through the battle of Fromundus and Bodin, down to the onslaught upon Lecky, in our own time, for drawing a logical and scientific conclusion from the doctrine that Meteorology is obedient to laws.[1]
We might go over the battle-fields of Cartography and see how at one period, on account of expressions in Ezekiel, any map of the world which did not place Jerusalem in the centre, was looked on as impious.[2]
We might go over the battle-fields of Political Economy and note how a too literal interpretation of scriptural texts regarding taking interest for money wrought fearful injury, not only to the material interests, but also to the moral character of hosts of enterprising and thrifty men, during ages.[3]
We might go over the battle-fields of Social Science in Protestant countries, and note the opposition of conscientious men to the taking of the census, in Sweden and in the United States, on account of the terms in which the numbering of Israel is spoken of in the Old Testament.[4]
And we might also see how, on similar grounds, religious scruples have been avowed against so beneficial a thing as Life Insurance.[5]
I now come to the warfare on Scientific Instruction. I shall not take time for a sketch of the earlier phases of this warfare, but shall simply present a few typical conflicts that have occurred within the last ten years.
During the years 1867 and 1868 war was commenced against certain leading professors of the Medical School of Paris, especially against Profs. Vulpian and See, and against the Department of Pub-
- ↑ The meteorological battle is hardly fought out yet. Many excellent men seem still to entertain views almost identical with those of over two thousand years ago, depicted in "The Clouds" of Aristophanes.
- ↑ These texts are Ezekiel v. 5 and xxxviii. 12. The progress of geographical knowledge, evidently, caused them to be softened down somewhat in our King James's version; but the first of them reads, in the Vulgate, "Ista est Hierusalem, in medio gentium posui eam et in circuitu ejus terras;" and the second reads in the Vulgate "in medio terræ," and in the Septuagint ὲπι τὸν ὸμφαλὸν τῆς γῆς. That the literal centre of the earth was meant, see proof in St. Jerome, Commentar. in Ezekiel, lib. ii., and for general proof, see Leopardi, "Saggio sopra gli errori popolari degli antichi," pp. 207, 208. For an idea of orthodox geography in the middle ages, see Wright's "Essay on Archaeology," vol. ii., chapter "On the Map of the World in Hereford Cathedral."
- ↑ For a very complete history of this opposition of the Church to one of the fundamental doctrines of political economy, see Murray, "History of Usury," Philadelphia, 1866; also, Lecky, "History of Rationalism," vol. ii., chapter vi. For collateral information as to effect of similar doctrines on Venetian commerce, see Lindsay, "History of Merchant Shipping," London, 1874, vol. ii.
- ↑ See Michaelis, "Commentaries on the Laws of Moses," 1874, vol. ii., p. 3. The writer of the present article himself witnessed the reluctance of a very conscientious man to answer the questions of a census marshal, Mr. Lewis Hawley, of Syracuse, N. Y., and this reluctance was based upon the reasons assigned in II Samuel, chapter xxiv. 1, and I. Chronicles, chapter xxi. 1, for the numbering of the children of Israel.
- ↑ See De Morgan, "Paradoxes," pp. 214-220.
