ADDRESS

LONDON: PRINTED BY

SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE

AND PARLIAMENT STREET

ADDRESS

DELIVERED BEFORE

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION

ASSEMBLED AT

BELFAST

WITH ADDITIONS

BY

JOHN TYNDALL, F.R.S.

PRESIDENT

SEVENTH THOUSAND

LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1874

198. e. 92.

For I have learned

To look on nature; not as in the hour

Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,

Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.'

WORDSWORTH.

'There is one God supreme over all gods, diviner than mortals, Whose form is not like unto man's, and as unlike his nature; But vain mortals imagine that gods like themselves are begotten, With human sensations and voice and corporeal members; So, if oxen or lions had hands and could work in man's fashion, And trace out with chisel or brush their conception of Godhead, Then would horses depict gods like horses, and oxen like oxen, Each kind the divine with its own form and nature endowing.' XENOPHANES of Colophon (six centuries B.C.), 'Supernatural Religion,' Vol. I. p. 76.

'It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of Him; for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely.' BACON.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE SEVENTH THOUSAND.

I TAKE ADVANTAGE of a pause in the issue of this Address to add a few prefatory words to those already printed.

The world has been frequently informed of late that I have raised up against myself a host of enemies; and considering, with few exceptions, the deliverances of the Press, and more particularly of the religious Press, I am forced sadly to admit that the statement is only too true. I derive some comfort, nevertheless, from the reflection of Diogenes, transmitted to us by Plutarch, that he who would be saved must have good friends or violent enemies; and that he is best off who possesses both." condition, I have reason to believe, is mine.

This 'best'

Reflecting on the fraction I have read of recent remonstrances, appeals, menaces, and judgments-covering not only the world that now is, but that which is to come-I have noticed with mournful interest how trivially men seem to be influenced by what they call their religion, and how potently by that nature' which it is the alleged province of religion to eradicate or subdue. From

1

Fortnightly Review, vol. xiv. p. 636.