Chapter 3

Science deals only with matters of sense, It has nothing to do with a mere pretence. 'Tis one thing to say, that the soul survives, And another to say that a cat has nine lives; But I do not say the one or the other, Nor affirm nor deny that the monkey's my brother. I've nothing to say of angels or sprites, Or the spooks that appear in the darkest of nights. For if we can't see them, nor chase them nor tree them, They can't be detected, nor caught and dissected, So science must be mum--and I, too, am dumb.

6. J. P. LESLEY, State Geologist of Pennsylvania, an ex-Reverend.

Science knows nothing about this matter, But fancy may come to talk and flatter. And as all mankind in this agree, There's a future life for you and for me. Let science slide; we'll go with the tide, Uplift ourselves above the sod, And claim to be a part of God; Though God extends through time and space, While man, alas! soon ends his race, And whether he lives his own life again Or is lost in the infinite, I do not think plain.

7. LESTER F. WARD, A.M., of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington.

As for immortal life, I must confess, Science hath never, never answered "yes." Indeed all psycho-physical sciences show, If we'd be logical, we must answer no! Man cannot recollect before being born, And hence his future life must be "in a horn." There must be _parte ante_, if there's a _parte post_, And logic thus demolishes every future ghost. Upon this subject the voice of science Has ne'er been ought but stern defiance. Mythology and magic belong to "_limbus fatuorum_" If fools believe them, we scientists deplore 'em But, nevertheless, the immortal can't be lost, For every atom has its bright eternal ghost.

8. EDWARD MORSE, Ph.D., of Salem.

That immortality which Science denies Cannot be admitted by those who are wise, For if we give up and concede Immortality, There's nothing to check its wide Universality. The toad-stool and thistle, the donkey and bear Must live on forever,--the Lord knows where. I tell you, dear sir, that Science must wake up And grapple these spooks to crush them, and break up This world of delusion of Phil. D's and D.D's, Who are all in the dark, as dear Huxley agrees, Proud Huxley's "The Prince of Agnostics," you see, And Huxley and I do sweetly agree.

9. PROF. JOSIAH PARSONS COOKE, LL.D. of Harvard University.

I freely confess that the life of the dead Is a mystery alike to the heart and the head Of all the mortals that dwell on earth, Although revealed since our Saviour's birth, And I fully believe in the old-fashioned God, Who, walking in Eden, made man of a clod; And I fully believe the same Deity still Controls all things, here by the fiat of will.

10. EDWARD D. COPE, A.M., Ph.D., author of "Theology of Evolution." Dr. Cope answers in a very voluminous and intricate manner, but the following is the essence of his answer.

Of life eternal little can we know, And yet we hope some glimmerings may grow, By patient inference as facts appear. I hope there's something coming near. Science but sees extinction in our death, And life the incident of fleeting breath. We travel round the ologies to see Naught but a grand revolving mystery; But then if we have a controlling mind, Why should not God have the same kind? "Kinetogenesis" was ruled by will, The conscious thought goes with it still, And as conscious thought erst "ruled the roast," Why may it not become a ghost? But as ghosts are like a vapor mixed, All speculation is lost betwixt The possible this, and the possible that, And so philosophy falls flat.

11. SIR JOHN WILLIAM DAWSON, LL.D., F.R.S., Principal of McGill University, Montreal.

We are bound to believe in eternal life, 'Tis an instinct which in humanity's rife, Of savages, some have been found so low, As neither a God or a heaven to know; If civilized men sink down to their level, They are on the highway to the realms of the Devil.

12. J. STERRY HUNT, LL.D., F.R.S.

In a terrible hurry, I cannot say much, But Science, I think, opposes all such Belief in the future. But God is so great, I accept what he gives as my future state.

13. WILLIAM JAMES, M.D., Prof. Philosophy, Harvard University.

I can only say my philosophy floats In the German life-boat of Prof. Lotze, At one opinion we both arrive, That all who ought to will survive.

14. BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD, LL.D., Astronomer, Cambridge.

My faith is firm, but I have no time To explain it all in this tuneful rhyme. Science cannot say much, I fear, But must admit that God is here, And if the priests would let us alone, Perhaps a little more might be known. Spirit is fact, and this I assume, For Matter is nothing but solid Gloom.

15. ALFRED R. WALLACE, the compeer of Darwin.

Spiritual science has told the whole story Of the claims of mankind to realms of glory. Our facts are abundant, harmonious and true, They satisfy me and should satisfy you. No baseless hypothesis shapes our knowledge, No dogmatic rule derived from a college, As we fearless explore the worlds unseen, And learn what all their mysteries mean. The science we study is truly Divine, They only reject it who are mentally blind.

16. THOMAS HILL, D.D., LL.D., Ex-President of Harvard.

As for life after death, a life without breath, Though science says no, I don't think it's so, For 'tis well understood our God is too good To create us and cherish, and then let us perish.

17. PROF. ASAPH HALL, LL.D., of the National Observatory, Washington.

Metaphysics and science are still our reliance, Taking them for our guide, we can't quite decide, But as we incline, a doctrine we find.

18. PROF. ELLIOTT COUES, M.D., Ph.D., Scientist and Theosophist.

I think that science is bound to answer Every question that comes to hand, sir. Then why do some scientists fail to acknowledge Discoveries made outside of their college? There's a reason for all things that come to pass, And no man likes to be proved an ass; And hence they refuse to agree with St. Paul, The spiritual body is all in all.

19. HERBERT SPENCER, British Philosopher, as reported by Rev. M. J. Savage.

'Tis all in a muddle we cannot make out, Nor does evolution diminish the doubt; The facts that we get prove very refractory, And I cannot find anything quite satisfactory.

20. PROF. CHARLES S. PIERCE, A.M., of Johns Hopkins University, (a voluminous reply).

I've looked this question through and through, But for future life the prospect's blue. Psychic Researchers have gathered up much, But it crumbles to dust beneath my touch. 'Tis nothing but rubbish that Society brings, For the ghosts they have found are the stupidest things, Poor "starveling" idiots, all of that ilk, Who are coming back here to cry over "spilled milk." Serenely we smile at "the lamp of Aladdin," And stories of ghosts about this world gadding. Yet after all, I don't believe in Spencer, In Kant or in Comte, or in any of them, sir; Nor in Christendom's sacred and reverend creed, Though weaklings adopt it because they have need; But I believe in this world's events, And a life regulated by common sense.

21. DANIEL COIT GILMAN, LL.D., President of Johns Hopkins University.

Man hath soul-freedom here on earth, And from Almighty God hath birth; Therefore, should stand in faith sublime, And fear no science of our time.

22. F. A. P. BARNARD, President of Columbia College, New York.

Your question stands outside of science, Of any science that is mine, The only doctrine worth reliance, Comes from the old Bible--Still Divine.

23. PROF. T. HUXLEY, British Philosopher, etc.

If a soul works with brains, can it work without? Would seem to be a matter somewhat in doubt. If you know that it can, pray tell me why? If you know that it can't, you know more than I. You may answer such questions if you know how, But I'll not wait a moment to hear you now!

THE BURNING QUESTION IN EDUCATION.

If our left hand had been mangled, and continued to be an inflamed, ulcerating mass, though carried in a sling and treated by all the surgeons of repute around us,--never through a long life giving any promise of restoration or even relief,--would not its restoration be the most prominent question in our minds?

Society has a crushed, ulcerous, and painful hand upon which the doctors of the college and church have expended such skill as they have in their occasional perfunctory visits, and the hand grows no better, but rather worse, during the whole existence of the American Republic.

The existence of an increasing mass of crime, pauperism, and insanity is the crushed and diseased hand of civilized society, to which and to its obvious, natural method of healing I have vainly endeavored, in the "New Education," to call the attention of our clergy and our teachers. It is true that three editions of that book have been disposed of to the delight of progressive thinkers, but it has made little impression on those who control public institutions and public opinion. Why is this?

There are sounds in nature too finely delicate to be heard by the average ear, and rays beyond the violet too fine for the average human eye, though visible to those of superior nervous endowments. So in the world of thought there are ethical conceptions too high and pure for the multitude,--conceptions so far away from their habitual life that they cannot appreciate or sympathize with them. Such conceptions constitute the ethical system of education, which is competent to banish crime, and to introduce a higher social condition, as has been amply proved by its imperfect introduction in the Lancaster, Ohio, and other reformatory schools.

Why is not this made the prominent theme in every religious society, as prominent as temperance? True, intemperance supplies us the majority of criminals, but when the criminal is prepared in the hot-bed of alcohol, society transplants him into a richer soil, impregnated with a greater amount of filth than the saloon, and cultivates him into the full-blown, hardened villain, for whom there is nothing but a career of crime, very costly indeed to society.

Why is this insane course pursued? Because society has not the Christianity which it professes, and the pulpit has not learned how to instil the Divine law of love, while the college cares nothing about it.

Society itself is _criminally indifferent_, and barbarously cruel. Its only thought in reference to its debased members is not their lost condition, and how to redeem them, but how to punish them revengefully for their evil deeds, in imitation of the Divine Demon whom orthodox theology recognizes as its model. Until society has enough of benevolence or enough of practical sagacity to get rid of this common impulse of brute life, we shall continue to have an energetic, skilful, and formidable army of criminals, spread all over the land, levying an immense tax upon respectable citizens, and requiring an increasing army of police to restrain them.

The best discourse that has yet been preached in a Boston pulpit was once delivered in Trinity Church by the assistant minister, Mr. Allen, a few weeks since, which was made the basis of an admirable article on "our prisoners" in the _Banner of Light_ of April 2. Mr. Allen treated this subject in the spirit of the "New Education," showing that our penal system, instead of reforming criminals, educates and perfects them in crime, under which system crime is continually and alarmingly increasing, the statistics which he gives being of the same terrible character as those presented in the "New Education," showing that our demoralization is progressing beyond that of any other country. His statistics, which I have not examined in detail, show that there were more than eight times as many prisoners in this country in 1880 as there were in 1850. In Massachusetts, and especially in Boston, the proportion of criminal population was still greater.

England, having adopted a reformatory system, has kept the criminal population in check,--brought it down to one in 18,000, while we have one to every 837, because our prisons are colleges of crime instead of houses of reformation. A criminal population of 5,000 in Massachusetts is kept under this debasing system, excepting about 700 in the reformatory at Concord and the women's prison at Sherburne. Our criminals are held for punishment amid evil influences, and turned out only qualified to prey upon society again, since they have the brand of shame upon them.

The only proper and wholesome view of this subject, the only view compatible with ethical or religious principles, is that our unfortunate criminal brethren need our loving care instead of vindictive hate. They should never be sent to prison for any definite term of confinement, as a punishment, but, like lunatics and pauper patients, should be placed under care and control until they are cured. Every criminal who will not obey the law in freedom should be sent to prison for life, under a kind and humane system, there to earn his own support and in some cases to repay the damage he has done, and in all cases to remain there until he has, beyond all doubt, become so thoroughly reformed that he may be safely entrusted with freedom. To encourage in the work of reformation, he should be from time to time rewarded by enlargement of his privileges and enjoyments, just in proportion as he proves himself worthy; and after enjoying partial freedom for years, with faithful and exemplary deportment, he should be granted full liberty, on the sole condition of reporting himself at certain regular periods, that a supervision may be retained over his conduct, and confinement renewed if ever he should prove unworthy of entire freedom.

This system has been tried with entire success, and travellers speak of seeing prisoners in Ireland half emancipated, working in the fields, whom they should not have distinguished from the common laborers. That courageous philanthropist, the late Burnham Wardwell, adopted a system of moral government in the Virginia penitentiary, under which punishment was almost abolished; and he was able to send out convicts in the city, under paroles, without any doubt that they would faithfully return. Under a similar system at Lancaster, Ohio, walls and locks were made unnecessary, and the youthful convicts went out freely, when permitted to mingle with the neighboring youth. When their reformation was completed, which did not require over three years, they went forth to lead an honest life; and subsequent reports showed that they walked in the path of respectability and honor.

The mother's love never abandons the idiot and criminal; but, alas! society is neither mother nor father nor brother to its unfortunate members, and hence society suffers, as we ever suffer from violation of the Divine law.

MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

BIGOTRY AND LIBERALITY, THEOLOGY AND RELIGION.--Upon these subjects it is customary to find a mingling of contradictions. Leading New England literati, who inherit all the narrowness and self-sufficiency of British conservatism, are frequently impelled to utter expressions which would lead the reader to think them persons of liberal and progressive minds. Such expressions we find in the writings of Dr. Holmes, a thorough medical bigot and sceptic; R. W. Emerson, who closed his eyes against modern spiritual science, and adored the ignorance of Greece; Col. Higginson, the most intolerant and scornful opponent of psychic science; Dr. F. H. Hedge and President Elliot, who represent the status of Harvard College. This was recently brought to mind by seeing the admirable expressions of Dr. Hedge at the 150th anniversary of West Church, Boston, now under the ministry of Rev. C. A. Bartol. For this church Dr. Hedge claims an unsectarian character.

Dr. Hedge says, "Let there be schools of dogmatic theology, as many as you please, but the church should not be a school of dogmatic theology. It should be a school of practical Christianity, inspired, expounded, and enforced by the pulpit. I can conceive of a church which should be so undogmatic, so unpolemic, as to command the respect, engage the interest, and secure the co-operation of all who care less for the prevalence of their specialty than they do for the maintenance of public worship." There is one Boston pulpit at present conducted in this spirit, but it is very feebly sustained. There was another, and it was occupied with brilliant ability, but Boston would not sustain it. It is vacant now. Boston prefers theology to religion, but it is growing slowly, and there are pulpits that are slowly approaching the unsectarian position--very slowly; while the Rev. Mr. J. Savage displays a refreshing freedom of thought, and has been more successful than any other clergyman in carrying a large congregation with him, a solitary specimen of a successful though unsectarian teacher in Boston.

RELIGIOUS NEWS.--"During the past few months, the Chinese authorities in various parts of the empire have issued proclamations to the people, calling on them to live at peace with Christian missionaries and converts, and explaining that the Christian religion teaches men to do right, and should therefore be respected. These documents have been published in so many parts of China that it is probable that every viceroy in the eighteen provinces has received instructions on the subject, and that there is a concerted movement throughout the empire to bring all classes of the population to a knowledge of the dangers of persecuting missionaries and native Christians, and to remove popular delusions respecting the objects and teachings of Christian missionaries."

"The Jesuits appear to meet with little toleration anywhere but in Great Britain. The sultan has now issued a decree enacting that henceforth they are not to open any new schools in the Ottoman empire, that they are not to teach except in schools placed under the authority of the Porte, and that all the schools now conducted by them are placed under the supervision of the State, and must be subjected to a rigorous supervision."

"Divine worship is a somewhat costly affair in Great Britain, says the _World_. The one hour's service in Westminster Abbey on the 21st of June, when the great personages of the realm are to assemble for the purpose of prayer, is to cost the moderate sum of $100,000. Commoners and ordinary people will not be admitted within the portals of the sacred edifice, yet it is their pockets which will be taxed for the purpose of enabling the princes and lords to pray in due state for the preservation of the Queen."

"The monument to the memory of Giordano Bruno in Rome, is completed, but permission to erect it has been refused by the Municipal Council of that holy city. This denial is easily explained when it is learned that a majority of the council are clergymen, or under their influence."

Governor Marmaduke has signed the bill recently passed by the Missouri legislature, making Sunday virtually a Puritanical Sabbath. A powerful protest was presented to the Governor, respectfully requesting him not to sign the obnoxious bill, but it seems he yielded, says the _Jewish Times_, to the wishes of a few fanatics, backed by scheming politicians.

ABOLISHING SLAVERY.--It is pleasant to learn that the movement in favor of abolishing slavery in Brazil is making excellent progress, despite some discouragements. Long ago the Legislature fixed the date by which every slave in the empire must be freed; but the chamber of deputies, acting in opposition to the senate, has lately put a strange interpretation upon certain of the clauses of the most recent law upon the subject, which will have the effect of delaying the latest day of enfranchisement a further 18 months. The Brazilian public has expressed great indignation at this ill-advised action; and, by way of protest, the recent progress of the emperor throughout the province of San Paulo was made the occasion of liberating many slaves at the cost of the local municipalities. When a prominent abolitionist, Senator Bonifacio, of Santos, died, recently, his native town honored his memory by enfranchising the whole of the slaves within its jurisdiction. Herein Santos was but following the example of the provinces of Ceara and the Amazons, in both of which the last slave was freed some years ago. It is, perhaps, wise to add that the slave-owners are being quite fairly treated in the way of compensation.--_St. James Gazette._

Bokhara the noble, the richest, most enlightened, and most holy of all Mahommedan nations in Central Asia, and beyond it, has just officially declared the complete abolition of slavery. Up to the present this curse had not altogether disappeared, although it was generally assumed that, since Russia secured control over the Ameer's country, it had quite ceased to exist.

Fourteen years ago, M. Eugene Schuyler, the author of "Turkestan," in order to demonstrate to the Russian government that its prestige had not put a stop to the slave trade, as was then alleged, purchased a young boy slave for one hundred roubles, the average price of the human article in Bokhara, and brought him to St. Petersburg. The boy was subsequently apprenticed to a Tartar watchmaker, and later became a convert to the Russian church. According to a letter in the Russian _Official Gazette_, the young Ameer's decree, finally freeing all the bondmen within his dominion, was promulgated Nov. 19, 1886.

OLD FOGY BIOGRAPHY.--It seems that biography as well as history will have to be re-written in the light of modern progress. _Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography_ has sent out its first volume, edited by Gen. Wilson and Prof. John Fiske. The sources of this volume do not promise much liberality, and the first volume does not show it. While professing to record the lives of all who are eminent or noteworthy, it fulfils this promise by recording many who are not very eminent or noteworthy; indeed, Mr. Lowell says, by way of commendation, that he has hunted for obscure names and found them. What then is the reason of the omission of the Hon. Cassius M. Clay, our former minister to Russia, one of the most conspicuous figures for many years in American politics and _par excellence_, the lion of the struggle which ended in negro emancipation? His life, recently published is a volume of fascinating and romantic interest. Mr. Clay might treat this omission as the old Roman said of having a statue in the forum--that he would rather men should ask why he had _no_ statue there, than to ask why his statue was there. Dr. Joseph Rodes Buchanan is briefly noticed, his name incorrectly spelled, a catalogue of his publications given, and a volume attributed to him which was written by the notorious Dr. John Buchanan of Philadelphia. But nothing is said of the new school of philosophy, or of the new sciences, established by Dr. Buchanan. Evidently this is old fogy biography. The editors have gathered their material with a scoop, unable to distinguish between dirt, pebbles and jewels. Nevertheless they have made a valuable record if not a fair one.