the larger 
cities throughout the United States where pumping from 
the rivers has been resorted to as an early and temporary 
expedient a distant source of supply has followed. 

With this history before us, the experience of over 2,000 
years, notwithstanding the recent advances in sanitary 
science, tracing these fatal epidemics, cholera and typhoid 
or enteric fevers, as they have been directly traced to the 
polluted spring and river waters in use at other places, the 
proposition is now made by the Board of Water Commis- 
sioners to pump water from the Hudson river. 


174 The Water Supply of Albany. 


In order to fully comprehend this proposition so strenu- 
ously advocated by prominent members of that board, a 
brief description of the present works is rendered necessary. 

In 1850 the Hon. Wm. J. McAlpine made a survey and 
report for furnishing the city of Albany with an abundant 
supply of pure and wholesome water. 

No closer survey or more accurate report was ever made, 
or has since been made, for a water supply than was pre- 
sented in that report. The works as constructed em- 
braced a portion only of the water supply suggested in 
said report; and also of Sand creek, with their tributaries. 
A storing reservoir known as Rensselaer lake was con- 
structed in part, but was not completed as originally con- 
templated by Mr. McAlpine. 

Another storing and distributing reservoir was con- 
structed in the vicinity of Tivoli falls, on Patroon’s creek. 
These, together with the distributing Bleecker reservoir, 
were at the time adopted by the Board of Water Commis- 
sloners. 

A very accurate topographical map was presented with 
Mr. McAlpine’s report, showing the water shed of the 
Hunger kill, Norman’s kill, Lishas kill, Kaikout and other 
streams of water at various elevations of from 240 to 250 
feet above tide water, which were and still are available 
under favorable circumstances in connection with our pre- 
sent supply. | 

Mr. 8. H. Sweet has recently made a careful survey of 
the territory and presented an elaborate report to the Com- 
missioners, showing an available supply as follows: From 
spring streams as above by, gravitation 4,551,889 gallons ; 
by pumping and gravitation 8,674,000. 

By adding the Norman’s kill to the pumping and gravity 
plan [see Commissioners’ report to the Common Council], 
13,899,000 gallons of water can be procured at a cost of 
$1,5€5,98600. These estimates the Commissioners say 


The Water Supply of Albany. 175 


*‘do not include the water power on the streams below 
which it is believed would amount to a heavy item. 

In relation to this large available supply the Commission- 
ers say; ‘These large quantities have been given by 
gauging the several streams; but from the experience of 
the Patroon’s creek supply, comparing the amount given 
by measurement in 1850 with that actually furnished dur- 
ing the past season, too great caution cannot be exercised 
before seeking a supply from these streams. It cannot be 
questioned that both the Patroon’s creek and the Norman’s 
kill, with its affluents, are diminishing in their volumes. 
When Mr. McAlpine submitted his report on the Patroon’s 
ereek he gave the flow above Tivoli from June 19th to 
July 15th, and July 23d to July 30th, at a daily mean of 
12,018,831 gallons; and from July 30th to August 24th, 
at a daily mean of 11,660,268, making from July 19th to 
August 22th, a daily mean of 11,899,300 gallons; and yet, 
during a portion of the past winter, although all the water 
of this city was distributed thrugh the city mains, it fell far 
short of the quantity required for use. Rensselaer lake 
failed while the flow of Tivoli receded two feet. In 1871, 
the waste gate from Rensselaer lake was never opened, 

Now, here the Commissioners quote Mr. McAlpine’s 
gauge of water during specified summer months when water 
is known to fall in copious showers, and complain of a de- 
ficiency during winter, without having made provisions for 
storing the same at proper seasons. Mr. McAlpine’s re- 
port does not need any defense; on the contrary, it is 
accepted asauthority. In a London edition of a work pub- 
lished in 1872 (Samuel Hughes, F. 8. G.), on the subject 
of water works the following notice of this subject is made : 
“Experiments were made at two stations on the drain- 


age ground of the Albany Water Works. At the first 


station, having a water shed of 2,600 acres, it was found 
that from May to October, inclusive, only 414 per cent of 


176 The Water Supply of Albany. 


the rain fall was carried off by the streams; but from No- 
vember to April inclusive, 77.6 per cent was so carried off. 
This was in the year 1850; but in the very next year, 1851, 
the streams carried off between May and October inclusive, 
no less than 82.6 per cent.’’ 

Had proper storing reservoirs been constructed, and the 
suggestions of Mr. McAlpine been carried out for increas- 
ing the supply by saving a large percentage of water which 
is now lost by evaporations, no complaint as to quantity 
would ever be heard of. Had ordinary care been taken to 
protect the water shed, and small streams and tributaries 
from pollution, no just cause of complaint as to the quantity 
of the water need to have been made. 

The city, by purchase from Mr. Van Rensselaer secured 
the full control of Patroon’s creek and tributaries, includ- 
ing the beds thereof, and a protection of 33 feet on each 
side of the same, paying $150,000 therefor. With this 
rigbt of ownership, with the full control of all the works 
protected by stringent laws, the Commissioners have 
allowed individuals and corporations to encroach upon 
the lower and most important water-shed, to such an 
extent as to almost destroy the value of the same, convert- 
ing a valuable water supply into a sewer for the drainage 
of large districts, beyond the city limits. 

I present herewith a topographical map showing the 
entire water-shed of our present works, with the encroach- 
ments by individuals and the New York Central rail road, 
- which shows the necessity for immediate action in relation 
to this matter and why an additional water supply is 
imperatively demanded; inasmuch as the Commissioners 
now look to the river, the waters of which have become 
contaminated with the poison of our sewers, augmented 
with the filth of other cities, and ask for an appropriation 
to carry outtheir scheme. This proposition of the Commis- 
sioners has but one recommendation, that of “ sufficiency 


The Water Supply of Albany. — 177 


of supply,” no regard being had to the probable increased 
death-rate of the city. 

The Commissioners present figures of the cost far below 
the estimates formerly made by Mr. McAlpine and Mr. 
Sweet, and omit to make estimates for essential portions 
of the work. Mr. McAlpine’s estimate of furnishing a 
supply of 6,000,000 gallons from the river was: 


Ce $1,205,280 00 
Mr. Sweet’s in 1869,..............000 1,462,151 90 
The Commissicners in 1872,........ 397,000 00 


The Commissioners say their amount may be somewhat 
increased by the rise in the cost of materials. In this 
amount, however, is not included the sum hecessary to 
purchase lots for pumping engines, and inlet pipe, neither 
does the report make provision for filtering the water; 
this necessary expense, they say, it is believed will not ex- 
ceed the means at the disposal of the Commissioners. 

I submit herewith a description of some of the most im- 
portant filter bedsin England, with an estimate of the 
cost of construction, together with cost of attendance and 
renewal of materials. 

Neither Mr. McAlpine nor Mr. Sweet recommended 
pumping from the river; but for the purpose of arriving 
at a true estimate of the cost of construction and of the an- 
nual expense of attendance and the renewal of materials 
for filtering, which the Commissioners acknowledge is ne- 
cessary, not less than $200,000 would be required for this 
purpose alone; which, it will be observed, is over one-half 
of the amount of the Commissioners’ estimate. 

In view of the exigencies of the case, I would recommend 


_ aspecial meeting of the Institute, for the purpose of bring- 


ing this matter properly before our citizens. 
Trans. viit.] 23 


178 The Water Supply of Albany. 


The subject of the paper was discussed, and a special 
committee, consisting of Mr. Hogan, Mr. Bingham, Mr. 
Barnes, Prof. Cooley, and Mr. Colvin, were appointed by 
the chair to report at a special meeting to be held on 
Tuesday evening, the 27th inst., at the rooms of the Insti- 
tute. 


' 


Ss bg SR EE SFE 


ae in, <' To « = | oy) * 5S pt oe PP - 
PS Aes, 28 REE 


A New Form of Rotator. By Leroy C. Cooter, Pa. D. 
[Read before the Albany Institute, April 1, 1873]. 


Rotary motion is of vital importance as a means of 
developing principles in physics. Optical, electrical, 
acoustic and magnetic experiments, to say nothing of the 
numerous well known illustrations of the “ Central forces ” 
constitute a series of important demonstrations of great 
beauty and variety. Until the present, no instrument has 
had capacity to grasp the necessary conditions of all cases, 
and consequently various forms of whirling table or ro- 
tator, each adapted to special experiments, have been 
devised. | 

But notwithstanding their great variety the experiments 
in rotary motion may, for the most part, be grouped in 
three classes, viz: First, those in which the rotating body 
must be firmly attached to a vertical axis: second, those in 
which the rotating body must be freely suspended from a 
vertical axis, and third, those like the Geisler tubes and 
optical disks, in which the rotating body must be firmly 
attached to a horizontal axis. | 

To adapt a single instrument to these three classes of 
experiment, it is only necessary to utilize both ends of the 
axis of the pulley and to be able at a moment’s notice to 
shift the axis itself from a vertical to a horizontal position. 

This has been accomplished as follows: —From the 
centre of a base of convenient size a single column rises 
to a height of about two feet. Across the top of this col- 
umn, and firmly fixed upon it, is a table measuring about 
twenty inches in length by five in width. Upon this table 
and fastened to it by hinges is a strong bar of wood, two and 


180 A New Form of Rotator. 


a halfinches square by about three feet in length. This 
bar carries the driving-wheel and pulley by which the 
motion is obtained. The steel shaft of the pulley passes 
through the bar and is furnished with a screw at each 
end. By this means articles may be firmly attached 
to a vertical axis projecting either upward or downward 
as may be most desirable. A hook accompanies the 
lower end of the shaft from which bodies may be freely 
suspended. The bar carrying the driving wheel and pul- 
ley, being hinged upon the table, is held firmly in place 
by a catch. By sliding this catch, the bar turns upon 
its hinges, carrying the wheel and pulley with it, and 
thus throws the shaft into a horizontal position, instantly 
adapting it to receive attachments for optical disks, Geisler 
tubes or other pieces which must rotate in a vertical plane. 

It does not seem that this rotator needs to be essentially 
more costly than the old style of whirling table; that it 
has capacity to receive attachments for all varieties of ro- 
tary motion in illustrating the different departments of 
physics would seem to make it more desirable than any 
hitherto devised. 


SS ee 


. toa Se 
2 a arnt 


Detection of Heat by Convection. By L.C.Cooury, Pu. D. 


[Read before the Albany Institute, April 1, 1873.] 


In the course of a series of experiments on certain elec- 


_ trical actions, the electroscope in use, which was one of 


Coulomb’s form, gave some anomalous and unexpected 
results. Its needle would respond with great promptness 
to the attraction of all the usual electrics, but what was, 
for a moment, a little puzzling, was the fact that it would 
swing with equal alacrity whenever such good conductors as 
iron and copper, after gentle friction, even while held in 
the hand, were brought into its vicinity. Evidently under 
such circumstances the motion of the needle could not 
be due to any electrical action: it was quickly seen to be 
caused by the gentle rise of temperature in the solid 
rubbed. So gently warmed by friction the metals became 
centres of disturbance in the air. The cooler portions 
around flowed toward the heated centre to take the place 
of the lighter air pushed upward. The pith ball of the 
electroscope, caught in these delicate currents, was wafted 
toward the body introduced. Its motion, therefore, de- 
clared the presence of the heat. 

Can this principle be applied in the construction of ther- 
moscopes? As one step toward answering this question, a 
very slender glass tube, five or six inches long, weighing 
a few grains only, was suspended by a single fibre of silk, 
about a foot in length, attached so as to balance it in a 
horizontal position and hung within a glass case to pro- 
tect it from air currents. An opening was left in the 
cover for the introduction of the body to be tested and a 


182 Detection of Heat by Convection. 


graduated scale was placed under the needle to measure © 4 


the motion produced. 

With this arrangement some very encouraging results 
have been obtained. The following examples will serve to 
illustrate: The end of an iron wire after an almost mo- 
_ mentary pressure between the fingers, held near the needle, 
quickly drew it out of place. A hammer falling by its 
own weight through a distance of 15 inches and striking 
upon the end of the wire, evolved so much heat that the 
needle was wafted through an arc of 60°. A small glass — 
tube gently rapped upon the edge of the table and then 
placed inside the instrument gave motion to the needle, 
distinctly seen by the most distant member of a large class. 

Next tothe expensive Thermo-pile this Convection Ther- 
moscope is probably the most delicate indicator of heat at 
present known. 


 Rinucl fteport of the Class in Philology, Ethnology 
and Anthropology. By Wm. Hats, Pu.D., Chair- 
man of the Class. 


[Read before the Institute, Oct. 15, 1872.] 


In presenting the first annual report of this new depart- 
_ ment of the Institute, it is hardly necessary to attempt any 
_ apology or raison d’étre for the formation of a special class 
for the advancement of this kindred group of sciences, 
- which are in the highest degree humanitarian. I say 
_ sciences, though it is not many years since philology could 
- first be called a science, and even now there are those who 
_ will contend that there is really no science of language, but 
that science is a term applicable only to the group of 
- studies which are more strictly defined as natural sciences. 
Language, however, has been proved to have its own laws 
_ of growth and development, and the study of these laws 
has been reduced to a method no less philosophical than 
_ that which prevails in the study of material organisms. 
To the philosophical study of language, especially in its 
_ connection with archeology and the development of the 
human race, much of the best thought of our age is devoted. 
These studies received their first great impetus from the 
_ discovery of the Sanskrit language, and from the recog- 
nition of the Aryan family of languages, of which it is the 
_ oldest type surviving; and the patient labors of philologists 
are adding continually to the means of pursuing them. In 
- Europe, the great Sanskrit lexicon of Boehtlinck & Roth, 
published at St Petersburgh, affording a vast thesaurus of 
_ information hitherto inaccessible to scholars, is approaching 
completion after the labor of twenty years, having but four 


184 Report in Philology, ete. 


more letters to complete; and Monier Williams’s Sanskrit 
and English dictionary is just published, being the first 
complete Sanskrit and English lexicon ever issued, and 
new works grammatical and critical, as well as the pub- 
lication of Sanskrit texts, have been numerous. In our 
own country, Professor W. D. Whitney, of Yale, has con- 
tributed extensively to the journal of the American Orien- 
tal Society, especially as regards the grammar of Sanskrit, 
and the Vedas and Vedic, or old Sanskrit, as well as more 
popular works. 

The problem of the origin of language has not lacked dis- 
cussion, and, while the beginnings of human speech are 
of course forever lost in oblivion, yet there is much in the 
earliest forms of language known to us that may be con- 
sidered as helps to lead us towards the knowledge of still 
earlier times: and the study of the speech of the lowest 
types of manhood now existing may reasonably be resorted 
to, for the further increase of this knowledge. 

Passing now from the earliest to the latest, and from the 
study of language in general to that of particular languages, 
the most casual observer may note throughout the world, 
with increasing international communication, an increasing 
knowledge of foreign languages in almost all countries ; 
and notwithstanding all this polyglottism, the more domi- 
nant power and the world wide diffusion of our own Eng- 
lish language, at the expense of all others. With the 
knowledge of our arts and sciences we are extending also, 
and especially in the Orient, the knowledge of our lan- 
guage as the vehicle in which these ideas are conveyed ; 
and while Cornell university contains one professor of Chi- . 
nese and Japanese, Japan contains numerous teachers of 
English, and even now the project of introducing the Eng- 
lish as the national language of Japan is under considera- 
tion. With the Pacific railroad there comes to us Amer- 
icans‘also, a wider dissemination, not so much probably 


Report on Philology, ete. 185 


_ from the Orient as from the back-woods of our country, a 
wider and more rapid diffusion of slang, painfully intensi- 
fied by the literary productions of such writers as Bret 
Harte, who, despite his genius, and even by the mere force 
of genius, has done too much to corrupt the purity of our 
noble Saxon. | 

This is no age for idleness or stagnation in any depart- 
ment; live questions in the study of languages will be agi- 
tated continually. Perhaps the question now most pro- 
minently before the public mind, and especially among 
educators, is that of the relative importance of ancient and 
modern languages. Is it not, we are often asked, better 
to begin with the study of spoken tongues, therein 
acquiring a knowledge of practical benefit, and from the 
knowledge thus acquired to ascend if desired to the ancient 
and now obsolete formsof speech? This question will doubt- 
less long continue a fruitful theme for discussion, and perhaps 
without receiving any authoritative answer will result, as 
in fact it does practically result now, in a compromise. 
. Thesecond branch of our subject, the department, namely, 
_ of Anthropology and Ethnology, seems in the scientific de- 
_ yelopment of it almost as new as the science of language. 
~ Manuponearth! how long have his condition and develop- 
ment been objects to be scientifically scrutinized? How 
far, in fact, can science even now pronounce a conclusive 
verdict on the numerous questions pertinent to this sphere 
of investigation? Take the very initial question of polygen- ~ 
esis and monogenesis, the unity or diversity of races of men, 
_ whereon doctors disagree, who shall decide it? Then, as 
regards the development of man, — especially primeval man; 
we find on the one hand Lyell, Lubbock, Huxley and 
others, holding that the status of the lowest forms of 
¥ savages known to us is typical of primeval man; and on 
_ the other, a host of names, including among them profound 
_ thinkers, who as absolutely refuse to accept the theory of 
Trans. vite. | 24 


186 feport on Philology, ete. 


the development of man physically and mentally, and 
especially morally, as they do to admit any portion of 
the evolutionary theory as illustrated in cosmogony and 
biology. History presents us, it is true, with undoubted 
examples of the retrogression of nations and races; but she 
also records from the earliest time known to us, progress 
somewhere; some nation always leading the van, and being 
for the time, the centre of civilization and progress, not 
perhaps marked from year to year, but certainly from age 
to age. 

The nearest approach to primeval man, among the 
extant tribes known to us, is foundin Australia. One strik- 
ing similarity between the Australian and primeval man, 
is the use of the boomerang. Colonel Fox, at the August 
meeting of the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science, maintained that this connects Australia with the 
Egyptians and the Dravidians, the latter being the native 
tribes of India, that is the tribes which inhabited India at 
that remote time when the Aryan invaders had not yet 
intruded there, and Huxley also shows that these races are 
tracéable in their bodily structure to the Australoid stock. 
Colonel Fox also refers to the Journal of the Anthro- 
pological Institute, vol. 1, No. 1, for July 1871, to prove 
that several investigations have traced a connection be- 
tween the Australian and Dravidian languages; and fur- 
ther, in practicing with a fac simile of the Egyptian 
boomerang, from the British Museum, he succeeded in 
obtaining a slight return of flight; and he concludes his 
argument with the statement that ‘‘to deny the affinity of 
the Australian and the Dravidian or Egyptian boomerang 
on account of the absence of a return flight, would be the 
same as denying the affinity of two languages whose gram- 
matical construction was the same, because of their differ- 
ing materially in their vocabularies. Now the Egyptian 
and the Dravidian were early races of men; and if we 
accept the argument from the similarity of these races with 


Report on Philology, ete. 187 


the modern Australians in their anatomy, their language, 
and their arts and weapons, we must regard the Austra- 
lians of to-day as the specimens of living men of which 
these extinct races are the fossil specimens, and we should 
expect to find now living in Australia the type of prim- 
eval man. What discoveries may await us on the full ex- 
ploration of Africa, it is as yet premature to conjecture. 
The almost incredible accounts received from Dr. Living- 
stone relate merely to fluviatic explorations, and touch but 
slightly on the characteristics of the inhabitants of regions 
visited by him. 

The interest with which these studies are now regarded 
is evident from the number of new books fresh from the 
press, among which may be mentioned Evans’s Stone 
Implements of Great Britain, Dr. L. Buechner’s Man in 
the Past, Present and Future, translated from the Ger- 
man by Dallas, and a whimsical work entitled The Mar- 
 tyrdom of Man, by Winwood Reade. Both the latter are 
written in a thoroughly sceptical tone, and are bitterly 
opposed to Christianity. Dr. Buechner is lecturing in 
this country this season. 

The search for ancient monuments and relics of primeval 


man is also vigorously prosecuted, and with much success. 
Implements and fossil remains in abundance reward the 


diligence of collectors. A recent newspaper account repre- 
sents a mound on the line of the Northern Pacific railroad 


‘ ig to contain evidences of a race of men different from any pre- 
viously known to have existed in this country. Whether 


this will prove to be a discovery of any value cannot be 
determined, however, without fuller information than I 


4 a have yet been able to obtain. 


The monuments of comparatively recent times, that is 
_ to say of the date of earlier civilization, are also rapidly 


accumulating. Such histories as Mommsen’s Rome and 


__ Curtius’s Greece, for instance, could not have been written 
till very lately; and in the Levant the discovery of the 
‘ ty 


188 Report on Philology, ete. 


Moabite stone in 1870, gives us the earliest yet discovered 
specimen of any Semitic writing and the most primitive 
form of the alphabet, though even that is evidently de- 
scended from some still earlier one, and shows traces of 
divergence from the primitive form which was the com- 
mon mother of it and of the other Semitic and Aryan alpha- 
bets. One of the most attractive features in popular interest 
at the meetings of the department of anthropology of the 
late Brighton meeting of the British Association, was the 
exhibition by Mr. Evans of a series of charts showing the 
successive changesin alphabetical characters from the origi- 
nal hieroglyphs in the form of an ox, a house, a camel, a 
door, etc., to the form of letter as indicated by modern 
printer’s types. 

Monsieur Quetelet has shown by careful compilation of 
statistics that as regards all matters pertaining to the con- 
duct of mankind in social relations, as well as to the struc- 
ture and proportions of the human body, uniform laws pre- 
vail, Thus it is proved that in a given number of men of 
the same race taken at random, a certain proportion will 
be of the height of 5 feet 8 inches, which is the mean 
height of the Anglo-Saxon race, and the proportion of men, 
of all different heights above or below that standard re- 
mains the same, and varies from the number of those of the 
standard height by a law of mathematical relation. 

The same thing is observable with regard to girth of 
waist and of other corporeal measurements. Stranger 
still, it is found that the proportion of insane persons to 
the entire community, though varying somewhat from 
time to time, follows on the whole a mathematical relation ; 
and the same is true of the proportion to each other and to 
the number of the entire community of various kinds of 
crimes committed. So, also, of the proportions of mar- 
riages of persons of different ages, a mathematical uniform- 
ity is found to hold good in the mass, notwithstanding all 
the caprices of individuals. Thus it appears that in all the 


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. 
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he 


Report on Philology, ete. | 189 


affairs in which individuals seem least controlled by law 
and most free to act their own caprice, yet in the commu- 
nity, as a whole, there exists a proportion as exactasif the 
most inexorable laws compelled each one to the perform- 
ance of every action, and this relation between every kind 
of action and the number of persons who will engage in it 
may be expressed in curves for which a mathematical 
formula can be obtained, in which the ordinates shall repre- 
sent the number of persons of each class, and the abscisse 
the degree or kind of action performed. I know of no 
discovery of science more wonderful than this, which traces 
the operations of law in matters usually thought to be most 
utterly lawless. An interesting account of these investi- 
gations of Quetelet on the Science of Man is given in the 
May number of the Popular Science Monthly; and it is 
there remarked that though statistics of purely mental 
actions have not yet been compiled, there can be little 
doubt that the same laws will ultimately be found applica- 
ble to them also. Indeed, without the aid of statistical 
tables, we may see something of this in the well known 
fact that every generation produces about the same num- 
ber of men in each general department of industry, show- 
ing, pro tanto, an average uniformity in the proportional 
number of men in the community of all different intel- 
lectual and industrial proclivities. 

Of the classification of races of men, or ethnology pro- 
per, there is but little that I need to say, for, so far as I 
have been able to learn, no final and complete classifica- 
tion has yet been attained, nor am I[ aware of any special 
works on this subject very recently issued. 

It will be seen that the range of topics belonging to this 
class of philology, ethnology and anthropology is a wide 
one, and in the highest degree interesting. ‘Know thy- 
self’ is a maxim which became almost the shibboleth of a 
system of philosophy, and which is certainly the only gen- 
uine foundation of all philosophy. Subjective knowledge 


190 Report on Philology, ete. 


is after all the only knowledge of which we can predicate ~ 
any positive certainty ; for knowledge of all objects is only 
of objects as they seem to us, and how can we know our- 
selves without a broad and comprehensive knowledge of 
our, fellow-men as well as:of our own origin and develop- 
ment? Whence can we forecast the future but by discern- 
ing the impetus and direction given by past momentum ? 
Whereby can we read the future destiny of our race un- 
less in the light of past history ? 


a 


Supplement to the Calculus of Operations. By JouN 
Paterson, A.M. . 7 


[Read before the Albany Institute, Nov. 3d, 1874. ] 


Space and Time are the first and oldest things of the 
terrestrial world. The child sees space in color, and veri- 
fies it by the touch. Had Kant remembered the time when 
he first saw space and verified it, he would have had no 
occasion to assert its composition by the mind, and there- 
fore would have had no doubt of the thing-in-itself ; and we 
should not have been obliged to consider space and time 
as innate. 

The mind certainly sees space in two dimensions. A 
point is position without magnitude, and when prolonged 
into a line, it is merely a division, and only imaginarily 
visible. Assuming a perpendicular axis, the mind projects 
its vision to a certain distance; and rotating around this 
axis entirely, the cylinder will be completed. Assuming 
again a horizontal axis and rotating forward entirely, 
another cylinder is completed; and thus the whole of space 
is included. Casting existences out of the way in every 
direction, we see that space must be infinite in extent. 

Assuming a beginning in time, let the Sun be our first 
station. At distances so great that light would require 
thousands of years to reach us, the bodies we call fixed 
stars are placed; these are suns like ours. From the nadir 
and zenith, from north and south, and from east and west, 
with unequal densities and at unequal distances from each 
other, the All-powerful and All-knowing Creator planted 


‘material germs. These material germs emanated into space 


in all directions. Certain limits, more or less approaching 


192 Supplement to the Calculus of Operations. 


spherical in outline, would be reached between each two 
nearest emanating centres, where the encountering forces 
would be equal. At these limits or boundaries both trans- 
mission and reflection would take place; that is, there 
would arise inverse action in both directions, resulting in 
thin waves. After the manner of waves, this would com- 
mence a condensation, followed by a relaxation; another 
condensation, followed by another relaxation; and so on 
until the final condensation near the centre. As the dis- 
tances were unequal, the compression would not be spher- 
ical; the pressures would be unequal from different sides, 
and rotation would be the consequence, giving rise to 
numerous bodies of various sizes, the planets and asteroids 
of our system. The waves of relaxation and condensation 
would serve to explain the cold and hot regions of our 
globe; for as yet no heat had appeared, but is farther to 
be explained. 

Let us begin with a solid, and apply heat to it. It takes 
80° of latent heat to melt ice, represented by gradually 


increasing circles (A), until reaching the liquid state, when 
the circles will be uniformly equal, the radii and circum- 
ferences being at identity (B). Continuing the application 
of heat, the circles enlarge, until the circumferences touch, 


Supplement to the Calculus of Operations. 193 


and finally the arc becomes a straight line (c), and the state 
of steam or gas is achieved by the aid of 540° of latent 
heat. 

If two bodies are of unequal temperature, the greater 
will yield to the less until they become equal, when they 
will exchange equal quantities; so that matter always 
emanates heat. 

The globe of the earth emanates heat in all directions 
into space. Ata given distance from the surface of the 


oo 
NS 
233) 


3S 

oe 

See 
sane! 


s' 
i) 


earth, suppose a small body (A) let loose; it emanates a 
small portion, which breaks the emanation from the earth ; 
an equal quantity of emanation equilibrates on the opposite 
side of the earth (B), which causes the body to fall. It is 
instantly taken up by the next emanation; .and so on, and 
describes a square. Every break of the original arc is 
instantly transmitted to the opposite side and pulled by 
Trans. viii. | 25 


194 Supplement to the Calculus of Operations. 


virtue of its force; the equilibrium is disturbed through 
the circumference, as follows: 

The first differential is one. As it in- 
Nos.|Diff.| Sa’s.|_ creased uniformly, its amount would be two 


1/ 1{| 1] in the second time, increased by one as the 
2| 3 4 — : ‘ 
? original genesis, to which add the square 1, 
3) 5| %| making in all four; the sum generated in 
4 : 16 | the third time will be five, to which add four, 
5 . 25| making nine,etc. The last column will be 
6 = 3¢| the squares. 
71881 uo When a ball is struck, the force from the 
i centre to the circumference is annihilated, 
8 64 : : c= ; 
2 the opposite force is equilibrated, and carries 
9/17| ®| the ball away; thus inertia is explained. 
10 4 100 Take two tubes each about a foot in 


length, both open at one end, and one open 
and the other shut at the other end; blowing into each, the 
open tube will sound twice the intensity of the shut one. 
The former has a node at the origin and a venter at the 
extremity; the latter has a node at both ends, and a venter 
in the centre. 

Comparing this example with the former one of mo- 
tion, we find they both agree to make the operator and his 
instrument the node, and the venter the result of his effort. 
We will make this a general rule. 

The sun is a node, and its venter is its extreme border 
of emanation; outside of the sun are the other suns of the 
universe, which have like nodes and venters. Within the 
sun’s jurisdiction, there are many nodes and venters, each 
planet, etc., being one pair. 

In the case of motion, the operator is a node, and termi- 
nates at the centre of the ball, which, of course, is a node, 
with venter at the extremity of its motion. 

If we take a piece of iron and a hammer, and strike the 
iron repeatedly, it produces heat. Or better, take two 
pieces of hard wood and rub them together until they take 


oa 


Supplement to the Culculus of Operations. 195 


fire; this is the way that fire was first obtained by man. 


Here the node and venter are discovered in the operator 


and his instrument, the wood. If the operation be pro- 
longed sufficiently, light is produced, and if the result be 
turned into a circular prism, like Newton’s rings, it will be 
decomposed into seven luminous rays and one actinic ray, 
partly reflected and partly transmitted. This will repre- 
sent the sun’s ray or pencil of light. If the inclination be 
sufficient, the ray will be divided into two, ordinary and 
extraordinary. 

We will modify the shape of the instrument by taking a 
plate of glass, or some substance so thin as‘to have but 
two sides, Support it by its centre of gravity, and apply 
to it a cushion of some soft material, and rub it very gently. 
There will appear positive electricity on the opposite side, 
and negative electricity on the same side, provided both 
sides are connected by aconductor. Thisis exactly equiva- 
lent to decomposing a sphere of heat; and thus electricity 
is a split force, each opposing the same, and attracting the 
opposite. When coming together, they produce heat and 
light again. Here the node is distinguished in the operator, 
and there are two venters, a positive and a negative. In 
the decomposition of light, it was divided into two, like 
the positive and negative, and they united by complement- 
aries, giving a square. 

Referring back to figure B, which we know represents 
water, with equal ratios of attraction and repulsion, so that 
nodes and venters are at identity; let our-operator take a 
liquid of higher intensity than water, of course it will have a 
higher attraction and repulsion, and will disturb the equi- 


librium of the water. As water is a thin substance, having 


but two sides, positive electricity will occur on the opposite 
side and negative on the same side; the like will occur on 
the next particle, and so on until reaching the border, on 
which will appear an amount of positive electricity and 
negative on the opposite side: a split force. The positive 


196 Supplement to the Calculus of Operations. 


electricity will repel positive and attract negative, pro- 
ducing heat and light. 

Magnetism results from the application of electricty to 
iron. 

Our sun is a singular and the double stars or suns are 
probably positively and negatively electrified. 

Vitalists have been too fast in attempting to produce life 
from one element alone. They should know that carbon, 
hydrogen and oxygen, at least, are requisite to produce life. 
We see that some simple minerals try to simulate the 
effects of life by crystallization, such as ice, snow, urea, etc. 
But for a true hatch we must have multiple elements. Life 
began at the bottom of the sea, where the first deposit was 
simple, and the circumference very hot. The first genera- 
tion of animals was very simple and soon destroyed. Their 
decay left a more generous deposit, which in turn was de- 
stroyed and a further improved deposit was the result, etc. 
After a sufficient time had passed, the deposit had reached 
the highest perfection, and the surface of the earth had 
cooled sufficiently, the race of man appeared on a low stage. 

1. Take carbon, hydrogen and oxygen; they would form 
a unit, which, being very small, would divide into two, a 
positive and negative, which would soon separate and 
germinate in spherical form. Arrived at the external 
medium, they would form the vegetable world, male and 
female. 

2. Take carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen; they 
will form a unit asin No. 1. As the result will be very 
small it will divide into positive and negative as before, 
and they will develop into animals, which, according as 
they live in the sea, or on land, or in the air, will become 
fish, or animals, or insects, or birds, or finally Man. 

Our primary node will be the heated and darkened in- 
terior of the earth, and the venters will be near the surface. 
As they come to the surface they meet improving germs 


" 


bat ee 


Supplement to the Calculus of Operations. 197 


with improving conditions, until finally trees and animals, 
and lastly man is made. By this there will be improved 
conditions, such as the absence of a tail, improvement of 
throat and tongue, articulate speech, and of the head 
generally. These things do not appear in any of the 
inferior animals. 

It requires two persons to make one bargain. It takes 
two forces to give one resultant. This is seen in all the 
previous examples, and it appears in no preceding philo- 
sophies, Had our ancestors devoted their attention to this 
fact, instead of giving the whole strength of their minds 
to ancient languages and Aristotelic logic, we should have 
been spared the pains of writing innate ideas. 

In this little tract (which shows my feeble health) I have 
brought every thing from one single principle, that of 
emanation or repulsion, which I have shown does not con- 
tradict the other forces, but is in complete harmony with 
them, to wit: motion, sound, heat, light, electricity, mag- 
netism, and lastly, life itself, both vegetal and animal. 
In all these, except the last, I have made man the first 
mover, typified as a node which terminates at the nearest 
circumference as a venter, which then takes course until 
the centre, which of course is a node, whence the node 
carries forth to the final circumference or venter. 

For the last case, the earth is the first node, and generates 
life at its venter or circumference. Matter is not dead, but 
emanates constantly, and generates life positive and nega- 
tive, vegetal and animal, in the dark and moist bosom of 
the earth, and shoves the result forth to the surface. The 
vegetal and animal grow by feeding, and their existence 
dies by exhaustion and wearing. 

I have drawn everything from heat, which the earth 
always emanates, and will, we trust, be found sufiicient to 
furnish al] the energy required. Those who live in glass 
houses should not throw stones at the passengers. 


198 Supplement to the Calculus of Operations. 


For magnetism, chemistry, electricity, etc., ete., refer to 
the work of which this is a supplement. 

Although what follows is in the work to which this is a 
supplement, we deem it necessary to repeat it here. It is 
known that a force of the first degree produces a linear 
event; of the second degree, a square; and of the third 
degree, producesa cube. Buta chemical phenomenon has 
three dimensions. 

CUBES. 
1 8 27 64 125 216 343 512 729 1000 
7 10.3% © 6) Ob TaT ied.) ZiT ieee 


12 18 24 380 36 42 48 D4 
6 6 6 6 6 6 6 


The irregularities may be owing to electrical disturbances. 


JOHN PATERSON, A. M. 


Albany, Oct. 24, 1874. 


Notice of Peter Hasenclever, an Early Iron-Manufac- 
turer. By Henry A. Homes, LL.D. 


[Read before the Institute, April 7, 1874.] 


The name of Peter Hasenclever is worthy of notice on 
account of his expensive enterprises in this state, previous 
to the revolution, in the manufacture of iron and to obtain 
products of the soil for exportation; and because it is his 
name which is perpetuated to this day in the Hasenclever 
mountains in Herkimer county, in the title of the Hasen- 
clever land patents, and in the Hasenclever iron mine in 
Rockland county. 

Peter Hasenclever, sometimes called Baron Hasenclever, 
was a German, born at Remscheid in the Rhenish pro- 
vinces, in 1716, who had been a partner in a mercantile 
house at Cadiz, in Spain. On account of the climate, which 
was unfavorable to his wife’s health, he went to London 
in the year 1763, where she had been living since the year 
1757. There he formed a partnership under the firm name 
of Hasenclever, Seton & Crofts, with a joint capital of 
£21,000. He soon induced a respectable company of 
persons— Major General Greeme, Commodore Forest, 
George Jackson, secretary of admiralty, and others — to 
agree to spend from £10,000 to £40,000 in the production of 
pig iron, hemp, pot and pearl ashes in North America. 

The agreement was made in January, 1764, and by 
June of that year he himself reached New York, and by 
November there arrived at the same port, hundreds of 
Germans— miners, farmers and mechanics, with their 
families— whom his agents had engaged in Germany. As 
at this time his land and his mines had not been bought or 
selected, no candid judgment can hesitate to regard him as 


a 


200 Notice of Peter Hasenclever. 


manifesting at the very outset a rashness and want of 
calculation, through which the capital at his disposal might 
be imperiled and sunk, from many natural yet unexpected 
causes. 

Yet such was the energy of this sanguine man that he 
actually made iron at a decayed iron works by the month 
of November, 1764, and had purchased in New York and 
New Jersey 50,000 acres of land for his purposes, on the 
account of hiscompany In August, 1765, he purchased 
a ship in New York, which he loaded for London, with 
iron, furs, timber, and potash to the amount of five hogs- 
heads. The iron and the potash had been manufactured 
by the company’s workmen. 

Within a year from November, 1764, he had transported 
535 persons, including their wives and children, from 
Germany, as miners, carpenters and laborers: and his 
partners in London also wrote to him that “it was univer- 
sally allowed by the trade that his iron was the best drawn 
which had ever made its appearance on the London mar- 
ket from America.” | 

At the end of the next year, 1766, he had in operation 
four furnaces and seven forges in New Jersey and New 
York, and a pot and pearl ash manufactory on the Mo- 
hawk river, and had built stores, work-shops and dwelling 
houses to the number of 235, besides dams for thirteen 
mill ponds and ten bridges, with many miles of roads, 

These furnaces were on the Pequonnock river at Char- 
lottenburg, and Ringwood and Long Pond in Bergen and 
Morris counties, New Jersey, and at Haverstraw, Orange 
county, New York, all of them being near the line of the 
Erie railroad as it is now laid out; and one was at 
Cortland, in Westchester county. Several of the mines 
which he then opened, and upon which he spent large sums 
of money in developing them, are still worked, and are 
greatly productive. He examined in all fifty-three mines, 
of which he asserted that only seven proved to yield good 
ore. 


Notice of Peter Hasenclever. 201 


The one at Cortland was on the east bank of the Hud- 
son, in the town of Cortland, near St. Anthony’s Nose. 
This farnace was early abandoned because the ore proved 
to contain too much sulphur, as did the ore of the sixth 
furnace in the highlands, forty miles above New York, near 
Haverstraw. The mine to this day is called Hasenclever’s 
mine, and is now worked by the Bayards of Philadelphia. 

Previous to Hasenclever’s operations, the only notices 
of iron manufacture in the state of which I have know- 
ledge were at Ancram, in Columbia county, and the Sterling 
works in Orange county. There were no rolling or slitting 
mills at that time, as they were forbidden by the British 
authorities to the colonists. Gov. Delancey, in 1757, states 
that from 1750 to 1757, the quantity of iron produced by 
Robert Livingston at Ancram was in al] about 2,000 tons, 
and that it was the only place where iron was then smelted 
in the state. 

The Stirling mine, in Warwick, Orange county, was 
purchased by Lord Setrling in 1750; andin 1751, Messrs. 
Ward & Colton commenced making iron from the ore, 
and in 1752 the first forge was erected there; but work 
was soon temporarily abandoned. Ata later date Peter 
Townsend, formerly a merchant of New York, worked 
the Stirling mine, and continued to do so for many years. 
He was the forger of the Hudson river chain at West 
Point. There is inthe possession of Gen, Franklin Town- 
send a piece of iron casting, the back ofa Franklin fire place, 
having the date of 1767 upon it, with the letters “A. T., 
New York ;” probably meant for A. Targee, of N. Y., an 
iron founder. 

Hasenclever’s pot and pearl ash manufactory was at New 
Petersburg, near the German Flats, on the Mohawk, 
where he had built two frame houses and thirty-four log 
houses, and had a fine settlement begun for the cultivation 
of hemp, flax and madder, in addition to his other enter- 
prises. 

Trans. viii.] 26 


202 Notice of Peter Hasenclever. 


A gentleman spending money so liberally as Hasenclever 
most naturally had the acquaintance and aid of the leading 
gentlemen of the colony. Accordingly Gov. Moore, Gen. 
Gage and Sir Wm. Johnson gave him every facility in ob- 
taining land by purchase or by patent, and Sir William 
became equal partner with him in the potash manufacture. 
What he had actually done in importing emigrants was a 
sufficient warrant of what he would be able to do in the fu- 
ture, in bringing a much larger number and thus enhance 
the value of land to all holders of it. 

During this period of his buoyant hopes he developed 
great commercial schemes in his correspondence with Sir 
William, in which the usual sagacity of the latter forbade 
him to engage. One scheme was a proposal for the forma- 
tion of a trading company, that should have a monopoly 
of all the trade with the Indians—on the plausible plea of 
protecting them from all injustice in trade. Another was 
for exclusive privileges as distiller of spirits and in the 
manufacture of salt, by which it was alleged a large addi- 
tion would be made to the revenues of the colony. 

The enterprises in which he was actually engaged were 
such as, if sustained by these authorities, would commend 
them to the government at home for their zeal. The 
“Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures 
and Commerce” at London, had in the year 1764, as in 
other years, offered premiums for the production of these 
very articles in the North American colonies, which Has- 
enclever had undertaken to produce — iron, madder, hemp, 
pot and pear! ashes. 

In the short space of two years Hasenclever spent, ac- 
cording to his own admission, £54,600 on account of the 
company, being £14,000 more than the company was ever 
pledged to be responsible for. The credit side of his ac- 
count showed little in his favor. Though the iron was 
good, there had been very little sent over to the London 
market. Freshets had carried away his dams, one of 


Notice of Peter Hasenclever. 203 


which was 860 feet long and twelve feet high; roads and 
bridges had to be built; an incompetent manager who had 
been sent over to supplant him had made useless and very 
expensive changes while Hasenclever was on a visit to Eng- 
land; and the ore of some of his mines on which he had 
expended much labor contained too much sulphur to be 
profitably melted. Besides, he had justly quarreled with 
and separated from Rupert, his potash manufacturer; and 
his potash did not turn out to be of prime quality, and 
sold at alossin London. Thirty pounds of hemp seed 
which he had imported from Europe and sowed, yielded 
no returns. 

While he was struggling with ardor and hope against a 
thousand obstacles to immediate success, he learned in 
October, 1766, that Seton, one of his partners, was a bank- 
rupt and had wasted the capital of the company, and that 
his commercial house had been fraudulently sacrificed. 
He succeeded, however, in making an arrangement with 
his co-adventurers for the continued prosecution of mining 
in America, and came again in 1768 to New York as their 
agent. But the new manager of the works whom they 
had sent out was utterly ignorant of the business. His 
difficulties here and in London increased, his bills were 
protested, and he proceeded in 1769 to London for the last 
time. He represents in his statement of his case that the 
American Company, sometimes called also the London 
Company, was engaged in an unworthy clandestine con- 
spiracy against him, and that it was by their machinations 
in 1770 that he was declared a bankrupt. Indeed, Lord 
Hillsborough, secretary for the colonies, at their solicita- 
tion, wrote to Gen. Clinton to sustain the new manager of 
the company against the interference of Hasenclever. 

In part that he might be able to justify his proceedings 
before the Court of Chancery, Gov. Franklin of New Jer- 
sey, by official request appointed a committee consisting of 
Lord Stirling, Col. John Schuyler, and others to visit all 


204 Notice of Peter Hasenclever. 


his works. They testified to the perfection of his iron 
works, to the superior quality of his iron, and to the many 
improvements in the methods of manufacture which he had 
introduced, some of which were afterwards adopted in 
England. And one particular which they mention, to 
quote their own words, is the following, which is strange 
if true: ‘ He is the first person that we know who has so 
greatly improved the use of the great natural ponds of 
this country, as by damming them to secure reservoirs of 
water for the use of iron works in the dry season, without 
which the best streams are liable to fail in the great 
droughts we are subject to.’ 

At this time James Rivington, the New York bookseller 
and publisher, writes to Sir William Johnson (Sept. 16, 
1769) : “ Poor Peter Hasenclever, who in the last five years 
has buried the better part of a hundred thousand pounds 
in this country, is now among the unfortunates, being de- 
clared a bankrupt. His fate is regretted, for he was hon- 
est and well beloved.” Thomas, in his History of Print- 
ing in America, relates that pamphlets opposed to the 
stamp act were frequently published in 1765 in New Jer- 
sey with the imprint “ Printed at Peter Hasenclever’s iron 
works ;” ‘‘a wealthy German well known as the owner of 
extensive iron works in New Jersey.” It was a ruse of 
the authors to conceal the knowledge of the place where 
the printing had been done. 

As late as 1773 he memorialized the lord chancellor 
for relief by the court, stating that he was so poor that his 
wife and daughter were then being supported by the cha- 
rity of his relatives in Germany. 

The landed property of which he was possessed in his 
- own name, or in behalf of the American company, was the 
50,000 acres connected with his mines in New Jersey and 
in Orange county, New York, 18,000 acres in Herkimer 
county, called the Hasenclever patent, 6,755 acres bought 
additionally for his agricultural operations close by Ger- 


Notice of Peter Hasenclever. 205 


man Flats, 40,000 acres in Nova Scotia, and 11,500 acres on 
Lake Champlain north of Crown Point. The land on 
Lake Champlain he bought jointly with Gen. Gage, Gen. 
Philip Schuyler and others. His title to this land in EHs- 
sex county was probably never perfected.'! As lateas 1815, 
1,000 acres of this land in Orange county was sold for non- 
payment of taxes to the amount of $415, which had been 
due since 1767. 

A portion of the land in the Hasenclever patent in Her- 
kimer, which was dated February 27, 1769, was sold by 
the state for the non-payment of taxes as late as 1822. 
The land was in the towns called Herkimer and Newport, 
afterwards Schuyler, and was bounded northeast by Cana- 
da creek, south by Cosby manor and Colden’s manor, and 
bordered on the Mohawk river. This land which it was 
kindly allowed to him to purchase, originally was part of 
a large purchase of 140,000 acres made from the Indians, 
by Gov. Moore and Sir William Johnson. He was a 
frequent visitor at Johnson Hall, and there are numerous 
letters from him among the Johnson papers in the N. Y. 
State Library. Gen. Gage, in a letter, speaks of him very 
favorably to Johnson. In his letters to Johnson, Hasen- 
clever expressed in the strongest language his convictions 
that it was not for the interest of Americans to engage in 
manufactures, but only in raising raw material. 

During the year 1770 he was endeavoring with much 
hope and expectation to find purchasers in England for 
his land that he might get free from his troubles. What 
became of his lawsuit after 1773, I have no information, 
other than that proceedings were had in the ease in the 
Court of Chancery as late as twelve years after, in 1785. 
He returned to Germany, and introduced at Landshut, in 
Silesia, the linen manufacture, which he conducted with 
great judgment, till the year 1792, when he died much 
lamented. In at least one place in this country where his 


1 Watson’s History of Hssex County, NV. Y., Albany, 1869. 


206 Notice of Peter Hasenclever. 


name was in use one hundred years since, it has been cor- 
rupted into Baron Hass. 

Steel of the finest quality imported into this country from 
Germany, till a comparatively recent period, was known 
as the Hasenclever steel. We hope to ascertain whether 
it was a steel manufactured by our Hasenclever’s methods. 

It may stimulate a worthy spirit of enterprise that I 
should copy in conclusion an extract from Hasenclever’s 
Case on a silver mine in this state: “I lost also on a 


share in a silver mine of which Col. Fred. Philips (om 


whose land it lies, twenty-eight miles above New York) 
had given me one-sixth, and I went there with some miners 
to examine it; this mine proves now to be very valuable, 
and may become in time an immense concern.” * 

Much of the information in this article has been derived 
from a pamphlet of which I have never heard of any copy 
than the one copy, which is in the State Library. It contains 
97 pages, and is entitled Z’he Case of Peter Hasenclever, 
and was written by himself. It contains many additional 
statistics as to the cost of production of the articles men- 
tioned in this paper, and the obstacles to success, especially 
as regards iron: with numerous details regarding his finan- 
cial difficulties. 

It has seemed most proper to make a record of an at- 
tempt to develop the iron mining industry in this country 
at such an early date, and at such prodigal expenditure, 
which whatever may have been the loss to its originators, has 
of course enured to the advantage of others. The town 
and county histories of the places where he lavished his 
capital, contain no account of the visionary but most sin- 
cere Peter Hasenclever. 


1 An early member of the Institute, Winslow C. Watson, Esq., has kindly 
suggested to me that this mine is the one which was rediscovered about 
forty years since at Sing Sing, andas he is disposed to believe near the site 
of the State Prison. The implements which had been used in ante-revolu- 
tionary times were found in the abandoned mine. 


The Geological Evidence of the Origin of Species by 
Hvolution. By Prof. Coartes CALLAWAY. 


[Read before the Albany Institute, December 16, 1873. | 


To prevent misunderstanding, let me at starting dis- 
tinctly define what I propose to do. I express no opinion 
on Darwin’s hypothesis of the origin of species by natural 
selection. Evolution does not necessarily involve natural 
selection. All I contend for is evolution in contradistinc- 
tion from separate creation. Then, too, I do not pretend 
to present a complete case. I retain myself as counsel to 
examine only one class of witnesses, the races of extinct 
beings who being dead yet speak. 

Much will depend on our answer to the preliminary 
question, ‘‘ What is a species?” Naturalists have gene- 
rally agreed that a species is that assemblage of animals 
or plants the individuals of which are fertile. Distinct 
species either produce no offspring, or their progeny is a 
hybrid andisbarren. It is not necessary that I should dis- 
cuss this definition, simply because it is quite inapplicable 
in the present case. We cannot resuscitate fossil forms 
and command them to be fruitful and multiply. We must, 
then, seek some other test, and I confess myself in despair 
of finding one. Let us assume one; let us define a species 
as that assemblage of living forms which agree in the 
possession of certain characters which are not collect- 
ively possessed by any other assemblage. I presume no 
one will object to the substance of that definition. Now 
the unscientific, if there are any here, will ask where is 
your difficulty? Is not a horse distinguished from an ass 
by certain characters, and is there any likelihood of con- 


208 Geological Evidence of Origin of Species. 


founding the two? This may be true, yet every naturalist 
knows there are numerous cases in which the limits of so- 
called species are unfixed and unfixable. What one regards 
as a species another maintains is a variety. Then indi- 
viduals intermediate in character between the species and 
the variety are discovered, and the variety is abolished. 
New discoveries fill in the gap between two species, and 
one of the species is abolished. The common Devonian 
fossil Spirifera disjuncta was once eighteen species, but the 
different forms so graduated into each other that it was 
found impossible to maintain the old distinction. In this 
state, there is a fossil which ranges from the Clinton group 
up to the Chemung, 7. ¢., from the lower Silurian (Murchi- 
son’s base of upper Silurian) to the upper Devonian. In 
each formation it puts on certain characters (not always 
dependent on the nature of the sediment in which it lived) 
which will enable the experienced geologist to decide the 
formation by the fossil. Thisspeciesis described by Prof. 
Hall as etrypa reticularis. Some paleontologists would 
make half a dozen species out of it. This is the class of 
difficulties we meet with in defining species, difficulties 
which are themselves arguments in favor of evolution, and 
which, indeed, will lead me to my first proposition. 


1. Lossils fill in many of the gaps which formerly separated living 
iy pes. 

Let us first enquire the value of such evidence. If, be- 
tween two living forms, A and C, a fossil combining many 
of the characters of both be discovered, does it prove that 
C was evolved from A or A from C, through the interme- 
diate stage B? Not necessarily. The discovery of B sim- 
ply supplies us with one of the stages by which evolution 
may have taken place, 7. e., itremoves some of the improba- 
bility that two very distinct forms should be connected by 
actual descent. ‘Take an illustration. John Plantagenet, 
of Vermont, claims descent from Richard II of England. | 


fs abe 


Geological Evidence of Origin of - Species. 209 


The Vermonter thinks his features are like the pictures 
of the king, though others do not see the resemblance. 
But John hunts up a portrait of Obadiah Plantagenet, 
who came overin the Mayflower. (Qnaclose examination, 
it is found that John has some features in common with 
Obadiah, and that Obadiah has other features in common 
with his royal ancestor ; and, by means of this intermediate 
link, a relationship between John Plantagenet, of Vermont, 
and Richard of York is shown to be notimprobable. Now, 
superficially, no two classes of vertebrata appear more dis- 
tinct than birds and reptiles. That an eagle should be_ 
allied by blood with aserpent seems a wild flight of fancy. 

But geology has supplied us with numerous links con- 
necting the two classes. I will take a few examples out of 
many. The Pterodactyl of the Mesozoic periods is an 
undoubted reptile, yet it has the breast bone of a bird, the 
bones were hollow and filled with air, and one of the fingers 
was enormously prolonged so as to give support to a flying 
membrane. In Ramphorhyncus, an allied genus, there ap- 
pear to have been no teeth in the fore part of the jaw, and 
it is probable that the parts were sheathed in horn, so as 
to form a kind of beak. The order Deinosauria consists of 
Mesozoic reptiles with affinities with the ostrich family, espe- 
cially in the shape of the pelvis. In South Africa has been 
discovered a curious order of reptiles, some of which were 
furnished with a beak-like mouth, and were apparently 
destitute of teeth. As we have bird-like reptiles, so geology 
tells us of reptile-like birds. The best known of these is 
the Archwopteryx of the Upper (or Middle) Oolite of Solen- 
hofen. This curious bird was provided with a lizard-like 
tail, longer than the body, and composed of separate verte- 
bree, each of which carried a pair of quill feathers. It also 
possessed two claws to each wing, a character which, whether 
reptilian or mammalian, never occurs in living birds. Now 
I do not argue that these intercalations prove the evolution 

Trans. viit.]} 27 


210 Geological Hvidence of Origin of Species. 


of birds from reptiles, or viceversa; but I contend that they 
prodigiously lessen the improbability ofsuch development ; 
they supply us, at least, with some of the steps by which 
the change may have taken place. Now we must bear in 
mind the extremely fragmentary character of the geological 
record, that our systems of strata are but a few irregular 
rungs of the ladder reaching from the abyss of the past to 
the recent period; that of these fragmentary systems two- 
thirds are under the sea, anda portion of the remainder in 
. inaccessible polar regions ; that of the accessible areas of the 
earth’s crust not one tenth has been explored, and probably 
not one hundredth carefully investigated, and that of this 
small remainder but a small fraction is exposed in quarries 
and natural sections. If, under such limitations and in so 
short a time, so much has been done to bridge over the gaps 
between different types, how vastly would our material be 
increased if we could summon before us the long races of 
beings who have left for our examination such fragmentary 
relics of their existence! Let me give an illustration. A 
few genera of mammals were known from strata of Mesozoic 
age. Suddenly, the exposure of a few square feet of Pur- 
beck Oolite increased our knowledge threefold. Again, 
between the Purbeck with its mammals and the Eocene 
with its abundant mammalian fauna is the great series of 
the Cretaceous system, in which no trace of a mammal has 
been found. But would it be fair to infer that mammals 
died out at the end of the Oolite and did not exist dur- 
ing the Cretaceous? We may be sure that the hiatus 
occurs not in the records of the past, but in our frag- 
mentary knowledge. 

I have said that intercalation does not prove descent 
though it facilitates our progress towards that conclu- 
sion; but if between a fossil and a living form there 
be intercalated a series of intermediate forms passing 
gradually from the old type to the new, and those 
gradations correspond with the age of the successive forma- 


Geological Evidence of Origin of Species. 211 


tions in which they are found, then we have an argument 
for evolution which it will not be easy to meet. The dis- 
covery of aspecies C intermediate between A and E would 
be an instance of what I have already illustrated; but if we 
find other species, B and D intermediate respectively be 
tween A and C and C and H, and ifA BC D E occur in 
regularly succeeding epochs, the case is altered. Prof. 
Huxley, in his presidential address to the London Geolo- 
gical Society in 1870, gives us the following example of ap- 
parent descent. In the middle and upper eocene strata, 
we have the genus Plagiolophus, which is connected with the 
living horse by several intermediate forms. The gradation 
is seen in many parts of the skeleton, but it will simplify 
matters if I confine myself-to two particulars. Take, first, 
the foreleg of the animal. In Plagiolophus the radius and 
ulna are quite distinct from each other, but are firmly united. 
In Anchitherium of the upper eocene and lower miocene, the 
radius and ulna are still distinct, but the ulnais more slender 
than in the older form. In Hipparion, of the middle and up- 
per Miocene, the ulna is still more reduced in size, and is 
anchylosed to the radius along its entire length. Lastly, in 
the horse, which first occurs in the upper Miocene, the mid- 
dle of the shaft of the ulna vanishes, and the two ends are 
welded into one piece with the radius. Thus we have a 
gradual transition from the Plagiolophus with distinct leg- 
bones to the horse with only one bone. Again, Plagioluphus 
has afoot with three toes. In Anchitherium the two side toes 
are more slender, but still touch the ground. In Hipparion 
they are still more attenuated, and do not touch the ground. 
In the horse, they are reduced to the rudimentary form of 
splints. Here we have a gradual transition from a three- 
toed animal to one with asingletoe. I might ask—on 
what hypothesis save that of evolution can we account for 
the useless side toes of the Hipparion and horse? But the 
subject of rudimentary organs, though of great importance 
in our discussion, belongs more strictly to the comparative 


212 - Geological Hvidence of Origin of Species. 


anatomist. I will conclude this branch of my subject by 
asking, if evolution does not account for such facts as the 
above, what other hypothesis will? There remains the 
alternative of Hugh Miller, supported by Prof. Agassiz, 
that species are separate creations produced after a divine 
plan. But that each species should have been destroyed, 
and its place supplied by a new creation; when the new form 
could have been elaborated by slight changes in the old 
one, seems to me a less natural hypothesis than the one I 
have advocated. 


2. The Geographical Distribution of Organie Life corresponds 
with the Distribution of Fossil Animals and Plants in the 
Epoch preceding the Recent. 

The fossils found in the later Tertiary closely resemble the 
living forms now inhabiting the same regions. Thus, in 
Australia, the living mammals (with one or two possible ex- 
ceptions)are marsupial, and the Tertiary fossil mammalia 
are also marsupial. Outside of Australia, there is no liv- 
ing marsupial except the opossum, and the Tertiary mar- 
supials outside of Australia are of the type of the opossum. 
South America is the home of the Hdentata represented by 
the sloth, the ant-eater, and the armadillo. In the later 
Tertiary deposits we have corresponding fossil forms. 
The sloths are represented -by the gigantic Megatherium, 
and other similar forms, while the armadillo has its fossil 
representative in the huge Glyptodon. In New Zealand are 
found curious wingless birds, and the most conspicuous 
fossils of the later Tertiary in those islands are also wing- 
less birds, but of enormous size. Living monkeys are 
principally represented by two types—the Platyrhine, with 
the nostrils far apart, and the Katarhine with the nostrils 
close together. The former are confined to America, the 
latter to the Old World. So, also, all American fossil mon- 


keys are Platyrhine, and all old world species Katarhine. — 


—_—e 


Geological Evidence of Origin of Species. 213 


Thesame law also holds good with regard to the Mollusca and 
other classes of invertebrata. The younger Tertiary de- 
posits contain shells so closely resembling those inhabiting 
the same districts, that a proportion of them are even identi- 
cal in their species. Indeed, the divisions of the Tertiary 
from the Eocene to the Pleiocene are based upon the per- 
centage of recent species which they contain. Numerous 
additional illustrations might be adduced, did my space 
permit. The evolutionist thinks that the law thus briefly 
illustrated is more naturally explained by lineal descent than 
by separate creation. 

I have said that living forms closely resemble the fossils 
of epochs immediately preceding the recent. But as we re- 
cede through the Tertiary periods, the resemblance grows 
weaker and weaker, though even in the Eocene the types 
of our living orders are more or less distinctly represented. 
But when we go back into the Mesozoic epochs, the diver- 
gence becomes much greater. Jurassic plants and animals 
have little resemblance to those now inhabiting the same 
zoological province. Indeed, we find in Europe a fauna 
and flora of decidedly Australian facies. The mammalia 
are mostly marsupial, and of plants, cycads and ferns pre- 
dominate. The plants of North America have their fossil 
congeners in the Miocene of Europe. Now such facts as 
these are in perfect harmony with the evolution hypothesis. 
Since the Jurassic period great physical changes have oc- 
curred. Groups of islands have become continents, and 
continents have doubled and trebled their area. On the 
other hand, denudation has been grinding down and eating 
up the land, or the depression of land has caused its submer- 
gence. Since that time the foundations of Judea, Greece 
and Italy have been laid in the depths of thesea. Sand and 
mud has been worn down from all continents, deposited in 
strata miles in thickuess, and elevated into the Alps and 
Himalayas. The floor of a broad sea continuous with the 
Gulf of Mexico has been elevated to form the western states 


214 Geological Hvidence of Origin of Species. 


of America. A continent in the southern Pacific has sunk 
out of sight, and left a few coral islands as monuments 
of its extinction. To account for the Jurassic facies of the 
Australian fauna and flora, we have only to assume the sepa- 
ration of that continent from the rest of the world subsequent 
to the Jurassic period ; and that, in other parts of the world, 
new types were elaborated, which were unable toreach Aus- 
tralia on account ofits permanent isolation. Changesin the 
distribution of land and sea would in like manner shift the 
area of other zodlogical provinces. 

I have not pretended in this paper to give a complete ar- 
gument. I have simply enumerated a few facts illustrating 
two lines of geological evidence, both of which seem to point 
towards evolution. These facts will suffice to explain the 
kind ofevidence with which geology supplies us, though they 
do not give the full strength of the argument. They com- 
pose but one branch ofa wide range of territory. Geology 
knows nothing of living forms. Its witnesses are dead and 
buried, though, happily, their sepulchres are with us to this 
day. It is for the student of the living world to reveal the 
startling facts of embryology; to unfold the testimony of 
rudimentary organs; to expound the variations of species by 
domestication and by external physical conditions ; to show 
how the variations are perpetuated or destroyed; to discuss 
the laws of breeding between different varieties and species ; 
and to explain the principles of geographical distribution. 
My general conclusion is that evolution accounts for the facts 
of natural history in general, and of paleontology in partic- 
ular, better than any other yet suggested. This may not 
amount to demonstration, but it reaches high probability, 
toa degree of probability which is marvellous when we con- 
sider how little study has as yet been given to the subject. 
At any rate, the number of eminent converts which have 
been made to the hypothesis should raise it above the level 
of unreasoning ridicule and disiuvgenuous caricature. 


=“ = ee 4 oe Di 


Mr. Otto Meske’s Collection of Lepidoptera. By Mr. 
J. A. Lintner. 


[Read before the Albany Institute, Oct. 20, 1874. ] 


I take pleasure in bearing testimony to the truth of the 
commendation given to the collection of Mr. Meske in the 
circular call for our meeting this evening, for, while there 
are several larger collections in our country, I am quite 
sure that there is not one which surpasses it “ in the perfec- 
tion of its specimens, beauty of preparation, and systematic 
arrangement.” : 

The collection consists only of Lepidoptera (comprising 
the butterflies and moths), perhaps the most interesting of 
the seven orders in which insects are divided. While a 
general study of the several orders may be more agreeable 
to the student, and of greater practical value, yet it is only 
by a concentration of labor ina smaller field, that real 
progress can be made, and science best advanced. Our 
several state entomologists are expected to embrace the 
entire insect world in their study of injuries inflicted or 
benefits. received, yet for the determination of the various 
species which come within their notice, they are frequently 
compelled to apply for aid to the specialist —to Hagen in - 
the Neuroptera, to Scudder in Orthoptera, Le Conte in. 
Coleoptera, Cresson in Hymenoptera, Osten-Sacken in 
Diptera, and to Edwards, Scudder and Grote in the Lepid- 
optera. Even a single order may prove too extensive for 
its proper study, and its division is required, as when 
Edwards, the author of Butterflies of North America, 
excluding the moths which compose much the larger por- 
tion of the order of Lepidoptera, finds himself wholly un- 
able, in his admirable delineations, to keep pace with the 


216 Mr. Otto Meske’s Collection of Lepidoptera. 


discovery of new species of butterflies, continually pouring 
in upon him from the prolific field of our not half explored 
western territories. So, too, Scudder has unexpectedly 
found the illustration of the Butterflies of New England, a 
work so growing upon his hands, that a devotion to it for 
five years has not sufficed for its completion. 

Mr. Meske’s collection numbers, probably, about three 
thousand examples, nearly all of which have been authen- 
tically determined, and each carefully labeled with name, 
date of capture and locality. The Rhopalocera (butterflies), 
Aiigeride, Sphingide, Zygenide, Bombycide and the Cato- 
calas are arranged in fourteen wall cases of eighteen by 
twenty-four inches, like those before us this evening; the 
smaller Noctuide, Geometride and the Microlepidoptera 
are contained in a cabinet of drawers. It is mainly a New 
York collection; yet systematically arranged with it are very 
many of the European forms (perhaps constituting one- 
fourth of the entire collection), most of which have been 
received in exchange with the eminent Prussian entomolo- 
gist, Dr. Speyer, probably the best lepidopterist of the age, 
with whom Mr. Meske has enjoyed the privilege of an 
intimate correspondence for years. The European forms 
in the collection are indicated by a green etiquette, the Ame- 
rican ones by a white, and the comparatively few which are 
regarded as common to both countries by a red etiquette. 

The beautiful condition of these examples before referred 
to, is owing, first, to the fact that very many of them have 
- been obtained in the larva state, and carried through their 
transformations to their winged form, thereby ensuring 
perfect specimens; and second, to the extreme care given 
them in their preparation, with the skillful manipulation 
which continued practice has brought. The specimens 
captured in the field have not been treated after the old 
method of holding in one hand by the wings, while the other 
is applied to the thorax, pinching out their life, form, and 
often beauty, together. Secured at first in a filmy gauze 


= wo + — 
ee ee a. a 


ad ee ee ae 1s a 


Mr. Otto Meske’s Collection of Lepidoptera. 217 


net, they are expertly withdrawn therefrom in a glass bottle, 
in which they are killed by chloroform dropped in a cotton- 
packed tube leading through the cork, then turned out on 
the palm of the hand, and pinned with the utmost care; 
all this, usually, without the slightest injury to the delicate 
layers of scales fringing their wings. Examples such as 
these, are alone worthy of serving the purpose of correct 
description or faithful delineation. 

The systematic arrangement displayed in these cases, is 
the result, in the aggregate, of many months of labor, and 
of such Jabor as is only given when one’s heart is in his 
work. You all know that a collection in any branch of 
natural history can never be made complete, for with new 
explorations, new forms are continually revealed, which de- 
mand recognition and place ; yet none but the naturalist can 
know how muchis required in the effortto maintain a collec- 
tion fully up to the level of advancement in any department 
of science. In entomology, we are at the present time, in 
this country, sadly afflicted with what one of our European 
friends, the venerable Dr. Boisduval, of Paris, has aptly 
characterised as a genosomania — an inordinate passion for 
the manufacture of new genera, ‘ which threatens, unless 
arrested, to spread over your [our] country, until hardly 
more than a single species will remain for each genus.” 
Even in the adoption of such proposed new genera as are 
not objectionable, serious labor is involved in the necessary 
relabeling. Then again, the inexorable claim of priority is 
continually coming before us, demanding that old, familiar, 


time-honored names shall be discarded in favor of new ones, 


dug up from some forgotten pamphlet, like Hubner’s Ten- 


- tamen, or other obscure resting place beneath the mold of 


the past century. Ever welcome as are new species to the 

ardent entomologist, the delight with which he receives a 

valuable contribution to his cabinet, is often tempered by a 

momentary pang, as he realizes the hours of labor required 
Trans. viii.) 28 


218 Mr, Otto Meske’s Collection of Lepidoptera. 


for the incorporation of the several species in their proper 
places, involving, perhaps, the shifting of the entire con- 
tents of a series of cases or drawers. 

I cannot forbear from earnestly commending the zeal 
displayed by Mr. Meske in the prosecution of his favor- 
ite pursuit. It bears with it its own reward, in the keen 
enjoyment which it affords him. On one occasion, when 
we were passing a day together in that almost unequalled 
entomological collecting ground, Center Station, midway 
between Albany and Schenectady, on the pine barrens, 
where an abundant insect fauna would not be looked for, 
and had met with eminent success in the capture of an 
unusual number of rare, beautiful and new forms, culmi- 
nating in my friend’s netting a perfect specimen of Sesia 
gracilis, he turned to me, trembling with emotion and his 
face glowing with enthusiasm, exclaiming : ‘‘ What is mak- 
ing money compared with this!” For several years he has 
annually devoted many days to field collecting and observa- 
tions — the best service that a naturalist can render to 
science — at quite a sacrifice of the pecuniary gain which 
the same time devoted to his profession would have ensured 
him. In return, he is in possession of a collection, the 
acquisition of which has been, throughout, a labor of love; 
which, in the many rare and typical species contained in it, 
is proving of special value to science; which several of our 
eminent entomologists have made special journeys toAlbany 
to examine, and from which valuable contributions, au- 
thentically named, have been made to various collections 
in this country and in Europe. To the material furnished 
by him to Dr. Speyer, we owe the paper (the first of a series), 
for some years in preparation, now passing through the 
press in Germany and’ anxiously awaited by us here “ On 
the Allied Forms of Lepidoptera of Europe and America.” 

The collection is particularly rich in several of the more 
interesting families to which special attention has been 
given. It is quite full in the Sphingide, that very attractive 


Mr. Otto Meske’s Collection of Lepidoptera. 219 


family, embracing the large insects popularly known as 
_ hawk moths, from their rapid flight, or humming-bird 
moths, from their method of taking their food while 
hovering over the blossoms with rapidly vibrating wings. 
Of the forty-one species of sphinges known to occur in the 
state of New York, of the seventy-six North American 
ones, only two are unrepresented in this collection, viz: 
Darapsa versicolor and Ellema pineum. It contains a fine 
example of the rare Sphinz luscitiosa, captured the present 
year within the city limits, not to be found, I believe, in a 
half-dozen collections in the world. In illustration of the 
intensity with which such rarities as these are coveted, I 
may be pardoned for quoting from a letter lately received 
. by me from Dr. Boisduval, to whom I have before referred, 
a well-known entomological author, who has just completed 
his Monograph of the Sphingide, a work upon which he 
has been engaged for the last twenty years. He says: 
“T believe that I shall die without having seen Sphinx 
versicolor and luscitiosa. That I might have this happiness, 
I have fervently prayed to all the saints in Paradise, but 
all have been deaf to my cry.” 

The Catocalas, of which you have a fine display before 
you, are very fully represented in the collection. It isa 
noctuid genus of large and very showy moths, having their 
hind wings beautifully colored in various shades of yellow 
and of red, banded and bordered with black; in one section 
of the genus the hind wings are black throughout on their 
upper surface. North America appears to be the favored 
home of the genus. All of Europe catalogues but twenty- 
three species, while we have already seventy-three’ Ameri- 

-ean ones described. New forms from the west are of fre- 
quent occurrence, and occasionally an undescribed species is 
detected even in our well-explored section of the country, 
as was lately the case with a distinct form captured on a 


1 At the time of printing (Feb., 1875), eighty-three species are catalogued. 


220 Mr. Otto Meske’s Collection of Lepidoptera. 


tree in the capitol park of our city, and now bearing the 
name of Catocala Meskei. 

In conclusion, I would commend this collection, imper- 
fectly represented in these few cases, as one in which, as 
citizens of Albany, and especially as members of the 
Albany Institute, we may feel an honest pride. It is a 
valuable contribution to science, made ina modest and 
unobtrusive way, by an enthusiastic naturalist — one of our 
own number. And that enthusiasm which can find in the 
study of nature so keen and pure a delight, as to be supe- 
rior to the sordid pursuit of gain, is deserving of our 
profound respect, of our reverence, whether it be displayed 
in the calculation of a planet’s orbit, or in the study of an 
insect’s wing. 


Thoughts on Causality ; with References to Phases of 
Recent Science. By ALEXANDER WINCHELL, LL.D. 


[A Paper read before the Albany Institute, February 2, 1875.] 


When I was in London, last July, I received an invita- 
tion to participate in the approaching Belfast meeting of 
the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 
Had I known that the occasion was to be signalized by 
some of the most notable utterances of the century, I might 
have resisted the strong pressure which was urging me to 
the continent. As it was, I went from London to the Alps 
while Tyndall proceeded from the Alps to London. The 
latter, as president of the British Association, delivered an 
address, the noise of which reached me at Chamonix. It 
is only since my return to America, however, that I have 
had the opportunity to learn precisely what the great phy- 
sicist uttered, and how considerable a commotion it occa- 
sioned in the newspapers of this country. 

The gathering to which I refer was the scene of other 
notable utterances from a scientist no less distinguished 
and no less worthy of distinction. The two addresses, of 
Tyndall and Huxley, exemplify well a characteristic of 
recent science which, by many, has been deplored as a 
tendency to positivism and consequential materialism. To 
these two productions I might add two recent and powerful 
works by Haeckel of Jena, the latest of which has also fallen 
into my hands since my return to America. I refer to 
Haeckel’s Natural History of Creation’and his Anthropogeny.* 


* Natiirliche Schépfungsgeschichte, 4te Verbesserte Auflage, Berlin, 1873. 
8vo, pp. 688. 

* Anthropogenie. Entwickelungsgeschichte des Menschen. Leipzig, 
1874. 8vo, pp. 782. 


222 Thoughts on Causality. 


In studying these latest emanations from the evolutionist 
school of science, I have been deeply impressed by four ob- 
servations. 1. The great learning and scientific acumen of 
their authors. 2. Their strict adherence to the study of 
material phenomena, and their customary reticence upon 
questions which receive no direct light from physical observa- 
tions. 8. The wide spread popular misapprehension of 
these men in respect to the subjects of their reticence, and 
of the bearing of their scientific opinions upon those sub- 
jects. 4. The existence of latent fallacies affecting in com- 
mon, to some extent, many of their fundamental positions. 

With the view of eliciting into prominence the common 
fundamental principles of such writers, and applying to 
them what I believe to be correct philosophic criteria of 
universal thinking, I begin by presenting the line of reason- 
ing embodied in the address of Professor Tyndall. 

This address is a panoramic survey of the history of 
thonght and speculation on the origin and substratum of 
phenomena, and concludes that, so far as the inquiries of 
science are concerned, there has always been manifest a 
tendency, in leading minds, to rest, as an ultimate datum, 
upon the proposition that atoms and molecules exist, and 
their interaction is the cause of all material and mental 
phenomena, yet the author repeatedly recognizes the ne- 
cessity of admitting the existence of some inscrutable 
energy farther back than the remotest cause attainable by 
human research. 

The first efforts at reasoning traced events to superhuman 
agency exerted by numerous beings called gods, but the 
conception of whom was strictly anthropomorphic. Science 
was born in the desire to find fixed and orderly energies 
with which to replace the capricious wiils of the primitive 
gods. While yet in its cradle, science manifested a con- 
sciousness of its mission, in attacking and destroying the 
contemporany religious faiths and pretensions. In seeking 
the causes of phenomena, from below, instead of above, - 


Thoughts on Causality. 223 


ancient Greek speculation struck into the fundamental 
idea that atoms and molecules are the ultimate constituents 
of the cosmos. Democritus, who is pronounced a philo- 
sopher superior to Plato or Aristotle, first gave precision 
and form to this idea. He held to the eternity of the 
atoms, the materiality of the soul, and denied chance. He 
first advanced the idea of vortices in the genesis of worlds. 
Empedocles suggested that those combinations which 
were suited to their ends, maintain themselves from their very 
nature, and thus launched the thought which has taken 
form, in our own time, as the doctrine of the “ survival of 
the fittest.”” Epicurus, while actuated by an equal desire 
to discover law and order in the phenomena of the universe, 
and thus dispel the superstitions of the existing religions, 
did not reject the belief in divine existence ; and was him- 
self a worshipper of the gods. Lucretius, if he admitted 
divine existence, maintained that the world shows no proof 
of intelligent design, and that all things have been caused 
by the shock of the atoms, while the fittest combinations 
have persisted. He is thought to have suggested the nebu- 
lar hypothesis to Kant. As to Socrates, Plato and Aristo- 
tle, they imposed a yoke on the human mind which re- 
mains, to some extent, unbroken to the present day. 

This auspicious inauguration of the advance of science 
was arrested by the quickening of the religious feeling 
_ through the introduction of Christianity, which made the 
mistake of adopting biblical interpretation as the criterion 
of all truth. The philosophy of Aristotle sanctioned and 
aided the a priori methods of the schoolmen; and, though 
science made positive advances in Arabia, the bond of tra- 
dition was not seriously wrenched in Europe, till the time 
of Copernicus and Bruno. Bacon strengthened the incipi- 
ent bias toward inductive methods; and Descartes, though 
setting out from a first principle, unconsciously abandoned 
it, to present the cosmos as a pure mechanism. The full 
establishment of monotheism was favorable to the con- 


224 Thoughts on Causality. 


ception of the universe which presents it as a system of 
physical effects; and Gassendi signalized the possible 
compatibility of theology with a revived Epicureanism. 
The doctrine of atoms, which started with Democritus,? 
has since grown into general acceptance. But while De- 
mocritus conceived the atoms dead, Gassendi, and more 
recently, Clerk-Maxwell, have looked upon them as “ pre- 
pared materials,” thus suggesting either the postulate or the 
inference of an antecedent preparer. Tyndall agrees with 
Kant in denying the power of reason to bridge the chasm 
which separates the atoms from their maker. 

In an imaginary discussion between Bishop Butler and 
a disciple of Lucretius, the close correlation between states 
_ of mind and conditions of the brain is pointed out; butit is 
admitted that the impinging of dead atoms upon dead 
atoms can never result in sensation or any other phenome- 
non of consciousness. This admission does not appear in 
the address as originally published, but there is no reason 
to infer that the author’s position has been changed. Pro- 
fessor Tyndall, proceeding to the phenomena and the 
problem of the succession of organic forms in geological 
time, iterates his belief in the genealogical continuity of 
the series, and follows with asketch of the origin of the 
doctrine of transmutation or derivation of species, and of 
the grounds on whichthe Darwinian phase of the doctrine 
reposes. Mr, Darwin and Professor Huxley receive high 
encomiums. Repetitions here would beirksome. It is as- 
serted that variations occur under domestication and in a 
state of nature; that infinitesimal variations transmitted 
through generations become greatly accumulated and aug- 
mented; thatthe external conditions which are concom- 
itant with these variations are ‘‘ true causes ;”’ that Darwin 
rejects teleology, even while bringing forward some of the 


1 Democritus in fact was a pupil of Leucippus, a disciple of the Eleatics. 
Leucippus seems to be the real originator of the atomic philosophy. Ueber- 
weg: Hist. Phil., 1, p. 67. 


a 


Thoughts on Causality. | 225 


most striking examples of apparent design; that instincts 
are only inherited and accumulated experiences ; and finally 
that Darwinism has become firmly rooted in the convic- 
tions of thinking minds. 

In the recent progress of scientific research, the doctrine 
of the conservation of energy has become established ; and 
this principle is held to embrace organic nature as truly 
as inorganic. Next, the origin of mind itself has come 
specially under review, and Spencer is maintained to have 
established for it a developmental history parallel with that 
established by Darwin for the physical organism. LHyes 
and other organs of the senses are but portions of a primi- 
tively homogeneous mass, differentiated by the influence 
of light and other external agents. The tactual sense is 
observed to possess a development correlative with the in- 
telligence of animals; and the inference is that it deter- 
mines such intelligence. Instincts and intuitions are but 
the accumulated experience of races, transmitted from gene- 
ration to generation. Space and time are ‘ elements of 
thought” or, as Kant phrases it, ‘“‘ forms of intuition” in- 
stead of objective realities.’ 

The author now approaches the critical point of his dis- 
eussion. Having admitted that the scientist often feels 
himself impelled to pass beyond the field of physical 
phenomena, and from phenomena to induce an abstract 
generalization under which an entire category of pheno- 

4 mena may be ranged —as in the case of the force of 
gravitation — it is not strange that Lucretius should have 
reached the generalization that his atoms were endowed 
with life; or that Darwin should have permitted himself 
to be understood as abstracting creative power, exercised 


1 The phrase “ elements of thought” as here used is too loose for philosophy. 
Space and time are not the “ elements” but the concomitants, and probably 
the conditions of thought. “Forms of intuition” is more exact; but still, 
“ conditions of intuition” or “ conditions of the possibility of intuition and 
thought” would be better. 


Trans. viit.] 29 


226 Thoughts on Causality. 


in a limited number of initial cases, as the antecedent and 
cause of the series of organized beings. Darwin, our author 
thinks, should speak with clearness at this juncture, and 
assume the responsibility of carrying derivative develop- 
ment back, not only to one primitive stock, but to unor- 
ganized matter itself. At the same time, he admits that 
the doctrine of spontaneous generation is not yet proven ; 
though he seems to regard that achievement as not very 
remote. 

We stand now in the presence of that matter so uni- 
formly defined as dead. We have traced life from its 
highest manifestations, through all its gradations to granu- 
lated, vivified protoplasm. Life is everywhere associated 
with matter. We know nothing of life save as associated 
with matter. Is there any terrestrial life which does not 
depend for its maintenance and its origin, upon matter ? 
‘‘ Here the vision of the mind authoritatively supplements 
the vision of the eye. By an intellectual necessity,” he says, 
“T cross the boundary of the experimental evidence, and 
discern in that matter which we, in our ignorance of its 
latent powers, and notwithstanding our professed reverence 
for its creator, have hitherto covered with opprobrium, 
the promise and potency of all terrestrial life.” 

Here then, he reaches the goal toward which recent 
theories in science seemed to impel him, This, indeed, isa 
sort of materialism; but we must have the candor to per- 
mit the distinguished physicist to explain the sense in 
which he embraces materialism. In barmony with Spencer, 
and in opposition to Mill, Fichte, Berkeley and Hume, 
Professor Tyndall entertains no question as to the existence 
of an external world; though we have no evidence that 
itis as it seems to be. “ Our states of consciousness,” he 
says, ‘are symbols of an outside entity which produces 
them and determines the order of their succession, but the 
real nature of which we can never know. In fact, the 
whole process of evolution is the manifestation of a power 


ee 


Thoughts on Causality. 227 


absolutely inscrutable to the intellect of man * * * 
Considered fundamentally, then, itis by theoperation ofan 
insoluble mystery that life on earth is evolved, species differ- 
entiated and mind unfolded from their prepotent elements 
in the immeasurable past” (p. 91). 

The facts of the religious consciousness of man are re- 
peatedly recognized. ‘ The facts of religious feeling are 
to me as certain as the facts of consciousness” (p. 24, Ap- 
pleton & Co’s edition). “‘ Physical science cannot cover all 
the demands of man’s nature” (p. 42). Speaking of facts of 
consciousness which have prescriptive rights quite as strong 
as those of the understanding, he says: “ There is also 
that deep set feeling, which, since the earliest dawn of 
history, and probably for ages prior to all history, incor- 
porated itself in the religions of the world. You who have 
escaped from these religions into the high and dry light 
of the intellect, may deride them; but in so doing, you 
deride accidents of form merely and fail to touch the im- 
movable basis of the religious sentiment in the nature of 
man. To yield this sentiment reasonable satisfaction is 
the problem of problems at the present hour”’ (p. 98). It 
will be noticed that he relegates religion to the realm of 
emotion. This force is something “capable of being 
guided to noble issues in the region of emotion, which is 
its proper and elevated sphere” (p. 93). Finally, while 
claiming for science a rightful and complete exemption 
from the restraints of all religious theories, schemes or 
systems, he asserts an equal right of the ethical nature to 
free exercise. ‘The advance of man’s understanding in 
the path of knowledge, and those unquenchable claims of 
his moral and emotional nature which the understanding 
can never satisfy, are here equally set forth’ (p. 97). In an 
address delivered two months subsequently to his Belfast 
manifesto, Professor Tyndall, raising the question whether 
there are not in nature manifestations of knowledge and skill 
superior to man’s, replies, “ My friends, the profession of 


228 Thoughts on Causality. 


that atheism with which I am sometimes so lightly charged, 
would in my ease be an impossible answer to this question” 
(p. 102). 

The ethical bearing of scientific materalism is found fur- 
ther set forth in an address delivered by the same speaker in 
1868. After explaining the invariable relation of physics 
to consciousness, and alleging that, ‘given the state of the 
brain, the corresponding thought or feeling might be 
inferred ; or given the thought or feeling, the corresponding 
state of the brain might be inferred,” he asks, ‘‘ How 
inferred? It would be at the bottom not a case of logical 
inference at all, but of empirical association* * * The 
passage from the physics of the brain to the corresponding 
facts of consciousness is unthinkable (p.117).* * * In 
affirming thatthe growth of the body is mechanical, and that 
thought, as exercised by us, has its correlative in the physics 
of the brain, I think the position of the materialist is stated 
as far as that position isatenable one. I think the material- 
ist will be able, finally, to maintain this position against all 
attacks; but Ido not think, in the present condition of 
the human mind, that he can pass beyond this position. 
I do not think he is entitled to say that his molecular 
groupings and his molecular motions explain éverything. 
In reality, they explain nothing. The utmost he can affirm 
is the association of two classes of phenomena, of whose real 
bond of union he is in absolute ignorance” (p. 118). 

The foregoing digest indicates that the celebrated Belfast 
address is an attempt to show that the most penetrating 
minds of all ages have felt themselves borne toward the 
conviction that the ultimate datum of scientific and philo- 
sophic investigation must be matter. It asserts that this 
is the general, or at least the forming, conviction of men 
of science at the present day ; that all activities in the realm 
of life and mind, as well as in that of organization, spring 
out of the interactions of the atoms, and that back of this 
basis of phenomena, whatever we may feel impelled to 


5 Ae ee 


Thoughis on Causality. | 229 


believe, there is nothing which can be reached by real 
knowledge; though we are compelled to recognize a pro- 
found and mysterious reality to which our ethical feelings 
are coordinated. It is unfair to hurl at Professor Tyndall 
the charge of atheism in the philosophic sense. He dis- 
tinctly repels the imputation. It is uncandid, after his 
careful qualifications, to charge him with materialism in 
that ordinary sense which excludes the notion of Deity 
back of matter. When he avows materialism, he means 


_that within the region of the data of science, he discovers 


everything originating from antecedents under the recog- 
nized laws of matter and force. There certainly 7s some- 
thing, he says, behind matter and force; but he follows 
Spencer in refusing to subscribe to any predicates respecting 
it. He is hardly a material Pantheist, for he distinctly 
declares that sensation and thought cannot come from dead 
matter; and implies that though existence emerges from 
matter, its ground is further back. He certainly belongs 
to the nescience school of theists, in which Hamilton and 
Mansel are older masters than Spencer; and there seems 
little propriety and less occasion for his assuming the burden 
of a confession so opprobious as materialism. 

I desire to make the analysis of this address the occasion 


for shaping a statement of fundamental principles which 


ought to regulate the procedures of scientist, philosopher 
and theologian alike. We are all equally attempting to 
cleave through the dense darkness which environs us, to 
reach the truth of things. That we live in a universe of 
phenomena is generally admitted. We are therefore real- 
ities, and we all act on the assumption that there are other 
realities shadowed forth in the realm of appearances. No 
reasoning, nevertheless, can prove the existence of an ex- 
ternal world; and the history of thought shows that it is 
possible, in individual cases, to stifle the universal belief 
that it exists. But if these phenomena represent realities, 


230 Thoughts on Causality. 


we are still uncertain that they represent realities as they 
are. Universal belief again affirms that they do; and yet 
there is room for doubt. 

If we trust the indications of the shifting phenomena, 
the world of realities is the theatre of perpetual movement, 
change and transformation. We find rooted in universal 
belief a conviction that all these changes are severally the 
results of appropriate causes; and that the realities them- 
selves are equally effects of adequate causation. It is a 
law of mind to look upon every phenomenon as an effect, 
and to couple effect with cause. Itis the province of science 
to catalogue phenomena, to classify them, to note their re- 
lations of antecedence and sequence and formulate laws ; 
and from observed uniformities of sequence, to lift the 
veil from the future and the past. It is the province of 
philosophy to pass beyond the phenomenon and inquire, 
not what is its antecedent, but what is its cause; to pass 
from immediate and accessible causes to remote ones, and 
from these to ultimate, efficient causation. Philosophy, 
when it has attained this limit, becomes theology. The- 
ology is the granary in which the fruitage of science and 
philosophy is garnered. Religion is the activity of that 
department of our nature which feels its ground and sanc- 
tion in the supreme Reality in which the successes of 
science, philosophy and theology converge. 

Though searchers after truth may be ranged as scientists, 
philosophers and theologians, it is seldom the case that 
either shuts himself closely in his own field. The scien- 
tist, from phenomena induces laws; and from the postu- 
lates of his own mind deduces causes, such as gravitation, 
affinity, electricity. The modern philosopher combines 
the data furnished in reason with the conclusions yielded 
by science; and the theologian pursues all paths and all 
methods which seem to tend toward a last solution of the 
mystery of being and events. ‘ 


“~~ 


Thoughts on Causality. 231 


It is a misfortune, as it seems to me, for either to restrict 
his investigations to a single field. The practice begets 
indifference to certain classes of data, and ends in bigotry, 
misunderstandings and hostility. Our common nature co- 
vers, in each individual, the whole ground, and it seems 
to me narrow and pernicious for the truth-seeker to tie 
himself up to a single method. 

Science, in its modern acceptation, does not lead to 
causes — still less, to primordial cause. The search for 
these is the legitimate object of philosophy. Science, strictly 
speaking, knows only phenomena, with their groupings 
and orders of sequence. It talks much of forces; but these 
are only hypotheses; verbal symbols of unknown quantities 
which may be one thing or another. Moreover, when the 
scientist steps into the realm of abstract realities, he is 
playing the role of philosopher. 

I have said the bond between effect and cause is a uni- 
versal datum of reason. I think no modern philosopher 
will maintain that existence or phenomenon can be the 
product of chance. In ruling chance, however, from the 
throne of the universe, it may be well to offer an explan- 
ation and a discrmination. We must recognize such a 
thing as chance; and we ought to understand what it is 
and what itis not. IfI throw down a couple of dice, it is 
impossible to calculate what willturn up. We say the result 
is wholly a matter of chance. I may chance to turn up one 
ace, it may be two. But the contingency of the result is 
not the cause of it. The two aces concur by chance; but 
chance did not put forth the efficiency which moved each 
die precisely so far and no farther. The movement of the 
dice is as absolutely the effect of the forces exerted by my 
hand, by gravity and by elasticity, as if I had deliberately 
laid each one down with the ace up. I have not the ability 
so to measure and adjust the force and direction of my 
muscular effort as to produce a preappointed movement 
and lodgment of the dice; and there is, consequently, 


232 Thoughis on Causality. 


some range of possible movement and possible place of 
rest forthe dice. But whatever movement transpires, and 
whatever may result in the position of the dice, ordinary 
physical forces were the cause —the proximate cause, of 
all. Chance, in this case, is simply a field of possibility. It 
is a range of values of an unknown quantity, within certain 
limits. It isa name for our inability to gauge precisely the 
forces which act— our ignorance of the precise result which 
they will produce. 

The case is not fundamentally altered when, for the dice, 
we substitute the atoms of a universe. The field of possi- 
ble results is inconceivably enlarged; but we must feel 
equally certain that, whatever adjustment the atoms assume, 
there has been some adequate cause or set of causes to 
move them to their places. We say that any particular 
adjustment is the result of chance; but it is absolutely 
certain that, whatever the adjustment, there were forces 
moving the atoms in such directions and with such velo- 
cities as to produce precisely that adjustment. The chance 
of which we speak is no more a cause in this case than in 
that of the dice. 

Chance is essentially a negation of cause.. The moment 
I assert that a result zs caused, the idea of chance is neces- 
sarily excluded. Were there no cause but chance in the 
universe — even supposing the atoms of matter to exist— 
everything would rest in a state of immobility, stagnation. 
There would be no further effect than the birth of matter. 

But suppose the existence of matter and orderly acting 
forces to be granted, there is much more in the collocations 
of the atoms of the universe than can be attributed to 
causes acting without discernment. We are not author- 
ized to assert that the disposition of the atoms is the result 
even of blind attractions and repulsions; since, as can be 
shown, there are numberless adjustments in which har- 
mony, beauty, fitness and utility have been the directive 


Thoughts on Causality. 233 


force; and these are qualities sustaining relations only to 
intelligence. 

Whatever character, then, philosophy may authorize 
chance to assume, she cannot concede to it the character 
of cause. Existence cannot be the result of chance. No 
mode of existence can be the result of chance. 

It is one of the results of science to prove that that which 
had been regarded as a cause is only an effect. The more 
we know, the longer the chain of intermediate causation 
seems tobe. Primitive man recognizes no interval between 
cause and first cause. Every event in the natural world is 
looked upon as the direct product of supernatural causa- 
tion. This is not a theoretical. opinion, but a historical 
fact, which I have ascertained after abundant research. 
The relics of this habit perpetuated themselves amongst the 
Greeks until the dawn of Greek philosophy ; and we are 
assured by Draper and Tyndall, and the professions of the 
philosophers themselves, that the aim of philosophy, in 
which, in ancient times, all science was merged, was, to 
demonstrate that events do not transpire through the direct 
intervention of the gods, but according to the orderly 
methods of physical law. With such gods as ruled in the 
Greek pantheon, there must have been much to stimulate 
philosophy and forward its aims. 

Advancing from the lowest stage of barbarism, the first 
step in reflection discloses the law of invariable antecedence 
and sequence amongst physical phenomena; and the mind 
attaches its ineradicable notion of cause to the invariable 
antecedent. Here arises the notion of physical causation. 
But the invariable antecedent is now regarded the effect of 
first cause, acting in the guise of a supernatural power. 
Here is one term interposed between first cause and ulti- 
mate phenomenon. 

The next step in reflection discloses the same fact in 
regard to the observed physical cause as had been noted 
at first in regard to the last phenomenon. This is also 

Trans. viti.] 30 


234 Thoughts on Causality. 


the effect of a physical cause; and the mind now finds 
two terms of intermediate causation interposed between 
assumed first cause and ultimate phenomenon. The 
opportunity presents itself, at this stage, for another observa- 
tion which, in the development of science, becomes ex- 
tremely significant. The recognized intermediate causes 
of two separate phenomena appear, in many cases, as the 
effects of the same cause. The number of assumed first 
causes is therefore much less than the number of interme- 
diate causes. 

With the further advance of reflection, it is ascertained 
that the assumed first cause is again the effect of remoter 
causation ; and so its aspect changes to that of an interme- 
diate cause, and we find three terms interposed between phe- 
nomenon and newly assumed first cause. At the same 
time, it is observed that, in many cases, two of the previ- 
ously assumed first causes are, in common, the effect of 
one first cause, thus removed by three terms from pheno- 
m enon. 

Thus continues, through the instrumentality of researches 
of the scientific kind, the process of interpolating new 
terms of intermediate or secondary causation; and parallel] 
with the retreat of primary causation into the ever dimmer 
distance, is a diminution in the number of assumed first 
causes. The tendency of lines of causation, or series of 
effects, to converge, has been noted by every thinker. 
This zone of secondary causes is the peculiar field of sci- 
ence. | 

Before proceeding further, one suggestive fact should 
be conspicuously held up to view. The human mind all 
along holds fast to its notion of primary causation. Dis- 
appointed and deceived a hundred times, its faith in the 
reality is not one whit abated. Reluctantly and sorrow- 
fully driven from post to post, it moves on into the unex- 
plored darkness, full of confidence that the object of its 
trust will be found at last. Look, further, at the notion 


, ee fie’ ez” 


Thoughts on Causality. 235 


which it always frames of the character ofits primary cause. 
True it is, that the hue of humanity is reflected over it. 
The first cause does assume human attributes. In the rude 
conditions of society, they are bodily as well as spiritual ; 

but afterwards, purely spiritual. Man is conscious of the 
exercise of a power of causation on his own part, and he 
knows nothing of any other mode of essential causation. 

As long asall that he sees and investigates in the universe 
is found codrdinated to the powers and methods of his own 
intellect, it would be an impossible philosophy to assume 
that primary cause, when discovered, should not exert its 
efficiency in a manner harmonious with the indications of 
all the rest of the universe. The mind of humanity, there- 
fore, investsits primary cause with volition and intelligence. 
It may be said that humanity’s conceptions in thisand many 
other things are destitute of demonstrable foundation. I 
do not wish to meet the objection now, but would suggest 
that sound reasoning demands that we proceed from grounds 
which are strongly probable, rather than from the total 
negation of them, because not demonstrated. The fallacy 
of asserting that a given position cannot be demonstrated 
true, and then proceeding to reason as if it were demon- 
strated untrue, is a somewhat fashionable one, and has 
served as the basis ofa great deal of bulky and ostentatious, 
if not very substantial philosophizing. 

Another observation to be made at this point, has refer- 
ence to the relative influence of polytheistic and mono- 
theistic conceptions upon the body and the march of science. 
It is the characteristic of polytheism to stand ready to 
recognize an indefinite number of first causes; thus neces- 
sarily retarding, instead of stimulating, the search for 
intermediate causes. Monotheism, while recognizing but 
one absolutely first cause, must either favor the tendency 
of lines of causation to converge at a point by the continual 
interpolation of secondary causes or else must yield to the 
anthropopathic instinct of uncultured mind, in assuming 


236 Thoughts on Causality. 


an indefinite number of points of application of causal 
efficiency. This latter alternative would evidently be the 
resort of a monotheism not yet sufficiently exalted in scien- 
tific knowledge to be able to appreciate the full meaning 
of that convergence toward a unity which is disclosed in 
the genealogical lines of phenomena. To the first alter- 
native it would be driven by a clearer understanding of the 
significance of the history of opinion ; and when once fully 
entrenched in that position, it would contemplate with 
satisfaction rather than alarm, the progress of science in 
breaking through the unexplored barriers which separate 
the last found causes from the one Universal Cause. 

We turn back, now, to scrutinize the field of secondary 
causation, in which physical science occupies itself. It is 
purely aphenomenal world. The data of physical science, 
strictly speaking, do not consist of causes made manifest 
in sensible phenomena, but of sensible phenomena them- 
selves, certain ones of which sustain to each other the 
relation of invariable antecedence and sequence. The 
body of positive science is restricted to these. When, in 
obedience to a law of our minds, we connect the necessary 
notion of causation with a given invariable antecedence, 
we perform a legitimate act of philosophic thinking; but 
we neither know the modus operandi of the causation, nor 
whether the causation inheres in the antecedent or acts 
through it, nor whether such causation is primary or sepa- 
rated by an indefinite number of terms from primary cause. 
It is only an accommodated and symbolical form of expres- 
sion when I say, for instance, that friction causes electrical 
phenomena. I only know that electrical phenomena follow 
friction. friction may be the cause proximate or it may 
not be. That itis the first cause no one will pretend; but 
how many removes separate it from first cause, no one can 
conjecture. 

Physical science may conveniently and harmlessly assume 
that causation inheres in the antecedent; but the habit 


"eF 


Thoughts on Causality. 2387 


of so doing must not generate a belief that the assumption 
represents a verity. Science may forbear to inquire — nay, 
in its own character it cannot inquire, whether efficient 
_eausation inheres in the material substance back of the 
phenomenon which stands as invariable antecedent; or 
whether the remotest phenomenal antecedent reached by 
science represents substantial first cause. Should the 
scientist refrain from instituting such inquiries, he should 
neither be reproached, on the one hand, with the charge 
of apathy touching questions of primary causation, nor 
himself commit the mistake, on the other, of assuming 
that inquiries in his actual field have led him to real causes. 
Still less should he dogmatically deny that real causation 
is posited outside of the phenomenal world in which his 
labors are conducted — beyond the last term which he has 
discovered with his microscope, or dissolved in his alembiec, 
or discerned with the Vorstellungskraft of his imagination. 
The method of science, I repeat, is chiefly inductive ; 
that of philosophy, chiefly deductive. The science of anti- 
quity and of the middle ages was essentially a body of 
conclusions derived deductively ; and the inevitable and 
glaring absurdities of the method and its results, contrasted 
with the brilliant successes of the inductive method of 
modern times, have caused many scientists to look upon 
deductive processes with an unmerited degree of distrust, 
or even disdain. This hasled them, since scientific induc- 
tion cannot be carried into the field of first principles, to 
reject as unsafe and unworthy of consideration, the result 
of a priori reasoning. Hence has sprung up the miscalled 
“positive philosophy.” This tendency has gone too far, 
and it is quite time to return to the natural method, which 
appreciates and weighs with impartiality the evidence 
afforded both by reason and the senses; and does not re- 
fuse to search for causes in the realm of immaterial things 
because there they would elude the verification of the 
erucible and the balance. Deduction, dealing with neces- 


Pee ee ee ewe eee ee ee eee 


has 
< 


238 _ Thoughts on Causality. 


sary truths and admitted principles, is a permissible and 
safe procedure, and so natural and available, that, not unfre- 
quently, the scientist himself falls into the use of it, at the 
same time that he professes to observe rigorously the 
canons of scientific induction. 

The test of a physical truth, that it must be capable of 
mental presentation, is legitimate; but a moment’s reflec- 
tion will convince any one that it is an impossible test in 
the whole field of abstract ideas. By what sort of process, 
for instance, would Professor Tyndall bring before his 
mind’s eye a vorstellung of cheapness, or ambition, or de- 
spair, or even the generalization induced from a body of 
phenomena? 

In this phenomenal world, science disposes its data accord- 
ing to their resemblances, concomitances and sequences. 
An observed invariable sequence is styled a law. In the 
generalized faith that a certain sequence will remain invari- 
able, science forecasts terms which lie in the future; and, 
in a similar faith that it has always been invariable, science 
retraces the pathway of phenomena into the inaccessible 
past. But it is of the utmost importance to refrain from 
endowing the word Jaw with the notion of efficiency. We 
say loosely that the law of chemical affinities causes the 
disengagement of carbonic acid when chalk and sulphuric 
acid are brought together; that it is a law of life that the 
stomach should not be dissolved by its own juices; that it 
is the law of the ‘‘ survival of the fittest’? which causes the 
progressive improvement either assumed or proven in the 
successive generations of a species in the state of nature. 
We are apt to think that when we have ranged a phe- 
nomenon under its appropriate order of sequence, we have 
pointed out its cause; whereas, laws are only uniformities 
of juxtaposition of phenomena. There isno efficacy in law. 
Itis nota force, but only the method of activity of force 
or the order of its effects. The law which expresses the 
relations subsisting between the intensity of gravity and 


Thoughts on Causality. 239 


the masses and distances of bodies, when applied to a certain 
assemblage of phenomena, renders them intelligible in a 
certain sense; it discloses the consummate harmony sub- 
sisting amongst them, and reveals correlations which seem 
to be the work of intelligence; but we deceive ourselves 
when we imagine that the law produces a single result. 
The law itself is a result—an induction from the order 
of the phenomena which a mistaken science summons it 
to explain. If a progressive improvement of race is an 
outcome of the continuous “ survival of the fittest,” then 


this order of sequence is a law ; and in accordance with it, 


we shall expect every race left to itself to undergo a gra- 
dual improvement; but such order of sequence is no more 
a cause in this case than in any other. The immediate 
causes of this result are the agencies which destroy the 
individuals not “fitted to survive’ — or more accurately, 
the forces concerned in the continuance of the species, 
under the conditions (extermination of the weakest), 
through the surviving individuals. 

Still employing the term cause in the symbolical sense cus- 
tomary with science, there is another set of circumstances 
which ought not to escape notice in scrutinizing the princi- 
ples of causality. I refer to conditions of causation —some- 
times called conditioning causes. There are conditions 
indeed to the efficiency of every cause — conditions of its ope- 
rativeness in any degree; and there are others which merely 


modify its operation ; and, not unfrequently, the two charac- 


ters are united in one condition. There is danger of con- 
founding conditions with causes. I agree to write a book, 
for instance, on the condition that my publishers will put it 
in print. It will not be written with that condition left out. 
But the publisher does not thereby become the author of 
my book. The dilute acid in the battery will attack the 
zinc only on condition that you connect the zinc and 
platinum externally by means of aconductor; but this does 
not render the conductor the agent which dissolves the zinc. 


240 Thoughts on Causality. : 


I build a wall behind my grape-trellis, and I find theripening 
of the fruit accelerated ; but it is not the wall which does 
the work; it is still, as before, the sun. The amount of 
light emitted by my lamp is determined, within certain 
limits, by the height of the wick; but this does not render 
the wick the cause of the light. The varying wick is only 
a varying condition of a varying result of a varying activity 
of a constant physical cause — chemical action between oil 
andoxygen. Similarly, the amount of thought which I can 
evolve is conditioned by all the various affections and con- 
ditions of the brain. My poetry and my philosophy. are 
indeed correlated to brain and blood and oxygen and 
beef-steak; but only in the same way that my boots are 
correlated to calf-skin and tan-bark and black-wax. These 
condition the exercise of the bootmaker’s skill ; beef-steak 
conditions the exercise of mine. It is quite true that the 
activity in both cases has other conditions; but it is also 
true that none of the conditions can be elevated to the 
dignity of causes. The physical scientist is sometimes 
hoodwinked by the exact graduation of mental activity 
to the condition of the brain, and commits the mistake of 
clothing condition with the character of cause. As well 
assert that the wick secretes the light. 

A similar departure from correct reasoning is the assign- 
ment of the “environment ”’ as the cause of organic modi- 
fications. I shall not deny that organic modifications are 
generally correlated to the environment, and vary with the, 
environment, and as a sequence of its variations. Though 
I have observed that organism bears no fixed, and there- 
fore necessary, relation to environmeut, and even some- 
times ignores it, 1 will assume that the correspondence is 
always as uniform as a certain school of derivationists 
picture it. Whatthen? ‘Thisis, after all, but a condition- 
ing cause. It seems to me to imply a lack of close dis- 
crimination to assert, for instance, that increased cold 
causes an animal’s fur to grow longer. Ifit grow longer 


» i pa 
-. 
_ 


Thoughts on Causality. 241 


with increase of cold, and as a sequence of it, the imme- 
diate cause is evidently the increased amount of assimila- 
tion at the growing points of the hairs. That cold is the 
cause of this, there is no ground for asserting. But if it 
were the cause, cold itself is the effect of a remoter cause — 
the diminution of heat-vibrations ; and this is the result of 
a decrease of energy in the cause of heat-vibrations — what- 
ever that may be. When the common potato is grown 
in a dry and sterile soil, it deteriorates in size and quality ; 
and the Darwinist would assert that these changes are 
caused by the change in the environment; while in fact, 
they are only conditioned by it. The change in the soil is 


_ the condition of the assimilation of less material; it is the 


condition of the less energetic action of the vital forces. 
Whatever result ensues, it is these forces which cause it. 
The crane’s long legs and the duck’s broad bill are codrdi- 
nated to their environment, and have been fashioned as 
they are by some cause. It is evident that the environment 
has been the condition with reference to which the conform- 
ation was produced. But there is no particle of proof 
that the environment produced them. It would be inter- 
esting to contemplate Professor Tyndall in the effort to 
represent to hismind’s eye the process by which pond-water 
wove the web of a duck’s foot; or that by which the con- 
sumption of clover-heads fashioned a persistent pulp in 
the molar of the rabbit, while forest fruits determined a 
limited growth in the molar of its fellow rodent, the squir- 
rel. The whole doctrine of organic transformations, or 
formations, through the influence of external conditions, 
is infected with this fallacy of reasoning. Iam not deny- 
ing the codrdinations alleged, but I choose to trace them 
to intelligible and real causes. 

The scientist in pronouncing upon causal relations 
amongst his phenomena, is in danger of committing the 
logical error of post hoc ergo propter hoc. The fundamental 
conception of the doctrine of the derivation of species, under 

Trans, viii.] 31 


242 Thoughts on Causality. 


any of its aspects, is a case of post hoc ergo propter hoc. While 
there is not a known instance of the derivation of a species, 
its possibility is a mere hypothesis; and the assertion that - 
all species are derivative isa stupendous assumption. What 
knowledge we have of the serial relations of species dis- 
closes the existence of obstacles which have never been 
surmounted during the period of human observations. The 
fossil treasures of our continent furnish us, in successive 
ages, a series of equine quadrupeds with a progressively 
diminishing development of toes, ending with the solidun- 
gulate horse. Derivation assumes that these belong to one 
genealogical line ; while every item of positive knowledge 
respecting the stability of species, proclaims their trans- 
formation impossible. The gigantic basal inconsequence 
of Darwinism and every other form of derivation, is never- 
theless greatly palliated by its harmony and parallelism 
with the phenomena of embryonic development; and I do 
not think any man better authorized to deny than to affirm 
dogmatically that specific derivation may yet be established 
as a fact. 

Equally unfounded in reason or science is Mr. Spencer’s 
arbitrary assumption that instincts are inherited and accu- 
mulated experiences ‘‘registered in the organism ;” and 
that our intuitive ideas are “ organically remembered ” 
experiences. No glimmer of evidence exists of any such 
connection between instinct or intuition and ancestry ; 
while all attainable evidence shows that, besides the abso- 
lute lack of qualitative resemblance between instinct or 
intuition and its alleged cause, the instincts and intuitions 
are the most absolutely fixed and secularly invariable ele- 
ments in the system of life. 

Not unfrequently the phenomena which challenge our 
investigation sustain relations of simple concomitance or 
parallelism ; and when such relations appear tolerably uni- 
form, it is natural to suspect some intercausal connection 
between them, while in truth nothing of the kind may 


Thoughts on Causality. 243 


exist; and their parallelism may result from a common 
relation to some higher cause. The improvement of the 
tactual sense in the ascending series of animal forms, pro- 
ceeds pari passu with improving intelligence; and Mr. 
Spencer has assumed, accordingly, that intelligence is de- 
veloped by improved tactual organs. Now, there is much 
better reason for affirming that improved intelligence causes 
improved organs ; for it is obvious, from considerations 
already presented, that external conditions are not causes 
at all, but at best, only conditions; and stillless could they 
become the cause of a result qualitatively diverse; while 
intelligence, as we are conscious, is gifted with the power 
of causation. But, in truth, neither is the cause of the 
other; though superior intelligence is the condition of im- 
proved coordinate faculties in the organism which is its 
instrument. The whole catalogue of needs and accom- 
panying instruments for their gratification belongs to this 
category ; as well as the parallel phenomena of mind and 
brain, from which Dr. Carpenter has illogically generalized 
his strange doctrine of ‘“ unconscious cerebration,” while 
others have been led to conceive of thought as a “ secretion 
of the brain.” 

The assignment of an uncertified antecedent for cause, is 
but one degree worse than the assignment of an inadequate 
cause. As no stream can flow higher than its source, so 
no cause can produce an effect greater than itself. This 
recognized necessity of things is disregarded in that phase 
of the derivative theory which contemplates organic traits 
augmented by inheritance. Inheritance transmits what it 
receives —no more. If, in the course of generations, a 
character become more and more developed, we discover 
the action of a constant force, loading more and more into 
the vehicle of inheritance. 

We must now endeavor to approach more closely to the 
real objective ground of phenomena. We have assumed. 
that an external world is a reality. We all know that its 


244 Thoughts on Causality. 


phenomena have been investigated by science until the 
chain of causation has been -traced back to portions of 
matter which elude observation; and, by a leap, she has 
ce oncluded that divisibility extends to those inconceivably 
smaller portions called molecules and atoms. These sup- 
posed atoms are, then, the ultimate realities of science; 
and all other forms and conditions of material substance 
result from their mutual interactions. The interactions 
of atoms and their resulting aggregates are admitted to 
be the effects of causes. The universal and individual 
reason would rebel against the converse hypothesis. Now 
those causes lying out upon the utmost verge of intellect- 
ual exploration, have been designated forces. Their modes 
of activity are their “laws,” and produce, severally, those 
correlate orders of phenomenal sequence called the “ laws” 
of phenomena. Now force, it must be perceived, is the 
name of an entity unknown to science. It is another 
symbolical term employed for convenience, the symbolism 
of which, as in other cases, long usage is liable to disguise. 
We are absolutely certain, nevertheless, that the cause 
called force is a reality. 

Where, now, does this reality reside? I do not inquire 
where it acts, but where, in reference to matter, is its own 
subjective essence? Here opinion bifurcates. -A few main- 
tain that matter itself is the subjective ground of force, 
while others believe that force is external to matter. Sup- 
pose we assume matter itself to be the author of energy. 
The supposition involves the absurdity of confounding 
subject and object. Moreover, as matter must be either 
intelligent or unintelligent, we may suppose, at first, that 
itis unintelligent. If unintelligent, then the interaction of 
dead atoms gives rise to a universe of phenomena among 
which are life, volition and thought. I am willing to con- 
sider as final, the admissions of Tyndall and Dubois-Rey- 
mond on this point, both of whom explicitly assert the im- 
possibility of eliciting intellectual fire from the collision of 


Thoughts on Causality. 245 


dead atoms.’ If the force-atom is not unintelligent, it is 
intelligent, and we have a universe with an infinitude of 
atomic intelligences, acting, nevertheless, in infinite and 
eternal harmony amongst themselves; or else the universe 
as a whole is one intelligence, and objectivity in respect to 
it, is totally annihilated. Everything which is, is not a 
manifestation of the Supreme, but a part of it. Of these 
two alternatives, the first is a more startling hypothesis 
than that of the living monads of Leibnitz; since these 
were not the lodgment of ultimate cause, but subsisted 
underit. It may be pronounced infinitely improbable, and 
dismissed from consideration. The second alternative, 
which identifies nature with one supreme intelligence, is 
pantheism, the credibility of which [have no space, at pre- 
sent, to discuss, beyond the suggestion already laid down. ? 

The other supposition which may be made in reference 
to the ultimate seat of energy, views it as external to 
matter — that is, an entity of which matter is neither a part 
nor the whole. This entity may be considered as intelli- 
gent or unintelligent. If unintelligent, we have no cause 
for life, volition and: intelligence, more promising than 
when we sought it from unintelligent atoms. Ifwe suppose 
the ultimate ground of force to be intelligent, we have an 
adequate explanation of vital and mental phenomena in 
the world, and an immediate and all-suflicient explanation 
of the rational method which knits creation into a web of 
relationships. 

This conception of supreme intelligent power, enthroned 
at the fountain head of phenomena, and displaying its activ- 
ity in force acting upon atoms and aggregates of matter, 


1Tyndall: Belfast Address, pp. 68 and 87. 

Dubois-Reymond : Ueber die Grenzen des Naturerkennens, pp. 20 and 29. 

2 Helmholtz considers matter resting and inactive in itself, but yet, in 
some strange way as animated with varying forces. The definition implies 
that the ultimate cause — that is, the cause of the atomic forces with which 
matter is endowed, is something external to matter. 


246 Thoughts on Causality. 


does not differ, so far as this qualification goes, from the 
conceptions set forth by Spencer, Huxley, Tyndall and | 
Dubois-Reymond. Organization, like crystallization, flows 
from an impulse imparted to material atoms. 

Now, let us look at the significance of this position. 
The whole range of molecular activities proceeds from the 
exertion of intelligent activity from without. That is, 
wherever and whenever those activities exist, there such 
energy is exerted. If molecular attraction and repulsion, 
which number organization amongst their results, are but 
force exerted from without by supreme, intelligent cause, 
then such cause has been active, not alone at the beginning 
of existence, but through the whole tale of molecular activi- 
ties since the world began; and continues to act in the 
myriad phenomena of daily observation. The only alter- 
native to this sweeping conclusion is that which contem- 
plates supreme cause as exerting only an initial energy, 
the currents of which sweep through infinite years and 
infinite existence. This would imply that the molecular 
forces of the present are either exerted by dead matter or 
are not original, but simply transmitted forces. The first 
supposition is contrary to the premise. The second is the 
view commonly entertained ; and it resolves the universe 
intoa dead mechanism. There are grave difficulties which 
oppose it. rst, the molecular activities of today are uni- — 
versally believed to be identical in nature with those which — 
have always been manifest in matter; and hence, if the — 
first motions were imparted by intelligent being, all are. — 
Secondly, we have no knowledge or room to conjecture that — 
molecular force has undergone any change since the morn- — 
ing of material existence. Thirdly, it is out of harmony — 
with the facts of the moral consciousness to posit supreme — 
causation at a point so remote from the present. Fourthly, - 
the molecular forces are probably one; this is the demand 


Thoughts on Causality. 247 


of one kind. Now, it is unreasonable to affirm that one 
_ identical unintelligent involuntary force or impulse, acting 
- upon one unintelligent, involuntary set of atoms, can give 
rise to the varied classes of material phenomena. It seems 
to me a far more rational resort to abandon the hypothesis 
of blind impulse running on in pursuance of an initial 
energy, and recognize, as Sir William Thompson has him- 
self suggested, the immediate presence of first cause in all 
the passing activities of the material world. 
This, of course, is a restoration of the very power which, 
_ according to Tyndall, antiquity invoked science to over- 
throw. But science herself has brought us to a situation 
which suggests and commends this alternative. It does 
_ not follow, however, that the universe must be again sub- 
_ jected to the dominion of capricious will. It is demonstra- 
ble that the universe is not so ruled; and, in view of the 
conclusion reached, it appears that supreme spontaneity 
wills to act according to fixed methods. It is surely as 
easy to refer the regularity of phenomena to discerning 
mind, as to blind mechanism. 

It is a common phraseology of science to speak of heat, 
light and other forms of energy as ‘‘ modes of motion.” 
This form of expression is inexact, and opens the way to 
logical subreptions and other fallacious procedures, A 
mode of motion is some kind of motion, and, as such, im- 
plies a thing moved and a mover. The thing moved is an 
atom or molecule; the mover is the rea] energy to which 
_ thought is habitually directed when we speak of molecular 
force. Motion, instead of being an ultimate physical cause, 
is merely an effect. Now it is true that the real cause may 
produce — does produce, various modes of motion, one of 
which may be styled heat; another, light, and so on; and 
these motions, in accordance with the law of “ continuity 
of motion ” or “‘ persistence of force,” may be propagated 
indefinitely along the lines which characterize respectively, 
the several species of energy so named, Used in this 


248 Thoughts on Causality. 


sense, however, heat and light are no longer energies; and — 
exact science should desist from discoursing about them as 
such. 

Now, it seems to me that, by a defensible process of rea- 
soning, the couclusion has been reached that the ultimate 
ground of physical force is voluntary intelligence. This 
ground may be reached from another datum. The only 
mode of causation of which we have any knowledge is that 
of which we are conscious — the exercise of free will sug- 
gested by motive, prompted by desire and directed by 
intelligence. By a compulsion of the reason, we feel our- 
selves under the necessity, when thinking of cause, to think 
of it as we know it. This mandate of the universal reason 
possesses the same authority as any other; and, if we re- 
cognize, at all, the validity of our necessary intuitions, or 
the authority ot the common consent of humanity, we are 
bound to recognize the truth of this indication of the nature 
of causation. 

Again, it is a datum of the universal consciousness that 
relations of order, fitness, adaptation, utility, imply intelli- 
gence. Now, the universe abounds in relations which, 
within the sphere of human affairs, would be pronounced 
such relations; and hence, by a necessary law of reason, 
we affirm that the cause of the universe is intelligent; and 
this attribute, by the necessary law of substance, we ai 
in real being. ! 

If then a voluntary Intelligence is the ultimate - und 
of all causation, and this Intelligence chooses to act accord. 
ing to methods so uniform that, as in the movements ¢ of a 
piece of mechanism, sequences can be predicated on gi 
relations of things, it only remains to make two fart 


‘It may be observed that Kant’s opinion of the insufficiency of the cosmo- 
logical and teleological arguments for the existence of God is dete 
by his neglect of the “ law of substance” or the ontological intuition 
carries the reason across the chasm which separates the world of hen 
from the realm of real being. 


. 


Thoughts on Causality. 249 


important points. The first is, that we discern more than 
a single mode of activity; in other words, the forces of 
nature are not all mutually convertible. Some of the 
molecular forces seem tv be so. Heat may perhaps be 
transformed into electricity; electricity into heat, and so 
on. And yet, even amongst these, we note a want of simi- 
larity. Magnetism and electricity are polar forces; but 
it is not pretended that heat, light and affinity are such. 
Though light and heat are both molecular vibrations, and 
hence congeneric, they can hardly be regarded as conspecific, 
equivalent and intertransmutable, since they are vibrations 
of different intensities. Electricity, magnetism, chemical 
and cohesive attractions, though sustaining undoubted 
correlations with heat and light, are not known or believed 
to be vibrations or modes of motion; and it seems likea 
stretch of evidence to pronounce them conspecific with 
phenomena which are such. Repulsion, moreover, is a 
molecular force looming distinctly above the horizon 
of discovery; and there are indications that its intensity 
is inversely as the fifth power of the distance, while chemi- 
cal affinity varies as the cube of the distance. Gravity 
is a force varying inversely as the square of the distance; 
and it is, moreover, a force which has never, to our know- 
ledge, resulted from the transformation of any other force ; 
nor does it sustain quantitative or any other correlations 
with any other force. Here, then, inthe field of inorganic 
nature, we find forces producing three classes of pheno- 
mena — attractions, repulsions and vibrations. Of the 
attractions, certain ones affect aggregates, and others, 
molecules; the former are again differentiated into non polar 
(gravitation) and polar (magnetism and electricity) while 
the later embrace cohesion and affinity. The vibrations, 
moreover, are different intensities as before stated. We have, 
therefore, three different genera of inorganic force, and at 


Trans. viii.] 32 


250 Thoughts on Causality. ee 


least five species. Within a few years we confidently expect _ 
to find their respective lines of sequence converging at the 
farther limit of the phenomenal world; but here we are, 
at that limit, and we find five separate threads of causation 
emerging from the realm beyond that boundary. 

In addition to this, we have the phenomena of life, back 
of which we discern a force which, so far as we know, is 
not a transformation of any other energy. ‘True it is, that 
the vehicle, and instrument, and sensible expression of life _ 
is a material organism, whose building up is chiefly the 
work of molecular forces. True it is, that the mode of ex- 
pression and manifestation of life is and must be, codrdi- 
nated to this sole and material medium of expression. But 
that which we call life plays the part of a force which con- 
ditions the activity of the molecular forces; has never 
been produced by the transmutation of any of them ; can- 
not be approached by any of the methods of physics, nor 
brought, like a physical force, within the grasp of numer- 
ical formulation. a 

The other point to be noted is, that the supreme intelli- 
gent spontaneity, as we are thus led by science and reason 
to think it, is revealed to us in our own mental constitution, 
whose laws attord us the only attainable ground of cer- — 
tainty; whose delegated spontaneity is a picture of the 3 
absolute will; whose intelligence takes hold on the thoughts — 
expressed in the cosmos, and finds them comprehensible, — 
admirable and satisfying ; and, whose conscience, while it — 
finds among men the fitting theatre for its activities, dis-— 


Gravitation 


Non-polar — 
Aggregates Pélar iin magnets “°° Magnetism ~ 
1 : In electrics Electricity 

Ai or on eo Like molecules 1 Cohesion — 

‘ Unlike molecules ‘Bd pow. Affinity 
Repulsions gia th mina oe ¥ 
‘ : ,oW intensity lea 2 

Vibrations | High intensity Light ‘ 


Mechanical force and motion, so far as I can see, are always effects of one— 
or more of the above forms of force. 


= 


ae Thoughts on Causality. 251 


covers in the supreme entity which we have disclosed, the 
‘sufficient ground for its authority and basis for its hopes. 
Let me now attempt, in a concise manner, by way of 
_ recapitulation, to draw out in historical order, the steps 
and circumstances in the genesis and constitution of our 
notion of causation in the existing universe, 

1. We dismiss the consideration of all secondary causa- 
tion. The phrase isa misnomer. There is no real cause 
_ which can be disclosed as an effect ; first cause is only cause. 
_ That must be an intelligent spontaneity and must act with- 
_ out intermediation or “instrumental causation.” 

_ 2. The notion of causation implies correlative subjectivity 
¢ d objectivity — a thing acting and a thing acted upon — 
a causative spontaneity and a possibility of its action other- 
wise than in and upon itself. In all causation, except a 
_ primordial creative act, objectivity isa reality — in primor- 
dial creation it is a potentiality. This dual necessity of 
subjective agent and objective possibility of effect, implies, 
4 every case of actual causative effort, a differentiation of 
active and passive existence; and hence renders irrational 
the theory of “ monism” and its corollary “ pantheism ”’ 
under all its aspects. 7 
8. The subject musi be self conscious — conscious of its 
own existence and power of determination. This necessity 
is the ground of ‘personality ;” and it implies that the 
4 pane is a “ free agent.” 

4. The subject must form a concept of an effect — a thing 
not yet existing or an event not yet enacted. 

5. The subject must be conscious of the relation between 
of rs and cause —the intuition of causality must arise in 
the consciousness. This intuition certainly embraces the 
notion of efficiency and adequacy; and, in all cases of in- 
a ediate causation, it implies also, that the effect must 
ae enero with its cause. In intermediate causation 
@ have merely a given energy transmitted —no new 


252 Thoughis on Causality. 


energy put forth. This must retain through an indefinite 
series of terms, the same quality and quantity as belonged 
to the initial and only logically causative act. Original 
causation, on the contrary, is not bound by any qualitative 
relation between cause and effect — though, in the finite 
sphere, subject to other conditions which may variously 
restrict the field of effects. 

6. The subject must be conscious of motive prompting to 
produce the effect conceived. There must always be a reason 
why an intelligence acts one way rather than another. 
This necessary “reason why” is often styled the “final 
cause.” 

7. The subject may cognize a contingency existing — that 
is, a fact constant or varying which sustains some estab- 
lished relation to the effect contemplated. Such fact, if it 
exist, becomes a “ condition’”’ or “ conditioning cause.”’ 

8. The subject must become conscious of the influence of 
ihe contingency (if it exist) upon the conscious motive — adding 
to or taking from it. 

9. The subject must next be conscious of a desire to 
produce the effect conceived. This desire would be modified 
in a manner coordinated with the contingently modified 
motive. 

10. The subject must next be conscious of a formed 
intention to produce the effect. ‘‘ Intentionality,”’ whose gene- 
sis arises at this point, incloses all the mental acts which 
precede — self-consciousness, intuition of causal relation, 
motivity, perception of conditionality (if existing) and de- 
sire (conditionally modified). 

11. The subject must finally will the effect, modified by 
the contingent fact, if it exist. 

This is the whole process of original causation as repre- 
sented in individual consciousness, which, unless the har- 
monies of the universe be fatally misleading, is the finite 

eflection of the method of infinite causation. 


Thoughts on Causality. 253 


In the case, however, of finite causality, as in the human 
will, every effect external to the mind itself must be 
reached through instrumentalities. In most cases, the 
final determination does not reach immediately the exter- 
nal result toward which volition is ultimately directed. It 
reaches, nevertheless, another result which, however it 
may*escape observation, is the effect which figures in the 
foregoing account. This effect 1s a muscular movement 
adapted to serve as the first term in the series of interme- 
diate causes. After this, the whole history of causal effi- 
ciency, as above laid down, must necessarily be repeated 
for each separate term in the series of intermediate causes. 
In the mean time, complications arise. The instruments 
employed become effective on condition that the forces of 
nature prove regularly operative ; and thus supreme causa 
tion may be summoned to conspire with human volition in 
the accomplishment of the most trivial result. 


Syracuse, 1 Feb., 1875. 


Portable Boats. By VERPLANCK CoLvIn. 


[Read before the Albany Institute, May 1, 1875.] 


Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Albany Institute: I 
affords me pleasure to accede to the wishes of the members 
of the Institute and others who have desired me to afford 
them an opportunity of examining the portable canvas 
boat or canoe which I invented, and which was used during 
a portion of my Adirondack explorations of the remoter 
lakes. 

Before entering into an explanation of the character of 
this portable boat, it would seem to be appropriate to give 


a brief account of the portable boats which have heretofore — 


been used, so that the peculiarities of the one which I 
place before you this evening may be better understood, 
and the point wherein it differs from all boats heretofore 
used may be made evident. This distinguishing charac- 
teristic may be stated in brief, to be the fact that my boat 
has no frame carried with it; but, by a few bits of leather, 
etc., peculiarly contrived and placed within an exterior of 
water-proofed canvas, poles and boughs, cut in the forest 
or among the bushes on river or lake shore, are readily 
fastened within it as its temporary frame; a frame entirely 
inexpensive, and which may be thrown away when you 
start upon a carry or portage, so easily are they replaced. 
Thus, I obtain a boat weighing a little over ten pounds — 
all that has to be carried being the canvas exterior and its 
leathern attachments. My invention may therefore be 
called, with much propriety, a boat without a frame ! 

In reviewing history to trace the origin of portable boats, 


we are led far back beyond even the most ancient chroni - 


: 


. 


Portable Boats. 255 


cles, and find some forms of them existing even in pre- 
historic times. Indeed when we come to examine the 
eauses which lead men to desire a light, portable boat, we 
will find that all the different available forms known to the 
world have been originated either among savages with the 
first dawning of civilization or — for here extremes meet — 
when civilization pushes out into the wilderness or among 
savages, where the narrow lanes of water and frequent 
landings and portages will not admit of larger craft. 

Perhaps the first of portable boats was that which carried 
Moses in the bulrushes — but that cannot be determined. 

The earliest form of water conveyance was probably the 
raft. A floating log may have saved some tired swimmer — 
a witless savage flying from murderous enemies — with 
yet wit enough to grasp the log, as a drowning man is 
popularly supposed to grasp the straw. The log which 
floats him he soon learns to guide. Hereafter he will have 
a raft. Another step — his leathern water bucket, left at 
the water side, he sees wafted off upon the tide, high and 
dry, which, if full of water, he knows would sink. He 
sees and thinks, and shortly turns shipbuilder. Whether 
he labors in vain to build a raw hide boat, collapsed as 
soon as his foot is placed in it, who can tell: this much we 
know from archeology, the earliest remains of boats found 
mingled with the remains of prehistoric races are “ dug- 
outs,” hollowed logs, monstrous shaped things like horse- 
troughs, which served them to navigate the prehistoric 
waters. 

The dug-out, however, as every one is probably aware, 
cannot be considered a portable boat. Even the light 
cypress dug-outs of Florida, beautiful in shape and finish, 
are hard to propel through the bayous against wind and 
tide, let alone their carrying. The boat of skins might, 
indeed, have been the earliest, the perishable character of 
its substance preventing its preservation in the cranogues 
with the other remains of more solid character. 


# 


256 Portable Boats. 


The earliest form of portable boat of which history gives 
us any account is that which we might call the bull-boat, 
being made of neat’s hide upon a light wicker-work but 
permanent frame. Herodotus says (Book 1, p. 198): 
‘‘The boats which come down the river ”’— meaning the 
Euphrates — ‘‘to Babylon are circular and made of skins. 
The frames which are of willow are cut in the country of 
the Armenians, above Assyria, and on these, which serve 
for hulls, a covering of skins is stretched outside, and thus 
the boats are made without stem or stern, quite round like 
a shield.’? This form, which seems to have existed even 
in pre-historic times, about the same in form in Egypt as 
in Britain, was known to the Romans as curuca, car- 
rocium or caribus, and to the Celts as corwig or curach. 
Ceesar describes those of the ancient Britons as having, 
in addition to the wicker-work, keels and gunwales of 
wood, permanent and substantial, though rather light 
boats for sea voyages, we would be apt to think, Yet 
there are records of those early days—-when men were 
men indeed —of the North sea daringly navigated, and 
the Irish channel crossed (a tedious voyage of seven days) 
in one of those leathern tubs! In England this form of — 
portable boat has long since gone out of use, a few speci- 
mens gathered from the Highlands of Scotland remaining 
as trophies in archeological museums; though latterly, 
some of modern construction have been used in so called 
coracle races for fashionable amusement. It was, how- 
ever, only in recent times that the coracle, as it is modernly 
called, disappeared generally in Scotland, where they had 
been long retained by the highland lumbermen for what 
our American lumbermen would call river driving —the 
loose timber being finally made up into rafts, and the 
bull-boat no longer needed. In Ireland the coracle is, 
however, still in use and has been described as follows: 
‘¢Tt is in shape oval, near three feet broad, and four long ; 
a small keel runs from the head to the stern; a few ribs 


Portable Boats. 257 


are placed across the keel, and a ring of pliable wood around 
the lip of the machine. The whole is covered with the 
rough hide of an ox or a horse; the seat is in the middle; 
it carries but one person, or, if a second goes into it, he 
stands behind the rower leaning on his shoulders. In 
floating timber (lumbering) a rope is fixed to the float, and 
the rower holds it in one hand, and with the other manages 
the paddle. He keeps the float in deep water, and brings 
it to shore when he will. In returning home, he carries 
the machine on his shoulders, or on a horse.” The frame 
is permanent. 

England, to whom the “ hearts of oak” of old, and iron 
ships to day, afford subject of just pride, would, perhaps, 
hardly feel elated in the contemplation of what a majestic 
fleet of bull-boats obeyed the orders of Queen Boadicea — 
the infant navy of Great Britain — the portable boat, suited 
to the wild and savage character of England at that early 
period. 

Among our western Indians of the great plains, a sort 
of coracle was in use, made from the hide of the buffalo, 
strongly secured upon a firm frame. A boat, essentially 
the same as the coracle, is still in use in Thibet, and is de- 
scribed by Abbe Huc, in his travels in Tartary, etc., where 
he found it in use upon the river Bo-Thou. The interior 
was formed of ox-hides, strongly sewn together, and formed 
upon a frame-work of bamboo. It could be carried over- 
land by its owner, but the frame was permanent. 

Nearly allied to the bullboat or coracle is the kayak, 
kajak or kia of the Esquimaux —differently called in 
different dialects —an ocean vessel of the Arctic zone; 
how ancient we can hardly tell. Like the coracle, this 
boat is made so light that it is said ‘a man can carry 
his kia on his shoulders from the house to the water.” 
The frame of the kia is permanent, and consists of whale- 
bone joined with fragments of the drift-wood which the 

Trans. viii. 33 


258 Portable Boats. 


ocean tosses upon those Arctic shores. Over the frame, 
the covering of seal-skin is tightly and securely fastened, 
the seal-skin being neatly and elegantly sewed together, 
the smooth thin covering being almost transparent, and 
showing indistinctly the limbs of its owner, who, sitting in 
the centre of his narrow, tube-like craft, with the seal-skin 
collar of the man-hole gathered and bound around his 
waist, his coat collar and sleeves also made waterproof, 
ventures out upon the stormy sea to secure his livelihood ; 
daring with his harpoon and lance to battle with the walrus 
and narwal, and to assert, in those wild boreal waters, the 
pre-eminence of man and mind. 

The kia or kayak has an average length of twenty-five 
feet, with a width of perhaps eighteen or twenty inches. 
It has no keel, and being so narrow requires skill in its 
management among the billows. The Esquimaux, how- 
ever, with his double-paddle, not only navigates the icy 
seas with safety, with wonderful skill balancing and pro- 
pelling himself with his paddle, but also manages to per- 
form some feats which may be termed national and peculiar 
to those northern tribes. He regards it as a mere pastime 
to leap one kayak over another at sea, but with more 
caution approaches his chef-d’euvre. Throwing himself 
and canoe sideways violently on the water, with a strong, 
quick stroke of the paddle, he disappears under the surface 
to leap in sight again upon the other side —sometimes 
proceeding thus rapidly fifteen or twenty times — the kayak 
serving as the axis of motion. Thus we perceive that 
even the dwellers amid icebergs have their pleasures and 
pastimes — wild and savage as the rude regions of their 
habitation, yet dependent upon the same emotions of the 
heart as those of more favored people. 


It is stated of this boat that “The paddler is so tightly 


tied to the kia, that he is unable to change his position 
without assistance, or even to lift a heavy weight, such as 
a seal. In such a case he asks assistance from a companion. 


— ee 


Portable Boats. 259 


The two kias are placed near each other, and paddles are 
laid from one to the other, so that for the time they are 
formed into a double canoe, which cannot be upset.” 
* * * « An inflated seal’s bladder is always attached 
to the canoe. When the kia is not in use, it is taken out 
of the water, and rested in an inverse position upon the 
huts.” 

The Esquimaux have also another kind of boat of skins, 
which may be carried from place to place, but is so large 
as to hardly come within the limits of the portable. This 
is the woman’s boat, called the oomiak, a large, clumsy, 
scow-like, straight sided ship, of raw hide, which conveys 
their baggage. A well made oomiak will carry a heavy 
burden. One is mentioned “ measuring twenty-five feet 
in length, by eight in width, and three in depth,” in which 
more than twenty Esquimaux were conveyed. This boat 
is occasionally fitted with a sail, and its general character 
renders it far from portable. Like the kayak, its frame 
is permanent, for indeed on those Arctic shores the material 
for boat-frames is not easily procured. 

The canoes of the South sea islanders, being generally 
intended for ocean voyages, and constructed of wood, lie 
beyond the bounds of our subject. Their wonderful double 
canoes, in which they venture far from land on the broad 
Pacific, are not portable, and even the light, small forms 
of canoes which they have, though they may be lifted and 
carried, are hardly more of a portable boat than the surf 
boats which the Sandwich islanders use in the exciting 
pastime of their tropic coast. 

Nor are the bamboo rafts of the Chinese, boats in any 
true sense of the word. Like the catamaran of the East 
Indian coast, they are simply floats — excellent in their 
way — the catamaran being more safe than the ship’s boat, 
in the furious surf of Madras. This form of light raft is 
also used on the west coast of South America. 

Among the Indians of South America we again meet 


260 Portable Boats. 


with good examples of portable boats in their periaguas of | 
the lighter construction ; but one of the heavier kind which 
Columbus, on his fourth voyage to the New World, saw 
at the Guanaja islands, was hardly portable, though made 
from a single tree; being eight feet wide and propelled 
by twenty-five rowers. It had awnings, etc., and was 
supposed to have come from Yucatan. 

Among the Patagonians we find elegant examples of 
light boat construction, most singular and interesting forms 
being made by the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego; but it 
is only among our own North American Indian tribes that 
we find what, tomy mind, is the most beautiful and elegant 
of forms — the birch-bark canoe. 

The Indian canoe probably owed its origin to the peculiar 
character of our northern regions, where myriads of small 
lakes, each almost if not entirely joining with the other, 
and streams and rivers, now foaming in rapids and now 
stretching in long reaches of still water, interposed a 
tangled net-work of impediments to thé traveler without 
boat, and at the same time remained equally difficult to 
those whose boats could not be readily carried over the 
numerous portages necessary. 

The origin of the birchen boat cannot be traced. Wher- 
ever the canoe birch tree is found, the natives made from 
it their boats. How many millions worth of fur and peltry 
have those light canoes carried down from the heart of the 
wilderness to the trading posts of the whites, since the day 
when those frail boats clustered around the ship of Henry 
Hudson! How many white pioneers have, in these birch 
canoes, penetrated to the far west to lay the foundations 
of our modern empire! 

It is superfluous to describe the Indian canoe, and it is 
hardly necessary to remark that its frame, like all those 
before mentioned, is permanent, and that the removal of 
the frame of an old canoe would amount to the destruction 
of the craft. 


vo? 


Portable Boats. 261 


In our wilderness, the first substitute for the birch canoe 
was the light boat known as the bateau, well-suited for 
the transportation of military stores, and extensively used 
during the French and Indian and revolutionary wars. 
Thus we find the savagery of civilization making the first 
improvements by substitution of the bateau for the boat 
of the savage, to aid in the successful prosecution of more 
savage war. 

Inthe Adirondack region, atthe close of the revolutionary 
war, there were many white hunters and trappers who 
used the birch canoe in their voyages by lake or river. 
Few of these white trappers were able to build their own 
canoes, and as the Indians slowly disappeared from our 
northern wilderness, the white hunters were gradually 
thrown more and more wpon their own resources for water 
craft. They commenced by building provisional canoes 
from huge sheets of bark of the spruce tree. From a per- 
sonal experience with this variety of craft, I cannot re- 
commend it. The fresh spruce gum covers the inside in 
a disagreeably sticky way — your only satisfaction being 
that it is “‘ pitched both without and within with pitch,” 
in a manner which might have satisfied Noah. It is also 
frail and perhaps unsafe, its frame, of course, being as per- 
manent as the boat itself. 

The canoe, however, was the desideratum in a country 
like the Adirondack, where the traveler by water can 
scarcely proceed a dozen or half a dozen miles without 
carrying his boat and baggage over several miles of port- 
ages, and after many trials and years of patient labor, the 
Adirondack guides have produced, in their: light boat- 
canoes, one of the most graceful, elegant and portable of 
boats. Nevertheless the ordinary Adirondack boat, ten 
or twelve feet in length, weighs from sixty to ninety 
pounds, and in addition to the other baggage forms a 
heavy weight to be carried on the shoulders of one man 


262 Portable Boats. 


through the forest, over carries or portages sometimes two 
or three miles in length. 

During the last ten years, I have had frequent occasions 
to use these boats in all their different forms. I have 
always entertained for them the greatest admiration, but 
have never liked to back one over a three-mile carry. 
Often my pity has been aroused at the sight of my guide, 
struggling through the forest and over the hills under his 
bulky burden, and often have I been annoyed in the course 
of wilderness exploration by the sudden discovery of a 
lake where none was supposed to exist, by finding myself 
without a boat in which to explore it; and oh! the slow 
and solemn times that I have experienced while endeavoring 
to pole along a raft! 

After much reflection, I came to the conclusion that the 
first essential of a boat was its outside —the very cuticle, 
if firm enough, being sufficient. Further study and tests 
led me to select canvas as the best substance for the ex- 
terior, and that was many years before I placed this boat 
upon the Adirondack waters. 

Now, portable boats of rubber were in use long ago, and 
canvas has also been employed in boat construction. 
Colonel, now General John C. Fremont, carried with him 
a rubber boat, and with it explored a portion of the Great 
Salt lake, perhaps the first navigation of that water by a 
white man. His boat, however, had a frame which it was 
necessary to carry with it, and withal leaked badly ; it was 
used, I think, but once afterwards, when it was wrecked 
in navigating a rapid river. Dr. Kane, in his Arctic ex- 
plorations, carried with him, also, a portable rubber boat, 
of the fate of which we only know that it was cut to pieces 
by a thievish Esquimau, who wanted the wooden frame 
within. This boat required its frame to be carried with it. 
In the army, canvas pontoons have been used, but these 
also require very heavy and substantial frames to be carried 
along, and old soldiers may remember how many men were 


oe a 


—e. “1s. AS | is 
- 


i el eee 


: 
; 
mn 
. 
: 
3 


Portable Boats. 263 


detailed to bail them out. Captain Hall carried with him 
on his last ill-fated expedition in the Polaris, a canvas boat ; 
but this, like all the others, had its heavy, cumbersome 
and bulky frame. Paper boats, of fine construction, have 
been made in the neighboring city of Troy, and have 
proved good for racing purposes. Itis almost unnecessary 
to state that they are permanent in character, and rigid 
and constant in frame. The Rob-Roy canoe, in which Mr. 
MacGregor explored so many of the waters of Europe, 
had a permanent frame. (The remarkable life-dress of 
Captain Boynton, cannot be considered a true boat, nor 
would it serve the purpose of one for ordinary use. Life 
preservers, cork jackets and the valuable canvas life rafts, 
of tubes, now used on ships, cannot be termed boats, being 
properly called floats.) All these differ from my boat, for 
which it is not necessary to carry any frame in any region 
this side of Arctic and Ant-arctic circles. Even on our 
great western plains, I have not seen a stream, whether it 
be the Platte, the Cache La-Poudre, or the Smoky Hill or 
Republican forks of the Kaw, which had not along its 
banks sufficient brush or timber from which to construct 
all the frame that my boat requires. There is hardly an 
arroyo of the habitable west whose shores have not some 
margining of brush, sufficient for my boat frame. 

The peculiarities, then, of the boat which I place before 
you to-night, are the means by which I so readily attach 
a frame within the canvas boat exterior. 

The canoe exhibited is twelve feet long and four feet 
wide; the portion of the boat which is carried weighs ten 
pounds eight ounces (leaving out the light leathern pieces 
which receive the corners of keelson and gunwales); and 
when compactly folded it occupies the space of less than 
864 cubic inches, or less than half a cubic foot. It has 
carried, in a heavy storm, far from land, a burden of seven 
hundred pounds, and will probably, in smooth water, convey 
a much greater burden. The prows, as seen, are guarded 


264. Portable Boats. 


with brass cut-waters, riveted on. One great peculiarity 
of the boat is that no iron or steel is placed in it, and the 
surveyor using it in the reconnaissance of a lake will have 
no trouble with local attraction of the needle. The name 
which I have given it is that of the Adirondack lake on 
which it was first practically put to the test. 

Ampersand Pond! Glorious lake, silent and remote in 
the depths of the Adirondack forest. Walled in on the 
south by the dark, massive summits of Mt. Seward — 
loneliest of peaks —and on the north by the ridge of Am- 
persand or Moose mountain, while other peaks clustering, 
seem eager to shelter it from all view save that of the 
celestial orb of day that gilds the valley with its glory, and 
fills its wavelets with sparkling brilliancy. Well doI re- 
member that day, when the guides, having tied in the light 
boughs, that we had cut a short while before, carried it 
down and placed it lightly on the water. Their merriment 
at the idea that “‘such a pork bag,” as they called it, could 
float or carry anything, was scarcely concealed. But when 
the huge hound, after gazing at it with gravity, walked 
out upon the log beside which it floated, and soberly 
climbed in, they could not restrain their laughter, but yet 
exclaimed, ‘* Well, it looks just like a boat.” And then I 
persuaded first one and then the other, to enter — the boat 
floating meanwhile like a feather, and with the dip of the 
paddles we were off, over the flashing waters, seeing each 
wavelet, as it rippled against the sides, flash in the morning 
sun. 

How we traversed the lake over-its deepest waters, with 
nothing between us and the water but the thin canvas; 
how, with sextant and compass used from the boat we had so 
lately occupied as bed or tent by turns, the figure of the lake 
was mapped ; how in it we chased a deer, almost catching 
him as he leaped ashore, or how, shortly afterward, in 
pushing down into the outlet of the lake, we suddenly came 
upon a monstrous panther stretched at full length upon a 


| el ee EB” eh ae. 


Portable Boats. 265 


log, watching for deer, permitting us to come within a rod 
or two ere he retreated, leaving us surprised and forgetful of 
our revolvers, I cannot here expatiate upon. 

Nor can I tell you of our more dangerous experience on 
the Lower Saranac lake, in cold and storm. A stormy, 
rainy day found us on the beach of Cold brook, an affluent 
of the Saranac river. Here we designed reconstructing 
our boat frame, the old one having been thrown away at 
the lastcamp. In ashortspace the guides had cut a young 
tamarack for the keelson, a couple of stout poles served 
as gunwales, while two dozen boughs, cut among the bushes 
at the brook side, formed the ribs. <A couple of paddles 
were hewn from a white cedar near by. While one guide 
cooked dinner, another, with my aid, tied in the ribs of 
boughs, slipped in the keelson, and bound on the gunwales 
and cross pieces, and in an hour and a half from the time 
we struck the brook we were gliding down stream, three 
men, two hundred pounds of baggage and instruments, 
and the huge hound sedately standing toward the prow. 

The navigation of the stream was easy. Out in the 
broader river the violent cold wind made our craft veer a 
little, and when, an hour later, we struck out into the broad 
Saranac lake, the white caps in the distance proclaimed a 
heavy sea. It was a wintry day. Snow lay upon the 
mountain tops, and when another hour passed, wild, black, 
foam-crested billows swept around us, and our craft rode 
safely, now high on the crest, now low in the trough, 
we felt, though chilled and shivering, when we floated up 
at Martin’s in safety, that it was a triumph. 


Trans. viit.] 34 


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The Mohawk and Hudson River Railroad. By JoEL 
MUNSELL. 


[Read before the Albany Institute, April 20, 1875.] 


The tradition of an extraordinary excursion upon the 
rail road between Albany and Schenectady, at an early 
_ day in the history of that road, being a subject of much 
- discussion at this time, and not generally well understood, 
I have endeavored to investigate thoroughly the facts con- 
cerning the event. Although it occurred within the 
_ memory of persons who may now be present, and who 
witnessed or may have been cognizant of it, there is still 
no little doubt and controversy about it, especially as to 
_ when it took place, and who occupied places on the train. 
_ The lithographed representations of it that are frequently 
‘met with serve to perpetuate the memory of the mysteri- 
ous trip, and to excite curiosity respecting it. 

Observing that Knickerbocker began the history of New 
York with an account of the creation, and that a more 
_ recent chronicler has commenced the annals of a neigh- 
boring inland county with the discovery of America by 
Columbus, I am disposed to make a starting point at that 
era in the history of artificial locomotion, when the trans- 
‘portation of coals for fuel in England had become so 
great a strain upon physical exertion, as to stimulate 
invention in aid of the efforts of man and beast to over- 


ude contrivance was brought into use, by which coals 
re moved in cars running upon wooden rails; and it 


268 The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 


was not until a century later, that iron rails were intro- 
duced. Indeed, although a rail road was constructed in 
France, in 1783, the principal use made of rail roads until 
near the end of the first quarter of the present century, 
was the transportation of coals in England. They were 
mostly short roads or tram ways among the collieries, and 
the trains were taken up and down inclined planes, by 
stationary engines. The era of successful operations for 
the transportation of passengers upon rail roads by loco- 
motives propelled by steam power, dawned but half a 
century ago; and the plateau familiarly known to us as 
the pine plain, between Albany and Schenectady, was 
the theatre of a genuine passenger rail road almost as 
early as any in the world. 

Overlooking the theories and experiments of Oliver 
Evans in the last century, we find that in 1512, a pamphlet 
was published for the purpose of explaining the superior 
advantage of rail ways and steam carriages over canal 
navigation, particularly on the peculiarly favorable route 
from Lake Erie to Hudson’s river, which had been the 
ancient trail of the Indians, and which will undoubtedly ever 
remain the natural and most feasible land passage between 
the two waters. Mr. Stevens of New Jersey endeavored 
to persuade all who were engaged in public improvements, 
that rail roads were cheaper and more effective, as well as 
far more rapid in transit, than was possible to be attained 
by water. Mr. Featherstonhaugh of Schenectady also 
put in a plea for rail roads. 

But the great enterprise of constructing the canals, in 
which the energies of the state were at that time involved, 
overshadowed all other schemes, Yet no sooner were they 
completed, and in successful operation, than the project of 
a system of rail roads parallel to the Erie canal began at 
once to be persistently agitated. A writer in the Argus 
of 1825, urged upon capitalists the absolute necessity of their 
entering upon the construction of arail road to Schenectady 


- 


The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 269 


to prevent the city from going to decay through the rivalry 
of Troy! And as if that danger was really felt to be immi- 
nent, we find that in November of that year it was an- 
nounced agreeably to statute, that an application would be 
made to the next legislature for an act to incorporate a 
company to construct a rail road from Schenectady to the 
Hudson river at Albany or Troy, as should be deemed 
most advisable. 

The project was brought before the legislature early in 
the session, of 1826, and a bill to incorporate the Mohawk 
and Hudson rail road company introduced. On the 10th 
of March the bill was discussed in the assembly. It is 
amusing to note the tenor of the arguments advanced by 
some of the legislators on that occasion. 

Mr. Lush, the Albany member, moved to strike out that 
part of the bill which gave the company permission to locate 
the termination of their road at any point of the river lying 
within the distance of three miles above or below the city 
of Albany. He hoped the house would not consent to a 
measure which might have a tendency to divert trade from 
this city, and carry it to a place below, where speculat- 
ors might purchase land and build up a town which might 
rival and seriously affect the interests of Albany. The 
Albany and Schenectady turnpike company had spent 
much money, he said, in improving a road between the two 
cities, and had never realized more than two per cent on 
their investment. 

Mr. Hoffman had yet to learn that the interests of Albany 
were to be looked to as paramouut to those of the state. 
If the company found it advantageous to terminate the 
road here, they would no doubt do it; but if it should be 
inconvenient from the nature of the ground to do so, they 
should certainly have elbow room enough to terminate it 
at any other place. 

Mr, Sill did not know as it was important that the pro- 
posed road should come out just where the old Dutch 


% 


church had stood. The ancient burgers of Albany thought 
that nothing could be an improvement which went beyond 
its limits. The City of Hudson owed its origin to such 
narrow views. Many years ago a number of persons from 
the eastern states wished to purchase the ground at the 
southern extremity of this city, called the pasture ; but the 
Albany dons would not sell it, because they did not think 
it right that population and business should go beyond the 
old bounds. The consequence was that the immigrants 
went and settled at the place now called Hudson. Some 
years ago the Albanians wanted a bridge, but the project 
was defeated by their quarrelling among themselves, 
whether it should be opposite one wharf or the other. Some- 
thing of that sort appears to be going on now. 

The speaker of the house, Clarkson Crolius, thought 
that passengers and light freight might be easily conveyed 
upon the road, but he conceived that heavy articles would 
be transported on the canals, and the revenue of the 
state derived from that source would not be dimin- 
ished. It had been said, that rail roads in England had 
almost superseded the use of canals. The reason might 
be that the boats were small and the supply of water scant ; 
the boats in England could, by the aid of machinery, be 
placed with all their freight upon the railway carriages, 
but he doubted if our heavy boats would ever be conveyed 
in that manner. He would like to see the experiment of 
a rail road tried in this country, and hoped the bill would 
pass, and that the applicants would be permitted to make 
the experiment at their own expense. | 

G. W. Featherstonhaugh, in a letter to the mayor, said’ 
that transportation of property from Albany to Schenectady 
was seldom effected in less than two, and sometimes three 
days. By rail road the communication between the same 
points would be safely made, in winter and summer, in 
three hours, at no greater cost than by canal, paying for 
sixteen instead of twenty-eight miles. He regarded this 


270 The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 


The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 271 


experiment as a test whether this economical mode of 
transportation would succeed in this country. At this 
_ time the most available and rapid inland travel was by 
stages, and more capital was invested in them than in any 
other enterprise carried on in this city. 

The bill passed the assembly on the 27th of March, 1826, 
incorporating the company with a capital of $300,000, with 
liberty to increase it to $500,000, and a duration of fifty 
years, limiting the time for construction to six years. 
Stephen Van Rensselaer, known as the old patroon, and 
G. W. Featherstonhaugh were the only persons named as 
directors in the charter. 

This seems, therefore, to have been the first charter of 
what became a successful passenger rail road in this 
country. No rail road had been constructed on the 
American continent, for the conveyance of passengers by 
steam power, previous to this date. The South Carolina 
road was chartered nearly two years later, andits construc- 
_ tion begun in 1828. The Delaware and Hudson, and Bal- 
timore and Ohio roads were also begun in 1828. The first 
two practical locomotives built in this country, were 
constructed at the West Point Foundery, in the city of 
New York, for the South Carolina road, and the trial trip 
Was made in November, 1830. The third was the De 
Witt Clinton, built at the same foundery, for the Mohawk 
and Hudson road, and put in operation nearly a year later. 
On the 26th of June, 1826, books were opened for sub- 
scriptions to the stock of the Mohawk and Hnudson rail 
road, and we have the authority of two daily journals, 
the Albany Daily Advertiser and the Albany Argus, that 
the stock was eagerly taken by capitalists. But the 
company seems to have moved with the safest haste from 
this time forward, for more than four years elapsed before 
the construction of the road was begun. 

_ It may be remarked here that the Quincy (Mass.) road, 
which is often mentioned as the first rail road in this country, 


272 The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 


was built for the purpose of transporting granite from the 
quarry to tide water, a distance of three miles, was nota 
passenger road, and was operated by gravitation and horse 
power, in 1827; and that the first substantial and effect- 
ive locomotive put upon an American rail road was the 
Stourbridge Lion, built in England, and run out of Hones- 
dale on the Delaware and Hudson road in 1829; but it 
was abandoned and never brought into practical use, 
horse power being adopted instead —for the reason that 
the structure of the road would not admit of the use of a 
locomotive of so great weight. 

On the 29th of July, 1830, the ceremony of breaking 
ground for the Mohawk and Hudson road took place near 
Schenectady, ‘‘ with a silver spade,” by Stephen Van Rens- 
selaer, then known as the old patroon in contradistinction to 
his son Stephen, the young patroon. In September it was 
announced that the stock of the road had risen to ten per 
cent above par, and the editor of the Daily Advertiser, 
always enthusiastic about such enterprises, predicted that 
trains would make trips between the two cities in three 
quarters of an hour, and reach Utica from Albany in four 
hours. The latter was a somewhat startling prediction, 
when we consider that the utmost exertion of the stages 
barely overcame the distance in twelve hours. 

The officers of the company had decided to use steam 
power, and had ordered two locomotives, one from Stephen- 
son of England, similar to those that were in use upon the 
Liverpool and Manchester road, and another from the 
West Point Foundery in the City of New York. On the 
23d of July, 1831, neither of them had arrived. 

The construction of the road was described by the editor 
of the Argus, Mr. Croswell, as supported upon square 
beds of rubble, in which a heavy stone block was imbed- 
ed, each pier containing eleven cubic feet of block and 
rubble stone, the piers as being placed three feet from 
centre to centre, and forming almost a continuous stone 


The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 273 


wall. It was claimed that the construction of the road 
was superior to any other in the world! and that the stone 
filling alone cost as much per mile as the whole of the Balti- 
more road; and that it had an important advantage over 
other roads in being perfectly straight, and consequently 
less liable to lateral pressure. A force of about 2,000 persons 
had been employed in its construction. The highest 
ground on the line was 335 feet above the level of the Hud- 
son river. 

The locomotive De Witt Clinton arrived by tow boat on 
the 25th July, 1831, and was put upon the road on the 27th, 
twelve months from the time when the ceremony of break- 
ing ground was performed. On the 30th of July an ex- 
periment was made with the locomotive, but owing to 
some defect or inexperience in burning Lackawanna coal, 
the speed did not exceed seven miles an hour, and it was 
determined to substitute coke. Meantime the road, which 
was completed and in use from the junction of the West- 
ern turnpike and Lydius street, about twelve and a half 
miles to the brow of the hill at Schenectady, was operated 
by horse power. Besides platform cars used in the con- 
struction of the road, a number of stage coach bodies were 
placed upon trucks for temporary use, affording seats for fif- 
teen or eighteen passengers each. On the 3d of August 
the De Witt Clinton made the trip in one hour and forty-tive 
minutes, and on the 10th they ran two trains each way 
with coke, making a part of the trip at the rate of thirty 
miles an hour! 

Aug. 13, a large company assembled to take a trip on 
the rail road. The locomotive De Witt Clinton had been 
found defective in the capacity of the boiler, and portions 
thereof were returned to the foundery for improvement. 
The train was moved by horse power, consisting of tive 
ears, each containing from fifteen to eighteen persons, 
most of whom were notabilities and interested persons, ac- 

Trans, viit.] 35 


274 The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 


companied by Mr. Cambreling, the president of the com- 
pany. These vehicles were usually drawn by two horses, 
driven tandem. 

On the 8th of September, the De Witt Clinton was 
again upon the rail, but there was now difficulty with the 
feed pipe, and the train did not return. On the following 
day the train came over the road in forty-five minutes, but 
there was still trouble with the feed pipe. They had 
gone back to first principles and adopted wood for fuel. 

On the 17th of September, the English locomotive was 
on the road. Its power and weight being double that of 
the American engine (12,742 lbs.), great expectations were 
entertained of its efficiency. A delegation from New 
York arrived, for the purpose of examining the road pre- 
paratory to a decision upon the application of the Harlem 
company, to lay their rails on the Fourth avenue of that 
city. 

Active measures were also in progress to begin the 
Schenectady and Saratoga road, and a survey was being 
made by the Troy and Vermont company. The trustees 
of the Schenectady turnpike also had got an inkling that 
something new had turned up, which they had been slow 
to perceive. A survey was begun by Mr. Cushman with a 
view to laying down rails, it being claimed that they were 
invested with rail road privileges. The project was 
quashed, I am told, by a division of $100,000 of Mohawk 
and Hudson stock, at par, among the stockholders of the 
turnpike. 

Although the locomotive De Witt Clinton had been 
placed on the road in July, and the city officials and other 
dignitaries had passed over it both by horse and steam 
power early in August, it was so late as the 22d of Septem- 
ber, when the locomotive was advertised to take pas- 
senger trains. The road was still uncompleted, and used 
only from the junction, as it was called, two miles 
from the foot of State street, from whence passengers 


The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 275 


were taken to the train by stage coaches. The other 
terminus of the road was still at the bluff overlooking 
Schenectady, where passengers were again transferred to 
stages. The distance traversed was less than thirteen 
miles. From this small beginning, however, it has been 
claimed, ignoring the South Carolina and the Baltimore 
and Ohio roads, that this was the first passenger rail 
road on the American continent operated by a locomotive, 
entitled to consideration as a success. It was undis- 
putably the first in the state of New York. 

The precise time when the directors of the road felt 
prepared to crown the complete success of their labors by 
a grand excursion, to which were invited the state and 
city officials, and a number of eminent citizens of New 
York, was the 24th of September, 1831. There are so 
many different accounts of this affair, and it isinvolved in 
so much doubt and uncertainty that it has been suggested 
whether, after all, it was not an imaginary event. But 
we have the truthful portraiture of a portion of the train, 
the handiwork of Mr. Wm. H. Brown, a remarkable 
artist, who wrought with a pair of scissors, after the style 
of the Silhouettes, graphic representations of persons, and 
of things occurring at that time. This train was so vividly 
represented by Mr. Brown, that many persons have been 
led to imagine that they can identify the passengers from 
his cutting, as we may term it. A lithographic copy of 
this picture has been made, and extensively circulated, in 
which certain figures of persons in the cars are designated 
by numbers and names. 

More inquiry has been made than the importance of the 
subject demands to verify the names of the persons claimed 
to have been present; but as five new cars, or coaches, had 
been put on the road for this occasion, there were not less 
than eighty passengers in all, and a crowd that could not 
obtain seats; therefore the efforts that have been made by 
several ardent antiquaries through personal inquiry and by 


276 The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. — 


correspondence, to make up an accurate and complete list of 
the passengers on this train has failed, as might be expected. 

In this picture but two of the coaches are brought into 
view, which are represented as carrying eight passengers 
each, while their real capacity was fifteen at least. These 
vehicles were built by Mr. James Goold at his manufactory 
in Union street, and were mere stage coach bodies, placed 
upon trucks and supported upon thoroughbraces in the 
manner of stages. They were ordered by Asa Whitney, 
who had charge of the construction and equipment of the 
road. The tender was a platform upon a truck, on which 
fuel was placed, the supply of water for half the route 
being taken in at the start, with provision of a tank at the 
half way house for water to carry the train through. The 
trucks were built in Schenectady. 

It is doubtful whether the names collected after so much 
research, traditional and authentic, really belong to a single 
trip, or should not rather be distributed among two or 
three of the early excursions. The chief engineer, John 
B. Jervis, and the resident engineer, John T. Clark, who 
acted as conductor before the appointment of such an 
official ; David Mathews, the engineer and builder of the 
locomotive, and John Hampson, the fireman, were there. 
Then follow the names of such invited guests as have sur- 
vived the lapse of time and memory. 

Churchill C. Cambreling, president of the road. 

Enos T. Throop, governor of the state. 

Charles E. Dudley, senator in congress. 

Azariah C. Flagg, state comptroller. 

Edward P. Livingston, lieutenant governor. 

Joseph Yates of Schenectady, late governor. 

Stephen Van Rensselaer, patroon. 

Francis Bloodgood, mayor of Albany. 

John I. De Graff, mayor of Schenectady. 

Reuben H. Walworth, chancellor. 

Joseph Alexander, president of the Commercial Bank. 


st 


The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 277 


Samuel Swartwout, and Philip Hone, of New York. 

Edwin Croswell, editor of the Albany Argus. 

Jacob Hays, high constable of New York city. 

John Meigs, high constable of Albany. 

Erastus Corning, Lewis Benedict and John Townsend, 
hardware merchants. 

Jesse Buel Jr., * of the engineer department, who was on 
the road from the first survey until it was in opera- 
tion. 

John I. Boyd, merchant. 

William Bay, physician. 

Simeon De Witt Bloodgood, counselor. 

L. H. Tupper, * steam boat captain. 

Thurlow Weed, * editor of Kvening Journal. It is re- 
markable that no notice of these excursions, nor anything 
relating to the enterprise, is to be found in the files of the 
Evening Journal. 

William B. Winne, the ancient penny post. 


Of course others must have been present and joined in 
the excursion. It may be thought that I give importance 
to trivial matters in this connection. Erroneous dates and 
statements have been published concerning these events 
by persons writing from memory many years after they 
occurred. Happening as they did within my own mem- 
ory, I have endeavored to corroborate my statements by 
cotemporary authorities. 

It was intended that the English engine, which had 
been designated the Robert Fulton, should move an im- 
posing train. But the old difficulty attributed to the feed 
pipe again interposed, and that machine was withdrawn, 
and the party, which had been delayed till twelve o’clock, 
was started off with a train of three cars drawn by the De 
Witt Clinton, and the others followed by horse power. A 


t dinner was given to the party at Schenectady, whereat the 


_ *Survivors in May, 1875. 


278 The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 


president of the road, Mr. Cambreling, gave the following 
memorable toast > 

The Buffalo Rail Road — May we soon breakfast at Utica, 
dine at Rochester, and sup with our friends on Lake Erie. 

It occupied seventy-two continuous hours of wearing 
travel by stage to reach Buffalo at this time. 

The locomotive returned with five cars, making the trip 
in thirty-five minutes. It was now dubbed jocosely 
Brother Jonathan, and the English engine John Ball; 
although the true John Bull did not come on till the next 
year. 

It is remarked that this trip removed the doubts of the 
gentlemen from New York, with regard to the practicability 
and utility of the Harlem enterprise. 

Such was the increase of travel over the road, that while 
the daily average of passengers was 180 in August, in the 
month following it was 322. | 

The notice of an application to the legislature for a 
through road to Buffalo was soon after published, and a 
new medium for speculation arose, and grew in magnitude 
daily before the vision of capitalists. 

In January, 1832, the company reported to the legisla- 
ture, that the amount actually paid and disbursed in the 
construction of the road was $483,215; that by the 
estimates $156,693 would be required to complete it. 

In the spring of 1832, the road was completed through- 
out its whole line, and the inclined planes being in working 
order, another grand excursion was given on the 14th of 
May, extending from the foot of Gausevoort street into the 
heart of Schenectady. The event was witnessed by a large 
assemblage, and attended by the firing of caunon. The 
cars were drawn up the inclined plane by means of a long 
rope attached to them, and to a stationary engine at the 
top, the whole steadied and balanced by a car loaded with 
stone descending on the opposite track. The same cere- 
mony was observed at the Schenectady terminus, occupy- 


The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 279 


ing much time, and becoming somewhat tedious when the 
novelty wore away. The same style of rail road coaches 
was still used. In the fall of this year a new pattern of 
car was built in Schenectady, more nearly like those now 
in use, the architecture of which was modeled from Dr. 
Nott’s parlor stove, and was called the gothic car. No 
shop was yet prepared to turn out these vehicles with 
dispatch. Mr. Jesse Buel has furnished me with a repre- 
sentation of the new car, the drawing made by himself 
in 1832. 

In January 1833, the company having erected in State 
street for a hotel, the building now occupied by the Free 
Academy, the cars were run by horse power from State 
street to the junction, where they were coupled to the loco- 
motive. The stock at this time was selling at $1.25, and 
matters were in a prosperous and satisfactory state with 
the directors, when an unexpected episode occurred to 
disturb the even tenor of their way. 

At a meeting of the common council in July, the mayor, 
Francis Bloodgood, made a long speech concerning the 
tearing up the pavement of State street, for the purpose of 
layingatrack to the river, aad concluded by recommending 
the prosecution of the company for an unlawful proceed- 
ing. It resulted in the company being fined ten dollars, 
by Justice John O. Cole. It is understood that the charter 
of the company required them to lay down a track to the 
river. It was never used, although the company completed 
it this year, notwithstanding the common council sought 
to relieve them of this unnecessary expense by an enact- 
ment. But the stock was largely owned in New York, 
and it was found that the act of the legislature could not 
be annulled by the city board, and the directors were ap- 
prehensive that a failure to comply strictly with the terms 
of their charter, would reinvest the turnpike company with 
the rail road privileges, which they formerly claimed to hold. 


280 The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 


Aug. 5, 1833, a communication was presented to the 
common council in respect to the rail road entering the 
city through State street. It was submitted to a committee 
who reported that they thought the company might safely 
be allowed to approach the basin from Gansevoort street 
under proper restrictions. 

1836. An effort was made before the common council 
to permit the laying of rails from Gansevoort street to 
Ferry street, to admit trains to reach the Greenbush ferry. 
The property holders held this project some-time in abey- 
ance, being opposed to the passage of trains through their 
streets. It was finally accomplished in 1839, and a depot 
improvised where the Taylor Brewery now stands. 

The terminus at the head of State street was then aban- 
doned, and the State street portion of the road having been 
indicted as a nuisance, the authorities proceeded to take 
up the track from the dock westward through State street 
to the junction with Lydius street, and horses were used 
only to draw the coaches to the foot of the inclined plane 
at Pearl street. Having fought a campaign with the city 
in laying the track down State street to fulfil the require- 
ments of their charter, so greatly to their disadvantage, a 
new war arose when they proceeded to take up the track. 
A meeting of citizens was called by the Board of Trade to 
condemn the change of terminus and the abandonment of 
the depot at the head of State street. On the following 
day another meeting was held by another class of citizens, — 
who deprecated the proceedings of the Board of Trade, and 
sanctioned the change made by the rail road company. 
The opposition, unable to change the action of the direct- 
ors of the road, organized a line of stages to compete with 
them, and pitted horse power against the power of steam ; 
and the last of the stagers, Joseph Webster, who had wit- 
nessed the entire decadence of a great enterprise, found 
himself quite suddenly reinstated in his old occupation. 
Activein this opposition was John L. Schooleraft. Alively | 


The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 281 


business sprang up again in staging. The old coaches 
that had been laid aside were hauled outand brushed up, and 
State street saw the revival of a business that was supposed 
to have passed away forever. On the 22d of September a 
hundred passengers had been sent over the turnpike be- 
fore ten o’clock in the forenoon. The fare was fifty cents, 
and such was the energy of the opposition, and the eager- 
ness to save twenty-five cents so great, that in seven days 
1,697 passengers were carried over by the stages, twenty 
stage loads going over in one day without taking all pas- 
sengers that offered. Nothing like this had been known 
to the turnpike in the palmiest days of that ancient 
thoroughfare. Steam finally triumphed however, and the 
strife ceased. 

In November, 1841, a special meeting of the common 
council was called to deliberate upon a proposition of the 
directors of the rail road, offering to the city their State 
street property and $150,000 of the bonds of the company, 
if the city would undertake the expense of doing away 
with the inclined planes, at both ends of the road, and 
bring the eastern terminus as near the centre of the city 
as possible, locomotives to be used. The change was made, 

the shares which had declined to less than fifty cents on 
~ the dollar, again rose in the market and attained a respect- 
able position among the stocks. 

This may be as far as a didactic discourse on a pilgrim- 
age to Schenectady in 1831, can with consistency be 
carried. A retrospect of the rude but novel appliances 
which we viewed with so much wonder and admiration 
less than half a century ago, will awaken for the moment 
by its contrast a more vivid realization of the progress of 
the age in which we have been placed. The simple and 
feeble locomotive with an imperfect feed pipe — the fra- 
- gile tender, provided with two baskets of faggots and an 
armful of wood — the cramped coach bodies used as cars, 


having three inside seats capable of seating three persons 
Trans. viii. ] 36 


282 The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 


each — the vehicles coupled by three links, and the train 
thought to attain terrific speed at twenty miles an hour — 
have been superseded by ponderous locomotives whirling 
immense trains through the country with aspeed, at times 
of sixty miles an hour—the track elongated to New 
Yorkin one direction, and to Buffalo in another — indeed it 
may be claimed from the Atiantic to the Pacific — this 
line alone having within the state of NewYork 1300 
miles of steel rails, and 700 locomotives dragging with 
irresistible force 2,000 passenger and freight cars through 
twenty-five counties and seventy cities and incorporated 
villages — 
‘ Whizzing through the mountains, 
Rattling over ridges, 
Shooting under arches, 
Rumbling over bridges, 
Singing through the forest, 
Buzzing o’er the vale, | 
Bless us!” how amazing ! 
The wonders of the rail. 


The Black Spruce. By Cuarwes H. Peck, A.M. 
[Read before the Albany Institute, May 4, 1875.] 


If we should consider merely the intrinsic beauty of the 
black spruce, its ornamental character and its botanical 
relations, we would not hesitate to bring it forward as an 
object worthy of the contemplation of the intelligent and 
the learned ; but when we remember the important part 
it plays in the formation of our primeval forests, its great 
value to man, its applicability to building purposes and its 
utility in the arts, with much more confidence do we 
bespeak your indulgence while we briefly notice some of 
its general characters, its peculiarities, its variations and 
its enemies. 

The common name “ black spruce” has reference to the 
very dark green hue of the foliage. Botanically itis known 
as Abies nigra. It is neatly contrasted with Abies alba, the 
white spruce, a closely related tree whose foliage is 
tinged with a glaucousor silvery hue. Double spruce and 
single spruce are terms applied respectively to these two 
trees in some localities. 

The home of the black spruce is in the northern and 
eastern parts of North America. It is said by Michaux to 
be found in its greatest abundance between the 44th and 
53d degrees of north latitude, and the 55th and 75th degrees 
of west longitude. This would include the southern part 
of Labrador, the Rupert river region, the provinces of 
Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, all of Maine 
and the northern part of New Hampshire, Vermont and 
New York. Its real range, however, is much greater than 


284 The Black Spruce. 


this, forit extends southward along the Alleghany mountains 
as far as North Carolina, westward to Wisconsin and north- 
ward to the 65th parallel, ceasing to grow but a few degrees 
this side of the Arctic circle. It delights in cold, hilly and 
mountainous regions, attaining its largest size and growing 
most abundantly on those moderate elevations, ridges or 
slopes where the soil has a ready drainage and at the same 
time retains considerable moisture by reason of its mossy, 
shaded surface and goodly percentage of dark vegetable mold 
or muck. No matter howrocky the soil, the tree still flour- 
ishes. It also grows freely in low swampy lands and about 
sphagnous marshes, but in such localities it is inferior in size 
and quality. In places where it abounds, says Michaux, 
it constitutes one-third part of the forest. The assertion 
in Wood’s Botany, that ‘“‘ dark mountain forests are often 
wholly composed of it’’ is scarcely sustained by any of the 
forests of this state. 

The principal tract of spruce now remaining in this state 
is in the Adirondack region, sometimes designated as the 
North woods. It occupies parts of the counties of Warren, 
Essex, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Lewis, Herkimer, Hamilton 
and Fulton. Small outlying tracts may yet remain in. 
Oneida, Oswego, Jefferson, Clinton, Saratoga, Washington 
and Rensselaer, but they are unimportant and destined to 
speedy destruction. A small tract, now nearly exhausted, 
existed in the Catskill mountain region. The remains 
of it are still found in Greene, Ulster, Delaware and 
Sullivau counties. 

The black spruce belongs to a group of plants named 
botanically Coniferee or cone-bearing plants, a name derived 
from the conical shape which the fruit of some species as- 
sumes. It is structurally associated with some of the 
largest, must renowned and most useful trees of the 
world, for the giant Sequoias or redwoods of California, 
the famous cedar of Lebanon and the invaluable pines of 
the north temperate zone are all coniferous trees. The 


The Black Spruce. 285 


spruce as it occurs in the forest usually attains an altitude 
ranging from fifty to eighty feet and the basal diameter of 
the trunk is from one to two feet; but occasionally trees 
are found that have a diameter of nearly or quite three 
feet. The trunk is comparatively straight, very gradually 
tapering upwards and free from branches two-thirds to 
three-fourths the entire length of the tree. It is covered 
with a thin grayish-brown bark slightly roughened with 
small scales. This is not deemed valuable for tanning pur- 
poses, but it affords a very good covering for shanties and 
the log houses of backwoodsmen. The altitude of the tree 
increases by the annual growth of a single leading terminal 
shoot which in young and moderately vigorous trees ad- 
vances about one foot in a season. This mode of growth 
is characteristic of all our pines and spruces. As this 
terminal shoot pushes its way upward it sends out annually 
from its base a whorl of branches. These branches are 
gradually shorter as we pass from the lower to the upper 
whorls, each successive one having one year’s less growth 
than its immediate predecessor. They, therefore, as a 
whole, give to the tree a more or less regular conical out- 
line. In process of time the lower branches decay and 
drop off, thus leaving a naked trunk. It is this peculiar 
mode of growth that makes these trees so available for 
ship masts and flag-staffs. The branches of the spruce are 
directed slightly upwards and are surrounded on all sides 
by the leaves. These are usually about half an inch long, 
somewhat four-angular and very narrow or needle-shaped. 
They remain on the branch about five years. The cones 
are pendent, ovate or oblong-ovate, three-fourths of an inch 
to an inch and a half in leugth and are somewhat variable 
in color, before maturity. The shape of the cone serves as 
a convenient character by which to distinguish the black 
spruce from the white, whose cones are narrow and almost 
eylindrical. The wood is light and strong and has con- 
siderable elasticity. Itisof a brighter color than either the 


286 The Black Spruce. 


wood of the pine or the hemlock. Though decaying quite 
rapidly when exposed to the weather it is quite durable 
when protected. It constitutes an important element in 
the lumber trade. Spruce boards are deemed more valu- 
able than hemlock but less valuable than pine boards 
because of a greater liability to warp and crack. They 
are harder than pine and are therefore more difficult to 
work. Spruce is sometimes used for the frames of build- 
ings and for floor timbers, but generally it is cut into boards, 
door and window casings, siding, flooring, ete. In some 
localities the making of spruce shingles is an important 
branch of industry, but such shingles are generally consi- 
dered inferior to those made from pine or hemlock. From 
the New York census returns for 1865, we learn that the 
amount of spruce lumber produced in the preceding year 
was 71,000,000 feet, more than six-sevenths of which was 
produced by the counties bordering on the northern forests. 
The value of this at twenty dollars a thousand would be 
nearly one and a half million dollars. The lumbermen of 
these northern counties go far back in the woods along the 
principal streams, cut the logs and draw them to the 
water courses. In the spring, when the water is high, they 
are floated down the stream to the mills where they are to be 
sawed. In this way deep inroads have been made in the 
forests so that they are not now the vast unbroken wilder- 
ness they seem. To one passing along the upper Hudson 
or the valley of the Sacandaga in summer time, the numer- 
ous piles of spruce logs that have lodged against rocks or 
on low banks, speak plainly of the rapid destruction of the 
spruces and of the swiftly contracting areas that are 
darkened by their shadows. And yet these are but the 
small portion of logs that fail to get through to their des- 
tination while the spring freshets last. If we suppose five 
thousand feet to be the product of one acre it would require 
more than 14,000 acres to furnish the 71,000,000 feet above 
mentioned. 


The Black Spruce. 287 


I come now to speak of a remarkable peculiarity of the 
spruce but one whose cause does not seem to be well as- 
certained. Singular as this peculiarity is [am not aware 
that it has ever been noticed or recorded by botanical 
writers. It seems proper, therefore, to speak of its exist- 
ence though we may not at present be able to give a 
satisfactory explanation of its cause. In the vicinity of 
Rock river, in Hamilton county, many large spruces have 
been left standing on land cut over by lumbermen. Why 
were these trees left? An examination of the trees re- 
veals the fact that they are affected by what lumbermen 
call seams. A chink or crack extends along the trunk 
following the course of the grain of the wood. If the 
grain is straight the seam also is straight, if the grain is 
oblique the seam winds obliquely around the trunk. They 
sometimes extend nearly the whole length of the trunk. 
They penetrate the wood deeply, often reaching nearly to 
the center, and they therefore detract much from the 
value of the tree forlumber. Such trees are consequently 
left standing when they grow far from the lumber market. 
If the tree is cross-grained the seam renders it worth- 
less except for fuel. Externally these seams are bordered 
by a more or less abundant exudation of resin which in its 
dried or hardened state is popularly known as _ spruce 
gum. Itisnot improbable that the permanent character 
of the seam is due to the presence of the gum which pre- 
vents the healing of the injury. This gum is generally 
coated by a velvety stratum of black fungoid filaments, 
which give a blackish appearance to the seams. 

Electricity and excessive cold have been suggested as 
possible or theoretical causes in the production of seams 
but neither is to my mind wholly satisfactory. When | 
electricity rends the bark of a tree it carries the injury to 
the ground, losing itself in the earth, but the spruce seams 
generally cease before reaching the extreme base of the 
tree. Besides, a tree struck by the electric current seldom 


288 The Black Spruce. 


survives the shock, while seamy spruces live and thrive. 
Probably not more than one tree in fifty, on an average, 1s 
seamy. Why, then, should one tree be checked by exces- 
sive cold while forty-nine others in the same locality and 
exposed to the same temperature remain unharmed. It 
is barely possible that an unusually thrifty growth or an 
excessive surcharging of the tender tissues of the sapwood 
with moisture might give rise to conditions in which in- 
tense cold. would produce a rapture but it is hardly proba- 
ble. It would appear to be an easy matter to determine 
the cause of the seam by an investigation in its earliest 
stage or soon after its comuamencement, but I have never 
yet seen one in such a condition, and do not deem it worth 
while to waste time in speculating upon the cause of this 
curious feature. 

Another character worthy of notice is the tendency of 
the leaves of the black spruce and its cougeners to fall from 
the branch as soon as dry. It has always been a source of 
annoyance to the botanist that he cannot. preserve a good 
specimen of a spruce branch in his herbarium. The leaves 
drop from the dried branches upon the slightest agitation. 
No matter whether the branch has been dried in a plant 
press or out of it, rapidly or slowly, the final result is a 
branch without leaves. I have tried in various ways to 
overcome this difficulty, but without full success. The 
nearest approach to suecessis made with specimens collected 
early in the season while the leaves of the new shoots are 
yet pale and tender. These young leaves adhere to the 
branches but the old ones drop off. This feature is not 
wholly peculiar to the spruce as it exists almost as markedly 
in the hemlock. 

A complete knowledge of the black spruce requires an ac- 
quaintance with its varieties. Some plants are much more 
fixed and uniform in their characters than others. The 
spruce is much more disposed to be variable than the hem- 
lock. Some varieties depend upon external conditions, cir- 


The Black Spruce. 289 


cumstances or influences which are easily detected, others 
seem to be constitutional or inherent in the plant itself. 
Their causes are not easily discernible. To one familiar with 
our evergreen forests the ideal or type of the spruce is 
that of a noble tree with a tall, straight, erect trunk sup- 
porting a somewhat conical head of dark green spray. 
But the tree varies greatly from this type according to its 
age, the character of the soil and the altitude of its station. 
In young trees growing in open places or on cleared lands 
it is common to find the entire trunk occupied by branches, 
the lowest whorl being but slightly raised above the surface 
of the earth. This differs from the young trees of dense 
woods only in retaining its lower branches for a longer 
time. In open sphagnous marshes a form occurs so marked 
in its appearance that in some localities it has received the 
name of bastard spruce. 

The branches, which frequently occupy the whole trunk, 
are generally very slender, the internodes short and the 
leaves pale. The tree has a feeble, starved or sickly as- 
pect and does not attain a large size. A cross section of 
the trunk shows the concentric rings which mark the 
annual growth of the wood lying close together, which, 
with the short internodes of the branches, indicates a very 
slow growth. These trees are too small to be of any value. 
They are rarely fertile. 

In wooded swamps and low lands a larger form is com- 
mon. It scarcely differs from the ordinary forest tree 
except in its inferior size and quality. It affords a poor 
quality of wood and is sometimes cut into piles to be used 
in the construction of dykes and the foundations of bridges 
and large buildings. It is not worth much for lumber. 
It is intermediate between the bastard spruce and the 
forest spruce having the distinct trunk of the latter and 
the starved, unthrifty look of the former. 

Another form occurs in the Adirondack region and is 

Trans. viii.] 37 


‘ 


290 The Black Spruce. 


said to grow also in New England. It has a silvery or 
glaucous hue to the foliage on which account it is some- 
times mistaken for the white spruce. Its cones, however, 
have the shape of ordinary black-spruce cones and enable 
us to correct a very natural mistake. The cause of this 
variation is not easily perceived unless it is the result of 
cross fertilization between the black and the white spruce. 
The two preceding forms manifestly depend upon the 
character of the soil. 

A large form with cones of unusual size and wood of 
soft texture was once described as a distinct species. It 
received the name Abies rubra or red spruce, but it is now 
deemed only a variety of the black spruce. Its range is 
northward. According to Michaux, in Nova Scotia its 
wood is used in making fish barrels on account of the ease 
with which it is worked. 

But the most remarkable variety is found on the highest 
summits of the Adirondacks. Remarkable as it is I have 
seen no description nor even mention of it in our botanies. 
It is the variation of the tree into a mere procumbent 
shrub, so small that it offers but little impediment to him 
who would walk over it. These bushes are more or less 
flattened in outline, the branches issuing mainly from the 
two opposite sides of the trunk as in the ground hemlock. 
They grow in dense patches completely covering the 
ground, and in numerous instances with their apices all 
pointing the same way. They have the short internodes and 
the short pale leaves of the bastard or sphagnous marsh 
variety. Sometimes the leaves are tinged with a glaucous 
hue as in the variety previously mentioned. I have never 
seen cones on this dwarf form nor is it probable that it 
ever produces them. Its stunted form speaks plainly of 
the struggle of a hardy plant for existence in unfavorable 
conditions. A thin soil, the prevailing low temperature 
of high altitudes, fierce blasts of winds and the crushing 
weight of heavy snows all conspire to keep down anything 


The Black Spruce. | 291 


like successful tree growth on the tops of these mountains. 
The two extremes of the black spruce have now been 
noticed. The one a noble forest tree fifty to eighty feet 
high with a well formed trunk one to two feet in diameter 
at the base, supporting a symmetrical top or head of 
branches covered with dark green leaves, the other a 
dwarf of the mountain top scarcely a foot high, with no 
distinct trunk and without strength to maintain an erect 
position, its stunted branches spreading two ways and 
bearing short, yellowish-green leaves, the whole looking 
very much as if it were a feeble branchlet of the former 
thrust obliquely in the ground. What thoughts do they 
suggest concerning the variability of the species, what 
concerning its stability. Surely a remarkable degree of 
variation, a singular tenacity of life, a wonderful power of 
adaptation to altered conditions is manifest. The spruce 
shows itself capable of maintaining an existence under 
most adverse circumstances. It grows where very few 
other trees can grow. But at the same time it shows that 
there is a limit to its variability, and that there are bounds 
to its powers of adaptation beyond which it cannot pass. 
The stately forest spruce can not stand on the summit of 
Mt. Marcy but its wonderfully diminutive descendant may 
maintain a feeble individual existence there. I say indi- 
vidual existence for this dwarf does not appear to be capa- 
ble of propagating itself by seed. And herein appear the 
limits of its variability. When the reproductive power 
fails the utmost degradation and variation of the species 
seems to be reached for it can then only maintain an in- 
dividual existence. This power is the great conservator 
by which the integrity of species is preserved; it is the 
dead line beyond which if they go destruction awaits them. 
Nature seldom fails to brand with sterility excessive de- 
partures from her normal forms, no matter whence these 
departures come, whether from starvation or stimulation, 
self-fertilization, or hybridization. 


292 The Black Spruce. 


Let us pass now to the consideration of the parasites of 
the spruce. Perhaps no species of flowering plant is wholly 
free from the attacks of animal or vegetable parasites, but 
some are much more liable to these attacks than others. 
One species may be subject to the attack of a single parasite, 
another, ofa half dozen or more. I have sometimes thought 
that the greater the susceptibility of a plant to variation 
the greater its liability to parasitic attacks. Certainly the 
variable black spruce is obnoxious to many parasitic foes. 

Arceuthobium pusillum, a brief account of which was for- 
merly read before the Institute, is one of these. Like many 
other parasitic plants it is destitute of true leaves. Botani- 
cally it is related to the mistletoe and by way of distinction 
it might be called the spruce mistletoe since it is thus far 
peculiar to that tree. It often occurs in abundance fring- 
ing the younger internodes of the living branches by the 
multitude of the plants. Having once attacked a tree it 
continues to prey upon it year after year, growing with its 
growth and thriving with its thrift. The remarkable fact 
about it is that thus far it has been detected on those s; ruces 
only which grow in swamps or on and around sphagnous 
marshes. It has not yet been seen on the typical forest 
spruce. Though this plant was first discovered but little 
more than three years ago it is now known to occur in five 
counties of the state. I have not heard of its discovery 
beyond the state boundaries. It is not positively known 
to kill the tree it attacks but it is probable that it sometimes 
does. Dead trees occur which bear the marks of its former 
presence. 

Peridermium decolorans is another foe to the spruce. It 
is a species of fungus allied somewhat to the rust of the 
grain fields, but more closely to the cluster cup fungus. 
It consists of small scattered tubercles which burst forth 
from the leaves of the spruce, rupture at the apex and reveal 
a mass of yellow, dust-like spores within. The affected 
leaves become yellow and probably drop from the branch 


The Black Spruce. 298 


at the close of theseason. This fungus is but little known. 
T have observed it myself in the Adirondack region during 
a single collecting trip only, and have received specimens 
from Essex county in this state and from the White 
mountains of New Hampshire. it was abundant on the 
starved spruces about Boreas pond and on the summits 
of Mts. Colvin, Nipple Top, Haystack, Skylight and Marcy. 
In some instances nearly if not fully half the leaves on a tree 
were affected. “The foliage therefore had an unnatural hue 
even when seen atadistance. Itwould be interesting to know 
if the fungus was exceptionally abundant that particular 
season and also if its attacks are ever sufficiently severe to 
cause the death of the tree. They certainly can not be other- 
wise than injurious, but other conclusions must await 
further observations. Itis noticeable that this fungus, like 
the Arceuthobium, does not appear to attack the forest 
spruce. Both prey upon the degenerated feeble forms of the 
species, thus showing a certain kind of respect for the great 
and noble trees of the forest and giving a wider application 
than is usual to the old maxim ‘kick the man who is 
down.” It is perhaps one of nature’s methods of indicat- 
ing her displeasure in degraded varieties and one of the 
means by which she seeks to preserve the integrity of her 
species. 

Among the animal parasites of the spruce we find a small 
plant louse that attacks the tips of the branches early in 
the season. It causes such a transformation of the leaves 
at the end of the branch as to produce the appearance of 
green cones. The leaves become flattened and exces- 
sively wide and overlap each other like the cone scales. 
The elongation of the branch is checked and the general 
resemblance of the mass to a cone is so close that any but: 
close observers would be likely to be deceived by it. Doubt- 
less it is this insect to which Dr. Packard refers when he 
says ‘“‘a species closely related to the EHuropean Adelges 
coccineus of Ratzburg and the A. strobilius of Kaltenbach, 


294 The Black Spruce. 


which have similar habits, we have found in abundance on 
the spruce in Maine, where it produces swellings at the 
end of the twigs, resembling in size and form the cones of 
the same tree.” I have seen it but once and then ona 
single tree so that it is not probable that any considerable 
injury is wrought by it to the spruces in our state. 

Another more common but somewhat similar affection 
I have observed in many localities. It is most abundant 
on young trees growing in open places. The tips of the 
affected branches are covered by crowded, incurved dead 
leaves. At a distance they might be mistaken for the 
mature cones of the tree. A close examination shows that 
there is a kind of gall or swelling at the base of each leaf, 
the little brown scale upon which the leaf stands being ir- 
regularly enlarged and excavated on one side. Common 
as are these affected branchlets I have never seen the insect 
that does the mischief. From the character of the injury 
it is almost certain that it is produced by some minute 
plant louse or gall making insect which inhabits the con- 
cavity and appropriates to itself the juices that should 
go to nourish and sustain the leaf. Usually the growth of 
the affected twig is stopped, but sometimes the branch is 
prolonged beyond theinjury. Although the tree is injured 
I am not sure that it is ever killed by the attacks of this 
parasite. The third insect foe is one much more to be 
dreaded and one before whose ravages all other,injuries 
dwarf into insignificance. If we except the destruction 
caused by man himself probably all other agencies com- 
bined do not destroy as many spruces as the one which we 
shall presently bring to your notice. I quote the whole 
account of it from my annual report recently made to the 
Board of Regents of the University. 

In my last report allusion was made to the fact that 
the spruce trees in some parts of the great northern 
wilderness were said to be dying at an unusual rate as if 
affected by some fatal disease. In the absence of any per- 


The Black Spruce. 295 


sonal knowledge of the circumstances or conditions attend- 
ing the destruction of these trees, the attacks of fungi, the 
attacks of insects and the effects of drought were suggested 
as possible causes, chiefly for the purpose of directing the 
attention of those who might have the opportunity of an 
investigation, in such directions as seemed most likely to 
afford a satisfactory explanation of the mystery. It was 
then my impression that the trouble was of comparatively 
recent date, and that it was possibly due to the modifica- 
tion of our climate by reason of the extensive and rapid 
denudation of our forest lands. But I find that it is no new 
thing, that years ago lumbermen were fully aware of the 
pecuniary loss they were sustaining from this timber 
malady. Mr. Henry Hough, in answer to my inquiries, 
writes from Lewis county thus: ‘ The dying of the spruce 
in this section has mostly if not entirely ceased. The 
greatest destruction in our territory was from ten to fifteen 
years ago.” In Rensselaer county the same trouble was 
experienced about thirty years ago. A lumber firm found 
that their spruce timber was rapidly dying and to make 
their loss as light as possible they made haste to open 
roads in the forest that they might draw out and work up 
as many dead spruces as practicable before decay should 
render them entirely worthless. But with all their prompt- 
ness they suffered no inconsiderable loss, for these dead 
trees soon become too much decayed to make marketable 
lumber. 

I have asked lumbermen and others who have been 
aware of the destruction of the spruces, what theory they 
held in respect to the cause of it. Their theories are 
various but the most prevalent attribute it to excessive dry 
weather or to the agitation of the trees by high winds. ° 
The few observations that I have been able to make lead 
me to adopt a theory quite different from these, and though 
the discussion of it belongs rather to the province of the 
entomologists than of the botanists, such is the importance 


296 The Black Spruce. 


of the subject that I can not withhold a brief account of 
my investigations and conclusions. 

In August a collecting trip was undertaken in the vi- 
cinity of Lake Pleasant, Hamilton county. While there 
it became apparent to me that I was ina region where the 
spruces were dying. Standing near the outlet of the lake 
and looking upon the distant mountain slopes toward the 
northeast, east and south, patches of brown appeared here 
and there mingled with the usual dark green hue of the 
forest. The inhabitants told me that these brown patches 
were groups of dead spruces, that the spruce trees were 
then rapidly dying and had been for two or three years 
previous and that in consequence the value of the wood- 
land was greatly diminishing. One of the most conspicu- 
ous of these brown patches was on the slope of Speculator 
mountain, a little more than half way from the base to 
the summit. Preparations were therefore made to visit 
this locality. Once on the ground it needed but little ob- 
servation to satisfy me that the destructive process was 
then in operation. The ground under some of the spruces 
was thickly strewn with their fallen leaves, yet green, and 
every agitating wind was bringing down more of them. 
The bark of these trees and of others already dead was 
perforated in many places with small round holes scarcely 
one-eighth of an inch in diameter. Upon stripping a 
piece of bark from the trunk of one of the affected trees 
the apparent cause of the mischief was at once revealed. 
The surface of the wood and the inner layers of the bark 
were abundantly furrowed by the winding and branching 
galleries of a small bark-miuing beetle, an insect known 
to entomologists as the Hylurgus rufipennis Kirby, though 
the wings are by no means always red as the name would 
indicate. Both the mature insect and its larve occurred 
in countless numbers under the bark of the dying and re- 
cently dead trees. In a single instance they were accom- 
panied by a much smaller beetle of similar shape and 


The Black Spruce. 297 


habits, the Apate rufipennis Kirby,’ but the former is evi- 
dently the chief agent in this unprofitable business. These 
insects excavate their passages between the bark and the 
wood, eating away a part ofboth. Their extended work is 
therefore equivalent to a girdling of thetree. Theirnumer- 
ous galleries form an intricate network of furrows onall sides 
of the trunk, and traverse one of the most vital parts of 
the tree, the newly formed and forming layers of wood 
and bark. The furrows are shallow on the sarface of the 
wood, rather more than half their diameter being in the 
bark, but their effect is to interrupt the circulation of the 
nutrient juices and finally to destroy all vital action. The 
perforations in the bark, by admitting moisture, doubtless 
work more or less injury. The surface of the sap-wood 
and the corresponding inner surface of the bark of living 
trees are discolored for a short space on both sides of the 
furrows, as if the injury exerted a poisonous or deadening 
influence on the tissues in its immediate vicinity. This 
was clearly seen in a tree which had been but slightly in- 
jured, there being but few furrows and these merely longi- 
tudinal ones without lateral branches. Each occupied the 
center of a discolored stripe about half an inch broad, but 
which usually extended from two to four inches up and 
down beyond the extremities of the furrows. In another 
tree there were groups of furrows separated by considera- 
ble intervals, the central portions of which intervals had a 
whitish, fresh appearance when the bark was first peeled, 
but after a few moments of exposure to the air the whole 
surface of the wood had changed to a dull, dead, brown 
color, indicating a diseased or unnatural condition of the 
surface tissues. The foliage on this tree had not yet lost 
the green hue of life but had commenced falling to the 
ground. 


1T am indebted to Messrs. J. A. Lintner and J. L. Leconte for the ento- 
mological names of these insects. 


Trans. viii. ] 38 


298 The Black Spruce. 


Small trees are rarely attacked. In the localities visited, 
from one-half to two-thirds of the spruces with a basal 
diameter ranging from one to two feet were either dead 
or dying. ‘Trees of this size are the most suitable for lum- 
ber and consequently the most valuable. The smallest 
affected tree noticed had an estimated basal diameter of 
about ten inches. In this case the attack appeared to bea 
failure, for so much resin had oozed from the wounds that 
the work was obstructed. The galleries were scattered and 
single and theirauthors were found dead, each in its furrow. 
No larvee were present and the apparent attempt to establish 
a colony in this tree had thus far failed. But it may be 
that this tree had only been attacked for the purpose of 
obtaining food and had not yet been brought into that 
sickly, languishing condition thought by some entomologists 
to be necessary to induce the establishment of a colony, the 
deposition of eggs and the development of larve. Tor it 
is said of the Scolytus destructor, a bark-mining beetle that 
sometimes proves very destructive to elm trees in Europe, 
that the adult insects first attack healthy trees for the pur- 
pose of obtaining food and when by this means the vigor 
of the tree has become somewhat impaired the female de- 
posits her eggs in her galleries. Then the rapidly increas- 
ing numbers soon destroy the life of the tree. 

When two trees of unequal size stand in clgse proximity 
the larger one seems to be most liable to be attacked. In one 
instance two trees stood scarcely more than three feet apart. 
The larger one had been attacked, the smaller remained 
unharmed. {n another similar instance the larger of the two 
trees was dead, having been attacked first, the other was dy- 
ing. Why this preference on the part of these insects for the 
largest trees? It may be that young trees are apt to be 
too resinous to be attacked successfully. In the case of 
the small tree already mentioned the gummy exudations 
from the perforations in the bark first attracted my atten- 
tion. Or the insects may instinctively know that a tree 


The Black Spruce. 299 


with a large trunk presents a broader field for their opera- 
tions than one with a small trunk; or possibly the vigor 
of the tree may be so impaired by age that it is more readily 
brought into suitable condition for the habitation of these 
parasites. Whatever the cause of this selection, no dis- 
eased condition of the trees was detected except that which 
was accompanied by and to all appearance was directly due 
to the insects themselves. Certainly if the tree is at all 
diseased before its attack the insects must be exceedingly 
quick to detect it, else they could not be found in abund- 
ance in trees whose leaves are yet green and whose sap- 
wood is yet fresh and moist except where stained by their 
excavations. 

In the vicinity of Lake Pleasant the affected trees are 
upon the mountain slopes or on dry ridges where the 
spruces are especially abundant. And we might naturally 
expect that the insects would be attracted to and carry on 
their depredations most extensively in those localities 
where the material on which they work is most abundant. 
In the valleys I saw no trees affected by them and yet they 
doubtless do carry on their destructive work in the low 
lands where spruces abound. I see no reason why they 
should not. 

In some localities their ravages have already ceased. 
On the slopes of an elevation a few miles southwest from 
Speculator mountain there are two groves of dead spruces. 
Many trees in both were examined, and, though all the 
dead ones bore unmistakable marks of the former presence 
of the beetle, not one could now be found either in the 
adult or in the larval state. What had cansed them to 
disappear? Surely not the lack of material on which to 
work, for several large living spruces yet remained. This» 
leads to the consideration of remedies. Doubtle:s there 
are natural agencies whose free operation has a tendency — 
to check the ravages of these insects and to prevent their 
excessive multiplication, but there are times and localities 


300 The Black Spruce. 


in which these opposing agencies are ineflicient or inopera- 
tive and then these destructive insects multiply rapidly and 
their ravages become painfully apparent. It is then ne- 
cessary that man himself should do something to protect 
his property from these active little foes. It was noticeable 
that many of the dead trees in the two groves just men- 
tioned had their bark so chipped by woodpeckers that the 
general hue of the trunk was a reddish brown instead of 
the usual grayish brown. Here then isa possible explana- 
tion‘of the cessation of the ravages and the absence of the 
insects. Here is doubtless the indication of one of nature’s 
antidotes to the mischief. The woodpecker is the natural 
foe of such insects. Withits long beak and barbed tongue 
it extracts them as a dainty morsel from beneath the bark. 
It is quite probable that these birds had congregated in 
these two localities in sufficient numbers to completely 
stop the ravages of the insects. A few were seen at work 
on the affected spruces of Speculator mountain, and if not 
interrupted they will probably in due time succeed in 
checking the ravages there also. The protection of these 
birds is to be enumerated among the means to be employed 
in checking the malady of the spruces. They are the 
friends of the forest and the allies of man. How insignifi- 
cant the insect yet how capable of injury. How lightly 
we esteem the woodpecker yet how indispensable are his 
services. 

A remedy employed in similar cases in Europe is to cut 
down the affected trees, strip off their bark and burn it 
with its destructive tenants. Though it is somewhat 
doubtful if the owners of large tracts of timber land can 
be induced to adopt this method of checking the destruc- 
tion of their spruces, it is certainly to be reeommended. 
The loss from its omission would soon far exceed the cost 
of its employment, but care should be taken not to engage 
in this work in a dry time lest the destruction from forest 
fires should be greater than that from insects. 


The Black Spruce. 301 


A brief extract from the Entomology of Kirby and 
Spence will show that the ravages of insects upon forest 
trees in Europe have sometimes been serious, and that it 
is none too soon for us to note well what is transpiring in 
our own forests. 

‘The bark-borer of the oak is a small beetle of an allied 
genus, Scolyius pygmeus, which with us does no great 
harm, but so abounded of late years in the Bois-de-Vin- 
cennes near Paris that 40,000 trees were killed by it; and 
many of the finest elms in St. James’ Park and Kensington 
Gardens as well as in the promenades of various cities in 
the north of France, have fallen victims to another of this 
tribe, Scolytus destructor, whose trivial name well character- 
izes the frequency and severity of its ravages. Theravages 
of Tomicus typographus in the pine forests of Germany have 
long been known under the name Wurmitrokniss (decay 
caused by worms), and they sometimes attack the inner 
bark in such numbers, 80,000 being sometimes found in a 
single tree, that they are infinitely more noxious than 
those insects that bore into the wood. About the year 
1668 this pest was particularly prevalent and caused in- 
calculable mischief and in 1783 it is estimated that a million 
and a half of trees were destroyed by it in the Hartz forests 
alone. At this period, when arrived at their perfect state, 
they migrated in swarms like bees into Suabia and Fran- 
eonia. At length between 1784 and 1789 in consequence 
of a succession of cold moist seasons the numbers of this 
scourge were sensibly diminished, but they appeared again 
in 1790 and so late as 1796 there was great reason to fear 
for the few fir trees that were left.”” Westwood states 
that occasionally the evil was so great that prayers were 
offered in the churches against its extension. While we 
hope that our spruce-tree bark-borer may never prove to 
be such a pest as this Tomicus we certainly think that he 
deserves some special attention. 


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INDEX. 


Htrypa reticularis, 208. 

Adirondack boats, 262-264. 

Adirondack spruce, 290. 

Agaricus, number of species in New 
York, 163. 

Agaricus muscarius, 1638. 

Agassiz, L., on evolution, 212. 

Albany water supply, a paper by 
P. Hogan, 167-178. 

Alchemy of happiness of Ghazzali, 
translation of, by H. A. Homes, 
38-147. 

Allegories of Ghazzali, 120, 122, 124, 

Alphabets, changes in form, 188. 

Ampersand pond, 264. 

Andréossi, Gén., quoted, 7, 14. 

Andromeda ligustrina, 169. 

Annapolis, Md., 31. 

Anthropology, etc., report on, by W. 
H. Hale, 183. 

Aqueducts of Constantinople, 3-6: 
of Rome, 171. 

Archeopteryx, 209. 

Aritsotle’s philosophy, 223. 

Azalea nudiflora, 159. 


Bader, Battle of, 112. 

Baltimore, Lord, 20. 

Barnes, W., 178. 

Baths of Constantinople, 15. 

Belgrade, forest of, 2. 

Bendts, 3. 

Berkeley’s North American fungi, 
155. 

Bingham, Mr., 178. 

Black Spruce, a paper by C. H. 
Peck, 288. 


Black Spruce, natural history of, 
285; seams in, 287; bastard 
spruce, 289 ; Adirondack spruce, 
290; enemies of, 292, 293, 296, 
298; decrease of, 295; destruc- 
tion by wood peckers, 300 ; rem- 
edies against its enemies, 300; 
ravages upon it in Europe., 301. 

Bloodgood, F., 279. 

Boats, portable, a paper by V. Col- 
vin, 254; history of boats, 255; 
Fremont’s boats, 262; Kane’s 
boats, 262; of paper, 268. 

Boisduyal, Dr., 217, 219. 

Boomerangs, 186. 

Botany, progress of, a paper by C. 
H. Peck, 152-166; dimorphism, 
164. 

Brown, W. H.., 275. 

Buel, Jesse, 279. 

Burr, Aaron, 24. 

Butterflies in Mr. Meske’s collection 
215. 


Calculus of Operations, a paper by 
John Paterson, 190. 

California redwoods, 156. 

Callaway, C.,a paper on the geolog- 
ical evidence of the origin of 
species by evolution, 207-214. 

Canada thistles, 153. 

Canoes, 259, 260, 261. 

Carex genus, 163. 

Carpenter, Dr., 243. 

Catoclas, 219. 

Causality, thoughts on, a paper by 
Dr. A. Winchell, 221-253. 


304 


Causality, summary of principles, 
251, 252. 

Causation, secondary, 251. 

Cause, defined, 233, 234, 236, 240. 

Chace, J.T, 21; 

Chance, 281, 282. 

Cisterns of Constantinople, 8, 9, 11. 

Citizenship, 35. 

Clytocibe agaricus, 158, 159. 

Colvin, V., paper on Portable boats, 
254, 178. 

Constantine, emperor, 2. 

Constantinople, water supply of 
1-18. 

Constitutions, written, 35. 

Convection thermoscope, 181. 

Cooley, L. C.,a paperon a new form 
of rotator, 179, 180; paper on 
the detection of heat by convec- 
tion, 181, 182; 178. 

Coracles, 256, 257. 

Cryptogamic botany, 155. 


Darwinism, 225, 242. 
Deinosauria, 209. 
Democritus’ views, 223, 224. 
Dervishes, 149. 
Dimorphism, 164. 

Duane, W. J., 27. 


Eclipses explained, 150. 

Edwards, Isaac, a paper onthe cha- 
racter of Chief Justice Taney 
19; 

Egyptian races, 186. 

Electricity, 250. 

Emanation or repulsion, 197. 

Emerson, Dr., 31. 

Engines, first locomotive, 273, 277. 

Essence, philosophical, 150. 

Eternity, 133. 

Ethnlogy, etc., a report on, by W. 

> TH Hale sea: 

Evans, O., experiments of, 268. 


Tae. 


207-216. 
Evolution, in Dr. Winchell’s essay 
on causality, 222-226. 


Featherstonhaugh, G@. W., 268, 270, 
271. 

Fertilization of plants, 161. 

Fischer-von Waldheim, on the Bio- 
logy and history of the Ustila- 
gineee, 154. 

Force, 248, 249. 

Forests, protection of, 13. 

Fountains, 10. 

Fox, Col., 186. 

Fungi, study of, 161; number of 
species. 162 ; extract from Fries, 
163; fungi of North Carolina, 
162; fungi of the U. S., 162; 
elementary manuals, 165; pre- 
servation of, 165; inimical to 
the spruce, 292. 


Gage, Gen., 202, 205. 

Genosomania, 217. 

Geography of the tertiary period, 
2138. 

Geological evolution, 209-214. 

Ghazzali’s Alchemy of happiness 
translation, 38-147; his charac- 
ter, 38, 42, 149. 

God, love of, portrayed by Ghazzaili, 
135; signs of love, 145-147. 

Gould, J., 276. 

Gray, A., 156, 157. 

Gruber, M., Taney’s defense of, 24. 


Haeckel’s writings, 221. 

Hale, W. H., Report on progress of 
Philology, Ethnology, etc., 183. 

Harte, Bret, 185. 

Hasenclever, Peter,a notice of his 
life, by H. A. Homes, 199 ; land 
patents of, 204, 205. 

Hasenclever’s mine, 201. 


Evolution, a paper ou the geological | Hasenclever steel, 206. 
evidence of the origin of species | Hawkesbury Upton, England, wells 


by evolution, by C. Callaway, 


at, 169. 


Index. 


Hayden’s geological expeditions, 157. 

Heat, a paper on the detection of 
heat by convection, by Prof. L 
C. Cooley, 181. 

Heat, operation of, 192, 193, 197, 
247. 

Hell, Mohammedan, 115-121. 

Herbarium of New York state, 157. 

Hessian fly, 153. 
Hogan, P., a paper on the water 
supply of Albany, 167-178. 
Homes, H. A., a paper on the water 
supply of Constantinople, 1-18 ; 
notice of life of P. Hasenclever, 
199-206; preface to his transla- 
tion of Ghazzali’s Alchemy of 
happiness, 38-43. 

Horse (Hipparion, Plagiolophus), 211. 


Instincts, 242. 

Iron, manufactured in 1764in N. Y., 
and N. J., 199; Hasenclever’s 
iron manufactures, 203-206. 


Japan, Japanese, 184. 
Johnson, Sir W., 202. 
Judicial bias, 34. 


Kayaks (boats), 258. 

Kent, Gov., of Md., 27. 

Key, Anna P. C., 23. 

Khalfa, Hajji, extract from his Ji- 
hani Numa, 150, 151. 

Koran, treatment of the, 133; prin- 
ciples of interpretation of, 150. 


Lake Pleasant, N. Y., spruces of, 
296, 299. 

Language, 184. 

Law in philosophy, 238. 

Lepidoptera, a paper on Mr. O. 
Meske’s collection of, by J. A. 
Lintner, 215-220; descriptions, 
216, 217. 

Lepista of Smith, 159. 


Trans, viii.) 39 


305 


Lewes, G. H., opinions on Ghazzali, 
39. 

Lichens, 152. 

Life, 250; origin of, 196. 

Lintner, J. A.,a paper on Mr. Mes- 
ke’s collection of Jlepidoptera, 
215-220. 

Livingston, R., iron manufacturer, 

201. 

London, proposed supply of water, 
171, 172. 

Love of God, signs of, 145-147. 

Lucretius’ philosophy, 223. 


McAlpine, W. J., survey for water 
for Albany, 174, 177. 

Man, unity of race, 185, 188, 189. 

Marsh, G. P., extract from his Man 
and Nature, 13. 

Marshall, John, 28. 

Materialism, 228. 

Matter, 224. 

May apples, 160. 

Megatherium, 212. 

Meske, O., his collection of Lepi- 
doptera, 215; his enthusiasm, 
218. 

Mining companies in the colonies, 
32, 33. 

Miracles, 57, 58. 

Missouri compromise, 82, 33. 

Mohammed, the preserved table of, 
148; the calendar, 149. 

Mohawk and Hudson river rail road, 
its history, a paper by Joel 
Munsell, 267; arguments for, 
269; list of first passengers, 276; 
development of, 280 ; capital of, 
281. 

Montague, Lady Mary, 2. 

Munsell, J., paper on the History of 
the Mohawk and Hudson river 
rail road, 267-282. 

Mycology, hindrances. to the study 
of, 168. 

Mystics, Mohammedan, 40, 61, 63, 
148, 


306 


Nebular hypothesis, 223. 

Nesbit, Dr., 20. 

Nescience school, 229. 

New Jersey iron mines, 199. 

New York state herbarium, 157, 158. 
Nushirwan emperor, 138. 


Old Arm-chair, a trial regarding the 
song, 29. 


Paper boats, 263. 

Paterson, John, a paper, supplement- 
ary to his calculus of operations, 
191. 


Patroon’s creek, 176, 177. 

Paxillus, of Fries, 159. 

Peck, C H., Report on the progress 
of Botany, 152-166 ; a paper on 
the black spruce, 283-301. 

Philology, a report on the progress 
of, by W. H. Hale, 183. 

Philosophy, inductive, deductive 
and positive, 237. 

Physiology of Ghazzali, 67, '74, 106. 

Predestination of the Mohamme- 
dans, 148. 

Premiums in agriculture in 1764, 
202. 


Quetelet, statistics by, 188. 


Rail roads, Mohawk & Hudson, 267; 
first train on, 266. 

Reed, Mr., and the Old Arm-chair, 
29. 

Rivington, J., letter from, 204. 

Robert college, Constantinople, 12. 

Rome, Italy, water supply of, 171. 

Rotator, a new form of, a paper by 
L. C. Cooley, 179. 


Sale, G., opinion of Ghazzali, 40. 
Sanford, J. F. A., 31. 


Index. 


Schuyler, Col. J., 203. 

Science, 231. 

Scolytus pygmeus, 301. 

Scott, Dred, case of, 31. 

Silver mine in New York, 206. 

Slavery in the court of the United 
States, 33. 

Slaves of Judge Taney, 23. 

Social Science statistics, 188, 189. 

Soofees, see Mystics. 

Sorcery, 59. 

Soul, knowledge of the, 48, 53. 

Space, 191. 

Species, what is, 207, 208. 

Spencer, Herbert, 225, 226, 229, 242. 

Speyer, Dr., and Mr. Meske, 218. 

Sphinges, 219. 

Spirifera disjuncta, 208. 

Spirit, 106, 108. 

Spirits, classes ofin the future world, 
111) 132: 

Spruce, Black, a paper by C. H. 
Peck, 283-301. 

Stevens, Mr., of New Jersey, 268. 

Stirling iron mine, 201. 

Sun, The, 194. 

Sweet, S. H., water survey of Albany 
174. 


Taney, R. B., chief justice, a paper 
on his life and character, by I. 
Edwards, 19-37. 

Tertiary fossils, 212. 

Thames river water, 170. 

Thermopile, 182. 

Thermoscope, 181. 

Tholuck, Dr., on Ghazzali, 40. 

Time, relations of, 191. 

Torment of the mind in the future 
world, 118, 119. 

Torrey botanical club, 155. 

Townsend, Gen. F., 201. 

Townsend, P., 201. | 

Traditions, value of, 151. 

Tuckerman’s North American 
lichens, 154. 


Index. 307 


Tyndall, Prof., examination of his| Water Supply of Constantinople, a 
views by Dr. Winchell, 222, 224, paper by H. A. Homes, 1-18. 


22'7, 238, 241, 247. Watson, W.C., 206. 
Typhoid fevers, origin of, 168; deaths | Wells, polluted, 169. 

from in England, 170. Whitney, A., 276. 

Whitney, W. D., 184. 
Ustilaginea, 154. Winchell, Alexander, a paper en- 
titled Thoughts on Causality, 

Valens’ aqueduct, 5. 911-253. 
Van Buren, M., 27. Woodpecker and the black spruce, 
Van Rensselaer, Stephen, 271, 272. 300. 
Vorstellungskraft, 237, 238. World, knowledge of, 96; know- 


ledge of the future, 105. 
Water Supply of Albany, a paper by 
P. Hogan, 167-178. 


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