THE METAPHYSICS OF SCIENCE. 861 



relegating under law any of these supposed isolated phe- 

 nomena, they have been viewed as accounted for and 

 explained without recourse to the volition of superior 

 beings. To such extent these beings have seemed to be 

 retired from participation in the affairs of the world, and 

 the religious feeling has been robbed of occasions for its 

 exercise. Hence the progress of science has seemed to 

 antagonize the religious sentiment. Science has, there- 

 fore, been denounced as atheistic, while, on the other 

 hand, the religions of men have been despised as ignorant 

 and superstitious.* 



The immediate work of science, as just stated, consists 

 of observation, comparison and induction. Obviously, a 

 law reached by induction from facts is a principle from 

 which other facts may be deduced; and this is one of the 

 legitimate and characteristic processes of science. Science, 

 in the full exercise of all its functions, is not, therefore, 

 exclusively inductive. 



Without observation, the material of science would not 

 exist. There could be neither comparison, induction, nor 

 deduction. Without comparison, no affiliated juxtaposi- 

 tions of phenomena would become known; and we should 

 reach neither the laws which regulate them, nor an anti- 

 cipation of other phenomena coordinated under the same 

 laws. Without induction, the observation of phenomena 

 would only create a mass of undigested material, like that 



* These thought? are here only collateral, but the writer believes that they 

 lie very near the true solution and peaceful determination of the "conflict be- 

 tween religion and science." He has elsewhere viewed these relations simply 

 as a normal and not destructive interaction between the rational and the relig- 

 ious powers of man; and has offered an exposition which sets both religion and 

 science in the character of forces exercising a natural, harmonious and benefi- 

 cent interplay, like the mutual actions of the other polar forces in the universal 

 dualism of the world. See Reconciliation of Science and Religion, 12mo, pp. 403, 

 1877, chapters I-III. 



