570 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



kind against falsehood of every kind for justice against injustice 

 for right against wrong for the living kernel of religion rather than 

 the dead and dried husks of sect and dogma ; and the great powers 

 whose warfare has brought so many sufferings shall at last join in 

 ministering through earth God's richest blessings. 



4- 



ON FALLACIES OF TESTIMONY EESPECTING THE 



SUPEENATUEAL. 



By WILLIAM B. CAEPENTEE, LL.D., F.E. S. 



"^rO one who has studied the history of science can fail to recog- 

 -L-^ nize the fact that the rate of its progress has been in great 

 degree commensurate with the degree of freedom from any hind of 

 prepossession with which scientific inquiry has been conducted. And 

 the chapters of Lord Bacon's " Novum Organura," in which he ana- 

 lyzes and classifies the prejudices that are apt to divert the scientific 

 inquirer from his single-minded pursuit of truth, have rightly been 

 accounted among the most valuable portions of that immortal work. 

 To use the felicitous language of Dr. Thomas Brown, " the temple 

 which Lord Bacon purified was not that of Nature herself, but the 

 temple of the mind; in its innermost sanctuaries were the idols which 

 he overthrew ; and it was not till these were removed, that Truth 

 would deign to unveil herself to adoration." 



Every one, again, who watches the course of educated thought at 

 the present time, must see that it is tending toward the exercise of 

 that trained and organized common-sense which we call " scientific 

 method," on subjects to which it is legitimately applicable within the 

 sphere of religious inquiry. Science has been progressively, and in 

 various ways, undermining the old "bases of belief;" and men in al- 

 most every religious denomination, animated by no spirit but that of 

 reverent loyalty to truth, are now seriously asking themselves, 

 whether the whole fabric of what is commonly regarded as authorita- 

 tive revelation must not be carefully reexamined under the seai'ching 

 light of modern criticism, in order that what is sound may be pre- 

 served and strengthened, and that the insecurity of some parts may 

 not destroy the stability of the whole. 



I notice, further, among even " orthodox " theologians of the pres- 

 ent time, indications of a disposition to regard the New Testament 

 miracles rather as incumbrances, than as props, to what is essential 

 in Christianity ; of a feeling that they are rather to be explained 

 away,' than adduced as authoritative attestations of the teachings of 



'Thus theologiang of the " philosophic " school argue that miracles are not to be 

 regarded as departures from the divine order, but are parts of the order originally settled 



