Page images
PDF
EPUB

those that think, such a tragedy to those that feel;' its pages are so sadly, incomprehensibly grotesque !"* And again he observes that our greatest thinkers have lived and died in sorrow because "they could arrive only at conclusions, both in speculation and in actual life, from which it was impossible to escape, yet in which it was impossible to rest. Grand capacities, which seemed adequate to the mightiest achievements; inwoven weaknesses which dishonoured those capacities and rendered those achievements hopeless and unattainable; germs and specimens of virtues approaching the Divine and promising a glorious future, yet dashed with imperfections and impurities which seem to hint of a low origin and a still lower destiny; vast steps forward to a lofty goal-recreant backslidings towards the bottomless abyss; ages of progress and enlightenment, followed by ages of darkness. and retrogression; unmistakable indications of a mighty purpose and an ulterior career-undeniable facts which make those indications seem a silly mockery; much to excite the fondest hopes-much to warrant the uttermost despair; beautiful affections, noble aspirations, pure tastes, fine intellects, measureless delights, all the elements of paradise,

'But the trail of the Serpent still over them all.'

And as, from their watch-tower of contemplation, the wise and good have brooded over these baffling contradictions, what marvel that one by one they should have dropped off into the grave,— sorrowing, and wondering if, peradventure, behind the great black veil of death they might find the key to the mysteries which saddened their noble spirits upon earth." Now the believer finds the key to these baffling contradictions behind the 'great black veil' of Sin; but do not these representations of human nature and life fully accredit that Scriptural story of our primitive and essential grandeur, and of that tragical fall which has introduced into our being such profound and painful discords? Is not Mr. Greg's representation of the mingled grandeur and griefs of human life, of the mingled splendour and shame of human nature, an oleograph from the old Hebrew masters, full of unconscious orthodoxy ?

We proceed to consider another topic in connection with this subject of human depravity, namely, Its hereditary nature. The Scriptures teach that the depravation of our race is inherited from our first ancestors. This doctrine has long been scouted, by all free-thinkers vehemently denied. But what says sceptical science

[ocr errors]

"Enigmas of Life." Fourth Edit., p. 192. † Ibid., pp. 137, 138.

VOL. XXII.-FIFTH SERIES.

D

to this doctrine of inherited evil,-of evil inherited from remotest ancestors? The science of Genesis has recently received peculiar attention, and, as one writer observes, "has greatly increased our knowledge of the potentiality of the hereditary law." In other words, it has given large sanction to the Scriptural doctrine. Darwin writes thus :-"No breeder doubts how strong is the tendency to inheritance: like produces like is his fundamental belief: doubts have been thrown on this principle by theoretical writers alone.......Perhaps the correct way of viewing the whole subject, would be, to look at the inheritance of every character whatever as the rule, and non-inheritance as the anomaly." And again :"The chief part of the organization of every being is simply due to inheritance."* In Mr. Darwin's theory, it will be remembered, all this is as true of man as of the other animals. And this influential school not only contends for the transmissibility of physical peculiarities, but also for the transmission of psychical, intellectual, and moral peculiarities. Dr. W. B. Carpenter, writing on "The hereditary transmission of acquired psychical habits," says, "Believing as I do, that the future advance of Psychology will depend in great measure upon the sagacity and fearlessness with which the principle of evolution is pushed forward, I am desirous of showing that the doctrine of the embodiment in the constitution of one generation, of congenital tendencies to certain forms of Psychical action, which are the resultants of the experience of previous generations, has a sound Physiological basis."† And again, in the same article:-"Thus much may be confidently affirmed, that where general constitutional taints have been acquired, these tend to propagate themselves hereditarily; and that they do so with the most certainty when both parents partake of them." (P. 298.) In the same Review he continues:-"When a series of physical sequences comes to be established by the habitual action of the cerebrum in particular modes directed or permitted by the will, is it not consonant to all physiological probability that the tendency to similar sequences should be hereditarily transmitted, like the tendency to bodily habits?" And again :-" The experiences of those who, like Hartley Coleridge, have inherited the craving for alcoholic excitement, together with the weakness of will which makes them powerless to resist it, whilst all their better nature prompts the struggle, must satisfy any one who carefully weighs them, how closely connected their psychical state is with the physical constitution which they inherit, and how small is their own moral responsibility for errors which are mainly attributable

* "Origin of Species," pp. 12, 13.

t "Contemporary Review," January, 1873, p. 295.

to the vices of their progenitors."* Mr. George Darwin, in an article on "Beneficial restrictions to liberty of marriage," asserts, concerning modern scientific doctrines, "They go to show that our mental, as well as our bodily structure, is the direct outcome of that of preceding generations, and that we, the living generation, are like the living fringe of the coral reef resting on an extinct basis afforded by our forefathers, and shall in our own turn form a basis for our descendants. We are now beginning to realise that the members of a society form a whole, in which the constituents are but slightly more independent than are the individual cells of an organic being."t

Mr. John Stuart Mill writes in precisely the same strain :"After the first few terms of the series, the influence exercised over each generation by the generation which preceded it, becomes (as is well observed by M. Comte) more and more preponderant over all other influences, until at length what we now are and do is in a very small degree the result of the universal circumstances of the human race, or even of our own circumstances acting through the original qualities of our species, but mainly of the qualities produced in us by the whole previous history of humanity." Mr. Greg speaks of "the fearfully rigid laws of hereditary transmission," and "grants without reserve that moral qualities are at least as transmissible by inheritance as physical ones." Professor O. W. Holmes, who has written largely in favour of this theory of inheritance in our popular literature, quaintly illustrates the position thus:-"Each of us is only the footing up of a double column of figures that goes back to the first pair. I do not mean to say that something may not be added by nature to make up for losses and keep the race to its average, but we are mainly nothing but the answer to a long sum in addition and subtraction." And in another work of the Professor's, philosophy speaks in humour, and declares, “That every man is an omnibus, in which all his ancestors ride." Finally, a champion of this school, writing in "Temple Bar," emphatically affirms :"There is absolutely no limit to this law of material and immaterial heredity. The physical defects, the physical beauty; the meanness of spirit, the nobility of soul; all things that make us petty and despicable, all that make us wise and excellent-are alike to be derived through this channel."

Now, it is quite true that much in these evolutionist statements

Contemporary Review," January, 1873, p. 300.

† Ibid., August, 1873, p. 412.

"System of Logic," vol. ii., p. 506. Fifth Edit.

will not meet with the approbation of Christian theologians, the fact being, that in the foregoing extracts we have another illustration of our position that when heresy does become orthodox it becomes extravagantly so, and, overleaping itself, falls on the other side. Yet it is impossible to overlook the fact that the most influential schools of modern science give to the Scriptural doctrine of inherited evil their fullest sanction. The Pelagian theory, which taught that original sin was a fiction; that entailed corruption was in defiance of reason and common-sense; that inherited proclivities to evil were impossible; that each man born into the world was pure and free as Adam was when created, and in a no less advantageous position, this theory, which Deism has stoutly maintained for generations, is entirely given up by the scientific Deists of our own day; who insist on the solidarity of the race; that the race is a vast organism in which the individual is but a cell, and that the thought and action of the most ancient tenants of the globe largely modifies the character of their most distant posterity. Mr. Darwin's philosophy of inheritance is so much unconscious or undesigned orthodoxy, and if, for palpable reasons, the Christian Church hesitates to accept the "Origin of Species as an orthodox commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, yet that famous book will, at least, declare to all the future that the doctrine of hereditary corruption is not what it was long declared to be, abhorrent to the philosophic mind.

[ocr errors]

Let us now turn to the Christian doctrine of The manifestation of God in Christ, and observe its unconscious vindicators. Deism long maintained that the Divine existence and character were fully declared by nature, and that consequently there was no necessity for the Christian Revelation. God was as transparent as a logical or mathematical truth. But we have witnessed a great change in anti-Christian philosophy. The old Deism has given place to Agnosticism. It is considered illogical to deny the existence of an Ultimate Cause, and it is considered equally illogical to affirm anything concerning that Cause.

1. The new philosophy will not affirm the existence of the Ultimate Cause. His existence is probable, some would say highly probable; but yet it must remain in reality a conjecture, and no one must be found fault with for rejecting it. Thus Mr. W. R. Greg speaks: The question-when stated with the perfect unreserve which alone befits it-lies in small compass. Of actual knowledge we have simply nothing. Those who believe in a Creative Spirit and Ruler of the Universe are forced to admit that they can adduce no proofs or arguments cogent enough to compel conviction from sincere minds constituted in another mould......Neither doctrine

(Deism or Atheism) can be proved or disproved-the votaries of neither are entitled to insist upon imposing their conviction upon others, on the plea of its demonstrability."* And a Unitarian writer speaks in a similar strain :-" The hypothesis of a Creator is one which is obviously incapable of proof, and is more and more likely to be recognised as being so. It is on this side, perhaps, that Theism has most felt a damaging influence from the growth of physical science, and the establishment and recognition of material laws of development."†

2. And if the existence of a First Cause be admitted, as a working hypothesis, we are altogether unable to speculate upon its nature and attributes. We can assign to the First Cause no attributes whatever; it is absolutely unknown and unknowable. Thus Herbert Spencer speaks in his "First Principles: "_"The power which the universe manifests to us is utterly inscrutable.” (P. 45.) "The reality underlying appearances is totally and for ever inconceivable to us." (P. 98.) Of the First Cause we can form no image, gather no real knowledge; He is, and ever must be, an "inscrutable fact or power behind all the intelligible phenomena of nature." Thus, then, the most "advanced" philosophy of our age declares that we cannot ignore God, and with equal emphasis affirms that we cannot know Him. The human heart and reason cry out for Him; but the heart and intelligence are incompetent to realise Him. We are again compelled to build an altar, and, having built it, to write upon it, "To the Unknown God." Mr. Spencer feels as Job felt, impelled to seek God, and yet unable to discover Him. "O that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments... Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him: on the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him: He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him." (Job xxiii. 3, 4, 8, 9.) But, let us now ask, Is not all this in accordance with the Christian scheme? is it not really, so far as it goes, evangelical orthodoxy? God was inaccessible, incomprehensible, unknown, and unknowable, and therefore Christ came to make Him known. Is not this the doctrine of the New Testament? "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." (John i. 18.) "Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast

"Enigmas of Life." Fourth Edit., p. vi.
"Theological Review," April, 1874, p. 181.

« PreviousContinue »