38 THE LIFE OF SCIENCE 



ence, have been innumerable links between science and religion. 

 The great plagues, and generally all cataclysms, for instance earth- 

 quakes or wars, have been followed by religious revivals and often 

 by violent outbursts of religious fanaticism. 



On the other hand I know many cases where the priests them- 

 selves have been the transmitters of knowledge from one genera- 

 tion to the following. The best example of this can be found 

 during the period extending from the end of the second school of 

 Alexandria to the ninth century. We owe, if not the advance- 

 ment of science, at least its conservation, to the doctors of the 

 Latin and Greek churches, to the Nestorians and other heretics. 



In some other cases the influence of religion is less direct, but 

 not less important. For instance, A. de Candolle has proved that 

 the Protestant families which were exiled from the Catholic coun- 

 tries of Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 

 and even during the eighteenth, have given birth to an extraor- 

 dinarily high number of distinguished scientists. This is not to be 

 wondered at. These people who preferred the misery of exile to 

 moral servitude were certainly above the average in their conscien- 

 tiousness and earnestness. 



The interactions between science and religion have often had 

 an aggressive character. There has been, most of the time, a real 

 warfare. But, as a matter of fact, it is not a warfare between science 

 and religion — there can be no warfare between them — but be- 

 tween science and theology. It is true that the man in the street 

 does not easily differentiate between religious feelings and faith, 

 on one side, and dogmas, rites and religious formalism, on the 

 other. It is true also that the theologians, while affecting that re- 

 ligion itself was aimed at when they alone were criticized, have 

 not ceased from aggravating these misunderstandings. An excel- 

 lent proof of this has been given in this country. One of the great 

 men of these United States, Andrew Dickson White, pub- 

 lished a splendid book on 7he Warfare Between Science and 

 Jheohgy. Mr. White was a very godly man, and his book is, it is 

 hardly necessary to state, extremely liberal and indulgent to every- 



