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The Meaning and the Method of Life
Excerpt from The Meaning and the Method of Life: A Search for Religion in Biology
The ordinary railway laborer, in cutting through a wall of stratified rock that by volcanic action has been tilted or warped out of its original level, never dreams of the causes of the stratification or of its displacement. To him the quarrel of the "Neptunists" and the "Plutonists" has never been distantly suggested. He daily sees these peculiarities, but to his incurious mind no question of why or how has been aroused thereby. When the railway cut has been completed, thousands of people are rushed through it, but doubtless to very few, if the train were halted in front of the wall, would the significance of the tilted and twisted layers be clear. Of the millions drawn by the locomotive engine, few understand the mechanism by which they are so powerfully and rapidly pulled along. Of these few in a million, least of all probably the engineer, who can use the force so perfectly, - of these very few, perhaps one may understand the nature of heat and the action of heated water, and how the combined bombardment of billions of crowded atoms striking the piston-head batter it back and forth and transmute atomic vibration into molar motion.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
The ordinary railway laborer, in cutting through a wall of stratified rock that by volcanic action has been tilted or warped out of its original level, never dreams of the causes of the stratification or of its displacement. To him the quarrel of the "Neptunists" and the "Plutonists" has never been distantly suggested. He daily sees these peculiarities, but to his incurious mind no question of why or how has been aroused thereby. When the railway cut has been completed, thousands of people are rushed through it, but doubtless to very few, if the train were halted in front of the wall, would the significance of the tilted and twisted layers be clear. Of the millions drawn by the locomotive engine, few understand the mechanism by which they are so powerfully and rapidly pulled along. Of these few in a million, least of all probably the engineer, who can use the force so perfectly, - of these very few, perhaps one may understand the nature of heat and the action of heated water, and how the combined bombardment of billions of crowded atoms striking the piston-head batter it back and forth and transmute atomic vibration into molar motion.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
305 pages, Paperback
First published March 17, 2013
About the author
George M. Gould
181 books10 followersGeorge Milbry (or Milbrey) Gould was an American physician and lexicographer.
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