564 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



through the battle of Fromundus and Bodin, down to the onslaught 

 upon Lecky, in our own time, for drawing a logical and scientific con- 

 clusion from the doctrine that Meteorology is obedient to laws.' 



We might go over the battle-fields of Cartography and see how at 

 one period, on account of expressions in Ezekiel, any map of the world 

 which did not place Jerusalem in the centre, was looked on as im- 

 pious." 



We might go over the battle-fields of Political Economy and note 

 how a too literal interpretation of scriptural texts regarding taking 

 interest for money wrought fearful injury, not only to the material 

 interests, but also to the moral character of hosts of enterprising 

 and thrifty men, during ages.' 



We might go over the battle-fields of Social Science in Protestant 

 countries, and note the opposition of conscientious men to the taking 

 of the census, in Sweden and in the United States, on account of the 

 terms in which the numbering of Israel is spoken of in the Old Testa- 

 ment.* 



And we might also see how, on similar grounds, religious scruples 

 have been avowed against so beneficial a thing as Life Insurance.^ 



1 now come to the warfare on Scientific Instruction. I shall not 

 take time for a sketch of the earlier phases of this warfare, but shall 

 simply present a few typical conflicts that have occurred within the 

 last ten years. 



During the years 1867 and 1868 war was commenced against cer- 

 tain leading professors of the Medical School of Paris, especially 

 against Profs. Vulpian and See, and against the Department of Pub- 



The meteorological battle is hardly fought out jet. Many excellent men seem still 

 to entertain views almost identical with those of over two thousand years ago, de- 

 picted in " The Clouds " of Aristophanes. 



=* These texts are Ezekiel v. 5 and xxxviii. 12. The progress of geographical knowl- 

 edge, evidently, caused them to be softened down somewhat in our King James's version ; 

 but the first of them reads, in the Yulgate, " Ista est Hierusalem, in medio gentium posui 

 eam et in circuitu ejus terras ;" and the second reads in the Vulgate "in medio terrae," 

 and in the Septuagint eiri rov b/j(l)aXbv r^g y^q. That the literal centre of the earth was 

 meant, see proof in St. Jerome, Commentar. in Ezekiel, lib. ii., and for general proof, see 

 Leopardi, " Saggio sopra gli errori popolari degli antichi," pp. 207, 208. For an idea of 

 orthodox geography in the middle ages, see Wright's "Essay on Archaeology," vol. ii., 

 chapter " On the Map of the World in Hereford Cathedral." 



2 For a very complete history of this opposition of the Church to one of the funda- 

 mental doctrines of political economy, see Murray, "History of Usury," Philadelphia, 

 1866 ; also, Lecky, " History of Rationalism," vol. ii., chapter vi. For collateral informa- 

 tion as to effect of similar doctrines on Venetian commerce, see Lindsay, " History of 

 Merchant Shipping," London, 1874, vol. ii. 



* See Michaelis, " Commentaries on the Laws of Moses," 1874, vol. ii., p. 3. The writer 

 of the present article himself witnessed the reluctance of a very conscientious man to 

 answer the questions of a census marshal, Mr. Lewis Hawley, of Syracuse, N. Y., and 

 this reluctance was based upon the reasons assigned in IL Samuel, chapter xxiv. 1, 

 and I. Chronicles, chapter xxi. 1, for the numbering of the children of Israel. 



5 See De Morgan, "Paradoxes," pp. 214-220, 



