ARCHBISHOP VAUGHAN'S SECOND LECTURE. " MAN." The New Zealand Tablet.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 313, 18 April 1879, Page 7

ARCHBISHOP VAUGHAN'S SECOND LECTURE. " MAN." The New Zealand Tablet.

(From the Freeman's Jotirnal.) Last Sunday night I endeavoured in my Introductory Address to clear the ground before us by defining terms, pointing out our locus standi, and indicating in a general way the limits of science and the errors into which, ia their method, some so-called scientific men are only too ready to fall. I, moreover, adduced some reasons for the opinion that the more " Nature" is properly interrogated so much the more does she gives signs and hints and indistinct indications of the existence of those truths which are taught by the Christian scheme. I took some little pains to bring out the fact that, after all, if science keeps scientifically to its province, it can tell us comparatively very little regarding that which wa care most to know about. As to cataloguing and ticketing shells and fossils, and explaining the habits and functions of animate nature, that has its use and interest ; but it is not to be compared to the interest which we feel in those higher spheres of knowledge into which Science, from the nature of the case, is not privileged to enter. It is of some importance to remember this ; for if it be true that Science is bound down to this comparatively humble sphere of action ; if it be true that it has no business to raise its voice in dogmatically declaring what life, and matter, and mind are, and their origin and destiny, and what God is ; if it has no vocation to enter the lists in these fundamental positions, so essentially connected with religion ; surely if this be the case, we may be somewhat surprised that scientific men should thus dogmatize, or that any one should imagine that Science and Religion could possibly be in antagonism. To convince you that the tendency of some leading scientific men to dogmatize and assert, instead of to prove and verify, has" a real existence, and is exerting a mischievous influence at the present hour, I need but remind you of the celebrated Virchow's address before the Association of German Naturalists and Physicians at Munich in 1877. Speaking of the doctrine of maa having been evolved out of matter or protoplasm, he says : " All this is very fine and admirable, and may ultimately prove true. It is 2>ossible, ... I have no objection to your saying that atoms of carbon also possess mind, or that in their connection with the Plastidule company they acquire mind ; only Ido not know Jiow lam to perceive this. It is a mere playing with words. . . . The processes of the human mind may ultimately find a chemical explanation ; but at present, in my opinion, it is not my business to bring these processes into connection. . . . Throughout this discourse I am not asserting that it will never be possible to bring psychical processes into an immediate connection with those which are physical. All I say is, that we have at present no right to set up this possible connection as a doctrine of science : and I must enter my decided protest against the attempt to make a premature extension of our

doctrines in this manner, and to be ever anew thrusting into the very foreground of our expositions that which has so often proved an £rh 2? pr^ lem / He continues : « I am persuaded that only by SS J« f W° n ' 05^ by H s on oUTselv es and practised toward* the rest of the world, shall vre be able to conduct the contest with our 2?SS£ f aU - f ?T7? T 7- lt on 4 to . victory. Every attemptto transform our problems into doctrines, to introduce our hypotheses as the bases of instruction especially the attempt simply to dispossess the Church E, n to rf Bnppl ff ltltß dogmas forthwith by a religion of evolution-be ™TH en 5 T?' cve ?y s . u eh attempt will make shipwreck, and its «n«f£- alßobr^ gwlthitthe latest perils for the whole position of Science. Therefore, let us moderate our zeal ; let us patiently resign ourselves always to put forward, as problems only, even the wL teP u Obl J em ! th . atweset °P' never ceasin S to repeat a ££? Ji° ld a h » n i dr l d «nies: 'Do not take this for established truth : be prepared to find it otherwise ; only for the moment we are w« pl l* °^ tha * Jt ma y possibly be so.' " Professor Tyndal, who made ™£t B E cuou A Tlot to say notorious, as a Materialist, in his celebrated Belfast Address, frankly acknowledged that Science is surrounded by mysteries on all sides, while at the same time he lets out, almost in spite of himself, that irrepressible yearning after another world and a Divine Being which is found" at the heart of every seriously intelligent man. "As regards knowledge," he says, " physical science is polar. In one sense it knows, or is destined to know, everything. In another sense it knows nothing. Science underfirands much of tms intermediate phase of things that we call Nature, of which it is the product ; but Science knows nothing of the origin or destiny of Nature. Who or what made the sun, or gave his rlys their alleged power? Who or what made and bestowed upon the ultimate particles of matter their wondrous power of varied interaction ? Science does not know ; the mystery, though pushed back, remains unaltered. To many of us who feel that there are more things m heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the present philsopny of Science, but who have been taught, by baffled efforts, how vain is the attempt to grapple with the Inscrutable, the ultimate frame of mind is that of Goethe : Who dares to name His Kame, Or belief in Him proclaim, Veiled in mystery as He is, the AU-enfolder ? Gleams across the mind His light Feels the lifted soul His might, Dare it then deny His reign the A.U-upholder i" (" Fragments of Science," p. 614-5). Though I cannot understand now lyndal or Goethe could feel much difficulty iv daring to " proclaim belief in God" if they did not "dare to deny his reign"; though I can scarcely imagine a more grotesque " ultimate frame of mind or " intellectual position" than that ; still, it is something for them to be so over-pressed by the arguments for God's existence and governance as to make them hold their tongues, whilst reasonable men are enforcing its truth with every possible variety of argument. Anyhow, this seems to be the position of Science— it cannot deny, and dare not, for it would contradict its own canons if it did • it cannot affirm "a belief," and dare not, for Science has nothing to do with belief, but with experiment and verification, after having taken a number of things for granted. The most we can expect it to do for us is to present us with fresh and fresh evidences of the power and wisdom of that All-wise Being with whose works it is ever coming in contact. 6 Having thus let Science down gently into its legitimate place, 1 will now proceed, without delay, to develop the first Argument that comes on my list touching the reasonableness of Christianity and the Bhallowness of Unbelief. This first Argument, is founded on the origin and character and faculties of man. No subject could be imagined" of greater interest to all of us than that which has to do with our own species, and with the position which we ourselves hold ia this universe of which we form a part. The proper study of mankind is Man, and with that study we shall be engaged this evening, Indeed it not only is most interesting personally, and a proper study for all mankind but, what is more to the purpose, it is a study of the highest scientific importance at the present day. Mr. Mott, in his remarkable address "Oa the Origin of Savage Life," says most truly, and Mr. Mivart endorses his words, that " questions concerning the origin of mankind have become either the radiating or the culminating points in most branches of science ;" and, therefore, in treating of this subject, I am entering straight into the arena with my opponents, and am joining issue on a fundamental question, upon which not merely the past but the future of the race depends. What, then, is the teaching of the Negative School with regard to the race of which we form a portion 1 What does this school proclaim as the outcome of " Science regarding the crigin of this large and distinguished assemblage which is listening to my words I If a disciple of this school were standing in my place, he would tell you that Science had achieved another victory in the discovery of your origin ; and he would most probably express himself as follows : — " You desire, my dear friends, to know what you reallj are. lam a scientific man ; I am a votary of verification and researth, and I take nothing for granted, but prove everything, as I slowly advance along the arduous path of true enlightenment. I have felt tha v , the proper study of mankind is man ; and that most momentous inte^sts depend upon the right interpretation of facts connected with our no>le species. You naturally desira to know what you are, or rather whence you come, so that you may make a guess whither you are goin^. Well after deep study and untiring scrutiny, I, that is to say Scienc?. which takes nothing for granted, have come to the distinct concluXn that you have been evolved into your actual state of comparative perfection from the dirt beneath your feet. To have arrived at your present position you have gone through innumerable changes for the better. Just before you became men, you were monkeys, before monkeys' mud-fish. Of all existing apes, my great master, Mr. Darwin, s^g that you are immediately descended from the broad-breastbontf group ; and that the gorilla, of all the animal creation, is most lik\ you in appearance. True, you have the wrist-bones of the chimpanzee, the legs of the gibbon, the bridging convolutions of the long-tailed thumbless spider-monkey, and the voice of the long- armed ape ; and, therefore, we are more inclined on the whole to believe that you are

somehow or other related, in this way or that, with all the various species of monkeys that can be found in 'the old and new worlds, whatever be the case, you began your being from the lowest and most brutal stage of existence ; and. by a marvellous process of bettering yourselves, you have at last arrived at your present happy condition. But, mark you, this is the great and never-to-be-forgotten discovery of science, namely, that, though it admits that you have outstripped all your fellow-monkeys in the race of life, still it has found out— and you must ever firmly bear it in mind— that the difference between you and the lowest brute in the field is merely a difference of degree, not a difference of kind. You all belong to the same happy family ; and some amongst you have bettered yourselves, and others have not. Henfce, you see you started with a very poor stock-in-trade for getting °y° th ?, world - Your distant ancestors were dumb as brutes are 22i IT? 67 s P eak no articulate tongue ; they had no idea of wf w" I' °f "£ ht ?T? T Wlong ' no freedom of w iU» no soul ; they were veritable brute beasts, without reason and without conscience, withw»l D £ °^l yUt *i °/ * of honour ; and, in point of fact, could in no way be distinguished from those irrational beasts which are now served up to you for food. This is, I know, not very flattering ; but Science is Science, and it is our duty to hail its victories with joy, whatever the consequences may be. You may pride yourselves on calling yourselves ladies and gentlemen, but, to speak scientifically, a Newton, a Shakspere, a Dante, or St. Augustine; does not differ in kind but only m degree, from the gorilla, the chimpanzee, or the baboon : and if such men as these are so situated, you might bear with patient resignation the destruction of your ancient superstitions." Ur to speak seriously, in the words of Elam : "As Virchow observes it is not altogether the question what we ourselves mean by our theories, expressed with 'modest reserve," as what the rough and trenchant logic of the outer world makes of it. And this is what is made of the Evolution doctrine generally : The dog has just as long a pedigree as we have ; he descends from the same original pair of vertebrata ; and tracing these backwards, our common origin was a molecule or protoplasm, which had been formed by mechanical force trom carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. What essential difference then is there between man and the dog, and why should we hesitate to do to the one, what we do daily to the other ? " * Now all this sounds very grotesque, very absurd, and very empty talk. But, tor ail that, I have not exaggeiated the position of the Negative bctiool in their account of the origin of man. They declare that At n ?A has . made thi s discovery ; and, overawed by the dogmatic and bold assertion of those who by means of the word "€cience " impose upon the multitude, thousands are beginning to believe that after all, they are merely animals, with sharper faculties than others, wno nave to live their day upon the earth, and then to die into it aga \ n i v 2 eed not ask y° u to n S ure to yourselves the chaos society would be thrown into if such a doctrine as this became widely acted upon, and popular. Now, my object to-night is to show that this doctrine of the Negative School is shallow ; and that man is different not merely in degree, but in kind, from the brute creation ; that man is not a, bestial animal which, by a process of gradual improvement, Bas at last grown out of being a bestial animal into being a man ; but tnat He is separated by an impassable gulf from the brute creation, and possesses endowments and attributes which, in the eyes of any reasonable person, would place him as a man at once in a category by himself, far out of the reach of the highest form of mere irrational animal existences. Now, the theory of the Negative School is, that man has arrived from the brutal stage to his present perfection by gomg_ through a long, almost or quite imperceptible, course of evolutions in the direction of improvement ; throwing off the brute by slowprocesses and degrees, and putting on the man. If such be really the case, surely we ought to be able to light upon specimens in their various stages of transition— just as we may see ou some trees, buds, flowers and fruits developing at one time towards their perfection. But do we see this? Have these scientific men ever seen it 1 Has any traveller ever imagined that he has seen anything of the kind ? it tlie transition be so very gradual, how does it happen that there are not thousands of creatures approaching so near to being men, and yet keeping so near to being animals that no one can tell which they are f As a practical matter of fact, have you ever read of any travellers or explorers coming upon a race of creatures in any part of tne globe, however savage and unknown, which puzzled them for one single instant as to whether they were men or brutes ? Hays any of these ; bold adventurers ever by mistake shot a man, thinking him to t>e a brute, and sent his skin as a curiosity, or a new discovery, to his mends at home, or to some scientific society ? It may be difficult to draw the line between the exact beginning of day and the ending of mgnt, but I have never heard of any difficulty in knowing a man wnen you see him from an irrational brute. And why ? Because they are separated by a radical difference, by a dividing line which tor ever separates man from those animals over which he exerts so sovereign a mastery. Allow me to bring before your attention a living argument in favour of the truth of what I say. If it could be proved that the most degraded type of man, the lowest form known, possessed qualities and characteristics which are common to him with all civilized men, and which animals do not possess ; if it could be shown that he was tnus cut off from the brute creation by profound radical differences ; surely it would reasonably follow that be would also differ in fcis origin from irrational nature ;— being radically different and svi gcjicns in faculties and powers, he would icasonably be conceived as cmrerent, not merely in degree, but iv hind from the brute creation. JNow, what is generally looked u pon as the lowest type that has yet been discovered 1 According to Mr. Mivart, a very high authority— and 1 believe his view is generally adopted by those who have much experience of savage life in various parts of the globe— the aborigines or. Australia exhibit the lowest form of humanity that has yet been tound. Iney, it is said, are nearest to the brute creation. "As we have said, says Mr. Mivart, " the native Australians have much pretension to the post of lowest of existing races." In another place he remarks : The Australians are generally believed to be the most hope*ss subjects of missionary effort/ And of all Australian tribes the most * Not an imaginary address.

?S£f^ "Aaman are those who dwell in the north, about; the Gulf of Carpentaria. Such, then, being the case I ask-Would itnotbe a fair test to secure one of these lowest specimens and examine whether or no he possesses, at least m rudiment, those faculties and characteristics which are common to all men, and which no brute has ever been known even to simulate? If it were, at first sight, or after a short experiment evident that one of these savages, or one of their children, which would be better, possessed the same mental endowments, the SJi dlf H noin degree as any ordinary Christian; would it "° j?£°*» ble *° conclude that they belonged to the same family, and that that family was separated by a gulf which was impassable from the animals of the field, or the various varieties of apes ? For*ii y '* J?*7 U a P oß^ oll to P rove t0 you, by a practicaldemonstranon, tnat this lowest race amongst mankind does possess such qualities as all men are endowed with, and which aU irrational animals lack. I have but to give you the history of " Bobby," the little black Doy, who accompanied me this evening, dressed in cassock and surplice, into your presence. This little black boy who is now going through his studies with the Marist Brothers of St. Patrick's, repiesents the living argument to whicb I refer. When I first arrived in this colony it happened that a man came to the Vicar- General's ottce, and asked if he could see me. I had an interview with him. He told me he was going home, having been very successful in digging for gold in the north of Queensland. But there was one difficulty in the way. He had brought down a little black child from the Gulf of Carpentaria, whose parents had died, or had been killed. He had brought the child to Sydney ; and as he thought it would probably die of cold if taken to England, he was anxious to find some one who would be willing to take the child and keep it, and be kind to it. And having heard my name he made so bold, he said, as to ask me to do this act of charity. I consented, on the condition I should see the boy first, so as to make sure he was not a white boy with a black face. I think the child must then have been about five or six years old Here he is before you. Now this child had been brought straight down from the Gulf of Carpentaria. He came fresh and clean from his native forest ; and would bring with him in his person the genuine and unadulterated characteristics of that savage tribe to which he was said to belong. Here the^ was a living example, exhibiting itself in all its native reality, of the lowest and most savage type of humanity that is extant on the earth. And not only a living example, but one in the first years of existence, with merely the germs of its powers in any exercise ; and almost rudimentary in its developement of body and mind. Now what did I find in this young specimen of an aboriginal Australian ? Did I find the smallest possible difficulty in knowmg him to be a human being ? Did I imagine it possible for a moment that he was of the mere brute creation ? Far from it He was human and rational and intelligent, and as much the child of human parents as any child that has ever been born- Though he could only speak a word or two of English, he could snpak the language of his tribe ; he had a sense of duty, and knew the difierence between duty and pleasure ; he knew the difference between right and wrong, between justice, of which he had a very keen sense, and injustice ; and seemed penetrated with religious ideas, especially with regard to a Divine Being, and future reward and punishment. -That at his age he could have learnt these things before I saw him from the whites, or that he had been taught them by my friend, who gave him over to my custody, I do not think possible ; but I firmly believe this : that he possessed the traditions of his race, which when added to the spontaneous dictates of his natural faculties and conscience, is sufficient to account for his possessing — belonging as he did to the lowest race of all— those especial characteristics which are found more or less in all mankind, but which are never to be found in any not even in the highest types of irrational creatures. Had the Brothers any difficulty in receiving Bobby into their school ? Did it ever enter the heads of his companions to mistake him for anything but what he was— a little black boy— in more ways than one more intelligent and smart than the best amongst them 1 And has he not shown in his progress in his lessons that he has all the faculties and gifts which civilized men possess? And on the other hand who has ever sent to school a creature which puzzled people as to whether it was a brute beast or a rational being 1 Has any one heard or read of such a doubt ever being entertained ? And if no one has, how is it that with such an everlasting gulf between all men ' on the one side, and all animals on the other, that " foremost , thinkers," and "scientific" men should try and persuade the public that man is evolved from a mud-fish, and was once an animal so near an ape and yet not one that no one could tell what he was ; and then became a full-grown ape ; and then by going through, untold processes became so near a man, and yet not a man, that no one could tell whether he was a man or not ; till after a course ot other evolutionary processes, he became so much a man that the wholis world declared except Mr. Darwin and some others who follow him, that he could never have been an ape at all, and must always hare been a man ! How is it that we cannot put a finger on one specimen of a man so near an ape as to be a confusion to us ; or an ape so near a man as to feel inclined to invite him to dinner, and give him th« benefit of the donbt ? Let men of science prove and verify their theories before they deliver them to the world as facts ; and let the warld remember that " Science" is only a name like " Theology ; " and that everything that goes by the name of science is not science ; some of the things going by that name being merely the crude suppositions of erratic minds who wish to be talked about, or to create a se»sation, or to cast stones at the teachings of the Gospel. My own practical experience in regard to little Bobby is borne out by the following words of Mr. Mivart with regard to the religious notion of the aborigines : " As we have said, the native Australians have much pretension to the post of lowest of existing races, and we often hear a great deal as to their non-religious condition ; nevertheless Mr. Tylor cuotes the Rev. W. Ridley to the effect that • whenever he has conva-sed with the aborigines he found them to have quite definite traditionaconcerning supernatural beings, as Baime, whose voice they hear in thunder, and who made all things. 1 Moreover this testimony is reinferced by that of Stanbridge (T. Eth. Soc. vol i., p. 301), who is quoted asasserting that so far from the Australians having no religion, ' they declare

to^heaven before man came on earth.'" (Lessons from Nature p. Western "ESh?™*/ Mon f i ff nor Sal ™ d ° of the aborigines of m! t !? ha P, 01nts ln the same direction. He tells us says Max Muller, that they believe in an Omnipotent Sin? creator of S m «£? Jw *?-u?? -v? 1S tbe "achainer of the whirlwind and the asrss^s death of their childrenj whereand from rtTteK? * kl fY l fse of one of the lowest of our race, SnclusL tWrtfJ J ° f mde P endent authorities, I come to the ESHl^f^^°" S S& SEE could not baffle and are beginning, if not to adopt, to treat with less ZtZ- - S^ c * Vl £° rous SQ ake to the foundation, of this sunpo4d ?£ ~ S discovery, viz., that men are brutes, I will simply read yon the words of unexceptionable witnesses, men of high renown in tS respective countries-I mean Professor Huxley, and Yirchow the au c ane P TS ?"# SayS ' regarding man ' s having been once was Km* i JKS CODfeSS that m ? °P inion remain s exactly where it SiTthat g wSM y t arSag °' •,• * J did then put forward the Xf»fnc tw nown as the Neanderthal skull is of human remains, that which presents the most marked and definite characteristics of a lower type-using the language in the same sense as we would use it in other branches of zoolo-y° I believe ftto knowf^Ldrtn 01 " 111^ h r an Ug ° f wblch -eWan? K™ *£%' ,We kUOw J from the rem ains accompanying the human SrnS I* * as far as any fundamental points of structurl were concerned, he was as much a man-could wear boots just as easily-as fd y on'tknowtwVv, thi ° kthe qUeSti ° n I>emaias much where it w^ Lfefarf Stw -f " any , reasoa for d » u °ting that the men who who^tiow-^M 6^ 111^ 1685^" 811^ 6018 similar to the men £nZrW f « r - H^ ley made tbis important declaration only hsforamipt "* meeting of the British Association. Now.observe Una i tor a moment. Here we have on the one hand a livin<* snecimen t^toTJTv* hUmaU TaCe ' P ° SSeSsing -11 the°giS S sSI and^m^ 1 ?^ mSn \*? d here We have on the ° tber th e skull and remains of the lowest type, supposed to have lived agesa-o, %Lll TS?' accordl I n g t0 th « unimpeachable authority °of Mr wlft™ + u e r ce ° tlal v° f m » nkind . How is it that both these lnTh? fi /n P A- c /- Vmg b °y and the dead skeleton, point so straight wS tw dir^ tlon ' s? unmistakeably towards the rational creature ; whilst they as it were, turn their backs as much as we do on the brute creation 2 To this there seems but one rational reply : becauS men are ever men, and brutes always brutes. w^umi Sofar for Mr. Huxley. What now does Virchow say ? Mnnioh" +h g t 1 * m " S - fc Say> " he ' addressing the savants at Munich -that n©t a single fossil skull of an ape or of an « ape-man' E™ v ' ni? f Tl that really - have beloQ S ed t0 a bu maS being. Every addition to the amount of objects which we have obtained Is ££Frt» ??' ' +-» ' - A 8 a matfcer of facfc< we musfc positively recogm»n Inn StUl M yet * shar P line of demarcation between ™ ?,? ?6? 6 apC ' IT' CannOt teacK 7Ve cannot Pronounce it to be a 2S °{j ClcncQ > ***.* ™» descend* from the ape or from any other ft 3=„ J6J 6 a 2 I°Uly1 ° Uly mdlCa . te - ifc as an y Q yP°thesis, however piobable it may seem and however obvious a solution it may appear." f" The Freedom of Science in the Modern State,'" p. 62,-3 The marks of emphasis are from the original)

(Conclusion next iveeJi.)

t? T,-?- I 5 r °?, I< H Ll T ide r ' Jurors Reports and Awards, New Zealand Exhibition Jurors :J. E. Ewen, J. Butterworth, T. G. Skinner :- bo far as the Colony 1S concerned, the dyeing of materials is almost entirely confined to the re-dyeing of Articles of Dress and Upholstery, a most useful art, for there are many kinds of material that lose their ?n™™™°£ c *fe teXtu £. c is half worn - G ' HiRSCH, of Dunedin (Dunedin Dye Works, George street, opposite Royal George Hotel,) exhibits a case of specimens of Dyed Wools, Silks, and Feathers, and dyed bbeepskms. The colours on the whole are very fair, and reflect considerable credit on the Exhibitor, to whom the Jurors recommended an Honorary Certificate should be awarded. Honorary Certificate, : Uustav Hirsch, Duuedin, for specimens of Dyein^ in Silk reathers, &c. The comparitive poverty of the German people is shown by their income tax returns. There are only 170 persons in the entire' kingdom of Prussia who have an income of more than 36,000 dols per annum. This number includes two members of the RothscLil i family and Herr Krupp, of Essen. On a descending s-cale it is found that only 1,2400 individuals report annual receipts of over 12,000 dols. Ou the other hand, probably 2,000 persous in New York City alone will this year have net incomes of not less than 12,000. This state of things justifies the statement of DeQuincy— that an English country gentleman was a more important personage than a German nobleman.