The creation and the early developments of society

Preface

This little work is written in no spirit of controversy. It is not an attempt to reconcile Science and Religion. The author does not believe there is any necessary conflict between them, but that each has a realm of its own — each is capable of sustaining itself — and that, clearly interpreted, each may contribute something to the other, without invalidating its own premises or subverting its own conclusions.

He leaves the popular theories, therefore, to fall into line with each other or out of line, as the case may be, without any attempt to place a forced meaning on a word, or to draw any conclusions from scientific data that ascertained facts will not reasonably warrant.

He desires hereby to express his obligations to Rev. A. G. Gaines, D.D., President of St. Lawrence University, for valuable criticisms ; to Rev. I. M. Atwood, D.D., of the Canton Theological School^

PREFACE.

who kindly examined a portion of his manuscript ; to Profs. J. D. Dana and B. Silliman, of Yale College, and Prof. J. S. Newberry, of Columbia College, for personal favors received during the preparation of his book.

He has also availed himself of the published writings of Rev. Thomas Hill, D.D., late President of Harvard University ; of Rev. F. H. Hedge, D.D., from whom the subject of one of these lectures is borrowed with the author's consent, and to Dr. J. W. Dawson, of McGill College, Montreal, though from the latter he differs somewhat widely on various points.

J. H. C.

Meriden, Conn.

Contents

CHAP. PAGE

I.— Primeval Chaos i

II. — Light 19

I. Primeval Chaos

' In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.'

:' Not to the domes, where crumbling arch and column Attest the feebleness of mortal hand, But to that fane, most catholic and solemn, Which God hath planned."

— Longfellow.

" The tokens of a central force, O'erlap and move the universe ; The workings of the law whence springs The rhythmic harmony of things, Which shapes in earth the darkling spar, And orbs in heaven the morning star."

PRIMEVAL CHAOS.

The world exists. Whence came it, and what was the order in which its several parts appeared ? We live in the world and

^r stated.

hold various relations to our fellow-men. How came these relations to exist, and what were the first steps toward the formation of society as it is to-day ?

Such are the themes of our discourse in the Series of Lectures we now begin.

We assume the championship of no theory whatever — Scientific or Religious — but propose, with such helps as may be at command, to trace out what seems the most reasonable theory of the origin of the world, with its marvellous harmony and arrangements ; and then, of the first few steps in the progress of human events out of which came social order and civil institutions.

For the sake of simplicity we shall,

treatment.

as far as may be, avoid the use of merely technical names and terms, and employ words in common use. When for want of a convenient substitute it is necessary to use terms not entirely familiar, we shall turn aside from the line of discussion to explain them briefly, that when we proceed we may go on understanding^ together. Two or three such words occur in the opening lecture, and others will appear from time to time.

So to our undertaking.

Sir Isaac Newton sat one day, it is said, examining a new artificial globe of superior design and workmanship, when an Atheistic friend with whom he had had frequent discussions entered the room, and after admiring the new globe asked the very natural question, " Who made it?" To which the philosopher replied, " Nobody ; it happened." Such an answer to such question strikes us at once as not only unreasonable but absurd, and yet it is substantially the answer the Atheist must give to the question, " Who made the world ? "

We are unable to account for the existence of anything having manifest marks of de-

The world . . , . "

sign, contrivance or adaptation of means to ends, except on the supposition that it was conceived and planned by intelligence and wrought into shape by skill and power.

It will hardly satisfy any exacting mind to say that if there are sufficient causes in existence to produce a given result, that explains the result. It may explain the cause, it does not explain the occasion for the thing itself. If, passing by a field where a plough stands in the furrow, we are asked why such an implement was made, it is not sufficient to say, " The force in the blacksmith's arm and the skill of the worker in wood caused it to take form." It was meant for a specific purpose and constructed for a definite use.

And so our reason forces us back of the world to a cause beyond the world. Some p

It is not within the range of our pres- er beyond ent purpose, however, to attempt to prove the worldthe existence of a Creator; but taking that for granted, to inquire by and through what processes the world was made to assume the form and nature which it has. We set out, hence, with the assumption stated in the opening of the book of Genesis, that " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

If the earth was created, manifestly there was a time when it was not, and therefore a time when it began to be.

We do not attempt to fix the date of this event, or even to guess how long since the work bep;an. For if we suppose it

° x l Creation

but six thousand years since man appeared on the earth — a supposition for which there is no sufficient reason in Scripture or elsewhere — that does not help us to determine how long before that the process of world-making began. We can only say it was before all other recorded events, or as the Hebrew record states it, " In the beginning."

We do not attempt to dogmatize as to the meaning of the word " create." It some-

The word . 7 . 7 . -

times means to produce absolutely, that is

create. r y 7

to originate — and sometimes to shape and set in order. In this passage it may include both meanings, both the originating of substance or material, and the shaping or setting in order, since, so far as we have any means of ascertaining, up to this time, space was tenantless and the uni. verse was silent ; an abysmal depth without an occupant. This, of course, we do not absolutely know, but back of that we have no record in nature or elsewhere.

Hutton, a distinguished Scotch geologist of the

last century, assumed that science had theor nothing to do with the origin of things, that it dealt only with existing causes, and that, therefore, anything beyond the range of causes now in operation was out of the reach of science. And on this theory he says : " In the economy of the world I find no traces of a beginning, no prospect of an end." This statement is now regarded as too broad, for in the gradual change and wearing away of things, there is a prospect of an end, whatever may be said of the beginning. And the words already quoted give us our only starting-point : " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

But it must be said of this account that it merely states the fact, without any attempt to explain the processes involved, merely stated And for this there was sufficient reason. It was important, in a religious point of view, that men should be persuaded that this world was the work of an intelligent and powerful Creator. The course and method of the work were of less concern. The fact is stated, but there is no clue whatever here to the processes.

If, now, we wish to know something of the processes by which the work of creation was wrought, we must turn to an entirely different field.

What, then, has Science to tell us of the origin of things.

The first condition in which science _ ory°

science.

assumes to recognize the world is that of a vast nebula, embracing all the matter now contained in the solar system ; and though it has been propounded, disputed, accepted, and then doubted again, the most reasonable and best attested theory of the origin of the world, is that known as the nebular hypothesis. A nebula is a vaporous or filmy substance, more tenuous than the comet's tail, or the thinnest portions of the milky way. Tyndall not inaptly terms it "stardust," and Herschell more accurately describes it as " an impalpable haze," as it has no more appearance of solidity or substance than the most delicate or subtile cloud.

The nebular hypothesis may be briefly indicated thus : If we sweep the heavens

The nebular . . . i • 1

th is w a te^escoPe» on anv clear night, we may observe nebulae at frequent intervals ; some having the appearance merely of a very tenuous cloud, others with a small nucleus at the centre, surrounded by a vaporous substance, denser near the centre, and thinning toward the edges, as if it were gradually condensing to a solid substance. Such bodies, larger or smaller, have inhabited the heavens during the whole period covered by history and tradition, and probably from the beginning until now. And each of the solid planets, like the earth, was once a nebula. Then, as to the origin of these several bodies, they were at first all one. Far back in the remotest ages, or in the very beginning, all the depths of space were filled with this impalpable substance. By the law of gravitation, it assumed a spherical form, as any substance will whose particles are free to move, as the tear upon the cheek, or the dewdrop on the grass, is round ; and the whole mass had a rotary or whirling motion, for law and energy were already operating upon it. That is to say, it was not a chance agglomeration of waste atoms, rolling through space on a fruitless errand ; it was the material of which this complete and wonderful world was to be constructed : it was intended for something, and to that end energy was put into it, and law controlled it from the first.

As this vast body wheeled on through space, portions of its bulk became detached from time to time, as water flies from the surface of a wheel in rapid motion; or, an exterior ring became detached, as the centrifugal force overcame the centripetal, and this ring first breaking up became aggregated in a single mass. And this process was repeated from time to time. However the separation may have taken place, the parts so detached not only continued the whirling or rotary motion, each on its own account, but received also an additional motion, dependent on the attraction of gravitation, which sent it in a circuit about the central mass. And from that time forth it had a separate existence, was a separate nebula, still retaining, however, something of the

IO THE CREATION.

energy, and obeying the law that controlled it from the beginning.

How many of these lesser bodies were detached from time to time from the cen-

. , tral mass, or whether the process still

nebulas. ' r

goes on, we have no certain means of knowing, nor is it of any consequence in the discussion that lies before us.

In process of time, however, the vast central body, or what remained of it, shapeless and dark at first, became the sun that gives us light and heat to-day — and one of the detached portions became the solid earth on which we live. Our first knowledge of the earth, then, so far as science is able to lead us back, is that of a nebula — a tenuous, cloudy mass, embracing in an intensely heated state, all the material that have since entered into the various forms of rock and air and soil and sea.

It may seem a marvellous thing that the solid substance of this earth could ever have been in the form of a cloud or vapor,

Steam. * '

not only the waters and the soils, but even the metallic ores, the iron and the gold, and the almost imperishable granite, flint, and trap. But we need not go far to prove that such a thing is possible. Take a piece of ice at dead of winter, and few things seem harder or more un-

PRIMEVAL CHAOS. II

yielding ; subject it to heat, and it becomes a fluid, losing all its shape and hardness. Then put that water into the boiler of a locomotive, and as the train moves off, a white cloud streams away like a snowy banner. What is it ? We call it steam. It is the same substance precisely that was ice an hour before, but no longer solid ice, or liquid water, it is a vapor. If, now, instead of allowing the steam to be dissipated in the air we could collect it in a cooling vessel, as we may from the spout of a tea-kettle, it would become water again, and if subjected again to cold, would assume the solid form in which we found it when we began our experiment. And thus it is proven that the substance, the material is the same, only different in form in these three states. And, now, what has been so often done with water, may be done with most if not all substances of which we have any knowledge.

Matter may exist in any of these forms, solid, liquid, or vapor. Iron may be melted,

, . . * r .1 i • i Three forms

that is, changed from the solid to a

& of matter.

liquid state. And, as in the case of ice

changed to water, it needs only to be more

highly heated to become a vapor.

And the same may be said, so far as experiment has been made, of all the materials of rock and ores that make up the substance of the earth.

Hence we conclude that the nebula of which the earth was made embraced all these materials, so dissolved and attenuated by heat, there was no more density or apparent solidity than in the cloud that floats now against a summer sky. Rather unsubstantial material this may seem to make a world of, in which mankind are to live, create industries, and build their monuments. But so seems the steam as it streams away from the locomotive, but which in a very short time may be ice again.

That the earth was once heated far beyond its present temperature, is evident from the fact that many of the hardest rocks are simply cooled masses that were once in a state of mobility. It may still be seen how they boiled up and overflowed, and ran out in this direction and in that, like heated tar, till they cooled so as to preserve their shape. Also, melted matter, that on cooling assumes the character of rock, is still thrown out from the interior of the earth by volcanoes, so that the former fluid and heated condition of the earth is not a mere theory, it proves itself to everyone who has eyes to see.

Again, Astronomy tells us that our globe has _ . . the form at present, that of a sphere

Conclusions r r

from depressed at the poles, that would be ,' taken by a mass in a fluent state subjected to such conditions.

And if the earth was once heated to a molten state, it only required a higher heat to reduce it to a gaseous, that is to say, a nebulous condition. And, therefore, the nebular theory of the origin and formation of the earth, is not only every way reasonable, but in good degree absolutely proven. Indeed Prof. Guyot, ill a paper read in September, 1874, before the Evangelical Alliance in New York, stated that it had been demonstrated in an exhaustive mathematical calculation, by Prof. Alexander, of Princeton. Whether finally settled or not, this may at present be regarded as the theory of science, the one that best ex- theory plains the known facts.

One thing more we must notice before we pass, to indicate the changes that came upon this nebula in its progress toward the completion of the world.

If the earth came originally from the sun, it must be that the material in the two are The earth the same; and it has been one of the andsunsimi-

lar in compo-

latest triumphs of science to prove this sition. fact — that the material of which the sun is composed, and the substance of which the earth is made, are one and the same, and may, therefore, well have come from a common laboratory.

For a long time the sun defied all attempts to analyze its substance. We could survey its surface, and note its movements, but what its composition was, was a matter of pure conjecture. But the spectroscope now enables us to determine its substance, even more accurately than the telescope reveals its form and motions.

The spectroscope is an instrument invented some twenty years ago, by two German professors at Heidelberg;.* It consists es-

scope. * =»

sentially of a series of prisms, and is used to determine the composition of a substance by the bright lines in its spectrum. Let us briefly explain. It has long been known that white light, as the clear light of the sun, is composed of seven colors — called the prismatic colors — so combined as to neutralize each other, producing white light. If a ray of sunlight be passed through a prism and thrown upon a screen, the colors are separated, and so separated are called the spectrum of the sun. A spectrum may also be produced by any other kind of light.

It has been found further, that while a heated solid or liquid substance produces a con-

. . tinuous spectrum — that is, one in which

analysis. 1

the colors are closely matched together — that a heated gas or vapor produces a broken spectrum — that is, consisting of bright bands or lines of light, separated by dark intervening spaces.

* Professors Bunsen and Kirchoff, 1857.

Of nearly seventy chemical elements* known to exist in nature, each produces a spectrum peculiar to itself, and therefore the composition of any substance may be determined, when reduced to a vapor, by the bright lines it yields in the spectrum, by the number of those lines, or by the order of their occurrence with reference to the dark spaces that intervene.

Now the sun produces all kinds of light. If, however, a vapor of any kind cross the path of the sun-ray — in other words, if the ray be made to pass through a gaseous substance — a dark band will appear in the spectrum, and in that part of it the color of which is produced by the like substance. That is the substance absorbs in one condition what it produces in another.

The application of spectrum analysis to the sun, therefore, is on this wise. It is observed, _

Spectrum an-

for instance, that burning sodium, the basis aiysis applied of common salt, produces a yellow flame, and that in the spectrum produced by such flame, the yellow assumes the form of a broad bright band in a particular position ; and that in the solar spectrum this bright band is replaced by a dark

* Prof. J. N. Lockyer, of London, on the strength of some recent experiments, ventures the suggestion that all the elements may yet be found reducible to the single element Hydrogen. The theory lacks confirmation, and seems as yet to command little or no confidence among scientific men.

i5

THE CREATION.

band of corresponding proportions. Why is this ? The matter is easily explained. Any element will absorb the kind of light it produces. If the color in the solar spectrum is absorbed, it must be by the same element that produces it. If the sodium band is absorbed — replaced by a dark band — it shows the presence of sodium in the sun.

The same rule holds good of other substances.*

Thallium yields a green band ; lithium a red

band, with a thin orange one ; hydrogen

different sub- three bands, a red, a green, and a blue

one. And so on, each holding in every

case its own exact position. And these all have

their corresponding bands in the spectrum of the

sun ; whence we are led, rather driven to the

conclusion that all these substances exist in the

sun, as they are known to exist in the earth.

It is too much, as yet, to say all the elements

Sun and found in one appear in the other, for in-

Earthidenti- vestipration has not eone so far: the sci-

cal in sub- ° °

stance. ence is comparatively new. But sufficient has been learned to warrant the presumption that the earth and sun are identical in substance, and without any reasonable doubt had a common origin. By this method of analysis we not only learn of what material the sun consists, but have also a very certain clue as to its condition.

* See lithographic chart (frontispiece).

PRIMEVAL CHAOS. I J

These elements show their colors only when heated. We must hence conclude that the sun, which shows all these colors so

the Sun

vividly, is in a highly heated state, even if we had not sufficient evidence of that fact from the light and heat that we obtain from the sun. These considerations, some of which are of quite recent development, are regarded in the scientific world as practically settling the matter that the earth was once a nebula that came from the sun. What, then, must have been its appearance at this early date ?

It is easy to understand that when all space was filled with this vaporous substance, a dense darkness must have been in and over all — darkness was on the face of the deep, or the abyss, for as yet there was no sun or moon or star, as they exist to-day ; and when the change had proceeded so far that both earth and sun had assumed definite forms and motions, even approaching a solid mass at centre, that still surrounded by a deep belt ot vapor, steam, or cloud, there wrould be no light. Impenetrable darkness would hover over all, until by processes at first unknown, the conditions should be gradually modified and the original nebula pass upon that series of changes for which it was evidently destined, and through which it is passing still. We have to do in this discourse, however, merely with the beginning — that chaos out of which order came.

So let us, in closing, mark well the correspondence between the theory of Science here- Conclusion, in set forth and the opening sentences of the book of Genesis.

The one tells us of a nebulous mass, already yielding obedience to the plastic touch of energy and law, already preparing for a grand career of development into forms of usefulness and beauty, but enveloped still in deep clouds, a desolate and shapeless waste, incapable as yet, of supporting life. The other tells us that, " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form, and void ; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."

The correspondence could hardly be more striking or complete.

II. Light

" Let there be light."

' Hail ! holy light, offspring of heaven, first born, Or of the eternal co-eternal beam."

" They say The solid earth whereon we tread, In tracts of fluent heat began."

" God said, ' Let there be light.' Grim darkness felt his might, And fled away ;

The startled seas and mountains cold Shone forth, all bright in blue and gold, And cried, ' 'Tis day ! 'Tis day ! ' "

II.

LIGHT.

In the first lecture we collected the material of which to build the world, and so far as we were able determined its origin.

We are to speak now of the Origin of e s" je Light, with special reference to the time in the order of creative events at which it appeared.

If, to dispose of that matter at once, we turn to the account in the book of Genesis, we find these words in connection with the first mention of the subject : " The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be licrht ; and there was licjht."

& *> record.

Again, a brief, concise statement of the fact, without any attempt to explain the processes by which it was done. It is simply that the great and mighty one who evoked the completed world from chaos, did at this point cause light to appear. It would not be in place here to speculate as to the precise meaning of the passage, " The spirit of God moved on the deep." The word translated spirit is sometimes rendered breath, and sometimes wind or breeze, so that there is opportunity for speculation, for such as have the time and disposition. We prefer rather to regard the passage simply as a reverent recognition of the power and wisdom manifest in the changes that came by degrees over the dark abysmal depth, since these were not fortuitous happenings that might come to something or might come to nothing, but the systematic development of a plan devised and determined before the work began, and in which, therefore, every change and every movement contributed to the result intended from the first. And to express this idea in brief, no words could be more fitting than these, The Spirit of God moved upon the chaotic deep. It was the first beating of nature's pulse, " the first throbbing of her mighty heart."

Another mention is made of light farther on in this account. But there was reason for the wide separation of the two events, which will appear as we proceed. And with this brief statement of the ancient Hebrew record, we turn, as before, to an entirely different field of inquiry.

What, then, has Science to teach us "gl"° of the origin of light and date of its appearance.

First of all, let us keep in mind the substance with which we have to deal and of which we spoke in the preceding lecture. Chaos means confusion. The nebula was but a subtle vapor. As yet nothing had assumed definite form or character. There was the germ of worlds, but no world. There were the elements of water and air and light, while as yet there were none of these, none of the chemical combinations or mechanical unions so familiar to us now ; and the various changes in nature that we know so well to-day, had not begun. There was absolutely nothing but the dark chaotic deep. But while it is possible to conceive of the original nebula as dark — for dark as well as luminous nebulae still exist — we cannot suppose it continued long in absolute darkness, for one of the first effects of chemical action would be the production of light, though that light might be long obscured by overlying vapors.

We need not concern ourselves here with the nature of light — whether, according to the older physicists it is luminous matter ra- * ure °

r J Light.

diated with immense velocity from the light-giving body or centre, or according to the more recent and probable theory that it is merely the undulations of a universally diffused ether. Either theory will answer our present purpose.

For the sake of convenience in this discussion we shall speak of ligdit as of „ ,

1 ° Solar Light

two kinds, cosmic and solar; the first produced by chemical action in the nebula itself, the other coming from the sun. This use of the term, " cosmic " may be open to criticism, but we use it for want of a better, meaning by it just what is stated, light caused by the nebula of the earth itself, after it was thrown off from the greater mass. It may, therefore, be called earth light or world light. While by solar light is meant that proceeding from the sun.

And now, going back to the point at which we left the incipient earth in the former lecture, let us carefully observe what changes came about. We deal now with the earth nebula, leaving for the time, all the others out of the account.

There is a dark nebulous mass, some two thousand times as great in diameter as the

e e present earth, floating or wheeling its am-

ple bulk through space.

But as steam does not remain steam long after exposure to the air, but changes to a

The nebula . r . . ,

denser form occupying so much less

changing'. L J °

space, so this vast vaporous body had not proceeded far in its course till the outer portions began to condense, or change toward a liquid and then a solid form, by which operation, of course, the mass was being continually reduced in size. The heavier particles gradually gathered toward the centre, forming the nucleus possibly of a solid globe, while the greater part still remained, a sort of cloudy envelop about it. But while the steam from the locomotive may change to a mist that we feel upon the face, or fall like scattered rain-drops on the ground, leaving their imprint in the dust, this nebula contains not merely water reduced to steam, but all the elements of all the material that now enter into rock and soil, in the form of a finely attenuated gas or vapor ; and these are undergoing a change from their present to a more stable condition. The minute atoms of iron are uniting, forming larger particles ; the atoms of lime are combining, and so on through a long list. And as this process goes on a glow comes over the mass like the first faint dawnings of the day. The surface of the body is