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caution, was condemned — efforts were directed to silence him, 

 or prevent liim from being heard, while the multitude were 

 made to applaud as the chariot of science rushed by, whither 

 no one cared, though all were enchanted by the rushing on. 

 The observations of some authorities almost lead us to 

 infer that they believe that the only way to promote the 

 successful investigation of nature is to inculcate a contempt 

 for what has been already taught. The great aim of at least 

 one school of philosophy would seem to be to emancipate 

 mankind from the trammels of the past. But it is very easy 

 to see that even before the old chains are snapped, our would- 

 be liberators are hard at work fororino: for us fetters more 

 galling than the old ones, and preparing for those who 

 hesitate to accept their creed a new tyranny differing but 

 little as regards its results from the tyrannies that have gone 

 out of fashion. Nay, some philosophers are so imbued with 

 the true proselytizing spirit, as to intimate that it would be 

 an advantage to the world if a considerable number of 

 persons who do not accept their views concerning this world 

 and the next, were improved off the face of the earth, or 

 somehow put down, in order that scientific liberty might be 

 promoted without further opposition. Unbounded admiration 

 for the discoveries of to-day, and contempt for much of 

 what has been effected by those who have lived before 

 us, is a curious characteristic of some of the most for- 

 ward minds of these days. In speaking of events that 

 have been recorded in history. Canon Kingsley himself, at 

 one time a professor of History, tells us how " he resolved 

 that he would not bother his head with things of that sort 

 while he could get on without them." Farther on he points 

 out that " the first thing we must learn to do is to be honest 

 and say exactly what we have seen and heard and felt."* 

 But surely it is very doubtful if the honesty of men would 



* Address at Bristol, October, 1871. 



