i8a THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



does this is scientific thought and nothing else. Remember, then, that 

 it is the guide of action ; that the truth which it arrives at is not that 

 which we can ideally contemplate without error, but that which we 

 may act upon without fear ; and you cannot fail to see that scientific 

 thought is not an accompaniment or condition of human progress, but 

 human progress itself. And for this reason the question what its 

 characters are, of which I have so inadequately endeavored to give 

 you some glimpse, is the question of all questions for the human race. 

 Advance- sheets from Macmillan. 



-+++- 



INTRODUCTION TO "THE GREAT PROBLEM." 1 



By HOWAED CROSBY, D.D., LL.D., 



CHANCELLOR OP THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK. 



THE royal Psalmist said, " The heavens declare the glory of God, 

 and the firmament showeth his handy work." The modern 

 Huxleys respond : " The heavens declare nothing at all, and the firma- 

 ment is ultimately but eternal protoplasm." In this happy and hope- 

 ful response the materialists are as much traitors to science as enemies 

 to religion. They ignore all the facts of mind. This whole depart- 

 ment of cognitions is neglected in arranging their premises. The very 

 first canon of science is thus violated, which demands that all facts be 

 collated as data. Then, a second fallacy of which they are guilty is, 

 leaving scientific proof and leaping, by the imagination, to the conclu- 

 sion that life is merely matter. They find an ultimate matter (only 

 ultimate, however, owing to the limited power of the microscope), and 

 straightway say, " This is life" although it is known to exist without 

 life, and has not a single characteristic of life in it. By such unscien- 

 tific methods these scientific men, whose names are now so famous, 

 have imposed upon the unlearned and credulous, and made men lose 

 their faith in the eternal truths of God. Darwinism is another form 

 of the same infidelity, working its evil by the same unscientific meth- 

 ods. Darwin leaps to his conclusions against every axiom of science, 

 and Darwinism is, instead of science, mere theory. Science and Re- 

 ligion are at one. They both come from God and lead to God. "The 

 heavens declare the glory of God," and " the statutes of the Lord are 

 right, rejoicing the heart," are accordant strings of the same harp. 

 We need sensible and learned men to come forward and show the 



1 " The Great Problem : The Higher Ministry of Nature viewed in the Light of Modern 

 Science ; and as an Aid to Advanced Christian Philosophy." By John R. Leifchild, A. 

 M., Author of " Our Coal-Fields and our Coal- Pits," " Cornwall ; its Mines and Miners," 

 etc., etc., with an Introduction by Howard Crosby, D. D., LL. D., Chancellor of the Uni- 

 versity of New York. 543 pages. G. P. Putnam & Sons. 



