Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 12: Little Journeys to the Homes of Great ScientistsHubbard, Elbert
Science
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 12: Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Scientists
Hubbard, Elbert
Scientists -- Biography
Agassiz died in his sins, unconvinced unrepentant, refusing the rite of
extreme unction that Asa Gray offered him, his sensitive spirit writhing
at mention of the word "Darwin." On his tomb, Clio with moving finger
has carved one of his own sentences, nor all your tears shall blot a
line of it. And these are the words of Agassiz: "Darwinism seeks to
dethrone God, and replace Him by a blind force called the Law of
Evolution." So passed away the great soul of Louis Agassiz.
Fiske has been called the Huxley of America; but Fiske was like Agassiz
in this, he never had the felicity to achieve the ill-will of the many.
Fiske has also been called the Drummond of America, but Fiske was really
a Henry Drummond and a Louis Agassiz rolled into one, the mass well
seasoned with essence of Huxley. John Fiske made the science of Darwin
and Wallace palatable to orthodox theology, and it is to the earnest and
eloquent words of Fiske that we owe it that Evolution is taught
everywhere in the public schools and even in the sectarian colleges of
America today.
The almost universal opposition to Darwin's book arose from the idea
that its acceptance would destroy the Christian religion. This was the
plaintive plea put forth when Newton advanced his discovery of the Law
of Gravitation, and also when Copernicus proclaimed the movements of the
earth: these things were contrary to the Bible! Copernicus was a loyal
Catholic; Sir Isaac Newton was a staunch Churchman; but both kept their
religion in water-tight compartments, so that it never got mixed with
their science. Gladstone never allowed his religion to tint his
statesmanship, and we all know businessmen who follow the double-entry
scheme.
That famous French toast, "Here's to our wives and sweethearts--may they
never meet!" would suit most lawyers just as well if expressed this way.
"Here's to our religion and our business--God knows they never meet."
To Sir Isaac Newton, religion was something to be believed, not
understood. He left religion to the specialists, recognizing its value
as a sort of police protection for the State, and as his share in the
matter he paid tithes, and attended prayers as a matter of patriotic
duty and habit.
Voltaire recognized the greatness of Newton's intellect, but he could
not restrain his aqua fortis, and so he said this: "All the scientists
were jealous of Newton when he discovered the Law of Gravitation, but
they got even with him when he wrote his book on the Hebrew Prophecies!"
Newton wrote that book in his water-tight compartment.
But Newton was no hypocrite. The attitude of the Primrose Sphinx who
bowed his head in the Church of England Chapel--the Jew who rose to the
highest office Christian England had to offer--and repeated Ben Ezra's
prayer, was not the attitude of Newton. Darwin waived religion, and if
he ever heard of the Bible no one knew it from his writings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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