On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    That the argument from desi not hicall 3...

  • 

    THE COURT OE AUSTRIA. 3femoirs of the Co...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    The Argument From Design". 2\ Pical Form...

    That the argument from designis not an argument philosophically tenable , has frequently been admitted by men of eminence and piety , from Kant to John Henry Newman . It is worse than untenable , it is suicidal . It forces the thoughts of men in directions where there is no issue but scepticism or equivocation , where men must either abandon their logic , and mentally equivocate , or must go right through to the complete denial of the very wisdom and benevolence they have been seeking . It teaches them to look upon this universe as a sort of workshop in which a very skilful artificer is to be seen at work . It teaches them that the wisdom of God is similar to the wisdom of man , only greater in degree ; that God ' s benevolence chooses the same means as man ' s benevolence ; and that by the aid of the scalpel and the microscope ( with a flavour of metaphysics ) man can penetrate the " intentions" of the Creator .

    This is not a religious conception , nor does it induce religious thoughts . For our own part , we have the strongest repulsion against all such conceptions , as degrading to the Deity , and obstructive to human progress . The Natural Theologian thinks he has made a great point when he can say " Man builds his ships , and constructs his arches , but how poor tfre his efforts compared with those of the Divine Architect 1 " Until some idiot shall arise to proclaim that Man is equal to the Creator , it is surely very idle to prove the superiority of Divine Wisdom . Meanwhile , it is an extraordinary mode of sliowmg reverence , to prove that the Creator " contrives" in his omnipotence just as man does m Ins impotence . Read this passage—a typical passage — from the work before us : — °

    The fisher as he prepares the bladder to make the edges of his net float on the water , may observe that the sea-weed is buoyed on the surface of the deep by a contnyauce-niore ingenious than his own , that is , by vesicles which act as floats . Most fishes have one or more bladders filled with air , the amount of which is regulated by the will of the animal , so that it can vary its deptli , sink or rise to the surface , as may suit its ptirposes . The fisher , too , may see that if he has nets ta eaten the tood needful for Ma sustenance , so also have apiders and other species or annnals . A . The shepherd knows how much care and watchfulness are necessary in order to protect his flocks from the wild beasts which attack them , an « i is thus led to admire the mstmcfc ^ of those animals , such as the deer , which seta watch to give a Signal of danger , The hunter knows how much cunning he must exercise in order to come wiblm reach of the wild animals pursued by himand should not

    , withhold a feeling of wonder when he observes how their instincts lead the brutes to Bhow such dexterity in avoiding their natural enemies . The weapons with which he and the fisher attack the animals wMch they wish to seize or kill do not point more clearly to a purpose , than the instruments , whether claws or teeth , w ; tth which they defend themselves . The Aphrodite hispida , for example , m furnished with very curious weapons of defence ; they are harpoons with a double _ series of barbs ; these are retractile , and the animal can draw them into the body by a irmscula . r apparatus , and in order to prevent them , when drawn in , from injuring the ammal itself , each barbed spine is furnished with a two-bladed horny sheath , which closes on the barbs in the act of retraction . Some of these provisions have a reference to the native instincts of the animals ; others have rather regard to the of the

    n . position species . Thus we find tliafc those liable to be chased as prey often take the colour of the ground on which they habitually teed . ¦ The riflemen of our army are dressed in the hue which is deemed least conspicuous , and which is best fitted for concealment ; and is there not an equally clear proof of design furnished by the circumstance that fishes are often of the colour of the ground over which they swim , and that wild animals are not unfreojaejitly of the colour of the covert in which , they hide themselves ? Thus the back of the young turbot maybe seen of the same colour as the sand on vyhioh ^ it lies . ^ The red grouse and red deer are of the colour of the heath on whieh they feed , whereas the lapwing and curlew , themselves and their eras , take tlie grey hue of the pasture among which they are usually found .

    It appears to us tliat any student , not biassed , would feel disposed to consider these examples as derogatory to Divine Wisdom and Benevolence . In each of these examples the ' contr ivance' of man is the better contrivance : and with respect to the ' benevolence , ' there are these awkward considerations—1 . If it was benevolent in the Creator to make animals frequently ot the same colour , as thHr habitat because thereby they escaped their pursuers ; what are we to consider it when the animals are not the colour of their habitat , and do not escape their pursuers ? what are we to consider this contrivance for escape , when we think of the pursuers thus frustrated ? Observe the utter futility of the argument . We are first called upon to admire the admirable contrivances' which enable , the predatory animal to secure its prey , and then we are to admire the ' admirable contrivances' witli which these other contrivances are frustrated—as if Divine Wisdom were employed playing at hide and seek !

    lake another case . Having created sheep and sent them browsing- over the lovely hillsides , what can we think of the benevolence which created an animal whose development is only possible in the brain of that sheep , where having ensconced itself it grows , reproduces , and finally destroys the sheep ? Here is a magnificent organism sacrificed to a parasite . Human contrivers would surely have either contrived that the parasite should find its food elsewhere , or ma leas vital part of the sheep ; or , failing in power to do that , woulUhavG destroyed the parasite . This is the plain sense of the matter . Does it not force us to admit that the argument of design is suici dal ? Does it not point , as hundreds of illustrations point , to the solemn fact that life is

    a mystery , and that our logic cannot unriddle the secret of the universe ; and that all attempts to explain the inexplicable mus t end in scepticism or discouragement . Theology calling in the aid of Zoology and Physiology ia "ke the horse who , we are told by Phoedrus , called in the aid of man to subdue Ins enemy , and when the saddle was placed upon his back found that no had beqome the servant of his ally . To combat sceptics by " evidences ot design" forces not only sceptics but believers to consider closely what these evidences are . The result of the scrutiny ia that , although in many cosea the deaign seems clear , and the purpose benevolent , in many other cases the design is not clear , and the purpose seems as absolutely malevolent as in the Gther cases / it seemed benevolent . It will not do for the tencher to evade these difficulties , and to say that " the ways of the Lord arc inscrulo-™™ An 8 cr » ttlbl < 5 tll ° y wo ; but the teacher pretends to scrutinize and di 8-SbniK- "Ji many C tIT > an < l only ^ members they arc inscrutable when they bulk hw theory . If lmmaw reason is appealed to , human reason must be

    heard throughout . If we are allowed to interpret according to hum ™ analogies , and to call those things benevolent which in a human govemSielf would be benevolent , we must also interpret those other things as mnlevoW which ma human government would be malevolent . This ? s whatthe , Vn biassed intellect necessarily detects ; and this is why the argument fl design is so dangerous . At first the student is in raptures with the proofs ? f design and benevolence ; he ends by discouragement at the proof of unskilfulness and malevolence . This wondrous frame of ours he can never sufficiently admire , until the Natural Theologian steps in to make everv organ a text , and then the extreme complexity of the organism brin-in * £ ! ^ f ?^ ' ? " out of order" and thusnot onlto frustrate" is

    ! . ^ , , y original . ' design , but to become the source of frightful anguish , not only to the individual but to his innocent ^ descendants , makes the student pause then doubt , finally disbelieve . We know the answer which the Natural Theolo gmn has ready , but the answer satisfies no inquirer , stedfast for the truth We know , indeed , that an idiot at large has written a book he calls Gcd in Disease , m which he doubtless proves that Disease itself is an exquisite refinement ot benevolence , and exerts his ingenuity in showing how the vis me < 1 i ctttnx effects a cure ; omitting , of course , those cases in which it docs not effect a cure , and omitting all consideration of why cure was necessary why disease itself was ordained . J

    In truth , as long as man continues to make God in his own impoe to assume that the Divine Wisdom can only be Human Wisdom on a larger scale , and that Divine Benevolence can act only as human benevolence would act , there will continue to be a degradation of our religions conceptions and anarchy in our Churches . Why nofconfess our utter ignorance where knowledge is impossible ? Why pretend the Mystery is no Mystery , but that we can raise the veil and disclose the secret of the universe ? Which is the more reli attitude

    gious , that of the Theologian who studies Nature with a view of detecting the " admirable -contrivances" of the Creator , so that he may prove God to be a successful builder , carpenter , hunter , nurse , and warrior ( this is what Natural Theology , in so many words , attempts ) , and who thus ' explains ' the great mystery of life , or that of the Philosopher who , acknowledging the incommensurable nature of the mystery , bows reverently before it , and studies Nature that he may understand what is , rather than what \ vas intended ¦?• ... Our protest against the argument which forms the basis of Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation , has carried us so far that , although we have only touched the subject we have exhausted our limits . But as the work is too remarkable to be so passed over we shall recur to it next week for more detailed criticism .

    That The Argument From Desi Not Hicall 3...

    352 THE LEADER . FNo , 316 , sATURmv

    The Court Oe Austria. 3femoirs Of The Co...

    THE COURT OE AUSTRIA . 3 femoirs of the Court , Aristocracy , and -Diplomacy of Austria . Bv Dr . E Vtbse . Translated from the German by Franz Demrnler . In 2 . vote . " . Longmans . Dk . Vehse ' s long series of volumes entitled The History of the German Courts since the Reformation , has created a great sensation amon ' s two classes in Germany , neither of them , indeed , the most highly intellectual in the nation . One of these is the reading , but not well-read , class , and the other the royal—for in Germany royal families are numerous enough to form a class . j No books are more constantly " out" when yoii ask for them at the circulating libraries in Germany ; and almost every division of the series has been in its turn forbidden by the censorship of one ov other of the German Courts . In most of the German States , too > the presence of the author

    was even , less tolerated than that of his books , and at last he is expiating a little extra audacity or extra carelessness in relation to the Court of Wiirtemberg by a six months' imprisonment . What , then , is the character of these books which have the double honour of being at once popular and proscribed ? Are they attractive to the popular reader because they are written with the fascinating talent of a Macau lay , or dangerous to royalty because they are charged with democratic ideas' ? Neither the one nor the other . Dr . Vehse ' s memoirs are simply collections of historical ( and sometimes perhaps ivnhistorical ) facts and anecdotes , brought together with considerable industry , but without much art ; and , in many cases , being little more than afpatcli-worjc of extracts from a variety of sources , more or less accessible to the common reader . The ostensible reason for their proscription is , that they narrate a few falsehoods ; the real reason , probably , is that they narrate a great many inconvenient facts , casting

    anything but a favourable light on hereditary royalty and aristocracy : this , too , is the reason of their attractiveness for the public . Dr . Vehse ' s books satisfy curiosity , whereas German histories generally will satisfy nothing but the most philosophic and self-denying search after knowledge . He is neither a philosopher , an historian , nor a good writer 3 but simply a man who has n taste for historical details , and who has fallen on a vein of inquiry which nilortls abundant material for popular compilations . There is no trace of a peculiar animus against royalty and aristocracy in his books . He merely does not " believe in the great ns people believe in ghosts , " and he looks on kings , queens , and dukes and duchesses in the same light in which we most of us look at our common fellow-mortals—namely , as objects of unrestrained gossip . It is to Dr . Vehse ' s credit that , holding this point of view , he has abstained from making his memoirs of courts and aristocracies more of a chronique scandalouse , and that the worst fault he can be accused of is n too hasty and careless rcdnction of his materials .

    The Memoirs of the Court of Austria are amongst the most important ol ! Dr . Vehse ' s scries , occupying , in the ori g inal , eleven volumes . Having made our acquaintance with them in that original form , wo can appreciate the advantage now offered to readers , of an excellent English edition , reiiueod , by tho omission of uninteresting lists of officials , to the convenient size of two moderate octavo volumes , and in every way made more appetising by its new dreas . For , Dr , Vchse is one of thoso writers who have nothing to lose by translations ; and , in tho present case , wo have a translator who und erstands his business , and has performed it carefully . In this form , tho work is likely to be almost a . a popular in England n « in Germany , for it presents that coinpromise between amusement and " instruction" so precious to the members of Book Clubs . And tho history of tho Austrian court and aristocracy from the day s of the

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 12, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12041856/page/16/