what doctrine of Christianity could forbid my acceptance of the 'Law of Substance' if the evidence in its favour seemed to me conclusive? Or does he mean to make it a reproach against Christianity that it has not taught the Law of Substance? That would be even more unintelligible, for the Christian Revelation has not been given to impart truths of the natural order; these are to be acquired by human reason. What does Haeckel mean?

But we are straying a little from our subject. Our aim with regard to this pretended incompatibility of science and religious faith is not to discuss the question directly, but rather to ascertain what was thought by the leaders of science themselves of the supposed antiChristian character of their discoveries. Let us turn first of all to the brilliant scientists to whom we owe the Mechanical Theory of Heat, and the Law of the Conservation of Energy, and ascertain whether they gave the same account of the significance of their discoveries as is given by Haeckel.

The first inquirer who was led by his researches to suggest that heat is a form of matter, and so to prepare the ground for the later view that it is a form of motion, was Count Von Rumford. His discovery was confirmed by Davy. The more modern determination of the relation between heat and mechanical work, and the first general statement of the Law of the Conservation of Energy we owe to the German scientist Robert Mayer. Independently of Mayer, perhaps, Helmholtz also enunciated the Law; and original statements of the relation between heat and mechanical work were also made in France by Hirn, and in England by Joule. The consequences of the Law of the Conservation of Energy

for the whole Cosmos were expounded by Clausius and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin).

Whatever is to be said of the American Benjamin Thompson, Count Von Rumford († 1814), who pursued his epoch-making researches in Munich, he certainly was no precursor of Haeckel. "Whatever were the feelings of Rumford towards men", writes G. Cuvier of him, "they did not diminish his respect for the Deity. In his writings he neglects no opportunity of expressing his pious admiration for Providence, and of proposing to the admiration of others the innumerable variety of safeguards which it has adopted for the conservation of its creatures." 1

Of Sir Humphry Davy († 1829) precisely the same can be said. His opposition to Materialism, and his conviction of the immortality of the soul and the existence of God find, more than once, clear and unambiguous expression. Thus in his "Last Days of a Philosopher' 2, a volume in dialogue form, written in

1 Quels que fussent au reste les sentiments de M. de Rumford pour les hommes (he had rather pessimistic and misanthropical views on this subject), ils ne diminuaient en rien son respect pour la Divinité. Il n'a négligé dans ses ouvrages aucune occasion d'exprimer sa religieuse admiration pour la Providence, et d'y offrir à l'admiration des autres les précautions innombrables et variées par lesquelles elle a pourvu à la conservation de ses créatures (Cuvier, Recueil des éloges historiques lus dans les séances publiques de l'Institut Royal de France II, Strasbourg-Paris 1819, 230). Cf. J. B. Dumas, Discours II 253; Allg. deutsche Biographie XX 655. For a general view of Rumford cf. Bence Jones, The Royal Institution: its Founders and its First Professors, London 1871, 1—113.

2 Consolation in travel or the Last Days of a Philosopher, in The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy, edited by his brother John Davy, IX, London 1840, 213.

his leisure hours towards the end of his life, Philalethes, who, in these conversations as in another connection "the Unknown" represents Davy's own views, says in the Fourth Dialogue, "Proteus or Immortality" 1:

"The doctrine of the materialists was always even in my youth, a cold, heavy, dull and insupportable doctrine to me, and necessarily tending to atheism. When I had heard with disgust in the dissecting rooms, the plan of the physiologist, of the gradual accretion of matter and its becoming endowed with irritability, ripening into sensibility and acquiring such organs as were necessary, by its own inherent forces, and at last rising into intellectual existence, a walk into the green fields or woods by the banks of rivers brought back my feelings from nature to God; I saw in all the powers of matter the instruments of the Deity. . . . Then my own mind I felt connected with new sensations and indefinite hopes, a thirst of immortality. These feelings, though generally considered as poetical, yet, I think offer a sound philosophical argument in favour of the immortality of the soul.'

112

Of religion "the Unknown" says in the same Dialogue:

"Its influence outlives all earthly enjoyments, and becomes stronger as the organs decay and the frame dissolves; it appears as that evening star of light in the horizon of life, which, we are sure, is to become in another season a morning star, and it throws its radiance through the gloom and shadow of death."3

In the next Dialogue, Davy defends the Science of Chemistry, and attempts to paint an ideal picture of the investigator in this field:

"It is surely", said the Unknown, "a pure delight. . . to produce as it were a microcosm in the laboratory of art,

1

Concerning the identity of Philalethes and the "Unknown", cf. ib. I, London 1839, 433-438.

and to measure and weigh those invisible atoms, which, by their motions and changes according to laws impressed upon them by the Divine Intelligence, constitute the universe of things. The true chemical philosopher sees good in all the diversified forms of the external world. Whilst he investigates the operations of infinite power, guided by infinite wisdom, all low prejudices, all mean superstitions disappear from his mind."1 "I do not mean that he should affix written prayers and inscriptions or recommendations of his processes to Providence, as was the custom of Peter Wolfe, who was alive in my early days; but his mind should always be awake to devotional feelings, and in contemplating the variety and the beauty of the external world, and developing its scientific wonders he will always refer to that infinite wonder, through whose beneficence he is permitted to enjoy knowledge; and, in becoming wiser, he will become better; he will rise at once in the scale of intellectual and moral existence, his increased sagacity will be subservient to a more exalted faith, and in proportion as the veil becomes thinner, through which he sees the causes of things, he will admire more the brightness of the divine lights, by which they are rendered visible.” 2

These passages were written by Davy for publication. But in his diaries and letters we find the same ideas. We cite a few examples:

"April 6. 1827. Did not shoot, but returned thanks to the Great Cause of all being for all His mercies to me, an undeserving and often ungrateful creature, but now most grateful. May I become better and more grateful and more humble-minded every day.

September 2. I took my exercise well with less fatigue, and certainly feel better. Offered up my thanksgiving to the O. O. O.3 with tears of gratitude and feelings of intense adoration.

1 Collected Works LX 361.

3 Instead of the name of God,

2 Ib. IX 367.

Davy writes, here as elsewhere, O. O. O., instead of "Thanks be to God", he writes frequently only G. O. O. O., i. e. gratias Omnipotenti or Omniscienti.

September 27. St. Goar....

As I have so often alluded

to the possibility of my dying suddenly, I think it right to mention that I am too intense a believer in the Supreme Intelligence, and have too strong a faith in the optimism of the system of the universe, ever to accelerate my dissolution. The laurel-water, laudanum, and opium that are in my dressing-case are medicines. I have been and am taking a care of my health which I fear it is not worth, but which, hoping it may please Providence to preserve me for wise purposes, I think my duty G. O. O. 0.1

June 3. 1828. Aussee in Steiermark. I indulge in the idea that you are well and happy and enjoying a life which I can say I only support supposing that it please Omniscience to preserve me for some ends which I cannot understand, but which I trust belong to the great plan of goodness and mercy belonging to the Divine mind."

For the Protestant religious ethos Davy showed little liking, at least in the latter part of his life. But it is worthy of note that he regarded the Catholic Church and the Catholic spirit with the greatest friendliness. The influence of the Catholic religion on the mass of the people, the hearty festive joy of their Sunday in contrast to the Puritanical restraint of the English Sabbath impressed him vividly. In this connection his brother writes 3:

"The obedience which the Church requires, the submission of reason, the unlimited faith, he considered favourable to religious feeling, and the securest harbour for the unfortunate and afflicted, the strongest hold against popular schism, scepticism, and fanaticism; and in accordance with the faculties and wants of the human mind, especially as regarding its affections. On the latter point he expresses him

1 Memoirs of the Life of Sir Humphry Davy, by his brother John Davy, in Collected Works I 345 376 381.

2 Letter to his brother John, ib. I 388.

3 Collected Works I 431.