126 FAITH AND THE ATOMIC THEORY sure that there really is such a thing as the objective energy 'heat,' whatever that unimaginable entity may really be."1 There is nothing in religion which taxes our faith more than does the atomic theory in chemistry. Yet our scientists cannot dispense with that theory, can find no substitute for it whatever. Without it true chemistry would be impossible, with it we can solve all the problems which it presents. Yet no man hath seen an atom at any time nor ever will. An ultimate atom can neither be seen, touched, heard, nor tasted, yet every man of science believes in the atom. Here, then, the senses have failed us, experience yields to faith. We do not on this account cease to reason about atoms, indeed because they are far beyond the region of sense they are for that very reason more exalted in our science. Theory is more important to us than bare fact. We say they are eternal, unchangeable, and a man may well add with Browning-" The mere atoms despise me." 2 Descartes imagined a certain distinguishable entity distinct from the life of the body, and inhabiting the brain either in what is termed by anatomists the pineal gland, or some other definite locality, and this he held to be devoted exclusively to thought. No physiologist now believes 1 On Truth, by St. George Mivart M.D. F.R.S., p. 430 2 Saul. THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUL 127 anything of the sort, and this is all they mean when they tell us that they cannot find the soul by the scalpel or test-tube. But the soul as "the unifying principle," which combines and regulates all the processes of life, which unites physiological, chemical, and mental energies into one harmonious and personal whole, cannot be denied. The existence of the body has been denied by idealists; the soul, the thinking principle, cannot be denied, because "the very act of denying it implicitly affirms its existence." 1 But, objects the sceptic, if you cannot tell us what the soul is, where it hides, or how we can prove its existence scientifically, at least we must ask you to tell us at what stage of our existence it begins to be? Whence its origin? How is it infused into the organism, and by whom? We can answer none of these questions, yet we are not abashed, for with Browning we "believe in soul and are very sure of God," though neither our physiology nor our mathematics have aught to do with our belief. Let us hear what one of the greatest German thinkers has to tell us on the matter. "No necessity of reason constrains us," says Lotze,2" to shun the thought of the beginning of the soul. The organic body, in process of being formed, certainly does not educe it from itself; 1 See Mivart, On Truth, p. 390. 2 Mikrokosmus, vol. i., p. 390. 128 but the living body itself is no incoherent heap of atoms driven to a particular development by a universal law, in an otherwise empty world. As, on the contrary, every physical process, even the most minute, apparently taking place between the elements is likewise an event within the Eternal, on whose constant presence all possibility of action depends, even so the quietlyadvancing formation of the organic germ is no isolated independent event, but a development of the Infinite itself. Fostered by it, received by it into its own inner being, this natural event there excites the creative power to new development; and as our human soul receives stimuli from without and answers them by the production of a sensation, so the consistent unity of the Infinite Being lets itself be stimulated by this internal event of physical development to produce out of itself the soul appropriate to the growing organism." OUR SOULS AND THE INFINITE The soul has been well described as that side of our Nature by which we are in contact with the Infinite." Thus it is that nothing short of the Infinite can ever satisfy the soul of man. "Only soul affords the soul fit pabulum” "Mind seeks to see, Touch, understand, by mind inside of me, 1 Parleyings with Bernard de Mandeville. MAN'S PREROGATIVE TO IGNORE 129 God, as the Soul of the World, acts upon our souls immediately, and from within the mind inside us is in immediate relationship to the Divine Mind. "Truth," says Paracelsus "Is within ourselves; it takes no rise ... There is an inmost centre in us all, Soul is beyond Sense. Soul demands to know whence spring outward things-how, when, and why Sense is content to enjoy them without asking to know at all.2 This restless craving for knowledge, says Browning, is just that which differentiates the immortal soul of man from the mind of inferior creatures. They know all that is necessary for their perfection, for they are all, from insect up to elephant, perfect in their order— "Man's the prerogative-knowledge once gainedTo ignore,-find new knowledge to press for ; " 3 and so speed onward through ignorance. The imperfection of man here, and his very ignorance about which fools whine, are used by Browning as proofs that "Man partly is and wholly hopes to be "; partly knows, and will approximate to God in knowledge, as "to its asymptote speedeth the curve." 1 Paracelsus. 2. Parleyings with Gerard de Lairesse. 3 Parleyings with Fust and his Friends. K 130 MAN'S REGAL IMPERFECTION "What height, what depth," he asks, "has escaped God's commandment to Know ?" Not a vein of metal in its bed of ore that obeys not the law to know its precise work, not a crystal which forgets the laws it is bound to obey, not a plant is in default how to bud and branch forth. No bird nor beast hesitates to assault or fly, as its safety demands. There is neither worm nor fly but follows the guidance of the light given to it. "All know, none is ignorant." The special portion, scant or ample, of the knowledge necessary for each is walled round, although all is blank one hair's-breadth beyond. ignores, thanks to God who made him know, and in the act of knowing discover a limitless vastness of knowledge beyond him to enter, traverse, have, and hold.1 Man's regal position consists, therefore, in his present imperfection. "Let the mere star-fish in his vault Rose-jacynth to the finger-tips; He, whole in body and soul, outstrips Man, found with either in default. But what's whole, can increase no more, Is dwarfed and dies, since here's its sphere." 2 Man Man's divine origin, his noble personality, and his immortal destiny may be proved from that passionate desire for truth which always and 1 Parleyings with Fust and his Friends. 2 Dis Aliter Visum: Dramatis Personæ. |