THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 403 



wrought into the very fibre of the European heart that most unfoi-- 

 tunate of all ideas, the idea that there is a necessary antagonism be- 

 tween science and religion. Like the landsman who lashes himself to 

 the anchor of the sinking ship, they had attached the great funda- 

 mental doctrines of Christianity, by the strongest cords of logic which 

 they could spin, to these mistaken ideas in science, and the advance 

 of knowledge had wellnigh engulfed them. 



On the other hand, what had science done for religion ? Simply 

 this : Kopernik, escaping persecution only by death ; Giordano Bruno, 

 burned alive as a monster of impiety ; Galileo, imprisoned and humili- 

 ated as the worst of misbelievers ; Kepler, hunted alike by Protestant 

 and Catholic, had given to religion great new foundations, great new, 

 ennobling conceptions, a great new revelation of the might of God. 



Under the old system we have that princely astronomer, Alfonso 

 of Castile, seeing the poverty of the Ptolemaic system, yet knowing 

 no other, startling Europe with the blasphemy that if he had been 

 pi-esent at creation he could have suggested a better ordering of the 

 heavenly bodies. Under the new system you have Kepler, filled with 

 a religious spirit, exclaiming, " I do think the thoughts of God." * 

 The difference in religious spirit between these two men marks the 

 conquest made in this, even by science, for religion. But we cannot 

 leave the subject of astronomy without noticing the most recent war- 

 fare. Especially interesting is it because at one period the battle 

 seemed utterly lost, and then was won beautifully, thoroughly, by a 

 legitimate advance in scientific knowledge. I speak of the Nebular 

 Hypothesis. 



The sacred writings of the Jews which we have inherited speak 

 clearly of the creation of the heavenlj'- bodies by direct intervention, 

 and for the convenience of the earth. This was the view of the 

 Fathers of the Church, and was transmitted through the great doctors 

 in theology. 



More than that, it was crystallized in art. So have I seen, over 

 the portal of the Cathedral of Freiburg, a representation of the Al- 

 mighty making and placing numbers of wafer-like suns, moons, and 

 stars ; and at the centre of all, platter-like and largest of all, the 

 earth. '^ The lines on the Creator's face show that he is obliged to 

 contrive ; the lines of his muscles show that he is obliged to toil. 

 Naturally, then, did sculptors and painters of the mediaeval and early 

 modern period represent the Almighty as weary after labor, and en- 

 joying dignified repose. 



These ideas, more or less gross in their accompaniments, passed 

 into the popular creed of the modern period. 



' As a pendant to this ejaculation of Kepler may be cited those wondrous words of 

 Linnaeus : " Deum oranipotentem a tergo transeuntem vidi et obstupui." 



'' For papal bulls representing the earth as a flat disk, see Daunou, " Etudes Histo- 

 riques," vol. ii., p. 421. 



