Half Hours With Modern Scientists: Lectures and EssaysTyndall, John
Philosophy
Half Hours With Modern Scientists: Lectures and Essays
Tyndall, John
Science
The above observations have been confined to the Indo-European race.
It may be objected to the theory that savagery means immaturity in
the senses above described, as dependent largely on
“impressibility,” while savages in general display the least
“impressibility,” as that word is generally understood. This cannot
be asserted of the Africans, who, so far as we know them, possess
this peculiarity in a high degree. Moreover, it must be remembered
that the state of indifference which precedes that of impressibility
in the individual may characterize many savages; while their varied
peculiarities may be largely accounted for by recollecting that many
combinations of different species of emotions and kinds of
intelligence go to make up the complete result in each case.
(_d._) _Conclusions._ Three types of religion may be selected from
the developmental conditions of man: first, an absence of
sensibility (early infancy); second, an emotional stage more
productive of faith than of works; thirdly, an intellectual type,
more favorable to works than to faith. Though in regard to
responsibility these states may be equal, there is absolutely no
gain to laboring humanity from the first type, and a serious loss in
actual results from the second, taken alone, as compared with the
third.
These, then, are the _physical vehicles of religion_—the “_earthen
vessels_” of Paul—which give character and tone to the deeper
spiritual life, as the color of the transparent vessel is
communicated to the light which radiates from within.
But if evolution has taken place, there is evidently a provision for
the progress from the lower to the higher states, either in the
education of circumstances (“conflict,”) or in the power of an
interior spiritual influence “harmony,”) or both.
_β. Evidence Derived from History._
We trace the development of Morality in—First, the family or social
order; second, the civil order, or government.
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