EDITOR'S TABLE. 



555 



the close of his article he has the fol- 

 lowing contemptuous reference to this 

 point : " We are not going to argue 

 here the truth or falsehood of the un- 

 verified and unverifiable hypothesis 

 which is palmed upon us in the name 

 of science." Still, we think that the 

 question of " truth or falsehood " in so 

 important a case is one that might well 

 have been settled first. If the theory 

 of evolution, as the writer declares, "has 

 been reached in utter defiance of the 

 canons of scientific method," it would 

 have been well to show this at the out- 

 set. Besides, if the doctrine is an im- 

 posture, " which is palmed upon us in 

 the name of science," it would be inter- 

 esting to have it pointed out by what 

 extraordinary hocus-pocus the scientific 

 men of the present age have been im- 

 posed upon in accepting it. 



To us the chief interest of Mr. Beech- 

 er's position, assumed in his recent 

 books, is as a register of the rising in- 

 fluence and increasing power of scien- 

 tific ideas and the corresponding decline 

 of theological authority. He has passed 

 far beyond the stage in which he asks 

 first whetlier new ideas agree with old 

 creeds. Although a professed theolo- 

 gian, he has so thoroughly entered into 

 the spirit and method of modern science 

 as to recognize that the supreme ques- 

 tion in this case is whether the doctrine 

 of evolution is an expression of the 

 truth of nature. Mr. Beecher has by 

 no means repudiated theology, but he 

 has taken the great step of subordinat- 

 ing it to the standards of truth estab- 

 lished by investigation and the study of 

 the order and economy of the existing 

 world. The old notion of two sets 

 or systems of truth, one of which has 

 claims of a special sacredness and su- 

 periority, while the other is profane, 

 secular, and of merely human origin, 

 and therefore of inferior rank, we un- 

 derstand him to repudiate. He finds 

 the sacredness of authority in the truth 

 itself, and none the less because man 

 discovers and establishes it by his own 

 faculties. Mr. Beecher, therefore, rep- 



resents in an eminent way that vast 

 change or revolution of modern thought 

 which gives a higher value and a nobler 

 significance to the study of nature and 

 the revelation of the truths of nature. 

 Nor in thus giving his highest allegiance 

 to natural truth as disclosed by the work- 

 ings of the human mind can he be said 

 to have rejected religion or left the re- 

 ligious sphere. Holding firmly to the- 

 ism, he simply maintains that the truth 

 and order and harmony of nature are 

 the highest manifestations of the attri- 

 butes of God. 



Mr. Beecher reconstructs the old 

 theology, rejecting large portions of it 

 which have formerly been held as es- 

 sential, and reshaping what remains so 

 as to bring it into better agreement 

 with modern scientific ideas. As an hon- 

 est and conscientious man he found no 

 escape from entering upon this work. 

 Only as an indiflferentist, or a trifler, or 

 a theologian enslaved to his traditions, 

 could he recognize the great changes 

 wrought by modern science, without 

 any concern for those readjustments of 

 human belief which have become inev- 

 itable. His book is full of evidences of 

 that sincerity and earnestness of feeling 

 upon the subject which have impelled 

 him to undertake the task of working 

 out the religious bearings of the doc- 

 trine of evolution. He saw that it 

 had taken root in the best intelligence 

 of the civilized world. Tliere was no 

 blinking or evasion of the facts that 

 had to be met. The strong men of 

 all nations who give their lives to 

 the study of nature, the devotees of 

 research, and the investigators of origi- 

 nal truth in all departments of natu- 

 ral phenomena had come to agree- 

 ment over this great principle with a 

 rapidity and a unanimity such as has 

 never before been seen in the history 

 of science. There had been a vast ac- 

 cumulation of observations, facts, and 

 principles in every department of re- 

 search which defied explication and or- 

 ganization until the law of evolution 

 was grasped and applied to them, and, 



