556 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and slavery disappeared from among us 

 but yesterday. And how did it go ? 

 As a behest of the humanity of the na- 

 tion? As a victory of phihxnthropy, 

 education, Christianity, and the higher 

 forces of progress ? No ! it was not re- 

 moved by the national volition, but it 

 went out in a convulsion of domestic 

 carnage. 



Obviously there is a great deal to be 

 done yet before man will be prepared 

 to take the work of human progress out 

 of the hands of Nature, and carry it on 

 in his own wiser way. He can do 

 much ; but the first thing he has to 

 learn is that he can not do everything, 

 and to find out what is practicable of 

 accomplishment. He can not realize 

 his dreams, and can only embody a 

 small part of his aspirations. By his 

 pre-scientific and unscientific education, 

 he is not imbued witli the method of 

 Nature, and is too unconscious of the 

 difficulties and impediments in the way 

 of attaining his sanguine hopes. Dwell- 

 ing, in virtue of his predominant cul- 

 ture, in an ideal world that he con- 

 etnicts to suit himself ; taught by 

 novelists, dramatists, and poets, whose 

 function it is to create imaginary 

 worlds ; familiar with religious doc- 

 trines which teach the facile converti- 

 bility of human nature; studying his- 

 tory which is ever occupied with human 

 doings, and ever exaggerates the offices 

 of great men; and surrounded by a 

 world filled with suffering and injus- 

 tice men come to think that all this 

 evil might be quickly done away with 

 if there were only the disposition and 

 the will. As Mr. Bagehot somewhere 

 says, only a short time ago it was the 

 common belief that, if everybody would 

 set to work in good earnest, human so- 

 ciety might be renovated and perfected 

 and brought to a millennial condition in 

 about ten years. Science, as it confers 

 a deeper knowledge of the order of the 

 world, sobers our judgment and dissi- 

 pates these pleasing illusions. Let it 

 not be said that science thus becomes 



obstructive, and paralyzes exertion ; on 

 the contrary, it is promotive of real 

 progress by checking futile elfort, and 

 disclosing the conditions and the way 

 by which exertion may be made most 

 effectual and substantial conquests 

 achieved. And, in these times that are 

 so prolific of social Utopias, no teach- 

 ing is more valuable or more whole- 

 some. 



MONDAY-LECTURESHIP PHILOSOPHY. 



In the absence of Rev. Joseph Cook, 

 the work of the Boston Monday lec- 

 tureship has gone on by the aid of other 

 clerical talent. The course was opened 

 December 6th by Bishop Clark, of 

 Rhode Island, who gave an address on 

 " The Seen and the Unseen," of which 

 an authentic version was published in 

 the " Boston Traveler." 



The Bishop succeeded well in adapt- 

 ing himself to the new circumstances. 

 He entered easily into the general line of 

 speculation for which this lectureship 

 has become renowned, and filled the 

 shoes of its Rev. Founder to a nicety. 

 Whether it was the effect of association, 

 or blue-Monday, or what, the speaker 

 glided into tlie peculiar habits of the 

 place, and indulged in logical licenses 

 which could have been no novelties to 

 his auditors. The Bishop discussed the 

 problems of matter and spirit, the con- 

 nection between the body and the soul, 

 and the problem of personal immortal- 

 ity ; and he here opened the question of 

 the relation of religion and science in 

 so explicit a way that readers on our 

 side can not fail to be interested. 



After an elaborate preliminary argu- 

 ment, he says : " The bearing of all this 

 upon the question of our own personal 

 immortality gives to the subject a most 

 profound and solemn interest. It is 

 hardly conceivable that man should have 

 been endowed with immortality, and yet 

 so constituted as to be unable to arrive 

 at any satisfactory proof of the fact. To 

 those who receive the records of the 



