SCIENCi: AND RELIGION. 455 



produces spiritual-mindedness, or that hope of a state of immortal 

 holiness which has been the ideal of humanity in all ages. 



All this dust about " the conflict " has been flung up by men of 

 insufficient faith, who doubted the basis of their faith ; or by men of 

 insufficient science, who have mistaken theology or the Church for re- 

 ligion ; or by unreasonable and wicked men, Avho have sought to per- 

 vert the teachings of science so as to silence the voice of conscience 

 in themselves, or put God out of their thoughts, so that a sense of his 

 eternal recognition of the eternal difference between rijrht and wrong; 

 might not overawe their spirits in the indulgence of the lust of the 

 flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. It may be profitable 

 to discriminate these; and, if badges and flags have become mixed in 

 this fray, it may be well to readjust our ensigns, so that foes shall 

 strike at only foes. 



It is, first of all, necessary to settle distinctly what science is, as 

 well as what it is not ; and also, what religion is, as well as what it 

 is not. 



We can all afford to agree upon the definition rendered by the 

 only man who has been found in twenty-two centuries to add any- 

 thing important to the imperial science of logic. Sir William Hamil- 

 ton defines science as " a complement of cognitions, having in point 

 of form the character of logical perfection, and in point of matter the 

 chai-acter of real truth." Under the focal heat of a definition like 

 this, much that claims to be science will be consumed. It is tlie fash- 

 ion to intimate, if not to assert, that it is much more easy to become 

 scientific than to become religious ; that in one case a man is dealing 

 with the real, in the other with the ideal ; in the one case with the 

 comprehensible, in the other with the incorapreliensible; in the one 

 case with that which is certain and exact, and in the other case with 

 that which at best is only probable and indefinite. 



There can be no doubt, among thoughtful men, of the great value 

 of both science and religion. A thinker who is worth listening to is 

 always misunderstood if it be supposed that he means to disparagie 

 either. An attempt to determine the limits of religion is no dispar- 

 agement thereof, because all the most religious men who are accus- 

 tomed to think are engaged in striving to settle those limits, in order 

 that they may have advantage of the whole territory of religion on 

 the one hand, and on the other may not take that as belonging to reli- 

 gion which belongs to something else. 



Now, if Sir William Hamilton's definition is to be taken, we shall 

 perceive that he represents science in its quality, in its quantity, and 

 in its form. Cognition of something is necessary for science. Then, 

 (1) the knowledge of things known must be true ; (2) that knovvledge 

 must be full, and (3) it must be accurate ; it must be in such form as 

 to be most readily and successfully used by the logical understanding 

 for purposes of thought. 



