460 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



If any so-called religion takes away from this great saying of Micah, 

 I think it wantonly mutilates, while, if it adds thereto, I think it ob- 

 scures, the perfect ideal of religion. 



But what extent of knowledge, what acuteness of scientific criti- 

 cism, can touch this, if any one possessed of knowledge or acuteness 

 could be absurd enough to make the attempt ? AVill the progress of 

 research prove that justice is worthless, and mercy hateful ; will it ever 

 soften the bitter contrast between our actions and our aspirations ; or 

 show us the bounds of the universe, and bid us say, Go to, now we 

 comprehend the infinite ? 



A faculty of wrath lay in those ancient Israelites, and surely the 

 prophet's staff would have made swift acquaintance with the head of 

 the scholar who had asked Micah whether, pcradventure, the Lord 

 further required of him an implicit belief in the accuracy of the cos- 

 mogony of Genesis ! 



What we are usually pleased to call religion nowadays is, for the 

 most part, Ilellenized Judaism ; and, not unfrequently, the Hellenic 

 element carries with it a mighty remnant of old-world paganism and 

 a great infusion of the worst and weakest products of Greek scientific 

 speculation ; while fragments of Persian and Babylonian, or rather 

 Accadian, mythology burden the Judaic contribution to the common 

 stock. 



The antagonism of science is not to religion, but to the heathen 

 survivals and the bad philosophy under which religion herself is often 

 well-nigh crushed. And, for my part, I trust that this antagonism 

 will never cease ; but that, to the end of time, true Science will con- 

 tinue to fulfill one of her most beneficent functions, that of relieving 

 men from the burden of false science which is imposed upon them in 

 the name of religion. 



This is the work that M. Reville and men such as he are doing for 

 us ; this is the work which his opponents are endeavoring, consciously 

 or unconsciously, to hinder. — Nineteenth Century. 



RECENT EXPERIMENTS IN STATE TAXATION. 



By henry JAMES TEN EYCK. 



TO growl is the privilege of the tax-payer. To secure the entire 

 amount of the necessary revenue with the smallest growl is the 

 aim of the legislator. Probably there is no more unpopular official 

 than the tax-gatherer. Among persons of property the idea seems to 

 prevail that taxation is a kind of robbery which is to be evaded if pos- 

 sible. It is true that the public treasury has often been filled simply that 

 thieves might plunder it, or that worthless citizens might be supported 



