SCIENCE IN ITS RELATION TO LITERATURE. 167 



Besides, the study of science, which is the study of nature, engages 

 the mind in the study and contemplation of truth ; and, as has been 

 well said, " Truth is without passion." The little asperities, therefore, 

 which ruffle other controversial natures, find scarcely any lodgment in 

 the breast of him who searches after experimental truth. And such 

 would be the effect produced upon the students of theology and lit- 

 erature were their conclusions capable of verification like those of 

 the scientist. But, dealing for the most part with abstract subjects 

 which in the nature of things can not be subjected to rigid mathemati- 

 cal tests, they find themselves afloat upon a wide sea of conjecture, in 

 which faith and imagination are almost the only guides. 



At this triumphant entry and career of Science upon the stage of 

 modern thought, Religion is the only power that has as yet sounded 

 the note of alarm, or assumed any very hostile attitude. Nor could 

 she well do otherwise, because, one by one, she has seen her adherents 

 falling away from her, and joining the ranks of her ostensible adver- 

 sary, and, one by one, she has seen some of the fairest portions of her 

 territory invaded, and either falling a prey to anarchy and dissolution, 

 or rudely wrested from her. In vain she has cried out for help, or 

 tried to throw up barriers against this invasion. The sapping and 

 mining process has nevertheless gone on ; so that, if in the next half 

 century the progress of science shall make as great inroads upon the 

 prevailing popular belief as it has made within the last, it is safe 

 to predict that only a moiety of it will be left, or, what is more prob- 

 able, it will be changed into something more consonant with the 

 new scientific discoveries, and with what is called " the spirit of the 



age." 



If the changes thus following in the wake of physical discovery 

 have been so marked and significant upon one of the interesting 

 branches of human knowledge to which allusion has been made, how 

 has it fared with the other, which, if not so widespread in its influ- 

 ences, can not nevertheless be affected in its character or career with- 

 out producing results of the greatest consequence ? Has literature as 

 well as religion felt the wand of the mighty magician ? and is it likely, 

 in the future, to be retarded in its growth, crippled in its strength, or 

 to any extent diverted from its purpose by this onward and sweeping 

 march of science ? These are questions of so much importance that 

 the candid consideration of them can not be without its interest if not 

 without its profit. 



The commonwealth of literature embraces many states and distinct 

 divisions, of which only those are particularly referred to in these 

 pages that are usually comprehended under the title of polite or ele- 

 gant literature, including works of the imagination, such as poetry 

 and fiction, as well as authentic narratives, set off, as in history, with 

 the graces of polished composition. Limited to even this description, 

 literature has performed such an important part in administering to 



