English
Between this and the ingenious instrument of the Marquis of Worcester in 1663, what a number of centuries elapsed, during all which period the steam-engine was biding its time to be bom. The attempts, and successful attempts, of the priesthood to press down the free minds of men for their own profit — to restrict the wide pro- vince of reason — to solder firmly, and yet more firmly, about the wings of intellect* the fetters of ignorance and superstition, — these were the principal causes that so great a benefit to humanity lay for so long a time in darkness and unknown. But after the bold book of the Marquis of Worcester, that darkness was rapidly to be dispelled. The celebrated Kxii THEOLOGICAL progress. Frenchman, Papin, improved the improvement of Worcester, and New- comen and Cawley, in 1713, improved the improvement of Papin. Here a little and there a little, here a line and there a line, the steam-engine grew. It was not, as some of us unacquainted with the gradual progress of. both art and nature are apt to imagine, a sudden inspiration of Watt. No; Watt only added one conception — that of condensing the steam without cooling the cylinder ; but this conception was so important that all the other details of the engine, as we now see it, were of compara- tively easy introduction. It would be hopeless to attempt to give in an article like the present any clear explanation of the mechanism of the steam-engine — probably my readers are already well acquainted with it ; but I will add one word as to its importance. Statisticians reckon the quantity of steam power now employed in Great Britain alone as more than 3,000,000-horse power — an amount of animal force which could never in reality be brought into operation with- out extensive derangement of our whole economic system. It is beyond the strength of my feeble words to express a tithe of the advantages resulting from its use ; but I can and will ask you to look round about the habitable world, and see for yourselves the numerous applications of this mighty mechanical power, considered simply with reference to those lines of iron which intersect almost every portion of our globe. It is here, indeed, that enchanted carpet, the chariot of Eastern fable, which transports a man in a few moments, without any trouble on his own part, whithersoever he would go. But consider steam power as applied to automatic factory labour, steam printing, by which knowledge is diffused through the globe, mining, and a hundred other arts. And all this mighty force, which has raised the industrial arts to such a height, and continues every day to raise them higher— which has saved, and still continues to save, more and more of toil, sorrow, labour, and tears, to which theologians tell us we men, though innocent, are born, and which economizes for us so greatly our time, which is here so short ; — all this mighty force, this stupendous application of intellectual power, of un- chained reason contributing so much to human progress, may be readily managed by the instructed hand of a little child. Only one more instance, and I have done. It was observed in ancient time that when amber was rubbed, it acquired a power of attracting and THEOLOGICAL PROGRESS. XXiii repelling such light bodies as hair and feathers ; this power came after- wards to be known as electricity. None of ‘the ancients, however, investi- gated the subject methodically, none attempted the generalization of facts into a scientific theory. It was here, as it was with the ifiolipyle of Hero of Alexandria, in which the steam-engine of modem time lay for so long dormant. In this subject Dr. Gilbert, an English physician, occu- pies the place which the Marquis of Worcester occupied with respect to steam power. In 1600 he showed that not only amber, but other bodies possessed the property I have alluded to ; he made, in fact, the first step towards a generalization by the observation of facts. Baconian induction was now fairly started, and Boyle, Newton, and others added each his quota. In the middle of the eighteenth century Benjamin Franklin dis- armed the angry gods of half their power by identifying lightning with electricity. I cannot here enter into a consideration of the voltaic electricity of Galvani or the thermo-electricity of Professor Seebeck, of Berlin. But the grandest application of electricity is known as the magnetic elec- tricity of Faraday. That philosopher first succeeded in, causing the load- stone to produce a current of electricity of exactly the same kind as that produced by the chemical actions of the voltaic circle; and thus a common magnet took the place of the cumbrous apparatus of zinc, copper, and corrosive liquid. And now I come to the Electric Telegraph — the most wonderful and successful application of Electro-magnetism that has yet been made. From the simple principle that an electric current can pass along a con- ducting wire to any distance, and move a magnetic needle at any point of its course, messages are now conveyed between continents with the speed of lightning ; and Puck’s boast of putting a girdle round the earth in forty minutes, which seemed in Shakespeare’s time the work of a god, has now been placed within the easy reach of a woman by the aid of Faraday and Galvani. Not this only. That medical electricity which consoles the sufferer in many a nervous disease, is the electricity of Faraday. At the point of Dungeness, and from the noble Pharos of La Heve, a fair white light flashes across the waste of waters and satisfies the anxious longing of the watchful sailor. What but the electricity of Faraday has created this salutary shine ? XXiV THEOLOGICAL PROGRESS. In all these subjects I hare endeavoured to show the force of action. Action 4s the best prayer, and does it not meet with the highest reward? It is, indeed, through this prayer of intellectual labour that we are made really acquainted with the wonder, beauty, and wisdom of God. There is, I say, progress in all these matters ; but what progress have we made in the most vitally important of them all ? How, when, and where has the touchstone of Science been applied to Theology? Scarcely at all, in any place or at any time, has it felt that touch of celestial temper — a touch as light but as powerful, as silent but as effective, as the touch of the spear of Ithuriel on the toad which squatted in Paradise close at the ear of Eve. I ask, why is not the spirit of Science applied* to Theology, as to other less important subjects of human interest ? That method which has succeeded so excellently with gases, is it not worth trying whether it may not succeed equally well with gods? Why should our reason with regard to this domain only be rendered unfruitful ? Why should it lie, with regard to this only, in a dark and narrow room? Are we for ever easily to take on trust, confidently repeat, and willingly be satisfied with false explanations of what we do not understand? Though this subject be to us of the last importance, not here alone, but everywhere, religion is universally undeveloped. Why ? For want of action, and not ascertaining the nature of that action. I here quote a verse from an Hindu writer on Philosophy. I shall first present it in the vernacular, and then give its translation : — n ■arrenorr wnft Hirestf u 11 y* TnftiPi | “A knot of ignorance binds all men’s hearts, This action looses, and God’s grace imparts.” Let each man — be he Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan, Parsee, or of any other faith — ask this question of himself : whether in any one of these multifarious beliefs, dogmatical or doctrinal, the religious actions that he performs, are in any way to untie the knot of ignorance and pro- duce satisfaction ? A wise man, on reflection, will say, No. We have here the answer of soctal philosophy and of religion to a question of the most vital importance to man. Let me* make one more quotation d propos of THEOLOGICAL PROGRESS. XXV the proper subject of action, from that ancient language of India, the Aryan, or the Sanscrit : — “ Study all Scriptures written, near or far ; Worship all images and saints of earth ; But if you do not study who you are. All your best actions are nothing worth.” How many lectures might be delivered on such a sentence as this alone ! how many passages compared in how many languages, from the Greek rvooSu cteocvtov of Chilo to the modem aphorism of Pope, — “ The proper study of mankind is man.” But everywhere is stagnation ; stagnation in a world of action, of rest- less oceans, and rivers which flow eternally. Still on the murky pool of Theology floats the green infected slime of superstition. Is it not time for an angel to come down and trouble the waters of this spiritual Bethesda — now, alas ! an useless puddle or a fever-breeding morass ? What is the one thing .wanting which has hitherto rendered all attempts to purify Theology abortive ? What but active coalition ? Are we to consider fortuitous and superficial difference of creed, colour, or costume, any bar to an entrance into this mighty union ? Ought such a bar to be found in the arrogance of visible conversion, by baptism or other means, from one believed dogmatic religion to another ; or, in other words, in the consideration of the superiority of one religion over another ; nay, more, in the belief that one religion — our. own, of course — is true, and the word of God ; while all others, of which, perhaps, we scarcely understand even the language in which they are conveyed, are yet pro- nounced false, and the words of devils ? But men have been, in all ages, prone to superstition ; they have been always ready and willing to adopt opinions, handed down to them by their ancestors, the results of unin- quiring prejudice.