MR. MACRAE AND PROFESSOR HAECKEL.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Down south here, in sunshine and silence, there is full leisure to read and enjoy a remarkable number of the Spectator, such as that of last Saturday ; and indeed, this pleasant com- bination for the inner and outer man throws some light on Mr. Mallock's question whether life is worth living. Do not, how- ever, reckon it ungrateful, if I ask leave to compare the striking articles on Mr. Macrae and Professor Haeckel. In the first, the writer proceeds on certain assumptions respecting the eternal nature of the soul, which he supports by a deferential, but I think, misapplied citation of our Lord's words in St. Luke's account of his argument with the Sadducees, " All live unto Him ;" ending by the statement that since " the Christian Reve- lation was the grafting of a new life in our hearts, not the im- parting of a new calculus of the infinite to our minds," we ought not to " torture " the Scripture into yielding any definite doctrine on retribution. The possible value of this article as a means of grace to the United Presbyterians, and especially to Dr. Hutton, is indeed incalculable; but, notwithstanding its declared object,—to discourage dogmatism, I submit that it breathes the temper of faith, with its usual accompaniment, here and there, of readiness to employ language of confidence somewhat in excess of the evidence. The second article, on Professors Haeckel and Murphy, is written in the temper of science,—to which there can be no objection. But what I wish to point out is the different measure of certainty expressed herein as to the survival in human death of any separate " entity." Here there is no explicit denial even of Haeckel's monism, with its awful conclusion that science knows of no future for man. It is spoken of in the closing paragraph as a philosophical theory still sub judice, and in the balances ; and all that is declared is that this doctrine of evolu- tion, now struggling for a permanent existence, may be so put as not to involve our " extinction in the crisis " of death. Perhaps I have unwittingly mistaken the sense, and certainly I do not desire to insist on an impossible unity of thought in your pages; but it does appear as if poor Mr. Macrae is knocked over much more summarily, in the first article, for not believing in the immortality of all human beings, than is Professor Haeckel, in the second, for not believing in the immortality of any. Many readers will, with me, probably prefer the temper of the latter article on evolution, thinking it to go much nearer to the heart of things, in the present state of controversy, than the confident tone of the former.
There is something almost like the effect of magic in the strange refusal of nearly all contemporary speculators on a future state, including the Spectator among the fairest, even to consider carefully the doctrine which has striven for a whole generation to gain a hearing, namely, that a future eternal state for man is altogether undiscoverable by physical or metaphysi- cal science, because science takes cognisance of law, and man's futurity, with its " eternal life " and " second death," is, accord- ing to revelation (which rests on its own proper evidence) not the result of law, but of supernatural redemption through the Divine Incarnation, the evolution of the hidden Deity in a human birth. Professor Haeckel will, we believe, dis- cover here alone both a personal God and an immortal humanity. So long as the question of future retribution is considered, as in Scotland, from the stand-point of be- lief in natural immortality, there seems no end to the quarrel on the nature and duration of hell-torments, and on the character of God. As soon as man's humbler place in nature, as ascertained by comparative science and confirmed by revelation, is admitted, it is no longer regarded as " torture " to take the Scripture language on man's impending " death " and the " gift of eternal life " in its most obvious sig- nification, to the great comfort of ordinary readers ; but it is also seen that the doctrine of retribution occupies only a single place in a wider circle of coherent and self-commanding ideas, and receives a solution which innumerable persons are finding to be in conformity with the moral facts of life, and with an in- telligible view of the moral attributes of God. The bearing of such a belief in redemption (as having for its object the com- munication of immortality) on the importance of Christianity is too obvious to require remark.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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