The Supernatural in Nature: A Verification by Free Use of Science

Front Cover
Fb&c Limited, Jun 25, 2015 - Self-Help - 537 pages
Excerpt from The Supernatural in Nature: A Verification by Free Use of Science

A clear thinker, listening to the eloquence, acknowledging the skill, and honouring the zeal of those who exhibit their stores, is sadly conscious that - though, after all, science is simply common sense applied to somewhat recondite matters - scientific eyesight is not always scientific insight. Men of scientific research often neglect scientific thought: a neglect more sure to bring heartache than blossom to bring fruit.

The champions of materialism and agnosticism are most defective in the method of scientific thought. They seem incapable of rightly applying past experiences to new circumstances. Not looking sufficiently at things in general, they allow the enlargement of their partial and secular province to diminish, and sometimes to destroy - in their own minds - the vaster outlying regions. A kind of steeplechase philosophy is in vogue. Specialism assumes the functions and honours of universal ism. Materialists, by strangest solecism, use mind to subject Nature; and then, mental control being established, destroy mind, and give to matter the supreme capacity of that which has been destroyed. Science makes the meaning of things wider and more real, but they narrow all that is sacred. Mr. Ruskin says of them - "The use of the word 'scientia' as if it differed from 'knowledge' is a modern barbarism, enhanced usually by the assumption that the knowledge of the difference between acids and alkalis is a more respectable than that of the difference between vice and virtue." Not possessing inner vision, they govern hard from the outside instead of working up from within. They advocate degradation; for the changes which they further involve transition, not from the lower to higher, but from the higher to lower, degree of perfection.

This manifold error is a fault, partly due to the evil habit of regarding the outer world of matter, and the inner world of intelligence and emotion, as nothing more than the concave and convex of the same substance: error gross and grievous as - that pounds and pence make rich, and not heart and mind which bless or curse for ever.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Other editions - View all

Bibliographic information