SPECULATION IN SCIENCE. 745 



parading science and religion side by side, talking of reconciling sci- 

 ence and religion, as if tbey have ever been unreconciled. Scientists 

 and theologians may have quarrelled, but never science and religion. 

 At dinners they are toasted in the same breath, and calls made on cler- 

 gymen to respond, who, for fear of giving offence, or lacking the fire 

 and firmness of St. Paul, utter a vast amount of platitudes about the 

 beauty of science and the truth of religion, trembling in their shoes 

 all the time, fearing that science falsely so called may take away their 

 professional calling, instead of uttering in a voice of thunder, like the 

 Boanerges of the Gospel, that the " world by wisdom knew not God." 

 And it never will. Our religion is made so plain by the light of faith 

 that the wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot err therein. 



No, gentlemen, I firmly believe that there is less connection be- 

 tween science and religion than there is between jurisprudence and 

 astronomy, and the sooner this is understood the better it will be for 

 both. Religion is based upon revelations as given to us in a book, the 

 contents of which are never changed, and of which there have been no 

 revised or corrected editions since it was first given, except so far as 

 man has interpolated ; a book more or less perfectly understood by 

 mankind, but clear and unequivocal in all essential points concerning 

 the relation of man to his Creator ; a book that affords practical di- 

 rections, but no theory ; a book of facts, and not of arguments ; a book 

 that has been damaged more by theologians than by all the panthe- 

 ists and atheists that have ever lived and turned their invectives 

 against it and no one source of mischief on the part of theologians is 

 greater than that of admitting the profound mystery of many parts 

 of it, and almost in the next breath attempting some sort of explana- 

 tion of these mysteries. The book is just what Richard Whately says 

 it is, viz., " Not the philosophy of the human mind, nor yet the philos- 

 ophy of the divine nature in itself, but (that which is properly religion) 

 the relation and connection of the two beings what God is to us, 

 what he has done and will do for us, and what we are to be in regard 

 to him." . . . Let us stick to science, pure, unadulterated science, and 

 leave to religion things which pertain to it ; for science and religion 

 are like two mighty rivers flowing toward the same ocean, and, before 

 reaching it, they will meet and mingle their pure streams, and flow 

 together into that vast ocean of truth which encircles the throne 

 of the great Author of all truth, whether pertaining to science or 

 to religion. And I will here, in defence of science, assert that there 

 is a greater proportion of its votaries who now revere and honor re- 

 ligion in its broadest sense, as understood by the Christian world, than 

 that of any other of the learned secular pursuits. 



But, before concluding, I cannot refrain from referring to one great 

 event in the history of American science during the past year, as it 

 will doubtless mark an epoch in the development of science in this 

 country. I refer to the noble gift of a noble foreigner to encourage 



