"SPIRITUAL PIRATES:' 603 



preacher an effort in the same direction ? Will his animadversions 

 tend to make his hearers more charitable in their judgments of others ? 

 Will his sneers at an opinion which differs from his own be likely to 

 raise the standard of tolerance and Christian courtesy ? Is a leaning 

 toward the belief that matter contains the promise and potency of all 

 terrestrial life, incompatible with the ordering of the individual life in 

 accordance with high-toned Christian principles ? Or will the rejec- 

 tion of the Darwinian theory be sure to free us from prejudice and 

 cheap ambitions ? 



An excellent tonic, for a mind that is weary of this constant challeng- 

 ing of leading scientists to unequal contest, is one of their own " Lay 

 Sermons." In reading their literature, one soon passes into an atmos- 

 phere which admits no element of petty strife. Their spirits are finely 

 touched to fine issues, and they seem to have attained that splendor 

 of expression which, Emerson says, carries with it the proof of great 

 thoughts. Byron's " Corsair" left a name "linked to one virtue and 

 a thousand crimes ; " and perhaps even the pope would allow to these 

 spiritual types of the same order the one virtue of an almost faultless 

 style. It is not splendor of imagery, or mere ornament of any kind, that 

 gives it its peculiar charm. It is the beauty of exquisite fitness, of 

 perfect adaptation. Language seems sensitive to the fervor of their 

 thought, and yields to them all its wonderful vividness. Let us not 

 be withheld by fear, by the restraints of inherited conservatism not 

 yet outgrown, or by misdirected pulpit influence, from studying the 

 pages of any book, magazine, pamphlet, or newspaper, containing the 

 selected thoughts of scientists, carefully prepared for the general 

 reader. They furnish some of the best material for daily considera- 

 tion and conversation. We find in them a centre and sequence of 

 thought, and a natural cohesion of parts, which favorably distin- 

 guish them from many popular productions, both written aud spo- 

 ken. They not only show us facts, they teach us to generalize from 

 such data, % and to put a proper relative value upon different ideas. 

 They give us a clearer vision and an ampler horizon. They quicken 

 the perceptions, mature the judgment, and purify the taste. And if, 

 in his enthusiasm, a writer sometimes ventures beyond the limits of 

 verified evidence, and gives one touch of imaginative coloring to the 

 sober shades of reason and argument, can we not bear with it, when 

 we remember with what infinite patience the world has for ages lis- 

 tened to baseless and useless conjectui'es, and sentimental fancies con- 

 cerning heaven, its conditions, employments, and delights? 



We are called to no decision upon these great questions, but let us 

 study them, and draw from them all possible mental stimulus and 

 moral force, and then be sure to give our personal influence in sup- 

 port of our highest convictions. The verdict rests with Time, and we 

 know that under its slow, sure touch, all error must fall away, leaving 

 Truth triumphant in the strength of her own immortality. 



