SCIENCE AND SENTIMENT.* 'TEE question as to the true province
of feeling and imagina- tion, as assistants to the intellect in the discovery of truth,
has always seemed to us a very interesting one. It is sometimes the fashion among second-rate thinkers to con- trast the cool-headed, severely logical, and unemotional -man of science with the impulsive, imaginative, weak- headed enthusiast, as though the former had all the quali- ties needed in the search for truth, while the latter must necessarily live in a fool's paradise, the creation of his own wild imaginings and desires. "Exact thought" seems to such thinkers to imply the elimination of every element of emotion and imagination, as untrustworthy ; useful, indeed, as being productive of happiness, but simply misleading in the search for objective truth. It has always seemed to us, on the con- trary, quite evident that those feelings which nature has im- planted in us may, if properly used and directed, be not only no impediment, but of the greatest service in the acquisition of knowledge, and that they are in some cases indispensable thereunto. Not as though we were -to trust them implicitly as final tests of truth, but because they arouse the intellect to investigation, and suggest much to it of which it would otherwise have remained ignorant. A woman's natural tact, her quick perception of what will please one man or what will sting another, is a very obvious instance of this power. She trusts to her natural gift of sensitive sympathy with the particular minds in question. And though her instinct may occasionally tell her falsely, there is no doubt that she will find out, by natural tact, much that is going on in the minds of her acquaintance which mere logic, without this gift of emotional sympathy, could never approach. A great scientific discoverer, again,—a Newton or a Darwin—is not satisfied with cold, logical thought. In the first place, he is fired with enthusiasm for truth, and love for the parti- cular department of nature to whose investigation he has devoted himself; and then, again, he goes through long periods of meditation and reflection which so little resemble orderly, ex- plicit, logical thought, and are so complicated by natural instinct and imagination, that when at the end he hits upon a new truth, he sometimes can scarcely give any reasons for it, and it looks to meaner minds more like a lucky guess than a scientific induction. The truth seems to be that great emotional and imaginative susceptibilities are like a high-mettled horse, which, if kept well in hand and skilfully ridden, will carry you where you want to go in a third of the time which another would take, and clear many a five-barred gate which the other would never get over at all; btat.if badly ridden, will throw you, or carry you across country where you least want to go. The unimaginative and strictly logical mind, on the other hand, is very slow ; nor is it always quite safe.
In making these remarks, we have partly anticipated what we have to say of the very remarkable volume of essays before us by Dr. Porter, of Yale College, New York. The first essay— on Science and Sentiment —the title of which he has wisely pre- fixed to the whole volume, gives the key-note to the others, although these should likewise be carefully read, as treating in detail and with great ability of the utterances of many of the most distinguished philosophical thinkers of our day. But the first essay gives us an insight into the central feature of the author's philosophy, which may be briefly described as the doc- trine that science and sentiment should not, logically speaking, be divorced, but that, on the contrary, they should be com- bined and harmonised, as mutually assisting and correcting one another, in the endeavour to attain to objective truth in general, and especially religions truth. Dr. Porter commences by drawing attention to the popular contrast which is often drawn
• Science and Sentiment, with other Papers, chiefly Philosophical. By Noah Porter, DI)., LL.D., President of Yale College. New York : Charles Sorihners' 'Sons. 1882.
between the teachings of science and the promptings of senti- ment. Sentiment urges you to relieve the man whom you see in hunger and want, at once and on the spot. Science tells you that in the long-run it is much truer charity to aid in the re- cognised State provisions for poor-relief. But, as Dr. Porter points out, later on, in this, as in many other instances of apparent contrast, science does not in reality disregard senti- ment. It only corrects and directs it. Giving to public charities is just as much a homage to the natural instinct of bene- volence, as giving the same amount to a beggar in the street would be. The difference is that in the one case sentiment is directed by science, and in the other it is uncon- trolled. In the one case, it is kept in hand by reason ; in the other, it takes the bit between its own teeth. Touching on the religious aspect of the supposed contrast between science and sentiment, the author quotes Professor Tyndall as describing religion as simply sentiment, with no relation to real know- ledge. As to religions creeds, the Professor remarks that "it may be well to recognise them as the forms of a force mischievous, if permitted to intrude on the region of knowledge, over which it holds no command, but capable of being guided to noble issues in the region of emotion, which is its proper sphere." This most unsatisfactory conclusion is com- bated by Dr. Porter, though he admits that it seems to satisfy some :—
"To these terms of neutrality not a few are ready to accede. They find in them no humiliation. There are not a few men of feeling who are willing to escape the obligation of giving a reason for their feel- ings, even if they must concede that their feelings cannot be justified by any reason. Not a few answer the supercilious dogmas of science with their own Stat pro ratione voluntas. But a policy of neutrality purchased by non-intercourse will never satisfy, and ought not to endure, for the simple reason that the heart can neither love nor trust what the head demonstrates to be untrue. An earnest and thorough man must believe in the reality of what he loves and cares for. It is only in the excitement of the moment that a man can love and hate, fear and hope what he suspects may be a phantom ?"
Such a divorce, then, between knowledge and feeling Dr. Porter rightly holds to be impossible as a permanent state of things. As Mr. Mallock has said, a boy who has been enjoying goose- berry champagne, while under the impression that it is a rare and choice wine, will not care for it when he finds out his mis- take. And in the same manner, the sentiment of religious love and worship cannot be permanently satisfied, once it is plain that its objects are unreal. After urging with much force the claims of sentiment as a spur to the intellect, and as its informant concerning those needs of the human heart which, judging by the analogies of Nature, should find satisfaction somewhere, the author points out that over and above what mere sentiment can do in behalf of knowledge, there is a yet greater work for what is often called "sentiment," as the term is frequently used of much that has in it an element of intellectual percep- tion :—
"Much that passes for sentiment has a positively intellectual element. Many of the so-called sentiments signify strong convictions warmed into ardent enthusiasm, and held with passionate earnestness. The intellectual element in them may not be obtrusive. The truths on which these convictions rest may be seen so clearly, and reasoned so readily, that the presence and activity of the intellect can scarcely be observed. The feelings may flash so quickly into flame, and glow with such intense earnestness, that even the subject of them scarcely knows that he thinks at all. It should never be forgotten that emotion in man rests on belief ; that feeling of every sort is the legitimate product of what is taken to be true. The proverb which reads, Wherever there is smoke, there is fire, may be expanded thus, 'Wherever there is fire, there is fuel,' and this may be still further applied, 'Wherever there is the fire of emotion, there is a firm belief of truth.' Now, we do not argue that excited feeling proves certain truth. Nothing would be more absurd. But we reason thus: wherever, from one generation to another, under all circumstances, there have been persistent habits of feeling which have taken the strongest hold of man's nature, and moved it to its depths, animating it to labour and sacrifice, there is certain evidence that some fact or truth is earnestly believed. This belief may often be sadly and seriously mistaken, it may be but the caricature or travesty of the truth; and yet that there is truth about which it is concerned, which man rightly thinks to be important, is most reasonable to be inferred. That truth, whatever it may be, or whatever it may concern, science is bound to search after, until it can find and defend it."
With this suggestive and remarkable extract we take leave of the essay, as we should be carried too far, did we attempt to dis- cuss as it deserves the question it raises.
The other essays are, as we have said, well worth reading. We are disposed to quarrel with Dr. Porter's estimate of John Stuart Mill. We do not think he gives him sufficient credit for his singular candour, conscientiousness, and love of truth.
But Dr. Porter draws out with painful accuracy the incon.
eistency of Mill's creed, the outcome, as it was, of strong religions yearnings, implanted in one whose early training had been such as to render hearty and complete faith next to impossible. In taking leave of the whole volume, we can most heartily speak of it as a very thoughtful and able contribution to the philosophy of religion.
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