But, though these things be thus disparate in their ordinary and in their ultimate manifestations, the}' are identical in their foundations and in their point of de- parture. It has been stated already that scientific rea- soning proceeds by way of deduction or of induction. Deduction, however, proceeds from premises which are either established by induction, or are received with-
edge." After the lapse of more than twelve hundred years, the Sage of Verulam reasserted the same posi- tion in a somewhat ditferent form in The Fable of Cu- pid, and again in the Novum Organon (1 Aph. Ixvi). Thus the founder of science, the most extreme of Transcendentalists, and the restorer of inductive phi- losophy, concur in recognising that science is not self- sustaining, but is dependent upon principles beyond the sphere of science. Their declarations, too, are no isolated testimonies, but are merely echoes of the con- victions of philosophers of tiie most divergent schools (Plato, Timmus, eh. i; Aristotle, 3Iet. iii, 4; x, 5, 6; Theophrastus, Met. v ; Alex. Aphrodisiensis, Schol. in Aristot. ed. Brandis, p. 525, 527, 592, 605, G53; Asclepi- ades, Ibid. p. 599; Ammonius, Ibid. p. 519; Des Car- tes, Med. ii ; Spinoza, De la R!forme de rEiitendement, O-^ucres, ii. 281, ed. Saisset. ; Leibnitz, <3/7e;Yr, i, p. cxliv, clxi, ed. Dutens). A remarkable testimony to the same effect was recently (Aug. 18G8) given by Prof. Tyndall in his introductory address before the Mathe- matical Section of the British Association.
It is not simply a metaphysical axiom, but an obvi- ous truism, that there can be neitiier definition nor demonstration of first principles^of those fundamen- tal and primary facts upon whicli not merely all knowledge, but all possibility of knowledge depends.
out demonstration ; and induction requires general [ Life is consciousness, not a conclusion of the reason
principles, not reached by induction, to render induc- tion possible. First principles admit of neither defini- tion nor proof. The conception of order, the admis- sion of the uniformity of natural laws, are not induc- tions. Supposing, however, that those things which
Personal identity admits neitiier proof nor denial. Mind escapes from the formulas of scientific knowl- edge ; matter cannot be seized or established b}' them. The theory of Boscovich maj- be invalid, but it cannot be disproved. Thus the very foundations of scien-
are confirmed by science, and receive their expansion ' tific knowledge rest upon faith, and upon faith only —
and development from science, are reached by scien- tific reasoning, still the conceptions of mind, matter, and similar primordial phenomena with which science deals are intuitive, and are accepted by an unreason- ing, tliough rational faitli. The}' are only perplexed and weakened i)y argumentation on the subject. The contrasted conceptions of mind and matter are uni- versally recognised as contrasted, even by those who deny tlie reality of matter, and represent it as a mere imago or phantasm of the mind ; and by those who deny the distinct character of mind, and profess to re- gard it as nothing more than a modification or efflores- cence of matter. The distinction is admitted, although the distinctness of essence or of substance l)e denied. So pressing is the intuitive consciousness of the con- trast that recent votaries of science, who would cashier the whole realm of faith, are compelled by an unavow- od and unsuspected instinct to disembody and to evap- orate, as well as despiritualize, the whole universe, which they pretend to explain by ascribing a purely apparent existence to facts and to the evolution of facts — a merely phenomenal validity to demonstrated changes and the laws of change. They make shad- ows chase shadows in a spectral world for the enter- tainment of shadowy observers. In tliis manner they convert the material and the intelligible universe into an impalpable phantasmagoria: they render it a re- flection upon the clouds, a giant of the Brocken, an in- tricate dance of fantastic unrealities. But the ghosts which they evoke from the dissipated forms of lieing are as intractable and as hostile as the s|)irits and iiod- ies which they have attempted to annihilate. Faith, the same in kind, though greater in degree, is required for the admission of such idok of mind and matter, and nothing is gained for their own jiurposes by em- bracing the cloud instead of the goddess.
upon faith in primitive facts — faith in the testimony of the senses — faith in our intellectual apprehensions. Accordingly, the faith which is supposed to make un- reasonable demands in requiring the acceptance of theological truths is equally, though not in an equal degree, required for scientific speculation. Science cannot commence its speculations witliout humbly re-' ceiving dogmas communicated and held by faith; it cannot ad.vance a single step without implicit acqui- escence in their truth, and without their necessary, though latent suppoit. On all sides we are encom- passed bv mj'stery. Eeligion and science thus spring from a common root. They address themselves in the first instance to a common characteristic of the intel- ligence. In both, faith must precede knowledge ; and in either, the celebrated maxim of St. Augustine finds its application; " Credo, vt intelligam ." They are twin sisters, sustained by a common life, nourished hy a common sustenance, illumined bj' the radiance pro- ceeding from a common fountain of light. Both re- quire TO Ottni' i//i'Y'}c ofif^in -a 6t1(i TrpoXafiScn'oi' ; and both may turn to the Father of Lights and exclaim, '■^ Atigdorum esca nutrivisti ptpulum tuum, et parntiim panem de cnlo prcesfitisti illis sine Inbore, omne dclecla- mentuin in se habent'-m et omnis saporis suavitatem."