270 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But it is in the recent progress 

 of science that President Eliot finds 

 the influence by which the position of 

 the clerical profession is most pro- 

 foundly affected in these times. On 

 this subject he says : " We come 

 now, in the fourth place under this 

 head, to the most potent cause of 

 change in the relative position of the 

 ministry within this century, namely, 

 the rise and development of physical 

 aad natural science. The immense ac- 

 quisitions of actual knowledge which 

 have been amassed in this new field, 

 the great increase of man's power over 

 nature, the consequent changes in each 

 man's relations to his fellow-men and 

 to the physical earth, including the 

 wonderful expansion of his interests 

 and sympathies, his emancipation from 

 superstitions, and the exaltation of his 

 prospects and hopes, are all facts of the 

 utmost moment to the race ; but it is 

 not these facts, tremendous though they 

 are, which most concern us in the pres- 

 ent discussion. The important point 

 for us now to observe is that, during 

 the growth of natural science, a new 

 method or spirit of inquiry has been 

 gradually developed, which is charac- 

 terized by an absolute freedom on the 

 part of the inquirer from the influence 

 of prepossessions or desires as to re- 

 sults. This spirit seeks only the fact, 

 without the slightest regard to conse- 

 quences ; any twisting or obscuring of 

 the fact to accommodate it to a precon- 

 ceived theory, hope, or wish, any tam- 

 pering with the actual result of inves- 

 tigation, is the unpardonable sin. It is 

 a spirit at once humble and dauntless, 

 patient of details, drawing indeed no 

 distinction between great and small, 

 but only between true and false ; pas- 

 sionless, but energetic, venturing into 

 pathless wastes to bring back a fact, 

 caring only for truth, candid as a still 

 lake, expectant, unfettered, and tireless. 



" The achievements of scientific in- 

 quirers, animated by this spirit of sin- 

 cerity and truth, have been so extraor- 



dinary within the past sixty years, and 

 tiiis candid spirit is in itself so admi- 

 rable, that the educated world has ac- 

 cepted it as the only true inspiration of 

 research in all departments of learning. 

 No other method of inquiry now com- 

 mands respect. Even the ignorant have 

 learned to despise the process of search- 

 ing for proofs of a foregone conclusion. 

 Apologetics have ceased to convince 

 anybody, if they ever did. Thus the 

 civilized world has set np a new stand- 

 ard of intellectual sincerity, and Prot- 

 estant theologians and ministers must 

 rise to that standard if they would con- 

 tinue to command the respect of man- 

 kind. How different was the situation 

 of the profession when diplomacy was 

 the only other learned calling ! Even 

 the legal profession, as it was gradually 

 differentiated from the clerical, made 

 no such sharp requisition of mental 

 honesty and independence. It is the 

 electric light of science which has made 

 white and transparent the whole temple 

 of learning. These remarks imply that 

 ministers, as a class, and as a necessary 

 consequence of the ordinary manner of 

 their education and induction into of- 

 fice, are peculiarly liable to be deficient 

 in intellectual candor ; and that is what 

 I, in common with millions of thought- 

 ful men, really think ; and I think fur- 

 ther that this belief on the part of mul- 

 titudes of educated men, most of whom 

 are silent on the subject, is a potent 

 cause of the decline of the ministry 

 during the past forty years. The fault 

 is quite as much that of the churches 

 or sects as of the individual ministers ; 

 for almost every church or sect endeav- 

 ors to tie its members, and particularly 

 its ministers, to a creed, a set of articles 

 or a body of formulas. These bonds 

 are put on by most ministers at an early 

 age, and must be worn all their lives, 

 on peril of severing beloved associa- 

 tions, or, perhaps, losing a livelihood. 

 The study, reading, and experience of 

 fifty years are supposed to work no 

 essential change in the opinions of the 



