pleasant fancies, that they cheated my grief; | to John Lamb. Charles, it appears from the but in your absence, the tide of melancholy correspondence, had been complaining to rushed in again, and did its worst mischief by Coleridge just before of his brother's want of overwhelming my reason.

66

ber 23.

OC

sympathy and proper brotherly feeling; but when that brother was laid on his back helpHe then goes on, in the strain usual at less, and even in peril of his life perhaps, that time between himself and Coleridge, Charles and his sister not only turned nurses, to criticise passages in poetry and give but the former tried to retract what he had let pieces of his own writings. In a letter slip in a bitterer mood about John. written directly after the tragedy in his Now there are here at least three mishome, the whole tone is different. With me, 'The former things are passed away,' curred before the catastrophe of Septemrepresentations. John's accident and I have something more to do than In a letter to Coleridge, speakto feel. . . . Mention nothing of ing of the time when his mother lay poetry. I have destroyed every vestige dead in the next room, and his sister was of past vanities of that kind." The per- carried off to the mad-house (an infirm son alluded to as the more immediate father and aunt formed the rest of the cause of his madness was, we believe, the family circle), Charles writes, "I had the fair-haired maid of his Sonnets, the whole weight of the family thrown on Alice W of his essay. In one of his me; for my brother, little disposed (I letters to Coleridge he alludes to the speak not without tenderness for him) time in which they were both suffering at any time to take care of old age and under disappointment; and we think Mr. infirmities, had now, with his bad leg, an Hazlitt has made out clearly enough that exemption from such duties, and I was the passion for Alice W- was not a mere poetical fancy, but a painful expe- "turn nurse," for it was the nursing of now left alone." Mary Lamb did not rience in Lamb's early life. As a proof, her disabled brother, together with the however, of the extreme recklessness of care of her infirm aunt and parents, that assertion that takes all value from Mr. had broken down her never strong mental Hazlitt's criticism of the works of his constitution, and in the whole course of his predecessors, he turns a passage in a letters we find no bitter word in Charles letter to Coleridge referring to his love- Lamb which ever needed to be repented sonnets, and stating that they express a of. His kindness and consideration for passion of which he retains nothing-John Lamb were always far above that against Mary Lamb, thus :

selfish person's deserts.

is

He once opened his mind to Coleridge, Later on, he speaks of Lamb's neglect however, to the extent of confessing a half- of Coleridge in particular, and of his old belief that his self-devotion, if it had been in friends in general, and calls the exclasome respects advantageous, was not unat-mation, often on Lamb's lips, "Coleridge tended, on the other hand, by certain drawbacks. "Twas a weakness" (this is what he says to him), "concerning which I may say, in the words of Petrarch (whose life' is now open before me), if it drew me out of some vices, it also prevented the growth of many

virtues."

call;" and exclaims, with an amusing air dead!" a "surely half-remorseful of shocked prudery, after instancing the whimsical aspects of Lamb's writings by a quotation from one of his "Essays," in which he professes his sense of relief in "taking an airing beyond the diocese How any one reading the whole of this of strict conscience, and wearing his letter can fail to see that the weakness shackles the more contentedly for having referred to is his past love for Alice respired the breath of an imaginary freepasses our comprehension. dom," "Let us pass to pleasanter Again, besides asserting that Lamb's ground." On the whole, if his readers reason gave way under the weight of the will resolutely avoid what is Mr. Hazlitt's, shock of his domestic tragedy, against and read carefully all that is Charles which all Lamb's letters of the period and Mary Lamb's, they will find in this bear forcible evidence, Mr. Hazlitt, in" Book of Remains" much to refresh that patronizing and, to our fancy, depre- their memory, and not a little to increase ciating tone he assumes towards the sub-their knowledge, of two of the purest ject of his memoirs, writes: and noblest lives ever lived by man and

W

It was soon after the catastrophe of Septem- woman on this "condemned, slandered ber 23rd that the alarming accident to which I earth." have adverted in an earlier chapter occurred

From The Spectator.
PROFESSOR TYNDALL'S ADDRESS.

brings forth all things as the fruit of her own womb?' The questions here raised THE "Unknown and the Unknow- are inevitable. They are approaching us able" is discovered, and is Matter. That, with accelerated speed, and it is not a matso far as we understand an argument ter of indifference whether they are introwhich is protected, and, as it were, spirit-duced with reverence or with irreverence. ualized at one or two points by the ad- Abandoning all disguise, the confession mission of a "mystery," is the dreary that I feel bound to make before you is conclusion which Professor Tyndall, in that I prolong the vision backward across his splendid address to the British Asso- the boundary of the experimental eviciation at Belfast, lays before the world dence, and discern in that Matter, which as the outcome of his vigorous research. we in our ignorance, and notwithstanding After a long but not tedious historical our professed reverence for its Creator, résumé of the perennial conflict between have hitherto covered with opprobrium, natural science and the theologies of the the promise and potency of every form world, a clear account of the rise of the and quality of life." True, Matter needs doctrine of Evolution, a statement of that other and wider definitions than it has dogma of "the conservation of energy yet received, definitions less mechanical, which he accepts much as a Catholic ac- and according it wider range; but still it cepts Infallibility-because it must be is Matter, and as we conclude from the true, though the evidence is imperfect - tone of the entire lecture, in Professor the Professor proceeds to declare that Tyndall's opinion, self-existent. Any the ultimate cosmical force is unknown cause for Matter is an inference, a guess, and unknowable: "We have the con- which no scientific man is warranted in ception that all we see around us, and all making. Life and reason, as well as their we feel within us the phenomena of instruments, have their origin in Matter, physical nature as well as those of the the idea of a separate and immortal reahuman mind have their unsearchable son or soul being, on the whole, inadroots in a cosmical life, if I dare apply missible, though on this point Professor the term, an infinitesimal span of which Tyndall-who puts this division of his only is offered to the investigation of view into the form of a wonderfully eloman. And even this span is only know- quent dialogue between Bishop Butler able in part. We can trace the develop- and a disciple of Lucretius admits, or ment of a nervous system and correlate seems to admit, a mystery beyond which with it the parallel phenomena of sensa- may lie somewhat of which the human tion and thought. We see with undoubt- understanding is too feeble to take coging certainty that they go hand-in-hand. nizance. This, however, even if ProfesBut we try to soar in a vacuum the mo- sor Tyndall really allows so much, is but ment we seek to comprehend the connec- far-off and unsupported conjecture; and tion between them. An Archimedean the teaching of his whole lecture is, that fulcrum is here required which the human so far as science can ascertain, Matter -mind cannot command, and the effort to expanding that word to include Force as solve the problem, to borrow an illustra- one of its attributes is the Final Cause. tion from an illustrious friend of mine, is Religion is but man's creation, though, "like the effort of a man trying to lift as the desire for religion is one of the himself by his own waistband." The uni- inherent forces of the mind, the gratificaverse is too vast for man to grasp all its tion of that desire, so long as such graticonditions it is but a span one sees fication does not interfere with the paranor will any advance in his powers enable mount claim of science to be free, may him to grasp them; and as till they are often be not only not injurious, but highly grasped perfect truth cannot be attained, beneficial. It is good for man to invent the ultimate cosmical force must remain a creed. "And if, still unsatisfied, the unknown and unknowable. Neverthe- human mind, with the yearning of a pilless, that force is Matter. "Is there not grim for his distant home, will turn to a temptation to close to some extent with the Mystery from which it has emerged, Lucretius, when he affirms that Nature seeking so to fashion it as to give unity is seen to do all things spontaneously of to thought and faith, so long as this is herself, without the meddling of the done, not only without intolerance or gods? or with Bruno, when he declares bigotry of any kind, but with the enlightthat Matter is not that mere empty ca- ened recognition that ultimate fixity of pacity which philosophers have pictured conception is here unattainable, and that her to be, but the universal mother who each succeeding age must be held free to

and

fashion the mystery in accordance with Professor Tyndall that the Final Cause its own needs then, in opposition to all is Matter just as readily and with just as the restrictions of materialism, I would complete a surrender of the right of priaffirm this to be a field for the noblest vate judgment as Catholics show when a exercise of what, in contrast with the Pope decides that usury is immoral, or as knowing faculties, may be called the cre- the Peculiar People show when they let ative faculties of man. Here, however, their children die because St. James did I must quit a theme too great for me to not believe in the value of medical adhandle, but which will be handled by the vice. If Professor Tyndall affirmed that loftiest minds ages after you and I, like the Final Cause was heat, they would go streaks of morning cloud, shall have about extolling the instinctive wisdom of melted into the infinite azure of the past." the Guebres, and perhaps subscribe for Plainer speaking than this can no man a temple to maintain a perpetual fire. desire, and we need not say we have no There will, however, be injury to such quarrel with Mr. Tyndall for the plain-men, and if only for their sake, it would ness of his speech. We rather honour have been well if Professor Tyndall had, him for the courage which impels him to when announcing a conclusion which, if tell out his real thought, and face what- true, is fatal to all religion - for thought ever of obloquy now attaches evolved from matter is thought without though little, it is often bitter to opin-responsibility, and man is necessarily ions so extreme. If Materialism, — we sinless at all events stated frankly use the word without endorsing the op- what his opponents would consider the probrium it is supposed to convey is great objections to his theory, had retrue, why waste time and energy and moved at least the primary difficulty, that character in teaching what we know, or the reference of all thought to motors at least believe, to be so false? That apart from the independent and conceivpractice can lead only to a restriction of ably immortal mind in man, does not, intellectual effort, or to an intellectual like any other scientific assumption, exhypocrisy even worse in its effects than plain the visible phenomena. hypocrisy as to morals. That the result The hypothesis does not, for instance, of such a philosophy, if universally ac explain in any way the consciousness of cepted, would be evil, or rather, to avoid free-will, which is as strong as that contheological terminology, would be injuri-sciousness of existence without which it to human progress, we have no is impossible to reason; or the independdoubt; but if it be true, the injury is no ent influence of will, whether free or argument against its diffusion, for the not, on the brain itself; or above all, the injury, whatever its amount, is less than existence of conflicting thoughts going on that which must proceed from the delib- in the mind at the same indivisible point erate lying of the wise, or from the ex- of time. If a consciousness which is uniistence of that double creed, an exoteric versal and permanent is not to be acand an esoteric one, which is the invari- cepted as existing, why should the eviable result of their silence, or their lim-dence of the senses, or the decision of itation of speech to a circle of the initiated. Lucretius denying God and deifying Nature is a safer as well as nobler teacher than the Augur chuckling in silent scorn as he announces to the mob the imagi-ergy mere illusion too? Belief in either nary will of the Gods whom, for him and for them alike, he believes to be nonexistent. The evil the Professor will do arises not from any fault of his save so far as there may be moral fault in accepting such conclusions, a point upon which his conscience, and no other man's, must judge-but from the cowardly subservience to authority which marks some would-be students of science as strongly as ever it marked any students of Theology. There is a class of men among us who are in matters of Science as amenable to authority as ever were Ultramontanes, and who will accept a decision from

ous

reason, or the conclusions of science be accepted either? If the fact, as we should call it, is mere illusion, why is not the evidence for the conservation of en

can only be the result of experience, and the experience as to the one is at least as great as the experience as to the other. Yet as the outcome of material forces, of any clash of atoms, any active relation between the organism and its environments, must be inevitable, — free-will and thought evolved from machinery could not co-exist. The machine may be as fine as the mind can conceive, but still it can only do its natural work, cannot change its routine, cannot, above all, decline to act, as the mind unquestionably often consciously does. Lucretius, who killed himself to avoid corrupt

imaginings, could, had his sanity been | [Lucretius] had, as you know, threatenperfect, have controlled them, that is, ings of lewdness introduced into his brain could have declined to let the mind act by his jealous wife's philter; and sooner as it was going to act; and in that con- than permit himself to run even the risk trol is at least an apparent demonstra- of yielding to these base promptings, he tion that he possessed something above slew himself. How could the hand of the product of any material energies. Lucretius have been thus turned against Professor Tyndall will say that animals himself, if the real Lucretius remained as show the same will, the dog, for instance, before? Can the brain or can it not act restraining the inclination to snap at food, in this distempered way without the inthough his mind, as you can see in his tervention of the immortal reason? If it eyes, wants it as much as his body, but can, then it is a prime mover which rewhat new difficulty does that involve? quires only healthy regulation to render Immortality for animals, says Bishop it reasonably self-acting, and there is no Butler, when he met that dilemma; and apparent need of your immortal reason at Professor Tyndall accepts that conclu- all. If it cannot, then the immortal reasion as only logical; but where is the son, by its mischievous activity in opelogic that requires it? There is no ob- rating upon a broken instrument, must jection, that we know of, except preju- have the credit of committing every imdice, to the immortality of animals high aginable extravagance and crime." Why enough in the scale to receive the sep- should it not have the credit, if the "imarate reason, but neither is there any mortal reason" has full power? What necessity why their separate reason else but that is the essence of the idea of should be deathless or incapable of absorption. The free-will of man does not prove or involve immortality, which must be defended on quite other grounds, though it does prove the existence in man of a force not emanating from material sources. Professor Tyndall says, if there were such a separate reason, it could not be suspended or thrown into a trance, as it were, by an external accident, but he does not prove that it is. His argument from surgical experience the apparent suspense of all faculties because a bone presses the brain - only shows that the relation between the soul -to employ the theological and bestknown term and its instrument may be suspended for a time, but does not prove that the soul ceases even temporarily to be. The electric fluid exists even when the wire which conveys it ceases to be insulated. His moral illustration is stronger, because it carries us to the edge of the region where thought and experience alike begin to fail, but it is not conclusive: "The brain may change from health to disease, and through such a change the most exemplary man may be converted into a debauchee or a murderer. My very noble and approved good master

sin? If the immortal reason, indeed, has not full power-if, by reason of the imperfection of the instrument, it cannot, to use ordinary language, transmit its orders intact, then, in the degree to which that transmission is imperfect, there is neither extravagance nor crime, but merely action, to that extent morally indifferent. The alternative which the Professor puts down as a reductio ad absurdum is the main assumption not only of every Christian creed, but of every creed that ever existed, is, as we should say, one of the intuitions of which every man is as certain as he is of his legs. In the same way, the existence of conflict in the mind seems to us fatal to any idea that mind is a product of material action alone. The result of the physical brain-process, whatever it is, must surely be a result, and not a struggle of two results, in which one not only gives way, but is extinguished by the other. It is possible to deny that the struggle arises from one and the same operation, although it constantly seems to do so; but if it does so arise, there must be something in mind other than mental steam arising from physical friction.

IN a paper in Petermann's Mittheilungen (Heft vii. 1874) by Dr. Joseph Chavanne, of Vienna, on "The Arctic Continent and Polar Sea," the author deduces the following conclusions from the data furnished by recent expeditions, and which he carefully discusses :

-1. The long axis of the arctic land-mass (which probably consists of an island archipelago separated by narrow arms of the sea, perhaps only fjords) crosses the mathematical pole; it thus bends round Greenland, north of Shannon Island, not towards the north-west,