being transformed by scientific method, and along with thought theology must change in form on some such lines as these." The following remarks on the subject of sin recall very strongly the views of Mr. Herbert Spencer: "It seems plain that if sin is a transgression and goodness the fulfillment of the law of man's higher nature, the consequences of sin and of goodness are not arbitrary nor external; they are in ourselves. They are the being what we have become, the sinking to the lower or the rising to the higher."
It seems to us that in this address—even in the few extracts we have made there is much food for reflection. We may each form our own estimate of the success with which the author has applied himself to the task of reconciling the scientific philosophy of the age with Christian doctrine; but it seems clear to us that the effort to give at once a rational basis and interpretation to the accepted teachings of religion and a religious character to the principles of science is in every way commendable. There is not too much science in the world today, nor is there too much religion; and it can neither do the religionist any harm to know that the doctrines in which he places faith may be regarded as part of the rational interpretation of the universe, nor the scientist to know that the intellectual aspect of his theories is not all—that they have their moral and spiritual implications to which he would do well to take heed. The final aim of all intellectual effort should be the wise government of human life; and science does not properly fulfill its function, does not do justice to its own mission in the world, unless it endeavors to moralize its message to mankind. There has been too great a willingness, if we may say so, on the part of scientific investigators to fling broadcast crude theoretical conclusions, without any care as to how they may be correlated with the general body of human beliefs and sentiments. Science, under this treatment, loses much of the charm with which it ought to be invested, and arouses a certain instinctive repugnance against itself and its professors in the popular mind. Hard-headed and ambitious men, on the other hand, see in it an excellent road to money-making, and nothing more. Properly presented to the world, it might, as Wordsworth says of duty, wear "the Godhead's most benignant grace"; and it is to the credit of the theologians that many of them are endeavoring so to present it. The Archdeacon of Manchester is not far wrong when he says that "the needs of the human heart are much the same as they were four thousand years ago." A recent writer who, though chiefly known as the author of fantastic tales, is understood to be a strong man of science in certain lines—Mr. H. G. Wells—would carry this statement much further back than four thousand years.[1] At any rate, there is such a thing as the human heart, and it wants a word now and then. It may be impossible perhaps for science, as science, to speak the word; but it should at least welcome every alliance which, while leaving it due freedom of action, may help to bring it a little nearer to the instinctive needs and higher moral sentiments and aspirations of humanity.
INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE.
It was a, favorite dream of the early political economists that the expansion of international trade would gradually unify the world,
- ↑ See an article in the October Fortnightly Review—Evolution an Artificial Process.
