BRIDGEWATER TREATISE
ASTRONOMY AND GENERAL PHYSICS
BY WILLIAM WHEWELL D.D.
EIGHTH EDITION
KT HAC UK DEO, Uli QUO UTIQUE EX I'H l.NOMEMs DISSERI'.RE
AD I'HILOSOPHIAU NATURALEM PBRTINET.
NEWTON, CONCLUSION OP THE PRINCIPIA.
ASTRONOMY
AND GENERAL PHYSICS
CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO
NATURAL THEOLOGY
BY WILLIAM WHEWELL D. D.
iVJASTER OF TRINITY COLLKGE AND PROFESSOR OF MORA!,
PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF
CAMBRIDGE
LONDON
WILLIAM PICKERING
1S47 .
C. WHITT1NGHAM, I DORS COURT, CHANCKRY UNi
RIGHT HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND
CHARLES JAMES,
LORD BISHOP OF LONDON.
MY LORD,.
I owe it to you that I was selected for the
task attempted in the following pages, a dis-
tinction which I feel to be honourable ; and
on this account alone I should have a pecu-
liar pleasure in dedicating the work to your
Lordship. I do so with additional gratifica-
tion on another account: the Treatise has
been written within the walls of the College
of which your Lordship was formerly a resi-
dent member, and its merits, if it have any,
are mainly due to the spirit and habits of
the place. The society is always pleased
and proud to recollect that a person of the
VI DEDICATION.
eminent talents and high character of your
Lordship is one of its members ; and I am
persuaded that any effort in the cause of
letters and religion coming from that quarter,
will have for you an interest beyond what it
would otherwise possess.
The subject proposed to me was limited ;
my prescribed object is to lead the friends of
religion to look with confidence and pleasure
on the progress of the physical sciences, by
showing how admirably every advance in our
knowledge of the universe harmonizes with
the belief of a most wise and good God. To
do this effectually may be, I trust, a useful
labour. Yet, I feel most deeply, what I
would take this occasion to express, that
this, and all that the speculator concerning
Xatural Theology can do, is utterly insuffici-
ent for the great ends of Religion ; namely,
for the purpose of reforming men's lives, of
purifying and elevating their characters, of
preparing them for a more exalted state of
being. It is the need of something fitted to
do this, which gives to Religion its vast and
incomparable importance ; and this can, I
well know, be achieved only by that Revealed
DEDICATION. Vll
Religion of which we are ministers, but on
which the plan of the present work did not
allow me to dwell.
That Divine Providence may prosper the
labours of your Lordship and of all who are
joined with you in the task of maintaining
and promoting this Religion, is, my Lord, the
earnest wish and prayer of
Your very faithful,
and much obliged Servant,
William Whewell.
Trinity College, Cambridge,
Feb. 25, 1833.
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE
SIXTH EDITION.
The Bridgewater Treatises were written in con-
sequence of a bequest of the Right Honourable
and Reverend Francis Henry, Earl of Bridgewater,
who died in the month of February, 1829, leaving
the sum of eight thousand pounds, to be paid to per-
sons who should be appointed to write and publish
Treatises On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of
God, as manifested in the Creation, &c.
The selection of persons for this task was, by the
Testator, assigned to the President of the Royal
Society, Davies Gilbert, Esq., who at that time
occupied the station of President, requested and
received the assistance of the Archbishop of Can-
terbury, of the Bishop of London, and of a noble-
man connected with the deceased, in selecting per-
sons to carry into effect the intentions of the Tes-
tator. And, besides the Treatise contained in the
present volume, which was published in March,
1833, the following Treatises appeared at various
intervals :
On the Adaptation of External Nature to the Physical Con-
dition of Man, by Professor Kidd. Published 1833.
On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as mani-
fested in the Adaptation of External Nature to the
Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man, by Rev.
Dr. Chalmers. Published 1833.
The Hand : its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as
evincing Design, by Sir Charles Bell. Published
1833.
On Animal and Vegetable Physiology, by Dr. Roget. Pub-
lished 1834.
On Chemistry, Meteorology, and the Function of Diges-
tion, by Dr. Prout. Published 1834.
On the History, Habits, and Instincts of Animals, by the
Rev. W. Kirby. Published 1835.
On Geology and Mineralogy, by the Rev. Dr. Buckland.
Published 1836.
To bring the Work within the reach of as large a
body of readers as possible, the present edition is
published in a smaller form, and at a cheaper price
than the original edition.
CONTENTS.
[Within the last few years, several works have been pub-
lished in this Country on subjects more or less closely ap-
proaching to that here treated. It may, therefore, be not
superfluous to say that the Author of the following pages
believes that he has not borrowed any of his views or illus-
trations from recent English writers on Natural Theology.]
Page
INTRODUCTION.
Chap. I. Object of the Present Treatise 1
II. On Laws of Nature 6
III. Mutual Adaptation of Laws of Nature 1 1
IV. Division of the Subject 14
BOOK I. Terrestrial Adaptations 11
Chap. I. The Length of the Year 21
II. The Length of the Day 33
III. The Mass of the Earth 42
IV. The Magnitude of the Ocean 52
V. The Magnitude of the Atmosphere 54
VI. The Constancy and Variety of Climates 55
VII. The Variety of Organization correspond-
ing to the Variety of Climate 62
VIII. The Constituents of Climate 75
The Laws of Heat with respect to the
Earth 76
IX. The Laws of Heat with respect to AVater 80
X. The Laws of Heat with respect to Air 96
XL The Laws of Electricity 110
XII. The Laws of Magnetism 113
XIII. The Properties of Light with regard to
Vegetation 115
XIV. Sound 117
XV. The Atmosphere 125
XVI. Light 128
XVII. The Ether 138
XVIII. Recapitulation 141
Xll CONTENTS.
Page
BOOK II. Cosmical Arrangements 148
Chap. I. The Structure of the Solar System 150
II. The Circular Orbits of the Planets
round the Sun 154
III. The Stability of the Solar System 159
IV. The Sun in the Centre 169
V. The Satellites 173
VI. The Stability of the Ocean 177
VII. The Nebular Hypothesis 181
VIII. The Existence of a Resisting Medium
in the Solar System 191
IX. Mechanical Laws 210
X. The Law of Gravitation 214
XI. The Laws of Motion 231
XII. Friction 238
BOOK III. Religious Views 251
Chap. I. The Creator of the Physical World is
the Governor of the Moral World ... 254
II. On the Vastness of the Universe 268
III. On Man's Place in the Universe 279
IV. On the Impression produced by the
Contemplation of Laws of Nature ;
or, on the Conviction that Law im-
plies Mind 293
V. On Inductive Habits ; or, on the Im-
pression produced on Men's Minds
by discovering Laws of Nature 303
VI. On Deductive Habits ; or, on the Im-
pression produced on Men's Minds
by tracing the Consequences of ascer-
tained Laws 323
VII. On Final Causes 342
VIII. On the Physical Agency of the Deity 356
IX. On the Impression produced by con-
sidering the Nature and Prospects of
Science ; or, on the Impossibility of
the Progress of our Knowledge ever
enabling us to comprehend the Na-
ture of the Deity 366
ASTRONOMY
GENERAL PHYSICS
INTRODUCTION.
Chapter I.
Object of the Present Treatise.
|HE examination of the material world
brings before us a number of things and
relations of things which suggest to most minds
the belief of a creating and presiding Intelli-
gence. And this impression, which arises with
the most vague and superficial consideration of
the objects by which we are surrounded, is, we
conceive, confirmed and expanded by a more
exact and profound study of external nature.
Many works have been written at different times
with the view of showing how our knowledge of
the elements and their operation, of plants and
animals and their construction, may serve U
2 INTRODUCTION.
nourish and unfold our idea of a Creator and
Governor of the world. But though this is the
case, a new work on the same subject may still
have its use. Our views of the Creator and
Governor of the world, as collected from or
combined with our views of the world itself,
undergo modifications, as we are led by new
discoveries, new generalizations, to regard na-
ture in a new light. The conceptions concern-
ing the Deity, his mode of effecting his pur-
poses, the scheme of his government, which are
suggested by one stage of our knowledge of
natural objects and operations, may become
manifestly imperfect or incongruous, if adhered
to and applied at a later period, when our ac-
quaintance with the immediate causes of natural
events has been greatly extended. On this ac-
count it may be interesting, after such an ad-
vance, to show how the views of the creation
preservation, and government of the universe,
which natural science opens to us, harmonize with
our belief in a Creator, Governor, and Preserver
of the world. To do this with respect to certain
departments of Natural Philosophy is the object
of the following pages ; and the author will
deem himself fortunate, if he succeeds in re-
moving any of the difficulties and obscurities
which prevail in men's minds, from the want of
a clear mutual understanding between the reli-
gious and the scientific speculator. It is need-
less here to remark the necessarily imperfect
OBJECT.
and scanty character of Natural Religion ; for
most persons will allow that, however imper-
fect may be the knowledge of a Supreme Intel-
ligence which we gather from the contemplation
of the natural world, it is still of most essen-
tial use and value. And our purpose on this
occasion is, not to show that Natural Theology
is a perfect and satisfactory scheme, but to bring
up our Natural Theology to the point of view in
which it may be contemplated by the aid of our
Natural Philosophy.
Now the peculiar point of view which at pre-
sent belongs to Natural Philosophy, and espe-
cially to the departments of it which have been
most successfully cultivated, is, that nature, so
far as it is an object of scientific research, is a
collection of facts governed by laws : our know-
ledge of nature is our knowledge of laws ; of
laws of operation and connexion, of laws of suc-
cession and co-existence, among the various
elements and appearances around us. And it
must therefore here be our aim to show how
this view of the universe falls in with our con-
ception of the Divine Author, by whom we hold
the universe to be made and governed.
Nature acts by general laws ; that is, the
occurrences of the world in which we find our-
selves, result from causes which operate accord-
ing to fixed and constant rules. The succession of
days, and seasons, and years, is produced by
the motions of the earth ; and these attain are
4 INTRODUCTION.
governed by the attraction of the sun, a force
which acts with undeviating steadiness and re-
gularity. The changes of winds and skies,
seemingly so capricious and casual, are pro-
duced by the operation of the sun's heat upon
air and moisture, land and sea ; and though in
this case we cannot trace the particular events to
their general causes, as we can trace the motions
of the sun and moon, no philosophical mind will
doubt the generality and fixity of the rules by
which these causes act. The variety of the
effects takes place, because the circumstances
in different cases vary ; and not because the
action of material causes leaves anything to
chance in the result. And again, though the
vital movements which go on in the frame of ve-
getables and aniroals depend on agencies still
less known, and probably still more complex,
than those which rule the weather, each of the
powers on which such movements depend has
its peculiar laws of action, and these are as uni-
versal and as invariable as the law by which a
stone falls to the earth when not supported.
The world then is governed by general laws ;
and in order to collect from the world itself a
judgment concerning the nature and character
of its government, we must consider the import
and tendency of such laws, so far as they come
under our knowledge. If there be, in the ad-
ministration of the universe, intelligence and
benevolence, superintendence and foresight,
grounds for love and hope, such qualities may
be expected to appear in the constitution and
combination of those fundamental regulations
by which the course of nature is brought about,
and made to be what it is.
If a man were, by some extraordinary event,
to find himself in a remote and unknown coun-
try, so entirely strange to him that he did not
know whether there existed in it any law or
government at all ; he might in no long time
ascertain whether the inhabitants were con-
trolled by any superintending authority ; and
with a little attention he might determine also
whether such authority were exercised with a
prudent care for the happiness and well being
of its subjects, or without any regard and fit-
ness to such ends; whether the country were
governed by laws at all, and whether the laws
were good. And according to the laws which
he thus found prevailing, he would judge of the
sagacity, and the purposes of the legislative
power.
By observing the laws of the material uni-
verse and their operation, we may hope, in a
somewhat similar manner, to be able to direct
our judgment concerning the government of the
universe : concerning the mode in which the
elements are regulated and controlled, their
effects combined and balanced. And the gene-
ral tendency of the results thus produced may
discover to us something of the character of the
6 INTRODUCTION.
power which has legislated for the material
world.
We are not to push too far the analogy thus
suggested. There is undoubtedly a wide differ-
ence between the circumstances of man legis-
lating for man, and God legislating for matter.
Still we shall, it will appear, find abundant rea-
son to admire the wisdom and the goodness
which have established the Laws of Nature,
however rigorously we may scrutinize the im-
port of this expression.
Chapter II.
On Laws of Nature.
KpHEN we speak of material nature as
being governed by laws, it is sufficiently
evident that we use the term in a manner some-
what metaphorical. The laws to which man's
attention is primarily directed are moral laws :
rules laid down for his actions ; rules for the
conscious actions of a person ; rules which, as a
matter of possibility, he may obey or may trans-
gress; the latter event being combined, not with
an impossibility, but with a penalty. But the
Laws of Nature are something different from
this; they are rules for that which things are to
do and suffer ; and this by no consciousness or
will of theirs. They are rules describing the
ON LAWS OF NATURE.
mode in which things do act; they are invariably
obeyed ; their transgression is not punished, it
is excluded. The language of a moral law is,
man shall not kill ; the language of a Law of
Nature is, a stone will fall to the earth.
These two kinds of laws direct the actions of
persons and of things, by the sort of control of
which persons and things are respectively sus-
ceptible ; so that the metaphor is very simple ;
but it is proper for us to recollect that it is a
metaphor, in order that we may clearly appre-
hend what is implied in speaking of the Laws
of Nature.
In this phrase are included all properties of
the portions of the material world ; all modes of
action and rules of causation, according to which
they operate on each other. The whole course
of the visible universe therefore is but the col-
lective result of such laws ; its movements are
only the aggregate of their working. All natural
occurrences, in the skies and on the earth, in
the organic and in the inorganic world, are
determined by the relations of the elements and
the actions of the forces of w T hich the rules are
thus prescribed.
The relations and rules by which these occur-
rences are thus determined necessarily depend
on measures of time and space, motion and
force ; on quantities which are subject to nume-
rical measurement, and capable of being con-
nected by mathematical properties. And thus
8 INTRODUCTION".
all things are ordered by number and weight
and measure. " God," as was said by the an-
cients, "works by geometry :" the legislation of
the material universe is necessarily delivered
in the language of mathematics ; the stars in
their courses are regulated by the properties of
conic sections, and the winds depend on arith-
metical and geometrical progressions of elasticity
and pressure.
The constitution of the universe, so far as it
can be clearly apprehended by our intellect,
thus assumes a shape involving an assemblage
of mathematical propositions : certain algebrai-
cal formulae, and the knowledge when and how
to apply them, constitute the last step of the
physical science to which we can attain. The
labour and the endowments of ages have been
employed in bringing such science into the con-
dition in which it now exists : and an exact and
extensive discipline in mathematics, followed
by a practical and profound study of the re-
searches of natural philosophers, can alone put
any one in possession of all the knowledge con-
cerning the course of the material world, which
is at present open to man. The general impres-
sion, however, which arises from the view thus
obtained of the universe, the results which we
collect from the most careful scrutiny of its ad-
ministration, may, we trust, be rendered intel-
ligible without this technical and laborious
study, and to do this is our present object.
ON LAWS OF NATURE. 9
It will be our business to sbow that the laws
which really prevail in nature are, by their form,
that is, by the nature of the connexion which
they establish among the quantities and proper-
ties which they regulate, remarkably adapted
to the office which is assigned them ; and thus
offer evidence of selection, design, and good-
ness, in the power by which they were esta-
blished. But these characters of the legislation
of the universe may also be seen, in many in-
stances, in a manner somewhat different from
the selection of the law. The nature of the
connexion remaining the same, the quantities
which it regulates may also in their magnitude
bear marks of selection and purpose. For the
law may be the same while the quantities to
which it applies are different. The law of the
gravity which acts to the earth and to Jupiter,
is the same ; but the intensity of the force at
the surfaces of the two planets is different. The
law which regulates the density of the air at any
point, with reference to the height from the
earth's surface, would be the same, if the atmos-
phere were ten times as large, or only one tenth
as large as it is ; if the barometer at the earth's
surface stood at three inches only, or if it showed
a pressure of thirty feet of mercury.
Now this being understood, the adaptation of
a law to its purpose, or to other laws, may appear
in two ways :— either in the form of the law, or
in the amount of the magnitudes which it regu-
10 INTRODUCTION.
lates, which are sometimes called arbitrary mag-
nitudes.
If the attraction of the sun upon the planets
did not vary inversely as the square of the dis-
tance, the form of the law of gravitation would
be changed ; if this attraction were, at the
earth's orbit, of a different value from its present
one, the arbitrary magnitude would be changed ;
and it will appear, in a subsequent part of this
work, that either change would, so far as we
can trace its consequences, be detrimental. The
form of the law determines in what manner the
facts shall take place ; the arbitrary magnitude
determines how fast, how far, how soon ; the
one gives a model, the other a measure of the
phenomenon ; the one draws the plan, the other
gives the scale on which it is to be executed;
the one gives the rule, the other the rate. If
either were wrongly taken, the result would be
wrong too.
11
Chapter III.
Mutual Adaptation in the Laws of Nature.
\0 ascertain such laws of nature as we have
been describing, is the peculiar business of
science. It is only with regard to a very small
portion of the appearances of the universe, that
science in any strict application of the term,
exists. In very few departments of research have
men been able to trace a multitude of known facts
to causes which appear to be the ultimate mate-
rial causes, or to discern the laws which seem to
be the most general laws. Yet, in one or two
instances, they have done this, or something ap-
proaching to this ; and most especially in the
instance of that part of nature, which it is the ob-
ject of this treatise more peculiarly to consider.
The apparent motions of the sun, moon, and
stars have been more completely reduced to
their causes and laws than any other class of
phenomena. Astronomy, the science which
treats of these, is already a wonderful example
of the degree of such knowledge which man
may attain. The forms of its most important
laws may be conceived to be certainly known ;
and hundreds of observers in all parts of the
world are daily employed in determining, with
12 INTRODUCTION.
additional accuracy, the arbitrary magnitudes
which these laws involve.
The inquiries in which the mutual effects of
heat, moisture, air, and the like elements are
treated of, including, among other subjects, all
that we know of the causes of the weather (me-
teorology) is a far more imperfect science than
astronomy. Yet, with regard to these agents, a
great number of laws of nature have been dis-
covered, though, undoubtedly, a far greater
number remain still unknown.
So far, therefore, as our knowledge goes,
astronomy and meteorology are parts of natural
philosophy in which we may study the order of
nature with such views as we have suggested ;
in which we may hope to make out the adapta-
tions and aims which exist in the laws of nature ;
and thus to obtain some light on the tendency
of this part of the legislation of the universe,
and on the character and disposition of the
Legislator.
The number and variety of the laws which
we find established in the universe is so great,
that it would be idle to endeavour to enumerate
them. In their operation they are combined
and intermixed in incalculable and endless com-
plexity, influencing and modifying each other's
effects in every direction. If we attempt to
comprehend at once the whole of this complex
system, we find ourselves utterly baffled and
overwhelmed by its extent and multiplicity.
ADAPTATION OF LAWS. 13
Yet, in so far as we consider the bearing of
one part upon another, we receive an impression
of adaptation, of mutual fitness, of conspiring
means, of preparation and completion, of pur-
pose and provision. This impression is sug-
gested by the contemplation of every part of
nature ; but the grounds of it, from the very
circumstances of the case, cannot be conveyed
in a few words. It can only be fully educed
by leading the reader through several views and
details, and must grow out of the combined in-
fluence of these on a sober and reflecting frame
of mind. However strong and solemn be the
conviction which may be derived from a con-
templation of nature, concerning the existence,
the power, the wisdom, the goodness of our
Divine Governor, we cannot expect that this
conviction, as resulting from the extremely com-
plex spectacle of the material world, should be
capable of being irresistibly conveyed by a few
steps of reasoning, like the conclusion of a geo-
metrical proposition, or the result of an arith-
metical calculation.
We shall, therefore, endeavour to point out
cases and circumstances in which the different
parts of the universe exhibit this mutual adapta-
tion, and thus to bring before the mind of the
reader the evidence of wisdom and providence,
which the external world affords. When we
have illustrated the correspondencies which
exist in every province of nature, between the
14 ' INTRODUCTION.
qualities of brute matter and the constitution of
living things, between the tendency to derange-
ment and the conservative influences by which
such a tendency is counteracted, between the
office of the minutest speck and of the most
general laws : it will, we trust, be difficult or
impossible to exclude from our conception of this
wonderful system, the idea of a harmonizing, a
preserving, a contriving, an intending mind ; of
a Wisdom, Power, and Goodness far exceeding
the limits of our thoughts.
Chapter IV.
Division of the Subject.
|N making a survey of the universe, for the
purpose of pointing out such correspon-
dencies and adaptations as we have mentioned,
we shall suppose the general leading facts of the
course of nature to be known, and the explana-
tions of their causes now generally established
among astronomers and natural philosophers to
be conceded. We shall assume therefore that
the earth is a solid globe of ascertained magni-
tude, which travels round the sun, in an orbit
nearly circular, in a period of about three hun-
dred and sixty-five days and a quarter, and in
the mean time revolves, in an inclined position,
upon its own axis in about twenty-four hours,
DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT. 15
thus producing the succession of appearances
and effects which constitute seasons and climates,
day and night ; — that this globe has its surface
furrowed and ridged with various inequalities,
the waters of the ocean occupying the depressed
parts : — that it is surrounded by an atmosphere,
or spherical covering of air ; and that various
other physical agents, moisture, electricity, mag-
netism, light, operate at the surface of the earth,
according to their peculiar laws. This surface
is, as we know, clothed with a covering of plants,
and inhabited by the various tribes of animals,
with all their variety of sensations, wants, and
enjoyments. The relations and connexions of
the larger portions of the world, the sun, the
planets, and the stars, the cosjnical arrangements
of the system, as they are sometimes called,
determine the course of events among these
bodies ; and the more remarkable features of
these arrangements are therefore some of the
subjects for our consideration. These cosmical
arrangements, in their consequences, effect also
the physical agencies which are at work at the
surface of the earth, and hence come in contact
with terrestrial occurrences. They thus in-
fluence the functions of plants and animals.
The circumstances in the cosmical system of
the universe, and in the organic system of the
earth, which have thus a bearing on each other,
form another of the subjects of which we shall
treat. The former class of considerations attends
16 INTRODUCTION.
principally to the stability and other apparent
perfections of the solar system ; the latter to the
well-being of the system of organic life by which
the earth is occupied. The two portions of the
subject may be treated as Cosmical Arrange
ments and Terrestrial Adaptations.
We shall begin with the latter class of adapta-
tions, because in treating of these the facts are
more familiar and tangible, and the reasonings
less abstract and technical, than in the other
division of the subject. Moreover, in this case
men have no difficulty in recognising as desir-
able the end which is answered by such adapta-
tions, and they therefore the more readily con-
sider it as an end. The nourishment, the
enjoyment, the diffusion of living things, are
willingly acknowledged to be a suitable object
for contrivance ; the simplicity, the permanence
of an inert mechanical combination might not
so readily be allowed to be a manifestly wor-
thy aim of a Creating Wisdom. The former
branch of our argument may therefore be best
suited to introduce to us the Deity as the insti-
tutor of Laws of Nature, though the latter
may afterwards give us a wider view and a
clearer insight into one province of his legisla-
tion.
BOOK I.
TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
fl|E]|E proceed in this Book to point out rela-
!H^||| tions which subsist between the laws of
the inorganic world, that is, the general facts
of astronomy and meteorology ; and the laws
which prevail in the organic world, the proper-
ties of plants and animals.
With regard to the first kind of laws, they
are in the highest degree various and unlike
each other. The intensity and activity of natu-
ral influences follow in different cases the most
different rules. In some instances they are
periodical, increasing and diminishing alter-
nately, in a perpetual succession of equal inter-
vals of time. This is the case with the heat at
the earth's surface, which has a period of a year ;
with the light, which has a period of a day.
Other qualities are constant, thus the force of
gravity at the same place is always the same.
In some cases, a very simple cause produces
very complicated effects ; thus the globular form
of the earth, and the inclination of its axis during
its annual motion, give rise to all the variety of
climates. In other cases a very complex and
w. c
18 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
variable system of causes produces effects com-
paratively steady and uniform ; thus solar and
terrestrial heat, air, moisture, and probably many
other apparently conflicting agents, join to pro-
duce our weather, which never deviates very far
from a certain average standard.
Now a general fact, which we shall endeavour
to exemplify in the following chapters, is this :
— That those properties of plants and animals
which have reference to agencies of a periodical
character, have also by their nature a periodical
mode of working; while those properties which
refer to agencies of constant intensity, are ad-
justed to this constant intensity : and again,
there are peculiarities in the nature of organized
beings which have reference to a variety in the
conditions of the external world, as, for instance,
the difference of the organized population of
different regions : and there are other pecu-
liarities which have a reference to the constancy
of the average of such conditions, and the limited
range of the deviations from that average; as,
for example, that constitution by which each
plant and animal is fitted to exist and prosper
in its usual place in the world.
And not only is there this general agreement
between the nature of the laws which govern
the organic and inorganic world, but also there
is a coincidence between the arbitrary magni-
tudes which such laws involve on the one hand
and on the other. Plants and animals have, in
TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 19
their construction, certain periodical functions,
which have a reference to alternations of heat
and cold ; the length of the period which he-
longs to these, functions by their construction,
appears to be that of the period which belongs
to the actual alternations of heat and cold,
namely, a year. Plants and animals have again
in their construction certain other periodical
functions, which have a reference to alternations
of light and darkness ; the length of the period
of such functions appears to coincide with the
natural day. In like manner the other arbitrary
magnitudes which enter into the laws of gravity,
of the effects of air and moisture, and of other
causes of permanence, and of change, by which
the influences of the elements operate, are the
same arbitrary magnitudes to which tbe mem-
bers of the organic world are adapted by the
various peculiarities of their construction.
The illustration of this view will be pursued
in the succeeding chapters ; and when the coin-
cidence here spoken of is distinctly brought be-
fore the reader, it will, we trust, be found to
convey the conviction of a wise and benevolent
design, which has been exercised in producing
such an agreement between the internal consti-
tution and the external circumstances of orga-
nized beings. We shall adduce cases where
there is an apparent relation between the course
of operation of the elements and the course of
vital functions ; between some fixed measure of
20 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
time or space, traced in the lifeless and in the
living world; where creatures are constructed
on a certain plan, or a certain scale, and this
plan or this scale is exactly the single one which
is suited to their place on the earth ; where it
was necessary for the Creator (if we may use
such a mode of speaking) to take account of the
weight of the earth, or the density of the air,
or the measure of the ocean, and where these
quantities are rightly taken account of in the
arrangements of creation. In such cases we
conceive that we trace a Creator, who, in pro-
ducing one part of his work, was not forgetful
or careless of another part ; who did not cast
his living creatures into the world to prosper or
perish as they might find it suited to them or
not ; hut fitted together, with the nicest skill,
the world and the constitution which he gave to
its inhabitants ; so fashioning it and them, that
light and darkness, sun and air, moist and dry,
should become their ministers and benefactors,
the unwearied and unfailing causes of their well
being.
We have spoken of the mutual adaptation of
the organic and the inorganic world. If we
were to conceive the contrivance of the world
as taking place in an order of time in the con-
triving mind, we might also have to conceive
this adaptation as taking place in one of two
ways ; we might either suppose the laws of inert
nature to be accommodated to the foreseen wants
TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 21
of living things, or the organization of life to be
accommodated to the previously established
laws of nature. But we are not forced upon
any such mode of conception, or upon any deci-
sion between such suppositions ; since, for the
purpose of our argument, the consequence of
either view is the same. There is an adaptation
somewhere or other, on either supposition.
There is account taken of one part of the sys-
tem in framing the other : and the mind which
took such account can be no other than that of
the Intelligent Author of the universe. When
indeed we come to see the vast number, the
variety, the extent, the interweaving, the recon-
ciling of such adaptations, we shall readily allow,
that all things are so moulded upon and locked
into each other, connected by such subtilty and
profundity of design, that we may well abandon
the idle attempt to trace the order of thought in
the mind of the Supreme Ordainer.
Chapter I.
The Length of the Year.
YEAR is the most important and ob-
vious of the periods which occur in the
organic, and especially in the vegetable world.
In this interval of time the cycle of most of the
22 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
external influences which operate upon plants is
completed. There is also in plants a cycle of in-
ternal functions, corresponding to this succession
of external causes. The length of either of these
periods might have been different from what it
is, according to any grounds of necessity which
we can perceive. But a certain length is se-
lected in both instances, and in both instances
the same. The length of the year is so deter-
mined as to be adapted to the constitution of
most vegetables ; or the construction of vege-
tables is so adjusted as to be suited to the length
which the year really has, and unsuited to a
duration longer or shorter by any considerable
portion. The vegetable clock-work is so set as
to go for a year.
The length of the year or interval of recur-
rence of the seasons is determined by the time
which the earth employs in performing its revo-
lution round the sun : we can very easily con-
ceive the solar system so adjusted that the year
should be longer or shorter than it actually is.
We can imagine the earth to revolve round the
sun at a distance greater or less than that which
it at present has, all the forces of the system
remaining unaltered. If the earth were re-
moved towards the centre by about one-eighth
of its distance, the year would be diminished by
about a month ; and in the same manner it
would be increased by a month on increasing
the distance by one-eighth. We can suppose
LENGTH OF THE YEAR. 23
the earth at a distance of 84 or 108 millions of
miles, just as easily as at its present distance of
96 millions : we can suppose the earth with its
present stock of animals and vegetables placed
where Mars or where Venus is, and revolving
in an orbit like one of theirs : on the former
supposition our year would become twenty-
three, on the latter seven of our present months.
Or we can conceive the present distances of the
parts of the system to continue what they are,
and the size, or the density of the central mass,
the sun, to be increased or diminished in any
proportion ; and in this way the time of the
earth's revolution might have been increased or
diminished in any degree ; a greater velocity,
and consequently a diminished period, being
requisite in order to balance an augmented cen-
tral attraction. In any of these ways the length
of the earth's natural year might have been dif-
ferent from what it now is : in the last way
without any necessary alteration, so far as we
can see, of temperature.
Now, if any change of this kind were to take
place, the working of the botanical world would
be thrown into utter disorder, the functions of
plants would be entirely deranged, and the
whole vegetable kingdom involved in instant
decay and rapid extinction.
That this would be the case, may be collected
from innumerable indications. Most of our
fruit trees, for example, require the year to be
24 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
of its present length. If the summer and the
autumn were much shorter, the fruit could not
ripen; if these seasons were much longer, the
tree would put forth a fresh suit of blossoms, to
be cut down by the winter. Or if the year
were twice its present length, a second crop of
fruit would probably not be matured, for want,
among other things, of an intermediate season
of rest and consolidation, such as the winter is.
Our forest trees in like manner appear to need
all the seasons of our present year for their per-
fection ; the spring, summer, and autumn, for
the developement of their leaves and consequent
formation of their proper juice, and of wood
from this ; and the winter for the hardening
and solidifying the substance thus formed.
Most plants, indeed, have some peculiar
function adapted to each period of the year,
that is of the now existing year. The sap as-
cends with extraordinary copiousness at two
seasons, in the spring and in the autumn, espe-
cially the former. The opening of the leaves
and the opening of the flowers of the same
plants are so constant to their times, (their ap-
pointed times, as we are naturally led to call
them,) that such occurrences might be taken as
indications of the times of the year. It has
been proposed in this way to select a series of
botanical facts which should form a calendar ;
and this has been termed a calendar of Flora.
Thus, if we consider the time of putting forth
LENGTH OF THE YEAR. 25
leaves,* the honeysuckle protrudes them in the
month of January ; the gooseberry, currant, and
elder in the end of February, or beginning of
March ; the willow, elm, and lime-tree in April ;
the oak and ash, which are always the latest
among trees, in the beginning or towards the
middle of May. In the same manner the flow-
ering has its regular time : the mezereon and
snow-drop push forth their flowers in February ;
the primrose in the month of March ; the cow-
slip in April ; the great mass of plants in May
and June ; many in July, August, and Sep-
tember ; some not till the month of October, as
the meadow saffron ; and some not till the ap-
proach and arrival of winter, as the laurustinus
and arbutus.
The fact which we have here to notice, is the
recurrence of these stages in the developementof
plants, at intervals precisely or very nearly of
twelve months. Undoubtedly, this result is in
part occasioned by the action of external stimu-
lants upon the plant, especially heat, and by the
recurrence of the intensity of such agents. Ac-
cordingly, there are slight differences in the
times of such occurrences, according to the
backwardness or forwardness of the season, and
according as the climate is genial or otherwise.
Gardeners use artifices which will, to a certain
extent, accelerate or retard the time of develope-
* Loudon, Encyclopedia of Gardening, 848.
26 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
ment of a plant. But there are various circum-
stances which show that this recurrence of the
same events and at equal intervals is not entirely
owing to external causes, and that it depends
also upon something in the internal structure
of vegetables. Alpine plants do not wait for
the stimulus of the sun's heat, but exert such a
struggle to blossom, that their flowers are seen
among the yet unmelted snow. And this is
still more remarkable in the naturalization of
plants from one hemisphere to the other. When
we transplant our fruit trees to the temperate
regions south of the equator, they continue for
some years to flourish at the period which cor-
responds to our spring. The reverse of this ob-
tains, with certain trees of the southern hemi-
sphere. Plants from the Cape of Good Hope,
and from Australia, countries whose summer is
simultaneous with our winter, exhibit their
flowers in the coldest part of the year, as the
heaths.
This view of the subject agrees with that
maintained by the best Botanical writers. Thus
Decandolle observes that after making allow-
ance for all meteorological causes, which deter-
mine the epoch of flowering, we must reckon as
another cause the peculiar nature of each species.
The flowering once determined, appears to be
subject to a law of periodicity and habit.*
* Decandolle. Physiologic vol. ii. 478.
LENGTH OF THE YEAR. 27
It appears then that the functions of plants
have by their nature a periodical character; and
the length of the period thus belonging to vege-
tables is a result of their organization. Warmth
and light, soil and moisture, may in some degree
modify, and hasten or retard the stages of this
period ; but when the constraint is removed the
natural period is again resumed. Such stimu-
lants as we have mentioned are not the causes
of this periodicity. They do not produce the
varied functions of the plant, and could not oc-
casion their performance at regular intervals,
except the plant possessed a suitable construc-
tion. They could not alter the length of the
cycle of vegetable functions, except within cer-
tain very narrow limits. The processes of the
rising of the sap, of the formation of proper
juices, of the unfolding of leaves, the opening
of flowers, the fecundation of the fruit, the ri-
pening of the seed, its proper deposition in or-
der for the reproduction of a new plant ;— all
these operations require a certain portion of time,
and could not be compressed into a space less
than a year, or at least could not be abbreviated
in any very great degree. And on the other
hand, if the winter were greatly longer than it
now is, many seeds would not germinate at the
return of spring. Seeds which have been kept
too long require stimulants to make them fer-
tile.
If therefore the duration of the seasons were
28 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATION'S.
much to change, the processes of vegetable life
would be interrupted, deranged, distempered.
What, for instance, would become of our calen-
dar of Flora, if the year were lengthened or
shortened by six months ? Some of the dates
would never arrive in the one case, and the ve-
getable processes which mark them would be
superseded ; some seasons would be without
dates in the other case, and these periods would
be employed in a way hurtful to the plants, and
no doubt speedily destructive. We should have
not only a yea?- of confusion, but, if it were re-
peated and continued, a year of death.
But in the existing state of things, the dura-
tion of the earth's revolution round the sun, and
the duration of the revolution of the vegetable
functions of most plants are equal. These two
periods are adjusted to each other. The stimu-
lants which the elements apply come at such
intervals and continue for such times, that the
plant is supported in health and vigour, and
enabled to reproduce its kind. Just such a
portion of time is measured out for the vegetable
powers to execute their task, as enables them to
do so in the best manner.
Now such an adjustment must surely be ac-
cepted as a proof of design, exercised in the for-
mation of the world. Why should the solar
year be so long and no longer ? or, this being of
such a length, why should the vegetable cycle
be exactly of the same length? Can this be
LENGTH OF THE YEAR. 29
chance ? And this occurs, it is to be observed,
not in one, or in a few species of plants, but in
thousands. Take a small portion only of known
species, as the most obviously endowed with
this adjustment, and say ten thousand. How
should all these organized bodies be constructed
for the same period of a year. How should all
these machines be wound up so as to go for the
same time? Even allowing that they could
bear a year of a month longer or shorter, how
do they all come within such limits ? No chance
could produce such a result. And if not by
chance, how otherwise could such a coincidence
occur, than by an intentional adjustment of
these two things to one another ? by a selection
of such an organization in plants, as would fit
them to the earth on which they were to grow ;
by an adaptation of construction to conditions ;
of the scale of the construction to the scale of
conditions.
It cannot be accepted as an explanation of
this fact in the economy of plants, that it is ne-
cessary to their existence ; that no plants could
possibly have subsisted, and come down to us,
except those which were thus suited to their
place on the earth. This is true ; but this does
not at all remove the necessity of recurring to
design as the origin of the construction by
which the existence and continuance of plants
is made possible. A watch could not go, ex-
cept there were the most exact adjustment in
30 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
the forms and positions of its wheels ; yet no
one would accept it as an explanation of the
origin of such forms and positions, that the
watch would not go if these were other than
they are. If the objector were to suppose that
plants were originally fitted to years of various
lengths, and that such only have survived to
the present time, as had a cycle of a length
equal to our present year, or one which could
be accommodated to it ; we should reply, that
the assumption is too gratuitous and extravagant
to require much consideration ; but that, more-
over, it does not remove the difficulty. How
came the functions of plants to be periodical at
all ? Here is, in the first instance, an agree-
ment in the form of the laws that prevail in the
organic and in the inorganic world, which ap-
pears to us a clear evidence of design in their
Author. And the same kind of reply might be
made to any similar objection to our argument.
Any supposition that the universe has gradually
approximated to that state of harmony among
the operations of its different parts, of which we
have one instance in the coincidence now under
consideration, would make it necessary for the
objector to assume a previous state of things
preparatory to this perfect correspondence. And
in this preparatory condition Ave should still be
able to trace the rudiments of that harmony, for
which it was proposed to account : so that even
the most unbounded license of hypothesis would
LENGTH OF THE YEAR. 31
enable the opponent to obliterate the traces of
an intentional adaptation of one part of nature
to another.
Nor would it at all affect the argument, if
these periodical occurrences could be traced to
some proximate cause : if for instance it could
be shown, that the budding or flowering of
plants is brought about at particular intervals,
by tbe nutriment accumulated in their vessels
during the preceding months. For the ques-
tion would still remain, how their functions were
so adjusted, that the accumulation of the nutri-
ment necessary for budding and flowering,
together with the operation itself, comes to oc-
cupy exactly a year, instead of a month only,
or ten years. There must be in their structure
some reference to time : how did such a refer-
ence occur ? how was it determined to the par-
ticular time of the earth's revolution round the
sun ? This could be no otherwise, as we con-
ceive, than by design and appointment.
We are left therefore with this manifest ad-
justment before us, of two parts of the universe,
at first sight so remote ; the dimensions of the
solar system and the powers of vegetable life.
These two things are so related, that one has
been made to fit the other. The relation is as
clear as that of a watch to a sundial. If a per-
son were to compare the watch with a dial,
hour after hour, and day after day, it would be
impossible for him not to believe that the watch
32 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
had been contrived to accommodate itself to the
solar day. We have at least ten thousand kinds
of vegetable watches of the most various forms,
which are all accommodated to the solar year ;
and the evidence of contrivance seems to be no
more capable of being eluded in this case than
in the other.
The same kind of argument might be applied
to the animal creation. The pairing, nesting,
hatching, fledging, and flight of birds, for in-
stance, occupy each its peculiar time of the year;
and, together with a proper period of rest, fill
up the twelve months. The transformations of
most insects have a similar reference to the sea-
sons, their progress and duration. " In every
species" (except man), says a writer* on animals,
" there is a particular period of the year in which
the reproductive system exercises its, energies.
And the season of love and the period of ges-
tation are so arranged that the young ones are
produced at the time wherein the conditions of
temperature are most suited to the commence-
ment of life." It is not our business here to
consider the details of such provisions, beautiful
and striking as they are. But the prevalence
of the great law of periodicity in the vital func-
tions of organized beings will be allowed to have
a claim to be considered in its reference to as-
tronomy, when it is seen that their periodical
* Fleming. Zool. i. 400.
LENGTH OF THE YEAR. 33
constitution derives its use from the periodical
nature of the motions of the planets round the
sun ; and that the duration of such cycles in the
existence of plants and animals has a reference
to the arbitrary elements of the solar system : a
reference which, we maintain, is inexplicable
and unintelligible, except by admitting into our
conceptions an intelligent Author, alike of the
organic and inorganic universe.
Chapter II.
The Length of the Day.
JE shall now consider another astronomi-
cal element, the time of the revolution of
the earth on its axis ; and we shall find here
also that the structure of organized bodies is
suited to this element ; — that the cosmical and
physiological arrangements are adapted to each
other.
We can very easily conceive the earth to re-
volve on her axis faster or slower than she does,
and thus the days to be longer or shorter than
they are, without supposing any other change
to take place. There is no apparent reason
why this globe should turn on its axis just three
hundred and sixty-six times while it describes
its orbit round the sun. The revolutions of the
other planets, so far as we know them, do not
W. D
34 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
appear to follow any rule by which they are
connected with the distance from the sun.
Mercury, Venus, and Mars have days nearly
the length of ours. Jupiter and Saturn revolve
in about ten hours each. For any thing we can
discover, the earth might have revolved in this
or any other smaller period ; or we might have
had, without mechanical inconvenience, much
longer days than we have.
But the terrestrial day, and consequently the
length of the cycle of light and darkness, being
what it is, we find various parts of the constitu-
tion both of animals and vegetables, which have
a periodical character in their functions, corres-
ponding to the diurnal succession of external
conditions; and we find that the length of the
period, as it exists in their constitution, coin-
cides with the length of the natural day.
The alternation of processes which takes place
in plants by day and by night is less obvious,
and less obviously essential to their well-being,
than the annual series of changes. But there
are abundance of facts which serve to show that
such an alternation is part of the vegetable
economy.
In the same manner in which Linnaeus pro-
posed a Calendar of Flora, he also proposed a
Dial of Flora, or Flower-Clock ; and this was
to consist, as will readily be supposed, of plants,
which mark certain hours of the day, by open-
ing and shutting their flowers. Thus the day-
LENGTH OF THE DAY. 35
lily {hemerocallis fulva) opens at five in the
morning ; the leontodon taraxacum, or common
dandelion, at five or six ; the hieracium latifo-
lium (hawkweed), at seven ; the hieracium pilo-
sella, at eight ; the calendula arvensis, or mari-
gold, at nine ; the mesembryanthemum neapoli-
tanicm, at ten or eleven : and the closing of
these and other flowers in the latter part of the
day offers a similar system of hour marks.
Some of these plants are thus expanded in
consequence of the stimulating action of the
light and heat of the day, as appears by their
changing their time, when these influences are
changed ; but others appear to be constant to
the same hours, and independent of the impulse
of such external circumstances. Other flowers
by their opening and shutting prognosticate the
weather. Plants of the latter kind are called
by Linnaeus, meteoric flowers, as being regulated
by atmospheric causes : those which change
their hour of opening and shutting with the
length of the day, he terms tropical ; and the
hours which they measure are, he observes, like
Turkish hours, of varying length at different
seasons. But there are other plants which he
terms equinoctial ; their vegetable days, like
the days of the equator, being always of equal
length ; and these open, and generally close, at
a fixed and positive hour of the day. Such
plants clearly prove that the periodical character,
and the period of the motions above described,
36 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
do not depend altogether on external circum-
stances.
Some curious experiments on this subject
were made by Decandolle. He kept certain
plants in two cellars, one warmed by a stove
and dark, the other lighted by lamps. On some
of the plants the artificial light appeared to
have no influence, {convolvulus arvensis, convol-
vulus cneorum, silene fruticosa,) and they still
followed the clock hours in their opening and
closing. The night-blowing plants appeared
somewhat disturbed, both by perpetual light and
perpetual darkness. In either condition they
accelerated their going so much, that in three
days they had gained half a day, and thus ex-
changed night for day as their time of opening.
Other flowers went slower in the artificial light
(convolvulus purpureus). In like manner those
plants which fold and unfold their leaves were
variously affected by this mode of treatment.
The oxalis stricta and oxalis incarnata kept
their habits, without regarding either artificial
light or heat. The mimosa leucocephala folded
and unfolded at the usual times, whether in
light or in darkness, but the folding up was not
so complete as in the open air. The mimosa
pudica (sensitive plant), kept in darkness during
the day time, and illuminated during the night,
had in three days accommodated herself to the
artificial state, opening in the evening, and
closing in the morning ; restored to the open
air, she recovered her usual habits.
LENGTH OF THE DAY. 37
Tropical plants in general, as is remarked
by our gardeners, suffer from the length of our
summer daylight ; and it has been found neces-
sary to shade them during a certain part of the
day.
It is clear from these facts, that there is a
diurnal period belonging to the constitution of
vegetables ; though the succession of functions
depends in part on external stimulants, as light
and heat, their periodical character is a result
of the structure of the plant ; and this structure
is such, that the length of the period, under the
common influences to which plants are exposed,
coincides with the astronomical day. The power
of accommodation which vegetables possess in
this respect, is far from being such as either to
leave the existence of this periodical constitu-
tion doubtful, or to entitle us to suppose that
the day might be considerably lengthened or
shortened without injury to the vegetable king-
dom.
Here then we have an adaptation between the
structure of plants, and the periodical order of
light and darkness which arises from the earth's
rotation ; and we find, moreover, that the arbi-
trary quantity in the two laws, the length of
the cycle of the physiological and of the astro-
nomical fact, is the same. Can this have oc-
curred any otherwise than by an intentional ad-
justment ?
Any supposition that the astronomical cycle
38 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATION'S.
has occasioned the physiological one, that the
structure of plants has been brought to be what
it is by the action of external causes, or that
such plants as could not accommodate them-
selves to the existing day have perished, "would
be not only an arbitrary and baseless assump-
tion, but moreover useless for the purposes of
explanation which it professes, as we have no-
ticed of a similar supposition with respect to
the annual cycle. How came plants to have
periodicity at all in those functions which have
a relation to light and darkness ? This part of
their constitution was suited to organized things
which were to flourish on the earth, and it is
accordingly bestowed on them ; it was neces-
sary for this end that the period should be of a
certain length ; it is of that length and no other.
Surely this looks like intentional provision.
Animals also have a period in their functions
and habits ; as in the habits of waking, sleeping,
eating, &c. and their well-being appears to de-
pend on the coincidence of this period with the
length of the natural day. We see that in the
dav, as it now is, all animals find seasons for
taking food and repose, which agree perfectly
with their health and comfort. Some animals
feed during the day, as nearly all the rumina-
ting animals and land birds ; others feed only
in the twilight, as bats and owls, and are called
crepuscular ; while many beasts of prey, aquatic
birds, and others, take their food during the
LENGTH OF THE DAY. 39
night. Those animals which are nocturnal
feeders are diurnal sleepers, while those which
are crepuscular, sleep partly in the night and
partly in the day; but in all, the complete
period of these functions is twenty-four hours.
Man, in like manner, in all nations and ages,
takes his principal rest once in twenty-four
hours ; and the regularity of this practice seems
most suitable to his health, though the duration
of the time allotted to repose is extremely dif-
ferent in different cases. So far as we can
judge, this period is of a length beneficial to
the human frame, independently of the effect
of external agents. In the voyages recently
made into high northern latitudes, where the
sun did not rise for three months, the crews of
the ships were made to adhere, with the utmost
punctuality to the habit of retiring to rest at
nine, and rising a quarter before six ; and they
enjoyed, under circumstances apparently the
most trying, a state of salubrity quite remark-
able. This shows, that according to the com-
mon constitution of such men, the cycle of
twenty-four hours is very commodious, though
not imposed on them by external circumstances.
The hours of food and repose are capable of
such wide modifications in animals, and above
all in man, by the influence of external stimu-
lants and internal emotions, that it is not easy
to distinguish what portion of the tendency to
such alternations depends on original constitu-
40 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
tion. Yet no one can doubt that the inclina-
tion to food and sleep is periodical, or can main-
tain, with any plausibility, that the period may
be lengthened or shortened without limit. We
may be tolerably certain that a constantly re-
curring period of forty-eight hours would be too
long for one day of employment and one period
of sleep, with our present faculties ; and all,
whose bodies and minds are tolerably active,
will probably agree that, independently of habit,
a perpetual alternation of eight hours up and
four in bed would employ the human powers
less advantageously and agreeably than an alter-
nation of sixteen and eight. A creature which
could employ the full energies of his body and
mind uninterruptedly for nine months, and then
take a single sleep of three months, would not
be a man.
When, therefore, we have subtracted from
the daily cycle of the employments of men and
animals, that which is to be set down to the ac-
count of habits acquired, and that which is oc-
casioned by extraneous causes, there still remains
a periodical character ; and a period of a cer-
tain length, which coincides with, or at any
rate easily accommodates itself to, the duration
of the earth's revolution. The physiological
analysis of this part of our constitution is not
necessary for our purpose. The succession of
exertion and repose in the muscular system, of
excited and dormant sensibility in the nervous,
LENGTH OF THE DAY. 41
appear to be fundamentally connected with the
muscular and nervous powers, whatever the na-
ture of these may be. The necessity of these
alternations is one of the measures of the inten-
sity of those vital energies ; and it would seem
that we cannot, without assuming the human
powers to be altered, suppose the intervals of
tranquillity which they require to be much
changed. This view agrees with the opinion
of some of the most eminent physiologists.
Thus Cabanis* notices the periodical and iso-
chronous character of the desire of sleep, as well
as of other appetites. He states also that sleep
is more easy and more salutary, in proportion
as we go to rest and rise every day at the same
hours ; and observes that this periodicity seems
to have a reference to the motions of the solar
system.
Now how should such a reference be at first
established in the constitution of man, animals,
and plants, and transmitted from one generation
of them to another? If we suppose a wise and
benevolent Creator, by whom all the parts of
nature were fitted to their uses and to each
other, this is what we might expect and can
understand. On any other supposition such
a fact appears altogether incredible and incon-
ceivable.
* Rapports du Physique et du Moral de l'Homme, 11.371.
42
Chapter III.
The Mass of the Earth.
E shall now consider the adaptation which
|r may, as we conceive, be traced in the
amount of some of the quantities which determine
the course of events in the organic world; and
especially in the amount of the forces which are
in action. The life of vegetables and animals
implies a constant motion of their fluid parts,
and this motion must be produced by forces
which urge or draw the particles of the fluids.
The positions of the parts of vegetables are also
the result of the flexibility and elasticity of their
substance ; the voluntary motions of animals are
produced by the tension of the muscles. But
in all those cases, the effect really produced de-
pends upon the force of gravity also ; and in
order that the motions and positions may be
such as answer their purpose, the forces which
produce them must have a due proportion to the
force of gravity. In human works, if, for in-
stance, we have a fluid to raise, or a weight to
move, some calculation is requisite, in order to
determine the power which we must use, rela-
tively to the work which is to be done : we
have a mechanical problem to solve, in order
that we may adjust the one to the other. And
MASS OF THE EARTH. 43
the same adjustment, the same result of a com-
parison of quantities, manifests itself in the rela-
tion which the forces of the organic world bear
to the force of gravity.
The force of gravity might, so far as we can
judge, have been different from what it now is.
It depends upon the mass of the earth ; and this
mass is one of the elements of the solar system,
which is not determined by any cosmical neces-
sity of which we are aware. The masses of the
several planets are very different, and do not
appear to follow any determinate rule, except
that upon the whole those nearer to the sun ap-
pear to be smaller, and those nearer the out-
skirts of the system to be larger. We cannot
see anything which would have prevented either
the size or the density of the earth from being
different, to a very great extent, from what they
are.
Now, it will be very obvious that if the inten-
sity of gravity were to be much increased, or
much diminished, if every object were to become
twice as heavy or only half as heavy as it now
is, all the forces, both of involuntary and volun-
tary motion which produce the present orderly
and suitable results by being properly propor-
tioned to the resistance which they experience,
would be thrown off their balance ; they -would
produce motions too quick or too slow, wrong
positions, jerks and stops, instead of steady,
well conducted movements. The universe would
44 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
be like a machine ill regulated ; every thing
would go wrong ; repeated collisions and a ra-
pid disorganization must be the consequence.
We will, however, attempt to illustrate one or
two of the cases in which this would take place,
by pointing out forces which act in the organic
world, and which are adjusted to the force of
gravity.
1. The first instance we shall take, is the force
manifested by the ascent of the sap in vege-
tables. It appears, by a multitude of indispu-
table experiments, (among the rest those of
Hales, Mirbel, and Dutrochet,) that all plants
imbibe moisture by their roots, and pump it up,
by some internal force, into every part of their
frame, distributing it into every leaf. It will
easily be conceived that this operation must re-
quire a very considerable mechanical force ; for
the fluid must be sustained as if it were a single
column reaching to the top of the tree. The
division into minute parts and distribution
through small vessels does not at all diminish
the total force requisite to raise it. If, for in-
stance, the tree be thirty-three feet high, the
pressure must be fifteen pounds upon every
square inch in the section of the vessels of the
bottom, in order merely to support the sap.
And it is not only supported, but propelled up-
wards with great force, so as to supply the con-
stant evaporation of the leaves. The pumping
power of the tree must, therefore, be very con-
siderable.
MASS OF THE EARTH. 45
That this power is great, has been confirmed
by various curious experiments, especially by
those of Hales. He measured the force with
which the stems and branches of trees draw the
fluid from below, and push it upwards. He
found, for instance, that a vine in the bleeding
season could push up its sap in a glass tube to
the height of twenty-one feet above the stump of
an amputated branch.
The force which produces this effect is part of
the economy of the vegetable world ; and it is
clear that the due operation of the force depends
upon its being rightly proportioned to the force
of gravity. The weight of the fluid must be
counterbalanced, and an access of force nmst
exist to produce the motion upwards. In the
common course of vegetable life, the rate of
ascent of the sap is regulated, on the one hand,
by the upward pressure of the vegetable power,
and on the other, by the amount of the gravity
of the fluid, along with the other resistances,
which are to be overcome. If, therefore, we
suppose gravity to increase, the rapidity of this
vegetable circulation will diminish, and the
rate at which this function proceeds, will not
correspond either to the course of the seasons,
or the other physiological processes with which
this has to co-operate. We might easily con-
ceive such an increase of gravity as would stop
the vital movements of the plant in a very short
time. In like manner, a diminution of the
46 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
gravity of the vegetable juices would accelerate
the rising of the sap, and would, probably,
hurry and overload the leaves and other organs,
so as to interfere with their due operation.
Some injurious change, at least, would take
place.
Here, then, we have the forces of the minutest
parts of vegetables adjusted to the magnitude of
the whole mass of the earth on which they exist.
There is no apparent connection between the
quantity of matter of the earth, and the force of
imbibition of the roots of a vine, or the force of
propulsion of the vessels of its branches. Yet,
these things have such a proportion as the well-
being of the vine requires. How is this to be
accounted for, but by supposing that the circum-
stances under which the vine was to grow, were
attended to in devising its structure?
We have not here pretended to decide whether
this force of propulsion of vegetables is mecha-
nical or not, because the argument is the same
for our purpose on either supposition. Some
very curious experiments have recently been
made, (by M. Dutrochet) which are supposed
to show that the force is mechanical ; that when
two different fluids are separated by a thin mem-
brane, a force, which M. Dutrochet calls endos-
mose, urges one fluid through the membrane : and
that the roots of plants are provided with small
vesicles which act the part of such a membrane.
M. Poisson has further attempted to show that
MASS OF THE EARTH. 47
this force of endosmose may be considered as a
particular modification of capillary action. If
these views be true, we have here two mecha-
nical forces, capillary action and gravity, which
are adjusted to each other in the manner pre-
cisely suited to the welfare of vegetables.
2. As another instance of adaptation between
the force of gravity and forces which exist in
the vegetable world, we may take the positions
of flowers. Some flowers grow with the hollow
of their cup upwards : others, " hang the pen-
sive head" and turn the opening downwards.
Now of these " nodding flowers," as Linnaeus
calls them, he observes that they are such as
have their pistil longer than the stamens ; and,
in consequence of this position, the dust from
the anthers, which are at the ends of the stamens,
can fall upon the stigma or extremity of the
pistil ; which process is requisite for making the
flower fertile. He gives as instances the flowers
campanula, leucoium, galanthus, fiitillaria.
Other botanists have remarked that the position
changes at different periods of the flower's pro-
gress. The pistil of the Euphorbia (which is a
little globe or germen on a slender stalk) grows
upright at first, and is taller than the stamens :
at the period suited to its fecundation, the stalk
bends under the weight of the ball at its extre-
mity, so as to depress the germen below the
stamens : after this it again becomes erect, the
globe being now a fruit filled with fertile seeds.
48 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
The positions in all these eases depend upon
the length and flexibility of the stalk which sup-
ports the flower, or, in the case of the Euphorbia,
the germen. It is clear that a very slight altera-
tion in the force of gravity, or in the stiffness of
the stalk, would entirely alter the position of the
flower cup, and thus make the continuation of
the species impossible. We have therefore here
a little mechanical contrivance, which would
have been frustrated if the proper intensity of
gravity had not been assumed in the reckoning.
An earth greater or smaller, denser or rarer
than the one on which we live, would require a
change in the structure and strength of the foot-
stalks of all the little flowers that hang their
heads under our hedges. There is something
curious in thus considering the whole mass of
the earth from pole to pole, and from circum-
ference to centre, as employed in keeping a
snowdrop in the position most suited to the pro-
motion of its vegetable health.
It would be easy to mention many other parts
of the economy of vegetable life, which depend
for their use on their adaptation to the force of
gravity. Such are the forces and conditions
which determine the positions of leaves and of
branches. Such again those parts of the vege-
table constitution which have reference to the
pressure of the atmosphere ; for differences in
this pressure appear to exercise a powerful in-
fluence on the functions of plants, and to require
MASS OF THE EARTH. 49
differences of structure. But we pass over these
considerations. The slightest attention to the
relations of natural objects will show that the
subject is inexhaustible ; and all that we can or
need do is to give a few examples, such as may
show the nature of the impression which the
examination of the universe produces.
3. Another instance of the adjustment of or-
ganic structure to the force of gravity may be
pointed out in the muscular powers of animals.
If the force of gravity were increased in any
considerable proportion at the surface of the
earth, it is manifest that all the swiftness, and
strength, and grace of animal motions must dis-
appear. If, for instance, the earth were as
large as Jupiter, gravity would be eleven times
what it is ; the lightness of the fawn, the speed
of the hare, the spring of the tiger, could no
longer exist with the existing muscular powers
of those animals ; for man to lift himself up-
right, or to crawl from place to place, would be
a labour slower and more painful than the mo-
tions of the sloth. The density and pressure of
the air too would be increased to an intolerable
extent, and the operation of respiration, and
others, which depend upon these mechanical
properties, would be rendered laborious, in-
effectual, and probably impossible.
If, on the other hand, the force of gravity
were much lessened, inconveniences of an oppo-
site kind would occur. The air would be too
50 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
thin to breathe ; the weight of our bodies, and
of all the substances surrounding us, would be-
come too slight to resist the perpetually occurring
causes of derangement and unsteadiness : we
should feel a want of ballast in our movements.
It has sometimes been maintained by fanciful
theorists that the earth is merely a shell, and
that the central parts are hollow. All the rea-
sons we can collect appear to be in favour of its
being a solid mass, considerably denser than any
known rock. If this be so, and if we suppose
the interior to be at any time scooped out, so
as to leave only such a shell as the above-men-
tioned speculators have imagined, we should
not be left in ignorance of the change, though
the appearance of the surface might remain the
same. We should discover the want of the
usual force of gravity, by the instability of all
about us. Things would not lie where we
placed them, but would slide away with the
slightest push. We should have a difficulty in
standing or walking, something like what we
have on ship-board when the deck is inclined ;
and we should stagger helplessly through an
atmosphere thinner than that which oppresses
the respiration of the traveller on the tops of the
highest mountains.
We see therefore that those dark and un-
known central portions of the earth, which are
placed far beyond the reach of the miner and
the geologist, and of which man will probably
MASS OF THE EARTH. 51
never know anything directly, are not to be con-
sidered as quite disconnected with us, as deposits
of useless lumber without effect or purpose. We
feel their influence on every step we take and
on every breath we draw ; and the powers we
possess, and the comforts we enjoy would be
unprofitable to us, if they had not been pre-
pared with a reference to those as well as to the
near and visible portions of the earth's mass.
The arbitrary quantity, therefore, of which we
have been treating, the intensity of the force of
gravity, appears to have been taken account of,
in establishing the laws of those forces by which
the processes of vegetable and animal life are
carried on. And this leads us inevitably, we
conceive, to the belief of a supreme contriving
mind, by which these laws were thus devised
and thus established.
52
Chapter IV.
The Magnitude of the Ocean.
jHERE are several arbitrary quantities
which contribute to determine the state of
things at the earth's surface besides those already
mentioned. Some of these we shall briefly refer
to, without pursuing the subject into detail. We
wish not only to show that the properties and
processes of vegetable and animal life must be
adjusted to each of these quantities in particular,
but also to point out how numerous and com-
plicated the conditions of the existence of or-
ganized beings are ; and we shall thus be led to
think less inadequately of the intelligence which
has embraced at once, and combined without
confusion, all these conditions. We appear thus
to be conducted to the conviction not only of
design and intention, but of supreme knowledge
and wisdom.
One of the quantities which enters into the
constitution of the terrestrial system of things is
the bulk of the waters of the ocean. The mean
depth of the sea, according to the calculations
of Laplace, is four or five miles. On this sup-
position, the addition to the sea of one-fourth of
the existing waters would drown the whole of
the globe, except a few chains of mountains.
MAGNITUDE OF THE OCEAN. 53
Whether this be exact or no, we can easily con-
ceive the quantity of water which lies in the
cavities of our globe to be greater or less than
it at present is. With every such addition or
subtraction the form and magnitude of the dry
land would vary, and if this change were con-
siderable, many of the present relations of things
would be altered. It may be sufficient to men-
tion one effect of such a change. The sources
which water the earth, both clouds, rains, and
rivers, are mainly fed by the aqueous vapour
raised from the sea; and therefore if the sea
were much diminished, and the land increased,
the mean quantity of moisture distributed upon
the land must be diminished, and the character
of climates, as to wet and dry, must be materially
affected. Similar, but opposite changes would
result from the increase of the surface of the
ocean.
It appears then that the magnitude of the
ocean is one of the conditions to which the
structure of all organized beings which are
dependent upon climate must be adapted.
54
Chapter V.
The Magnitude of the Atmosphere.
|HE total quantity of air of which our
atmosphere is composed is another of the
arbitrary magnitudes of our terrestrial system ;
and we may apply to this subject considerations
similar to those of the last section. We can see
no reason why the atmosphere might not have
been larger in comparison to the globe which it
surrounds; those of Mars and Jupiter appear to
be so. But if the quantity of air were increased,
the structure of organized beings would in many
ways cease to be adapted to their place. The
atmospheric pressure, for instance, would be
increased, which, as we have already noticed,
would require an alteration in the structure of
vegetables.
Another way in which an increase of the mass
of the atmosphere would produce inconvenience
would be in the force of winds. If the cur-
rent of air in a strong gale were doubled or
tripled, as might be the case if the atmosphere
were augmented, the destructive effects would
be more than doubled or tripled. With such a
change, nothing could stand against a storm.
In general, houses and trees resist the violence
of the wind; and except in extreme cases, as
MAGNITUDE OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 55
for instance in occasional hurricanes in the West
Indies, a few large trees in a forest are unusual
trophies of the power of the tempest. The
breezes which we commonly feel are harmless
messengers, travelling so as to bring about the
salutary changes of the atmosphere ; even the
motion which they communicate to vegetables
tends to promote their growth, and is so advan-
tageous, that it has been proposed to imitate it
by artificial breezes in the hothouse. But with
a stream of wind blowing against them, like
three, or five, or ten, gales compressed into the
space of one, none of the existing trees could
stand ; and except they could either bend like
rushes in a stream, or extend their roots far
wider than their branches, they must be torn up
in whole groves. We have thus a manifest
adaptation of the present usual strength of the
materials and of the workmanship of the world
to the stress of wind and weather which they
have to sustain.
Chapter VI.
The Constancy and Variety of Climates.
IT is possible to conceive arrangements of
fisPli our system, according to which all parts
of the earth might have the same, or nearly the
same, climate. If, for example, we suppose the
56 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
earth to be a flat disk, or flat ring, like the ring
of Saturn, revolving in its own plane as that
does, each part of both the flat surfaces would
have the same exposure to the sun, and the same
temperature, so far as the sun's effect is con-
cerned. There is no obvious reason why a planet
of such a form might not be occupied by ani-
mals and vegetables, as well as our present
earth ; and on this supposition the climate would
be every where the same, and the whole surface
might be covered with life, without the necessity
of there being any difference in the kind of in-
habitants belonging to different parts.
Again, it is possible to conceive arrangements
according to which no part of our planet should
have any steady climate. This may probably
be the case with a comet. If we suppose such
a body, revolving round the sun in a very oblong
ellipse, to be of small size and of a very high
temperature, and therefore to cool rapidly ; and
if we suppose it also to be surrounded by a large
atmosphere, composed of various gases ; there
would, on the surface of such a body, be no
average climate or seasons for each place. The
years, if we give this name to the intervals of
time occupied by its successive revolutions,
would be entirely unlike one another. The
greatest heat of one year might be cool com-
pared with the greatest cold of a preceding one.
The greatest heats and colds might succeed each
other at intervals perpetually unequal. The
CLIMATES. 57
atmosphere might be perpetually changing its
composition by the condensation of some of its
constituent gases. In the operations of the ele-
ments, all would be incessant and rapid change,
without recurrence or compensation. We can-
not say that organized beings could not be fitted
for such a habitation ; but if they were, the
adaptation must be made by means of a consti-
tution quite different from that of almost all or-
ganized beings known to us.
The state of things upon the earth, in its pre-
sent condition, is very different from both these
suppositions. The climate of the same place,
notwithstanding perpetual and apparently irre-
gular change, possesses a remarkable steadiness.
And, though in different places the annual suc-
cession of appearances in the earth and heavens,
is, in some of its main characters, the same, the
result of these influences in the average climate
is very different.
Now, to this remarkable constitution of the
earth as to climate, the constitution of the ani-
mal and vegetable world is precisely adapted.
The differences of different climates are pro-
vided for by the existence of entirely different
classes of plants and animals in different coun-
tries. The constancy of climate at the same
place is a necessary condition of the prosperity
of each species there fixed.
We shall illustrate by a few details, these
characteristics in the constitution of inorganic
58 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
and of organic nature, with the view of fixing
the reader's attention upon the correspondence
of the two.
1. The succession and alternation, at any
given place, of heat and cold, rain and sun-
shine, wind and calm, and other atmospheric
changes, appear at first sight to be extremely
irregular, and not subject to any law. It is,
however, easy to see, with a little attention, that
there is a certain degree of constancy in the
average weather and seasons of each place,
though the particular facts of which these gene-
ralities are made up seem to be out of the reach
of fixed laws. And when we apply any nume-
rical measure to these particular occurrences, and
take the average of the numbers thus observed,
we generally find a remarkably close corres-
pondence in the numbers belonging to the whole,
or to analogous portions of successive years.
This will be found to apply to the measures
given by the thermometer, the barometer, the
hygrometer, the raingage, and similar instru-
ments. Thus it is found that very hot summers,
or very cold winters, raise or depress the mean
annual temperature very little above or below
the general standard.
The heat may be expressed by degrees of the
thermometer ; the temperature of the day is esti-
mated by this measure taken at a certain period
of the day, which period has been found by ex-
perience to correspond with the daily average ;
CLIMATES. 59
and the mean annual temperature will then be
the average of all the heights of the thermometer
so taken for every day in the year.
The mean annual temperature of London,
thus measured, is about 50 degrees and 4-10ths.
The frost of the year 1788 was so severe that the
Thames was passable on the ice ; the mean tem-
perature of that year was 50 degrees and 6-10ths,
being within a small fraction of a degree of the
standard. In 1796, when the greatest cold ever
observed in London occurred, the mean tempe-
rature of the year was 50 degrees and l-10th,
which is likewise within a fraction of a degree
of the standard. In the severe winter of 1813-14,
when the Thames, Tyne, and other large rivers
in England were completely frozen over, the
mean temperature of the two years was 49 de-
grees, being little more than a degree below the
standard. And in the year 1808, when the
summer was so hot that the temperature in Lon-
don was as high as 934; degrees, the mean heat
of the year was 50^, which is about that of the
standard.
The same numerical indications of the con-
stancy of climate at the same place might be
collected from the records of other instruments
of the kind above mentioned.
We shall, hereafter, consider some of the very
complex agencies by which this steadiness is
produced ; and shall endeavour to point out in-
tentional adaptations to this object. But we
60 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
may, in the meantime, observe how this property
of the atmospheric changes is made subservient
to a further object.
To this constancy of the climates of each
place, the structure of plants is adapted; almost
all vegetables require a particular mean tempe-
rature of the year, or of some season of the year,
a particular degree of moisture, and similar con-
ditions. This will be seen by observing that the
range of most plants as to climate is very limited.
A vegetable which flourishes where the mean
temperature is 55 decrees, would pine and
wither when removed to a region where the
average is 50 degrees. If, therefore, the aver-
age at each place were to vary as much as this,
our plants with their present constitutions would
suffer, languish, and soon die.
2. It will be readily understood that the same
mode of measurement by which we learn the
constancy of climate at the same place, serves
to show us the variety which belongs to different
places. While the variations of the same region
vanish when we take the averages even of mo-
derate periods, those of distant countries are
fixed and perpetual ; and stand out more clear
and distinct, the longer is the interval for which
we measure their operation.
In the way of measuring already described,
the mean temperature of Petersburg is 39 de-
grees, of Rome 60, of Cairo 72. Such observa-
tions as these, and others of the same kind, have
CLIMATES. 61
been made at various places, collected and re-
corded ; and in this way the surface of the earth
can be divided by boundary lines into various
strips, according to these physical differences.
Thus, the zones which take in all the places
having the same or nearly the same mean annual
temperature, have been called isothermal zones.
These zones run nearly parallel to the equator,
but not exactly, for, in Europe, they bend to the
north in going eastward. In the same manner,
the lines passing through all places which have
an equal temperature for the summer or the
winter half of the year, have been called respec-
tively isotheral and isochimal lines. These do
not coincide with the isothermal lines, for a
place may have the same temperature as another,
though its summer be hotter and its winter
colder, as is the case of Pekin compared with
London. In the same way we might conceive
lines drawn according to conditions depending
on clouds, rain, wind, and the like circum-
tances, if we had observations enough to enable
us to lav down such lines. The course of vege-
tation depends upon the combined influence of
all such conditions ; and the lines which bound
the spread of particular vegetable productions
do not, in most cases, coincide with any of the
separate meteorological boundaries above spoken
of. Thus the northern limit of vineyards runs
through France, in a direction very nearly
north-east and south-west, while the line of
62 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
equal temperature is nearly east and west. And
the spontaneous growth or advantageous culti-
vation of other plants, is in like manner bounded
b} r lines of which the course depends upon very
complex causes, but of which the position is ge-
nerally precise and fixed.
Chapter VII.
The Variety of Organization corresponding to
the Variety of Climate.
^PpHE organization of plants and animals is
lyii! in different tribes formed upon schemes
more or less different, but in all cases adjusted in
a general way to the course and action of the ele-
ments. The differences are connected with the
different habits and manners of living which
belong to different species ; and at any one
place the various species, both of animals and
plants, have a number of relations and mutual
dependencies arising out of these differences.
But besides the differences of this kind, we find
in the forms of organic life another set of differ-
ences, by which the animal and vegetable king-
dom are fitted for that variety in the climates of
the earth, which we have been endeavouring to
explain.
The existence of such differences is too obvious
to require to be dwelt upon. The plants and
GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 63
animals which flourish and thrive in countries
remote from each other, offer to the eye of the
traveller a series of pictures, which, even to an
ignorant and unreflecting spectator, is full of a
peculiar and fascinating interest, in consequence
of the novelty and strangeness of the successive
scenes.
Those who describe the countries between the
tropics, speak with admiration of the luxuriant
profusion and rich variety of the vegetable pro-
ductions of those regions. Vegetable life seems
there far more vigorous and active, the circum-
stances under which it goes on, far more favour-
able than in our latitudes. Now if we conceive
an inhabitant of those regions, knowing, from
the circumstances of the earth's form and motion,
the difference of climates which must prevail
upon it, to guess, from what he saw about him,
the condition of other parts of the globe as to
vegetable wealth, is it not likely that he would
suppose that the extratropical climates must be
almost devoid of plants? We know that the
ancients, living in the temperate zone, came to
the conclusion that both the torrid and the
frigid zones must be uninhabitable. In like
manner the equatorial reasoner would probably
conceive that vegetation must cease, or gra-
dually die away, as he should proceed to
places further and further removed from the
genial influence of the sun. The mean tempe-
rature of his year being about 80 degrees, he
64 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
■would hardly suppose that any plants could
subsist through a rear, where the mean tem-
perature was only 50, -where the temperature of
the summer quarter was only 64, and where the
mean temperature of a whole quarter of the year
was a very few degrees removed from that at
which water becomes solid. He would sup-
pose that scarcely any tree, shrub, or flower
could exist in such a state of things, and so far
as the plants of his own country are concerned
he would judge rightly.
But the countries further removed from the
equator are not left thus unprovided. Instead
of being scantily occupied by such of the tropi-
cal plants as could support a stunted and preca-
rious life in ungenial climes, they are abund-
antly stocked with a multitude of vegetables
which appear to be constructed expressly for
them, inasmuch as these species can no more
flourish at the equator than the equatorial species
can in these temperate regions. And such new
supplies thus adapted to new conditions, recur
perpetually as we advance towards the apparently
frozen and untenantable regions in the neigh-
bourhood of the pole. Every zone has its pe-
culiar vegetables ; and while we miss some, we
rind others make their appearance, as if to re-
place those which are absent.
If we look at the indigenous plants of Asia
and Europe, we find such a succession as we
have here spoken of. At the equator we find
GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 65
the natives of the Spice Islands, the clove and
nutmeg trees, pepper and mace. Cinnamon
bushes clothe the surface of Ceylon ;* the odori-
ferous sandal wood, the ebony tree, the teak
tree, the banyan, grow in the East Indies. In
the same latitudes in Arabia the Happy we find
balm, frankincense, and myrrh, the coffee tree,
and the tamarind. But in these countries, at
least in the plains, the trees and shrubs which
decorate our more northerly climes are want-
ing. And as we go northwards, at every step
we change the vegetable group, both by addi-
tion and by subtraction. In the thickets to the
west of the Caspian Sea we have the apricot,
citron, peach, walnut. In the same latitude in
Spain, Sicily, and Italy, we find the dwarf
palm, the cypress, the chestnut, the cork tree :
the orange and lemon tree perfume the air with
their blossoms ; the myrtle and pomegranate
grow wild among the rocks. We cross the
Alps, and we find the vegetation which belongs
to northern Europe, of which England affords
an instance. The oak, the beech, and the elm
are natives of Great Britain : the elm tree seen
in Scotland, and in the north of England, is
the wych elm. As we travel still further to the
north the forests again change their character.
In the northern provinces of the Russian empire
are found forests of the various species of firs :
* Barton, Geography of Plants.
W. F
66 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
the scotch and spruce fir, and the larch. In
the Orkney Islands no tree is found but the
hazel, which occurs again on the northern
shores of the Baltic. As we proceed into colder
regions we still find species which appear to
have been made for these situations. The
hoary or cold alder makes its appearance north
of Stockholm : the sycamore and mountain
ash accompany us to the head of the gulf of
Bothma : and as we leave this and traverse the
Dophrian range, we pass in succession the
boundary lines of the spruce fir, the scotch fir,
and those minute shrubs which botanists dis-
tinguish as the dwarf birch and dwarf willow.
Here, near to or within the arctic circle, we yet
find wild flowers of great beauty : the mezereum,
the yellow and white water lily, and the Euro-
pean globe flower. And when these fail us,
the reindeer moss still makes the country habit-
able for animals and man.
We have thus a variety in the laws of vege-
table organization remarkably adapted to the
variety of climates ; and by this adaptation the
gjobe is clothed with vegetation and peopled
with animals from pole to pole, while without
such an adaptation vegetable and animal life
must have been confined almost, or entirely, to
some narrow zone on the earth's surface. We
conceive that we see here the evidence of a wise
and benevolent intention, overcoming the vary-
ing difficulties, or employing the varying re-
GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 67
sources of the elements, with an inexhaustible
fertility of contrivance, a constant tendency to
diffuse life and well being.
2. One of the great uses to which the vege-
table wealth of the earth is applied, is the sup-
port of man, whom it provides with food and
clothing ; and the adaptation of tribes of indi-
genous vegetables to every climate has, we can-
not but believe, a reference to the intention that
the human race should be diffused over the
whole globe. But this end is not answered by
indigenous vegetables alone ; and in the variety
of vegetables capable of being cultivated with
advantage in various countries, we conceive that
we find evidence of an additional adaptation of
the scheme of organic life to the system of the
elements.
The cultivated vegetables, which form the
necessaries or luxuries of human life, are each
confined within limits, narrow, when compared
with the whole surface of the earth ; yet almost
every part of the earth's surface is capable of
being abundantly covered with one kind or
other of these. When one class fails, another
appears in its place. Thus corn, wine, and oil,
have each its boundaries. Wheat extends
through the old Continent, from England to
Thibet : but it stops soon in going northwards,
and is not found to succeed in the west of Scot-
land. Nor does it thrive better in the torrid
zone than in the polar regions : within the tro-
68 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
pics, wheat, barley and oats are not cultivated,
excepting in situations considerably above the
level of the sea : the inhabitants of those coun-
tries have other species of grain, or other food.
The cultivation of the vine succeeds only in
countries where the annual temperature is be-
tween 50 and 63 degrees. In both hemispheres,
the profitable culture of this plant ceases within
30 degrees of the equator, unless in elevated
situations, or in islands, as Teneriffe. The limits
of the cultivation of maize and of olives in France
are parallel to those which bound the vine and
corn in succession to the north. In the north
of Italy, west of Milan, we first meet with the
cultivation of rice ; which extends over all the
southern part of Asia, wherever the land can
be at pleasure covered with water. In great
part of Africa millet is one of the principal
kinds of grain.
Cotton is cultivated to latitude 40 in the new
world, but extends to Astrachan in latitude 46
in the old. The sugar cane, the plantain, the
mulberry, the betel nut, the indigo tree, the tea
tree, repay the labours of the cultivator in India
and China ; and several of these plants have
been transferred, with success, to America and
the West Indies. In equinoctial America a
great number of inhabitants find abundant nou-
rishment on a narrow space cultivated with
plantain, cassava yams, and maize. The culti-
vation of the bread fruit tree begins in the Ma-
nillas, and extends through the Pacific ; the
GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 69
sago palm is grown in the Moluccas, the cab-
bage tree in the Pelew islands.
In this manner the various tribes of men are
provided with vegetable food. Some however
live on their cattle, and thus make the produce
of the earth only mediately subservient to their
wants. Thus the Tatar tribes depend on their
flocks and herds for food : the taste for the flesh
of the horse seems to belong to the Mongols,
Fins, and other descendants of the ancient Scy-
thians : the locust eaters are found now, as for-
merly, in Africa.
Many of these differences depend upon cus-
tom, soil, and other causes with which we do
not here meddle ; but many are connected with
climate : and the variety of the resources which
man thus possesses, arises from the variety of
constitution belonging to cultivable vegetables,
through which one is fitted to one range of cli-
mate, and another to another. We conceive
that this variety and succession of fitness for
cultivation, shows undoubted marks of a most
foreseeing and benevolent design in the Creator
of man and of the world.
3. By differences in vegetables of the kind
we have above described, the sustentation and
gratification of man's physical nature is co-
piously provided for. But there is another cir-
cumstance, a result of the difference of the na-
tive products of different regions, and therefore
a consequence of that difference of climate on
which the difference of native products de-
70 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
pends,* which appears to be worthy our notice.
The difference of the productions of different
countries has a bearing not only upon the phy-
sical, but upon the social and moral condition
of man.
The intercourse of nations in the way of disr
covery, colonization, commerce ; the study of
the natural history, manners, institutions of
foreign countries ; lead to most numerous and
important results. Without dwelling upon this
subject, it will probably be allowed that such
intercourse has a great influence upon the com-
forts, the prosperity, the arts, the literature, the
power, of the nations which thus communicate.
Now the variety of the productions of different
lands supplies both the stimulus to this inter-
course, and the instruments by which it produces
its effects. The desire to possess the objects or
the knowledge which foreign countries alone
can supply, urges the trader, the traveller, the
discoverer to compass land and sea; and the
progress of the arts and advantages of civiliza-
tion consists almost entirely in the cultivation,
the use, the improvement of that which has been
received from other countries.
This is the case to a much greater extent than
might at first sight be supposed. Where man is
active as a cultivator, he scarcely ever bestows
much of his care on those vegetables which the
* It will be observed, that it is not here asserted that the
difference of native products depends on the difference of
climate alone.
GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 71
land would produce in a state of nature. He
does not select some of the plants of the soil and
improve them by careful culture, but, for the
most part, he expels the native possessors of the
land, and introduces colonies of strangers.
Thus, to take the condition of our own part
of the globe as an example ; scarcely one of the
plants which occupy our fields and gardens is
indigenous to the country. The walnut and
the peach come to us from Persia ; the apricot
from Armenia : from Asia Minor, and Syria,
we have the cherry tree, the fig, the pear, the
pomegranate, the olive, the plum, and the mul-
berry. The vine which is now cultivated is not
a native of Europe ; it is found wild on the
shores of the Caspian, in Armenia and Cara-
mania. The most useful species of plants, the
cereal vegetables, are certainly strangers, though
their birth place seems to be an impenetrable
secret. Some have fancied that barley is found
wild on the banks of the Semara, in Tartary,
rye in Crete, wheat at Baschkiros, in Asia ; but
this is held by the best botanists to be very
doubtful. The potatoe, which has been so
widely diffused over the world in modern tiinr-,
and has added so much to the resources of life
in many countries, has been found equally dif-
ficult to trace back to its wild condition.*
* Humboldt, Geog. des Plantes, p. 29. It appears, how.
ever, to be now ascertained that the edible potatoe is found
wild in the neighbourhood of Valparaiso. Mr. Sabine in the
Horticultural Trans, vol. v. p. 249.
72 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
Thus widely are spread the traces of the con-
nexion of the progress of civilization with na-
tional intercourse. In our own country a higher
state of the arts of life is marked by a more
ready and extensive adoption of foreign produc-
tions. Our fields are covered with herbs from
Holland, and roots from Germany; with Fle-
mish farming and Swedish turnips ; our hills
with forests of the firs of Norway. The chest-
nut and poplar of the south of Europe adorn our
lawns, and below them flourish shrubs and
flowers from every clime in profusion. In the
mean time Arabia improves our horses, China
our pigs, North America our poultry, Spain our
sheep, and almost every country sends its dog.
The products which are ingredients in our lux-
uries, and which we cannot naturalize at home,
we raise in our colonies ; the cotton, coffee,
sugar of the east are thus transplanted to the
farthest west ; and man lives in the middle of
a rich and varied abundance, which depends on
the facility with which plants and animals and
modes of culture can be transferred into lands
far removed from those in which nature had
placed them. And this plenty and variety of
material comforts is the companion and the
mark of advantages and improvements in social
life, of progress in art and science, of activity
of thought, of energy of purpose, and of ascen-
dency of character.
The differences in the productions of different
countries which lead to the habitual intercourse
GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 73
of nations, and through this to the benefits which
we have thus briefly noticed, do not all depend
upon the differences of temperature and climate
alone. But these differences are among the
causes, and are some of the most important
causes, or conditions, of the variety of products ;
and thus that arrangement of the earth's form
and motion, from which the different climates of
different places arise, is connected with the social
and moral welfare and advancement of man.
We conceive that this connexion, though
there must be to our apprehension much that is
indefinite and uncertain in tracing its details, is
yet a point where we may perceive the profound
and comprehensive relations established by the
counsel and foresight of a wise and good Creator
of the world and of man, by whom the progress
and elevation of the human species was neither
uncontemplated nor uncared for.
4. We have traced, in the variety of organized
beings, an adaptation to the variety of climates,
a provision for the sustentation of man all over
the globe, and an instrument for the promotion
of civilization and many attendant benefits. We
have not. considered this variety as itself & pur-
pose which we can perceive or understand with-
out reference to some ulterior end. Many per-
sons, however, and especially those who are
already in the habit of referring the world to its
Creator, will probably see something admirable
in itself in this vast variety of created things.
74 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
There is indeed something well fitted to produce
and confirm a reverential wonder, in these ap-
parently inexhaustible stores of new forms of
being and modes of existence ; the fixity of the
laws of each class, its distinctness from all others,
its relations to many. Structures and habits
and characters are exhibited, which are con-
nected and distinguished according to every con-
ceivable degree of subordination and analogy,
in their resemblances and in their differences.
Every new country we explore presents us With
new combinations, where the possible cases
seemed to be exhausted ; and with new resem-
blances and differences constructed as if to
elude what conjecture might have hit upon, by
proceeding from the old ones. Most of those
who have any large portion of nature brought
under their notice in this point of view, are led
to feel that there is, in such a creation, a har-
mony, a beauty, and a dignity, of which the
impression is irresistible ; which would have
been wanting in any more uniform and limited
system such as we might try to imagine ; and
which of itself gives to the arrangements, by
which such a variety on the earth's surface is
produced, the character of well devised means
to a worthv end.
Chapter VIII.
The Constituents of Climate.
5E have spoken of the steady average of
the climate at each place, of the differ-
ence of this average at different places, and of
the adaptation of organized beings to this cha-
racter in the laws of the elements by which they
are effected. But this steadiness in the general
effect of the elements, is the result of an ex-
tremely complex and extensive machinery.
Climate, in its wider sense, is not one single
agent, but is the aggregate result of a great
number of different agents, governed by different
laws, producing effects of various kinds. The
steadiness of this compound agency is not the
steadiness of a permanent condition, like that of
a body at rest ; but it is the steadiness of a state
of constant change and movement, succession
and alternation, seeming accident and irregu-
larity. It is a perpetual repose, combined with
a perpetual motion ; and invariable average of
most variable quantities. Now, the manner in
which such a state of things is produced, de-
serves, we conceive, a closer consideration. It
may be useful to show how the particular laws
of the action of each of the elements of climate
76 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
are so adjusted that they do not disturb this
general constancy.
The principal constituents of climate are the
following : — the temperature of the earth, of the
water, of the air: — the distribution of the aque-
ous vapour contained in the atmosphere: — the
winds and rains by which the equilibrium of the
atmosphere is restored when it is in any degree
disturbed. The effects of light, of electricity,
probably of other causes also, are no doubt im-
portant in the economy of the vegetable world,
but these agencies have not been reduced by
scientific inquiries to such laws as to admit of
their bein£ treated with the same exactness and
certainty which we can obtain in the case of
those first mentioned.
We shall proceed to trace some of the pecu-
liarities in the laws of the different physical
agents which are in action at the earth's surface,
and the manner in which these peculiarities
bear upon the general result.
The Laws of Heat with respect to the Earth.
One of the main causes which determine the
temperature of each climate is the effect of the
sun's rays on the solid mass of the earth. The
laws of this operation have been recently made
out with considerable exactness, experimentally
by Leslie, theoretically by Fourrier, and by
other inquirers. The theoretical inquiries have
LAWS OF HEAT. THE EARTH. 77
required the application of very complex and
abstruse mathematical investigations; but the
general character of the operation may, perhaps,
be made easily intelligible.
The earth, like all solid bodies, transmits into
its interior the impressions of heat which it re-
ceives at the surface ; and throws off the super-
fluous heat from its surface into the surrounding
space. These processes are called conduction
and radiation, and have each their ascertained
mathematical laws.
By the laws of conduction, the daily impres-
sions of heat which the earth receives, follow
each other into the interior of the mass, like the
waves which start from the edge of a canal ;* and
like them, become more and more faint as they
proceed, till they melt into the general level of
the internal temperature. The heat thus trans-
mitted is accumulated in the interior of the
earth, as in a reservoir, and flows from one part
to another of this reservoir. The parts of the
earth near the equator are more heated by the
sun than other parts, and on this account there
is a perpetual internal conduction of heat from
* The resemblance consists in this ; that we have a strip
of greater temperature accompanied by a strip of smaller
temperature, these strips arising from the diurnal and noc-
turnal impressions respectively, and being in motion ; as in
the waves of a canal, we have a moving strip of greater ele-
vation accompanied by a strip of smaller elevation. We do
not here refer to any hypothetical undulations in the fluid
matter of heat.
78 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
the equatorial to other parts of the sphere. And
as all parts of the surface throw off heat by ra-
diation, in the polar regions, where the surface
receives little in return from the sun, a constant
waste is produced. There is thus from the
polar parts a perpetual dispersion of heat in the
surrounding space, which is supplied by a per-
petual internal flow from the equator towards
each pole.
Here, then, is a kind of circulation of heat ;
and the quantity and rapidity of this circulation,
determine the quantity of heat in the solid part
of the earth, and in each portion of it, and
through this, the mean temperature belonging
to each point on its surface.
If the earth conducted heat more rapidly than
it does, the inequalities of temperature would
be more quickly balanced, and the temperature,
of the ground in different parts of the globe of
the earth, (below the reach of annual and diur-
nal variations) would differ less than it does. If
the surface radiated more rapidly than it does,
the flow of heat from the polar regions would
increase, and the temperature of the interior of
the globe would find a lower level ; the differ-
ences of temperature in different latitudes would
increase, but the mean temperature of the globe
would diminish.
There is nothing which, so far as we can per-
ceive, determines necessarily, either the con-
ducting or the radiating power of the earth to
LAWS OF HEAT. THE EARTH. 79
its present value. The measures of such powers,
in different substances, differ very widely. If
the earth were a globe of pure iron, it would
conduct heat, probably, twenty times as well as
it does ; if its surface were polished iron, it
would only radiate one-sixth as much as it does.
Changes in the amount of the conduction and
radiation far less than these, would, probably,
subvert the whole thermal constitution of the
earth, and make it uninhabitable by any of its
present vegetable or animal tenants.
One of the results of the laws of heat, as they
exist in the globe, is, that, by their action, the
thermal state tends to a limited condition, which,
once reached, remains constant and steady, as
it now is. The oscillations or excursions from
the mean condition, produced by any temporary
cause, are rapidly suppressed ; the deviations of
seasons from their usual standard produce only
a small and transient effect. The impression of
an extremely hot day upon the ground melts
almost immediately into the average internal
heat. The effect of a hot summer, in like man-
ner, is soon lost in its progress through the
globe. If this were otherwise, if the inequalities
and oscillations of heat went on, through the
interior of the earth, retaining the same value,
or becoming larger and larger, we might have
the extreme heats or colds of one place making
their appearance at another place after a long
interval ; like a conflagration which creeps along
80 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
a street and bursts out at a point remote from
its origin.
It appears, therefore, that both the present
differences of climate, and the steadiness of the
average at each place, depend upon the form of
the present laws of heat, and on the arbitrary
magnitudes which determine the rate of conduc-
tion and radiation. The laws are such as to
secure us from increasing and destructive
equalities of heat ; the arbitrary magnitudes are
data to which the organic world is adjusted.
Chapter IX.
The Laws of Heat with respect to Water.
IHE manner in which heat is transmitted
through fluids is altogether different from
the mode in which it passes through solids ;
and hence the waters of the earth's surface pro-
duce peculiar effects upon its condition as to
temperature. Moreover, water is susceptible of
evaporation in a degree depending upon the
increase of heat; and in consequence of this
property it has most extensive and important
functions to discharge in the economy of nature.
We will consider some of the offices of this
fluid
1. Heat is communicated through water, not
laws of heat.
by being conducted from one part of the fluid to
another, as in solid bodies, but (at least princi-
pally) by being carried with the parts of the
fluid by means of an intestine motion. Water
expands and becomes lighter by heat, and, there-
fore, if the upper parts be cooled below the sub-
jacent temperature, this upper portion will be-
come heavier than that below, bulk for bulk,
and will descend through it, while the lower
portion rises to take the upper place. In this
manner the colder parts descend, and the
warmer parts ascend by contrary currents, and
by their interchange and mixture, reduce the
whole to a temperature at least as low as that
of the surface. And this equalization of tem-
perature by means of such currents, is an ope-
ration of a much more rapid nature than the
slow motion of conduction by which heat creeps
hrourrh a solid bodv. Hence, alternations of
heat and cold, as day and night, summer and
winter, produce in water inequalities of tempe-
rature much smaller than those which occur in
a solid body. The heat communicated is less,
for transparent fluids imbibe heat very slowly ;
and the cold impressed on the surface is soon
diffused through the mass by internal circula-
tion.
Hence it follows that the ocean, which covers
so large a portion of the earth, and affects the
temperature of the whole surface by its influence,
produces the effect of making the alternations of
w. G
82 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
teat and cold much less violent than they would
De if this covering were removed. The differ-
ent temperatures of its upper and lower parts
produce a current which draws the sea, and by
means of the sea, the air, towards the mean tem-
perature. And this kind of circulation is pro-
duced, not only between the upper and lower
parts, but also between distant tracts of the
ocean. The great Gulf Stream which rushes
out of the gulf of Mexico, and runs across the
Atlantic to the western shores of Europe, carries
with it a portion of the tropical heat into the
northern regions: and the returning current
which descends along the coast of Africa, tends
to cool the parts nearer the equator. Great as
the difference of temperature is in different cli-
mates, it would be still greater if there were not
this equalizing and moderating power exerted
constantly over the whole surface. Without
this influence, it is probable that the two polar
portions of the earth, which are locked in per-
petual ice and snow, and almost destitute of
life, would be much increased.
We find an illustration of this effect of the
ocean on temperature, in the peculiarities of the
climates of maritime tracts and islands. The
climate of such portions of the earth, corrected
in some measure by the temperature of the
neighbouring sea, is more equable than that of
places in the same latitudes differently situated.
London is cooler in summer and warmer in
winter than Paris.
LAWS OF HEAT. WATER. 83
2. Water expands by heat and contracts by-
cold, as has been already said ; and in conse-
quence of this property, the coldest portions of
the fluid generally occupy the lower parts. The
continued progress of cold produces congelation.
If, therefore, the law just mentioned had been
strictly true, the lower parts of water would have
been first frozen ; and being once frozen, hardly
any heat applied at the surface could have
melted them, for the warm fluid could not have
descended through the colder parts. This is so
far the case, that in a vessel containing ice at
the bottom and water at the top, Rumford made
the upper fluid boil without thawing the con-
gealed cake below.
Now, a law of water with respect to heat
operating in this manner, would have been very
inconvenient if it had prevailed in our lakes
and seas. They would all have had a bed of
ice, increasing with every occasion, till the
whole was frozen. We could have no bodies of
water, except such pools on the surfaces of
these icy reservoirs as the summer sun could
thaw, to be again frozen to the bottom with
the first frosty night. The law of the regular
contraction of water by cold till it became ice,
would, therefore, be destructive of all the utility
of our seas and lakes. How is this inconvenience
obviated ?
It is obviated by a modification of the law
which takes place when the temperature ap-
84 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
yroaches this limit. Water contracts by the
increase of cold, till we come near the freezing
temperature ; but then, by a further increase of
cold, it contracts no more, but expands till the
point at which it becomes ice. It contracts in
cooling down to 40 degrees of Fahrenheit's ther-
mometer ; in cooling further it expands, and
when cooled to 32 degrees, it freezes. Hence
the greatest density of the fluid is at 40 degrees,
and water of this temperature, or near it, will
lie at the bottom with cooler water or with ice
floating above it. However much the surface
be cooled, water colder than 40 cannot descend
to displace water warmer than itself. Hence
we can never have ice formed at the bottom of
deep water. In approaching the freezing point,
the coldest water will rise to the surface, and
the congelation will take place there ; and the
ice so formed will remain at the surface, exposed
to the warmth of the sun-beams and the air, and
will not survive any long continuance of such
action.
Another peculiarity in the laws which regu-
late the action of cold on water is, that in the
very act of freezing a further sudden and con-
siderable expansion takes place. Many persons
will have known instances of vessels burst by
the freezing of water in them. The consequence
of this expansion is, that the specific gravity of
ice is less than that of water of any temperature ;
and it therefore alwavs floats in the unfrozen
LAWS OF HEAT. WATER.
fluid. If this expansion of crystallization did
not exist, ice would float in water which was
below 40 degrees, but would sink when the
fluid was above that temperature : as the case
is, it floats under all circumstances. The icy-
remnants of the effects of winter, which the
river carries down its stream, are visible on its
surface till they melt away ; and the icebergs
which are detached from the shores of the polar
seas, drift along, exposed to the sun and air,
as well as to the water in which they are
immersed.
These laws of the effect of temperature on
water are truly remarkable in their adaptation
to the beneficial course of things at the earth's
surface. Water contracts by cold ; it thus
equalizes the temperature of various times and
places ; but if its contraction were continued
all the way to the freezing point, it would bind
a great part of the earth in fetters of ice. The
contraction then is here replaced by expansion, in
a manner which but slightly modifies the former
effects, while it completely obviates the bad con-
sequences. The further expansion which takes
place at the point of freezing, still further faci-
litates the rapid removal of the icy chains, in
which parts of the earth's surface are at certain
seasons bound.
We do not know how far these laws of expan-
sion are connected with and depend on more
remote and general properties of this fluid, or of
86 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
ill fluids. But we have no reason to believe
diat, by whatever means they operate, they are
not laws selected from among other laws which
might exist, as in fact for other fluids other laws
do exist. And we have all the evidence, which
the most remarkable furtherance of important
purposes can give us, that they are selected, and
selected with a beneficial design.
3. As water becomes ice by cold, it becomes
steam by heat. In common language, steam is
the name given to the vapour of hot water ; but
in fact a vapour or steam rises from Avater at
all temperatures, however low, and even from
ice. The expansive force of this vapour in-
creases rapidly as the heat increases ; so that
when we reach the heat of boiling water, it ope-
rates in a far more striking manner than when
it is colder ; but in all cases the surface of water
is covered with an atmosphere of aqueous vapour,
the pressure or tension of which is limited by
the temperature of the water. To each degree
of pressure in steam there is a constituent tem-
perature corresponding. If the surface of water
is not pressed by vapour with the force thus
corresponding to its temperature, an immediate
evaporation will supply the deficiency. We can
compare the tension of such vapour with that of
our common atmosphere ; the pressure of the
latter is measured by the barometrical column,
about thirty inches of mercury; that of watery
vapour is equal to one inch of mercury at the
LAWS OF HEAT. WATER. 87
constituent temperature of 80 degrees, and to
one-fifth of an inch, at the temperature of 32
degrees.
Hence, if that part of the atmosphere which
consists of common air were annihilated, there
would still remain an atmosphere of aqueous
vapour, arising from the waters and moist parts
of the earth ; and in the existing state of things
this vapour rises in the atmosphere of dry air.
Its distribution and effects are materially in-
fluenced by the vehicle in which it is thus car-
ried, as we shall hereafter notice ; but at present
we have to observe the exceeding utility of water
in this shape. We remark how suitable and
indispensable to the well-being of the creation
it is, that the fluid should possess the pro-
perty of assuming such a form under such cir-
cumstances.
The moisture which floats in the atmosphere
is of most essential use to vegetable life.* " The
leaves of living plants appear to act upon this
vapour in its elastic form, and to absorb it.
Some vegetables increase in weight from this
cause when suspended in the atmosphere and
unconnected with the soil, as the house-leek and
the aloe. In very intense heats, and when the
soil is dry, the life of plants seems to be preserved
by the absorbent power of their leaves." It
follows from what has already been said, that,
* Loudon, 1219.
88 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
with an increasing heat of the atmosphere, an
increasing quantity of vapour will rise into it,
if supplied from any quarter. Hence it appears
that aqueous vapour is most abundant in the
atmosphere when it is most needed for the pur-
poses of life ; and that when other sources of
moisture are cut off, this is most copious.
4. Clouds are produced by aqueous vapour
when it returns to the state of water. This pro-
cess is condensation, the reverse of evaporation.
When vapour exists in the atmosphere, if in any
manner the temperature becomes lower than the
constituent temperature, requisite for the main-
tenance of the vapoury state, some of the steam
will be condensed and will become water. It is
in this manner that the curl of steam from the
spout of a boiling tea-kettle becomes visible,
being cooled down as it rushes to the air. The
steam condenses into a fine watery powder,
which is carried about by the little aerial cur-
rents. Clouds are of the same nature with such
curls, the condensation being generally produced
when air, charged with aqueous vapour, is mixed
with a colder current, or has its temperature
diminished in any other manner.
Clouds, while they retain that shape, are of
the most essential use to vegetable and animal
life. They moderate the fervour of the sun, in
a manner agreeable, to a greater or less degree,
in all climates, and grateful no less to vegetables
than to animals. Duhamel says that plants
LAWS OF HEAT. WATER. 89
grow more during a week of cloudy weather
than a month of dry and hot. It has been ob-
served that vegetables are far more refreshed by
being watered in cloudy than in clear weather.
In the latter case, probably the supply of fluid
is too rapidly carried off by evaporation. Clouds
also moderate the alternations of temperature,
by checking the radiation from the earth. The
coldest nights are those which occur under a
cloudless winter sky.
The uses of clouds, therefore, in this stage of
their history, are by no means inconsiderable,
and seem to indicate to us that the laws of their
formation were constructed with a view to the
purposes of organized life.
5. Clouds produce rain. In the formation of
a cloud the precipitation of moisture probably
forms a fine watery powder, which remains sus-
pended in the air in consequence of the minute-
ness of its particles : but if from any cause the
precipitation is collected in larger portions, and
becomes drops, these descend by their weight
and produce a shower.
Thus rain is another of the consequences of
the properties of water with respect to heat ; its
uses are the results of the laws of evaporation
and condensation. These uses, with reference
to plants, are too obvious and too numerous to
be described. It is evident that on its quantity
and distribution depend in a great measure the
prosperity of the vegetable kingdom : and differ-
90 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
ent climates are fitted for different productions,
no less by the relations of dry weather and
showers, than by those of hot and cold.
6. Returning back still further in the changes
which cold can produce on water, we come to
snow and ice : snow being apparently frozen
cloud or vapour, aggregated by a confused ac-
tion of crystalline laws ; and ice being water in
its fluid state, solidified by the same crystalline
forces. The impression of these agents on the
animal feelings is generally unpleasant, and we
are in the habit of considering them as symptoms
of the power of winter to interrupt that state of
the elements in which they are subservient to
life. Yet, even in this form, they are not with-
out their uses.* " Snow and ice are bad con-
ductors of cold ; and when the ground is co-
vered with snow, or the surface of the soil or of
water is frozen, the roots or bulbs of plants be-
neath are protected by the congealed water from
the influence of the atmosphere, the temperature
of which, in northern winters, is usually very
much below the freezing point ; and this water
becomes the first nourishment of the plant in
early spring. The expansion of water during
its congelation, at which time its volume in-
creases one-twelfth, and its contraction in bulk
during a thaw, tend to pulverize the soil, to
separate its parts from each other, and to make
• Loudon, 1214.
LAWS OF HEAT. WATER. 91
it more permeable to the influence of the air."
In consequence of the same slowness in the con-
duction of heat which snow thus possesses, the
arctic traveller finds his bed of snoAv of no into-
lerable coldness ; the Esquimaux is sheltered
from the inclemency of the season in his snow
hut, and travels rapidly and agreeably over the
frozen surface of the sea. The uses of those ar-
rangements, which at first appear productive
only of pain and inconvenience, are well suited
to give confidence and hope to our researches
for such usefulness in every part of the creation.
They have thus a peculiar value in adding con-
nexion and universality to our perception of
beneficial design.
7. There is a peculiar circumstance still to be
noticed in the changes from ice to water and from
water to steam. These changes take place at a
particular and invariable degree of heat; yet they
do not take place suddenly when we increase the
heat to this degree. This is a very curious ar-
rangement. The temperature makes a stand, as
it were, at the point where thaw, and where
boiling take place. It is necessary to apply a
considerable quantity of heat to produce these
effects ; all which heat disappears, or becomes
latent, as it is called. We cannot raise the tem-
perature of a thawing mass of ice till we have
thawed the whole. We cannot raise the tempe-
rature of boiling water, or of steam rising from
it, till we have converted all the water into
92 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
steam. Any heat that we apply while these
changes are going on is absorbed in producing
the changes.
The consequences of this property of latent
heat are very important. It is on this account
that the changes now spoken of necessarily oc-
cupy a considerable time. Each part in succes-
sion must have a proper degree of heat applied
to it. If it were otherwise, thaw and evapora-
tion must be instantaneous : at the first touch of
warmth, all the snow which lies on the roofs of
our houses would descend like a water spout into
the streets : all that which rests on the ground
would rush like an inundation into the water
courses. The hut of the Esquimaux Mould va-
nish like a house in a pantomime : the icy floor
of the river would be gone without giving any
warning to the skater or the traveller : and
when, in heating our water, we reached the
boiling point, the whole fluid would " flash into
steam," (to use the expression of engineers,) and
dissipate itself in the atmosphere, or settle in
dew on the neighbouring objects.
It is obviously necessary for the purposes of
human life, that these changes should be of a
more gradual and manageable kind than such
as we have now described. Yet this gradual
progress of freezing and thawing, of evapora-
tion and condensation, is produced, so far as
we can discover, by a particular contrivance.
Like the freezing of Avater from the top, or the
LAWS OF HEAT. WATER. 93
floating of ice, the moderation of the rate of
these changes seems to be the result of a viola-
tion of a law : that is, the simple rule regarding
the effects of change of temperature, which at
first sight appears to be the law, and which,
from its simplicity, would seem to us the most
obvious law for these as well as other cases, is
modified at certain critical points, so as to pro-
duce these advantageous effects : — why may we
not say in order to produce such effects ?
8. Another office of water which it discharges
by means of its relations to heat, is that of sup-
plying our springs. There can be no doubt that
the old hypotheses, which represent springs as
drawing their supplies from large subterranean
reservoirs of water, or from the sea by a process
of subterraneous filtration, are erroneous and
untenable. The quantity of evaporation from
water and from wet ground is found to be
amply sufficient to supply the requisite drain.
Mr. Dalton calculated* that the quantity of
rain which falls in England is thirty-six inches
a year. Of this he reckoned that thirteen inches
flow off to the sea by the rivers, and that the
remaining twenty-three inches are raised ajrain
from the ground by evaporation. The thirteen
inches of water are of course supplied by evapo-
ration from the sea, and are carried back to the
land through the atmosphere. Vapour is perpe-
* Manchester Memoirs, v. 357.
94 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
tually rising from the ocean, and is condensed
in the hills and high lands, and through their
pores and crevices descends, till it is deflected,
collected, and conducted out to the day, by
some stratum or channel which is watertight.
The condensation which takes place in the
higher parts of a country, may easily be recog-
nised in the mists and rains which are the fre-
quent occupants of such regions. The coldness
of the atmosphere and other causes precipitate
the moisture in clouds and showers, and in the
former as well as in the latter shape, it is con-
densed and absorbed by the cool ground. Thus
a perpetual and compound circulation of the
waters is kept up ; a narrower circle between
the evaporation and precipitation of the land
itself, the rivers and streams only occasionally
and partially forming a portion of the circuit ;
and a wider interchange between the sea and
the lands which feed the springs, the water
ascending perpetually by a thousand currents
through the air, and descending by the gra-
dually converging branches of the rivers, till it
is again returned into the great reservoir of the
ocean.
In every country, these two portions of the
aqueous circulation have their regular, and
nearly constant, proportion. In this kingdom
the relative quantities are, as we have said, 23
and 13. A due distribution of these circulating
LAWS OF HEAT. WATER. 95
fluids in each country appears to be necessary
to its organic health ; to the habits of vegetables,
and of man. We have every reason to believe
that it is kept up from year to year as steadily
as the circulation of the blood in the veins and
arteries of man. It is maintained by a ma-
chinery very different, indeed, from that of the
human system, but apparently as well, and,
therefore, we may say as clearly, as that,
adapted to its purposes.
By this machinery, we have a connexion es-
tablished between the atmospheric changes of
remote countries. Rains in England are often
introduced by a south-east wind. " Vapour
brought to us by such a wind, must have been
generated in countries to the south and east of
our island. It is therefore, probably, in the
extensive valleys watered by the Meuse, the
Moselle, and the Rhine, if not from the more
distant Elbe, with the Oder and the Weser,
that the water rises, in the midst of sunshine,
which is soon afterwards to form our clouds, and
pour down our thunder-showers." " Drought
and sunshine in one part of Europe may be as
necessary to the production of a wet season in
another, as it is on the great scale of the conti-
nents of Africa and South America; where the
plains, during one half the year, are burnt up,
to feed the springs of the mountains ; which in
their turn contribute to inundate the fertile val-
96 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
leys and prepare them for a luxuriant vegeta-
tion."* The properties of water which regard
heat make one vast watering-engine of the at-
mosphere.
Chapter X.
The Laws of Heat with respect to Air.
JE have seen in the preceding chapter, how
f^PI many and how important are the offices
discharged by the aqueous part of the atmos-
phere. The aqueous part is, however, a very
small part only : it may vary, perhaps, from less
than l-100dth to nearly as much as l-20th in
weight, of the whole aerial ocean. We have to
offer some considerations with regard to the
remainder of the mass.
1. In the first place we may observe that llio
aerial atmosphere is necessary as a vehicle for
the aqueous vapour. Salutary as is the opera-
tion of this last element to the whole organized
creation, it is a substance which would not have
answered its purposes if it had been administered
pure. It requires to be diluted and associated
with dry air, to make it serviceable. A little
consideration will show this.
We can suppose the earth with no atmosphere
* Howard on the Climate of London, vol. ii. pp. 216, 217.
LAWS OF HEAT. AIK. 97
except the vapour which arises from its watery
parts : and if we suppose also the equatorial
parts of the globe to be hot, and the polar parts
cold, we may easily see what would be the
consequence. The waters at the equator, and
near the equator, would produce steam of greater
elasticity, rarity, and temperature, than that
"which occupies the regions further polewards ;
and such steam, as it came in contact with the
colder vapour of a higher latitude, would be
precipitated into the form of water. Hence
there would be a perpetual current of steam
from the equatorial parts towards each pole,
which would be condensed, would fall to the
surface, and flow back to the equator in the form
of fluid. We should have a circulation which
might be regarded as a species of regulated dis-
tillation.* On a globe so constituted, the sky of
the equatorial zone would be perpetually cloud-
less ; but in all other latitudes we should have
an uninterrupted shroud of clouds, fogs, rains,
and, near the poles, a continual fall of snow.
This would be balanced by a constant flow of the
currents of the ocean from each pole towards the
equator. We should have an excessive circula-
tion of moisture, but no sunshine, and probably
only minute changes in the intensity and appear-
ances of one eternal drizzle or shower.
It is plain that this state of things would but
* Daniell. Meteor. Ess. p. 56.
W. H
98 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
ill answer the ends of vegetable and animal life :
so that even if the lungs of animals and the
leaves of plants were so constructed as to breathe
steam instead of air, an atmosphere of unmixed
steam would deprive those creatures of most of
the other external conditions of their well-being.
The real state of things which we enjoy, the
steam being mixed in our breath and in our sky
in a moderate quantity, gives rise to results very
different from those which have been described.
The machinery by which these results are pro-
duced is not a little curious. It is, in fact, the
machinery of the tceather, and therefore the
reader will not be surprised to find it both com-
plex and apparently uncertain in its working.
At the same time some of the general principles
which govern it seem now to be pretty well
made out, and they offer no small evidence of
beneficent arrangement.
Besides our atmosphere of aqueous vapour,
we have another and far larger atmosphere of
common air ; a. permanently elastic fluid, that is,
one which is not condensed into a liquid form by
pressure or cold, such as it is exposed to in the
order of natural events. The pressure of the dry
air is about 29^ inches of mercury ; that of the
watery vapour, perhaps, half an inch. Now if
we had the earth quite dry, and covered with an
atmosphere of dry air, we can trace in a great
measure what would be the results, supposing
still the equatorial zone to be hot, and the tern-
LAWS OF HEAT. AIR. 99
peralure of the surface to decrease perpetually
as we advance into higher latitudes. The air
at the equator would be rarefied by the heat, and
would be perpetually displaced below by the
denser portions which belonged to cooler lati-
tudes. We should have a current of air from
the equator to the poles in the higher regions of
the atmosphere, and at the surface a returning
current setting towards the equator to fill up the
void so created. Such aerial currents, combined
with the rotatory motion of the earth, Avould pro-
duce oblique winds ; and we have in fact in-
stances of winds so produced, in the trade winds,
which between the tropics blow constantly from
the quarters between east and north, and are, we
know, balanced by opposite currents in higher
regions. The effect of a heated surface of land
would be the same as that of the heated zone of
the equator, and would attract to it a sea breeze
during the day time, a phenomenon, as we also
know, of perpetual occurrence.
Now a mass of dry air of such a character as
this, is by far the dominant part of our atmos-
phere ; and hence carries with it in its motions
the thinner and smaller eddies of aqueous va-
pour. The latter fluid may be considered as
permeating and moving in the interstices of the
former, as a spring of water flows through a
sand rock.* The lower current of air is,' as has
* Daniell. p. 129.
100 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
been said, directed towards the equator, and
hence it resists the motion of the steam, the
tendency of which is in the opposite direction ;
and prevents or much retards that continual
flow of hot vapour into colder regions, by which
a constant precipitation would take place in the
latter situations.
If, in this state of things, the flow of the cur-
rent of air, which blows from any colder place
into a warmer region, be retarded or stopped,
the aqueous vapours will now be able to make
their way to the colder point, where they will
be precipitated in clouds or showers.
Thus, in the lower part of the atmosphere,
there are tendencies to a current of air in one
direction, and a current of vapour in the opposite ;
and these tendencies exist in the average weather
of places situated at a moderate distance from
the equator. The air tends from the colder to
the warmer parts, the vapour from the warmer
to the colder.
The various distribution of land and sea, and
many other causes, make these currents far from
simple. But in general the air current pre-
dominates, and keeps the skies clear and the
moisture dissolved. Occasional and irregular
occurrences disturb this predominance ; the
moisture is then precipitated, the skies are
clouded, and the clouds may descend in copious
rains.
These alternations of fair weather and showers
LAWS OF HEAT. AIR. 101
appear to be much more favourable to vegetable
and animal life than any uniform coarse of
weather could have been. To produce this
variety, we have two antagonist forces, by the
struggle of which such changes occur. Steam
and air, two transparent and elastic fluids, ex-
pansible by heat, are in many respects and pro-
perties very like each other. Yet the same heat,
similarly applied to the globe, produces at the
surface currents of these fluids, tending in oppo-
site directions. And these currents mix and
balance, conspire and interfere, so that our trees
and fields have alternately water and sunshine ;
our fruits and grain are successively developed
and matured. Why should such laws of heat
and elastic fluids so obtain, and be so combined ?
Is it not in order that they may be fit for such
offices ? There is here an arrangement, which
no chance could have produced. The details of
this apparatus may be beyond our power of
tracing ; its springs may be out of our sight.
Such circumstances do not make it the less a
curious and beautiful contrivance : they need
not prevent our recognizing the skill and bene-
volence which we can discover.
2. But we have not yet done with the ma-
chinery of the weather. In ascending from the
earth's surface through the atmosphere, we find
a remarkable difference in the heat and in the
pressure of the air. It becomes much colder,
and much lighter ; men's feelings tell them this ;
102 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
and the thermometer and barometer confirm these
indications. And here again we find something
to remark.
In both the simple atmospheres of which we
have spoken, the one of air and the one of steam,
the property which we have mentioned must
exist. In each of them, both the temperature
and the tension would diminish in ascending.
Rut they would diminish at very different rates.
The temperature, for instance, would decrease
much more rapidly for the same height in dry
air than in steam. If we begin with a tempera-
ture of 80 degrees at the surface, on ascending
5,000 feet the steam is still 76g degrees, the air
is only 64| degrees; at 10,000 feet, the steam
is 73 degrees, the air 48h degrees; at 15,000
feet, steam is at 70 degrees, air has fallen below
the freezing point to 31^ degrees. Hence these
two atmospheres cannot exist together without
modifying one another : one must heat or cool
the other, so that the coincident parts may be
of the same temperature. This accordingly
does take place, and this effect influences very
greatly the constitution of the atmosphere. For
the most part, the steam is compelled to accom-
modate itself to the temperature of the air, the
latter beinjj of much the greater bulk. But it
the upper parts of the aqueous vapour be cooled
down to the temperature of the air, they will not
by any means exert on the lower parts of the
same vapour so great a pressure as the gaseous
LAWS OF HEAT. AIR. 103
form of these could bear. Hence, there will be
a deficiency of moisture in the lower part of the
atmosphere, and if water exist there, it will rise
by evaporation, the surface feeling an insufficient
tension ; and there will thus be a fresh supply
of vapour upwards. As, however, the upper
regions already contain as much as their tempe-
rature will support in the state of gas, a preci-
pitation will now take place, and the fluid thus
formed will descend till it arrives in a lower
region, where the tension and temperature are
again adapted to its evaporation.
Thus, w r e can have no equilibrium in such an
atmosphere, but a perpetual circulation of vapour
between its upper and lower parts. The currents
of air which move about in different directions,
at different altitudes, will be differently charged
with moisture, and as they touch and mingle,
lines of cloud are formed, which grow r and join,
and arc spread out in floors, or rolled together
in piles. These, again, by an additional accession
of humidity, are formed into drops, and descend
in showers into the lower regions, and if not
evaporated in their fall, reach the surface of the
earth.
The varying occurrences thus produced, tend
to multiply and extend their own variety. The
ascending streams of vapour carry with them
that latent heat belonging to their gaseous state,
which, when they are condensed, they give out
as sensible heat. They thus raise the tempera-
104 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
tare of the upper regions of air, and occasion
changes in the pressure and motion of its cur-
rents. The clouds, again, by shading the surface
of the earth from the sun, diminish the evapora-
tion by which their own substance is supplied,
and the heating effects by which currents are
caused. Even the mere mechanical effects of
the currents of fluid on the distribution of its
own pressure, and the dynamical conditions of
its motion, are in a high degree abstruse in their
principles and complex in their results. It need
not be wondered, therefore, if the study of this
subject is very difficult and entangled, and our
knowledge, after all, very imperfect.
In the midst of all this apparent confusion,
however, we can see much that we can under-
stand. And, among other things, we may
notice some of the consequences of the difference
of the laws of temperature followed by steam
and by air in going upwards. One important
result is that the atmosphere is much drier,
near the surface, than it would have been if the
laws of density and temperature had been the
same for both gases. If this had been so, the
air would always have been saturated with
vapour. It would have contained as much as
the existing temperature could support, and the
slightest cooling of any object would have
covered it with a watery film like dew. As it
is, the air contains much less than its full
quantity of vapour : Ave may often cool an
LAWS OF HEAT. AIR. 105
object 10, 20, or 30 degrees without obtaining
a deposition of water upon it, or reaching the
dew-point, as it is called. To have had such a
dripping state of the atmosphere as the former
arrangement would have produced, would have
been inconvenient, and, so far as we can judge,
unsuited to vegetables as well as animals. No
evaporation from the surface of either could
have taken place, under such conditions.
The sizes and forms of clouds appear to de-
pend on the same circumstance, of the air not
being saturated with moisture. And it is seem-
ingly much better that clouds should be com-
paratively small and well defined, as they are,
than that they should fill vast depths of the
atmosphere with a thin mist, which would have
been the consequence of the imaginary condition
of things just mentioned.
Here then we have another remarkable exhi-
bition of two laws, in two nearly similar gaseous
fluids, producing effects alike in kind, but dif-
ferent in degree, and by the play of their differ-
ence giving rise to a new set of results, peculiar
in their nature and beneficial in their tendency.
The form of the laws of air and of steam with
regard to heat might, so far as we can see, have
been more similar, or more dissimilar, than it
now is : the rate of each law might have had a
different amount from its present one, so as
quite to alter the relation of the two. By the
laws having such forms and such rates as they
106 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATION'S.
have, effects are produced, some of which we
can distinctly perceive to be beneficial. Perhaps
most persons will feel a strong persuasion, that
if we understood the operation of these laws more
distinctly, Ave should see still more clearly the
beneficial tendency of these effects, and should
probably discover others, at present concealed
in the apparent perplexity of the subject.
3. From what has been said, we may see, in
a general way, both the causes and the effects
of winds. They arise from any disturbance by
temperature, motion, pressure, &c. of the equi-
librium of the atmosphere, and are the efforts of
nature to restore the balance. Their office in the
economy of nature is to carry heat and moisture
from one tract to another, and they are the
great agents in the distribution of temperature
and the changes of weather. Other purposes
might easily be ascribed to them in the business
of tbe vegetable and animal kingdoms, and in
the arts of human life, of which we shall not.
here treat. That character in which we now
consider them, that of the machinery of atmos-
pheric changes, and thus, immediately or re-
motely, the instruments of atmospheric influ-
ences, cannot well be refused them by any
person.
4. There is still one reflexion which ought not
to be omitted. All the changes of the weather,
even the most violent tempests and torrents of
rain, may be considered as oscillations about the
LAV. EAT. aIK. 107
mean or average condition belonging- to each
C Co
place. All these oscillations are limited and
transient ; the storm spends its fury, the inun-
dation passes off, the sky clears, the calmer
course of nature succeeds. In the forces which
produce this derangement, there is a provision
for making it short and moderate. The oscilla-
tion stops of itself, like the rolling of a ship,
when no longer impelled by the wind. Now,
why should this be so ? Why should the oscil-
lations, produced by the conflict of so many
laws, seemingly quite unconnected with each
other, be of this converging and subsiding cha-
racter ? Would it be so under all arrange-
ments ? Is it a matter of mechanical necessity
that disturbance must end in the restoration of
the medium condition ? By no means. There
may be an utter subversion of the equilibrium.
The ship may roll too far, and may capsize.
The oscillations may go on, becoming larger and
larger, till all trace of the original condition is
lost ; till new forces of inequality and disturb-
ance are brought into play ; and disorder and
irregularity may succeed, without apparent limit
or check in its own nature, like the spread of a
conflagration in a city. This is a possibility in
any combination of mechanical forces ; why
does it not happen in the one now before us ?
By what good fortune are the powers of heat, of
water, of steam, of air, the effects of the earth's
annual and diurnal motions, and probably other
108 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATION'S.
causes, so adjusted, that through all their strug-
gles the elemental world goes on, upon the
whole, so quietly and steadily ? Why is the
whole fabric of the weather never utterly de-
ranged, its balance lost irrecoverably ? Why is
there not an eternal conflict, such as the poets
imagine to take place in their chaos ?
" For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring
Their embryon atoms : —
to whom these most adhere
He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits,
And by decision more embroils the fray." *
A state of things something like that which
Milton here seems to have imagined is, so far
as we know, not mechanically impossible. It
might have continued to obtain, if Hot and
Cold, and Moist and Dry had not been com-
pelled to " run into their places." It will be
hereafter seen, that in the comparatively simple
problem of the solar system, a number of very
peculiar adjustments were requisite, in order
that the system might retain a permanent form,
in order that its motions might have their
cycles, its perturbations their limits and period.
The problem of the combination of such laws
and materials as enter into the constitution of
the atmosphere, is one manifestly of much
* Par. Lost, b. II.
LAWS OF HEAT. AIR. 109
greater complexity, and indeed to us probably
of insurmountable difficulty as a mechanical
problem. But all that investigation and analogy
teach us, tends to show that it will resemble
the other problem in the nature of its result ;
and that certain relations of its data, and of the
laws of its elements, are necessary requisites, for
securing the stability of its mean condition, and
for giving a small and periodical character to
its deviations from such a condition.
It would then be probable, from this reflexion
alone, that in determining the quantity and
the law and intensity of the forces, of earth,
water, air, and heat, the same regard has been
shown to the permanency and stability of the
terrestrial system, which may be traced in the
adjustment of the masses, distances, positions,
and motions of the bodies of the celestial ma-
chine.
This permanency appears to be, of itself, a
suitable object of contrivance. The purpose for
which the world was made could be answered
only by its being preserved. But it has appeared,
from the preceding part of this and the former
chapter, that this permanence is a permanence
of a state of things adapted by the most re-
markable and multiplied combinations to the
well-being of man, of animals, of vegetables.
The adjustments and conditions therefore, be-
yond the reach of our investigation as they are,
by which its permanence is secured, must be
110 TERRESTRIAL adaptations.
conceived as fitted to add, in each of the
instances above adduced, to the admiration
which the several manifestations of Intelligent
Beneficence are calculated to excite.
Chapter XI.
The Laics of Electricity.
t
|LECTRICITY undoubtedly exists in the
atmosphere in most states of the air ; but
we know very imperfectly the laws of this agent,
and are still more ignorant of its atmospheric
operation. The present state of science does not
therefore enable us to perceive those adaptations
of its laws to its uses, which we can discover in
those cases where the laws and the uses are
both of them more apparent.
We can, however, easily make out that elec-
trical agency plays a very considerable part
among the clouds, in their usual conditions and
changes. This may be easily shown by Frank-
lin's experiment of the electrical kite. The
clouds are sometimes positively, sometimes ne-
gatively, charged, and the rain which descends
from them offers also indications of one or other
kind of electricity. The changes of wind and
alterations of the form of the clouds are
generally accompanied with changes in these
electrical indications. Every one knows that
ELECTRICITY. 1 ! 1
a thunder-cloud is strongly charged with the
electric fluid, (if it be a fluid), and that the
stroke of the lightning is an electrical discharge.
We may add that it appears, by recent experi-
ments, that a transfer of electricity between
plants and the atmosphere is perpetually going
on during the process of vegetation.
We cannot trace very exactly the precise
circumstances, in the occurrences of the atmos-
pheric regions, -which depend on the influence
of the laws of electricity : but we are tolerably
certain, from what has been already noticed,
that if these laws did not exist, or were very
different from what they now are, the action of
the clouds and Avinds, and the course of vegeta-
tion, would also be other than it now is.
It is therefore at any rate very probable that
electricity has its appointed and important pur-
poses in the economy of the atmosphere. And
this being so, we may see a use in the thunder-
storm and the stroke of the lightning. These
violent events are, with regard to the electricity
of the atmosphere, what winds are with regard
to heat and moisture. They restore the equi-
librium where it has been disturbed, and carry
the fluid from places where it is superfluous, to
others where it is deficient.
We are so constituted, however, that these
crises impress almost every one with a feeling
of awe. The deep lowering gloom of the
thunder-cloud, the overwhelming burst of the
112 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
explosion, the flash from which the steadiest eve
shrinks, and the irresistible arrow of the
lightning which no earthly substance can with-
stand, speak of something fearful, even inde-
pendently of the personal danger which they may
whisper. They convey, far more than any other
appearance does, the idea of a superior and
mighty power, manifesting displeasure and
threatening punishment. Yet we find that this
is not the language which they speak to the
physical enquirer : he sees these formidable
symptoms only as the means or the consequences
of good. What office the thunderbolt and the
whirlwind may have in the moral world, we
cannot here discuss : but certainly he must
speculate as far beyond the limits of philosophy
as of piety, who pretends to have learnt that
there their work has more of evil than of good.
In the natural world, these apparently destruc-
tive agents are, like all the other movements
and appearances of the atmosphere, parts of a
great scheme, of which every discoverable
purpose is marked with beneficence as well as
wisdom.
113
Chapter XII.
The Laws of Magnetism.
|AGNETISM has no very obvious or ap-
parently extensive office in the mecha-
nism of the atmosphere and the earth : but the
mention of it maybe introduced, because its as-
certained relations to the other powers which
exist in the system are well suited to show us the
connexion subsisting throughout the universe,
and to check the suspicion, if any such should
arise, that any law of nature is without its use.
The parts of creation when these uses are most
obscure, are precisely those parts when the laws
themselves are least known.
When indeed we consider the vast service of
which magnetism is to man, by supplying him
with that invaluable instrument the mariner's
compass, many persons will require no .further
evidence of this property being introduced into
the frame of things with a worthy purpose. As
however, we have hitherto excluded use in the
arts from our line of argument, we shall not here
make any exception in favour of navigation, and
what we shall observe belongs to another view
of the subject.
Magnetism has been discovered in modern
times to have so close a connexion with galva-
114 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
nism, that they may be said to be almost diffe-
rent aspects of the same agent. All the pheno-
mena which we can produce with magnets, we
can imitate with coils of galvanic wire. That
galvanism exists in the earth, we need no proof.
Electricity, which appears to differ from gal-
vanic currents, much in the same manner in
which a fluid at rest differs from a fluid in mo-
tion, appears to be only galvanism in equili-
brium, is there in abundance ; and recently,
Mr. Fox * has shown by experiment that me-
talliferous veins, as they lie in the earth, exer-
cise a galvanic influence on each other. Some-
thing of tbis kind might have been anticipated ;
for masses of metal in contact, if they differ in
temperature or other circumstances, are known
to produce a galvanic current. Hence we have
undoubtedly streams of galvanic influence mov-
ing along in the earth. Whether or not such
causes as these produce the directive power of
the magnetic needle, we cannot here pretend to
decide ; they can hardly fail to affect it. The
Aurora Borealis too, probably an electrical phe-
nomenon, is said, under particular circum-
stances, to agitate the magnetic needle. It is
not surprising, therefore, that, if electricity
have an important office in the atmosphere, mag-
netism should exist in the earth. It seems,
likely, that the magnetic properties of the earth
may be collateral results of the existence of the
* Phil. Trans. 1831.
MAGNETISM. 115
same cause by which electrical agency operates ;
an agency which, as we have already seen, has
important offices in the processes of vegetable
life. And thus magnetism belongs to the same
system of beneficial contrivance to which elec-
tricity has been already traced.
. We see, however, on this subject very dimly
and a very small way. It can hardly be doubted
that magnetism has other functions than those
we have noticed.
Chapter XIII.
The Properties of Light with regard to
Vegetation.
pHE illuminating power of light will come
under our consideration hereafter. Its
agency, with regard to organic life, is too impor-
tant not to be noticed, though this must be done
briefly. Light appears to be as necessary to the
health of plants as air or moisture. A plant may,
indeed, grow without it, but it does not appear
that a species could be so continued. Under such
a privation, the parts which are usually green,
assume a white colour, as is the case with vege-
tables grown in a cellar, or protected by a cover-
ing for the sake of producing this very effect ;
thus, celery is in this manner blanched, or etio-
lated.
116 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
The part of the process of vegetable life for
which light is especially essential, appears to be
the functions of the leaves ; these are affected
by this agent in a very remarkable manner.
The moisture which plants imbibe is, by their
vital energies, carried to their leaves ; and is
there brought in contact with the atmosphere,
which, besides other ingredients, contains, in
general, a portion of carbonic acid. So long as
light is present, the leaf decomposes the car-
bonic acid, appropriates the carbon to the for-
mation of its own proper juices, and returns the
disengaged oxygen into the atmosphere; thus
restoring the atmospheric air to a condition in
which it is more fitted than it was before for the
support of animal life. The plant thus prepares
the support of life for other creatures at the same
time that it absorbs its own. The greenness of
those members which affect that colour, and the
disengagement of oxygen, are the indications
that its vital powers are in healthful action : as
soon as we remove light from the plant, these
indications cease : it has no longer power to im-
bibe carbon and disengage oxygen, but, on the
contrary, it gives back some of the carbon al-
ready obtained, and robs the atmosphere of oxy-
gen for the purpose of reconverting this into
carbonic acid.
It cannot well be conceived that such effects
of light on vegetables, as we have described,
should occur, if that agent, of whatever nature
it is, and those organs, had not been adapted to
LIGHT AND PLANTS. 117
each other. But the subject is here introduced
that the reader may the more readily receive the
conviction of combining purpose which must
arise, on finding that an agent, possessing these
very peculiar chemical properties, is employed
to produce also those effects of illumination, vi-
sion, &c, which form the most obvious portion
of the properties of light.
Chapter XIV.
Sound.
RESIDES the function which air discharges
as the great agent in the changes of me-
teorology and vegetation, it has another office,
also of great and extensive importance, as the
vehicle of sound.
1. The communication of sound through the
air takes place by means of a process altogether
different from anything of which we have yet
spoken : namely, by the propagation of minute
vibrations of the particles from one part of the
fluid mass to another, without any local motion
of the fluid itself.
Perhaps we may most distinctly conceive the
kind of effect here spoken of, by comparing it
to the motion produced by the wind in a field
of standing corn ; grassy waves travel visibly
over the field, in the direction in which the
118 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
wind blows, but this appearance of an object
moving is delusive. The only real motion is
that of the ears of grain, of which each goes and
returns, as the stalk stoops and recovers itself.
This motion affects successively a line of ears in
the direction of the wind, and affects simulta-
neously all those ears of which the elevation or
depression forms one visible wave. The eleva-
tions and depressions are propagated in a con-
stant direction, while the parts with which the
space is filled only vibrate to and fro. Of ex-
actly such a nature is the propagation of sound
through the air. The particles of air go and
return through very -minute spaces, and this
vibratory motion runs through the atmosphere
from the sounding body to the ear. Waves,
not of elevation and depression, but of conden-
sation and rarefaction, are transmitted ; and the
sound thus becomes an object of sense to the
organ.
Another familiar instance of the propagation
of vibrations we have in the circles on the
surface of smooth water, which diverge from
the point where it is touched by a small object,
as a drop of rain. In the beginning of a shower
for instance, when the drops come distinct,
though frequent, we may see each drop giving
rise to a ring, formed of two or three close con-
centric circles, which grow and spread, leaving
the interior of the circles smooth, and gradually
reaching parts of the surface more and more
SOUND. 119
distant from their origin. In this instance, it is
clearly not a portion of the water which flows
onwards ; but the disturbance, the rise and fall
of the surface which makes the ring-formed
waves, passes into wider and wider circles, and
thus the undulation is transmitted from its start-
ing-place, to points in all directions on the sur-
face of the fluid.
The diffusion of these ring-formed undula-
tions from their centre resembles the diffusion
of a sound from the place where it is produced
to the points where it is heard. The disturbance,
or vibration, by which it is conveyed, travels
at the same rate in all directions, and the waves
which are propagated are hence of a circular
form. They differ, however, from those on the
surface of water ; for sound is communicated
upwards and downwards, and in all interme-
diate directions, as well as horizontally ; hence
the waves of sound are spherical, the point where
the sound is produced being the centre of the
sphere.
This diffusion of vibrations in spherical shells
of successive condensation and rarefaction, will
easily be seen to be different from any local mo-
tion of the air, as wind, and to be independent of
that. The circles on the surface of water will
spread on a river which is flowing, provided it
be smooth, as well as on a standing canal.
Not only are such undulations propagated
almost undisturbed by any local motion of the
120 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
fluid in which they take place, but also, many
may be propagated in the same fluid at the same
time, without disturbing each other. We may
see this effect on water. When several drops
fall near each other, the circles which they pro-
duce cross each other, without either of them
being lost, and the separate courses of the rings
may still be traced.
All these consequences, both in water, in air,
and in any other fluid, can be very exactly in-
vestigated upon mechanical principles, and the
greater part of the phenomena can thus be shown
to result from the properties of the fluids.
There are several remarkable circumstances
in the way in which air answers its purpose as
the vehicle of sound, of which we will now point
out a few.
2. The loudness of sound is such as is con-
venient for common purposes. The organs of
speech can, in the present constitution of the air,
produce, without fatigue, such a tone of voice as
can be heard with distinctness and with comfort.
That any great alteration in this element might
be incommodious, we may judge from the diffi-
culties to which persons are subject who are dull
of hearing, and from the disagreeable effects of
a voice much louder than usual, or so low as to
be indistinct. Sounds produced by the human
organs, with other kinds of air, are very different
from those in our common air. If a man inhale
a quantity of hydrogen gas, and then speak, his
voice is scarcely audible.
SOUND. 121
The loudness of sounds becomes smaller in
proportion as they come from a greater distance.
This enables us to judge of the distance of ob-
jects, in some degree at least, by the sounds
which proceed from them. Moreover it is found
that we can judge of the position of objects by
the ear : and this judgment seems to be formed
by comparing the loudness of the impression of
the same sound on the two ears and two sides of
the head.*
The loudness of sounds appears to depend on
the extent of vibration of the particles of air,
and this is determined by the vibrations of the
sounding body.
3. The pitch or the differences of acute and
grave, in sounds, form another important pro-
perty, and one which fits them for a great part
of their purposes. By the association of diffe-
rent notes, we have all the results of melody
and harmony in musical sound ; and of intona-
tion and modulation of the voice, of accent, ca-
dence, emphasis, expression, passion, in speech.
The song of birds, which is one of their princi-
pal modes of communication, depends chiefly for
its distinctions and its significance upon the com
binations of acute and grave.
These differences are produced by the diffe-
rent rapidity of vibration of the particles of air.
The gravest sound has about thirty vibrations in
a second, the most acute about one thousand.
' Mr. Gough in Manch. Mem. vol.
122 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
Between these limits each sound has a musical
character, and from the different relations of the
number of vibrations in a second arise all the
differences of musical intervals, concords and
discords.
4. The quality of sounds is another of their
differences. This is the name given to the dif-
ference of notes of the same pitch, that is the same
note as to acute and grave, when produced by
different instruments. If a flute and a violin
be in unison, the notes are still quite different
sounds. It is this kind of difference which dis-
tinguishes the voice of one man from that of
another : and it is manifestly therefore one of
great consequence : since it connects the voice
with the particular person, and is almost neces-
sary in order that language may be a medium of
intercourse between men.
5. The articulate character of sounds is for
us one of the most important arrangements
which exist in the world ; for it is by this that
sounds become the interpreters of thought, will,
and feeling, the means by which a person can
convey his wants, his instructions, his promises,
his kindness, to others ; by which one man can
regulate the actions and influence the convic-
tions and judgments of another. It is in virtue
of the possibility of shaping air into words, that
the imperceptible vibrations which a man pro-
duces in the atmosphere, become some of his
most important actions, the foundations of the
SOUND. 123
highest moral and social relations, and the con-
dition and instrument of all the advancement
and improvement of which he is susceptible.
It appears that the differences of articulate
sound arise from the different form of the cavity
through which the sound is made to proceed
immediately after being produced. In the hu-
man voice the sound is produced in the larynx,
and modified by the cavity of the mouth, and
the various organs which surround this cavity.
The laws by which articulate sounds are thus
produced have not yet been fully developed, but
appear to be in the progress of being so.
The properties of sounds which have been
mentioned, differences of loudness, of pitch, of
quality, and articulation, appear to be all requi-
site in order that sound shall answer its purposes
in the economy of animal and of human life.
And how was the air made capable of conveying
these four differences, at the same time that the
organs were made capable of producing them ?
Surely by a most refined and skilful adaptation,
applied with a most comprehensive design.
6. Again ; is it by chance that the air and
the ear exist together? Did the air produce
the organization of the ear ? or the ear, inde-
pendently organized, anticipate the constitution
of the atmosphere ? Or is not the only intelli-
gible account of the matter, this, that one was
made for the other : that there is a mutual adap-
tation produced by an Intelligence which was
124 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
acquainted with the properties of both ; which
adjusted them to each other as we find them
adjusted, in order that birds might communi-
cate by song, that men might speak and hear,
and that language might play its extraordinary
part in its operation upon men's thoughts, ac-
tions, institutions, and fortunes ?
The vibrations of an elastic fluid like the air,
and their properties, follow from the laws of
motion ; and whether or not these laws of the
motion of fluids might in reality have been
other than they are, they appear to us insepara-
bly connected with the existence of matter, and
as much a thing of necessity as we can conceive
any thing in the universe to be. The propaga-
tion of such vibrations, therefore, and their pro-
perties, we may at present allow to be a neces-
sary part of the constitution of the atmosphere.
But what is it that makes these vibrations be-
come sound ? How is it that they produce such
an effect on our senses, and, through those, on
our minds ? The vibrations of the air seem to be
of themselves no more fitted to produce sound
than to produce smell. We know that such vi-
brations do not universally produce sound, but
only between certain limits. When the vibra-
tions are fewer than thirty in a second, they are
perceived as separate throbs, and not as a con-
tinued sound; and there is a certain limit of
rapidity, beyond which the vibrations become
inaudible. This limit is different to different
SOUND.
125
cars, and we are thus assured by one person's
ear that there are vibrations, though to that of
another they do not produce sound. How was
the human ear adapted so that its perception of
vibrations as sounds should fall within these
limits ?— the very limits within which the vibra-
tions fall, which it most concerns us to perceive ;
those of the human voice for instance ? How
nicely are the organs adjusted with regard to the
most minute mechanical motions of the elements !
Chapter XV.
The Atmosphere.
|E have considered in succession a number
i| of the properties and operations of the at-
mosphere, and have found them separately very
curious. But an additional interest belongs to
the subject when we consider them as combined.
The atmosphere under this point of view must
appear a contrivance of the most extraordinary
kind. To answer any of its purposes, to carry
on any of its processes, separately, requires pe-
culiar arrangements and adjustments; to an-
swer all at once, purposes so varied, to combine
without confusion so many different trains, im-
plies powers and attributes which can hardly
fail to excite in a high degree our admiration
and reverence.
126 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
If the atmosphere be considered as a vast ma-
chine, it is difficult to form any just conception
of the profound skill and comprehensiveness of
design which it displays. It diffuses and tem-
pers the heat of different climates ; for this pur-
pose it performs a circulation occupying the
whole range from the pole to the equator ; and
while it is doing this, it executes many smaller
circuits between the sea and the land. At the
same time, it is the means of forming clouds and
rain, and for this purpose, a perpetual circula-
tion of the watery part of the atmosphere goes
on between its lower and upper regions. Besides
this complication of circuits, it exercises a more
irregular agency, in the occasional winds which
blow from all quarters, tending perpetually to
restore the equilibrium of heat and moisture.
But this incessant and multiplied activity dis-
charges only a part of the functions of the air.
It is, moreover, the most important and univer-
sal material of the growth and sustenance of
plants and animals ; and is for this purpose
every where present and almost uniform in its
quantity. With all its local motion, it has also
the office of a medium of communication between
intelligent creatures, which office it performs by
another set of motions, entirely different both
from the circulation and the occasional move-
ments already mentioned ; these different kinds
of motions not interfering materially with each
other : and this last purpose, so remote from the
others in its nature, it answers in a manner so
THE ATMOSPHERE. 127
perfect and so easy, that we cannot imagine that
the object could have been more completely at-
tained, if this had been the sole purpose for which
the atmosphere had been created. With all these
qualities, this extraordinary part of our terres-
trial system is scarcely ever in the way : and
when we have occasion to do so, we put forth
our hand and push it aside, without being aware
of its being near us.
We may add, that it is, in addition to all that
we have hitherto noticed, a constant source of
utility and beauty in its effects on light.
Without air we should see nothing, except ob-
jects on which the sun's rays fell, directly or by
reflection. It is the atmosphere which converts
sunbeams into daylight, and fills the space in
which we are with illumination.
The contemplation of the atmosphere, as a
machine which answers all these purposes, is
well suited to impress upon us the strongest con-
viction of the most refined, far-seeing, and far-
ruling contrivance. It seems impossible to sup-
pose that these various properties were so be-
stowed and so combined, any otherwise than by
a beneficent and intelligent Being, able and
willing to diffuse organization, life, health, and
enjoyment through all parts of the visible world ;
possessing a fertility of means which no multi-
plicity of objects could exhaust, and a discrimi-
nation of consequences which no complication
of conditions could embarrass.
128
Chapter XVI.
Light.
RESIDES the hearing and sound there is
H$ another mode by which we become sensible
of the impressions of external objects, namely,
sight and light. This subject also offers some
observations bearing on our present purpose.
It has been declared by writers on Natural
Theology, that the human eye exhibits such
evidence of design and skill in its construction,
that no one, who considers it attentively, can re-
sist this impression : nor does this appear to be
saying too much. It must, at the same time, be
obvious that this construction of the eye could
not answer its purposes, except the constitution
of light corresponded to it. Light is an element
of the most peculiar kind and properties, and
such an element can hardly be conceived to have
been placed in the universe without a regard to
its operation and functions. As the eye is made
for light, so light must have been made, at least
among other ends, for the eye.
1. We must expect to comprehend imperfectly
only the mechanism of the elements. Still, we
have endeavoured to show that in some instances
the arrangements by which their purposes are
LIGHT. 129
affected, are, to a certain extent, intelligible. In
order to explain, however, in what manner light
answers those ends which appear to us its prin-
cipal ones, we must know something of the na-
ture of light. There have, hitherto, been, among
men of science, two prevailing opinions upon this
subject: some considering light as consisting in
the emission of luminous particles ; others ac-
counting for its phenomena by the propagation
of vibrations through a highlv subtle and elastic
ether. The former opinion has, till lately, been
most generally entertained in this country, hav-
ing been the hypothesis on which Newton made
his calculations ; the latter is the one to which
most of those persons have been led, who, in re-
cent times, have endeavoured to deduce general
conclusions from the newly discovered pheno-
mena of light. Among these persons, the theory
of undulations is conceived to be established in
nearly the same manner, and almost as certainly,
as the doctrine of universal gravitation; namely,
by a series of laws inferred from numerous facts,
which, proceeding from different sets of pheno-
mena, are found to converge to one common
view ; and by calculations founded upon the
theory, which, indicating new and untried facts,
are found to agree exactly with experiment.
We cannot here introduce a sketch of the pro-
gress by which the phenomena have thus led to
the acceptance of the theory of undulations. But
this theory appears to have such claims to our
W. K
130 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
assent, that the views which we have to offer
with regard, to the design exercised in the adapt-
ation of light to its purposes, will depend on the
undulatory theory, so far as they depend on
theory at all.*
2. The impressions of sight, like those of hear-
ing, differ in intensity and in kind. Brightness
and Colour are the principal differences among
visible things, as loudness and pitch are among
sounds. But there is a singular distinction be-
tween these senses in one respect : every object
and part of an object seen, is necessarily and
inevitably referred to some position in the space
before us ; and hence visible things have place,
magnitude, form, as well as light, shade, and
colour. There is nothing analogous to this in
the sense of hearing ; for though we can, in some
approximate degree, guess the situation of the
point from which a sound proceeds, this is a
secondary process, distinguishable from the per-
ception of the sound itself; whereas we cannot
conceive visible things without form and place.
The law according to which the sense of vision
is thus affected, appears to be this. By the pro-
perties of light, the external scene produces,
through the transparent parts of the eye, an
* The reader who is acquainted with the two theories of
light, will perceive that though we have adopted the doc-
trine of the ether, the greater part of the arguments adduced
would be equally forcible, if expressed in the language of
tne theory of emission.
LIGHT. 131
image or picture exactly resembling the reality,
upon the back part of the retina : and each point
which we see is seen in the direction of a line
passing from its image on the retina, through
the centre of the pupil of the eye.* In this man-
ner we perceive by the eye the situation of every
point, at the same time that we perceive its exist-
ence ; and by combining the situations of many
points, we have forms and outlines of every sort.
That we should receive from the eye this no-
tice of the position of the object as well as of its
other visible qualities, appears to be absolutely
necessary for our intercourse with the external
world ; and the faculty of doing so is so intimate
a part of our constitution that we cannot con-
ceive ourselves divested of it. Yet in order to
imagine ourselves destitute of this faculty, we
have only to suppose that the eye should receive
its impressions as the ear does, and should ap-
prehend red and green, bright and dark, with-
out placing them side by side ; as the ear takes
in the different sounds which compose a concert,
without attributing them to different parts of
space.
The peculiar property thus belonging to vision,
of perceiving position, is so essential to us, that
we may readily believe that some particular pro-
vision has been made for its existence. The re-
markable mechanism of the eye (precisely re-
* Or rather through the focal centre of the eye, which is
always near the centre of the pupil.
132 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
sembling that of a camera obscura,) by which it
produces an image on the nervous web forming
its hinder part, seems to have this effect for its
main object. And this mechanism necessarily
supposes certain corresponding properties in
light itself, by means of which such an effect
becomes possible.
The main properties of light which are con-
cerned in this arrangement, are reflexion and
refraction : reflexion, by which light is reflected
and scattered by all objects, and thus comes to
the eye from all : and refraction, by which its
course is bent, when it passes obliquely out of
one transparent medium into another ; and by
which, consequently, convex transparent sub-
stances, such as the cornea and humours of the
eye, possess the power of making the light con-
verge to & focus or point ; an assemblage of such
points forming the images on the retina, which
we have mentioned.
Reflexion and refraction are therefore the es-
sential and indispensable properties of light ; and
so far as we can understand, it appears that it
was necessary that light should possess such
properties, in order that it might form a medium
of communication between man and the external
world. We may consider its power of passing
through transparent media (as air) to be given
in order that it may enlighten the earth ; its
affection of reflexion, for the purpose of making
colours visible; and its refraction to be bestowed,
LIGHT. 133
that it may enable us to discriminate figure and
position, by means of the lenses of the eye.
In this manner light may be considered as
constituted with a peculiar reference to the eyes
of animals, and its leading properties may be
looked upon as contrivances or adaptations to fit
it for its visual office. And in such a point of
view the perfection of the contrivance or adapt-
ation must be allowed to be very remarkable.
3. But besides the properties of reflexion and
refraction, the most obvious laws of light, an
extraordinary variety of phenomena have lately
been discovered, regulated by other laws of the
most curious kind, uniting great complexity with
great symmetry. We refer to the phenomena
of diffraction, polarization, and periodical co-
'ours, produced by crystals and by thin plates.
We have, in these facts, a vast mass of proper-
ties and laws, offering a subject of study which
has been pursued with eminent skill and intel-
ligence. But these properties and laws, so far
as has yet been discovered, exert no agency
whatever, and have no purpose, in the general
economy of nature. Beams of light polarised
in contrary directions exhibit the most remark-
able differences when they pass through certain
crystals, but manifest no discoverable difference
in their immediate impression on the eye. We
have, therefore, here a number of laws of light,
which we cannot perceive to be established with
any design which has a reference to the other
parts of the universe.
134 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
Undoubtedly it is exceedingly possible that
these differences of light may operate in some
quarter, and in some way, which we cannot de-
tect ; and that these laws may have purposes and
may answer ends of which we have no suspicion.
All the analogy of nature teaches us a lesson of
humility, with regard to the reliance we are to
place on our discernment and judgment as to
such matters. But with our present knowledge,
Ave may observe, that this curious system of phe-
nomena appears to be a collateral result of the
mechanism by which the effects of light are pro-
duced ; and therefore a necessary consequence
of the existence of that element of which the
offices are so numerous and so beneficent.
The new properties of light, and the specula-
tions founded upon them, have led many persons
to the belief of the undulatory theory ; which, as
we have said, is considered by some philosophers
as demonstrated. If we adopt this theory, we
consider the luminiferous ether to have no local
motion : and to produce refraction and reflexion
by the operation of its elasticity alone. We must
necessarily suppose the tenuity of the ether to be
extreme ; and if we moreover suppose its tension
to be very great, which the vast velocity of light
requires us to suppose, the vibrations by which
light is propagated will be transverse vibrations,
that is, the motion to and fro will be athwart the
line along which the undulation travels. The
reader may perhaps aid his conception of this
LIGHT. 135
motion, by attending to the undulation of a long
pendant streaming in the wind from the mast-
head of a ship : he will see that while the undu-
lation runs' visibly along the strip of cloth, from
the mast-head to the loose end, every part of the
strip in succession moves to and fro across this
line.
From this transverse character in the lumi-
niferous vibrations, all the laws of polarization
necessarily follow : and the properties of trans-
verse vibrations, combined with the properties
of vibrations in general, give rise to all the cu-
rious and numerous phenomena of colours of
which we have spoken. If the vibrations be
transverse, they may be resolved into two dif-
ferent planes ; this is polarization : if they fall
on a medium which has different elasticity in
different directions, they will be divided into two
sets of vibrations ; this is double refraction : and
so on. Some of the new properties, however, as
the fringes of shadows and the colours of thin
plates, follow from the undulatory theory, whe-
ther the vibrations be transverse or not.
It would appear, therefore, that the propaga-
tion of light by means of a subtle medium, leads
necessarily to the extraordinary collection of pro-
perties which have recently been discovered ;
and, at any rate, its propagation by the trans-
verse vibrations of such a medium does lead in-
evitably to these results.
Leaving it therefore to future times to point
136 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
out the other reasons (or uses if they exist) of
these newly discovered properties of light, in
their bearing on other parts of the world, we
may venture to say, that if light was to be pro-
pagated through transparent media by the undu-
lations of a subtle fluid, these properties must
result, as necessarily as the rainbow results from
the unequal refrangibility of different colours.
This phenomenon and those, appear alike to be
the collateral consequences of the laws impressed
on light with a view to its principal offices.
Thus the exquisitely beautiful and symmetri-
cal phenomena and laws of polarization, and of
crystalline and other effects, may be looked
upon as indications of the delicacy and subtlety
of the mechanism by which man, through his
visual organs, is put in communication with the
external world ; is made acquainted with the
forms and qualities of objects in the most remote
regions of space ; and is enabled, in some mea-
sure, to determine his position and relation in
a universe in which he is but an atom.
4. If we suppose it clearly established that
light is produced by the vibrations of an ether,
we find considerations offer themselves, similar
to those which occurred in the case of sound.
The vibrations of this ether affect our organs
with the sense of light and colour. Why, or
how do they do this ? It is only within certain
limits that the effect is produced, and these limits
are comparatively narrower here than in the
LIGHT. 137
case of sound. The whole scale of colour, from
violet to crimson, lies between vibrations which
are 458 million millions, and 727 million mil-
lions in a second ; a proportion much smaller
than the corresponding ratio for perceptible
sounds. Why should such vibrations produce
perception in the eye, and no others ? There
must be here some peculiar adaptation of the
sensitive powers to these wonderfully minute
and condensed mechanical motions. What hap-
pens when the vibrations are slower than the
red, or quicker than the blue ? They do not pro-
duce vision : do they produce any effect ? Have
they any thing to do with heat or with electri-
city? We cannot tell. The ether must be as
susceptible of these vibrations, as of those which
produce vision. But the mechanism of the eye
is adjusted to this latter kind only ; and this
precise kind, (whether alone or mixed with
others,) proceeds from the sun and from other
luminaries, and thus communicates to us the
state of the visible universe. The mere material
elements then are full of properties which we
can understand no otherwise, than as the results
of a refined contrivance.
138
Chapter XVII.
The Ether.
IN what has just been said, we have spoken
of light, only with respect to its power of
illuminating objects, and conveying the impres-
sion of them to the eye. It possesses, however,
beyond all doubt, many other qualities. Light
is intimately connected with heat, as we see in
the case of the sun and of flame ; yet it is clear
that light and heat are not identical. Light is
evidently connected too with electricity and gal-
vanism ; and perhaps through these, with mag-
netism : it is, as has already been mentioned,
indispensably necessary to the healthy discharge
of the functions of vegetable life ; without it
plants cannot duly exercise their vital powers :
it manifests also chemical action in various ways.
The luminiferous ether then, if we so call the
medium in which light is propagated, must
possess many other properties besides those me-
chanical ones on which the illuminating power
depends. It must not be merely like a fluid
poured into the vacant spaces and interstices of
the material world, and exercising no action
on objects ; it must aftect the physical, chemical
and vital powers of what it touches. It must
be a great and active agent in the work of the
THE ETHER. 139
universe, as well as an active reporter of what
is done by other agents. It must possess a
number of complex and refined contrivances and
adjustments which we cannot analyze, bearing
upon plants and chemical compounds, and the
imponderable agents ; as well as those laws which
we conceive that we have analyzed, by which it
is the vehicle of illumination and vision.
We have had occasion to point out how com-
plex is the machinery of the atmosphere, and
how varied its objects ; since, besides being the
means of communication as the medium of sound,
it has known laws, which connect it with heat
and moisture ; and other laws, in virtue of which
it is decomposed by vegetables. It appears, in
like manner, that the ether is not only the vehicle
of light, but has also laws, at present unknown,
which connect it with heat, electricity, and other
agencies ; and other laws through which it is
necessary to vegetables, enabling them to decom-
pose air. All analogy leads us to suppose that
if we knew as much of the constitution of the
luminiferous ether as we know of the constitu-
tion of the atmosphere, we should find it a ma-
chine as complex and artifical, as skilfully and
admirably constructed.
We know at present very little indeed of the
construction of this machine. Its existence is,
perhaps, satisfactorily made out ; in order that
we may not interrupt the progress of our argu-
ment, we shall refer to other works for the rea-
140 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
soilings which appear to lead to this conclusion.
But whether heat, electricity, galvanism, mag-
netism, be fluids ; or effects or modifications of
fluids ; and whether such fluids or ethers be the
same with the luminiferous ether, or with each
other ; are questions of which all or most appear
to be at present undecided, and it would be pre-
sumptuous and premature here to take one side
or the other.
The mere fact, however, that there is such an
ether, and that it has properties related to
other agents, in the way we have suggested, is
well calculated to extend our views of the struc-
ture of the universe, and of the resources, if we
may so speak, of the power by which it is ar-
ranged. The solid and fluid matter of the earth
is the most obvious to our senses ; over this, and
in its cavities, is poured an invisible fluid, the
air, by which warmth and life are diffused and
fostered, and by which men communicate with
men : over and through this again, and reaching,
so far as we know, to the utmost bounds of the
universe, is spread another most subtle and at-
tenuated fluid, which, by the play of another set
of agents, aids the energies of nature, and which,
filling all parts of space, is a means of commu-
nication with other planets and other systems.
There is nothing in all this like any material
necessity, compelling the world to be as it is
and no otherwise. How should the properties
of these three great classes of agents, visible ob-
THE ETHER. 141
jects, air, and light, so harmonise and assist
each other, that order and life should be the re-
sult? Without all the three, and all the three
constituted in their present manner, and subject
to their present laws, living things could not
exist. If the earth had no atmosphere, or if the
world had no ether, all must be inert and dead.
Who constructed these three extraordinarily
complex pieces of machinery, the earth with its
productions, the atmosphere, and the ether ?
Who fitted them into each other in many parts,
and thus made it possible for them to work to-
gether? We conceive there can be but one
answer ; a most wise and good God.
Chapter XVIII.
Recapitulation.
¥£ has been shown in the preceding chap-
ters that a great number of quantities
and laws appear to have been selected in the con-
struction of the universe ; and that by the ad-
justment to each other of the magnitudes and
laws thus selected, the constitution of the world
is what we find it, and is fitted for the support
of vegetables and animals, in a manner in which
it could not have been, if the properties and
quantities of the elements had been different
142 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
from what they are. "We shall here recapitu-
late the principal of the laws and magnitudes to
which this conclusion has been shown to apply.
1. The Length of the Year, which de-
pends on the force of the attraction of the
sun, and its distance from the earth.
2. The Length of the Day.
3. The Mass of the Earth, which de-
pends on its magnitude and density.
4. The Magnitude of the Ocean.
5. The Magnitude of the Atmosphere.
6. The Law and Rate of the Conducting
Power of the Earth.
7. The Law and Rate of the Radiating
Power of the Earth.
8. The Law and Rate of the Expansion
of Water by Heat.
9. The Law and Rate of the Expansion
of Water by Cold, below 40 degrees.
10. The Law and Quantity of the Expan-
sion of Water in Freezing.
11. The Quantity of Latent Heat ab-
sorbed in Thawing.
12. The Quantity of Latent Heat ab-
sorbed in Evaporation.
13. The Law and Rate of Evaporation
with regard to Heat.
14. The Law and Rate of the Expansion
of Air by Heat.
15. The Quantity of Heat absorbed in
the Expansion of Air.
RECAPITULATION. 143
16. The Law and Rate of the Passage of
Aqueous Vapour through Air.
17. The Laws of Electricity ; its relations
to Air and Moisture.
18. The Fluidity, Density, and Elas-
ticity of the Air, by means of which its
vibrations produce Sound.
19. The Fluidity, Density, and Elas-
ticity of the Ether, by means of which its
vibrations produce light.
2. These are the data, the elements, as astro-
nomers call the quantities which determine a
planet's orbit, on which the mere inorganic part
of the universe is constructed. To these, the con-
stitution of the organic world is adapted in in-
numerable points, by laws of which we can trace
the results, though we cannot analyze their ma-
chinery. Thus, the vital functions of vegetables
have periods which correspond to the length of
the year, and of the day ; their vital powers have
forces which correspond to the force of gravity ;
the sentient faculties of man are such that the
vibrations of air, (within certain limits,) are per-
ceived as sound, those of ether, as light. And
while we are enumerating these corresponden-
cies, we perceive that there are thousands of
others, and that we can only select a very small
number of those where the relation happens to
be most clearly made out or most easily explained.
Now, in the list of the mathematical elements
of the universe which has just been given, why
144 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
have we such laws and such quantities as there
occur, and no other? For the most part, the
data there enumerated are independent of each
other, and might be altered separately, so far as
the mechanical conditions of the case are con-
cerned. Some of these data probably depend
on each other : thus the latent heat of aqueous
vapour is perhaps connected with the difference
of the rate of expansion of water and of steam :
but all natural philosophers will, probably, agree,
that there must be, in this list, a great number
of things entirely without any mutual dependence,
as the year and the day, the expansion of air and
the expansion of steam. There are, therefore, it
appears, a number of things which, in the struc-
ture of the world, might have been otherwise,
and which are what they are in consequence of
choice or of chance. We have already seen, in
many of the cases separately, how unlike chance
every thinglooks : — that substances, which might
have existed any how, so far as they themselves
are concerned, exist exactly in such a manner
and measure as they should, to secure the wel-
fare of other things : — that the laws are tempered
and fitted together in the only way in which the
world could have gone on, according to all that
we can conceive of it. This must, therefore, be
the work of choice ; and if so, it cannot be
doubted, of a most wise and benevolent Chooser.
3. The appearance of choice is still further
illustrated by the variety as well as the number
BECAPITULATION. 145
of the laws selected. The laws are unlike one
another. Steam certainly expands at a very dif-
ferent rate from air by the application of heat,
probably according to a different law : water
expands in freezing, but mercury contracts :
heat travels in a manner quite different through
solids and fluids. Every separate substance has
its own density, gravity, cohesion, elasticity, its
relations to heat, to electricity, to magnetism ;
besides all its chemical affinities, which form an
endless throng of laws, connecting every one
substance in creation with every other, and dif-
ferent for each pair anyhow taken. Nothing
can look less like a world formed of atoms oper-
ating upon each other according to some univer-
sal and inevitable laws, than this does : if such
a system of things be conceivable, it cannot be
our system. We have, it may be, fifty simple
substances in the world ; each of which is in-
vested with properties, both of chemical and
mechanical action, altogether different from
those of any other substance. Every portion,
however minute, of any of these, possesses all
the properties of the substance. Of each of
these substances there is a certain unalterable
quantity in the universe ; when combined, their
compounds exhibit new chemical affinities, new
mechanical laws. Who gave these different
laws to the different substances? who propor-
tioned the quantity of each ? But suppose this
done. Suppose these substances in existence ;
W. L
146 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS.
in contact ; in due proportion to each other. Is
this a world, or at least our world ? No more
than the mine and the forest are the ship of
war or the factory. These elements, with their
constitution perfect, and their proportion suit-
able, are still a mere chaos. They must be put
in their places. They must not be where their
own properties would place them. They must
be made to assume a particular arrangement, or
we can have no regular and permanent course
of nature. This arrangement must again have
additional peculiarities, or we can have no or-
ganic portion of the world. The millions of
millions of particles which the world contains,
must be finished up in as complete a manner,
and fitted into their places with as much nicety,
as the most delicate wheel or spring in a piece
of human machinery. What are the habits of
thought to which it can appear possible that
this could take place without design, intention,
intelligence, purpose, knowledge?
In what has just been said, we have spoken
only of the constitution of the inorganic part of
the universe. The mechanism, if we may so call
it, of vegetable and animal life, is so far beyond
our comprehension, that though some of the
same observations might be applied to it, we do
not dwell upon the subject. We know that
in these processes also, the mechanical and
chemical properties of matter are necessary,
but we know too that these alone will not ac-
RECAPITULATION. ]47
count for the phenomena of life. There is some-
thing more than these. The lowest stage of
vitality and irritability appears to carry us be-
yond mechanism, beyond chemical affinity. All
that has been said with regard to the exactness
of the adjustments, the combination of various
means, the tendency to continuance, to preserv-
ation, is applicable with additional force to
the organic creation, so far as we can perceive
the means employed. These, however, belong-
to a different province of the subject, and must
be left to other hands.
148
BOOK II.
COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
IHEN we turn our attention to the larger
£g| portions of the universe, the sun, the
planets, and the earth as one of them, the moon
and other satellites, the fixed stars, and other
heavenly bodies;— the views which we obtain
concerning their mutual relations, arrangements
and movements, are called, as we have already
stated, cosmical views. These views will, we
conceive, afford us indications of the wisdom
and care of the Power by which the objects
which we thus consider, were created and are
preserved : and we shall now proceed to
point out some circumstances in which these
attributes may be traced.
It has been observed by writers on Natural
Theology, that the arguments for the being and
perfections of the Creator, drawn from cosmical
considerations, labour under some disadvantages
when compared with the arguments founded on
those provisions and adaptations which more
immediately affect the well being of organized
COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 149
creatures. The structure of the solar system
has far less analogy with such machinery as we
can construct and comprehend, than we find in
the structure of the bodies of animals, or even in
the causes of the weather. Moreover, we do
not see the immediate bearing; of cosmical ar-
rangements on that end which we most readily
acknowledge to be useful and desirable, the sup-
port and comfort of sentient natures: so that,
from both causes, the impression of benevolent
design in this case is less striking and pointed
than that which results from the examination of
some other parts of nature.
But in considering the universe, according to
the view we have taken, as a collection of laws,
astronomy, the science which teaches us the laws
of the motions of the heavenly bodies, possesses
some advantages, among the subjects from which
we may seek to learn the character of the
government of the world. For our knowledge
of the laws of the motions of the planets and
satellites is far more complete and exact, far
more thorough and satisfactory, than the know-
ledge which we possess in any other department
of Natural Philosophy. Our acquaintance
with the laws of the solar system is such, that
we can calculate the precise place and motion
of most of its parts at any period, past or future,
however remote ; and we can refer the changes
which take place in these circumstances to their
proximate cause, the attraction of one mass of
150 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
matter to another, acting between all the parts
of the universe.
If, therefore, we trace indications of the Di-
vine care, either in the form of the laws which
prevail among the heavenly bodies, or in the
arbitrary quantities which such laws involve ;
(according to the distinction explained in the
former part of this work ;) we may expect that
our examples of such care, though they may be
less numerous and obvious, will be more pre-
cise than they can be in other subjects, where
the laws of facts are imperfectly known, and
their causes entirely hid. We trust that this
will be found to be the case with regard to
some of the examples which we shall adduce.
Chapter I.
The Structure of the Solar System.
fN the cosmical considerations which we
have to offer, we shall suppose the general
truths concerning the structure of the solar system
and of the universe, which have been established
by astronomers and mathematicians, to be known
to the reader. It is not necessary to go into
much detail on tills subject. The five planets
known to the ancients, Mercury, Venus, Mars,
SOLAR SYSTEM. 151
Jupiter, Saturn, revolve round the sun, at dif-
ferent distances, in orbits nearly circular, and
nearly in one plane. Between Venus and Mars,
our Earth, herself one of the planets, revolves in
like manner. Beyond Saturn, Uranus has been
discovered describing an orbit of the same kind ;
and between Mars and Jupiter, four smaller
bodies perform their revolutions in orbits some-
what less regular than the rest. These planets
are all nearly globular, and all revolve upon
their axes. Some of them are accompanied by
satellites, or attendant bodies which revolve
about them ; and these bodies also have their
orbits nearly circular, and nearly in the same
plane as the others. Saturn's ring is a solitary
example, so far as we know, of such an appen-
dage to a planet.
These circular motions of the planets round the
sun, and of the satellites round their primary
planets, are all kept going by the attraction of
the respective central bodies, which restrains the
corresponding revolving bodies from flying off.
It is perhaps not very easy to make this oper-
ation clear to common apprehension. We can-
not illustrate it by a comparison with any ma-
chine of human contrivance and fabrication : in
such machines everything goes on by contact
and impulse: pressure, and force of all kinds, is
exercised and transferred from one part to an-
other, by means of a material connexion : by rods,
ropes, fluids, gases. In the machinery of the
152 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
universe, there is, so far as we know, no mate-
rial connexion between the parts which act on
each other. In the solar system no part touches
or drives another : all the bodies affect each
other at a distance, as the magnet affects the
needle. The production and regulation of such
effects, if attempted by our mechanicians, would
require great skill and nicety of adjustment ; but
our artists have not executed any examples of
this sort of machinery, by reference to which
we can illustrate the arrangements of the solar
system.
Perhaps the following comparison may serve
to explain the kind of adjustments of which we
shall have to speak. If there be a wide shal-
low round basin of smooth marble, and if we
take a smooth ball, as a billiard ball or a mar-
ble pellet, and throw it along the surface of the
inside of the basin, the ball will generally make
many revolutions round the inside of the bowl,
gradually tending to the bottom in its motion.
The gradual diminution of the motion, and con-
sequent tendency of the ball to the bottom of
the bowl, arises from the friction ; and in or-
der to make the motion correspond to that
which takes place through the action of a cen-
tral force, we must suppose this friction to be
got rid of. In that case, the ball, once set a
going, would run round the basin for ever, de-
scribing either a circle, or various kinds of
ovals, according to the way in which it was
SOLAR SYSTEM. 153
originally thrown ; whether quickly or slowly,
and whether more or less obliquely along the
surface.
Such a motion w T ould be capable of the same
kind of variety, and the same sort of adjust-
ments, as the motion of a body revolving about
a larger one by means of a central force. Per-
haps the reader may understand what kind of
adjustments these are, by supposing such a bowl
and ball to be used for a game of skill. If the
object of the players be to throw the pellet along
the surface of the basin, so that after describing
its curved path it shall pass through a small
hole in a barrier at some distance from the
starting point, it will easily be understood that
some nicety in the regulation of the force and
direction with which the ball is thrown will be
necessary for success. In order to obtain a bet-
ter image of the solar system, Ave must suppose
the basin to be very large and the pellet very
small. And it will easily be understood that as
many pellets as there are planets might run
round the bowl at the same time with different
velocities. Such a contrivance might form a
planetarium in which the mimic planets would
be regulated by the laws of motion as the real
planets are ; instead of being carried by wires
and wheels, as is done in such machines of the
common construction : and in this planetarium
the tendency of the planets to the sun is replaced
by the tendency of the representative pellets to
154 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
run down the slope of the bowl. We shall refer
again to this basin, thus representing the solar
system with its loose planetary balls.
Chapter II.
The Circular Orbits of the Planets round
the Sun.
1HE orbit which the earth describes round
the sun is very nearly a circle : the sun is
about one thirtieth nearer to us in winter than
in summer. This nearly circular form of the
orbit, on a little consideration, will appear to be
a remarkable circumstance.
Supposing the attraction of a planet towards
the sun to exist, if the planet were put in motion
in any part of the solar system, it would describe
about the sun an orbit of some kind; it might
be a long oval, or a shorter oval, or an exact
circle. But if we suppose the result left to
chance, the chances are infinitely against the last
mentioned case. There is but one circle ; there,
are an infinite number of ovals. Any original
impulse would give some oval, but only one
particular impulse, determinate in velocity and
direction, will give a circle. If we suppose the
planet to be originally jirojecttd, it must be pro-
CIRCULAR ORBITS. 155
jected perpendicularly to its distance from the
sun, and with a certain precise velocity, in
order that the motion may be circular.
In the basin to which we have compared the
solar system, the adjustment requisite to pro-
duce circular motion would require us to pro-
ject our pellet so that after running half round
the surface it should touch a point exactly at an
equal distance from the centre, on the other
side, passing neither too high nor too low. And
the pellet, it may be observed, should be in size
only one ten thousandth part of the distance
from the centre, to make the dimensions corre-
spond with the case of the earth's orbit. If the
mark were set up and hit we should hardly at-
tribute the result to chance.
The earth's orbit, however, is not exactly a
circle. The mark is not precisely a single point,
but is a space of the breadth of one thirtieth of
the distance from the centre. Still this is much
too near an agreement with the circle to be con-
sidered as the work of chance. The chances
were great against the ball passing so nearly at
the same distance, for there were twenty-nine
equal spaces through which it might have gone,
between the mark and the centre, and an inde-
finite number outside the mark.
But it is not the earth's orbit alone which is
nearly a circle : the rest of the planets also ap-
proach very nearly to that form : Venus more
nearly still than the earth : Jupiter, Saturn, and
155 COSMIC AL ARRANGEMENTS.
Uranus have a difference of about one-tenth, be-
tween their greatest and least distances from the
sun : Mars has his extreme distances in the
proportion of five to six nearly ; and Mercury
in the proportion of two to three. The last men-
tioned case is a considerable deviation, and two
of the small planets which lie between Mars and
Jupiter, namely Juno and Pallas, exhibit an in-
equality somewhat greater still ; but the small-
ness of these bodies, and other circumstances,
make it probable that there may be particular
causes for the exception in their case. The or-
bits of the satellites of the Earth, of Jupiter, and
of Saturn, are also nearly circular.
Taking the solar system altogether, the regu-
larity of its structure is very remarkable. The
diagram which represents the orbits of the
planets might have consisted of a number of
ovals, narrow and wide in all degrees, inter-
secting and interfering with each other in all
directions. The diagram does consist, as all who
have opened a book of astronomy know, of a
set of figures which appear at first sight con-
centric circles, and which are very nearly so ;
no where approaching to any crossing or inter-
fering, except in the case of the small planets,
already noticed as irregular. No one, looking
at this common diagram, can believe that the
orbits were made to be so nearly circles by
chance ; any more than he can believe that a
target, such as archers are accustomed to shoot
CIRCULAR ORBITS. 157
at, was painted in concentric circles by the
accidental dashes of a brush in the hands of a
blind man.
The regularity, then, of the solar system ex-
cludes the notion of accident in the arrangement
of the orbits of the planets. There must have
been an express adjustment to produce this cir-
cular character of the orbits. The velocity and
direction of the motion of each planet must have
been subject to some original regulation ; or, as
it is often expressed, the projectile force must
have been accommodated to the centripetal
force. This once done, the motion of each pla-
net, taken by itself, would go on for ever still
retaining its circular character, by the laws of
motion
If some original cause adjusted the orbits of
the planets to their circular form and regular
arrangement, we can hardly avoid including in
our conception of this cause, the intention and
will of a Creating Power. We shall consider
this argument more fully in a succeeding chap-
ter ; only observing here, that the presiding In-
telligence which has selected and combined the
properties of the organic creation, so that they
correspond so remarkably with the arbitrary
quantities of the system of the universe, may
readily be conceived also to have selected the
arbitrary velocity and direction of each planet's
motion, so that the adjustment should produce
a close approximation to a circular motion.
158 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
We have argued here only from the regularity
of the solar system ; from the selection of the
single symmetrical case and the rejection of all
the unsymmetrical cases. But this subject may
be considered in another point of view. The
system thus selected is not only regular and
symmetrical, but also it is, so far as we can
judge, the only one which would answer the
purpose of the earth, perhaps of the other pla-
nets, as the seat of animal and vegetable life. If
the earth's orbit were more excentric, as it is
called, if for instance the greatest and least dis-
tances were as three to one, the inequality of
heat at two seasons of the year would be destruc-
tive to the existing species of living creatures.
A circular, or nearly circular, orbit, is the only
case in which we can have a course of seasons
such as we have at present, the only case in
which the climates of the northern and southern
hemispheres are nearly the same ; and what is
more clearly important, the only case in which
the character of the seasons would not vary from
century to century. For if the excentricity of
the earth's orbit were considerable, the differ-
ence of heat at different seasons, arising from
the different distances of the sun, would be com-
bined with the difference, now the only consi-
derable one, which depends on the position of
the earth's axis. And as by the motion of the
perihelion, or place of the nearest distance of the
earth to the sun, this nearest distance would fall
CIRCULAR ORBITS. 159
in different ages at different parts of the year,
the whole distribution of heat through the year
would thus be gradually subverted. The sum-
mer and winter of the tropical year, as we have
it now, being combined with the heat and cold
of the anomalistic year, a period of different
length, the difference of the two seasons might
sometimes be neutralized altogether, and at
other times exaggerated by the accumulation of
the inequalities, so as to be intolerable.
The circular form of the orbit therefore, which,
from its unique character, appears to be chosen
with some design, from its effects on the seasons
appears to be chosen with this design, so appa-
rent in other parts of creation, of securing the
welfare of organic life, by a steadfast and regu-
lar order of the solar influence upon the planet.
Chapter III.
The Stability of the Solar System.
IHERE is a consequence resulting from the
actual structure of the solar system, which
has been brought to light by the investigations
of mathematicians concerning the cause and laws
of its motions, and which has an important bear-
ing on our argument. It appears that the ar-
160 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
rangement which at present obtains is precisely
that which is necessary to secure the stability of
the system. This point we must endeavour to
explain.
If each planet were to revolve round the sun
without being affected by the other planets, there
would be a certain degree of regularity in its
motion ; and this regularity would continue for
ever. But it appears, by the discovery of the
law of universal gravitation, that the planets do
not execute their movements in this insulated
and independent manner. Each of them is
acted on by the attraction of all the rest. The
Earth is constantly drawn by Venus, by Mars,
by Jupiter, bodies of various magnitudes, per-
petually changing their distances and positions
with regard to the Earth ; the Earth in return
is perpetually drawing these bodies. What, in
the course of time, will be the result of this
mutual attraction ?
All the planets are very small compared with
the sun, and therefore the derangement which
they produce in the motion of one of their num-
ber will be very small in the course of one revo-
lution. But this gives us no security that the
derangement may not become very large in the
course of many revolutions. The cause acts
perpetually, and it has the whole extent of time
to work in. Is it not then easily conceivable
that in the lapse of ages the derangements of the
motions of the planets may accumulate, the or-
STABILITY OF THE SYSTEM. 161
bits may change their form, their mutual dis-
tances may be much increased or much dimin-
ished? Is it not possible that these changes
may go on without limit, and end in the com-
plete subversion and ruin of the system?
If, for instance, the result of this mutual gra-
vitation should be to increase considerably the
excentricity of the earth's orbit, that is to make
it a longer and longer oval ; or to make the
moon approach perpetually nearer and nearer
the earth every revolution ; it is easy to see that
in the one case our year would change its cha-
racter, as we have noticed in the last section ; in
the other, our satellite might finally fall to the
earth, which must of course bring about a dread-
ful catastrophe. If the positions of the planetary
orbits, with respect to that of the earth, were to
change much, the planets might sometimes come
very near us, and thus exaggerate the effects of
their attraction beyond calculable limits. Un-
der such circumstances, we might have " years
of unequal length, and seasons of capricious
temperature, planets and moons of portentous
size and aspect, glaring and disappearing at un-
certain intervals ;" tides like deluges, sweeping
over whole continents ; and, perhaps, the colli-
sion of two of the planets, and the consequent
destruction of all organization on both of them.
Nor is it, on a common examination of the
history of the solar system, at all clear that there
is no tendency to indefinite derangement. The
162 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
fact really is, that changes are taking place in
the motions of the heavenly bodies, which have
gone on progressively from the first dawn of
science. The excentricity of the earth's orbit
has been diminishing from the earliest observa-
tions to our times. The moon has been moving
quicker and quicker from the time of the first
recorded eclipses, and is now in advance, by
about four times her own breadth, of what her
place would have been if it had not been affected
by this acceleration. The obliquity of the
ecliptic also is in a state of diminution, and is
now about two-fifths of a degree less than it was
in the time of Aristotle. Will these changes go
on without limit or reaction ? If so, we tend by
natural causes to a termination of the present
system of things : If not, by what adjustment or
combination are we secured from such a ten-
dency ? Is the system stable, and if so, what is
the condition on which stability depends ?
To answer these questions is far from easy.
The mechanical problem which they involve is
no less than this ;— Having given the directions
and velocities with which about thirty bodies
are moving at one time, to find their places and
motions after any number of ages; each of the
bodies, all the while, attracting all the others,
and being attracted by them all.
It may readily be imagined that this is a pro-
blem of extreme complexity, when it is considered
that every new configuration or arrangement
STABILITY OF THE SYSTEM. 103
of the bodies will give rise to a new amount of
action on each ; and every new action to a new
configuration. Accordingly, the mathematical
investigation of such questions as the above was
too difficult to be attempted in the earlier periods
of the progress of Physical Astronomy. New-
ton did not undertake to demonstrate either the
stability or the instability of the system. The
decision of this point required a great number of
preparatory steps and simplifications, and such
progress in the invention and improvement of
mathematical methods, as occupied the best ma-
thematicians of Europe for the greater part of
last century. But, towards the end of that time,
it was shown by Lagrange and Laplace that the
arrangements of the solar system are stable :
that in the long run, the orbits and motions re-
main unchanged ; and that the changes in the
orbits, which take place in shorter periods,
never transgress certain very moderate limits.
Each orbit undergoes deviations on this side
and on that of its average state ; but these devia-
tions are never very great, and it finally recovers
from them, so that the average is preserved.
The planets produce perpetual perturbations in
each other's motions, but these perturbations are
not indefinitely progressive, they are periodical •
they reach a maximum value and then diminish.
The periods which this restoration requires are,
for the most part, enormous ; not less than thou-
sands, and, in some instances, millions of years ;
164 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
and hence it is, that some of these apparent de-
rangements have been going on in the same di-
rection since the beginning of the history of
the world. But the restoration is in the sequel
as complete as the derangement ; and in the
meantime the disturbance never attains a suffi-
cient amount seriously to alter the adaptations
of the system.*
The same examination of the subject by which
this is proved, points out also the conditions on
which this stability depends. " I have succeeded
in demonstrating," says Laplace, " that what-
ever be the masses of the planets, in consequence
of the fact that they all move in the same
direction, in orbits of small excentricity, and
slightly inclined to each other — their secular
inequalities are periodical and included within
narrow limits ; so that the planetary system will
only oscillate about a mean state, and will
never deviate from it except by a very small
quantity. The ellipses of the planets have been,
and always will be, nearly circular. The eclip-
tic will never coincide with the equator, and the
entire extent of the variation in its inclination
cannot exceed three decrees."
There exists, therefore, it appears, in the
solar system, a provision for the permanent
regularity of its motions ; and this provision is
found in the fact that the orbits of the planets
are nearly circular, and nearly in the same
* Laplace Expos, du Syst. du Monde, p. 4-11
STABILITY OF THE SYSTEM. 165
plane, and the motions all in the same direction,
namely, from west to east. *
Now is it probable that the occurrence of these
conditions of stability in the disposition of the
solar system is the work of chance ? Such a
supposition appears to be quite inadmissible.
Any one of the orbits might have had any ex-
centricity. f In that of Mercury, where it is
much the greatest, it is only one-fifth. How
* In this statement of Laplace, however, one remarkable
provision for the stability of the system is not noticed. The
planets Mercury and Mars, which have much the largest
excentricities among the old planets, are those of which the
masses are much the smallest. The mass of Jupiter is
more than 2000 times that of either of these planets. If the
orbit of Jupiter were as excentric as that of Mercury is, all
the security for the stability of the system, winch analysis
has yet pointed out, would disappear. The earth and the
smaller planets might in that case change their approxi-
mately circular orbits into very long ellipses, and thus might
fall into the sun, or fly off into remote space.
It is further remarkable that in the newly discovered
planets, of which the orbits are still more excentric than
that of Mercury, the masses are still smaller, so that the
same provision is established in this case also. It does not
appear that any mathematician has even attempted to point
out a necessary connexion between the mass of a planet and
excentricity of its orbit on any hypothesis. May we not
then consider this combination of small masses with large
excentricities, so important to the purposes of the world, as
a mark of provident care in the Creator 1
t The eicentricity of a planet's orbit is measured by taking
the proportion of the difference of the greatest and least
distances from the sun, to the sum of the same distances.
Mercury's greatest and least distances are as 2 and 3 ; hia
excentricity therefore is one-fifth.
166 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
came it to pass that the orbits were not more
elongated ? A little more or a little less velo-
city in their original motions would have made
them so. They might have had any inclination
to the ecliptic from no degrees to ninety degrees.
Mercury, which again deviates most widely, is
inclined 7| degrees, Venus 3f , Saturn 2§, Ju-
piter lg, Mars 2. How came it that their mo-
tions are thus contained within such a narrow
strip of the sky ? One, or any number of them
might have moved from east to west : none of
them does so. And these circumstances, which
appear to be, each in particular, requisite for
the stability of the system and the smallness of
its disturbances, are all found in combination.
Does not this imply both clear purpose and pro-
found skill ?
It is difficult to convey an adequate notion
of the extreme complexity of the task thus ex-
ecuted. A number of bodies, all attracting
each other, are to be projected in such a man-
ner that their revolutions shall be permanent
and stable, their mutual perturbations always
small. If we return to the basin with its rolling
balls, by which we before represented the solar
system, we must complicate with new condi-
tions the trial of skill which we supposed. The
problem must now be to project at once seven
such balls, all connected by strings which influ-
ence their movements, so that each may hit its
respective mark. And we must further suppose
that the marks are to be hit after many thousand
STABILITY OF THE SYSTEM. 167
revolutions of the balls. No one will imagine
that this could be done by accident.
In fact it is allowed by all those who have con-
sidered this subject, that such a coincidence of
the existing state with the mechanical requisites
of permanency cannot be accidental. Laplace
has attempted to calculate the probability that it
is not the result of accident. He takes into ac-
count, in addition to the motions which we have
mentioned, the revolutions of the satellites about
their primaries, and of the sun and planets about
their axes : and he finds that there is a proba-
bility, far higher than that which we have for
the greater part of undoubted historical events,
that these appearances are not the effect of chance.
" We ought, therefore," he says, " to believe,
with at least the same confidence, that a primi-
tive cause has directed the planetary motions."
The solar system is thus, by the confession of
all sides, completely different from any thing
winch we might anticipate from the casual oper-
ation of its known laws. The laws of motion
are no less obeyed to the letter in the most irre-
gular than in the most regular motions ; no less
in the varied circuit of the ball which flies round
a tennis court, than in the going of a clock ; no
less in the fantastical jets and leaps which break-
ers make when they burst in a corner of a rocky
shore, than in the steady swell of the open se«-.
The laws of motion alone will not produce the
regularity which we admire in the motions of
168 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
the heavenly bodies. There must be an origi-
nal adjustment of the system on which these laws
are to act ; a selection of the arbitrary quantities
which they are to involve ; a primitive cause
which shall dispose the elements in due relation
to each other ; in order that regular recurrence
may accompany constant change ; that per-
petual motion may be combined with perpetual
stability ; that derangements which go on in-
creasing for thousands or for millions of years
may finally cure themselves ; and that the same
laws which lead the planets slightly aside from
their paths, may narrowly limit their deviations,
and bring them back from their almost imper-
ceptible wanderings.
If a man does not deny that any possible pe-
culiarity in the disposition of the planets with
regard to the sun could afford evidence of a con-
trolling and ordering purpose, it seems difficult
to imagine how he could look for evidence
stronger than that which there actually is. Of
all the innumerable possible cases of systems, go-
verned by the existing laws of force and motion,
that one is selected which alone produces such
a steadfast periodicity, such a constant average
of circumstances, as are, so far as we can con-
ceive, necessary conditions for the existence of
organic and sentient life. And this selection is
so far from being an obvious or easily discovered
means to this end, that the most profound and
attentive consideration of the properties of space
STABILITY OF THE SYSTEM. 169
and number, with all the appliances and aids
we can obtain, are barely sufficient to enable us
to see that the end is thus secured, and that it
can be secured in no other way. Surely the
obvious impression which arises from this view
of the subject is, that the solar system, with its
adjustments, is the work of an Intelligence, who
perceives, as self-evident, those truths, to which
we attain painfully and slowly, and after all im-
perfectly ; who has employed in every part of
creation refined contrivances, which we can
only with effort understand ; and who, in in-
numerable instances, exhibits to us what we
should look upon as remarkable difficulties re-
markably overcome, if it were not that, through
the perfection of the provision, the trace of the
difficulty is almost obliterated.
Chapter IV.
The Sun in the Centre.
'HE next circumstance which we shall no-
tice as indicative of design in the arrange-
ment of the material portions of the solar system,
is the position of the sun, the source of light and
heat, in the centre of the system. This could
hardly have occurred by any thing which we can
170 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
call chance. Let it be granted, that the law of
gravitation is established, and that we have a
large mass, with others much smaller in its com-
parative vicinity. The small bodies may then
move round the larger, but this will do nothing
towards making it a sun to them. Their motions
might take place, the whole system remaining
still utterly dark and cold, without day or sum-
mer. In order that we may have something
more than this blank and dead assemblage of
moving clods, the machine must be lighted up
and warmed. Some of the advantages of placing
the lighting and warming apparatus in the cen-
tre are obvious to us. It is in this way only
that we could have those regular periodical re-
turns of solar influence, which, as we have seen,
are adapted to the constitution of the living crea-
tion. And we can easily conceive, that there
may be other incongruities in a system with a
travelling sun, of which we can only conjecture
the nature. No one probably will doubt that
the existing system, with the sun in the centre,
is better than any one of a different kind would
be.
Now this lighting and warming by a central
sun are something superadded to the mere me-
chanical arrangements of the universe. There
is no apparent reason why the largest mass of
gravitating matter should diffuse inexhaustible
supplies of light and heat in all directions, while
the other masses are merely passive with respect
THE SUN IN THE CENTRE. 171
to such influences. There is no obvious con-
nexion between mass and luminousness, or tem-
perature. No one, probably, will contend that
the materials of our system are necessarily lumi-
nous or hot. According to the conjectures of
astronomers, the heat and light of the sun do
not reside in its mass, but in a coating winch
lies on its surface. If such a coating were fixed
there by the force of universal gravitation, how
could we avoid having a similar coating; on the
surface of the earth, and of all the other globes
of the system. If light consists in the vibrations
of an ether, which we have mentioned as a pro-
bable opinion, why has the sun alone the power
of exciting such vibrations ? If light be the
emission of material particles, why does the sun
alone emit such particles ? Similar questions
may be asked, with regard to heat, whatever be
the theory wc adopt on that subject. Here then
we appear to find marks of contrivance. The
sun might become, we will suppose, the centre
of the motions of the planets by mere mecha-
nical causes : but what caused the centre of
their motions to be also the source of those vivi-
fying influences ? Allowing that no interposition
was requisite to regulate the revolutions of the
system, yet observe what a peculiar arrangement
in other respects was necessary, in order that
these revolutions might produce days and sea-
sons ! The machine will move of itself, we may
grant : but who constructed the machine, so
172 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
that its movements might answer the purposes
of life ? How was the candle placed upon the
candlestick ? how was the fire deposited on the
hearth, so that the comfort and well-being of the
family might be secured? Did these too fall
into their places by the casual operation of gra-
vity ? and, if not, is there not here a clear evi-
dence of intelligent design, of arrangement with
a benevolent end ?
This argument is urged with great force by
Newton himself. In his first letter to Bentley,
he allows that matter might form itself into
masses by the force of attraction. " And thus,"
says he, " might the sun andfixed stars be formed,
supposing the matter were of a lucid nature.
But how the matter should divide itself into two
sorts ; and that part of it which is fit to compose
a shining body should fall down into one mass,
and make a sun ; and the rest, which is fit to
compose an opake body, should coalesce, not
into one great body, like the shining matter, but
into many little ones ; or if the sun at first were
an opake body like the planets, or the planets
lucid bodies like the sun, how he alone should
be changed into a shining body, whilst all they
continue opake ; or all they be changed into
opake ones, while he continued unchanged : I
do not think explicable by mere natural causes,
but am forced to ascribe it to the counsel and
contrivance of a voluntary Agent."
173
Chapter V.
The Satellites.
PERSON of ordinary feelings, who,
on a fine moonlight night, sees our sa-
tellite pouring her mild radiance on field and
town, path and moor, will probably not only be
disposed to " bless the useful light," but also to
believe that it was " ordained" for that purpose ;
— that the lesser light was made to rule the night
as certainly as the greater light was made to
rule the day.
Laplace, however, does not assent to this be-
lief. He observes, that " some partisans of final
causes have imagined that the moon was given
to the earth to afford light during the night :"
but he remarks that this cannot be so, for that
we are often deprived at the same time of the
light of the sun and the moon ; and he points
out how the moon might have been placed so as
to be always " full."
That the light of the moon affords, to a certain
extent, a supplement to the light of the sun, will
hardly be denied. If we take man in a condi-
tion in which he uses artificial light scantily only,
or not at all, there can be no doubt that the moon-
light nights are for him a very important addi-
174 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
tion to the time of daylight. And as a small
proportion only of the whole number of nights
are without some portion of moonlight, the fact
that sometimes both luminaries are invisible very
little diminishes the value of this advantage.
Why we have not more moonlight, either in du-
ration or in quantity, is an inquiry which a phi-
losopher could hardly be tempted to enter upon,
by any success which has attended previous
speculations of a similar nature. Why should
not the moon be ten times as large as she is ?
Why should not the pupil of man's eye be ten
times as large as it is, so as to receive more of
the light which does arrive ? We do not conceive
that our inability to answer the latter question
prevents our knowing that the eye was made for
seeing : nor does our inability to answer the for-
mer, disturb our persuasion that the moon was
made to give light upon the earth.
Laplace suggests that if the moon had been
placed at a certain distance beyond the earth,
it would have revolved about the sun in the
same time as the earth does, and would have
always presented to us a full moon. For this
purpose it must have been about four times as
far from us as it really is ; and would therefore,
other things remaining unchanged, have only
been one sixteenth as large to the eye as our pre-
sent full moon. We shall not dwell on the dis-
cussion of this suggestion, for the reason just
intimated. But we may observe that in such a
THE SATELLITES. 175
system as Laplace proposes, it is not yet proved,
we believe, that the arrangement would be stable,
under the influence of the disturbing forces.
And we may add that such an arrangement, in
which the motion of one body has a coordinate
reference to two others, as the motion of the
moon on this hypothesis would have to the sun
and the earth, neither motion being subordinate
to the other, is contrary to the whole known
analogy of cosmical phenomena, and therefore
has no claim to our notice as a subject of dis-
cussion.
2. In turning our consideration to the satel-
lites of the other planets of our system, there is
one fact which immediately arrests our atten-
tion ;— the number of such attendant bodies ap-
pears to increase as we proceed to planets farther
and farther from the sun. Such at least is the
general rule. Mercury and Venus, the planets
nearest the sun, have no such attendants, the
Earth has one. Mars, indeed, who is still far-
ther removed, has none ; nor have the minor
planets, Juno, Vesta, Ceres, Pallas ; so that the
rule is only approximately verified. But Jupi-
ter, who is at five times the earth's distance, has
four satellites ; and Saturn, who is again at a
distance nearly twice as great, has seven, besides
that most extraordinary phenomenon his ring,
which, for purposes of illumination, is equivalent
to many thousand satellites. Of Uranus it is
difficult to speak, for his great distance renders
176 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
it almost impossible to observe the smaller cir-
cumstances of his condition. It does not appear
at all probable that he has a ring, like Saturn ;
but he has at least five satellites which are vi-
sible to us, at the enormous distance of 900 mil-
lions of miles ; and we believe that the astro-
nomer will hardly deny that he may possibly have
thousands of smaller ones circulating about him.
But leaving conjecture, and taking only the
ascertained cases of Venus, the Earth, Jupiter,
and Saturn, we conceive that a person of com-
mon understanding will be strongly impressed
with the persuasion that the satellites are placed
in the system with a view to compensate for the
diminished light of the sun at greater distances.
The smaller planets, Juno, Vesta, Ceres, and
Pallas, differ from the rest in so many ways, and
suggest so many conjectures of reasons for such
differences, that we should almost expect to find
them exceptions to such a rule. Mars is a more
obvious exception. Some persons might con-
jecture from this case, that the arrangement itself,
like other useful arrangements, has been brought
about by some wider law which we have not yet
detected. But whether or not we entertain such
a guess, (it can be nothing more,) we see in
other parts of creation, so many examples of ap-
parent exceptions to rules, which are afterwards
found to be capable of explanation, or to be pro-
vided for by particular contrivances, that no one,
familiar with such contemplations, will, by one
THE SATELLITE?. 177
anomaly, be driven from the persuasion that
the end which the arrangements of the satellites
seem suited to answer is really one of the ends
of their creation.
Chapter VI.
The Stability of the Ocean.
|HAT is meant by the stability of the ocean
may perhaps be explained by means of the
following illustration. If we suppose the whole
globe of the Earth to be composed of water, a
sphere of cork immersed in any part of it, would
come to the surface of the water, except it were
placed exactly at the centre of the earth ; and
even if it were so placed, the slightest displace-
ment of the cork sphere would end in its rising
and floating. This would be the case whatever
were the size of the cork sphere, and even if it
were so large as to leave comparatively little room
for the water ; and the result would be nearly
the same, if the cork sphere, when in its central
position, had on its surface prominences which
projected above the surface of the water. Now
this brings us to the case in which we have a
globe resembling our present earth, composed
like it of water and of a solid centre, with islands
and continents, but having these solid parts all
W N
178 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
made of cork. And it appears by the preceding
reasoning, that in this case, if there were to be
any disturbance either of the solid or fluid parts,
the solid parts would rise from the centre of the
watery sphere as far as they could : that is, all
the water would run to one side and leave the
land on the other. Such an ocean would be in
unstable equilibrium.
Now a question naturally occurs, is the equi-
librium of our present ocean of this unstable kind,
or is it stable ? The sea, after its most violent
agitations, appears to return to its former state
of repose ; but may not some extraordinary cause
produce in it some derangement which may go
on increasing till the waters all rush one way,
and thus drown the highest mountains ? And if
we are safe from this danger, what are the con-
ditions by which we are so secured?
The illustration which we have employed ob-
viously suggests the answer to this question ;
namely, that the equilibrium is unstable, so long
as the solid parts are of such a kind as to float
in the fluid parts ; and of course we should ex-
pect that the equilibrium will be stable whenever
the contrary is the case, that is, when the solid
parts of the earth are of greater specific gravity
than the sea. A more systematic mathematical
calculation has conducted Laplace to a demon-
stration of this result.
The mean specific gravity of the earth appears
to be about Jive times that of water, so that the
STABILITY OF THE OCEAN. 179
condition of the stability of the ocean is abun-
dantly fulfilled. And the provision by which
this stability is secured was put in force through
the action of those causes, whatever they were,
which made the density of the solid materials
and central parts of the earth greater than the
density of the incumbent fluid.
When we consider, however, the manner in
which the wisdom of the Creator, even in those
cases in which his care is most apparent, as in
the structure of animals, works by means of
intermediate causes and general laws, we shall
not be ready to reject all belief of an end in
such a case as this, merely because the means
are mechanical agencies. Laplace says, " in
virtue of gravity, the most dense of the strata
of the earth are those nearest to the centre ;
and thus the mean density exceeds that of the
waters which cover it ; which suffices to secure
the stability of the equilibrium of the seas, and
to put a bridle upon the fury of the waves."
This statement, if exact, would not prove that
He who subjected the materials of the earth to
the action of gravity did not intend to restrain
the rage of the waters : but the statement is not
true in fact. The lower strata, so far as man
has yet examined, are very far from being con-
stantly, or even generally, heavier than the
superincumbent ones. And certainly solidifica-
tion by no means implies a greater density than
fluidity : the density of Jupiter is one fourth,
180 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
that of Saturn less than one seventh, of that or
the earth. If an ocean of water were poured
into the cavities upon the surface of Saturn, its
equilibrium would not be stable. It would leave
its bed on one side of the globe ; and the planet
would finally be composed of one hemisphere
of water and one of land. If the Earth had an
ocean of a fluid six times as heavy as water,
(quicksilver is thirteen times as heavy,) we
should have, in like manner, a dry and a fluid
hemisphere. Our inland rivers would probably
never be able to reach the shores, but would be
dried up on their way, like those which run in
torrid desarts ; perhaps the evaporation from the
ocean would never reach the inland mountains,
and we should have no rivers at all. Without
attempting to imagine the details of such a con-
dition, it is easy to see, that to secure the exist-
ence of a different one is an end which is in har-
mony with all that we see of the preserving care
displayed in the rest of creation.*
* The stability of the axis of rotation about which the
earth revolves has sometimes been adduced as an instance
of preservative care. The stability, however, would follow
necessarily, if the earth, or its superficial parts, were origi-
nally fluid ; and that they were so is an opinion widely
received, both among astronomers and geologists. The
original fluidity of the earth is probably a circumstance de-
pending upon the general scheme of creation ; and cannot
with propriety be considered with reference to one particu-
lar result. We shall therefore omit an)' further considera-
tion of this argument.
181
Chapter VII.
The Nebular Hypothesis.
^E have referred to Laplace, as a profound
|g mathematician, who has strongly ex-
pressed the opinion, that the arrangement by
which the stability of the solar system is secured
is not the result of chance ; that " a primitive
cause has directed the planetary motions." This
author, however, having arrived, as we have
done, at this conviction, does not draw from it
the conclusion which has appeared to us so irre-
sistible, that "the admirable arrangement of the
solar system cannot but be the work of an intel-
ligent and most powerful being." He quotes
these expressions, which are those of Newton,
and points at them as instances where that great
philosopher had deviated from the method of
true philosophy. He himself proposes an hy-
pothesis concerning the nature of the primitive
cause of which he conceives the existence to be
thus probable : and this hypothesis, on account
of the facts which it attempts to combine, the
view of the universe which it presents, and the
eminence of the person by whom it is pro-
pounded, deserves our notice.
1. Laplace conjectures that in the original con-
182 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
dition of the solar system, the sun revolved upon
his axis, surrounded by an atmosphere which,
in virtue of an excessive heat, extended far
beyond the orbits of all the planets, the planets
as yet having no existence. The heat gradually
diminished, and as the solar atmosphere con-
tracted by cooling, the rapidity of its rotation in-
creased by the laws of rotatory motion, and an
exterior zone of vapour was detached from the
rest, the central attraction being no longer able to
overcome the increased centrifugal force. This
zone of vapour might in some cases retain its
form, as we see it in Saturn's ring ; but more usu-
ally the ring of vapour would break into several
masses, and these would generally coalesce into
one mass, which would revolve about the sun.
Such portions of the solar atmosphere, aban-
doned successively at different distances, would
form " planets in the state of vapour." These
masses of vapour, it appears from mechanical
considerations, would have each its rotatory mo-
tion, and as the cooling of the vapour still went
on, would each produce a planet, which might
have satellites and rings, formed from the planet
in the same manner as the planets were formed
from the atmosphere of the sun.
It may easily be conceived that all the pri-
mary motions of a system so produced would be
nearly circular, nearly in the plane of the ori-
ginal equator of the solar rotation, and in the
NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 183
direction of that rotation. Reasons are offered
also to show that the motions of the satellites
thus produced and the motions of rotation of
the planets must be in the same direction. And
thus it is held that the hypothesis accounts for
the most remarkable circumstances in the struc-
ture of the solar system : namely, the motions
of the planets in the same direction, and almost
in the same plane ; the motions of the satellites
in the same direction as those of the planets ;
the motions of rotation of these different bodies
still in the same direction as the other motions,
and in planes not much different ; the small
excentricity of the orbits of the planets, upon
which condition, along with some of the pre-
ceding ones, the stability of the system depends;
and the position of the source of light and heat
in the centre of the system.
It is not necessary for the purpose, nor suit-
able to the plan of the present treatise, to
examine, on physical grounds, the probability of
the above hypothesis. It is proposed by its
author, with great diffidence, as a conjecture
only. We might, therefore, very reasonably
put off all discussion of the bearings of this
opinion upon our views of the government of
the world, till the opinion itself should have,
assumed a less indistinct and precarious form.
It can be no charge against our doctrines, that
there is a difficultv in reconciling -with them
184 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
arbitrary guesses and half-formed theories. We
shall, however, make a few observations upon
this nebular hypothesis, as it may be termed.
2. If we grant, for a moment, the hypothesis,
it by no means proves that the solar system was
formed without the intervention of intelligence
and design. It only transfers our view of the
skill exercised, and the means employed, to
another part of the work. For, how came the
sun and its atmosphere to have such materials,
such motions, such a constitution, that these
consequences followed from their primordial
condition ? How came the parent vapour thus
to be capable of coherence, separation, con-
traction, solidification ? How came the laws of
its motion, attraction, repulsion, condensation,
to be so fixed, as to lead to a beautiful and har-
monious system in the end ? How came it to
be neither too fluid nor too tenacious, to con-
tract neither too quickly nor too slowly, for the
successive formation of the several planetary
bodies? How came that substance, which at
one time was a luminous vapour, to be at a sub-
sequent period, solids and fluids of many vari-
ous kinds ? What but design and intelligence
prepared and tempered this previously existing
element, so that it should by its natural changes
produce such an orderly system?
And if in this way we suppose a planet to be
produced, what sort of a body would it be ? —
something, it may be presumed, resembling a
NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 185
large meteoric stone. How comes this mass to
be covered with motion and organization, with
life and happiness ? What primitive cause
stocked it with plants and animals, and pro-
duced all the wonderful and subtle contrivances
which we find in their structure, all the wide
and profound mutual dependencies which we
trace in their economy ? Was man, with his
thought and feeling, his powers and hopes, his
will and conscience, also produced as an ulti-
mate result of the condensation of the solar
atmosphere ? Except we allow a prior purpose
and intelligence presiding over this material
" primitive cause," how irreconcilable is it with
the evidence which crowds in upon us on every
side !
3. In the next place, we may observe con-
cerning this hypothesis, that it carries us back
to tbe beginning of the present system of things;
but that it is impossible for our reason to stop
at the point thus presented to it. The sun, the
earth, the planets, the moons were brought into
their present order out of a previous state, and,
as is supposed in the theory, by the natural
operation of laws. But how came that previous
state to exist? We are compelled to suppose
that it, in like manner, was educed from a still
prior state of things ; and this, again, must have
been the result of a condition prior still. Nor
is it possible for us to find, in the tenets of the
nebular hypothesis, any resting place or satis-
186 COSMIC AL ARRANGEMENTS.
faction for the mind. The same reasoning fa-
culty, which seeks for the origin of the present
system of things, and is capable of assenting to,
or dissenting from the hypothesis propounded
by Laplace as an answer to this inquiry, is ne-
cessarily led to seek, in the same manner, for
the origin of any previous system of things, out
of which the present may appear to have grown :
and must pursue this train of enquiries unre-
mittingly, so long as the answer which it re-
ceives describes a mere assemblage of matter and
motion ; since it would be to contradict the laws
of matter and the nature of motion, to suppose
such an assemblage to be the Jirst condition.
The reflection just stated, may be illustrated
by the further consideration of the Nebular
Hypothesis. This opinion refers us, for the
origin of the solar system, to a sun surrounded
with an atmosphere of enormously elevated tem-
perature, revolving and cooling. But as we
ascend to a still earlier period, what state of
things are we to suppose ? — a still higher tem-
perature, a still more diffused atmosphere. La-
place conceives that, in its primitive state, the
sun consisted in a diffused luminosity so as to
resemble those nebulae among the fixed stars,
which are seen by the aid of the telescope, and
which exhibit a nucleus, more or less brilliant,
surrounded by a cloudy brightness. "This an-
terior state was itself preceded by other states,
in which the nebulous matter was more and
NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 187
more diffuse, the nucleus being less and less
luminous. We arrive," Laplace says, " in this
manner, at a nebulosity so diffuse, that its ex-
istence could scarcely be suspected."
" Such is," he adds, " in fact, the first state
of the nebulae which Herschel carefully observed
by means of his powerful telescopes. He traced
the progress of condensation, not indeed on one
nebula, for this progress can only become per-
ceptible to us in the course of centuries ; but in
the assemblage of nebulae ; much in the same
manner as in a large forest we may trace the
growth of trees among the examples of different
ages which stand side by side. He saw in the
first place the nebulous matter dispersed in
patches, in the different parts of the sky. He
saw in some of these patches this matter feebly
condensed round one or more faint nuclei. In
other nebulae, these nuclei were brighter in pro-
portion to the surrounding nebulosity ; when by
a further condensation the atmosphere of each
nucleus becomes separate from the others, the
result is multiple nebulous stars, formed by bril-
liant nuclei very near each other, and each sur-
rounded by an atmosphere : sometimes the nebu-
lous matter condensing in a uniform manner has
produced nebulous systems which are called
planetary. Finally, a still greater degree of
condensation transforms all these nebulous sys-
tems into stars. The nebulae, classed according
to this philosophical view, indicate with extreme
188 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
probability their future transformation into stars,
and the anterior nebulous condition of the stars
which now exist."
It appears then that the highest point to which
this series of conjectures can conduct us, is
" an extremely diffused nebulosity," attended,
we may suppose, by a far higher degree of heat,
than that which, at a later period of the hypo-
thetical process, keeps all the materials of our
earth and planets in a state of vapour. Now is
it not impossible to avoid asking, whence was
this lifjht, this heat, this diffusion ? How came
the laws which such a state implies, to be already
in existence ? Whether light and heat produce
their effects by means of fluid vehicles or other-
wise, they have complex and varied laws which
indicate the existence of some subtle machinery
for their action. When and how was this machi-
nery constructed ? Whence too that enormous
expansive power which the nebulous matter is
supposed to possess ? And if, as would seem
to be supposed in this doctrine, all the material
ingredients of the earth existed in this diffuse
nebulosity, either in the state of vapour, or in
some state of still greater expansion, whence
were they and their properties ? how came there
to be of each simple substance which now enters
into the composition of the universe, just so
much and no more ? Do we not, far more than
ever, require an origin of this origin ? an expla-
nation of this explanation ? Whatever may be
NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 189
the merits of the opinion as a physical hy-
pothesis, with which we do not here meddle,
can it for a moment prevent our looking beyond
the hypothesis, to a First Cause, an Intelligent
Author, an origin proceeding from free volition,
not from material necessity ?
But again : let us ascend to the highest point
of the hypothetical progression : let us suppose
the nehulosity diffused throughout all space, so
that its course of running into patches is not yet
begun. How are we to suppose it distributed ?
Is it equably diffused in every part? clearly
not ; for if it were, what should cause it to
gather into masses, so various in size, form and
arrangement ? The separation of the nebulous
matter into distinct nebulas implies necessarily
some original inequality of distribution ; some
determining circumstances in its primitive con-
dition. Whence were these circumstances ?
this inequality ? we are still compelled to seek
some ulterior agency and power.
Why must the primeval condition be one of
change at all? Why should not the nebulous
matter be equably diffused throughout space,
and continue for ever in its state of equable
diffusion, as it must do, from the absence of all
cause to determine the time and manner of its
separation ? why should this nebulous matter
grow cooler and cooler? why should it not re-
tain for ever the same degree of heat, whatever
heat be ? If heat be a fluid, if to cool be to part
190 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
with this fluid, as many philosophers suppose,
what becomes of the fluid heat of the nebulous
matter, as the matter cools down ? Into what
unoccupied region does it find its way ?
Innumerable questions of the same kind might
be asked, and the conclusion to be drawn is,
that every new physical theory which we in-
clude in our view of the universe, involves us in
new difficulties and perplexities, if Ave try to
erect it into an ultimate and final account of
the existence and arrangement of the world in
which we live. With the evidence of such
theories, considered as scientific generalizations
of ascertained facts, with their claims to a place
in our natural philosophy, we have here nothing
to do. But if they are put forwards as a disclo-
sure of the ultimate cause of that which occurs,
and as superseding the necessity of looking
further or higher ; if they claim a place in our
Natural Theology, as well as our Natural Phi-
losophy ; we conceive that their pretensions
will not bear a moment's examination.
Leaving then to other persons and to future
ages to decide upon the scientific merits of the
nebular hypothesis, we conceive that the final
fate of this opinion can not, in sound reason,
affect at all the view which we have been en-
deavouring to illustrate ; — the view of the uni-
verse as the work of a wise and good Creator.
Let it be supposed that the point to which this
hypothesis leads us, is the ultimate point of
NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 191
physical science : that the farthest glimpse we
can obtain of the material universe by our na-
tural faculties, shows it to us occupied by a
boundless abyss of luminous matter : still we
ask, how space came to be thus occupied, how
matter came to be thus luminous ? If we
establish by physical proofs, that the first fact
which can be traced in the history of the world,
is that " there was light ;" we shall still be led,
even by our natural reason, to suppose that be-
fore this could occur, " God said, let there be
light."
Chapter VIII.
The Existence of a Resisting Medium in the
Solar System.
<HE question of a plenum and a vacuum
was formerly much debated among those
who speculated concerning the constitution of
the universe ; that is, they disputed whether
the celestial and terrestrial spaces are absolutely
full, each portion being occupied by some matter
or other ; or whether there are, between and
among the material parts of the world, empty
spaces free from all matter, however rare. This
question was often treated by means of abstract
conceptions and d priori reasonings ; and was
sometimes considered as one in which the result
192 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
of the struggle between rival systems of phi-
losophy, the Cartesian and Newtonian for in-
stance, was involved. It was conceived by
some that the Newtonian doctrine of the mo-
tions of the heavenly bodies, according to me-
chanical laws, required that the space in which
they moved should be, absolutely and metaphy-
sically speaking, a vacuum.
This, however, is not necessary to the truth of
the Newtonian doctrines, and does not appear
to have been intended to be asserted by Newton
himself. Undoubtedly, according to his theory,
the motions of the heavenly bodies were calcu-
lated on the supposition that they do move in a
space void of any resisting fluid ; and the com-
parison of the places so calculated with the
places actually observed, (continued for a long
course of years, and tried in innumerable cases,)
did not show any difference which implied the
existence of a resisting fluid. The Newtonian,
therefore, was justified in asserting that either
there was no such fluid, or that it was so thin
and rarefied, that no phenomenon yet examined
by astronomers was capable of betraying its
effects.
This was all that the Newtonian needed or
ought to maintain ; for his philosophy, founded
altogether upon observation, had nothing to do
with abstract possibilities and metaphysical ne-
cessities. And in the same manner in which
observation and calculation thus showed that
RESISTING MEDIUM. 193
there could be none but a very rare medium
pervading the solar system, it was left open to
observation and calculation to prove that there
was such a medium, if any facts could be dis-
covered which offered suitable evidence.
Within the last few years, facts have been ob-
served which show, in the opinion of some of the
best mathematicians of Europe, that such a very
rare medium does really occupy the spaces in
which the planets move ; and it may be proper
and interesting to consider the bearing of this
opinion upon the views and arguments which
we have had here to present.
1. Reasons might be offered, founded on the
universal diffusion of light and on other grounds,
for believing that the planetary spaces cannot be
entirely free from matter of some kind ; and
wherever matter is, we should expect resistance.
But the facts which have thus led astronomers
to the conviction that such a resisting medium
really exists, are certain circumstances occurring
in the motion of a body revolving round the sun
which is now usually called Enckes comet. This
body revolves in a very excentric or oblong orbit,
its greatest or aphelion distance from the sun,
and its nearest or perihelion distance, being in
the proportion of more than ten to one. In this
respect it agrees with other comets ; but its
time of revolution about the sun is much less
than that of the comets which have excited most
notice ; for while they appear only at long in-
w. o
194 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
tervals of years, the body of which we are now
speaking returns to its perihelion every 1208
days, or in about three years and one-third.
Another observable circumstance in this sin-
gular body, is its extreme apparent tenuity : it
appears as a loose indefinitely formed speck of
vapour, through which the stars are visible with
no perceptible diminution of their brightness.
This body was first seen by Mechain and Mes-
sier, in 1786,* but they obtained only twcfob-
servations, whereas three, at least, are requisite
to determine the path of a heavenly body. Miss
Herschel discovered it again in 1795, and it
was observed by several European astronomers.
In 1805 it was again seen, and again in 1819.
Hitherto it was supposed that the four comets
thus observed were all different ; Encke, how-
ever, showed that the observations could only be
explained by considering them as returns of the
same revolving body ; and by doing this, well
merited that his name should be associated with
the subject of his discovery. The return of this
body in 1822, was calculated beforehand, and
observed in New South Wales, the comet being
then in the southern part of the heavens ; but
on comparing the calculated and the observed
places, Encke concluded that the observations
could not be exactly explained, without sup-
posing a resisting medium. This comet was
again generally observed in Europe in 1825 and
* Airy on Encke's Comet, p. 1. note.
RESISTING MEDIUM. 195
1828, and the circumstances of the last appear-
ance were particularly favourable for determi-
ning the absolute amount of the retardation
arising from the medium, which the other ob-
servations had left undetermined.
The effect of this retarding influence is, as
might be supposed from what has already been
said, extremely slight ; and would probably not
have been perceptible at all, but for the loose
texture and small quantity of matter of the re-
volving body. It will easily be conceived that
a body which has perhaps no more solidity or
coherence than a cloud of dust, or a wreath of
smoke, will have less force to make its way
through a fluid medium, however thin, than a
more dense and compact body would have. In
atmospheric air much rarefied, a bullet might
proceed for miles without losing any of its ve-
locity, while such a loose mass as the comet is
supposed to be would lose its projectile motion
in the space of a few yards. This consideration
will account for the circumstance, that the ex-
istence of such a medium has been detected by
observing the motions of Encke's comet, though
the motions of the heavenly bodies previously
observed showed no trace of such an impedi-
ment.
It will perhaps appear remarkable that a body
so light and loose as we have described this
comet to be, should revolve about the sun by
laws as fixed and certain as those which regulate
196 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
the motions of those great and solid masses, the
Earth and Jupiter. It is however certain from
observation, that this comet is acted upon by
exactly the same force of solar attraction, as the
other bodies of the system ; and not only so, but
that it also experiences the same kind of disturb-
ing- force from the action of the other planets,
which they exercise upon each other. The effect
of all these causes has been calculated with great
care and labour ; and the result has been an
agreement with observation sufficiently close to
show that these causes really act, but at the
same time a residual phenomenon (as Sir J.
Herschel expresses it) has come to light : and
from this has been collected the inference of a
resisting medium.
This medium produces a very small effect upon
the motion of the comet, as will easily be sup-
posed from what has been said. By Encke's
calculation, it appears that the effect of the re-
sistance, supposing the comet to move in the
earth's orbit, would be about 1 -850th of the sun's
force of the body. The effect of such a resistance
may appear, at first sight, paradoxical ; it would
be to make the comet move more slowly, but
perform its revolutions more quickly. This, how-
ever, will perhaps be understood if it be con-
sidered that by moving more slowly the comet
will be more rapidly drawn towards the centre,
and that in this way a revolution will be described
by a shorter path than it was before. It appears,
RESISTING MEDIUM. 197
that in getting round the sun, the comet gains
more in this way than it loses by the diminution
of its velocity. The case is much like that of a
stone thrown in the air ; the stone moves more
slowly than it would do if there were no air ; but
yet it comes to the earth sooner than it would do
on that supposition.
It appears that the effect of the resistance of
the ethereal medium, from the first discovery of
the comet up to the present time, has been to
diminish the time of revolution by about two
days : and the comet is ten days in advance of
the place which it would have reached, if there
had been no resistance.
2. The same medium which is thus shown to
produce an effect upon Encke's comet, must also
act upon the planets which move through the
same spaces. The effect upon the planets, how-
ever, must be very much smaller than the effect
upon the comet, in consequence of their greater
quantity of matter.
It is not easy to assign any probable value, or
even any certain limit, to the effect of the resist-
ing medium upon the planets. We are entirely
ignorant of the comparative mass of the comet,
and of any of the planets ; and hence, cannot
make any calculation, founded on such a com-
parison. Newton has endeavoured to show how
6mall the resistance of the medium must be, if
it exists.* The result of his calculation is, that
* Principia, b. iii. prop. x.
198 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
if we take the density of the medium to be that
which our air will have at 200 miles from the
earth's surface, supposing the law of diminution
of density to go on unaltered, and if we suppose
Jupiter to move in such a medium, he would in
a million years lose less than a millionth part of
his velocity. If a planet, revolving about the
sun, were to lose any portion of its velocity by
the effect of resistance, it would be drawn pro-
portionally nearer the sun, the tendency towards
the centre being no longer sufficientlv counter-
acted by that centrifugal force which arises from
the body's velocity. And if the resistance were
to continue to act, the body would be drawn
perpetually nearer and nearer to the centre,
and would describe its revolutions quicker and
quicker, till at last it would reach the central
body, and the system would cease to be a system.
This result is true, however small be the velo-
city lost by resistance ; the only difference being,
that when the resistance is small, the time re-
quisite to extinguish the whole motion will be
proportionally longer. In all cases the times
which come under our consideration in problems
of this kind, are enormous to common appre-
hension. Thus Encke's comet, according to the
results of the observations already made, will
lose, in ten revolutions, or thirty-three years,
less than 1-lOOOth of its velocity : and if this
law were to continue, the velocity would not be
reduced to one-half its present value in less than
RESISTING MEDIUM. 199
seven thousand revolutions or twenty-three thou-
sand years. If Jupiter were to lose one-mil-
lionth of his velocity in a million years, (which,
as has been seen, is far more than can be consi-
dered in any way probable,) he would require
seventy millions of years to lose l-1000th of the
velocity ; and a period seven hundred times as
long to reduce the velocity to one-half. These
are periods of time which quite overwhelm the
imagination ; and it is not pretended that the cal-
culations are made with any pretentions to accu-
racy. But at the same time it is beyond doubt
that though the intervals of time thus assigned
to these changes are highly vague and uncertain,
the changes themselves must, sooner or later,
take place, in consequence of the existence of
the resisting medium. Since there is such a re-
tarding force perpetually acting, however slight
it be, it must in the end destroy all the celestial
motions. It may be millions of millions of years
before the earth's retardation may perceptibly
affect the apparent motion of the sun ; but still
the day will come (if the same Providence which
formed the system, should permit it to continue
so long) when this cause will entirely change
the length of our year and the course of our sea-
sons, and finally stop the earth's motion round
the sun altogether. The smallness of the resis-
tance, however small we choose to suppose it,
does not allow us to escape this certainty. There
is a resisting medium ; and, therefore, the move-
200 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
ments of the solar system cannot go on for ever.
The moment such a fluid is ascertained to exist,
the eternity of the movements of the planets be-
comes as impossible as a perpetual motion on
the earth.
3. The vast periods which are brought under
our consideration in tracing the effects of the
resisting medium, harmonize with all that we
learn of the constitution of the universe from
other sources. Millions, and millions of millions
of years are expressions that at first sight appear
fitted only to overwhelm and confound all our
powers of thought : and such numbers are no
doubt beyond the limits of any thing which we
can distinctly conceive. But our powers of con-
ception are suited rather to the wants and uses
of common life, than to a complete survey of the
universe. It is in no way unlikely that the
whole duration of the solar system should be a
period immeasurably great in our eyes, though
demonstrably finite. Such enormous numbers
have been brought under our notice by all the
advances we have made in our knowledge of
nature. The smallness of the objects detected
by the microscope and of their parts ; — the mul-
titude of the stars which the best telescopes of
modern times have discovered in the sky ;— the
duration assigned to the globe of the earth
by geological investigation ;— all these results
require for their probable expression, num-
bers, which so far as we see, are on the same
RESISTING MEDIUM. 201
gigantic scale as the number of years in which
the solar system will become entirely deranged.
Such calculations depend in some degree on our
relation to the vast aggregate of the works of
our Creator ; and no person who is accustomed
to meditate on these subjects will be surprised
that the numbers which such an occasion re-
quires should oppress our comprehension. No
one who has dwelt on the thought of a universal
Creator and Preserver, will be surprised to find
the conviction forced upon the mind of every
new train of speculation, that viewed in reference
to Him, our space is a point, our time a moment,
our millions a handful, our permanence a quick
decay.
Our knowledge of the vast periods, both geo-
logical and astronomical, of which we have
spoken, is most slight. It is in fact little more
than that such periods exist ; that the surface of
the earth has, at wide intervals of time, under-
gone great changes in the disposition of land and
water, and in the forms of animal life ; and that
the motions of the heavenly bodies round the
sun are affected, though with inconceivable
slowness, by a force which must end by derang-
ing them altogether. It would therefore be
rash to endeavour to establish any analogy be-
tween the periods thus disclosed ; but we may
observe that they agree in this, that they reduce
all things to the general rule of finite duration.
As all the geological states of which we find
202 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
evidence in the present state of the earth, have
had their termination, so also the astronomical
conditions under which the revolutions of the
earth itself proceed, involve the necessity of a
future cessation of these revolutions.
The contemplative person may well be struck
by this universal law of the creation. We are
in the habit sometimes of contrasting the tran-
sient destiny of man with the permanence of the
forests, the mountains, the ocean, — with the
unwearied circuit of the sun. But this contrast
is a delusion of our own imagination : the dif-
ference is after all but one of degree. The
forest tree endures for its centuries and then
decays ; the mountains crumble and change,
and perhaps subside in some convulsion of na-
ture ; the sea retires, and the shore ceases to
resound with the ' everlasting' voice of the
ocean : such reflections have already crowded
upon the mind of the geologist ; and it now
appears that the courses of the heavens them-
selves are not exempt from the universal law of
decay ; that not only the rocks and the moun
tains, but the sun and the moon have the sen-
tence " to end" stamped upon their foreheads.
They enjoy no privilege beyond man except a
longer respite. The ephemeron perishes in an
hour ; man endures for his threescore years
and ten ; an empire, a nation, numbers its cen-
turies, it may be its thousands of years ; the
continents and islands which its dominion in-
RESISTING MEDIUM. 203
eludes, have perhaps their date, as those which
preceded them have had ; and the very revolu-
tions of the sky by which centuries are num-
bered will at last languish and stand still.
To dwell on the moral and religious reflexions
suggested by this train of thought is not to our
present purpose ; but we may observe that it
introduces a homogeneity, so to speak, into the
government of the universe. Perpetual change,
perpetual progression, increase and diminution,
appear to be the rules of the material world, and
to prevail without exception. The smaller por-
tions of matter which we have near us, and the
larger, which appear as luminaries at a vast dis-
tance, different as they are in our mode of con-
ceiving them, obey the same laws of motion ;
and these laws produce the same results ; in both
cases motion is perpetually destroyed, except it
be repaired by some living power ; in both cases
the relative rest of the parts of a material system
is the conclusion to which its motion tends.
4. It may perhaps appear to some, that this
acknowledgment of the tendency of the system
to derangement through the action of a resisting
medium is inconsistent with the argument which
we have drawn in a previous chapter, from the
provisions for its stability. In reality, however,
the two views are in perfect agreement, so far as
our purpose is concerned. The main point
which we had to urge, in the consideration of
the stability of the svstem, was, not that it is
204 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
constructed to last for ever, but that while it
lasts, the deviations from its mean condition
are very small. It is this property which fits
the world for its uses. To maintain either the
past or the future eternity of the world, does
not appear consistent with physical principles,
as it certainly does not fall in with the convic-
tions of the religious man, in whatever way
obtained. We conceive that this state of things
has had a beginning ; we conceive that it will
have an end. But in the mean time we find it
fitted, by a number of remarkable arrange-
ments, to be the habitation of living creatures.
The conditions which secure the stability, and
the smallness of the perturbations of the system,
are among these provisions. If the excentricity
of the orbit of Venus, or of Jupiter, were much
greater than it is, not only might some of the
planets, at the close of ages, fall into the sun or
fly off into infinite space, but also, in the inter-
mediate time, the earth's orbit might become
much more excentric ; the course of the seasons
and the average of temperature might vary from
what they now are, so as to injure or destroy
the whole organic creation. By certain original
arrangements these destructive oscillations are
prevented. So long as the bodies continue to
revolve, their orbits will not be much different
from what they now are. And this result is not
affected by the action of the resisting medium.
Such a medium cannot increase the small ex-
RESISTING MEDIUM. 205
centricities of the orbits. The range of the
periodical oscillations of heat and cold will not
be extended by the mechanical effect of the
medium, nor would be, even if its density were
incomparably greater than it is. The resisting
medium therefore does not at all counteract that
which is most important in the provision for the
permanency of the solar system. If the stability
of the system had not been secured by the
adjustments which we described in a former
chapter, the course of the seasons might have
been disturbed to an injurious or even destruc-
tive extent in the course of a few centuries, or
even within the limits of one generation ; by
the effect of the resisting medium, the order of
nature remains unchanged for a period, com-
pared with which the known duration of the
human race is insignificant.
But, it may be objected, the effect of the
medium must be ultimately to affect the dura-
tion of the earth's revolution round the sun, and
thus to derange those adaptations which depend
on the length of the year. And, without ques-
tion, if we permit ourselves to look forwards to
that inconceivably distant period at which the
effect of the medium will become sensible, this
must be allowed to be true, as has been already
stated. Millions, and probably millions of mil-
lions, of years express inadequately the distance
of time at which this cause would produce a
serious effect. That the machine of the universe
206 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
is so constructed that it may answer its purposes
for such a period, is surely sufficient proof of the
skill of its workmanship, and of the reality of its
purpose : and those persons, probably, who are
best convinced that it is the work of a wise and
good Creator, will be least disposed to consider
the system as imperfect, because in its present
condition it is not fitted for eternity.
5. The doctrine of a resisting medium leads
us towards a point which the Nebular Hypo-
thesis assumes ; — a beginning of the present
order of things. There must have been a com-
mencement of the motions now going on in the
solar system. Since these motions, when once
begun, would be deranged and destroved in a
period which, however large, is yet finite, it is
obvious we cannot carry their origin indefinitely
backwards in the range of past duration. There
is a period in which these revolutions, whenever
they had begun, would have brought the revolv-
ing bodies into contact with the central mass ;
and this period has in our system not yet elapsed.
The watch is still going, and therefore it must
have been wound up within a limited time.
The solar system, at this its beginning, must
have been arranged and put in motion by some
cause. If we suppose this cause to operate by
means of the configurations and the properties
of previously existing matter, these configura-
tions must have resulted from some still previ-
ous cause, these properties must have produced
RESISTING MEDIUM. 207
some previous effects. We are thus led to a
condition still earlier than the assumed begin-
ning ; — to an origin of the original state of the
universe ; and in this manner we are carried
perpetually further and further back, through a
labyrinth of mechanical causation, without any
possibility of finding anything in which the
mind can acquiesce or rest, till we admit " a
First Cause which is not mechanical. '
Thus the argument which was before urged
against those in particular, who put forwards the
Nebular Hypothesis in opposition to the admis-
sion of an Intelligent Creator, offers itself again,
as cogent in itself, when we adopt the opinion
of a resisting medium, for which the physical
proofs have been found to be so strong. The
argument is indeed forced upon our minds,
whatever view we take of the past history of the
universe. Some have endeavoured to evade its
force by maintaining that the world as it now
exists has existed from eternity. They assert
that the present order of things, or an order of
things in some way resembling the present, pro-
duced by the same causes, governed by the
same laws, has prevailed through an infinite
succession of past ages. We shall not dwell
upon any objections to this tenet which might
be drawn from our own conceptions, or from
what may be called metaphysical sources. Nor
shall we refer to the various considerations which
history, geology, and astronomical records sup-
208 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
ply, and which tend to show, not only that the
past duration of the present course of things is
finite, hut that it is short, compared with such
periods as we have had to speak of. But we
may observe, that the doctrine of a resisting
medium once established, makes this imagina-
tion untenable ; compels us to go back to the
origin, not only of the present course of the
world, not only of the earth, but of the solar
system itself; and thus sets us forth upon that
path of research into the series of past causation,
where we obtain no answer of which the mean-
ing corresponds to our questions, till we rest in
the conclusion of a most provident and most
powerful Creating Intelligence.
It is related of Epicurus that when a boy,
reading with his preceptor these verses of
Hesiod,
Hroi fitv TrpioriTO. Xaog yevtr', avrap tirura
Tai' evpv<?tpvo(; iravrwv edog aatpakeg am
AOavciTwv,
Eldest of beings, Chaos first arose,
Thence Earth wide stretched, the steadfast seat of all
The Immortals,
the young scholar first betrayed his inquisitive
genius by asking " And chaos whence ?" When
in his riper years he had persuaded himself
that this question was sufficiently answered by
saying that chaos arose from the concourse of
atoms, it is strange that the same inquisitive
RESISTING MEDIUM. 209
spirit did not again suggest the question " and
atoms whence ?" And it is clear that however
often the question " whence ?" had been answer-
ed, it would still start up as at first. Nor could
it suffice as an answer to say, that earth, chaos,
atom?, were portions of a series of changes which
went back to eternity. The preceptor of Epi-
curus informed him, that to be satisfied on the
subject of his enquiry, he must have recourse
to the philosophers. If the young speculator
had been told that chaos (if chaos indeed pre-
ceded the present order) was produced by an
Eternal Being, in whom resided purpose and
will, he would have received a suggestion which,
duly matured by subsequent contemplation,
might have led him to a philosophy far more
satisfactory than the material scheme can ever
be, to one who looks, either abroad into the
universe, or within into his own bosom.
210
Chapter IX.
Mechanical Laws.
IN the preceding observations we have sup-
H||||j[ posed the laws, by which different kinds
of matter act and are acted upon, to be already
in existence ; and have endeavoured to point
out evidences of design and adaptation, dis-
played in the selection and arrangement of these
materials of the universe. These materials are,
it has appeared, supplied in such measures and
disposed in such forms, that by means of their
properties and laws the business of the world
goes on harmoniously and beneficially. But
a further question occurs : how came matter to
have such properties and laws ? Are these also
to be considered as things of selection and insti-
tution ? And if so, can we trace the reasons
why the laAvs were established in their present
form ; why the properties which matter actually
possesses Avere established and bestowed upon
it ? We have already attempted, in a previous
part of this work, to point out some of the ad-
vantages which are secured by the existing laws
of heat, light and moisture : can Ave, in the same
manner, point out the benefits AA T hich arise from
the present constitution of those laAvs of matter
MECHANICAL LWVS. 211
which are mainly concerned in the production
of cosmical phenomena ?
It will readily be perceived that the discussion
of this point must necessarily require some effort
of abstract thought. The laws and properties
of which we have here to speak— the laws of
motion and the universal properties of matter —
are so closely interwoven with our conceptions
of the external world, that we have great diffi-
culty in conceiving them not to exist, or to exist
other than they are. When we press or lift a
stone, we can hardly imagine that it could, by
possibility, do otherwise than resist our effort
by its hardness and by its heaviness, qualities
so familiar to us : when we throw it, it seems
inevitable that its motion should depend on the
impulse we give, just as we find that it inva-
riably does.
Nor is it easy to say how far it is really pos-
sible to suppose the fundamental attributes of
matter to be different from what they are. If
we, in our thoughts, attempt to divest matter of
its powers of resisting and moving, it ceases to
be matter, according to our conceptions, and Ave
can no longer reason upon it with any distinct-
ness. And yet is certain that we can conceive
the laws of hardness and weight and motion to
be quite different from what they are, and can
point out some of the consequences which would
result from such difference. The properties of
matter, even the most fundamental and univer-
212 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
sal ones, do not obtain by any absolute necessity,
resembling that which belongs to the properties
of geometry. A line touching a circle, is neces-
sarily perpendicular to a line drawn to the centre
through the point touched ; for it may be shown
that the contrary involves a contradiction : but
there is no contradiction in supposing that a
body's motion should naturally diminish, or that
its weight should increase in removing further
from the earth's centre.
Thus the properties of matter and the laws of
motion are what we find them, not by virtue of
any internal necessity which we can understand.
The study of such laws and properties may
therefore disclose to us the character of that
external agency by which we conceive them to
have been determined to be what they are 5 and
this must be the same agency by which all other
parts of the constitution of the universe were
appointed and ordered.
But we can hardly expect, with regard to such
subjects, that we shall be able to obtain any com-
plete or adequate view of the reasons why these
general laws are so selected, and so established.
These laws are the universal basis of all opera-
tions which go on, at any moment, in every part
of space, with regard to every particle of matter,
organic and inorganic. All other laws and pro-
perties must have a reference to these, and must
be influenced by them ; both such as men have
already discovered, and the far greater number
MECHANICAL LAWS. 213
which remain still unknown. The general
economy and mutual relations of all parts of the
universe must be subordinate to the laws of
motion and matter of which we here speak. We
can easily suppose that the various processes of
nature, and the dependencies of various crea-
tures, are affected in the most comprehensive
manner by these laws ;— are simplified by their
simplicity, made consistent by their univer-
sality ; rendered regular by their symmetry.
We can easily suppose that in this way there
may be the most profound and admirable reasons
for the existence of the present universal pro-
perties of matter, which we cannot apprehend in
consequence of the limited nature of our know-
ledge, and of our faculties. For, though our know-
ledge on certain subjects, and to a certain extent
is positive and clear, compared with the whole
extent of the universe, the whole aggregate of
things and relations and connexions which exist,
it is most narrow and partial, most shallow
and superficial. We cannot suppose, therefore,
that the reasons which we discover for the pre-
sent form of the laws of nature go nearly to the
full extent, or to the bottom of the reasons, which
a more complete and profound insight would
enable us to perceive. To do j ustice to such rea-
sons, would require nothing less than a perfect
acquaintance with the whole constitution of every
part of creation ; a knowledge which man has
not, and, so far as we can conceive, never can
have.
214 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
We are certain, therefore, that our views, with
regard to this part of our subject, must be imper-
fect and limited. Yet still man has some know-
ledge with regard to various portions of nature ;
and with regard to those most general and com-
paratively simple facts to which we now refer,
his knowledge is more comprehensive, and goes
deeper than it does in any other province. We
conceive, therefore, that we shall not be engaged
in any rash or presumptuous attempt, if we
endeavour to point out some of the advantages
which are secured by the present constitution of
some of the general mechanical laws of nature ;
and to suggest the persuasion of that purpose and
wise design, which the selection of such laws
will thus appear to imply.
Chapter X.
The Law of Gravitation.
J^E shall proceed to make a few observa-
tions on the Law of Gravity, in virtue
of which the motions of planets about the sun,
and of satellites about their planets take place ;
and by which also are produced the fall down-
wards of all bodies within our reach, and the
pressure which they exert upon their supports
when at rest. The identification of the latter
LAW OF GRAVITATION. 215
forces with the former, and the discovery of the
single law by which these forces are every where
regulated, was the great discovery of Newton :
and we wish to make it appear that this law is
established by an intelligent and comprehensive
selection.
Tbe law of the sun's attraction upon the planets
is, that this attraction varies inversely as the
square of the distance ; that is, it decreases as
that square increases. If we take three points
or planets of the solar system, the distances of
which from the sun are in the proportion, 1, 2,
3 ; the attractive force which the sun at these
distances exercises, is as 1, l-4th, and l-9th
respectively. In the smaller variations of dis-
tance which occur in the elliptical motion of
one planet, the variations of the force follow the
same law. Moreover, not only does the sun
attract the planets, but they attract each other
according to the same law ; the tendency to the
earth which makes bodies heavy, is one of the
effects of this law : and all these effects of the
attractions of large masses may be traced to the
attractions of the particles of which they are
composed ; so that the final generalization, in-
cluding all the derivative laws, is, that every
particle of matter in the universe attracts every
other, according to the law of the inverse square
of the distance.
Such is the law of universal gravitation.
o
Now, the question is, why do either the attrac-
216 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
tions of masses, or those of their component
particles, follow this law of the inverse square
of the distance rather than any other ? When
the distance hecomes 1, 2, and 3, why should
not the force also become 1, 2, and 3 ?— or if it
must be weaker at points more remote from the
attracting body, why should it not be 1, a half,
a third ? or l,"l-8th, l-27th ? Such laws could
easily be expressed mathematically, and their
consequences calculated. Can any reason be
assigned why the law which we find in operation
must obtain? Can any be assigned why it
should obtain ?
The answer to this is, that no reason, at all
satisfactory, can be given why such a law must,
of necessity, be what it is ; but that very strong
reasons can be pointed out why, for the beauty
and advantage of the system, the present one is
better than others. We will point out some of
these reasons.
l. In the first place, the system could not
have subsisted, if the force had followed a direct
instead of an inverse law, with respect to the
distance ; that is, if it had increased when the
distance increased. It has been sometimes
said, that " all direct laws of force are excluded
on account of the danger from perturbing
forces ; * that if the planets had pulled at this
earth, the harder the further off they were, they
* Paley.
LAW OF GRAVITATION. 217
would have dragged it entirely out of its course.
This is not an exact statement of what would
happen : if the force were to be simply in the
direct ratio of the distance, any number of
planets might revolve in the most regular and
orderly manner. Their mutual effects, which
we may call perturbations if we please, would
be considerable ; but these perturbations would
be so combined with the unperturbed motion,
as to produce a new motion not less regular
than the other. This curious result would fol-
low, that every body in the system would de-
scribe, or seem to describe, about every other,
an exact elliptical orbit ; and that the times of
the revolution of every body in its orbit would
be all equal. This is proved by Newton, in the
64th proposition of the Principia. There would
be nothing to prevent all the planets, on this
supposition, from moving round the sun in orbits
exactly circular, or nearly circular, according
to the mode in which they were set in motion.
But though the perturbations of the system
would not make this law inadmissible, there are
other circumstances which would do so. Under
this law, the gravity of bodies at the earth's
surface would cease to exist. Nothing would
fall or weigh downwards. The greater action
of the distant sun and planets would exactly
neutralize the gravity of the earth : a ■ ball
thrown from the hand, however gently, would
immediately become a satellite of the earth, and
218 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
would for the future accompany it in its course,
revolving about it in the space of one year. All
terrestrial things would float about with no
principle of coherence or stability : they would
obey the general law of the system, but would
acknowledge no particular relation to the earth.
We can hardly pretend to judge of the abstract
possibility of such a system of things ; but it is
clear that it could not exist without an utter
subversion of all that we can conceive of the
economy and structure of the world which we
inhabit.
With any other direct law of force, we should
in like manner lose gravity, without gaining the
theoretical regularity of the planetary motions
which we have described in the case just con-
sidered.
2. Among inverse laws of the distance, (that
is those according to which the force diminishes
as the distance from the origin of force in-
creases,) all which diminish the central force
faster than the cube of the distance increases are
inadmissible, because they are incompatible with
the permanent revolution of a planet. Under
such laws it would follow, that a planet would
describe a spiral line about the sun, and would
either approach nearer and nearer to him per-
petually, or perpetually go further and further
off: nearly as a stone at the end of a string,
when the string is whirled round, and is allowed
to wrap round the hand, or to unwrap from it,
approaches to or recedes from the hand.
LAW OF GRAVITATION. 219
If we endeavour to compare the law of the
inverse square of the distance, which really
regulates the central force, with other laws, not
obviously inadmissible, as for instance, the in-
verse simple ratio of the distance, a considerable
quantity of calculation is found to be necessary
in order to trace the results, and especially the
perturbations in the two cases. The perturba-
tions, in the supposed case, have not been cal-
culated ; such a calculation being a process so
long and laborious that it is never gone through,
except for the purpose of comparing the results
of theory with those of observation, as we can do
with regard to the law of the inverse square.
We can only say, therefore, that the stability of
the system, and the moderate limits of the per-
turbations, which we know to be secured by the
existing law, would not, so far as we know, be
obtained by any different law.
Without croincj into further examination of the
subject, we may observe that there are some
circumstances in which the present system has
a manifest superiority in simplicity over the
condition which would have belonged to it if
the force had followed any other law. Thus,
with the present law of gravitation, the planets
revolve, returning perpetually on the same track,
very nearly. The earth describes an oval, in
consequence of which motion she is nearer to
the sun in our winter than in our summer by
about one-thirtieth part of the whole distance.
And, as the matter now is, the nearest approach
220 COSMICAL ARRAXGEMENTS.
to the sun, and the farthest recess from him,
occur always at the same points of the orbit.
There is indeed a slight alteration in these
points, arising from disturbing forces, but this
is hardly sensible in the course of several ages.
Now if the force had followed any other law, we
should have had the earth running perpetually
on a new track. The greatest and least dis-
tances would have occurred at different parts in
every successive revolution. The orbit would
have perpetually intersected and been inter-
laced with the path described in former revolu-
tions ; and the simplicity and regularity which
characterises the present motion would have
been quite wanting.
3. Another peculiar point of simplicity in the
present law of mutual attraction is this : that it
makes the law of attraction for spherical masses
the same as for single particles. If particles
attract with forces which are inversely as the
square of the distance, spheres composed of such
particles will exert a force which follows the
same law. In this character the present law is
singular, among all possible laws, excepting
that of the direct distance which we have already
discussed. If the law of the gravitation of par-
ticles had been that of the inverse simple dis-
tance, the attraction of a sphere would have been
expressed by a complex series of mathematical
expressions, each representing a simple law. It
is truly remarkable that the law of the inverse
LAW OF GRAVITATION. 221
square of the distance, which appears to be
selected as that of the masses of the system, and
of which the mechanism is, that it arises from
the action of the particles of the system, should
lead us to the same law for the action of these
particles : there is a striking prerogative of sim-
plicity in the law thus adopted.
The law of gravitation actually prevailing in
the solar system has thus great and clear advan-
tages over any law widely different from it ;
and has moreover, in many of its consequences,
a simplicity which belongs to this precise law
alone. It is in many such respects a unique
law : and when we consider that it possesses
several properties which are peculiar to it, and
several advantages which, so far as we can see,
may be peculiar to it, and which are certainly
nearly so ; we have some ground, it would ap-
pear, to look upon its peculiarities and its advan-
tages as connected. For the reasons mentioned
in the last chapter, we can hardly expect to dis-
cern fully the way in which the system is bene-
fited by the simplicity of this law, and by the
mathematical elegance of its consequences : but
when we see that it has some such beauties, and
some manifest benefits, we may easily suppose
that our ignorance and limited capacity alone
prevent our perceiving that there are, for the
selection of this law of force, reasons of a far
more refined and comprehensive kind than
those which we can distinctly apprehend.
222 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
4. But before quitting this subject we may
offer a few further observations on the question,
whether gravitation and the law of gravitation be
necessary attributes of matter. We have spoken
of the selection of this law ; but is it selected?
Could it have been otherwise ? Is not the force
of attraction a necessary consequence of the
fundamental properties of matter?
This is a question which has been much agi-
tated among the followers of Newton. Some
have maintained, as Cotes, that gravity is an
inherent property of all matter ; others, with
Newton himself, have considered it as an ap-
pendage to the essential qualities of matter, and
have proposed hypotheses to account for the
mode in which its effects are produced.
The result of all that can be said on the sub-
ject appears to be this : that no one can demon-
strate the possibility of deducing gravity from
the acknowledged fundamental properties of
matter : and that no philosopher asserts, that
matter has been found to exist, which was des-
titute of gravity. It is a property which we
have no right to call necessary to matter, but
every reason to suppose universal.
If we could show gravity to be a necessary
consequence of those properties which we adopt
as essential to our notion of matter, (extension,
solidity, mobility, inertia) we might then call it
also one of the essential properties. But no one
probably will assert that this is the case. Its
LAW OF GRAVITATION. 223
universality is a fact of observation merely.
How then came a property, — in its existence so
needful for the support of the universe, in its
laws so well adapted to the purposes of creation,
— how came it to be thus universal ? Its being
found everywhere is necessary for its uses ; but
this is so far from being a sufficient explanation
of its existence, that it is an additional fact to be
explained. We have here, then, an agency,
most simple in its rule, most comprehensive in
its influence, most effectual and admirable in its
operation. What evidence could be afforded of
design, by laws of mechanical action, which this
law thus existing and thus operating does not
afford us ?
5. It is not necessary for our purpose to con-
sider the theories which have been proposed to
account for the action of gravity. They have
proceeded on the plan of reducing this action to
the result of pressure or impulse. Even if such
theories could be established, they could not
much, or at all, affect our argument ; for the
arrangements by which pressure or impact could
produce the effects which gravity produces, must
be at least as clearly results of contrivance, as
gravity itself can be.
In fact, however, none of these attempts can
be considered as at all successful. That of New-
ton is very remarkable : it is found among the
Queries in the second edition of his Optics. "To
show," he says, "that I do not take gravity for
224 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
an essential property of bodies, I have added one
question concerning its cause, choosing to pro-
pose it by way of question, because I am not yet
satisfied about it for want of experiments." The
hypothesis which he thus suggests is, that there
is an elastic medium pervading all space, and
increasing in elasticity as we proceed from dense
bodies outwards : that this " causes the gravity
of such dense bodies to each other : every body
endeavouring to go from the denser parts of the
medium towards the rarer." Of this hypothesis
we may venture to say, that it is in the first
place quite gratuitous ; we cannot trace in any
other phenomena a medium possessing these
properties : and in the next place, that the hy-
pothesis contains several suppositions which are
more complex than the fact to be explained, and
none which are less so. Can we, on Newton's
principles, conceive an elastic medium otherwise
than as a collection of particles, repelling each
other ? and is the repulsion of such particles a
simpler fact than the attraction of those which
gravitate ? And when we suppose that the me-
dium becomes more elastic as we proceed from
each attracting body, what cause can we con-
ceive capable of keeping it in such a condition,
except a repulsive force emanating from the body
itself: a supposition at least as much requiring
to be accounted for, as the attraction of the body.
It does not appear, then, that this hypothesis
will bear examination ; although, for our purpose,
LAW OF GRAVITATION. 225
the argument would be rather strengthened than
weakened, if it could be established.
6. Another theory of the cause of gravity,
which at one time excited considerable notice,
was that originally proposed by M. Le Sage, in
a memoir entitled, " Lucrece Newtonien," and
further illustrated by M. Prevost; according to
which all space is occupied by currents of matter,
moving perpetually in straight lines, in all direc-
tions, with a vast velocity, and penetrating all
bodies. When two bodies are near each other,
they intercept the current which would flow in
the intermediate space if they were not there,
and thus receive a tendency towards each other
from the pressure of the currents on their farther
sides. Without examining further this curious
and ingenious hypothesis, we may make upon it
the same kind of observations as before ;— that
it is perfectly gratuitous, except as a means of
explaining the phenomena ; and that, if it were
proved, it would still remain to be shown what
necessity has caused the existence of these two
kinds of matter ; the first kind being that which
is commonly called matter, and which alone
affects our senses, while it is inert as to anv
tendency to motion ; the second kind beinor
something imperceptible to our senses, except
by the effects it produces on matter of the former
kind ; yet exerting an impulse on every material
body, permeating every portion of common
matter, flowing with inconceivable velocity, in
w. Q
226 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
inexhaustible abundance, from every part of the
abyss of infinity on one side, to the opposite
part of the same abyss ; and so constituted that
through all eternity it can never bend its path,
or return, or tarry in its course.
If we were to accept this theory, it would
little or nothing diminish our wonder at the
structure of the universe. We might well con-
tinue to admire the evidence of contrivance, if
such a machinery should be found to produce
all the effects which flow from the law of gravi-
tation.
7. The law of the force of gravity, which we
have explained in the beginning of this chapter,
namely, that the attraction between all bodies
varies inversely as the square of their distance
from each other, has often been a subject of dis-
cussion, with reference to the reasons why it is
so rather than otherwise. The arguments for
and against the assertion that this is the neces-
sary and inevitable law of such a force, were
canvassed with great animation about the middle
of the last century.
Newton and other astronomers had found that
the line of the moon's apsides (that is of her
greatest and least distances from the earth) moves
round to different parts of the heavens with a
velocity twice as great as that which the calcu-
lation from the law of gravitation seems at first
sight to give. According to the theory, it ap-
peared that this line ought to move round once
LAW OF GRAVITATION. 227
in eighteen years ; according to observation, it
moves round once in nine years. This dif-
ference, the only obvious failure of the theory
of gravitation, embarrassed mathematicians ex-
ceedingly. It is true, it was subsequently dis-
covered that the apparent discrepancy arose from
a mistake ; the calculation, which is long and
laborious, was supposed to have been carried
far enough to get close to the truth ; but it ap-
peared afterwards that the residue which had
been left out as insignificant, produced, by an
unexpected turn in the reckoning, an effect as
large as that which had been taken for the whole.
But this discovery was not made till a later
period ; and in the mean time the law of the in-
verse square appeared to be at fault. Clairault
tried to remedy the defect by supposing that the
force of the earth's gravity consisted of a large
force varying inversely as the square of the dis-
tance, and a very small force varying inversely
as the fourth power (the square of the square).
By such a supposition, observation and theory
could be reconciled ; but on the suggestion of
it, Buffbn came forward with the assertion that
the force could not vary according to any other
law than the inverse square. His arguments
are rather metaphysical than physical or mathe-
matical. Gravity, he urges, is a quality, an
emanation ; and all emanations are inversely as
the square of the distance, as light, odours. To
this Clairault replies by asking bow we know
228 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
that light and odours have their intensity in-
versely as the square of the distance from their
origin : not, he observes, by measuring the in-
tensity, but by supposing these effects to be ma-
terial emanations. But who, he asks, supposes
gravity to be a material emanation from the
attracting body.
Buffon again pleads that so many facts prove
the law of the inverse square, that a single one,
which occurs to interfere with this agreement,
must be in some manner capable of being ex-
plained away. Clairault replies, that the facts
do not prove this law to obtain exactly ; that
small effects, of the same order as the one under
discussion, have been neglected in the supposed
proof ; and that therefore the law is only known
to be true, as far as such an approximation goes,
and no farther.
Buffon then argues, that there can be no such
additional fraction of the force, following a dif-
ferent law, as Clairault supposes : for what, he
asks, is there to determine the magnitude of the
fraction to one amount rather than another ?
why should nature select for it any particular
magnitude ? To this it is replied, that, whether
we can explain the fact or not, nature does
select certain magnitudes in preference to others :
that where we ascertain she does this, we are not
to deny the fact because we cannot assign the
grounds of her preference. What is there, it is
asked, to determine the magnitude of the whole
LAW OF GRAVITATION. 229
force at any fixed distance ? We cannot tell ;
yet the force is of a certain definite intensity
and no other.
Finally Clairault observes, that we have, in
cohesion, capillary attraction, and various other
cases, examples of forces varying according to
other laws than the inverse square ; and that
therefore this cannot be the only possible law.
The discrepancy between observation and
theory which gave rise to this controversy Avas
removed, as has been already stated, by a more
exact calculation : and thus, as Laplace observes,
in this case the metaphysician turned out to be
right and the mathematician to be wrong. But
most persons, probably, who are familiar with
such trains of speculation, will allow, that Clair-
ault had the best of the argument, and that the
attempts to show the law of gravitation to be ne-
cessarily what it is, are fallacious and unsound.
8. We may observe, however, that the law of
gravitation according to the inverse square of the
distance, which thus regulates the motions of the
solar system, is not confined to that province of
the universe, as has been shown by recent re-
searches. It appears by the observations and
calculations of Sir John Herschel, that several
of the stars, called double stars, consist of a pair
of luminous bodies which revolve about each
other in ellipses, in such a manner as to show
that the force, by which they are attracted to
each other, varies according to the law of the
230 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
inverse square. We thus learn a remarkable
fact concerning bodies which seemed so far re-
moved from us that no effort of our science could
reach them ; and we find that the same law of
mutual attraction which we have before traced
to the farthest bounds of the solar system, prevails
also in spaces at a distance compared with which
the orbit of Saturn shrinks into a point. The
establishment of such a truth certainly suggests,
as highly probably, the prevalence of this law
among all the bodies of the universe. And we
may therefore suppose, that the same ordinance
which gave to the parts of our system that rule
by which they fulfil the purposes of their creation,
impressed the same rule on the other portions of
matter which are scattered in the most remote
parts of the universe ; and thus gave to their
movements the same grounds of simplicity and
harmony which we find reason to admire, as far
as we can acquire any knowledge of our own
more immediate neighbourhood.
231
Chapter XI.
The Laws of Motion.
}E shall now make a few remarks on the
H general Laws of Motion by which all
mechanical effects take place. Are we to con-
sider these as instituted laws ? And if so, can
we point out any of the reasons which we may
suppose to have led to the selection of those
laws which really exist ?
The observations formerly made concerning
the inevitable narrowness and imperfection of
our conclusions on such subjects, apply here,
even more strongly than in the case of the law
of gravitation. We can hardly conceive matter
divested of these laws; and we cannot perceive
or trace a millionth part of the effects which they
produce. We cannot, therefore, expect to go
far in pointing out the essential advantages of
these laws such as they now obtain.
It would be easy to show that the fundamental
laws of motion, in whatever form we state them,
possess a very preeminent simplicity, compared
with almost all others, which we might imagine
as existing. This simplicity has indeed pro-
duced an effect on men's minds which, though
delusive, appears to be very natural; several
writers have treated these laws as self-evident,
232 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
and necessarily flowing from the nature of our
conceptions. We conceive that this is an er-
roneous view, and that these laws are known to
us to be what they are, by experience only;
that the laws of motion might, so far as we can
discern, have been any others. They appear
therefore to be selected for their fitness to answer
their purposes ; and we may, perhaps, be able
to point out some instances in which this fitness
is apparent to us.
Newton, and many English philosophers,
teach the existence of three separate fundamental
laws of motion, while most of the eminent ma-
thematicians of France reduce these to two, the
law of inertia and the law that force is propor-
tional to velocity. As an example of the views
which we wish to illustrate, we may take the
law of inertia, which is identical with Newton's
first Law of Motion. This law asserts, that a
body at rest continues at rest, and that a body
in motion goes on moving with its velocity and
direction unchanged, except so far as it is acted
on by extraneous forces.*
* If the laws of Motion are stated as three, which we
conceive to be the true view of the subject, the other two, as
applied in mechanical reasonings, are the following :
Second Law. When a force acts on a body in motion, it
produces the same effect as if the same force acted on a body
at rest.
Tlurd Law. When a force of the nature of pressure pro-
duces motion, the velocity produced is proportional to the
force, other things being equal.
THE LAWS OF MOTION. 233
We conceive that this law, simple and uni-
versal as it is, cannot be shown to be necessarily-
true. It might be difficult to discuss this point
in general terms with any clearness ; but let us
take the only example which we know of a
motion absolutely uniform, in consequence of
the absence of any force to accelerate or retard
it ; — this motion is the rotation of the earth on
its axis.
1. It is scarcely possible that discussions on
such subjects should not have a repulsive and
scholastic aspect, and appear like disputes about
words rather than things. For mechanical wri-
ters have exercised all their ingenuity so to cir-
cumscribe their notions and so to define their
terms, that these fundamental truths should be
expressed in the simplest manner : the conse-
quence of which has been, that they have been
made to assume the appearance rather of iden-
tical assertions than of general facts of expe-
rience. But in order to avoid this inconve-
nience, as far as may be, we take the Jirst law
of motion as exemplified in a particular case,
the rotation of the earth. Of all the motions
with which we are acquainted, this alone is
invariable. Each day, measured by the passages
of the stars, is so precisely of the same length,
that, according to Laplace's calculations, it is
impossible that a difference of one hundredth of
a second of time should have obtained between
the length of the day in the earliest ages and at
231 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
the present time. Now why is this ? How is
this very remarkable uniformity preserved in
this particular phenomenon, while all the other
motions of the system are subject to inequali-
ties ? How is it that in the celestial machine
no retardation takes place by the lapse of time,
as would be the case in any machine which it
would be possible for human powers to con-
struct ? The answer is, that in the earth's revo-
lution on her axis no cause operates to retard
the speed, like the imperfection of materials, the
friction of supports, the resistance of the am-
bient medium ; * impediments which cannot, in
any human mechanism, however perfect, be
completely annihilated. But here we are led
to ask again, why should the speed continue
the same when not affected by an extraneous
cause ? why should it not languish and decay
of itself by the mere lapse of time ? That it
might do so, involves no contradiction, for it
was the common, though erroneous, belief of all
mechanical speculators, to the time of Galileo.
We can conceive velocity to diminish in pro-
ceeding from a certain point of time, as easily
* It has already been stated that the resisting medium
spoken of in Chapter VIII. of this Book has not yet pro-
duced any effect which can be detected in the motion of the
earth. Probably the effect of this medium upon the rotation
of the earth would be extremely small compared with its
effect on the earth's motion in her orbit ; and yet this latter
effect bears no discoverable proportion to the effect of the
smallest perturbing forces of the other planets.
THE LAWS OF MOTION. 235
as we can conceive force to diminish in proceed-
ing from a certain point of space, which in
attractive forces really occurs. But, it is some-
times said, the motion (that is the velocity) must
continue the same from one instant to another,
for there is nothing to change it. This appears
to be taking refuge in words. We may call
the velocity, that is the speed of a body, its mo-
tion ; but we cannot, by giving it this name,
make it a thing which has any a priori claim to
permanence, much less any self-evident con-
stancy. Why must the speed of a body, left to
itself, continue the same, any more than its
temperature. Hot bodies grow cooler when
left to themselves, why should not quick bodies
go slower when left to themselves ? Why must
a body describe 1000 feet in the next second
because it has described 1000 feet in the last?
Nothing but experience, under proper circum-
stances, can inform us whether bodies, abstract-
ing from external agency, do move according
to such a rule. We find that they do so : we
learn that all diminution of their speed which
ever takes place, can be traced to external
causes. Contrary to all that men had guessed,
motion appears to be of itself endless and un-
wearied. In order to account for the unalter-
able permanence of the length of our day, all
that is requisite is to show that there is no let or
hindrance in the way of the earth's rotation ; —
no resisting- medium or alteration of size— she
236 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
" spinning sleeps" on her axle, as the poet ex-
presses it, and may go on sleeping with the
same regularity for ever, so far as the experi-
mental properties of motion are concerned.
Such is the necessary consequence of the first
law of motion ; but the law itself has no neces-
sary existence, so far as w r e can see. It w r as
discovered only after various perplexities and
false conjectures of speculators on mechanics.
We have learnt that it is so, but we have not
learnt, nor can any one undertake to teach us,
that it must have been so. For aught we can
tell, it is one among a thousand equally possible
laws, which might have regulated the motions
of bodies.
2. But though w r e have thus no reason to con-
sider this as the only possible law, we have good
reason to consider it as the best, or at least as
possessing all that we can conceive of advan-
tage. It is the simplest conceivable of such
laws. If the velocity had been compelled to
change with the time, there must have been a
law of the change, and the kind and amount of
this change must have been determined by its
dependence on the time and other conditions.
This, though quite supposable, would undoubt-
edly have been more complex than the present
state of things. And though complexity does
not appear to embarrass the operation of the
laws of nature, and is admitted, without scruple,
when there is reason for it, simplicity is the
usual character of such laws, and appears to
THE LAWS OF MOTION. 237
have been a ground of selection in the formation
of the universe, as it is a mark of beauty to us
in our contemplation of it.
But there is a still stronger apparent reason
for the selection of this law of the preservation
of motion. If the case had been otherwise, the
universe must necessarily in the course of ages
have been reduced to a state of rest, or at least
to a state not. sensibly differing from it. If the
earth's motion, round its axis, had slackened by
a very small quantity, for instance, by a hun-
dredth of a second in a revolution, and in this
proportion continued, the day would have been
already lengthened by six hours in the 6000
years which have elapsed since the history of the
world began ; and if we suppose a longer period
to precede or to follow, the day might be in-
creased to a month or to any length. All the
adaptations which depend on the length of the
day would consequently be deranged. But
this would not be all ; for the same law of mo-
tion is equally requisite for the preservation of
the annual motion of the earth. If her motion
were retarded by the establishment of any other
law instead of the existing one, she would wheel
nearer and nearer to the sun at every revolution,
and at last reach the centre, like a falling hoop.
The same would happen to the other planets ;
and the whole solar system would, in the course
of a certain period, be gathered into a heap of
matter without life or motion. In the present
state of things on the other hand, the system, as
238 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
we have already explained, is, by a combination
of remarkable provisions, calculated for an
almost indefinite existence, of undiminished
fitness for its purposes.
There are, therefore, manifest reasons, why, of
all laws which could occupy the place of the first
law of motion, the one which now obtains is the
only one consistent with the durability and uni-
formity of the system;— the one, therefore, which
we may naturally conceive to be selected by a
wise contriver. And as, along with this, it has
appeared that we have no sort of right to attribute
the establishment of this law to anything but se-
lection, we have here a striking evidence of de-
sign, suited to lead us to a perception of that
Divine mind, by which means so simple are made
to answer purposes so extensive and so beneficial.
Chapter XII.
Friction.*
3E shall not pursue this argument of the
last chapter, by considering the other
laws of motion in the same manner as we have
there considered the first, which might be done.
* Though Friction is not obviously concerned in any cos-
mical phenomena, we have thought this the proper place to
introduce the consideration of it ; since the contrast between
the cases in which it does act, and those in which it does
not, is best illustrated by a comparison of cosmical with ter-
restrial motions.
FRICTIOX. 239
But the facts which form exceptions and appa-
rent contradictions to the first law of which we
have been treating, and which are very numer-
ous, offer, we conceive, an additional exemplifi-
cation of the same argument ; and this we shall
endeavour to illustrate.
The rule that a body naturally moves for ever
with an undiminished speed, is so far from being
obviously true, that it appears on a first exami-
nation to be manifestly false. The hoop of the
school-boy, left to itself, runs on a short distance,
and then stops ; his top spins a little while, but
finally flags and falls ; all motion on the earth
appears to decay by its own nature ; all matter
which we move appears to have a perpetual
tendency to divest itself of the velocity which we
communicate to it. How is this reconcileable
with the first law of motion on which we have
been insisting?
It is reconciled principally by considering the
effect of Friction. Among terrestrial objects
friction exerts an agency almost as universal and
constant as the laws of motion themselves ; an
agency which completely changes and disguises
the results of those laws. We shall consider
some of these effects.
It is probably not necessary to explain at any
length the nature and operation of friction.
When a body cannot move without causing two
surfaces to rub together, this rubbing has a ten-
dency to diminish the body's motion or to pre-
vent it entirely. If the body of a carriage be
240 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
placed on the earth without the wheels, a consi-
derable force will be requisite in order to move
it at all : it is here the friction against the ground
which obstructs the motion. If the carriage be
placed on its wheels, a much less force will move
it, but if moved it will soon stop : it is the fric-
tion at the ground and at the axles which stops
it : placed on a level rail road, with well made
and well oiled wheels, and once put in motion,
it might run a considerable distance alone, for
the friction is here much less ; but there is
friction, and therefore the motion would after a
time cease.
The same kind of action between the surfaces
of two bodies which retards and stops their mo-
tions when they move touching each other, will
also prevent their moving at all, if the force
which urges them into motion be insufficient
to overcome the resistance which the contact
of the surfaces produces. Friction, as writers
on mechanics use the term, exists not only when
the surfaces rub against each other, but also
when the state of things is such that they would
rub if they did move. It is a force which is
called into action by a tendency to move, and
which forbids motion ; it may be likened to a
chain of a certain force which binds bodies in
their places ; and we may push or pull the
bodies without moving them, except we exert a
sufficient force to break this imaginary chain.
1. The friction which we shall principally
FRICTION. 241
consider is the friction which prevents motion.
So employed, friction is one of the most univer-
sal and important agents in the mechanism of
our daily comforts and occupations. It is a
force which is called into play to an extent in-
comparably greater than all the other forces with
which we are concerned in the course of our
daily life. We are dependent upon it at every
instant and in every action : and it is not pos-
sible to enumerate all the ways in which it serves
us ; scarcely even to suggest a sufficient number
of them to give us a true notion of its functions.
What can appear more simple operations
than standing and walking ? yet it is easy to
see that without the aid of friction these simple
actions would scarcely be possible. Every one
knows how difficult and dangerous they are
when performed on smooth ice. In such a
situation we cannot alwavs succeed in standing :
if the ice be very smooth, it is by no means
easy to walk, even when the surface is perfectlv
level ; and if it were ever so little inclined, no
one would make the attempt. Yet walking on
the ice and on the ground differ only in our ex-
periencing more friction in the latter case. We
say more, for there is a considerable friction even
in the case of ice, as we see by the small distance
which a stone slides when thrown alone: the sur-
face. It is this friction of the earth which, at
every step we take, prevents the foot from sliding
back ; and thus allows us to push the body and
w. R
242 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
the other foot forwards. And when we come
to violent bodily motions, to running, leaping,
pulling or pushing objects, it is easily seen how
entirely we depend upon the friction of the
ground for our strength and force. Every one
knows how completely powerless we become in
any of these actions by the foot slipping.
In the same manner it is the friction of objects
to which the hand is applied, which enables us
to hold them with any degree of firmness. In
some contests it was formerly the custom for the
combatants to rub their bodies with oil, that the
adversary might not be able to keep his grasp.
If the pole of the boatman, the rope of the sailor,
were thus smooth and lubricated, how weak
would be the thrust and the pull ! Yet this
would only be the removal of friction.
Our buildings are no less dependent on this
force for their stability. Some edifices are
erected without the aid of cement : and if the
stones be large and well squared, such structures
may be highly substantial and durable ; even
when rude and slight, houses so built answer
the purposes of life. These are entirely upheld
by friction, and without the support of that agent
they would be thrown down by the Zephyr, far
more easily than if all the stones were lumps of
ice with a thawing surface. But even in cases
where cement binds the masonry, it does not
take the duty of holding it together. In conse-
quence of the existence of friction, there is no
constant tendency of the stones to separate ;
FRICTION*. 243
they are in a state of repose. If this were not
so, if every shock and every breeze required to
be counteracted by the cement, no composition
exists which would long sustain such a wear and
tear. The cement excludes the corroding ele-
ments, and helps to resist extraordinary violence;
but it is friction which gives the habitual state
of rest.
We are not to consider friction as a small
force, slightly modifying the effects of other
agencies. On the contrary its amount is in most
cases very great. When a body lies loose on
the ground, the friction is equal to one third or
one half, or in some cases the whole of its weight.
But in cases of bodies supported by oblique pres-
sure, the amount is far more enormous. In the
arch of a bridge, the friction which is called
into play between two of the vaulting stones,
may be equal to the whole weight of the bridge.
In such cases this conservative force is so great,
that the common theory, which neglects it, does
not help us even to guess what will take place.
According to the theory, certain forms of arches
only will stand • but in practice almost any
form will stand, and it is not easy to construct
a model of a bridge which will fall.
We may see the great force of friction in the
brake, by which a large weight running down
a long inclined plane has its motion moderated
and stopt ; in the windlass, where a few coils of
the rope round a cylinder sustain the stress and
weight of a large iron anchor ; in the nail or
244 COSMICAX ARRANGEMENTS.
screw which holds together large beams; in the
mode of raising large blocks of granite by an
iron rod driven into a hole in the stone. Pro-
bably no greater forces are exercised in any
processes in the arts than the force of friction ;
and it is always employed to produce rest, sta-
bility, moderate motion. Being always ready
and never wearied, always at hand and augment-
ing with the exigency, it regulates, controls,
subdues all motions ; — counteracts all other
agents ;— and finally gains the mastery over all
other terrestrial agencies, however violent, fre-
quent, or long continued. The perpetual action
of all other terrestrial forces appears, on a large
scale, only as so many interruptions of the con-
stant and stationary rule of friction.
The objects which every where surround us,
the books or dishes which stand on our tables,
our tables and chairs themselves, the loose clods
and stones in the field, the heaviest masses pro-
duced by nature or art, would be in a perpetual
motion, quick or slow according to the forces
which acted on them, and to their size, if it were
not for the tranquillizing and steadying effects
of the agent we are considering. Without this,
our apartments, if they kept their shape, would
exhibit to us articles of furniture, and of all
other kinds, sliding and creeping from side to
side at every push and every wind, like loose
objects in a ship's cabin, when she is changing
her course in a gale.
Here, then, we have a force, most extensive
FRICTION. 245
and incessant in its operation, which is abso-
lutely essential to the business of this terrestrial
world, according to any notion which we can
form. The more any one considers its effects,
the more he will find how universally depen-
dent he is upon it, in every action of his life ;
resting or moving, dealing with objects of art
or of nature, with instruments of enjoyment or
of action.
2. Now we have to observe concerning this
agent, Friction, that we have no ground for
asserting it to be a necessary result of other pro-
perties of matter, for instance, of their solidity
and coherency. Philosophers have not been
able to deduce the laws of friction from the
other known properties of matter, nor even to
explain what we know experimentally of such
laws, (which is not much.) without introduc-
ing new hypotheses concerning the surfaces of
bodies, &c. — hypotheses which are not supplied
us by any other set of phenomena. So far as
our knowledge goes, friction is a separate pro-
perty, and may be conceived to have been
bestowed upon matter for particular purposes.
How well it answers the purpose of fitting
matter for the uses of the daily life of man, we
have already seen.
We may make suppositions as to the mode in
which friction is connected with the texture of
bodies ; but little can be gained for philosophy,
or for speculation of any kind, by such conjec-
tures respecting unknown connexions. If, on
246 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
the other hand, we consider this property of
friction, and find that it prevails there, and there
only, where the general functions, analogies,
and relations of the universe require it, we shall
probably receive a strong impression that it was
introduced into the system of the world for a
purpose.
3. It is very remarkable that this force, which
is thus so efficacious and discharges such impor-
tant offices in all earthly mechanism, disappears
altogether when we turn to the mechanism of
the heavens. All motions on the earth soon
stop ; — a machine which imitates the movements
of the stars cannot go long without winding up :
but the stars themselves have gone on in their
courses for ages, with no diminution of their
motions, and offer no obvious prospect of any
change. This is so palpable a fact, that the first
attempts of men to systematize their mechanical
notions were founded upon it. The ancients
held that motions were to be distinguished into
natural motions and violent, — the former go on
without diminution — the latter are soon extin-
guished ; — the motions of the stars are of the
former kind ; — those of a stone thrown, and in
short all terrestrial motions, of the latter. Mo-
dern Philosophers maintain that the laws of
motion are the same for celestial and terrestrial
bodies ; — that all motions are natural according
to the above description ; but that in terrestrial
motions, friction comes in and alters their cha-
racter, — destroys them so speedily that they
FRICTIOX. 247
appear to have existed only during an effort.
And that this is the case will not now be con-
tested. Is it not then somewhat remarkable that
the same laws which produce a state of perma-
nent motion in the heavens, should, on the earth,
give rise to a condition in which rest is the
rule and motion the exception? The air, the
waters, and the lighter portions of matter are,
no doubt, in a state of perpetual movement ;
over these friction has no empire : yet even their
motions are interrupted, alternate, variable, and
on the whole slight deviations from the condition
of equilibrium. But in the solid parts of the
globe, rest predominates incomparably over mo-
tion : and this, not only with regard to the por-
tions which cohere as parts of the same solid j for
the whole surface of the earth is covered with
loose masses, which, if the power of friction were
abolished, would rush from their places and be-
gin one universal and interminable dance, which
would make the earth absolutely uninhabitable.
If, on the other hand, the dominion of friction
were extended in any considerable degree into
the plane tar} r spaces, there would soon be an end
of the system. If the planet had moved in a
fluid, such as the Cartesians supposed, and if
this fluid had been subject to the rules of fric-
tion which prevail in terrestrial fluids, their
motions could not have been of long duration.
The solar system must soon have ceased to be a
system of revolving bodies.
But friction is neither abolished on the earth,
248 C0SMICAL ARRAXGEMEXTS.
nor active in the heavens. It operates where it
is wanted, it is absent where it would be preju-
dicial. And both these circumstances occasion,
in a remarkable manner, the steadiness of the
course of nature. The stable condition of the
objects in man's immediate neighbourhood, and
the unvarying motions of the luminaries of
heaven, are alike conducive to his well-being.
This requires that be should be able to depend
upon a fixed order of place, a fixed course of time.
It requires, therefore, that terrestrial objects
should be affected by friction, and that celestial
should not ; as is the case, in fact. What fur-
ther evidence of benevolent design could this
part of the constitution of the universe supply?
4. There is another view which may be taken
of the forces which operate on the earth to pro-
duce permanency or change. Some parts of the
terrestrial system are under the dominion of
powers which act energetically to prevent all
motion, as the crystalline forces by which the
parts of rocks are bound together ; other parts
are influenced by powers which produce a per-
petual movement and change in the matter of
which they consist ; thus plants and animals are
in a constant state of internal motion, by the
agency of the vital forces. In the former case
rigid immutability, in the latter perpetual deve-
lopement, are the tendencies of the agencies em-
ployed. Now in the case of objects affected by
friction, we have a kind of intermediate condi-
. tion, between the constantly fixed and the con-
FIUCTION. 249
stantly moveable. Such objects can and do
move ; but they move but for a short time if left
to the laws of nature. When at rest, they can
easily be put in motion, but still not with un-
limited ease ; a certain finite effort, different in
different cases, is requisite for this purpose.
Now this intermediate condition, this capacity of
receiving readily and alternately the states of
rest and motion, is absolutely requisite for the
liature of man, for the exertion of will, of con-
trivance, of foresight, as well as for the comfort
of life and the conditions of our material exist-
ence. If all objects were fixed and immoveable,
as if frozen into one mass ; or if they were sus-
ceptible of such motions only as are found in the
parts of vegetables, we attempt in vain to con-
ceive what would come of the business of the
world. But, besides the state of a particle which
cannot be moved, and of a particle which can-
not be stopt, we have the state of a particle
moveable but not moved ; or moved, but moved
only while we choose : and this state is that
about which the powers, the thoughts, and the
wants of man are mainly conversant.
Thus the forces by which solidity and by
■which organic action are produced, the laws of
permanence and of developement, do not bring
about all that happens. Besides these, there is
a mechanical condition, that of a body exposed
to friction, which is neither one of absolute per-
manency nor one naturally progressive ; but is
yet one absolutely necessary to make material
250 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
objects capable of being instruments and aids to
man ; and tbis is the condition of by far the
greater part of terrestrial things. The habitual
course of events with regard to motion and rest
is not the same for familiar moveable articles, as
it is for the parts of the mineral, or of the vege-
table world, when left to themselves ; such
articles are in a condition far better adapted
than any of those other conditions would be, to
their place and purpose. Surely this shows us
an adaptation, an adjustment, of the constitution
of the material world to the nature of man. And
as the organization of plants cannot be conceived
otherwise than as having their life and growth
for its object, so we cannot conceive that friction
should be one of the leading agencies in the
world in which man is placed, without supposing
that it was intended to be of use when man
should walk and run, and build houses and
ships, and bridges, and execute innumerable
other processes, all of which would be impos-
sible, admirably constituted as man is in other
respects, if friction did not exist. And believ-
ing, as we conceive we cannot but believe, that
the laws of motion and rest were thus given with
reference to their ends, we perceive in this in-
stance, as in others, how wide and profound this
reference is, how simple in its means, how fertile
in its consequences, how effective in its details.
251
BOOK III.
RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
|HE contemplation of the material uni-
verse exhibits God to us as the author of
the laws of material nature ; bringing; before us
a wonderful spectacle, in the simplicity, the
comprehensiveness, the mutual adaptation of
these law T s, and in the vast variety of harmoni-
ous and beneficial effects produced by their
mutual bearing and combined operation. But
it is the consideration of the moral world, of the
results of our powers of thought and action,
which leads us to regard the Deity in that light
in which our relation to him becomes a matter
of the highest interest and importance. We
perceive that man is capable of referring his
actions to principles of right and wrong ; that
both his faculties and his virtues may be un-
folded and advanced by the discipline which
arises from the circumstances of human society ;
that good men can be discriminated from the
bad, only by a course of trial, by struggles with
difficulty and temptation ; that the best men
feel deeply the need of relying, in such conflicts,
on the thought of a superintending Spiritual
252 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
Power; that our views of justice, our capacity
for intellectual and moral advancement, and a
crowd of hopes and anticipations which rise in
our bosoms unsought, and dins' there with inex-
haustible tenacity, will not allow us to acquiesce
in the belief that this life is the end of our exist-
ence. We are thus led to see that our relation
to the Superintender of our moral being, to the
Depositary of the supreme law of just and right,
is a relation of incalculable consequence. We
find that we cannot be permitted to be merely
contemplators and speculators with regard to the
Governor of the moral world ; we must obey
His will ; we must turn our affections to Him ;
we must advance in His favour ; or we offend
against the nature of our position in the scheme
of which He is the author and sustainer.
It is far from our purpose to represent natural
religion as of itself sufficient for our support and
guidance ; or to underrate the manner in which
our views of the Lord of the universe have been,
much more, perhaps, than we are sometimes
aware, illustrated and confirmed by lights de-
rived from revelation. We do not here speak of
the manner in which men have come to believe
in God, as the Governor of the moral world;
but of the fact, that by the aid of one or both of
these two guides, Reason or Revelation, reflect-
ing persons in every age have been led to such
a belief. And we conceive it may be useful to
point out some connexion between such a belief
RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 253
of a just and holy Governor, and the conviction,
which we have already endeavoured to impress
upon the reader, of a wise and benevolent Cre-
ator of the physical world. This we shall en-
deavour to do in the present book.
At the same time that men have thus learnt to
look upon God as their Governor and Judge, the
source of their support and reward, they have
also been led, not only to ascribe to him power
and skill, knowledge and goodness, but also to
attribute to him these qualities in a mode and
degree excluding all limit : — to consider him as
almighty, allwise, of infinite knowledge and in-
exhaustible goodness ; every where present and
active, but incomprehensible by our minds, both
in the manner of his agency, and the degree of
his perfections. And this impression concern-
ing the Deity appears to be that which the mind
receives from all objects of contemplation and
all modes of advance towards truth. To this
conception it leaps with alacrity and joy, and
in this it acquiesces with tranquil satisfaction
and growing confidence ; while any other view
of the nature of the Divine Power which formed
and sustained the world, is incoherent and un-
tenable, exposed to insurmountable objections
and intolerable incongruities. We shall endea-
vour to show that the modes of employment of
the thoughts to which the well conducted study
of nature gives rise, do tend, in all their forms,
to produce or strengthen this impression on the
254 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
mind ; and that such an impression, and no
other, is consistent with the wisest views and
most comprehensive aspects of nature and of
philosophy, which our Natural Philosophy opens
to us. This will be the purpose of the latter
part of the present book. In the first place we
shall proceed with the object first mentioned,
the connexion which may be perceived between
the evidences of creative power, and of moral
government, in the world.
Chapter I.
The Creator of the Physical World is the
Governor of the Moral World.
KpITH our views of the moral government
|£§ of the world and the religious interests of
man, the study of material nature is not and
cannot be directly and closely connected. But
it may be of some service to trace in these two
lines of reasoning, seemingly so remote, a mani-
fest convergence to the same point, a demon-
strable unity of result. It may be useful to
show that we are thus led, not to two rulers of
the universe, but to one God ; — to make it ap-
pear that the Creator and Preserver of the world
is also the Governor and Judge of men ; that
A MORAL GOVERNOR. 255
the Author of the Laws of Nature is also the
Author of the Law of Duty ; — that He who
regulates corporeal things by properties of at-
traction and affinity and assimilating power,
is the same being who regulates the actions
and conditions of men, by the influence of
the feeling of responsibility, the perception of
right and wrong, the hope of happiness, the
love of good.
The conviction that the Divine attributes
which we are taught by the study of the material
world, and those which we learn from the con-
templation of man as a responsible agent, belong
to the same Divine Being, will be forced upon
us, if we consider the manner in which all the
parts of the universe, the corporeal and intellec-
tual, the animal and moral, are connected with
each other. In each of these provinces of crea-
tion we trace refined adaptations and arrange-
ments which lead us to the Creator and Director
of so skilful a system ; but these provinces are
so intermixed, these different trains of contri-
vance so interwoven, that we cannot, in our
thoughts, separate the author of one part from
the author of another. The Creator of the
Heavens and of the Earth, of the inorganic and
of the organic world, of animals and of man, of
the affections and the conscience, appears in-
evitably to be one and the same God.
We will pursue this reflection a little more
into detail.
256 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
I. The Atmosphere is a mere mass of fluid
floating on the surface of the ball of the earth ;
it is one of the inert and inorganic portions of
the universe, and must be conceived to have
been formed by the same Power which formed
the solid mass of the earth and all other parts of
the solar system. But how far is the atmos-
phere from being inert in its effects on organic
beings, and unconnected with the world of life !
By what wonderful adaptations of its mechani-
cal and chemical properties, and of the vital
powers of plants, to each other, are the deve-
lopement and well-being of plants and animals
secured ! The creator of the atmosphere must
have been also the creator of plants and animals:
we cannot for an instant believe the contrary.
But the atmosphere is not only subservient to
the life of animals, and of man among the rest ;
it is also the vehicle of voice ; it answers the
purpose of intercourse ; and, in the case of man,
of rational intercourse. We have seen how
remarkably the air is fitted for this office ; the
construction of the organs of articulation, by
which they are enabled to perform their part of
the work, is, as is well known, a most exquisite
system of contrivances. But though living in
an atmosphere capable of transmitting articulate
sound, and though provided with organs fitted
to articulate, man would never attain to the use
of language, if he were not also endowed with
another set of faculties. The powers of abstrac*
A MORAL GOVERNOR. 257
tion and generalization, memory and reason, the
tendencies which occasion the inflexions and
comhinations of words, are all necessary to the
formation and use of language. Are not these
parts of the same scheme of which the bodily
faculties by which we are able to speak are an-
other part? Has man his mental powers inde-
pendently of the creator of his bodily frame ?
To what purpose then, or by what cause was the
curious and complex machinery of the tongue,
the glottis, the larynx produced? These are
useful for speech, and full of contrivances which
surest such a use as the end for which those
organs were constructed. But speech appears
to have been no less contemplated in the intel-
lectual structure of man. The processes of which
we have spoken, generalization, abstraction, rea-
soning, have a close dependence on the use of
speech. These faculties are presupposed in the
formation of language, but they are developed
and perfected by the use of language. The mind
of man then, with all its intellectual endowments,
is the work of the same artist by whose hands
his bodily frame was fashioned; as his bodily
faculties again are evidently constructed by the
maker of those elements on which their action
depends. The creator of the atmosphere and of
the material universe is the creator of the human
mind, and the author of those wonderful powers
of thinking, judging, inferring, discovering, by
which we are able to reason concerning the world
w. s
258 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
in "which we are placed ; and which aid us in
lifting our thoughts to the source of our being
himself.
2. Light, or the means by which light is pro-
pagated, is another of the inorganic elements
which forms a portion of the mere material world.
The luminiferous ether, if we adopt that theory,
or the fluid light of the theory of emission, must
indubitably pervade the remotest regions of the
universe, and must be supposed to exist, as soon
as we suppose the material parts of the universe
to be in existence. The origin of light then
must be at least as far removed from us as the
origin of the solar system. Yet how closely con-
nected are the properties of light with the struc-
ture of our own bodies ! The mechanism of the
organs of vision and the mechanism of light are,
as we have seen, most curiously adapted to each
other. We must suppose, then, that the same
power and skill produced one and the other of
these two sets of contrivances, which so remark-
ably fit into each other. The creator of light
is the author of our visual powers. But how
small a portion does mere visual perception con-
stitute of the advantages which we derive from
vision ! We possess ulterior faculties and capa-
cities by which sight becomes a source of hap-
piness and good to man. The sense of beauty,
the love of art, the pleasure arising from the con-
templation of nautre, are all dependent on the
eye ; and we can hardly doubt that these facul-
A MORAL GOVERNOR. 25!)
ties were bestowed on man to further the best
interests of his being. The sense of beauty both
animates and refines his domestic tendencies ;
the love of art is a powerful instrument for
raising him above the mere cravings and satis-
factions of his animal nature ; the expansion of
mind which rises in us at the sight of the starry
sky, the cloud-capt mountain, the boundless
ocean, seems intended to direct our thoughts by
an impressive though indefinite feeling, to the
Infinite Author of All. But if these faculties
be thus part of the scheme of man's inner being,
given him by a good and wise creator, can we
suppose that this creator was any other than
the creator also of those visual organs, without
which the faculties could have no operation and
no existence ? As clearly as light and the eye
are the work of the same author, so clearly also
do our capacities for the most exalted visual
pleasures, and the feelings flowing from them,
proceed from the same Divine Hand, by which
the mechanism of light was constructed.
3. The creator of the earth must be conceived
to be the author also of all those qualities in the
soil, chemical and whatever else, by which it
supports vegetable life, under all the modifica-
tions of natural and artificial condition. Amoii£
the attributes which the earth thus possesses,
there are some which seem to have an especial
reference to man in a state of society. Such are
the power of the earth to increase its produce
ISO RELIGIOrS VIEWS.
under the influence of cultivation, and the ne-
cessary existence of property in land, in order
that this cultivation may be advantageously
applied ; the rise, under such circumstances, of
a surplus produce, of a quantity of subsistence
exceeding the wants of the cultivators alone;
and the consequent possibility of inequalities of
rank and of all the arrangements of civil society.
These are all parts of the constitution of the
earth. But these would all remain mere idle
possibilities, if the nature of man had not a cor-
responding direction. If man had not a social
and economical tendency, a disposition to con-
gregate and co-operate, to distribute possessions
and offices amons; the members of the com-
munity, to make and obey and enforce laws, the
earth would in vain be ready to respond to the
care of the husbandman. Must we not then
suppose that this attribute of the earth was be-
stowed upon it by Him who gave to man those
corresponding attributes, through which the ap-
parent niggardliness of the soil is the source of
general comfort and security, of polity and law ?
Must we not suppose that He who created the
soil, also inspired man with those social desires
and feelings which produce cities and states,
laws and institutions, arts and civilization ; and
that thus the apparently inert mass of earth is a
part of the same scheme as those faculties and
powers with which man's moral and intellectual
progress is most connected ?
A MORAL GOVERNOR. 261
4. Again : — It will hardly be questioned that
the author of the material elements is also the
author of the structure of animals, which is
adapted to and provided for by the constitution
of the elements in such innumerable Avays. But
the author of the bodily structure of animals
must also be the author of their instincts, for
without these the structure would not answer
its purpose. And these instincts frequently
assume the character of affections in a most re-
markable manner. The love of offspring, of
home, of companions, are often displayed by ani-
mals, in a way that strikes the most indifferent
observer ; and yet these affections will hardly
be denied to be a part of the same scheme as the
instincts by which the same animals seek food
and the gratifications of sense. Who can doubt
that the anxious and devoted affection of the
mother-bird for her young after they are hatched,
is a part of the same system of Providence as
the instinct by which she is impelled to sit upon
her eggs ? and this, of the same by which her
eggs are so organized that incubation leads to the
birth of the young animal ? Nor, again, can we
imagine that while the structure and affections
of animals belong to one system of things, the
affections of man, in many respects so similar to
those of animals, and connected with the bodily
frame in a manner so closely analogous, can be-
long to a different scheme. Who, that reads
the touching instances of maternal affection, re-
2G2 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
lated so often of the women of all nations, and
of the females of all animals, can doubt that the
principle of action is the same in the two cases
though enlightened in one of them by the ra-
tional faculty ? And who can place in separate
provinces the supporting and protecting love of
tbe father and of the mother ? or consider as en-
tirely distinct from these, and belonging to ano-
ther part of our nature, the other kinds of family
affection ? or disjoin man's love of his home, his
clan, his tribe, his country, from the affection
which he bears to his family ? The love of off-
spring, home, friends, in man, is then part of
the same system of contrivances of which bo-
dily organization is another part. And thus the
author of our corporeal frame is also the author
of our capacity of kindness and resentment, of
our love and of our wish to be loved, of all the
emotions which bind us to individuals, to our
families, and to our kind.
It is not necessary here , to follow out and
classify these emotions and affections ; or to ex-
amine how they are combined and connected
with our other motives of action, mutually giving
and receiving: strength and direction. The de-
sire of esteem, of power, of knowledge, of society,
the love of kindred, of friends, of our country,
are manifestly among the main forces by which
man is urged to act and to abstain. And as
these parts of the constitution of man are clearly
intended, as we conceive, to impel him in his
A MORAL GOVERNOR. 263
appointed path ; so we conceive that they are
no less clearly the work of the same great
Artificer who created the heart, the eye, the
hand, the tongue, and that elemental world in
which, by means of these instruments, man
pursues the objects of his appetites, desires, and
affections.
5. But if the Creator of the world be also the
author of ou-r intellectual powers, of our feeling
for the beautiful and the sublime, of our social
tendencies, and of our natural desires and affec-
tions, we shall find it impossible not to ascribe
also to Him the higher directive attributes of our
nature, the conscience and the religious feeling,
the reference of our actions to the rule of duty
and to the will of God.
It would not suit the plan of the present trea-
tise to enter into any detailed analysis of the
connexion of these various portions of our moral
constitution. But we may observe that the
existence and universality of the conception of
duty and right cannot be doubted, however men
may differ as to its original or derivative nature.
All men are perpetually led to form judgments
concerning actions, and emotions which lead to
action, as right or wrong ; as what they ought or
ought not to do or feel. There is a faculty which
approves and disapproves, acquits or condemns
the workings of our other faculties. Now, what
shall we say of such a judiciary principle, thus
introduced among: our motives to action ? Shall
264 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
we conceive that while the other springs of action
are balanced against each other by our Creator,
this, the most pervading and universal regulator,
was no part of the original scheme ? That —
while the love of animal pleasures, of power, of
fame, the regard for friends, the pleasure of
bestowing pleasure, were infused into man as
influences by which his course of life was to be
carried on, and his capacities and powers deve-
loped and exercised ;— this reverence for a moral
law, this acknowledgment of the obligation of
duty, — a feeling which is everywhere found,
and which may become a powerful, a predomi-
nating motive of action, — was given for no pur-
pose, and belongs not to the design ? Such an
opinion would be much as if we should acknow-
ledge the skill and contrivance manifested in
the other parts of a ship, but should refuse to
recognize the rudder as exhibiting any evidence
of a purpose. AVithout the reverence which the
opinion of right inspires, and the scourge of
general disapprobation inflicted on that which
is accounted wicked, society could scarcely go
on ; and certainly the feelings and thoughts and
characters of men could not be what they are.
Those impulses of nature which involve no
acknowledgment of responsibility, and the play
and struggle of interfering wishes, might pre-
serve the species in some shape of existence, as
we see in the case of brutes. But a person
must be strangely constituted, who, living amid
A MORAL GOVERNOR. 265
the respect for law, the admiration for what is
good, the order and virtues and graces of
civilized nations, (all which have their origin in
some degree in the feeling of responsibility) can
maintain that all these are casual and extraneous
circumstances, no way contemplated in the for-
mation of man ; and that a condition in which
there should be no obligation in law, no merit
in self-restraint, no beauty in virtue, is equally
suited to the powers and the nature of man, and
was equally contemplated when those powers
were given him.
If this supposition be too extravagant to be
admitted, as it appears to be, it remains then
that man, intended, as we have already seen
from his structure and properties, to be a dis-
coursing, social being, acting under the in-
fluence of affections, desires, and purposes, was
also intended to act under the influence of a
sense of duty ; and that the acknowledgment of
the obligation of a moral law is as much part of
his nature, as hunger or thirst, maternal love or
the desire of power ; that, therefore, in conceiv-
ing man as the work of a Creator, we must
imagine his powers and character given him
with an intention on the Creator's part that this
sense of duty should occupy its place in his con-
stitution as an active and thinking being : and
that this directive and judiciary principle is a
part of the work of the same Author who made
the elements to minister to the material func-
266 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
tions, and the arrangements of the world to
occupy the individual and social affections of
his living creatures.
This principle of conscience, it may further
be observed, does not stand upon the same level
as the other impulses of our constitution by
which we are prompted or restrained. By its
very nature and essence, it possesses a supre-
macy over all others. " Your obligation to
obey this law is its being the law of your nature.
That your conscience approves of and attests
such a course of action is itself alone an obliga-
tion. Conscience does not only offer itself to
show us the Avay we should walk in, but it like-
wise carries its own authority with it, that it is
our natural guide : the guide assigned us by the
author of our nature." * That we ought to do
an action, is of itself a sufficient and ultimate
answer to the questions, why we should do it ? —
how we are obliged to do it ? The conviction of
duty implies the soundest reason, the strongest
obligation, of which our nature is susceptible.
We appear then to be using only language
which is well capable of being justified, when
we speak of this irresistible esteem for what is
right, this conviction of a rule of action extend-
ing beyond the gratification of our irrefiective
impulses, as an impress stamped upon the human
mind by the Deity himself; a trace of His na-
* Butler, Serm. 3
A MORAL GOVERNOR. 267
ture ; an indication of His will ; an announce-
ment of His purpose ; a promise of His favour ;
and though this faculty may need to be con-
firmed and unfolded, instructed and assisted by
other aids, it still seems to contain in itself a
sufficient intimation that the highest objects of
man's existence are to be attained, by means of
a direct and intimate reference of his thoughts
and actions to the Divine Author of his being.
Such then is the Deity to which the researches
of Natural Theology point ; and so far is the
train of reflections in which we have engaged,
from being merely speculative and barren. With
the material world we cannot stop. If a superior
Intelligence have ordered and adjusted the suc-
cession of seasons and the structure of the plants
of the field, we must allow far more than this at
first sight would seem to imply. We must ad-
mit still greater powers, still higher wisdom for
the creation of the beasts of the forest with their
faculties ; and higher wisdom still and more
transcendent attributes, for the creation of man.
And when we reach this point, we find that it is
not knowledge only, not power only, not fore-
sight and beneficence alone, which we must
attribute to the Maker of the World ; but that
we must consider him as the Author, in us, of
a reverence for moral purity and rectitude ;
and, if the author of such emotions in us, how
can we conceive of Him otherwise, than that
these qualities are parts of his nature ; and that
■2£3 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
lie is not only wise and great, and good, incom-
parably beyond our highest conceptions, but
also conformed in his purposes to the rule
which he thus impresses upon us, that is, Holy
in the highest degree which we can image to
ourselves as possible.
Chapter II.
On the Vast?iess of the Universe.
n|f HE aspect of the world, even without
any of the peculiar lights which science
throws upon it, is fitted to give us an idea of the
greatness of the power by which it is directed
and governed, far exceeding any notions of
power and greatness which are suggested by
any other contemplation. The number of human
beings who surround us — the various conditions
requisite for their life, nutrition, well-being, all
fulfilled ; — the way in which these conditions
are modified, as Ave pass in thought to other
countries, by climate, temperament, habit ; —
the vast amount of the human population of the
globe thus made up ; — yet man himself but one
among almost endless tribes of animals ; — the
forest, the field, the desert, the air, the ocean,
all teeming with creatures whose bodily wants
are as carefully provided for as his ; — the sun,
VASTXESS OF THE UNIVERSE. 269
the clouds, the winds, all attending, as it were,
on these organized beings ; — a host of beneficent
energies, unwearied by time and succession,
pervading every corner of the earth ; — this
spectacle cannot but give the contemplator a
lofty and magnificent conception of the Author
of so vast a work, of the Ruler of so wide and
rich an empire, of the Provider for so many and
varied wants, the Director and Adjuster of such
complex and jarring interests.
But when we take a more exact view of this
spectacle, and aid our vision by the discoveries
which have been made of the structure and
extent of the universe, the impression is incal-
culably increased.
The number and variety of animals, the ex-
quisite skill displayed in their structure, the
comprehensive and profound relations by which
they are connected, far exceed any thing which
we could have beforehand imagined. But the
view of the universe expands also on another
side. The earth, the globular body thus covered
with life, is not the only globe in the universe.
There are, circling about our own sun, six
others, so far as we can judge, perfectly ana-
logous in their nature : besides our moon and
other bodies analogous to it. No one can resist
the temptation to conjecture, that these globes,
some of them much larger than our own, are
not dead and barren ; — that they are, like ours,
occupied with organization, life, intelligence.
270 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
To conjecture is all that we can do, yet even by
the perception of such a possibility, our view of
the domain of nature is enlarged and elevated.
The outermost of the planetary globes of which
we have spoken is so far from the sun, that the
central luminary must appear to the inhabitants
of that planet, if any there are, no larger than
Venus does to us ; and the length of their vear
will be 82 of ours.
But astronomy carries us still onwards. It
teaches us that, Avith the exception of the planets
already mentioned, the stars which we see have
no immediate relation to our system. The ob-
vious supposition is that they are of the nature
and order of our sun : the minuteness of their
apparent magnitude agrees, on this supposition,
with the enormous and almost inconceivable
distance which, from all the measurements of
astronomers, we are led to attribute to them.
If then these are suns, they may, like our sun,
have planets revolving round them ; and these
may, like our planet, be the seats of vegetable
and animal and rational life : — we may thus
have in the universe worlds, no one knows how
many, no one can guess how varied ; — but how-
ever many, however varied, they are still but so
many provinces in the same empire, subject to
common rules, governed by a common power.
But the stars which we see with the naked
eve are but a very small portion of those which
the telescope unveils to us. The most imperfect
VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE. 271
telescope will discover some that are invisible
without it; the very best instrument perhaps
does not show us the most remote. The number
of stars which crowd some parts of the heavens
is truly marvellous : Dr. Herschel calculated
that a portion of the milky way, about 10 de-
grees long and 2| broad, contained 258,000.
In a sky so occupied the moon would eclipse
2000 of such stars at once.
We learn too from the telescope that even in
this province the variety of nature is not ex-
hausted. Not only do the stars differ in colour
and appearance, but some of them grow periodi-
cally fainter and brighter, as if they were dark
on one side, and revolved on their axes. In
other cases two stars appear close to each other,
and in some of these cases it has been clearly
established, that the two have a motion of revo-
lution about each other ; thus exhibiting an
arrangement new to the astronomer, and giving
rise, possibly, to new conditions of worlds. In
other instances again, the telescope shows, not
luminous points, but extended masses of dilute
light, like bright clouds, hence called nebulce.
Some have supposed (as we have noticed in the
last book) that such nebulae by further conden-
sation might become suns ; but for such opinions
we have nothing but conjecture. Some stars
again have undergone permanent changes ; or
have absolutely disappeared, as the celebrated
star of 1572, in the constellation Cassiopea.
272 . RELIGIOTS VIEWS.
If we take the whole range of created objects
in our own system, from the sun clown to the
smallest animalcule, and suppose such a system,
or something in some way analogous to it, to be
repeated for each of the millions of stars which
the telescope reveals to us, we obtain a repre-
sentation of the material universe ; at least a
representation which to many persons appears
the most probable one. And if we contemplate
this aggregate of systems as the work of a Crea-
tor, which in our own system we have found
ourselves so irresistibly led to do, we obtain a
sort of estimate of the extent through which his
creative energy may be traced, by taking the
widest view of the universe which our faculties
have attained.
If we consider further the endless and ad-
mirable contrivances and adaptations which
philosophers and observers have discovered in
every portion of our own system ; every new
step of our knowledge showing us something
new in this respect ; and if we combine this
consideration with the thought how small a
portion of the universe our knowledge includes,
we shall, without being able at all to discern the
extent of the skill and wisdom displayed in the
creation, see something of the character of the
design, and of the copiousness and amplcness of
the means which the scheme of the world ex-
hibits. And when we see that the tendency of
all the arrangements which we can comprehend
VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE. 273
is to support the existence, to develope the facul-
ties, to promote the well-being of these countless
species of creatures ; we shall have some im-
pression of the beneficence and love of the Crea-
tor, as manifested in the physical government of
his creation.
2. It is extremely difficult to devise any means
of bringing before a common apprehension the
scale on which the universe is constructed, the
enormous proportion which the larger dimen-
sions bear to the smaller, and the amazing num-
ber of steps from larger to smaller, or from small
to larger, which the consideration of it offers.
The following comparative representations may
serve to give the reader to whom the subject is
new some idea of these steps.
If Ave suppose the earth to be represented
by a globe a foot in diameter, the distance of
the sun from the earth will be about two miles ;
the diameter of the sun, on the same supposition,
will be something above one hundred feet, and
consequently his bulk such as might be made
up of two hemispheres, each about the size of
the dome of St. Paul's. The moon will'be thirty
feet from us, and her diameter three inches,
about that of a cricket ball. Thus the sun
would much more than occupy all the space
within the moon's orbit. On the same scale,
Jupiter would be above ten miles from the sun,
and Uranus forty. We see then how thinly
scattered through space are the heavenly bodies.
274 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
The fixed stars would be at an unknown dis-
tance, but, probably, if all distances were thus
diminished, no star would be nearer to such a
one-foot earth, than the moon now is to us.
On such a terrestrial globe the highest moun-
tains would be about l-80th of an inch high, and
consequently only just distinguishable. We may
imagine therefore how imperceptible would be
the largest animals. The whole organized cover-
ing of such an earth would be quite undiscover-
able by the eye, except perhaps by colour, like
the bloom on a plum.
In order to restore the earth and its inhabi-
tants to their true dimensions, we must magnify
the length, breadth, and thickness of every part
of our supposed models forty millions of times ;
and to preserve the proportions, we must increase
equally the distances of the sun and of the stars
from us. They seem thus to pass off into in-
finity ; yet each of them thus removed, has its
system of mechanical and perhaps of organic
processes going on upon its surface.
But the arrangements of organic life which we
can see with the naked eye are few, compared
with those which the microscope detects. We
know that we may magnify objects thousands of
times, and still discover fresh complexities of
structure ; if we suppose, therefore, that we thus
magnify every member of the universe and every
particle of matter of which it consists ; we may
imagine that we make perceptible to our senses
VASTXESS OF THE UNIVERSE. 275
the vast multitude of organized adaptations which
lie hid on every side of us; and in this manner
we approach towards an estimate of the extent
through which we may trace the power and skill
of the Creator, by scrutinizing his work with the
utmost subtlety of our faculties.
3. The other numerical quantities which we
have to consider in the phenomena of the uni-
verse are on as gigantic a scale as the distances
and sizes. By the rotation of the earth on its
axis, the parts of the equator move at the rate of
a thousand miles an hour, and the portions of
the earth's surface which are in our latitude,
at about six hundred. The former velocity is
nearly that with which a cannon ball is dis-
charged from the mouth of a gun ; but, large as
it is, it is inconsiderable compared with the ve-
locity of the earth in its orbit about the sun.
This latter velocity is sixty-live times the former.
By the rotatory motion of the earth, a point of
its surface is carried sometimes forwards and
sometimes backwards with regard to the annual
progression ; but in consequence of the great
predominance of the annual motion in amount,
the diurnal scarcely affects it either way in any
appreciable degree. And even the velocity of
the earth in her orbit is inconsiderable compared
with that of light ; which comparison, however,
we shall not make ; since, according to the theory
we have considered as most probable, the motion
of light is not a transfer of matter but of motion
from one part of space to another.
2*76 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
The extent of the scale of density of different
substances has already been mentioned ; gold is
twenty times as heavy as water ; air is eight
hundred and thirty times lighter, steam eight
thousand times lighter than water ; the lumini-
ferous ether is incomparably rarer than steam :
and this is true of the matter of light, whether
we adopt the undulatory theory or any other.
4. The above estimates are vast in amount,
and almost oppressive to our faculties. They be-
long to the measurement of the powers which are
exerted in the universe, and of the spaces through
which, their efficacy reaches (for the most distant
bodies are probably connected both by gravity
and light). But these estimates cannot be said
so much to give us any notion of the powers of
the Deity, as to correct the errors we should fall
into by supposing his powers to have any limits
like those which belong to our faculties : — by
supposing that numbers, and spaces, and forces,
and combinations, which would overwhelm us,
are any obstacle to the arrangements which his
plan requires. We can easily understand that to
an intelligence surpassing ours in degree only,
that may be easy which is impossible to us. The
child who cannot count beyond four, the savage
who has no name for any number above five,
cannot comprehend the possibility of dealing
with thousands and millions : yet a little addi-
tional developement of the intellect makes such
numbers conceivable and manageable. The dif-
VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE. 277
fioulty which appears to reside in numbers and
magnitudes and stages of subordination, is one
produced by judging from ourselves — by mea-
suring with our own sounding line ; when that
reaches no bottom, the ocean appears unfathom-
able. Yet in fact how is a hundred millions of
miles a great distance ? how is a hundred mil-
lions of times a great ratio? Not in itself; this
greatness is no quality of the numbers which can
be proved like their mathematical properties ;
on the contrary, all that absolutely belongs to
number, space, and ratio, must, we know demon-
strably, be equally true of the largest and the
smallest. It is clear that the greatness of these
expressions of measure has reference to our facul-
ties only. Our astonishment and embarrass-
ment take for granted the limits of our own
nature. We have a tendency to treat a difference
of degree and of addition, as if it were a dif-
ference of kind and of transformation. The ex-
istence of the attributes, design, power, good-
ness, is a matter depending on obvious grounds :
about these qualities there can be no mistake : if
we can know anything, we can know these attri-
butes when we see them. But the extent, the
limits of such attributes must be determined by
their effects ; our knowledge of their limits by
what we see of the effects. Nor is any extent,
any amount of power and goodness improbable
beforehand : we know that these must be great,
we cannot tell how great. We should not expect
278 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
beforehand to find them bounded ; and therefore
when the boundless prospect opens before us, we
may be bewildered, but we have no reason to
be shaken in our conviction of the reality of the
cause from which their effects proceed : we may
feel ourselves incapable of following the train of
thought, and may stop, but w r e have no rational
motive for quitting the point which we have thus
attained in tracing the Divine Perfections.
On the contrary, those magnitudes and pro-
portions which leave our powers of conception
far behind ; — that ever-expanding view which is
brought before us, of the scale and mechanism,
the riches and magnificence, the population and
activity of the universe ; — may reasonably serve,
not to disturb, but to enlarge and elevate our
conceptions of the Maker and Master of all ; to
feed an ever-growing admiration of His wonder-
ful nature ; and to excite a desire to be able to
contemplate more steadily and conceive less in-
adequately the scheme of his government and the
operation of his power.
279
Chapter III.
On Mans Place in the Universe.
jjHE mere aspect of the starry heavens,
without taking into account the view of
them to which science introduces us, tends
strongly to force upon man the impression of
his own insignificance. The vault of the sky
arched at a vast and unknown distance over
our heads; the stars, apparently infinite in
number, each keeping its appointed place and
course, and seeming to belong to a wide system
of things which has no relation to the earth ;
while man is but one among many millions of
the earth's inhabitants ; — all this makes the
contemplative spectator feel how exceedingly
small a portion of the universe he is ; how
little he must be, in the eyes of an intelligence
which can embrace the whole. Every person,
in every age and country, will recognise as
irresistibly natural the train of thought ex-
pressed by the Hebrew psalmist : " when I
consider the heavens, the work of thy hands —
the moon and the stars which thou hast or-
dained — Lord, what is man that thou art mind-
ful of him, or the son of man that thou re-
gardest him V*
280 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
If this be the feeling of the untaught person,
when he contemplates the aspect of the skies,
such as they offer themselves to a casual and
unassisted glance, the impression must needs be
incalculably augmented, when we look at the
universe with the aid of astronomical discovery
and theory. We then find, that a few of the
shining points which we see scattered on the
face of the sky in such profusion, appear to be
of the same nature as the earth, and may per-
haps, as analogy would suggest, be like the
earth, the habitations of organized beings; —
that the rest of " the host of heaven" may, by a
like analogy, be conjectured to be the centres of
similar systems of revolving worlds ; — that the
vision of man has gone travelling onwards, to
an extent never anticipated, through this multi-
tude of systems, and that while myriads of new
centres start up at every advance, he appears as
yet not to have received any intimation of a
limit. Every person probably feels, at first,
lost, confounded, overwhelmed, with the vast-
ness of this spectacle ; and seems to himself, as
it were, annihilated by the magnitude and mul-
titude of the objects which thus compose the
universe. The distance between him and the
Creator of the world appears to be increased
beyond measure by this disclosure. It seems
as if a single individual could have no chance
and no claim for the regard of the Ruler of the
whole.
man's place in the universe. 281
The mode in which the belief of God's govern-
ment of the physical world is important and in-
teresting to man, is, as has already been said,
through the connexion which this belief has
with the conviction of God's government of the
moral world; this latter government being,
from its nature, one which has a personal rela-
tion to each individual, his actions and thoughts.
It will, therefore, illustrate our subject to show
that this impression of the difficulty of a per-
sonal superintendence and government, exer-
cised by the Maker of the world over each of
his rational and free creatures, is founded upon
illusory views ; and that on an attentive and
philosophical examination of the subject, such a
government is in accordance with all that we
can discover of the scheme and the scale of the
universe.
1. We may, in the first place, repeat the ob-
servation made in the last chapter, on the con-
fusion which sometimes arises in our minds, and
makes us consider the number of the objects of
the Divine care as a difficulty in the way of its
exercise. If we can conceive this care employed
on a million persons— on the population of a
kingdom, of a city, of a street — there is no real
difficulty in supposing it extended to every
planet in the solar system, admitting each to be
peopled as' ours is; nor to every part of the
universe, supposing each star the centre of such
a system. Large numbers have no peculiar
882 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
attributes which distinguish them from small
ones ; and when we disregard the common
limits of our own faculties, which, though im-
portant to us, can have no application to the
Divine nature, it is quite as allowable to sup-
pose a million millions of earths, as one, to be
under the moral government of God.
2. In the next place we may remark, not only
that no reason can be assigned why the Divine
care should not extend to a much greater num-
ber of individuals than we at first imagine, but
that in fact we know that it does so extend. It
has been well observed, that about the same time
when the invention of the telescope showed us
that there might be myriads of other worlds
claiming the Creator's care ; the invention of
the microscope proved to us that there were in
our own world myriads of creatures, before un-
known, which this care was preserving. While
one discovery seemed to remove the Divine
Providence further from us, the other gave us
most striking examples that it was far more
active in our neighbourhood than we had sup-
posed : while the first extended the boundaries
of God's known kingdom, the second made its
known administration more minute and careful.
It appeared that in the leaf and in the bud, in
solids and in fluids, animals existed hitherto
unsuspected ; the apparently dead masses and
blank spaces of the world were found to swarm
with life. And yet, of the animals thus re-
man's place in the universe. 283
vealed, all, though unknown to us before, had
never been forgotten by Providence. Their
structure, their vessels and limbs, their adapta-
tion to their situation, their food and habita-
tions, were regulated in as beautiful and com-
plete a manner as those of the largest and
apparently most favoured animals. The smallest
insects are as exactly finished, often as gaily
ornamented, as the most graceful beast or the
birds of brightest plumage. And when we
seem to go out of the domain of the complex
animal structure with which we are familiar,
and come to animals of apparently more scanty
faculties, and less developed powers of enjoy-
ment and action, we still find that their faculties
and their senses are in exact harmony with their
situation and circumstances ; that the wants
which they have are provided for, and the
powers which they possess called into activity.
So that Muller, the patient and accurate ob-
server of the smallest and most obscure micros-
copical animalcula, declares that all classes alike,
those which have manifest organs, and those
which have not, offer a vast quantity of new
and striking views of the animal economy ;
every step of our discoveries leading us to ad-
mire the design and care of the Creator.* We
find, therefore, that the Divine Providence is,
in fact, capable of extending itself adequately
* Muller, Infusoria, Preface.
284 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
to an immense succession of tribes of beings,
surpassing wbat we can image or could pre-
viously have anticipated ; and tbus we may feel
secure, so far as analogy can secure us, that the
mere multitude of created objects cannot re-
move us from the government and superin-
tendence of the Creator.
3. We may observe further, that, vast as are
the parts and proportions of the universe, we
still appear to be able to perceive that it is finite;
the subordination of magnitudes and numbers
and classes appears to have its limits. Thus,
for anything which we can discover, the sun is
the largest body in the universe ; and at any
rate, bodies of the order of the sun are the
largest of which we have any evidence : we
know of no substances denser than gold and
platinum, and it is improbable that any denser,
or at least much denser, should ever be detected:
the largest animals which exist in the sea and
on the earth are almost certainly known to us.
We may venture also to say, that the smallest
animals which possess in their structure a clear
analogy with larger ones, have been already
seen. Many of the animals which the micro-
scope detects, are as complete and complex in
their organization as those of larger size: but
beyond a certain point, they appear, as they
become more; minute, to be reduced to a homo-
geneity and simplicity of composition which
almost excludes them from the domain of ani-
MAN S PI Ai I I» llll I M\ 1 RSI .
mal life. The smallest microscopical objects
w hich ran be Bupposed to be organic, are points,*
or gelatinous globules,i or threads,] in which
no distinct organs, interior or exterior, can be
discovered. These, it is dear, cannot be con-
sidered as indicating an indefinite progression
of animal life in b descending scale «>i' minute-
ness. We can, mathematically Bpeaking, con-
ceive one of these animals as perfect and com-
plicated in its structure as an elephant or an
eagle, but we »K> not find ii so in nature. It
appears, on the contrary, in these objects, as if
we were, at a certain point of magnitude, reach-
ing the boundaries of the animal world. We
need not here consider the hypothesis and
opinions to which these ambiguous objects have
given riso ; hut without an\ theory, they tend
to show that the subordination of organic life is
Unite on the side of the little as well as of the
great.
Some persons might, perhaps, imagine that a
ground for believing the smallness of organised
beings to be limited, mud it i><* found in what we
know of thi" constitution of matter. It' solids
and fluids consist o( particles of a definite,
though exoeeding smallness, whioh cannol fur
ther be divided or diminished, it is manifest
that we have, in the Bmallness of these partioles,
a limit to the possible sue of the vessels and
* RfotNit. Mullci. Cuvier.
} Vibrio, Mullwr. Cuvtar.
t Kotow.
286 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
organs of animals. The fluids which are se-
creted, and which circulate in the body of a
mite, must needs consist of a vast number of
particles, or they would not be fluids : and an
animal might be so much smaller than a mite,
that its tubes could not contain a sufficient col-
lection of the atoms of matter, to carry on its
functions. We should, therefore, of necessity
reach a limit of minuteness in organic life, if
we could demonstrate that matter is composed
of such indivisible atoms. We shall not, how-
ever, build anything on this argument ; because,
though the atomic theory is sometimes said to
be proved, what is proved is, that chemical and
other effects take place as if they were the
aggregate of the effects of certain particles of
different elements, the proportions of which
particles are fixed and definite ; but that any
limit can be assigned to the smallness of these
particles, has never yet been made out. We
prefer, therefore, to rest the proof of the finite
extent of animal life, as to size on the micro-
scopical observations previously referred to.
Probably we cannot yet be said to have
reached the limit of the universe with the power
of our telescopes ; that is, it does not appear
that telescopes have yet been used, so powerful
in exhibiting small stars, that we can assume
that more powerful instruments would not dis-
cover new stars. Whether or no, however, this
degree of perfection has been reached, we have
man's place in the universe. 287
no proof that it does not exist ; if it were once
obtained, we should have, with some approxi-
mation, the limit of the universe as to the num-
ber of worlds, as we have already endeavoured
to show we have obtained the limits with regard
to the largeness and smallness of the inhabitants
of our own world.
In like manner, although the discovery of
new species in some of the kingdoms of nature
has gone on recently with enormous rapidity,
and to an immense extent ; — for instance in
botany, where the species known in the time of
Linnaeus were about 10,000, and are now above
100,000 ; — there can be no doubt that the num-
ber of species and genera is really limited ; and
though a great extension of our knowledge is
required to reach these limits, it is our ignorance
merely, and not their non-existence, which re-
moves them from us.
In the same way it would appear that the
universe, so far as it is an object of our know-
ledge, is finite in other respects also. Now
when we have once attained this conviction, all
the oppressive apprehension of being overlooked
in the government of the universe has no longer
any rational source. For in the superinten-
dence of a finite system of things, what is there
which can appear difficult or overwhelming to
a Being such as we must, from what we know,
conceive the Creator to be ? Difficulties arising
from space, number, gradation, are such as we
288 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
can conceive ourselves capable of overcoming,
merely by an extension of our present faculties.
Is it not then easy to imagine that such difficul-
ties must vanish before him who made us and
our faculties ? Let it be considered how enor-
mous a proportion the largest work of man
bears to the smallest ; — the great pyramid to
the point of a needle. This comparison does
not overwhelm us, because we know that man
has made both. Yet the difference between
this proportion and that of the sun to the claw
of a mite, does not at all correspond to the dif-
ference which we must suppose to obtain be-
tween the Creator and the creature. It appears
then that, if the first flash of that view of the
universe which science reveals to us, does some-
times dazzle and bewilder men, a more atten-
tive examination of the prospect, by the light
we thus obtain, shows us how unfounded is the
despair of our being the objects of Divine Pro-
vidence, how absurd the persuasion that we
have discovered the universe to be too large for
its ruler.
4. Another ground of satisfactory reflexion,
having the same tendency, is to be found in the
admirable order and consistency, the subordina-
tion and proportion of parts, which we find to
prevail in the universe, as far as our discoveries
reach. We have, it may be, a multitude almost
innumerable of worlds, but no symptom ot
crowding, of confusion, of interference. All
man's place in the universe. 289
such defects are avoided by the manner in
which these worlds are distributed into systems ;
— these systems, each occupying a vast space,
but yet disposed at distances before which their
own dimensions shrink into insignificance ; — all
governed by one law, yet this law so concentra-
ting its operation on each system, that each pro-
ceeds as if there were no other, and so regulating
its own effects that perpetual change produces
permanent uniformity. This is the kind of har-
monious relation which we perceive in that part
of the universe, the mechanical part namely, the
laws of which are best known to us. In other
provinces, where our knowledge is more imper-
fect, we can see glimpses of a similar vastness
of combination, producing, by its very nature,
completeness of detail. Any analogy by which
we can extend such views to the moral world,
must be of a very wide and indefinite kind ; yet
the contemplation of this admirable relation of
the arrangements of the physical creation, and
the perfect working of their laws, is well calcu-
lated to give us confidence in a similar beauty
and perfection in the arrangements by which
our moral relations are directed, our higher
powers and hopes unfolded. We may readily
believe that there is, in this part of the creation
also, an order, a subordination of some relation
to others, which may remove all difficulty arising
from the vast multitude of moral agents and
actions, and make it possible that the super-
w. u
290 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
intendence of the moral world shall be directed
with as exact a tendency to moral good, as that
by which the government of the physical world
is directed to physical good.
We may perhaps see glimpses of such an
order, in the arrangements by which our highest
and most important duties depend upon our re-
lation to a small circle of persons immediately
around us : and again, in the manner in which
our acting well or ill results from the operation
of a few principles within us ; as our conscience,
our desire of moral excellence, and of the favour
of God. We can hardly consider such prin-
ciples otherwise than as intended to occupy their
proper place in the system by which man's des-
tination is to be determined; and thus, as among
the means of the government and superinten-
dence of God in the moral world.
That there must be an order and a system to
which such regulative principles belong, the
whole analogy of creation compels us to believe.
It would be strange indeed, if, while the me-
chanical world, the system of inert matter, is so
arranged that we cannot contemplate its order
without an elevated intellectual pleasure ; — while
organized life has no faculties without their pro-
per scope, no tendencies without their appointed
object ; — the rational faculties and moral tenden-
cies of man should belong to no systematic order,
should operate with no corresponding purpose :
that, while the perception of sweet and bitter has
man's place im the UNIVERSE. 29
its acknowledged and unquestionable uses, the
universal perception of right and wrong, the
unconquerable belief of the merit of certain feel-
ings and actions, the craving alike after moral
advancement and after the means of attaining it,
should exist only to delude, perplex, and dis-
appoint man. No one, with his contemplations
calmed and filled and harmonized by the view of
the known constitution of the universe, its ma-
chinery " wheeling unshaken " in the farthest
skies and in the darkest cavern, its vital spirit
breathing alike effectively in the veins of the
philosopher and the worm ; — no one, under the
influence of such a train of contemplations, can
possibly admit into his mind a persuasion which
makes the moral part of our nature a collection
of inconsistent and futile impressions, of idle
dreams and warring opinions, each having the
same claims to our acceptance. Wide as is the
distance between the material and the moral
world ; imperfect as all reasonings necessarily
are which attempt to carry the inferences of one
into the other ; elevated above the region of
matter as all the principles and grounds of truth
must be, which belong to our responsibilities and
hopes ; still the astronomical and natural philo-
sopher can hardly fail to draw from their studies
an imperturbable conviction that our moral na-
ture cannot correspond to those representations
according to which it has no law, coherency, or
object. The mere natural reasoner may, or
"X'2 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
must, stop far short of all that it is his highest
interest to know, his first duty to pursue ; but
even he, if he take any elevated and comprehen-
sive views of his own subject, must escape from
the opinions, as unphilosophical as they are com-
fortless, which would expel from our view of the
world all reference to duty and moral good, all
reliance on the most universal grounds of trust
and hope.
Men's belief of their duty, and of the reasons
for practising it, connected as it is with the con-
viction of a personal relation to their Maker,
and of His power of superintendence and re-
ward, is as manifest a fact in the moral, as any
that can be pointed out is in the natural world.
By the mere analogy which has been intimated,
therefore, we cannot but conceive that this fact
belongs in some manner or other to the order of
the moral world, and of its government.
When any one acknowledges a moral governor
of the world ; perceives that domestic and social
relations are perpetually operating and seem in-
tended to operate, to retain and direct men in
the path of duty ; and feels that the voice of
conscience, the peace of heart which results from
a course of virtue, and the consolations of devo-
tion, are ever ready to assume their office as our
guides and aids in the conduct of all our actions ;
— he will probably be willing to acknowledge
also that the means of a moral government of
each individual are not wanting; and will no
MAN S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE. 293
longer be oppressed or disturbed by the appre-
hension that the superintendence of the world
may be too difficult for its Ruler, and that any
of His subjects and servants may be overlooked.
He will no more fear that the moral than that
the physical laws of God's creation should be
forgotten in any particular case : and as he
knows that every sparrow which falls to the
ground contains in its structure innumerable
marks of the Divine care and kindness, he will
be persuaded that every man, however appa-
rently humble and insignificant, will have his
moral being dealt with according to the laws of
God's wisdom and love ; will be enlightened,
supported, and raised, if he use the appointed
means which God's administration of the world
of moral light and good offers to his use.
Chapter IV.
On the Impression produced by the Contemplation
of Laws of Nature ; or, on the Conviction that
Law implies Mind.
*0HE various trains of thought and reason-
ing which lead men from a consideration
of the natural world to the conviction of the ex-
istence, the power, the providence of God, do
294 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
not require, for the most part, any long or
laboured deduction, to give them their effect on
the mind. On the contrary, they have, in every
age and country, produced their impression on
multitudes who have not instituted any formal
reasonings upon the subject, and probably upon
many who have not put their conclusions in
the shape of any express propositions. The
persuasion of a superior intelligence and will,
which manifests itself in every part of the ma-
terial world, is, as is well known, so widely
diffused and deeply infixed, as to have made it
a question among speculative men whether the
notion of such a power is not universal and
innate. It is our business to show only how
plainly and how universally such a belief results
from the study of the appearances about us.
That in many nations, in many periods, this
persuasion has been mixed up with much that
was erroneous and perverse in the opinions of
the intellect or the fictions of the fancy, does not
weaken the force of such consent. The belief
of a supernatural and presiding power runs
through all these errors : and while the perver-
sions are manifestly the work of caprice and illu-
sion, and vanish at the first ray of sober enquiry,
the belief itself is substantial and consistent, and
grows in strength upon every new examination.
It was the firmness and solidity of the convic-
tion of something Divine which gave a hold and
permanence to the figments of so many false
LAW IMPLIES MIND. 295
divinities. And those who have traced the
progress of human thought on other subjects,
will not think it strange, that while the funda-
mental persuasion of a Deity was thus irre-
moveably seated in the human mind, the de-
velopement of this conception into a consistent,
pure, and steadfast belief in one Almighty and
Holy Father and God, should be long missed,
or never attained, by the struggle of the human
faculties ; should require long reflexion to ma-
ture it, and the aid of revelation to establish it
in the world.
The view of the universe which we have prin-
cipally had occasion to present to the reader, is
that in which we consider its appearances as
reducible to certain fixed and general laws.
Availing ourselves of some of the lights which
modern science supplies, we have endeavoured
to show that the adaptation of such laws to each
other, and their fitness to promote the harmo-
nious and beneficial course of the world, may be
traced, wherever we can discover the laws them-
selves ; and that the conceptions of the Divine
Power, Goodness and Superintendence which
we thus form, agree in a remarkable manner
with the views of the Supreme Being, to which
reason, enlightened by the divine revelation,
has led.
But we conceive that the general impressions
of mankind would go further than a mere assent
to the argument as we have thus stated it. To
296 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
most persons it appears that the mere existence
of a law connecting and governing any class of
phenomena, implies a presiding intelligence
which has preconceived and established the law.
When events are regulated by precise rules of
time and space, of number and measure, men
conceive these rules to be the evidence of
thought and mind, even without discovering in
the rules any peculiar adaptations, or without
supposing their purpose to be known
The origin and the validity of such an im-
pression on the human mind may appear to
some matters of abstruse and doubtful specula-
tion : yet the tendency to such a belief prevails
strongly and widely, both among the common
class of minds whose thoughts are casually and
unsystematically turned to such subjects, and
among philosophers to whom laws of nature are
habitual subjects of contemplation. We con-
ceive therefore that such a tendency may de-
serve to be briefly illustrated ; and we trust also
that some attention to this point may be of ser-
vice in throwing light upon the true relation of
the study of nature to the belief in God.
1. A very slight attention shows us how rea-
dily order and regularity suggest to a common
apprehension the operation of a calm and un-
troubled intelligence presiding over the course
of events. Thus the materialist poet, in ac-
counting for the belief in the Gods, though he
LAW IMPLIES MINB. 297
does not share it, cannot deny the habitual
effect of this manifestation.
Frreterea coeli rationes ordine certo
Et varia annorum cernebant tempora vorti ;
Nee poterant quibus id fieret cognoscere caussis.
Ergo perfugium sibi habebant omnia Divis
Tradere et illorum nutu facere omnia flecti.
Lucret. v. 1182.
They saw the skies in constant order run,
The varied seasons and the circling sun,
Apparent, rale, with unapparent cause,
And thus they sought in Gods the source of laws.
The same feeling may be traced in the early
mythology of a large portion of the globe. We
might easily, taking advantage of the labours of
learned men, exemplify this in the case of the
oriental nations of Greece, and of many other
countries. Nor does there appear much diffi-
culty in pointing out the error of those who
have maintained that all religion had its origin
in the worship of the stars and the elements ;
and who have insinuated that all such impres-
sions are unfounded, inasmuch as these are cer-
tainly not right objects of human worship. The
religious feeling, the conviction of a superna-
tural power, of an intelligence connecting and
directing the phenomena of the world, had not
its origin in the worship of sun, or stars, or ele-
ments ; but was itself the necessary though un-
expressed foundation of all worship, and all
298 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
forms of false, as well as true, religion. The
contemplation of the earth and heavens called
into action this religious tendency in man ; and
to say that the worship of the material world
formed or suggested this religious feeling, is to
invert the order of possible things in the most
unphilosophical manner. Idolatry is not the
source of the belief in God, but is a compound
of the persuasion of a supernatural government,
with certain extravagant and baseless concep-
tions as to the manner in which this government
is exercised.
We will quote a passage from an author who
has illustrated at considerable length the hypo-
thesis that all religious belief is derived from the
worship of the elements.
" Light, and darkness its perpetual contrast ;
the succession of days and nights, the periodical
order of the seasons ; the career of the brilliant
luminary which regulates their course ; that of
the moon his sister and rival ; night, and the
innumerable fires which she lights in the blue
vault of heaven ; the revolutions of the stars,
which exhibit them for a longer or a shorter
period above our horizon ; the constancy of this
period in the fixed stars, its variety in the wan-
dering stars, the planets ; their direct and retro-
grade course, their momentary rest ; the phases
of the moon waxing, full, waning, divested of
all light; the progressive motion of the sun up-
wards, downwards ; the successive order of the
LAW IMPLIES MIND. 299
rising and setting of the fixed stars which mark
the different points of the course of the sun,
while the various aspects which the earth itself
assumes mark, here below also, the same periods
of the sun's annual motion ; . . .all these
different pictures, displayed before the eyes of
man, form the great and magnificent spectacle
by which I suppose him surrounded at the mo-
ment when he is about to create his gods." *
What is this (divested of its wanton levity of
expression) but to say, that when man has so far
traced the course of nature as to be irresistibly
impressed with the existence of order, law,
variety in constancy, and fixity in change ; of
relations of form and space, duration and suc-
cession, cause and consequence, among the ob-
jects which surround him ; there spring*s up in
his breast, unbidden and irresistibly, the thought
of superintending intelligence — of a mind which
comprehended from the first and completely that
which he late and partially comes to know?
The worship of earth and sky, of the host of
heaven and the influences of nature, is not the
ultimate and fundamental fact in the early his-
tory of the religious impressions of mankind.
These are but derivative streams, impure and
scanty, from the fountain of religious feeling
which appears to be disclosed to us by the con-
templation of the universe, as the seat of law
* Dupuis. Origine des Cultes.
300 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
and the manifestation of intellect. Time Suff-
er
gests to man the thought of eternity ; space of
infinity; law of intelligence ; order of purpose ;
and however difficult and long a task it may be
to develope these suggestions into clear convic-
tions, these thoughts are the real parents of our
natural religious belief. The only relation be-
tween true religion and the worship of the
elemental world is, that the latter is the partial
and gross perversion, the former the consistent
and pure developement of the same original
idea.
2. The connexion of the laws of the material
world with an intelligence which preconceived
and instituted the law, which is thus, as we per-
ceive, so generally impressed on the common
apprehension of mankind, has also struck no
less those who have studied nature with a more
systematic attention, and with the peculiar views
which belong to science. The laws which such
persons learn and study, seem, indeed, most na-
turally to lead to the conviction of an intelligence
which originally gave to each laAV its form.
What we call a general law is, in truth, a
form of expression including a number of facts
of like kind. The facts are separate ; the unity
of view by which we associate them, the charac-
ter of generality and of law, resides in those re-
lations which are the object of the intellect.
The law once apprehended by us, takes in our
minds the place of the facts themselves, and is
LAW IMPLIES MIND. 301
said to govern or determine them, because it
determines our anticipations of what they will
be. But we cannot, it would seem, conceive a
law, founded on such intelligible relations, to
govern and determine the facts themselves, any
otherwise than by supposing also an intelligence
by which these relations are contemplated, and
these consequences realized. We cannot then
represent to ourselves the universe governed by
general laws, otherwise than by conceiving an
intelligent and conscious Deity, by whom these
laws were originally contemplated, established,
and applied.
This perhaps will appear more clear when it
is considered that the laws of which we speak
are often of an abstruse and complex kind, de-
pending upon relations of space, time, number,
and other properties, which we perceive by
great attention and thought. These relations
are often combined so variously and curiously,
that the most subtle reasonings and calculations
which we can form are requisite in order to
trace their results. Can such laws be conceived
to be instituted without any exercise of know-
ledge and intelligence? can material objects
apply geometry and calculation to themselves ?
can the lenses of the eye, for instance, be formed
and adjusted with an exact suitableness to their
refractive powers, while there is in the agency
which has framed them, no consciousness of the
laws of light, of the course of rays, of the visible
302 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
properties of things ? This appears to be alto-
gether inconceivable.
Every particle of matter possesses an almost
endless train of properties, each acting according
to its peculiar and fixed laws. For every atom
of the same kind of matter these laws are in-
variably and perpetually the same, while for
different kinds of matter the difference of these
properties is equally constant. This constant
and precise resemblance, this variation equally
constant and equally regular, suggest irresistibly
the conception of some cause, independent of the
atoms themselves, by which their similarity and
dissimilarity, the agreement and difference of
their deportment under the same circumstances,
have been determined. Such a view of the con-
stitution of matter, as is observed by an eminent
writer of our own time, effectually destroys the
idea of its eternal and self-existent nature, " by
giving to each of its atoms the essential cha-
racters, at once, of a manufactured article and
a subordinate agent."*
That such an impression, and the consequent
belief in a divine Author of the universe, by
whom its laws were ordained and established,
does result from the philosophical contemplation
of nature, will, we trust, become still more evi-
dent by tracing the effect produced upon men's
* Herschel on the Study of Nat. Phil. Art. 28.
LAW IMPLIES MIND. 303
minds by the discovery of such laws and pro-
perties as those of which we have been speak-
ing ; and we shall therefore make a few obser-
vations on this subject.
Chapter V.
On Inductive Habits ; or, on the Impression
produced on Mens yninds by discovering Laws
of Nature.
'HE object of physical science is to dis-
cover such laws and properties as those
of which we have spoken in the last chapter.
In this task, undoubtedly a progress has been
made on which we may well look with pleasure
and admiration ; yet we cannot hesitate to con-
fess that the extent of our knowledge on such
subjects bears no proportion to that of our igno-
rance. Of the great and comprehensive laws
which rule over the widest provinces of natural
phenomena, few have yet been disclosed to us.
And the names of the philosophers, whose high
office it has been to detect such laws, are even
yet far from numerous. In looking back at the
path by which science has advanced to its pre-
sent position, we see the names of the great dis-
coverers shine out like luminaries, few and scat-
304 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
tered along the line : by far the largest portion
of the space is occupied by those whose compa-
ratively humble office it was to verify, to de-
velope, to apply the general truths which the
discoverers brought to light.
It will readily be conceived that it is no easy
matter, if it be possible, to analyse the process
of thought by which laws of nature have thus
been discovered ; a process which, as we have
said, has been in so few instances successfully
performed. We shall not here make any attempt
at such an analysis. But without this, we con-
ceive it may be shown that the constitution and
employment of the mind on which such dis-
coveries depend, are friendly to that belief in a
wise and good Creator and Governor of the
world, which it has been our object to illustrate
and confirm. And if it should appear that
those who see further than their fellows into the
bearings and dependencies of the material things
and elements by which they are surrounded,
have also been, in almost every case, earnest
and forward in acknowledging the relation of
all things to a supreme intelligence and will ;
we shall be fortified in our persuasion that the
true scientific perception of the general consti-
tution of the universe, and of the mode in
which events are produced and connected, is
fitted to lead us to the conception and belief of
God.
Let us consider for a moment what takes place
INDUCTIVE HABITS. 305
in the mind of a student of nature when he
attains to the perception of a law previously un-
known, connecting the appearances which he
has studied. A mass of facts which before
seemed incoherent and unmeaning, assume, on a
sudden, the aspect of connexion and intelligible
order. Thus, when Kepler discovered the law
which connects the periodic times with the
diameters of the planetary orbits; or, when
Newton showed how this and all other known
mathematical properties of the solar system were
included in the law of universal gravitation ac-
cording to the inverse square of the distance ;
particular circumstances which, before, were
merely matter of independent record, became,
from that time, indissolubly conjoined by the laws
so discovered. The separate occurrences and
facts, which might hitherto have seemed casual
and without reason, were now seen to be all ex-
emplifications of the same truth. The change
is like that which takes place when we attempt
to read a sentence written in difficult or imper-
fect characters. For a time the separate parts
appear to be disjoined and arbitrary marks ; the
suggestions of possible meanings, which succeed
each other in the mind, fail, as fast as they are
tried, in combining or accounting for these sym-
bols : but at last the true supposition occurs ;
some words are found to coincide with the mean-
ing thus assumed ; the whole line of letters ap-
pear to take definite shapes and to leap into
w. x
306 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
their proper places ; and the truth of the happy-
conjecture seems to flash upon us from e very-
part of the inscription.
The discovery of laws of nature, truly and
satisfactorily connecting and explaining pheno-
mena, of which, before, the connexion and
causes had been unknown, displays much of a
similar process, of obscurity succeeded by evi-
dence, of effort and perplexity followed by con-
viction and repose. The innumerable conjec-
tures and failures, the glimpses of light perpe-
tually opening and as often clouded over, by
which Kepler was tantalized, the unwearied
perseverance and inexhaustible ingenuity which
he exercised, while seeking for the laws which
he finally discovered, are, thanks to his commu-
nicative disposition, curiously exhibited in his
works, and have been narrated by his biogra-
phers; and such efforts and alternations, modi-
fied by character and circumstances, must ge-
nerally precede the detection of any of the wider
laws and dependencies by which the events of
the universe are regulated. We may readily
conceive the satisfaction and delight with which,
after this perplexity and struggle, the discoverer
finds himself in light and tranquillity ; able to
look at the province of nature which has been
the subject of his study, and to read there an in-
telligible connexion, a sufficing reason, which
no one before him had understood or appre-
hended.
INDUCTIVE HABITS. 307
This step so much resembles the mode in
which one intelligent being understands and ap-
prehends the conceptions of another, that we
cannot be surprised if those persons in whose
minds such a process has taken place, have been
most ready to acknowledge the existence and
operation of a superintending intelligence, whose
ordinances it was their employment to study.
When they had just read a sentence of the table
of the laws of the universe, they could not doubt
whether it had had a legislator. When they
had decyphered there a comprehensive and sub-
stantial truth, they could not believe that the
letters had been thrown together by chance.
They could not but readily acknowledge that
what their faculties had enabled them to read,
must have been written by some higher and pro-
founder mind. And accordingly, we conceive
it will be found, on examining the works of those
to whom we owe our knowledge of the laws of
nature, and especially of the wider and more
comprehensive laws, that such persons have
been strongly and habitually impressed with the
persuasion of a Divine Purpose and Power
which had regulated the events which they had
attended to, and ordained the laws which they
had detected.
To those who have pursued science without
reaching the rank of discoverers ; — who have
possessed a derivative knowledge of the laws of
nature which others had disclosed, and have em-
308 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
ployed themselves in tracing the consequences
of such laws, and systematising the body 01
truth thus produced, the above description does,
not apply ; and we have not therefore in these
cases the same ground for anticipating the same
frame of mind. If among men of science of this
class, the persuasion of a supreme Intelligence
has at some periods been less vivid and less
universal, than in that higher class of which we
have before spoken, the fact, so far as it has ex-
isted, may perhaps be in some degree accounted
for. But whether the view which we have to
give of the mental peculiarities of men whose
science is of this derivative kind be well found-
ed, and whether the account we have above
offered of that which takes place in the minds
of original discoverers of laws in scientific re-
searches be true, or not, it will probably be con-
sidered a matter of some interest to point out
historically that in fact, such discoverers have
been peculiarly in the habit of considering the
world as the work of God. This we shall now
proceed to do.
As we have already said, the names of great
discoverers are not very numerous. The sciences
which we may look upon as having reached or
at least approached their complete and finished
form, are Mechanics, Hydrostatics, and Physi-
cal Astronomy. Galileo is the father of modern
Mechanics ; Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton
are the great names which mark the progress
INDUCTIVE HABITS. 309
of Astronomy. Hydrostatics shared in a great
measure the fortunes of the related science of
Mechanics ; Boyle and Pascal were the persons
mainly active in developing its more peculiar
principles. The other branches of knowleclov>
which belong to natural philosophy, as Che-
mistry and Meteorology, are as yet imperfect,
and perhaps infant sciences ; and it would be
rash to presume to select in them, names of equal
pre-eminence with those above mentioned : but
it may not be difficult to show, with sufficient
evidence, that the effect of science upon the au-
thors of science is, in these subjects as in the
former ones, far other than to alienate their
minds from religious trains of thought, and a
habit of considering the world as the work of
God.
We shall not dwell much on the first of the
above mentioned great names, Galileo ; for his
scientific merit consisted rather in adopting the
sound philosophy of others, as in the case of the
Copernican system, and in combating prevalent
errors, as in the case of the Aristotelian doctrines
concerning motion, than in any marked and
prominent discovery of new principles. More-
over the mechanical laws which he had a share
in bringing to light, depending as they did,
rather on detached experiments and transient
facts, than on observation of the general course
of the universe, could not so clearly suggest any
reflexion on the government of the world at that
310 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
period, as they did afterwards when Newton
showed their bearing on the cosmical system.
Yet Galileo, as a man of philosophical and in-
ventive mind, who produced a great effect on the
progress of physical knowledge, is a person whose
opinions must naturally interest us, engaged
in our present course of reasoning. There is in
his writings little which bears upon religious
views, as there is in the nature of his works
little to lead him to such subjects. Yet strong
expressions of piety are not wanting, both in his
letters, and in his published treatises. The per-
secution which he underwent, on account of his
writings in favour of the Copernican system,
was grounded, not on his opposition to the ge-
neral truths of natural religion, which is our
main concern at present, nor even on any sup-
posed rejection of any articles of Christian faith,
but on the alleged discrepancy between his
adopted astronomical views and the declara-
tions of scripture. Some of his remarks may
interest the reader.
In his third dialogue on the Copernican
system he has occasion to speak of the opinion
which holds all parts of the world to be framed
for man's use alone : and to this he says, " I
would that we should not so shorten the arm of
God in the government of human affairs ; but
that we should rest in this, that we are certain
that God and nature are so occupied in the go-
vernment of human affairs, that they could not
INDUCTIVE HABITS. 311
more attend to us if they were charged with the
care of the human race alone." In the same
spirit, when some objected to the asserted small-
ness of the Medicean stars, or satellites of Jupi-
ter, and urged this as a reason why they were
unworthy the regard of philosophers, he replied
that they are the works of God's power, the ob-
jects of His care, and therefore may well be
considered as sublime subjects for man's study.
In the Dialogues on Mechanics, there occur
those observations concerning the use of the air-
bladder in fishes, and concerning the adaptation
of the size of animals to the strength of the
materials of which they are framed, which have
often since been adopted by writers on the
wisdom of Providence. The last of the dialogues
on the system of the world is closed by a religi-
ous reflexion, put in the mouth of the interlocu-
tor who usually expresses Galileo's own opinions.
" While it is permitted us to speculate concern-
ing the constitution of the world, we are also
taught (perhaps in order that the activity of the
human mind may not pause or languish) that
our powers do not enable us to comprehend the
works of His hands. May success therefore
attend this intellectual exercise, thus permitted
and appointed for us ; by which we recognise
and admire the greatness of God the more, in
proportion as we find ourselves the less able to
penetrate the profound abysses of his wisdom."
And that this train of thought was habitual to
312 RELIGIOUS VIEWS,
the philosopher we have abundant evidence in
many other parts of his writings. He had
already said in the same dialogue, " Nature (or
God, as he elsewhere speaks) employs means in
an admirable and inconceivable manner ; ad-
mirable, that is, and inconceivable to us, but
not to her, who brings about Avith consummate
facility and simplicity things which affect our
intellect with infinite astonishment. That which
is to us most difficult to understand is to her
most easy to execute."
The establishment of the Copernican and
Newtonian views of the motions of the solar
system and their causes, were probably the
occasions on which religious but unphiloso-
phical men entertained the strongest apprehen-
sions that the belief in the government of God
may be weakened when we thus " thrust some
mechanic cause into his place." It is therefore
fortunate that we can show, not only that this
ought not to occur, from the reason of the
thing, but also that in fact the persons who are
the leading characters in the progress of these
opinions were men of clear and fervent piety.
In the case of Copernicus himself it does not
appear that, originally, any apprehensions were
entertained of any dangerous discrepancy be-
tween his doctrines and the truths of religion,
either natural or revealed. The work which
contains these memorable discoveries was ad-
dressed to Pope Paul III., the head, at that
INDUCTIVE HABITS. 313
time (1543), of the religious world ; and was
published, as thp author states in the preface, at
the urgent entreaty of friends, one of whom was
a cardinal, and another a bishop.* " I know,"
he says, " that the thoughts of a philosopher
are far removed from the judgment of the
vulgar ; since it is his study to search out truth
in all things, as far as that is permitted by God
to human reason." And though the doctrines
are for the most part stated as portions of a ma-
thematical calculation, the explanation of the
arrangement by which the sun is placed in the
centre of the system is accompanied by a natural
reflexion of a religious cast : " Who in this fair
temple would place this lamp in any other or
better place than there whence it may illumi-
nate the Avhole ? We find then under this ordi-
nation an admirable symmetry of the world,
and a certain harmonious connexion of the mo-
tion and magnitude of the orbs, such as in any
other way cannot be found. Thus the progres-
sions and regressions of the planets all arise
from the same cause, the motion of the earth.
And that no such movements are seen in the
fixed stars, argues their immense distance from
* Amici me cunctantem atqueetiam reluctantem, retrax-
erunt, inter quos primus fuit Nicolaus Schonbergius, Car-
dinalis Capuanus, in omni genere literatum Celebris ; proxi-
mus ille virmeiamantissimusTidemannus Gisius, episcopus
Culmensis, sacrarum ut est et omnium bonarum literarum
Studiosissimus. — De Reiolutionibus. Prcrf. ad Paulum 111.
314 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
us, which causes the apparent magnitude of the
earth's annual course to become evanescent.
So great, in short, is this divine fabric of the
great and good God;"* " this best and most
regular artificer of the universe," as he else-
where speaks.
Kepler was the person, who by further study-
ing " the connexion of the motions and magni-
tude of the orbs," to which Copernicus had thus
drawn the attention of astronomers, detected
the laws of this connexion, and prepared the
way for the discovery, by Newton, of the me-
chanical laws and causes of such motions.
Kepler was a man of strong and lively piety ;
and the exhortation which he addresses to his
reader before entering on the exposition of
some of his discoveries, may be quoted not only
for its earnestness but its reasonableness also. —
" I beseech my reader, that not unmindful of
the divine goodness bestowed on man, he do
with me praise and celebrate the wisdom and
greatness of the Creator, which I open to him
from a more inward explication of the form of
the world, from a searching of causes, from a
detection of the errors of vision : and that thus,
not only in the firmness and stability of the
earth he perceive with gratitude the preserva-
tion of all living things in nature as the gift of
God, but also that in its motion, so recondite, so
* Lib. i. ex.
INDUCTIVE HABITS. 315
admirable, he acknowledge the wisdom of the
Creator. But him who is too dull to receive
this science, or too weak to believe the Coper-
nican system without harm to his piety, him, I
say, I advise that, leaving the school of astro-
nomy, and condemning, if he please, any doc-
trines of the philosophers, he follow his own
path, and desist from this wandering through
the universe, and lifting up his natural eyes,
with which alone he can see, pour himself out
from his own heart in praise of God the Crea-
tor ; being certain that he gives no less worship
to God than the astronomer, to whom God has
given to see more clearly with his inward eye,
and who, for what he has himself discovered,
both can and will glorify God."
The next great step in our knowledge of the
universe, the discovery of the mechanical causes
by which its motions are produced, and of their
laws, has in modern times sometimes been sup-
posed, both by the friends of religion and by
others, to be unfavourable to the impression of
an intelligent first cause. That such a supposi-
tion is founded in error we have offered what
appear to us insurmountable reasons for believ-
ing. That in the mind of the great discoverer
of this mechanical cause, Newton, the impres-
sion of a creating and presiding Deity was con-
firmed, not shaken, by all his discoveries, is so
well known that it is almost superfluous to insist
upon the fact. His views of the tendency of
■316 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
science invested it with no dangers of this kind.
" The business of natural philosophy is," he
-says, (Optics, Qu. 28.) " to argue from pheno-
mena without feigning hypotheses, and to de-
dace causes from effects, till we come to the
very first cause, which certainly is not mecha-
nical." " Though every true step made in this
philosophy brings us not immediately to the
knowledge of the first cause, yet it brings us
nearer to it, and is on that account highly to be
valued." The Scholium, or note, which con-
cludes his great work, the Principia, is a well
known and most striking evidence on this point,
" This beautiful system of sun, planets and
comets, could have its origin in no other way
than by the purpose and command of an intelli-
gent and powerful Being. He governs all
things, not as the soul of the world, but as the
lord of the universe. He is not only God, but
Lord or Governor. We know him only by his
properties and attributes, by the wise and admi-
rable structure of things around us, and by their
final causes ; we admire him on account of his
perfections, we venerate and worship him on
account of his government."
Without making any further quotations, it
must be evident to the reader that the succes-
sion of great philosophers through whom man-
kind have been led to the knowledge of the
greatest of scientific truths, the law of universal
gravitation, did, for their parts, see the truths
INDUCTIVE HABITS. 317
which they disclosed to men in such a light
that their religious feelings, their reference of
the world to an intelligent Creator and Pre-
server, their admiration of his attributes, were
exalted rather than impaired by the insight
which they obtained into the structure of the
universe.
Having shown this with regard to the most
perfect portion of human knowledge, our know-
ledge of the motions of the solar system, we
shall adduce a few other passages, illustrating
the prevalence of the same fact in other depart-
ments of experimental science ; although, for
reasons which have already been intimated, we
conceive that sciences of experiment do not
conduct so obviously as sciences of observation
to the impression of a Divine Legislator of the
material world.
The science of Hydrostatics was constructed
in a great measure by the founders of the sister
science of Mechanics. Of those who were em-
ployed in experimentally establishing the prin-
ciples peculiarly belonging to the doctrine of
fluids, Pascal and Boyle are two of the most
eminent names. That these two great philoso-
phers were not only religious, but both of them
remarkable for their fervent and pervading de-
votion, is too well known to be dwelt on. With
regard to Pascal, however, we ought not per-
haps to pass over an opinion of his, that the
existence of God cannot be proved from the ex-
318 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
ternal world. " I do not undertake to prove
this," says he, " not only because I do not feel
myself sufficiently strong to find in nature that
which shall convince obstinate atheists, but be-
cause such knowledge without Jesus Christ is
useless and sterile." It is obvious that such a
state of mind would prevent this writer from
encouraging or dwelling upon the grounds of
natural religion ; while yet he himself is an ex-
ample of that which we wish to illustrate, that
those who have obtained the furthest insight
into nature, have been in all ages firm believers
in God. " Nature," he says in another place,
" has perfections in order to show that she is
the image of God, and defects in order to show
that she is only his image."*
Boyle was not only a most pious man as well
as a great philosopher, but he exerted himself
very often and earnestly in his writings to show
the bearing of his natural philosophy upon his
views of the divine attributes, and of the govern-
ment of the world. Many of these dissertations
convey trains of thought and reasoning which
have never been surpast for their combination of
judicious sobriety in not pressing his arguments
too far, with fervent devotion in his conceptions
of the Divine nature. As examples of these
merits, we might adduce almost any portion of
his tracts on these subjects; for instance, his
* Pensees, Art. viii. 1,
INDUCTIVE HABITS. 319
" Inquiry into the Final Causes of Natural
Things ;" his " Free Inquiry into the Vulgar
Notion of Nature ;" his " Christian Virtuoso;"
and his Essay entitled " The High Veneration
Man's Intellect owes to God." It would be
superfluous to quote at any length from these
works. We may observe, however, that he
notices that general fact which we are at present
employed in exemplifying, that " in almost all
ages and countries the generality of philosophers
and contemplative men were persuaded of the
existence of a Deity from the consideration of
the phenomena of the universe ; whose fabric
and conduct they rationally concluded could
not justly be ascribed either to chance or to any
other cause than a Divine Being." And in
speaking of the religious uses of science, he
says : " Though I am willing to grant that
some impressions of God's wisdom are so con-
spicuous that even a superficial philosopher
may thence infer that the author of such works
dust be a wise agent ; yet how wise an agent he
has in these works expressed himself to be, none
but an experimental philosopher can well dis-
cern. And 'tis not by a slight survey, but by
a diligent and skilful scrutiny, of the works of
God, that a man must be, by a rational and
affective conviction, engaged to acknowledge
that the author of nature ' is wonderful in coun-
sel, and excellent in working.' "
After the mechanical properties of fluids, the
320 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
laws of the operation of the chemical and phy-
sical properties of the elements about us, offer
themselves to our notice. The relations of heat
and of moisture in particular, which play so im-
portant a part, as we have seen, in the economy
of our world, have been the subject of various
researches ; and they have led to views of the
operation of such agents, some of which we have
endeavoured to present to the reader, and to
point out the remarkable arrangements by which
their beneficial operation is carried on. That
the discoverers of the laws by which such opera-
tions are regulated, were not insensible to the
persuasion of a Divine care and contrivance
which those arrangements suggest, is what we
should expect, in agreement with what we have
already said, and it is what we find. Among
the names of the philosophers to whom we owe
our knowledge on these subjects, there are none
greater than those of Black, the discoverer of
the laws of latent heat, and Dalton, who first
gave us a true view of the mode in which
watery vapour exists and operates in the atmos-
phere. With regard to the former of these phi-
losophers, we shall quote Dr. Thomson's account
of the views which the laws of latent heat sug-
gested to the discoverer.* " Dr. Black quickly
perceived the vast importance of this discovery,
and took a pleasure in laying before his students
* Thomson's Hist, of Chemistry, vol. i. 321.
INDUCTIVE HABITS. 321
a view of the beneficial effects of this habitude
of heat in the economy of nature. During the
summer season a vast magazine of heat is accu-
mulated in the water, which by gradually emerg-
ing during congelation serves to temper the cold
of winter. Were it not for this accumulation of
heat in water and other bodies, the sun would
no sooner go a few degrees to the south of the
equator than we should feel all the horrors of
winter."
In the same spirit are Mr. Dalton's reflexions,
after pointing out the laws which regulate the
balance of evaporation and rain,* which he him-
self first clearly explained. " It is scarcely
possible," says he, "to contemplate without ad-
miration the beautiful system of nature by which
the surface of the earth is continually supplied
with water, and that unceasing circulation of a
fluid so essentially necessary to the very being
of the animal and vegetable kingdom takes
place."
Such impressions appear thus to rise irresisti-
bly in the breasts of men, when they obtain a
sight, for the first time, of the varied play and
comprehensive connexions of the laws by which
the business of the material world is carried on
and its occurrences are brought to pass. To
dwell upon or develope such reflexions is not
here our business. Their general prevalence in
* Manch. Mem. vol. v. p. 346.
W. Y
322 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
the minds of those to whom these first views of
new truths are granted, has been, we trust, suffi-
ciently illustrated. Nor are the names adduced
above, distinguished as they are, brought for-
ward as authorities merely. We do not claim
for the greatest discoverers in the realms of
science any immunity from error. In their
general opinions they may, as others may, judge
or reason ill. The articles of their religious
belief may be as easily and as widely as those
of other men, imperfect, perverted, unprofitable.
But on this one point, the tendency of our ad-
vances in the scientific knowledge of the uni-
verse to lead us up to a belief in a most wise
maker and master of the universe, we conceive
that they who make these advances, and who
feel, as an original impression, that which others
feel only by receiving their teaching, must be
looked to with a peculiar attention and respect.
And what their impressions have commonly
been, we have thus endeavoured to show.
323
Chapter VI.
On Deductive Habits ; or, on the Impression pro-
duced on Mens Minds by tracing the conse-
quences of ascertained Laws.
[HE opinion illustrated in the last chap-
ter, that the advances which men make
in science tend to impress upon them the reality
of the Divine government of the world, has often
been controverted. Complaints have been made,
and especially of late years, that the growth of
piety has not always been commensurate with
the growth of knowledge, in the minds of those
who make nature their study. Views of an irre-
ligious character have been entertained, it is
sometimes said, by persons eminently well in-
structed in all the discoveries of modern times,
no less than by the superficial and ignorant.
Those who have been supposed to deny or to
doubt the existence, the providence, the attri-
butes of God, have in many cases been men of
considerable eminence and celebrity for their
attainments in science. The opinion that this is
the case, appears to be extensively diffused, and
this persuasion has probably often produced in-
quietude and grief in the breasts of pious and
benevolent men.
324 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
This opinion, concerning the want of religious
convictions among those who have made na-
tural philosophy their leading pursuit, has pro-
bably gone far beyond the limits of the real fact.
But if we allow that there are any strong cases
to countenance such an opinion, it may be worth
our while to consider how far they admit of any
satisfactory explanation. The fact appears at
first sight to be at variance with the view we
haA-e given of the impression produced by sci-
entific discovery ; and it is moreover always a
matter of uneasiness and regret, to have men of
eminent talents and knowledge opposed to doc-
trines which we consider as important truths.
We conceive that an explanation of such cases,
if they should occur, may be found in a very
curious and important circumstance belonging
to the process by which our physical sciences
are formed. The first discovery of new general
truths, and the developement of these truths
when once obtained, are two operations ex-
tremely different — imply different mental habits,
and may easily be associated with different
views and convictions on points out of the reach
of scientific demonstration. There would there-
fore be nothing surprising, or inconsistent with
what we have maintained above, if it should
appear that while original discoverers of laws of
nature are peculiarly led, as we have seen, to
believe the existence of a supreme intelligence
and purpose ; the far greater number of culti-
DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 325
vators of science, whose employment it is to
learn from others these general laws, and to
trace, combine, and apply their consequences,
should have no clearness of conviction or secu-
rity from error on this subject, beyond what be-
longs to persons of any other class.
This will, perhaps, become somewhat more
evident by considering a little more closely the
distinction of the two operations of discovery and
developement, of which we have spoken above,
and the tendency which the habitual prosecution
of them may be expected to produce in the
thoughts and views of the student.
We have already endeavoured in some mea-
sure to describe that which takes place when a
new law of nature is discovered. A number of
facts in which, before, order and connexion
did not appear at all, or appeared by partial
and contradictory glimpses, are brought into a
point of view in which order and connexion
become their essential character. It is seen
that each fact is but a different manifestation of
the same principle ; that each particular is that
which it is, in virtue of the same general truth.
The inscription is decyphered ; the enigma is
guessed ; the principle is understood ; the truth
is enunciated.
When this step is once made, it becomes pos-
sible to deduce from the truth thus established,
a train of consequences often in no small degree
long and complex. The process of making
326 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
these inferences may properly be described by
the word Deduction. On the other hand, the
very different process by which a new principle
is collected from an assemblage of facts, has
been termed Induction ; the truths so obtained
and their consequences constitute the results of
the Inductive Philosophy ; which is frequently
and rightly described as a science which ascends
from particular facts to general principles, and
then descends again from these general principles
to particular applications and exemplifications.
While the great and important labours by
which science is really advanced consist in the
successive steps of the inductive ascent, in the
discovery of new laws perpetually more and
more general ; by far the greater part of our
books of physical science unavoidably consists
in deductive reasoning, exhibiting the conse-
quences and applications of the laws which have
been discovered ; and the greater part of writers
upon science have their minds employed in this
process of deduction and application.
This is true of many of those who are con-
sidered, and justly, as distinguished and pro-
found philosophers. In the mechanical philoso-
phy, that science which applies the properties of
matter and the laws of motion to the explanation
of the phenomena of the world, this is peculiarly
the case. The laws, when once discovered, oc-
cupy little room in their statement, and when
no longer contested, are not felt to need a
DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 327
lengthened proof. But their consequences re-
quire far more room and far more intellectual
labour. If we take, for example, the laws of
motion and the law of universal gravitation, we
can express in a few lines, that which, when
developed, represents and explains an innumer-
able mass of natural phenomena. But here the
course of developement is necessarily so long,
the reasoning contains so many steps, the con-
siderations on which it rests are so minute and
refined, the complication of cases and of conse-
quences is so vast, and even the involution
arising from the properties of space and number
is so serious, that the most consummate subtlety,
the most active invention, the most tenacious
power of inference, the widest spirit of combi-
nation, must be tasked and tasked severely, in
order to solve the problems which belong to
this portion of science. And the persons who
have been employed on these problems, and
who have brought to them the high and admir-
es o
able qualities which such an office requires, have
justly excited in a very eminent degree the ad-
miration which mankind feel for great intellec-
tual powers. Their names occupy a distin-
guished place in literary history ; and probably
there are no scientific reputations of the last
century higher, and none more merited, than
those earned by the great mathematicians who
have laboured with such wonderful success in
unfolding the mechanism of the heavens ; such
328 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
for instance as D'Alembert, Clairault, Euler,
Lagrange, Laplace.
But it is still important to recollect, that the
mental employments of men, while they are
occupied in this portion of the task of the for-
mation of science, are altogether different from
that which takes place in the mind of a dis-
coverer, who, for the first time, seizes the prin-
ciple which connects phenomena before unex-
plained, and thus adds another original truth to
our knowledge of the universe. In explaining,
as the great mathematicians just mentioned
have done, the phenomena of the solar system
by means of the law of universal gravitation,
the conclusions at which they arrived were
really included in the truth of the law, what-
ever skill and sagacity it might require to
develope and extricate them from the general
principle. But when Newton conceived and
established the law itself, he added to our know-
ledge something which was not contained in
any truth previously known, nor deducible from
it by any course of mere reasoning. And the
same distinction, in all other cases, obtains, be-
tween these processes which establish the prin-
ciples, generally few and simple, on which our
sciences rest, and those reasonings and calcula-
tions, founded on the principles thus obtained,
which constitute by far the larger portion of the
common treatises on the most complete of the
sciences now cultivated.
DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 329
Since the difference is so great between the
process of inductive generalization of physical
facts, and that of mathematical deduction of
consequences, it is not surprising that the two
processes should imply different mental powers
and habits. However rare the mathematical
talent, in its highest excellence, may be, it is far
more common, if we are to judge from the his-
tory of science, than the genius which divines
the general laws of nature. We have several
good mathematicians in every age ; we have
few great discoverers in the whole history of
our species.
The distinction being thus clearly established
between original discovery and derivative specu-
lation, between the ascent to principles and the
descent from them, we have further to observe,
that the habitual and exclusive prosecution of
the latter process may sometimes exercise an
unfavourable effect on the mind of the student,
and may make bim less fitted and ready to
apprehend and accept truths different from
those with which his reasonings are concerned.
We conceive, for example, that a person labours
under gross error, who believes the phenomena
of the world to be altogether produced by me-
chanical causes, and who excludes from his
view all reference to an intelligent First Cause
and Governor. But we conceive that reasons
may be shown which make it more probable
that error of such a kind should find a place in
330 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
the mind of a person of deductive, than of in-
ductive habits ; — of a mere mathematician or
logician, than of one who studies the facts of the
natural world and detects their laws.
The person whose mind is employed in re-
ducing to law and order and intelligible cause
the complex facts of the material world, is com-
pelled to look beyond the present state of his
knowledge, and to turn his thoughts to the
existence of principles higher than those which
he yet possesses. He has seen occasions when
facts that at first seemed incoherent and anoma-
lous, were reduced to rule and connexion ; and
when limited rules were discovered to be in-
cluded in some rule of superior generality. He
knows that all facts and appearances, all partial
laws, however confused and casual they at pre-
sent seem, must still, in reality, have this same
kind of bearing and dependence ; — must be
bound together by some undiscovered principle
of order ; — must proceed from some cause work-
ing by most steady rules ; — must be included in
some wide and fruitful general truth. He can-
not therefore consider any principles which he
has already obtained, as the ultimate and suffi-
cient reason of that which he sees. There must
be some higher principle, some ulterior reason.
The effort and struggle by which he endeavours
to extend his view, makes him feel that there is
a region of truth not included in his present
physical knowledge ; the very imperfection of
DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 331
the light in which he works his way, suggests to
him that there must be a source of clearer illu-
mination at a distance from him.
We must allow that it is scarcely possible to
describe in a manner free from some vagueness
and obscurity, the effect thus produced upon the
mind by the efforts which it makes to reduce
natural phenomena to general laws. But we
trust it will still be allowed that there is no dif-
ficulty in seeing clearly that a different influ-
ence may result from this process, and from the
process of deductive reasoning which forms the
main employment of the mathematical cultiva-
tors and systematic expositors of physical science
in modern times. Such persons are not led by
their pursuits to any thing beyond the general
principles, which form the basis of their expla-
nations and applications. They acquiesce in
these ; they make these their ultimate grounds
of truth ; and they are entirely employed in
unfolding the particular truths which are in-
volved in such general truths. Their thoughts
dwell little upon the possibility of the laws of
nature being other than we find them to be, or
on the reasons why they are not so ; and still
less on those facts and phenomena which philo-
sophers have not yet reduced to any rule ; which
are lawless to us, though we know that, in
reality, they must be governed by some prin-
ciple of order and harmony. On the contrary,
by assuming perpetually the existing laws as the
332 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
basis of their reasoning, "without question or
doubt, and by employing such language that
these laws can be expressed in the simplest and
briefest form, they are led to think and believe
as if these laws were necessarily and inevitably
what they are. Some mathematicians indeed
have maintained that the highest laws of nature
with which we are acquainted, the laws of
motion and the law of universal gravitation, are
not only necessarily true, but are even self-evi-
dent and certain a priori, like the truths of
geometry. And though the mathematical culti-
vator of the science of mechanics may not adopt
this as his speculative opinion, he may still be so
far influenced by the tendency from which it
springs, that he may rest in the mechanical laws
of the universe as ultimate and all-sufficient
principles, without seeing in them any evidence
of their having been selected and ordained, and
thus without ascending from the contemplation
of the world to the thought of an Intelligent
Ruler. He may thus substitute for the Deity
certain axioms and first principles, as the cause
of all. And the follower of Newton may run
into the error with which he is sometimes
charged, of thrusting some mechanic cause into
the place of God, if he do not raise his views, as
his master did, to some higher cause, to some
source of all forces, laws, and principles.
When, therefore, we consider the mathema-
ticians who are employed in successfully apply-
DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 333
ing the mechanical philosophy, as men well
deserving of honour from those who take an
interest in the progress of science, we do
rightly ; but it is still to be recollected, that in
doing this they are not carrying us to any
higher point of view in the knowledge of na-
ture than we had attained before : they are only
unfolding the consequences, which were already
virtually in our possession, because they were
implied in principles already discovered : —
they are adding to our knowledge of effects,
but not to our knowledge of causes : — they are
not making any advance in that progress of
which Newton spoke, and in which he made so
vast a stride, in which " every step made brings
us nearer to the knowledge of the first cause,
and is on that account highly to be valued."
And as in this advance they have no peculiar
privileges or advantages, their errors of opinion
concerning it, if they err, are no more to be
wondered at, than those of common men ; and
need as little disturb or distress us, as if those
who committed them had confined themselves
to the study of arithmetic or of geometry. If
we can console and tranquillize ourselves con-
cerning the defective or perverted views of re-
ligious truth entertained by any of our fellow
men, we need find no additional difficulty in
doing so when those who are mistaken are great
mathematicians, who have added to the riches
and elegance of the mechanical philosophy.
334 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
And if we are seeking for extraneous grounds
of trust and comfort on this subject, we may
find them in the reflexion ;— that, whatever may
be the opinions of those who assume the causes
and laws of that philosophy and reason from
them, the views of those admirable and ever-
honoured men who first caught sight of these
laws and causes, impressed them with the belief
that this is " the fabric of a great and good
God;" that " it is man's duty to pour out his
soul in praise of the Creator ; " and that all this
beautiful system must be referred to " a first
cause, which is certainly not mechanical."
2. We may thus, with the greatest propriety,
deny to the mechanical philosophers and mathe-
maticians of recent times any authority with
regard to their views of the administration of
the universe ; we have no reason whatever to
expect from their speculations any help, when
we attempt to ascend to the first cause and
supreme ruler of the universe. But we might
perhaps go further, and assert that they are in
some respects less likely than men employed in
other pursuits, to make any clear advance to-
wards such a subject of speculation. Persons
whose thoughts are thus entirely occupied in
deduction are apt to forget that this is, after all,
only one employment of the reason among
more ; only one mode of arriving at truth,
needing to have its deficiencies completed by
another. Deductive reasoners, those who cul-
DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 335
tivate science of whatever kind, by means of
mathematical and logical processes alone, may
acquire an exaggerated feeling of the amount
and value of their labours. Such employments,
from the clearness of the notions involved in
them, the irresistible concatenation of truths
which they unfold, the subtlety which they
require, and their entire success in that which
they attempt, possess a peculiar fascination for
the intellect. Those who pursue such studies
have generally a contempt and impatience of
the pretensions of all those other portions of our
knowledge, where from the nature of the case,
or the small progress hitherto made in their
cultivation, a more vague and loose kind of
reasoning seems to be adopted. Now if this
feeling be carried so far as to make the reasoner
suppose that these mathematical and logical
processes can lead him to all the knowledge and
all the certainty which we need, it is clearly a
delusive feeling. For it is confessed on all
hands, that all which mathematics or which
logic can do, is to develope and extract those
truths, as conclusions, which were in reality in-
volved in the principles on which our reason-
ings proceeded.* And this being allowed, we
cannot but ask how we obtain these principles ?
from what other source of knowledge we derive
* " Since all reasoning may be resolved into syllogisms,
and since in a syllogism the premises do virtually assert the
conclusion, it follows at once, that no new truth can be
336 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
the original truths which we thus pursue into
detail ? since it is manifest that such principles
cannot be derived from the proper stores of
mathematics or logic. These methods can ge-
nerate no new truth ; and all the grounds and
elements of the knowledge which, through them,
we can acquire, must necessarily come from
some extraneous source. It is certain, there-
fore, that the mathematician and the logician
must derive from some process different from
their own, the substance and material of all our
knowledge, whether physical or metaphysical,
physiological or moral. This process, by which
we acquire our first principles, (without pre-
tending here to analyse it,) is obviously the
general course of human experience, and the
natural exercise of the understanding ; our in-
tercourse with matter and with men, and the
consequent growth in our minds of convictions
and conceptions such as our reason can deal
with, either by her systematic or unsystematic
methods of procedure. Supplies from this vast
and inexhaustible source of original truths are
requisite, to give any value whatever to the
results of our deductive processes, whether ma-
thematical or logical ; while, on the other hand,
there are many branches of our knowledge, in
elicited by any process of reasoning." — Whately's Logic,
p. 223.
Mathematics is the logic of quantity, and to this science
the observation here quoted is strictly applicable.
DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 337
which we possess a large share of original and
derivative convictions and truths, but where it
is nevertheless at present quite impossible to
erect our knowledge into a complete system ;—
to state our primary and independent truths,
and to show how on these all the rest depend by
the rules of art. If the mathematician is re-
pelled from speculations on morals or politics,
on the beautiful or the right, because the reason-
ings which they involve have not mathematical
precision and conclusiveness, he will remain
destitute of much of the most valuable know-
ledge which man can acquire. Aud if he at-
tempts to mend the matter by giving to treatises
on morals, or politics, or criticism, a form and
a phraseology borrowed from the very few
tolerably complete physical sciences which exist,
it will be found that he is compelled to distort
and damage the most important truths, so as to
deprive them of their true shape and import, in
order to force them into their places in his arti-
ficial system.
If therefore, as we have said, the mathema-
tical philosopher dwells in his own bright and
pleasant land of deductive reasoning, till he
turns with disgust from all the speculations, ne-
cessarily less clear and conclusive, in which his
imagination, his practical faculties, his moral
sense, his capacity of religious hope and belief,
are to be called into action, he becomes, more
w. z
338 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
than common men, liable to miss the roads to
truths of extreme consequence.
This is so obvious, that charges are frequently-
brought against the study of mathematics, as
unfitting men for those occupations which de-
pend upon our common instinctive convictions
and feelings, upon the unsystematic exercise of
the understanding with regard to common rela-
tions and common occurrences. Bonaparte ob-
served of Laplace when he was placed in a public
office of considerable importance, that he did
not discharge it in so judicious and clear-sighted
a manner as his high intellectual fame might
lead most persons to expect.* " He sought,"
that great judge of character said, "subtleties
in every subject, and carried into his official
employments the spirit of the method of infi-
nitely small quantities," by which the mathema-
tician solves his most abstruse problems. And
the complaint that mathematical studies make
men insensible to moral evidence and to poeti-
cal beauties, is so often repeated as to show that
some opposition of tendency is commonly per-
* A l'interieur le ministre Quinette fut remplace par
Laplace, geometre du premier rang, mais qui ne tarda pas a
se montrer administrateur plus que mediocre : des son pre-
mier travail les consuls s'apercurent qu'ils s'etaient trompes :
Laplace ne saisissait aucune question sous son vrai point de
rue : il cherchait des subtilites partout, n'avait que des idees
problematiques, et portait enfin l'esprit des infmiment petits
dans radministration. — Mtmoires ecrits a Ste. Htltne, i. 3.
DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 339
ceived between that exercise of the intellect
which mathematics requires and those processes
which go on in our minds when moral character
or imaginative beauty is the subject of our con-
templation.
Thus, while we acknowledge all the beauty
and all the value of the mathematical reasonings
by which the consequences of our general laws
are deduced, we may yet consider it possible
that a philosopher, whose mind has been mainly
employed, and his intellectual habits deter-
mined, by this process of deduction, may pos-
sess, in a feeble and imperfect degree only, some
of those faculties by which truth is attained, and
especially truths such as regard our relation to
that mind, which is the origin of all law, the
source of first principles, and which must be im-
measurably elevated above all derivative truths.
It would, therefore, be far from surprising, if
there should be found, among the great authors
of the developements of the mechanical philoso-
phy, some who had refused to refer the pheno-
mena of the universe to a supreme mind, pur-
pose, and will. And though this would be, to
a believer in the Being and government of God,
a matter of sorrow and pain, it need not excite
more surprise than if the same were true of a
person of the most ordinary endowments, when
it is recollected in what a disproportionate man-
ner the various faculties of such a philosopher
may have been cultivated. And our apprehen-
340 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
sions of injury to mankind from the influence
of such examples will diminish, when we con-
sider, that those mathematicians whose minds
have been less partially exercised, the great dis-
coverers of the truths which others apply, the
philosophers who have looked upwards as well
as downwards, to the unknown as well as to the
known, to ulterior as well as proximate principles,
have never rested in this narrow and barren doc-
trine ; but have perpetually extended their view
forwards, beyond mere material laws and causes,
to a First Cause of the moral and material
world, to which each advance in philosophy
might bring them nearer, though its highest at-
tributes must probably ever remain indefinitely
beyond their reach.
It scarcely needs, perhaps, to be noticed, that
what we here represent as the possible source of
error is, not the perfection of the mathematical
habits of the mind, but the deficiency of the
habit of apprehending truth of other kinds ; —
not a clear insight into the mathematical conse-
quences of principles, but a want of a clear view
of the nature and foundation of principles ; — not
the talent for generalizing geometrical or me-
chanical relations, but the tendency to erect such
relations into ultimate truths and efficient causes.
The most consummate mathematical skill may
accompany and be auxiliary to the most earnest
piety, as it often has been. And an entire com-
mand of the conceptions and processes of mathe-
DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 341
matics is not only consistent with, but is the
necessary condition and principal instrument of
every important step in the discovery of physi-
cal principles. Newton was eminent above the
philosophers of his time, in no one talent so
much as in the power of mathematical deduc-
tion. When he had caught sight of the law of
universal gravitation, he traced it to its conse-
quences with a rapidity, a dexterity, a beauty of
mathematical reasoning which no other person
could approach ; so that on this account, if there
had been no other, the establishment of the
general law was possible to him alone. He still
stands at the head of mathematicians as well as
of philosophical discoverers. But it never ap-
peared to him, as it may have appeared to some
mathematicians who have employed themselves
on his discoveries, that the general law was an
ultimate and sufficient principle ; that the point
to which he had hung his chain of deduction
was the highest point in the universe. La-
grange, a modern mathematician of transcen-
dent genius, was in the habit of saying, in his
aspirations after future fame, that Newton was
fortunate in having had the system of the world
for his problem, since its theory could be disco-
vered once only. But Newton himself appears
to have had no such persuasion that the problem
he had solved was unique and final ; he laboured
to reduce gravity to some higher law, and the
forces of other physical operations to an analogy
342 RELIGIOUS VIEWS,
with those of gravity, and declared that all these
were but steps in our advance towards a first
cause. Between us and this first cause, the
source of the universe and of its laws, we can-
not doubt that there intervene many successive
steps of possible discovery and generalization,
not less wide and striking than the discovery of
universal gravitation : but it is still more certain
that no extent or success of physical investiga-
tion can carry us to any point which is not at an
immeasurable distance from an adequate know-
ledge of Him.
Chapter VII.
On Final Causes.
YE have pointed out a great number of in-
stances where the mode in which the
arrangements of nature produce their effect,
suggests, as we conceive, the belief that this
effect is to be considered as the end and purpose
of these arrangements. The impression which
thus arises, of design and intention exercised in
the formation of the world, or of the reality of
Final Causes, operates on men's minds so gene-
rally, and increases so constantly on every addi-
tional examination of the phenomena of the uni-
verse, that we cannot but suppose such a belief
to have a deep and stable foundation. And we
FINAL CAUSES. 343
conceive that in several of the comparatively few
cases in which such a belief has been rejected,
the averseness to it has arisen from the influence
of some of the causes mentioned in the last
chapter ; the exclusive pursuit, namely, of par-
ticular trains and modes of reasoning, till the
mind becomes less capable of forming the con-
ceptions and making the exertions which are re-
quisite for the apprehension of truths not inclu-
ded among its usual subjects of thought.
1. This seems to be the case with those who
maintain that purpose and design cannot be
inferred or deduced from the arrangements which
we see around us, by any process of reasoning.
We can reason from effects to causes, say such
writers, only in cases where we know something
of the nature of the cause. We can infer from
the works of men, the existence of design and
purpose, because we know, from past observa-
tion, what kind of works human design and
purpose can produce. But the universe, con-
sidered as the work of God, cannot be com-
pared with any corresponding work, or judged
of by any analogy with known examples. How
then can we, in this case, they ask, infer design
and purpose in the artist of the universe ? On
what principles, on what axioms, can we pro-
ceed, which shall include this necessarily sin-
gular instance, and thus give legitimacy and
validity to our reasonings?
What has already been said on the subject of
344 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
the two different processes by which we obtain
principles, and by which we reason from them,
will suggest the reply to these questions. When
we collect design and purpose from the arrange-
ments of the universe, we do not arrive at our
conclusion by a train of deductive reasoning,
but by the conviction which such combinations
as we perceive, immediately and directly im-
press upon the mind. " Design must have had
a designer." But such a principle can be of no
avail to one whom the contemplation or the de-
scription of the world does not impress with the
perception of design. It is not therefore at the
end, but at the beginning of our syllogisms, not
among remote conclusions, but among original
principles, that we must place the truth, that
such arrangements, manifestations, and pro-
ceedings as we behold about us imply a Being
endowed with consciousness, design, and will,
from whom they proceed.
This is inevitably the mode in which such a
conviction is acquired ; and that it is so, we
may the more readily believe, when we con-
sider that it is the case with the design and will
which we ascribe to man, no less than in that
which we believe to exist in God. At first
sight we might perhaps be tempted to say, that
we infer design and purpose from the works of
man in one case, because we have known these
attributes in other cases produce effects in some
FINAL CAUSES. 345
measure similar. But to this we must reply,
by asking how we come to know the existence
of human design and purpose at first, and at
all ? What we see around us are certain ap-
pearances, things, successions of events ; how
come we ever to ascribe to other men the
thought and will of which we are conscious our-
selves ? How do we come to believe that there
are other men ? How are we led to elevate, in
our conceptions, some of the objects which we
perceive into persons ? Undoubtedly their ac-
tions, their words induce us to do this : we see
that the manifestations which we observe must
be so understood, and no otherwise : we feel
that such actions, such events must be con-
nected by consciousness and personality ; that
the actions are not the actions of things, but of
persons ; not necessary and without significance,
like the falling of a stone, but voluntary and
with purpose like what we do ourselves. But
this is not a result of reasoning : we do not infer
this from any similar case which we have
known ; since we are now speaking of the first
conception of a will and purpose different from
our own. In arriving at such knowledge, we
are aided only by our own consciousness of
what thought, purpose, will, are : and possess-
ing this regulative principle, we so decypher
and interpret the complex appearances which
surround us, that we receive irresistiblv the
346 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
persuasion of the existence of other men, with
thought and will and purpose like our own.
And just in the same manner, when w T e examine
attentively the adjustment of the parts of the
human frame to each other and to the elements,
the relation of the properties of the earth to
those of its inhabitants, or of the physical to the
moral nature of' man, the thought must arise
and cling to our perceptions, however little it
be encouraged, that this system, everywhere so
full of wonderful combinations, suited to the
preservation, and well-being of living creatures,
is also the expression of the intention, wisdom,
and goodness of a personal creator and go-
vernor.
We conceive then that it is so far from being
an unsatisfactory or unphilosophical process by
which we collect the existence of a Deity from
the works of creation, that the process corres-
ponds most closely with that on which rests the
most steadfast of our convictions, next to that of
our own existence, the belief of the existence of
other human beings. If any one ever went so
far in scepticism as to doubt the existence of
any other person than himself, he might, so far
as the argument from final causes is concerned,
reject the being of God as well as that of man ;
but without dwelling on the possibility of such
fantasies, when we consider how impossible it
is for men in general not to attribute per-
FINAL CAUSES, 347
sonality, purpose, thought, will to each other,
in virtue of certain combinations of appearances
and actions, we must deem them most con-
sistent and reasonable in attributing also per-
sonality and purpose to God, in virtue of the
whole assemblage of appearances and actions
which constitute the universe, full as it is of
combinations from which such a suggestion
springs. The vividness, the constancy of the
belief of a wise and good Being, thus governing
the world, may be different in different men, ac-
cording to their habit of directing their thoughts
to the subject ; but such a belief is undoubtedly
capable of becoming lively and steadfast in the
highest degree. It has been entertained and
cherished by enlightened and well-regulated
minds in all ages ; and has been, at least since
the rise of Christianity, not only the belief, but
a pervading and ruling principle of action of
many men, and of whole communities. The
idea may be rendered more faint by turning the
mind away from it, and, perhaps by indulging
too exclusively in abstract and general specula-
tions. It grows stronger by an actual study of
the details of the creation ; and, as regards the
practical consequences of such a belief, by a
habit of referring our actions and hopes to such
a Governor. In this way it is capable of becom-
ing as real and fixed an impression as that of a
human friend and master ; and all that we can
348 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
learn, by observing the course of men's feelings
and actions, tends to convince us, that this be-
lief of the being and presence and government
of God, leads to the most elevated and beneficial
frame of mind of which man is capable.
2. How natural and almost inevitable is this
persuasion of the reality of Final Causes and
consequent belief in the personality of the Deity,
we may gather by observing how constantly it
recurs to the thoughts, even of those who, in
consequence of such peculiarities of mental dis-
cipline as have been described, have repelled
and resisted the impression.
Thus, Laplace, of whom we have already
spoken, as one of the greatest mathematicians of
modern times, expresses his conviction that the
supposed evidence of final causes will disappear
as our knowledge advances, and that they only
seem to exist in those cases where our ignorance
leaves room for such a mistake. " Let us run
over," he says, " the history of the progress of
the human mind and its errors : we shall per-
petually see final causes pushed away to the
bounds of its knowledge. These causes, which
Newton removed to the limits of the solar
system, were not long ago conceived to obtain
in the atmosphere, and employed in explaining
meteors : they are, therefore, in the eyes of the
philosopher nothing more than the expression of
the ignorance in which we are of the real
causes."
FINAL CAUSES. 349
We may observe that we have endeavoured
to give a very different, and, as we believe, a
far truer view of the effect which philosophy
has produced on our knowledge of final causes.
We have shown, we trust, that the notion of
design and end is transferred by the researches
of science, not from the domain of our know-
ledge to that of our ignorance, but merely from
the region of facts to that of laws. We hold
that, hi this form, final causes in the atmos-
phere are still to be conceived to obtain, no less
than in an earlier state of meteorological know-
ledge ; and that Newton was right, when he be-
lieved that he had established their reality in
the solar system, not expelled them from it.
But our more peculiar business at present is
to observe that Laplace himself, in describing
the arrangements by which the stability of the
solar system is secured, uses language which
shows how irresistibly these arrangements sug-
gest an adaptation to its preservation as an end.
If in his expressions we were to substitute the
Deity for the abstraction "nature" which he
employs, his reflexion would coincide with that
which the most religious philosopher would en-
tertain. " It seems that ' God' has ordered
everything in the heavens to ensure the duration
of the planetary system, by views similar to
those which He appears to us so admirably to
follow upon the earth, for the preservation of
350 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
animals and the perpetuity of species.* This
consideration alone would explain the disposi-
tion of the system, if it were not the business of
the geometer to go further." It may be pos-
sible for the geometer to go further ; but he
must be strangely blinded by his peculiar pur-
suits, if, when he has discovered the mode in
which these views are answered, he supposes
himself to have obtained a proof that there are
no views at all. It would be as if the savage,
who had marvelled at the steady working of
the steam-engine, should cease to consider it
a work of art, as soon as the self-regulating
part of the mechanism had been explained to
him.
The unsuccessful struggle in which those per-
sons engage, who attempt to throw off the im-
pression of design in the creation, appears in an
amusing manner through the simplicity of the
ancient Roman poet of this school. Lucretius
maintains that the eye was not made for seeing,
nor the ear for hearing. But the terms in which
he recommends this doctrine show how hard he
knew it to be for men to entertain such an
opinion. His advice is —
* II semble que la nature ait tout dispose dans le ciel,
pour assurer la duree du systeme planetaire, par des vues
semblables a celles qu'elle nous parait suivre si admirable-
ment sur la terre, pour la conservation des individus et la
perpetuite des especes. — Sysl, du, Monde, p. 442.
FINAL CAUSES. 351
Illud in his rebus vitium vehementer et istum
Effugere errorem, vitareque prameditator,
Lumina ne facias oculorum clara creata,
Prospicere ut possimus. iv. 823.
'Gainst their preposterous error guard thy mind
Who say each organ was for use design'd ;
Think not the visual orbs, so clear, so bright,
Were furnish'd for the purposes of sight.
Undoubtedly the poet is so far right, that a
most "vehement" caution and vigilant "pre-
meditation" are necessary to avoid the " vice
and error" of such a persuasion. The study of
the adaptations of the human frame is so con-
vincing, that it carries the mind with it, in
spite of the resistance suggested by speculative
systems. Cabanis, a modern French physio-
logical writer of great eminence, may be se-
lected as a proof of this. Both by the general
character of his own speculations, and by the
tone of thinking prevalent around him, the con-
sideration of design in the works of nature was
abhorrent from his plan. Accordingly, he joins
in repeating Bacon's unfavourable mention of
final causes. Yet when he comes to speak of
the laws of reproduction of the human race, he
appears to feel himself compelled to admit the
irresistible manner in which such views force
themselves on the mind. " I regard," he says,
" with the great Bacon, the philosophy of final
causes as barren ; but I have elsewhere ac-
352 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
knowledged that it was very difficult for the
most cautious man (l'homme le plus reserve)
never to have recourse to them in his explana-
tions."*
3. It may be worth our while to consider for
a moment the opinion here referred to by
Cabanis, of the propriety of excluding the con-
sideration of final causes from our natural phi-
losophy. The great authority of Bacon is
usually adduced on this subject. " The hand-
ling of final causes," says he, " mixed with the
rest in physical enquiries, hath intercepted the
severe and diligent enquiry of all real and phy-
sical causes, and given men the occasion to
stay upon these satisfactory and specious causes,
to the great arrest and prejudice of farther dis-
covery." t
A moment's attention will show how well this
representation agrees with that which we have
urged, and how far it is from dissuading the
reference to final causes in reasonings like those
on which Ave are employed. Final causes are
to be excluded from physical enquiry ; that is,
we are not to assume that we know the objects
of the Creator's design, and put this assumed
purpose in the place of a physical cause. We
are not to think it a sufficient account of the
clouds that they are for watering the earth, (to
* Rapports du Physique et du Moral de l'Homme, i. 299.
t De Augment. Sc. ii. 105.
FINAL CAUSES. 353
take Bacon's examples,) or "that the solidness
of the earth is for the station and mansion of
living creatures." The physical philosopher
has it for his business to trace clouds to the laws
of evaporation and condensation ; to determine
the magnitude and mode of action of the forces
of cohesion and crystallization by which the
materials of the earth are made solid and firm.
This he does, making no use of the notion of
final causes : and it is precisely because he has
thus established his theories independently of
any assumption of an end, that the end, when,
after all, it returns upon him and cannot be
evaded, becomes an irresistible evidence of an
intelligent legislator. He finds that the effects,
of which the use is obvious, are produced by
most simple and comprehensive laws ; and when
he has obtained this view, he is struck by the
beauty of the means, by the refined and skilful
manner in which the useful effects are brought
about ; — points different from those to which his
researches were directed. We have already
seen, in the very case of which we have been
speaking, namely, the laws by which the clouds
are formed and distribute their showers over
the earth, how strongly those who have most
closely and extensively examined the arrange-
ments there employed (as Howard, Dalton, and
Black) have been impressed with the harmony
and beauty which these contrivances manifest.
We may find a further assertion of this view
w. A A
354 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
of the proper use of final causes in philosophy,
by referring to the works of one of the greatest
of our philosophers, and one of the most pious
of our writers, Boyle, who has an Essay on this
subject. "I am by all means," says he, "for
encouraging the contemplation of the celestial
part of the world, and the shining globes that
adorn it, and especially the sun and moon, in
order to raise our admiration of the stupendous
power and wisdom of him who was able to
frame such immense bodies ; and notwithstand-
ing their vast bulk and scarce conceivable rapi-
dity, keep tbem for so many ages constant both
to the lines and degrees of their motion, with-
out interfering with one another. And doubt-
less we ought to return thanks and praises to
the divine goodness for having so placed the
sun and moon, and determined the former, or
else the earth, to move in particular lines for
the good f men aiK \ other animals : and how
disadvantageous it would have been to the inha-
bitants of the earth if the luminaries had moved
after a different manner. I dare not, however,
affirm that the sun, moon, and other celestial
bodies were made solely for the use of man :
much less presuvie to prove one system of the
world to be true and another false ; because the
former is better fitted to the convenience of
mankind, or the other less suited, or perhaps
altogether useless to that end."
This passage exhibits, we conceive, that com-
FINAL CAUSES. 355
bination of feelings which ought to mark the
character of the religious natural philosopher ;
an earnest piety ready to draw nutriment from
the contemplation of established physical truths ;
joined with a philosophical caution, which is not
seduced by the anticipation of such contem-
plations, to pervert the strict course of physical
enquiry.
It is precisely through this philosophical care
and scrupulousness that our views of final
causes acquire their force and value as aids to
religion. The object of such views is not to
lead us to physical truth, but to connect such
truth, obtained by its proper processes and me-
thods, with our views of God, the master of the
universe, through those laws and relations which
are thus placed beyond dispute.
Bacon's comparison of final causes to the
vestal virgins is one of those poignant sayings,
so frequent in his writings, which it is not easy
to forget. ''Like them," he says, "they are
dedicated to God, and are barren." But to
any one who reads his work it will appear in
what spirit this was meant. " Not because
those final causes are not true and worthy to be
inquired, being kept within their own pro-
vince." (Of the Advancement of Learning, b.
ii. p. 142.) If he had had occasion to cleve-
lope his simile, full of latent meaning as his
similes so often are, he would probably have
said, that to these final causes barrenness was
356 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
no reproach, seeing they ought to be, not the
mothers but the daughters of our natural sci-
ences ; and that they were barren, not by imper-
fection of their nature, but in order that they
might be kept pure and undefiled, and so fit
ministers in the temple of God.
Chapter VIII.
On the Physical Agency of the Deity.
^E are not to expect that physical inves-
tigation can enable us to conceive the
manner in which God acts upon the members
of the universe. The question, " Canst thou by
searching find out God ? " must silence the
boastings of science as well as the repinings of
adversity. Indeed, science shows us, far more
clearly than the conceptions of every day reason,
at what an immeasurable distance we are from
any faculty of conceiving how the universe, ma-
terial and moral, is the work of the Deity. But
with regard to the material world, we can at
least go so far as this ; — we can perceive that
events are brought about, not by insulated in-
terpositions of divine power exerted in each
particular case, but by the establishment of
general laws. This, which is the view of the
AGENCY OF THE DEITY. 357
universe proper to science, whose office it is to
search out these laws, is also the view which,
throughout this work, we have endeavoured to
keep present to the mind of the reader. We
have attempted to show that it combines itself
most readily and harmoniously with the doc-
trines of Natural Theology ; that the arguments
for those doctrines are strengthened, the difficul-
ties which affect them removed, by keeping it
steadily before us. We conceive, therefore, that
the religious philosopher will do well to bear
this conception in his mind. God is the author
and governor of the universe through the laws
which he has given to its parts, the properties
which he has impressed upon its constituent
elements : these laws and properties are, as we
have already said, the instruments with which
he works : the institution of such laws, the
selection of the quantities which they involve,
their combination and application, are the modes
in which he exerts and manifests his power, his
wisdom, his goodness : through these attributes,
thus exercised, the Creator of all, shapes, moves,
sustains and guides the visible creation.
This has been the view of the relation of the
Deity to the universe entertained by the most
sagacious and comprehensive minds ever since
the true object of natural philosophy has been
clearly and steadily apprehended. The great
writer who was the first to give philosophers a
distinct and commanding view of this object,
358 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
thus expresses himself in his " Confession ot
Faith :" "I believe— that notwithstanding God
hath rested and ceased from creating since the
first Sabbath, yet, nevertheless, he doth accom-
plish and fulfil his divine will in all things,
great and small, singular and general, as fully
and exactly by providence, as he could by mi-
racle and new creation, though his working be
not immediate and direct, but by compass ; not
violating Nature, which is his own law upon the
creature."
And one of our own time, whom we can no
longer hesitate to place among the worthiest dis-
ciples of the school of Bacon, conveys the same
thought in the following passage : " The Divine
Author of the universe cannot be supposed to
have laid down particular laws, enumerating all
individual contingencies, which his materials
have understood and obey — this would be to
attribute to him the imperfections of human le-
gislation ; — but rather, by creating them endued
with certain fixed qualities and powers, he has
impressed them in their origin with the spirit,
not the letter of his law, and made all their sub-
sequent combinations and relations inevitable
consequences of this first impression." *
2. This, which thus appears to be the mode
of the Deity's operation in the material world,
requires some attention on our part in order to
* Herschel on the Study of Nat. Phil. Art. 27.
AGENCY OF THE DEITY. 359
understand it with proper clearness. One rea-
son of this is, that it is a mode of operation
altogether different from that in which we are
able to make matter fulfil our designs. Man
can construct exquisite machines, can call in
vast powers, can form extensive combinations,
in order to bring about results which he has in
view. But in all this he is only taking advan-
tage of laws of nature which already exist ; he
is applying to his use cpialities which matter
already possesses. Nor can he by any effort
do more. He can establish no new law of na-
ture which is not a result of the existing ones.
He can invest matter with no new properties
which are not modifications of its present attri-
butes. His greatest advances in skill and power
are made when he calls to his aid forces which
before existed unemployed, or when he dis-
covers so much of the habits of some of the
elements as to be able to bend them to his pur-
pose. He navigates the ocean by the assistance
of the winds which he cannot raise or still :
and even if we suppose him able to control the
course of these, his yet unsubjugated ministers,
this could only be done by studying their cha-
racters, by learning more thoroughly the laws
of air and heat and moisture. He cannot give
the minutest portion of the atmosphere new
relations, a new course of expansion, new laws
of motion. But the Divine operations, on the
other hand, include something much higher.
360 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
They take in the establishment of the laws of
the elements, as well as the combination of
these laws and the determination of the distri-
bution and quantity of the materials on which
they shall produce their effect. We must con-
ceive that the Supreme Power has ordained that
air shall be rarefied, and water turned into
vapour, by heat ; no less than that he has com-
bined air and water so as to sprinkle the earth
with showers, and determined the quantity of
heat and air and water, so that the showers
shall be as beneficial as they are.
We may and must, therefore, in our concep-
tions of the Divine purpose and agency, go
beyond the analogy of human contrivances.
We must conceive the Deity, not only as con-
structing the most refined and vast machinery,
with which, as we have already seen, the uni-
verse is filled ; but we must also imagine him
as establishing those properties by which such
machinery is possible : as giving to the mate-
rials of his structure the qualities by which the
material is fitted to its use. There is much to
be found, in natural objects, of the same kind of
contrivance which is common to these and to hu-
man inventions ; there are mechanical devices,
operations of the atmospheric elements, che-
mical processes , — many such have been pointed
out, many more exist. But besides these cases
of the combination of means, which we seem
able to understand without much difficulty, we
AGENCY OF THE DEITY. 361
are led to consider the Divine Being as the
author of the laws of chemical, of physical, and
of mechanical action, and of such other laws
as make matter what it is ; — and this is a view
which no analogy of human inventions, no
knowledge of human powers, at all assist us to
embody or understand. Science, therefore, as
we have said, while it discloses to us the mode
of instrumentality employed by the Deity, con-
vinces us, more effectually than ever, of the
impossibility of conceiving God's actions by
assimilating them to our own.
3. The laws of material nature, such as we
have described them, operate at all times, and
in all places ; affect every province of the uni-
verse, and involve every relation of its parts.
Wherever these laws appear, we have a mani-
festation of the intelligence by which they were
established. But a law supposes an agent, and
a power ; for it is the mode according to which
the agent proceeds, the order according to which
the power acts. Without the presence of such
an agent, of such a power, conscious of the
relations on which the law depends, producing
the effects which the law prescribes, the law can
have no efficacy, no existence. Hence we infer
that the intelligence by which the law is or-
dained, the power by which it is put in action,
must be present at all times and in all places
where the effects of the law occur ; that thus
the knowledge and the agency of the Divine
362 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
Being pervade every portion of the universe,
producing all action and passion, all perma-
nence and change. The laws of nature are the
laws which he, in his wisdom, prescribes to his
own acts ; his universal presence is the ne-
cessary condition of any course of events, his
universal agency the only origin of any efficient
force.
This view of the relation of the universe to
God has been entertained by many of the most
eminent of those who have combined the con-
sideration of the material world with the con-
templation of God himself. It may therefore
be of use to illustrate it by a few quotations,
and the more so, as we find this idea remark-
ably dwelt upon in the works of that writer
whose religious views must always have a pe-
culiar interest for the cultivators of physical
science, the great Newton.
Thus, in the observations on the nature of the
Deity with which he closes the " Opticks," he
declares the various portions of the world, or-
ganic and inorganic, " can be the effect of
nothing else than the wisdom and skill of a
powerful ever-living Agent, who being in all
places, is more able by his will to move the
bodies within his boundless uniform sensorium,
and thereby to form and reform the parts of
the universe, than we are by our will to move
the parts of our own bodies." And in the
Scholium at the end of the " Principia," he
AGENCY OF THE DEITY. 363
says, " God is one and the same God always
and everywhere. He is omnipresent, not by
means of his virtue alone, but also by his sub-
stance, for virtue cannot subsist without sub-
stance. In him all things are contained, and
move, but without mutual passion : God is not
acted upon by the motions of bodies ; and they
suffer no resistance from the omnipresence of
God." And he refers to several passages con-
firmatory of this view, not only in the Scrip-
tures, but also in writers who hand down to us
the opinions of some of the most philosophical
thinkers of the pagan world. He does not dis-
dain to quote the poets, and among the rest, the
verses of Virgil ;
Principio coelum ac terras camposque liquentes
Lucentemque globum lunae, Titaniaque astra,
Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet :
warning his reader however against the doctrine
which such expressions as these are sometimes
understood to express : " All these things he
rules, not as the soul of the world, but as the
Lord of all."
Clarke, the friend and disciple of Newton, is
one of those who has most strenuously put for-
wards the opinion of which we are speaking,
" All things which we commonly say are the
effects of the natural powers of matter and laws
of motion, are indeed (if we will speak strictly
364 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
and properly,) the effects of God's acting upon
matter continually and at every moment, either
immediately by himself, or mediately by some
created intelligent being. Consequently there
is no such thing as the cause of nature, or the
power of nature," independent of the effects
produced by the will of God.
Dugald Stewart has adopted and illustrated
the same opinion, and quotes with admiration
the well-known passage of Pope, concerning the
Divine Agency, which
" Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent."
Mr. Stewart, with no less reasonableness than
charity, asserts the propriety of interpreting
such passages according to the scope and spirit
of the reasonings with which they are con-
nected ; * since, though by a captious reader
they might be associated with erroneous views
of the Deity, they may be susceptible of a more
favourable construction ; and we may often see
in them only the results of the necessary im-
perfection of our language, when we dwell
upon the omnipresence and universal activity
of God.
Finally, we may add that the same opinions
still obtain the assent of the best philosophers
* Phil, of Act. and Moral Powers, i. 373.
AGENCY OF THE DEITY. 365
and divines of our time. Sir John Herschel
says, (Discourse on the Study of Natural Phi-
losophy, p. 37.) " We would no way be un-
derstood to deny the constant exercise of His
direct power in maintaining the system of na-
ture ; or the ultimate emanation, of every energy
which material agents exert, from his immediate
will, acting in conformity with his own laws."
And the Bishop of London, in a note to his
" Sermon on the duty of combining religious
instruction with intellectual culture," observes,
" the student in natural philosophy will find
rest from all those perplexities which are occa-
sioned by the obscurity of causation, in the sup-
position, which although it was discredited by
the patronage of Malebranche and the Carte-
sians, has been adopted by Clarke and Dugald
Stewart, and which is by far the most simple
and sublime account of the matter ; that all the
events which are continually taking place in the
different parts of the material universe, are the
immediate effects of the divine agency."
366
Chapter IX.
On the Impression produced by considering the
Nature and Prospects of Science ; or, on the
Impossibility of the Progress of our Knowledge
ever enabling us to comprehend the Nature of
the Deity.
IF we were to stop at the view presented
in the last chapter, it might be supposed
that — by considering God as eternal and omni-
present, conscious of all the relations, and of all
the objects of the universe, instituting laws
founded on the contemplation of these relations,
and carrying these laws into effect by his im-
mediate energy, — we had attained to a concep-
tion, in some degree definite, of the Deity, such
as natural philosophy leads us to conceive him.
But by resting in this mode of conception, we
should overlook, or at least should disconnect
from our philosophical doctrines, all that most
interests and affects us in the character of the
Creator and Preserver of the world ; — namely,
that he is the lawgiver and judge of our actions ;
the proper object of our prayer and adoration ;
the source from which we may hope for moral
strength here, and for the reward of our obedi-
INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 367
ence and the elevation of our nature in another
state of existence.
We are very far from believing that our phi-
losophy alone can give us such assurance of
these important truths as is requisite for our
guidance and support ; but we think that even
our physical philosophy will point out to us the
necessity of proceeding far beyond that con-
ception of God, which represents him merely as
the mind in which reside all the contrivance,
law, and energy of the material world. We
believe that the view of the universe which
modern science has already opened to us, com-
pared with the prospect of what she has still to
do in pursuing the path on which she has just
entered, will show us how immeasurably inade-
quate such a mode of conception would be :
and that if we take into our account, as we
must in reason do, all that of which we have
knowledge and consciousness, and of which Ave
have as yet no systematic science, we shall be
led to a conviction that the Creator and Pre-
server of the material world must also contain
in him such properties and attributes as imply
his moral character, and as fall in most con-
sistently with all that we learn in any other
way of his providence and holiness, his justice
and mercy.
1. The sciences which have at present ac-
quired any considerable degree of completeness,
are those in which an extensive and varied coi
368 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
lection of phenomena, and their proximate
causes, have been reduced to a few simple ge-
neral laws. Such are Astronomy and Me-
chanics, and perhaps, so far as its physical con-
ditions are concerned, Optics. Other portions
of human knowledge can be considered as per-
fect sciences, in any strict sense of the term,
only when they have assumed this form ; when
the various appearances which they involve are
reduced to a few principles, such as the laws of
motion and the mechanical properties of the
luminiferous ether. If we could trace the end-
less varieties of the forms of crystals, and the
complicated results of chemical composition, to
some one comprehensive law necessarily point-
ing out the crystalline form of any given che-
mical compound, Mineralogy would become an
exact science. As yet, however, we can scarcely
boast of the existence of any other such sciences
than those which we at first mentioned : and so
far therefore as we attempt to give definiteness
to our conception of the Deity, by considering
him as the intelligent depositary and executor
of laws of nature, we can subordinate to such a
mode of conception no portion of the creation,
save the mechanical movements of the universe,
and the propagation and properties of light.
2. And if we attempt to argue concerning the
nature of the laws and relations which govern
those provinces of creation whither our science
has not yet reached, by applying some analogy
INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 369
borrowed from cases where it has been success-
ful, we have no chance of obtaining any except
the most erroneous and worthless guesses. The
history of human speculations, as well as the
nature of the objects of them, shows how cer-
tainly this must happen. The great generaliza-
tions which have been established in one depart-
ment of our knowledge, have been applied in
vain to the purpose of throwing light on the
other portions which still continue in obscurity.
When the Newtonian philosophy had explained
so many mechanical facts, by the two great
steps, — of resolving the action of a whole mass
into the actions of its minutest particles, and
considering these particles as centres of force, —
attempts were naturally soon made to apply the
same mode of explanation to facts of other dif-
ferent kinds. It was conceived that the whole
of natural philosophy must consist in investiga-
ting the laws of force by which particles of dif-
ferent substances attracted and repelled, and
thus produced motions, or vibrations to and from
the particles. Yet what were the next great
discoveries in physics ? The action of a galva-
nic wire upon a magnet ; which is not to attract
or repel it, but to turn it to the right and left ; to
produce motion, not to or from, but transverse
to the line drawn to the acting particles ; and
again, the undulatory theory of light, in which
it appeared that the undulations must not be
longitudinal, as all philosophers, following the
W. B B
370 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
analogy of all cases previously conceived, had,
at first, supposed them to be, but transverse to
the path of the ray. Here, though the step from
the known to the unknown was comparatively
small, when made conjecturally it was made in
a direction very wide of the truth. How im-
possible then must it be to attain in this manner
to any conception of a law which shall help us
to understand the whole government of the uni-
verse !
3. Still, however, in the laws of the lumini-
ferous ether, and of the other fluid, (if it be an-
other fluid) by which galvanism and magnetism
are connected, we have something approaching
nearly to mechanical action, and, possibly, here-
after to be identified with it. But we cannot
turn to any other part of our physical know-
ledge, without perceiving that the gulf which
separates it from the exact sciences is yet wider
and more obscure. Who shall enunciate for us,
and in terms of what notions, the general law
of chemical composition and decomposition ?
sometimes indeed we give the name of attraction
to the affinity by which we suppose the particles
of the various ingredients of bodies to be aggre-
gated ; but no one can point out any common
feature between this and the attractions of which
alone we know the exact effects. He who shall
discover the true general law of the forces by
which elements form compounds, will probably
advance as far beyond the discoveries of Newton,
INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 371
as Newton went beyond Aristotle. But who
shall say in what direction this vast flight shall
be, and what new views it shall open to us of
the manner in which matter obeys the laws of
the Creator ?
4. But suppose this flight performed ;— we are
yet but at the outset of the progress which must
carry us towards Him : we have yet to begin
to learn all that we are to know concerning the
ultimate laws of organized bodies. What is the
principle of life ? What is the rule of that action
of which assimilation, secretion, developement,
are manifestations? and which appears to be
farther removed from mere chemistry than chem-
istry is from mechanics. And what again is the
new principle, as it seems to be, which is ex-
hibited in the irritability of an animal nerve ?
the existence of a sense ? How different is this
from all the preceding notions ! No efforts can
avoid or conceal the vast but inscrutable chasm.
Those theorists, who have maintained most
strenuously the possibility of tracing the pheno-
mena of animal life to the influence of physical
agents, have constantly been obliged to suppose
a mode of agency altogether different from any
yet known in physics. Thus Lamarck, one of
the most noted of such speculators, in describing
the course of his researches, says, " I was soon
persuaded that the internal sentiment constituted
a power which it was necessary to take into
account. " And Bichat, another writer on the
372 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
same subject, while he declares his dissent from
Stahl, and the earlier speculators, who had re-
ferred everything in the economy of life to a
single principle, which they call the anima, the
vital principle, and so forth, himself introduces
several principles, or laws, all utterly foreign to
the region of physics : namely, organic sensibi-
lity, organic contractility, animal sensibility,
animal contractility , and the like. Supposing
such principles really to exist, how far enlarged
and changed must our views be before we can
conceive these properties, including the faculty
of perception, which they imply, to be produced
by the will and power of one supreme Being,
acting by fixed laws. Yet without conceiving
this, we cannot conceive the agency of that
Deity who is incessantly thus acting, in count-
less millions of forms and modes.
How strongly then does science represent God
to us as incomprehensible ! his attributes as un-
fathomable ! His power, his wisdom, his good-
ness, appear in each of the provinces of nature
which are thus brought before us ; and in each,
the more we study them, the more impressive,
the more admirable do they appear. When then
we find these qualities manifested in each of so
many successive ways, and each manifestation
rising above the preceding by unknown degrees,
and through a progression of unknown extent,
what other language can we use concerning such
attributes than that they are infinite ? What
INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 373
mode of expression can the most cautious philo-
sophy suggest, other than that He, to whom we
thus endeavour to approach, is infinitely wise,
powerful, and good ?
5. But with sense and consciousness the his-
tory of living things only begins. They have
instincts, affections, passions, will. How entirely
lost and bewildered do we find ourselves when
we endeavour to conceive these faculties com-
municated by means of general laws ! Yet they
are so communicated from God, and of such laws
he is the lawgiver. At what an immeasurable
interval is he thus placed above every thing
which the creation of the inanimate world alone
would imply ; and how far must he transcend all
ideas founded on such laws as we find there !
6. But we have still to go further and far
higher. The world of reason and of morality is
a part of the same creation, as the world of
matter and of sense. The will of man is swayed
by rational motives ; its workings are inevitably
compared with a rule of action ; he has a con-
science which speaks of right and wrong. These
are laws of man's nature no less than the laws of
his material existence, or his animal impulses.
Yet what entirely new conceptions do they in-
volve ? How incapable of being resolved into,
or assimilated to, the results of mere matter, or
mere sense ! Moral good and evil, merit and
demerit, virtue and depravity, if ever they are
the subjects of strict science, must belong to a
374 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
science which views these things, not with refe-
rence to time or space, or mechanical causation,
not with reference to fluid or ether, nervous
irritability or corporeal feeling, but to their own
proper modes of conception ; with reference to
the relations with which it is possible that these
notions may be connected, and not to relations
suggested by other subjects of a completely ex-
traneous and heterogeneous nature. And ac-
cording to such relations must the laws of the
moral world be apprehended, by any intelli-
gence which contemplates them at all.
There can be no wider interval in philosophy
than the separation which must exist between
the laws of mechanical force and motion, and
the laws of free moral action. Yet the tendency
of men to assume, in the portions of human
knowledge which are out of their reach, a simi-
larity of type to those with which they are fami-
liar, can leap over even this interval. Laplace
has asserted that " an intelligence which, at a
given instant, should know all the forces by
which nature is urged, and the respective situa-
tion of the beings of which nature is composed,
if, moreover, it were sufficiently comprehensive
to subject these data to calculation, would in-
clude in the same formula, the movements of the
largest bodies of the universe and those of the
slightest atom. Nothing would be uncertain to
such an intelligence, and the future, no less
than the past, would be present to its eyes." If
INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 375
we speak merely of mechanical actions, this may,
perhaps, be assumed to be an admissible repre-
sentation of the nature of their connexion in the
sight of the supreme intelligence. But to the
rest of what passes in the world, such language
is altogether inapplicable. A formula is a brief
mode of denoting a rule of calculating in which
numbers are to be used : and numerical mea-
sures are applicable only to things of which the
relations depend on time and space. By such
elements, in such a mode, how are we to esti-
mate happiness and virtue, thought and will?
To speak of a formula with regard to such things,
would be to assume that their laws must needs
take the shape of those laws of the material world
which our intellect most fully comprehends. A
more absurd and unphilosophical assumption we
can hardly imagine.
We conceive, therefore, that the laws by
which God governs his moral creatures, reside
in his mind, invested with that kind of gene-
rality, whatever it be, of which such laws are
capable ; but of the character of such general
laws, we know nothing more certainly than
this, that it must be altogether different from
the character of those laws which regulate the
material world. The inevitable necessity of
such a total difference is suggested by the
analogy of all the knowledge which we possess
and all the conceptions which we can form.
And, accordingly, no persons, except those
376 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
whose minds have been biassed by some pe-
culiar habit or course of thought, are likely to
run into the confusion and perplexity which
are produced by assimilating too closely the
government and direction of voluntary agents
to the production of trains of mechanical and
physical phenomena. In whatever manner vo-
luntary and moral agency depend upon the
Supreme Being, it must be in some such way
that they still continue to bear the character of
will, action, and morality. And, though too
exclusive an attention to material phenomena
may sometimes have made physical philoso-
phers blind to this manifest difference, it has
been clearly seen and plainly asserted by those
who have taken the most comprehensive views
of the nature and tendency of science. " I
believe," says Bacon, in his Confession of Faith,
" that, at the first the soul of man was not pro-
duced by heaven or earth, but was breathed
immediately from God : so that the ways and
proceedings of God with spirits are not included
in nature ; that is in the laws of heaven and
earth ; but are reserved to the law of his secret
will and grace ; wherein God worketh still, and
resteth not from the work of redemption, as he
resteth from the work of creation ; but con-
tinueth working to the end of the world." We
may be permitted to observe here, that, when
Bacon has thus to speak of God's dealings
with his moral creatures, he does not take his
INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 377
phraseology from those sciences which can offer
none but false and delusive analogies ; but helps
out the inevitable scantiness of our human know-
ledge, by words borrowed from a source more
fitted to supply our imperfections. Our na-
tural speculations cannot carry us to the ideas
of 'grace' and 'redemption;' but in the wide
blank which they leave, of all that concerns our
hopes of the Divine support and favour, the
inestimable knowledge which revelation, as we
conceive, gives us, finds ample room and appro-
priate place.
7. Yet even in the view of our moral constitu-
tion which natural reason gives, we may trace
laws that imply a personal relation to our Crea-
tor. How can we avoid considering that as a
true view of man's being and place, without
which, his best faculties are never fully de-.
veloped, his noblest energies never called out,
his highest point of perfection never reached ?
Without the thought of a God over all, super-
intending our actions, approving our virtues,
transcending our highest conceptions of good,
man would never rise to those higher regions of
moral excellence which we know him to be
capable of attaining. " To deny a God," again
says the great philosopher, " destroys mag-
nanimity and the raising of human nature ; for
take an example of a dog, and mark what a
generosity and courage he will put on, when he
finds himself maintained by a man ; who, to
378 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
him, is instead of a God, or melior natura :
which courage is manifestly such, as that crea-
ture, without that confidence of a better nature
than his own, could never attain. So man, when
he resteth and assureth himself upon divine pro-
tection and favour, gathereth a force and faith,
which human nature could not obtain. There-
fore, as atheism is in all respects hateful, so in
this, that it depriveth human nature of the means
to exalt itself above human frailty."*
Such a law, then, of reference to a Supremely
Good Being, is impressed upon our nature, as
the condition and means of its highest moral
advancement. And strange indeed it would be
if we should suppose, that in a system where all
besides indicates purpose and design, this law
should proceed from no such origin ; and no
less inconceivable, that such a law, purposely
impressed upon man to purify and elevate his
nature, should delude and deceive him.
8. Nothing remains, therefore, but that the
Creator, who, for purposes that even we can see
to be wise and good, has impressed upon man
this disposition to look to him for support, for
advancement, for such happiness as is reconcile-
able with holiness ; — this tendency to believe
him to be the union of all perfection, the highest
point of all intellectual and moral excellence ;—
is in reality such a guardian and judge, such a
* Bacon. Essay on Atheism.
INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 379
good, and wise, and perfect Being, as we thus
irresistibly conceive him. It would indeed be
extravagant to assert that the imagination of the
creature, itself the work of God, can invent a
higher point of goodness, of justice, of holiness,
than the Creator himself possesses : that the
Eternal Mind, from whom our notions of good
and right are derived, is not himself directed
by the rules which these notions imply.
It is difficult to dwell steadily on such
thoughts : but they will at least serve to con-
firm the reflexion which it was our object to
illustrate ; namely, how incomparably the na-
ture of God must be elevated above any con-
ceptions which our natural reason enables us to
form : and we have been led to these views, it
will be recollected, by following the clue of
which science gave us the beginning. The
Divine Mind must be conceived by us as the
seat of those laws of nature which we have dis-
covered. It must be no less the seat of those
laws which we have not yet discovered, though
these may and must be of a character far dif-
ferent from anything we can guess. The Su-
preme Intelligence must therefore contain the
laws, each according to their true dependance,
of organic life, of sense of animal impulse, and
must contain also the purpose and intent for
which these powers were put in play. But the
Governing Mind must comprehend also the
laws of the responsible creatures which the
380 RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
■world contains, and must entertain the purposes
for which their responsible agency was given
them. It must include these laws and purposes,
connected by means of the notions, which re-
sponsibility implies, of desert and reward, of
moral excellence in various degrees, and of
well-being as associated with right doing. Ail
the laws which govern the moral world are ex-
pressions of the thought and intentions of our
Supreme Ruler. All the contrivances for moral
no less than for physical good, for the peace of
mind, and other rewards of virtue, for the eleva-
tion and purification of individual character, for
the civilization and refinement of states, their
advancement in intellect and virtue, for the dif-
fusion of good, and the repression of evil ; all
the blessings that wait on perseverance and
energy in a good cause ; on unquenchable love
of mankind, and unconquerable devotedness to
truth ; on purity and self-denial ; on faith, hope,
and charity ; — all these things are indications of
the character, will, and future intentions of that
God, of whom we have endeavoured to track
the footsteps upon earth, and to show his han-
diwork in the heavens. "This God is our God,
for ever and ever." And if, endeavouring to
trace the plan of the vast labyrinth of laws by
which the universe is governed, we are some-
times lost and bewildered, and can scarcely, or
not at all, discern the lines by which pain, and
sorrow, and vice fall in with a scheme directed
INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 381
to the strictest right and greatest good, we yet
find no room to faint or falter ; knowing that
these are the darkest and most tangled recesses
of our knowledge ; that into them science has as
yet cast no ray of light ; that in them reason
has as yet caught sight of no general law by
which we may securely hold : while, in those
regions where we can see clearly, where science
has thrown her strongest illumination upon the
scheme of creation ; where we have had dis-
played to us the general laws which give rise to
all the multifarious variety of particular facts ;
—we find all full of wisdom, and harmony, and
beauty : and all this wise selection of means,
this harmonious combination of laws, this beau-
tiful symmetry of relations, directed, with no
exception which human investigation has yet
discovered, to the preservation, the diffusion,
the well-being of those living things, which,
though of their nature we know so little, we
cannot doubt to be the worthiest objects of the
Creator's care.
C. WHITTl.NGHAM, TOOKS COCRT, CHANCERY LANE.
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sistently expounded than we have ever seen it before. We give the work onr
hearty recommendation."— Gentleman's Magazine.
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