characters which in later ages appear disconnected in different types, . .
. the parallelism between the gradation among animals and the changes they
undergo during their growth, . . . the relations existing between these
different series and the geographical distribution of animals, . . . the
connection of all the known features of Nature into one system--"
In a word, the whole relations of animals, etc., to surrounding Nature and
to each other, are regarded under the one view as ultimate facts, or in the
ultimate aspect, and interpreted theologically; under the other as complex
facts, to be analyzed and interpreted scientifically. The one naturalist,
perhaps too largely assuming the scientifically unexplained to be
inexplicable, views the phenomena only in their supposed relation to the
Divine mind. The other, naturally expecting many of these phenomena to be
resolvable under investigation, views them in their relations to one
another, and endeavors to explain them as far as he can (and perhaps
farther) through natural causes.
But does the one really exclude the other? Does the investigation of
physical causes stand opposed to the theological view and the study of the
harmonies between mind and Nature? More than this, is it not most
presumable that an intellectual conception realized in Nature would be
realized through natural agencies? Mr. Agassiz answers these questions
affirmatively when he declares that "the task of science is to investigate
what has been done, to inquire if possible how it has been done, rather
than to ask what is possible for the Deity, since we can know that only by
what actually exists;" and also when he extends the argument for the
intervention in Nature of a creative mind to its legitimate application in
the inorganic world; which, he remarks, "considered in the same light,
would not fail also to exhibit unexpected evidence of thought, in the
character of the laws regulating the chemical combinations, the action of
physical forces, etc., etc." [I-6] Mr. Agassiz, however, pronounces that
"the connection between the facts is only intellectual"--an opinion which
the analogy of the inorganic world, just referred to, does not confirm, for
there a material connection between the facts is justly held to be
consistent with an intellectual--and which the most analogous cases we can
think of in the organic world do not favor; for there is a material
connection between the grub, the pupa, and the butterfly, between the
tadpole and the frog, or, still better, between those distinct animals
which succeed each other in alternate and very dissimilar generations. So
that mere analogy might rather suggest a natural connection than the
contrary; and the contrary cannot be demonstrated until the possibilities of
Nature under the Deity are fathomed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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