SUMMARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2497, 22 January 1902, Page 15

SUMMARY.

I will now, in conclusion, shortly summarise what I have said. We havo seen, that natural philosophy «a', at first, polytheistic, and then became dormant for many centuries. After the revival of tho study of Nature, scientific teaching was decidedly pantheistic, but it has now come round to Theism : and this last change was brought about by tho establishment of tho doctrine of evolution. It appears highly probable that the material universe is not eternal, but will in timo come to an end. The earth, and consequently the sun, is probably not much more than 100 millions of ypars old ; and as the sun is one of tha oldest of the stars, it is probable that the origin of the universe does not date back for 200 millions of years. What went before and what will come after we can never know ; but we may brlicve, with some confidence, t r at there is no natural process of j-ejuvoncsccnce, no possibility of the present universe coining back again to its original starting point.

Now, for anyone who believes thai mind has been the oiganiser of energy, there can only bo two competing theories of tha mil verse — Pantheism, now usually railed Mom-in, anil Theism, now often called Dtial-l-m. But cither thero is some process of rejuvenescence which has not yet boen discoveied. or Pantheism is impo-siblc. As reasonable men and women, we must follow the best available evidence, and I do not; see how it is possible for anyone to believe in Pathn'^m s ) long as the origins of life and free will remain unexplained. Consequently Theism is left as the only possible tli'-ory of the universe. AnS 1 have, £ hope, shown that there is sufficient evidence of design in Nature to convince in thafc evolution has not been duo to haphazard effoit, but to deliberate action leading up to some ulterior puipose, which it is t'io great; wisli of man to fathom.

We know that the sun is in its oVI age, and that in a few irmro millions of years lb will cease to have any vitalising effect on Us planet-. Also, we know that biological evolution has nearly run it? ccuise on tho ( arth. The race for life is over, and man has won. No other animal can ever arise to •■ompcte with him, for ho could destroy it long before it heeiine formidable. Psychological pvoh'tjon alone is in the ascendant, and this has yet much to do, especia'ly m the domain of morals. Ethical evolution — founded on free will, which changed the human mind into the human. «oul — is the highest and last form of evolution possible on the earth, and consequently, as far as terrestrial evolution if- concerned, the devrlcipirent of the human sou! must be Hie object for which we are seuk'nj;, and if this is so, there ought to be no difficulty in believing that everything which, cither directly or indirectly, has been instrumental in this development was designed fo»- that purpose

But if all has bppn planned for the de■ulopment of the human soul, there must have been =nme i ear-on for planning it. There mint be coinc further purpose which. is bidden from us We cznnot believe that the ultimate object was the happiness of man on the earth, for thpre is no evidence that psychological evolution has increased his happineos. It is not the pursuit of pleasure, but the feeling that duty comes before pleasure, which is the moving forco in ethical evolution. So we come to recognise that the ultimate purposes of evolution cannot be fulfilled on the earth; and we are thus led to believe that our spirit will not perish with the body, but will, in some way or other, lead a new existence. And as we know that on the earth better has constantly succeeded better, so we may hope it will be in the spiritual world.

fiuch seems to me to J^j tho teaching of thp modern doctrine of evolution. It is a philosophy which does not :ome to a close on this earth, but points forward, and dimly ihows us, from a study of the past, whab we may expect in the future. Without any doubt it teaches us that man has been introduced on to the earth for some special purpose, and it appears that that purpose can only be attained by the exercise of his free will. This being bo, we infer that human beings have been formed to educate mind and fit it for a future spiritual exist* enee unconnected with the material earth.

No doubt we are at present merely afe the commencement of our researches in natural philosophy, and during the coming; century wo may look forward to great ac■vances in knowledge. But, in my opinion, w e can never know more than we do nowi about the future immaterial life, and witb that knowledge we rnu&t be contenti