Consolations in Travel; or, the Last Days of a PhilosopherDavy, Humphry, Sir
Philosophy
Consolations in Travel; or, the Last Days of a Philosopher
Davy, Humphry, Sir
Chemists -- Great Britain -- Biography; Davy, Humphry, Sir, 1778-1829
_Phil_.--Your history of the laws of the inevitable destruction of
material forms recalls to my memory our discussion at Adelsberg. The
changes of the material universe are in harmony with those which belong
to the human body, and which you suppose to be the frame or machinery of
the sentient principle. May we not venture to imagine that the visible
and tangible world, with which we are acquainted by our sensations, bears
the same relation to the Divine and Infinite Intelligence that our organs
bear to our mind, with this only difference, that in the changes of the
divine system there is no decay, there being in the order of things a
perfect unity, and all the powers springing from one will and being a
consequence of that will, are perfectly and unalterably balanced. Newton
seemed to apprehend, that in the laws of the planetary motions there was
a principle which would ultimately be the cause of the destruction of the
system. Laplace, by pursuing and refining the principles of our great
philosopher, has proved that what appeared sources of disorder are, in
fact, the perfecting machinery of the system, and that the principle of
conservation is as eternal as that of motion.
_The Unknown_.--I dare not offer any speculations on this grand and awful
subject. We can hardly comprehend the cause of a simple atmospheric
phenomenon, such as the fall of a heavy body from a meteor; we cannot
even embrace in one view the millionth part of the objects surrounding
us, and yet we have the presumption to reason upon the infinite universe
and the eternal mind by which it was created and is governed. On these
subjects I have no confidence in reason, I trust only to faith; and, as
far as we ought to inquire, we have no other guide but revelation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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