684 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



religions in the high-and-dry light of the understanding may deride 

 them ; but in so doing you deride accidents of form merely, and fail 

 to touch the immovable basis of the religious sentiment in the emo- 

 tional nature of man. To yield this sentiment reasonable satisfaction is 

 the problem of problems at the present hour. And grotesque in rela- 

 tion to scientific culture as many of the religions of the world have been 

 and are — dangerous, nay, destructive, to the dearest privileges of free- 

 men as some of them undoubtedly have been, and would, if they could, 

 be again — it will be wise to recognize them as the forms of force, mis- 

 chievous, if permitted to intrude on the region oihnowledge^ over which 

 it holds no command, but capable of being guided by liberal thought 

 to noble issues in the region of emotion^ which is its proper sphere. 

 It is vain to oppose this force with a view to its extirpation. What 

 we should oppose, to the death if necessary, is every attempt to found 

 upon this elemental bias of man's nature a system which should exer- 

 cise despotic sway over his intellect. I do not fear any such consum- 

 mation. Science has already, to some extent, leavened the world, and 

 it will leaven it more and more. I should look upon the mild light 

 of science breaking in upon the minds of the youth of Ireland, and 

 strengthening gradually to the perfect day, as a surer check to any 

 intellectual or spiritual tyranny which might threaten this island, than 

 the laws of princes or the swords of emperors. Where is the cause 

 of fear ? We fought and won our battle even in the middle ages, 

 why should we doubt the issue of a conflict now ? 



The impregnable position of science may be described in a few 

 words. All religious theories, schemes, and systems, which embrace 

 notions of cosmogony, or which otherwise reach into its domain, must, 

 in so far as they do this, submit to the control of science, and relin- 

 quish all thought of controlling it. Acting otherwise proved disas- 

 trous in the past, and it is simply fatuous to-day. Every system 

 which would escape the fate of an organism too rigid to adjust itself 

 to its environment, must be plastic to the extent that the growth of 

 knowledge demands. When this truth has been thoroughly taken in, 

 rigidity will be relaxed, exclusiveness diminished, things now deemed 

 essential will be dropped, and elements now rejected will be assimi- 

 lated. The lifting of the life is the essential point, and as long as 

 dogmatism, fanaticism, and intolerance, are kept out, various modes of 

 leverage may be employed to raise life to a higher level. Science 

 itself not unfrequently derives motive-power from an ultra-scientific 

 source. Whewell speaks of enthusiasm of temper as a hindrance to 

 science ; but he means the enthusiasm of weak heads. There is a 

 strong and resolute enthusiasm in which science finds an ally ; and it 

 is to the lowering of this fire rather than to a diminution of intellectual 

 insight, that the lessening productiveness of men of science in their 

 mature years is to be ascribed. Mr. Buckle sought to detach intellect- 

 ual achievement from moral force. He gravely erred ; for, without 



