RELATIONS OF SCIENCE TO THE PUBLIC WEAL. 247 



" Nature and If ature's laws lay hid in night ; 

 God said, 'Let Newton be,' and all was light." 



No doubt the road upon which be traveled bad been long in prepara- 

 tion by other men. The exact observations of Tycho Brahe, coupled 

 with the discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, had already 

 broken down the authority of Aristotle and weakened that of the 

 Church. But, though the conceptions of the universe were thus broad- 

 ened, mankind had not yet rid themselves of the idea that the powers 

 of the universe were still regulated by spii'its or special providences. 

 Even Kepler moved the planets by spirits, and it took some time to 

 knock these celestial steersmen on the head. Descartes, who really did 

 so much by bis writings to force the conclusion that the planetary 

 movements should be dealt with as an ordinary problem in mechanics, 

 looked upon the universe as a machine, the wheels of which were kept 

 in motion by the unceasing exercise of a divine power. Yet such 

 theories were only an attempt to regulate the universe by celestial 

 intelligences like our own, and by standards within our reach. It re- 

 quired the discovery of an all-pervading law, universal throughout all 

 space, to enlarge the thoughts of men, and one which, while it widened 

 the conceptions of the universe, reduced the earth and solar system to 

 true dimensions. It is by the investigation of the finite on all sides 

 that we obtain a higher conception of the infinite : 



" Willst du ins Unendliche schreiten, 

 Geh nur im Endlichen nach alien Seiten." 



Ecclesiastical authority had been already undermined by earnest in- 

 quirers such as Wycliffe and Huss before Luther shook the pillars of 

 the Vatican. They were removers of abuses, but were confined with- 

 in the circles of their own beliefs. Newton's discovery cast men's 

 minds into an entirely new mold, and leveled many barriers to human 

 progress. This intellectual result was vastly more important than the 

 practical advantages of the discovery. It is true that navigation and 

 commerce mightily benefited by our better knowledge of the motions 

 of the heavenly bodies. Still, these benefits to humanity are incom- 

 parably less in the history of progress than the expansion of the human 

 intellect which followed the withdrawal of the cramps that confined it. 

 Truth was now able to discard authority, and marched forward with- 

 out hindrance. Before this point was reached, Bruno had been burned, 

 Galileo had abjured, and both Copernicus and Descartes had kept back 

 their writings for fear of offending the Church. 



The recent acceptance of evolution in biology has had a like effect 

 in producing a far profounder intellectual change in human thought 

 than any mere impulse of industrial development. Already its appli- 

 cation to sociology and education is recognized, but that is of less im- 

 port to human progress than the broadening of our views of Nature. 



Abstract discovery in science is then the true foundation upon 



