does this is scientific thought and nothing else. Remember, then, that it is the guide of action; that the truth which it arrives at is not that which we can ideally contemplate without error, but that which we may act upon without fear; and you cannot fail to see that scientific thought is not an accompaniment or condition of human progress, but human progress itself. And for this reason the question what its characters are, of which I have so inadequately endeavored to give you some glimpse, is the question of all questions for the human race.—Advance sheets from Macmillan.
| INTRODUCTION TO "THE GREAT PROBLEM."[1] |
CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK.
THE royal Psalmist said, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work." The modern Huxleys respond: "The heavens declare nothing at all, and the firmament is ultimately but eternal protoplasm." In this happy and hopeful response the materialists are as much traitors to science as enemies to religion. They ignore all the facts of mind. This whole department of cognitions is neglected in arranging their premises. The very first canon of science is thus violated, which demands that all facts be collated as data. Then, a second fallacy of which they are guilty is, leaving scientific proof and leaping, by the imagination, to the conclusion that life is merely matter. They find an ultimate matter (only ultimate, however, owing to the limited power of the microscope), and straightway say, "This is life" although it is known to exist without life, and has not a single characteristic of life in it. By such unscientific methods these scientific men, whose names are now so famous, have imposed upon the unlearned and credulous, and made men lose their faith in the eternal truths of God. Darwinism is another form of the same infidelity, working its evil by the same unscientific methods. Darwin leaps to his conclusions against every axiom of science, and Darwinism is, instead of science, mere theory. Science and Religion are at one. They both come from God and lead to God. "The heavens declare the glory of God," and "the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart," are accordant strings of the same harp.
We need sensible and learned men to come forward and show the
- ↑ "The Great Problem: The Higher Ministry of Nature viewed in the Light of Modern Science; and as an Aid to Advanced Christian Philosophy." By John R. Leifchild, A. M., Author of "Our Coal-Fields and our Coal-Pits," "Cornwall; its Mines and Miners," etc., etc., with an Introduction by Howard Crosby, D. D., LL. D., Chancellor of the University of New York. 543 pages. G. P. Putnam & Sons.
