EVOLUTION AND RELIGION 



odd jarring sects which cannot agree, they forget their 

 own inability to solve the nature of matter and energy 

 and that the pathway of science is strewn with the 

 wrecks of cherished hypotheses. We, who were brought 

 up on the stress theory of electricity, now find that it is 

 all wrong and that the truth lies in the old discarded 

 theory of electrical substance. In comparison with 

 the severe and exhaustive criticism which a new prin- 

 ciple of philosophy or a new dogma of religion must 

 meet, opposition to a new theory of science is singu- 

 larly mild. The incredible cell theory of the biolo- 

 gists, the topsy-turvy world of Einstein, the Lang- 

 muir atoms which break all the law of mechanics, the 

 ridiculous assumptions of the behaviouristic school 

 of psychologists, awaken no acerbity and excite no 

 surprise, although if they are true the whole struc- 

 ture of rational science falls to pieces. If the religious, 

 only, are stifled by the weight of authority, and if in 

 science truth prevails, why is it that Spencer refused 

 an honorary degree from the University of St. An- 

 drews'? He gives as his reason that the ideas of 

 younger men have so little chance to receive attention 

 because of the weight of authority and that "this un- 

 avoidable difficulty is made artificially greater when, 

 bearing no stamp of value, they have for competitors 

 those who, to the advantages of known achievements, 

 add the advantage of officially stamped values."^ It 

 is not that I am trying to diminish the achievements 



'^Autobiography, vol. II, p. 273. 



C 353 3 



