The antiquity of man from the point of view of religion : in answer to Mr. S. Laing's Modern science and modern thought / by F. Hugh Capron.

  • Capron, F. Hugh (Frederick Hugh), 1857-1955.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The antiquity of man from the point of view of religion : in answer to Mr. S. Laing's Modern science and modern thought / by F. Hugh Capron. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Immeasurable as is the value of Intellect, that of Affection stands higher still; for it is the concen- trating power which binds together the fabric of Society. That primary and elemental manifestation of Force which is known as ‘ molecular affinity ’ in the molecule, and as ‘ gravitation ’ in the mass, is the concentrating force of the material Universe. Eliminate this single iiiHuence, and worlds and systems instantly dissolve into chaos. Such a force in the social system is affection, equally elemental and equally essential. Eliminate this single bond, and Society melts into social chaos. Those only who have realized the transcendent value of this unpretentious but ubiquitous influence can appreciate in any degree how profound is the truth which Religion enunciates when she claims this force in its perfection as the essential attribute of God in her central doctrine that ‘ God is love.’ This is the recognition of the highest of all. Thought, knowledge, speech, writing, art, science, intel- lectual civilization, all the brightest ornaments of our physical existence, ‘ if they have not charity, are nothing.’ What, then, must be the perfection of those organs which are to enable man to cor- respond with a Being whose essential attribute is the quintessence of Love ? If the physical eye, with its exquisite mechanism for receiving and transmitting the tiny pulsations of ethereal waves, is an organ of almost perfect function and design, how infinitely more delicate and responsive must be