Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews |
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Abiogenesis admitted Agamogenesis Ancon animalcules animals anthropomorphic appears arguments believe Biology body called carbonic carbonic acid cause chalk changes character Comte Comte's Comtism conception consciousness cretaceous Crustacea Darwin demonstrated Descartes Devonian distinct doctrine doubt earth epoch evidence exhibited existence experiments fact favour Flourens force forms geological speculation geologists germs give rise globe Globigerina hand heat human Hutton Hyæna hypothesis kind laws less living matter lobster logical mass mathematics means ment Mesozoic method mind modern modification natural knowledge natural selection naturalist object observation offspring ordinary organisms Origin of Species paleontology Paleozoic particles Pébrine peculiar phænomena Philosophie Positive physical science physiology plants possess practical present progress protoplasm prove question reason regard result rocks scientific selection sense Silurian structure substance suppose teaching Teleology theory things thought tion true truth Uniformitarianism universe whole Xenogenesis
Popular passages
Page 26 - That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth working order ; ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind...
Page 135 - If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number'} No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.
Page 24 - The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And...
Page 24 - In other words, education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature, under which name I include not merely things and their forces, but men and their ways; and the fashioning of the affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws.
Page 136 - In itself it is of little moment whether we express the phenomena of matter in terms of spirit, or the phenomena of spirit in terms of matter; matter may be regarded as a form of thought, thought may be regarded as a property of matter ; each statement has a certain relative truth. But with a view to the progress of science the materialistic terminology is in every way to be preferred...
Page 239 - Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship, which grinds you stuff of any degree of fineness ; but, nevertheless, what you get out depends on what you put in ; and as the grandest mill in the world will not extract wheat-flour from peascods, so pages of formulae will not get a definite result out of loose data.
Page 23 - Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules...
Page 24 - ... and the fashioning of the affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws. For me education means neither more nor less than this. Anything which professes to call itself education must be tried by this standard, and if it fails to stand the test, I will not call it education, whatever may be the force of authority, or of numbers, upon the other side.
Page 4 - As when in heaven the stars about the moon Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, And every height comes out, and jutting peak And valley, and the immeasurable heavens Break open to their highest, and all the stars Shine, and the Shepherd gladdens in his heart...
Page 164 - ... on the sea-coast, where the waves have pared away the face of the land which breasts them the scarped faces of the high cliffs are often wholly formed of the same material. Northward the chalk may be followed as far as Yorkshire; on the south coast it appears abruptly in the picturesque western bays of Dorset, and breaks into the Needles of the Isle of Wight; while on the shores of Kent it supplies that long line of white cliffs to which England owes her name of Albion. Were the thin soil which...