THE MOTIVE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 507 



knowledge of the personality who is the cause of the phenomena. 

 If, therefore, the phenomena are in point of time or space as com- 

 pared with ourselves infinite, their cause must be infinite; and 

 since it is admitted that cause is dependent on personality, we are 

 justified in speaking of an Infinite Personal Being, and our knowl- 

 edge of the cause of natural phenomena and the origin of natural 

 law will be dependent on our knowledge of that Being whom we 

 may reasonably call God. The dogmatic assertion, then, which 

 we were examining does contain a clew to the solution of the prob- 

 lem. That "the Creator designed them so "is no answer to the 

 question of the origin of species, is palpably evident, nor does it 

 throw any light on the question of how things have come to be as 

 they are ; but it does give a clew as to why things are so, although, 

 of course, it does not answer the query. If we examine the acts of 

 any person we find that they throw light on his character, and if 

 we become fully acquainted with the means which he has used, 

 we become better acquainted with the character, and as we know 

 that, we come to understand his motives. So we shall find it in 

 the study of natural science. As we learn more and more of the 

 facts of Nature, we shall become better acquainted with the means, 

 and will understand then how things have been evolved ; and as 

 we solve these lesser problems we will become better and better 

 fitted to understand why evolution has worked as it has, and to 

 comprehend the character of God. This, then, is the true motive 

 for scientific research, that we may know him who is the only 

 true God, and by knowing his character and motives understand 

 our relations to him. That the appreciation of this motive would 

 have a marked effect on the spirit of scientific work is plainly 

 evident, and, instead of the tone of shallow materialism so common 

 to-day, we would have a religious reverence for truth as it is, 

 without regard to possible effects on our pet theories that truth 

 which we shall some day know and which shall make us free. 

 The doctrine of design certainly failed to explain the many phe- 

 nomena of Nature, but that a re- examination of it, or even a tem- 

 porary acceptance of it as explaining the why of those phenomena, 

 means " the death of scientific investigation/' is the most arrant 

 nonsense. The universe certainly is the " theater of Will," other- 

 wise there could be no universe; but it is also the theater of 

 " forces the operation of which we can hope to understand," and 

 to deny the latter fact is as ridiculous as to ignore the former. 

 Much discredit has been cast on religious teachers and workers 

 because of ignorance and shallow reasoning, but there is great 

 danger that in the closing days of this century scientific teachers 

 and workers will bring discredit on themselves and their calling 

 by an equally erroneous position, not toward religion only but 

 toward Science herself. As soon, however, as one comprehends 



