The Whence and the Whither of Man / A Brief History of His Origin and Development through Conformity to Environment; Being the Morse Lectures of 1895

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Whence and the Whither of Man, by John Mason Tyler
Being the Morse Lectures of 1895
PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, AMHERST COLLEGE
Morse Lectures
1893—THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN MODERN THEOLOGY. By Rev. A.M. Fairbairn, D.D. 8vo, $2.50
1894—THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN. By Rev. William Elliot Griffis, D.D. 12mo, $2.00.
1895—THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN. By Professor John M. Tyler. 12mo, $1.75.
In the year 1865 Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, to whom the world is indebted for the application of the principles of electro-magnetism to telegraphy, gave the sum of ten thousand dollars to Union Theological Seminary to found a lectureship in memory of his father, the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., theologian, geographer, and gazetteer. The subject of the lectures was to have to do with The relations of the Bible to any of the sciences. The ten chapters of this book correspond to ten lectures, eight of which were delivered as Morse Lectures at Union Theological Seminary during the early spring of 1895. The first nine chapters appear in form and substance as they were given in the lectures, except that Chapters VI. and VII. were condensed in one lecture. Chapter X. is new, and I have not hesitated to add a few paragraphs wherever the argument seemed especially to demand further evidence or illustration.
One of my friends, reading the title of these lectures, said: Of man's origin you know nothing, of his future you know less. I fear that many share his opinion, although they might not express it so emphatically.
It would seem, therefore, to be in order to show that science is now competent to deal with this question; not that she can give a final and conclusive answer, but that we can reach results which are probably in the main correct. We may grant very cheerfully that we can attain no demonstration; the most that we can claim for our results will be a high degree of probability. If our conclusions are very probably correct, we shall do well to act according to them; for all our actions in life are suited to meet the emergencies of a probable but uncertain course of events.