If the great intellect of an Owen can from the fragment of a bone draw out and prophesy the whole animal, it is because he has never degraded himself to the mere menial scrutiny of the part, without also surveying the whole. It is his knowledge of the whole which enables him to interpret the part. And what is true of each subordinate and ancillary science is true of physical science as a whole in relation to the science of morals—of man and of his God. If that physical science is to become anything else but a bare and barren chaos of fact, if it is to presume to crystallize, inject, and breathe into those facts life and power by theory (and without theory, what is their value?), it must have recourse to the sister sciences which deal with mind and spirit. Great prudence, great caution, great jealousy will be legitimate, where great evil has before arisen from such a commerce; when presumptuous imaginations have argued rashly from theories of a moral and divine nature to facts of physical science. Proscribe all such madness; but do not proscribe, do not shrink, as if ashamed, from one great and sovereign Science, which comprehends the laws of laws, the cause of causes, and, so far as it is cognizable by man, the whole theory of the universe, its end and object. Survey the whole field of matter, ascend from step to step of organized creation, till you come to man. But then embrace the whole range of human nature and human history, omitting nothing, if you would theorize from the observation of man to an explanation of the mysteries of Nature, and of Nature's God. You do so already in part. Every theory of physical science, every law that is imagined, every attempt to connect it with the unity, or the intelligence, or the benevolence of a Creator, is in reality an hypothesis borrowed from the science of man-of man not as a mechanism of matter, but as a moral and intellectual spirit. Comprehend the whole of human history, comprehend what it professes to offer-God's own account of the Divine Creator, of His creation, of His destined end for man, of His objects in creation, of His intentions towards it, of His own nature; comprehend this, if only as hypothesis, and try, if it does not lead to sounder and juster views of physical science, views more exactly conformable to the true logic of induction, than any which can possibly be suggested by partial and narrow-minded imaginations, which, while they pretend to proscribe all communication with the theology of Christianity, are really deriving all their inspiration from an idolatry of their own. ART. ART. IV.-1. Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of OF F all the labourers in the field of science since the world began, it is remarkable that there is but one who has attained a popular as distinguished from a scientific fame. There are multitudes whose achievements are recognised in the republic of science, and not a few whose names are honoured throughout the educated classes of every country within the range of civilization; but if we were to seek for a reputation which has not only illumined the study of the recluse and the salons of society, but has penetrated even to the nursery and the cottage, we should have to travel beyond the bounds of physical or mathematical science to find another name to set beside that of Newton. Columbus and Galileo might perhaps be cited as parallel instances; but it was the adventures of the one, and the torture supposed to have been inflicted upon the other, that made their names familiar to a wider circle than a scientific reputation commonly embraces. Those who love to dilate upon the unerring instincts of the mass of mankind may fancy that they find in this unexampled appreciation of the glory of the great English philosopher an additional proof of their untenable theory; while the more sceptical observers of the progress of human affairs may be tempted rather to question the title of Newton to the solitary eminence which has been awarded to him, than to acknowledge the sagacity with which people of all ranks, and the learned of all nations, have concurred in the selection of their chief scientific hero. There is a flavour of truth about both of these extreme views. That the popular verdict which has placed Newton on a pedestal apart from all rivals, whether contemporary or of an earlier or a later age, is right, is established by the common consent of all who have proved themselves qualified to pronounce upon so high a controversy, and is confirmed by every additional detail which the industry of our times has brought to light of the pursuits and the methods of the greatest inquiring mind which has ever grappled with the problems of nature. If it did not appear a somewhat presumptuous limiting of the possible capacities of the human race, it might almost be said with confidence not only that Newton stands by himself, above all who went before him, and all who have followed in the century and a half of brilliant scientific discovery which has elapsed since his death, but that it is (so far as any such speculation can be trusted) impossible that any competitor can ever place himself on the same level with Vol. 110.-No. 220. 2 D the the great interpreter of the motions of the heavens and the earth. No one can say that the genius which guided Newton through his rapid career of discovery may not be equalled or surpassed in some future age of human progress; but the force of Lagrange's observation must ever remain, that there can only once be found a system of the universe to establish. On the other hand, it is not difficult to discover many reasons for the broad expanse and the deep root of Newton's fame, which have but a remote connection with the merit of which that fame is the enduring memorial. The laws which govern the award of fame would furnish a curious subject of inquiry. The principles on which the critic or the historian acts, in meting out the due meed of praise to each workman on that great temple of science which has occupied all past generations, and must remain unfinished by the labours of all generations to come, are very different from those on which the judgment of universal opinion, with a justice of its own,'is based. The dignity of the subject matter has at least as much voice in the decrees of fame as the powers displayed by the rival aspirants for the honour of an immortal reputation. The artist who decorates a chapel or a shrine, may show as much excellence as the architect who designs a cathedral; but the grandeur of his work reflects a lustre on the one which his fellow-workman may in vain aspire to share. So, in the conduct of the affairs of the world, the greatness of the sphere in which a man has lived has far more to do with his enduring reputation than the sagacity or the heroism which he may have displayed. The same powers which, in the ruler of an empire, would insure an immortality of fame, may be exhibited by the governor of a province with no other reward than the cold approbation of his superiors, followed by the oblivion which has settled on many of the greatest names. This truth is quite as observable in the history of science as in that of politics or art. Another extensive influence which warps the estimate formed by posterity of distinguished leaders of thought or action, is supplied by national prejudice. Let the career of a man be identified in any way with national aspirations, national pride, or national jealousy, and there is scarcely any limit to the glory which he may acquire within the bounds of his own country. In honouring him, his fellow-countrymen feel that they are in some sort honouring themselves; and the vanity of self-love exercises a sway all the more potent, because it is disguised under the semblance of a disinterested hero-worship. Even more than either of these mighty forces, the all-pervading power of theological sentiment works with facts, or in spite of facts, in the laboratory where living deeds are transmuted into posthumous fame. No country, and no form of faith, is free from the imputation of having distorted history for the sake of glorifying those who were in any way identified with the national creed; and there is perhaps no influence which has so misplaced the statues in the temple of fame, as the religious sympathy which will ascribe nothing less than perfection to the memory of the great men with whom it delights to link itself by the association of a common faith. There is, perhaps, some doubt how far a factitious admiration may gradually consolidate into a lasting worship. Something of the operation of this principle may be traced in the singular arrangement of the names of men of secondary eminence in poetry or art; and though the higher reputations, in every department of human life, seem to have been achieved by more natural influences, modern times have exhibited in such perfection the art of manufacturing opinion, that those (and there are many such) who are disposed to question the common verdict on any subject merely because it is the common verdict, have some plausible grounds to go upon when they class the artificial development of opinion among the influences which must be weighed in analyzing the value of a popular reputation. It must be conceded that all these varied forces, with the exception of the last, have co-operated in the formation of the estimate of Newton, which has received the enduring impress of a national if not of a universal judgment; and it is not surprising that occasional attempts should have been made by paradoxical thinkers to explain away the great pre-eminence of Newton, and to elevate some of his contemporaries and predecessors to a position more nearly on a par with that of the discoverer of universal gravitation. To those who feel the sincerest veneration for the name of Newton, all such endeavours ought to afford the highest gratification; for, although it is undoubtedly true that Newton lived in an age of scientific giants, whom no genius short of his own could have dwarfed, it is not the less true that the most anxious scrutiny of all conflicting pretensions leaves the grand monopoly of glory to the philosopher who has ever since worn the crown by almost universal consent. To those, however, who desire to mingle candour with their admiration, it is not permitted to ignore the subsidiary forces which have helped to lift the name of Newton to an unapproached and unapproachable elevation, and have made it fill a space so entirely without parallel in the records of discovery. It is a favourite and a just reflection of divines, that the perfection of 2D2 the the Creator's work is as manifest in the marvellous revelations of the microscope as in the stupendous mechanism which the telescope discloses to the instructed human eye; and no true philosopher will doubt that there is as much room for penetrating genius in the one direction as the other. In both we seem to approach to the confines of the infinite as the unfathomable idea presents itself to our imperfect apprehensions. If the contemplation of the starry heavens overwhelms us with a sense of the sublime order which rules the universe, and delights us with the discovery of those principles of eternal or almost eternal stability which have governed the motions of our own and distant systems since the creation day, the discoveries which have been brought to light in the minute field of the microscope have taught us the amazing depths to which the principle of life descends, and have laid bare to our vision the machinery by which the solid rocks of our earth have been consolidated from the ruins of earlier systems and the débris of animal existence. The colours of a soap-bubble involve a theory as recondite as the everlasting circling of the planets, or the erratic mystery of a comet's path; but the attraction of the most happy speculations into the phenomena which present themselves on the surface of our own planet, has never enthralled the human mind with the same power as those discoveries which seem to make the boundless universe do homage to the penetrating instinct of man. It is not necessary to go beyond the life of Newton himself to find an illustration of this truth. Scarcely less ingenuity, and fully as much originality, went to his optical investigations as were required to solve the one great problem of the heavens. Perhaps even more of the subtle acuteness of the mathematician was displayed in the invention, or, if that word may not be used, in the generalisation, of the fluxional method of investigation, than in the propositions of the 'Principia,' by which the laws of planetary motion were brought into obedience to the single principle of universal gravitation. But let the reader for a moment imagine himself removed from the circle of scientific knowledge, and from the indirect sway which it exercises over the whole area of cultivated society, and strive to think of Newton as he is thought of by thousands who help to give universality to his fame, and the image which will present itself will not be that of the mathematician who invented a new language by which to hold converse with the subtleties of natural science; nor even of the philosopher who unravelled the twisted skein of light, and anatomised the rainbow, and penetrated with loving assiduity into the secrets of the colour which adorns the world; but he will merely see before him the man who seized the heavens in his intellectual grasp, and promul gated |