Without making any further quotations, it must be evident to the reader that the succession of great philosophers through whom mankind have been led to the knowledge of the greatest of scientific truths, the law of universal gravitation, did, for their parts, see the truths which they disclosed to men in such a light that their religious feelings, their reference of the world to an intelligent Creator and Preserver, 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 knowledge of the motions of the solar system, we shall adduce a few other passages, illustrating the prevalence of the same fact in other departments 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 employed in experimentally establishing the principles peculiarly belonging to the doctrine of fluids, Pascal and Boyle are two of the most eminent names. That these two great philosophers were not only religious, but both of them remarkable for their fervent and pervading devotion, is too well known to be dwelt on. With regard to Pascal, however, we ought not perhaps to pass over an opinion of his, that the existence of God cannot be proved from the external 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 because such knowledge without Jesus Christ is useless and steril.” 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 example 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.”[35]
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 government of the world. Many of these dissertations convey trains of thought and reasoning which have never been surpassed 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 “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 conspicuous that even a superficial philosopher may thence infer that the author of such works must 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 discern. 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 counsel, and excellent in working.’”
After the mechanical properties of fluids, the laws of the operation of the chemical and physical properties of the elements about us, offer themselves to our notice. The relations of heat and of moisture in particular, which play so important 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 operations 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 atmosphere. With regard to the former of these philosophers, we shall quote Dr. Thomson’s account of the views which the laws of latent heat suggested to the discoverer.[36] “Dr. Black quickly perceived the vast importance of this discovery, and took a pleasure in laying before his students 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 accumulated in the water, which by gradually emerging 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 reflections, after pointing out the laws which regulate the balance of evaporation and rain,[37] which he himself first clearly explained. “It is scarcely possible,” says he, “to contemplate without admiration 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 irresistibly 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 brought to pass. To dwell upon or develope such reflections is not here our business. Their general prevalence in the minds of those to whom these first views of new truths are granted, has been, we trust, sufficiently illustrated. Nor are the names adduced above, distinguished as they are, brought forwards 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 of other men’s, imperfect, perverted, unprofitable. But on this one point, the tendency of our advances in scientific knowledge of the universe 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.
[CHAPTER VI.]
On Deductive Habits;
or, on the Impression produced on Men’s Minds by tracing the consequences of ascertained Laws.