282 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Jan. 



and moral laws, even though it controlled the actions of the phil- 

 osopher himself, — if not proved consistent with nature's physical 

 and material laws, it must be rejected as unworthy to enter into 

 the construction of the edifice he was erecting. In his great task 

 of undoing the work of blind, unreasoning faith, and wild, illogical 

 speculation, all the fruit of such faith or speculation must be 

 looked upon as matter valueless to his hand. We may even go 

 further and say that were it true that the Supreme Intelligence 

 had created the material universe, and by special providence 

 modified or thwarted the general laws through which that universe 

 was governed, such divine supervision and such miraculous inter- 

 position must necessarily have been ignored. 



Let it not be inferred, however, that each and all of the great 

 men who have been engaged in this work of scientific reformation 

 were necessarily driven to be impious iconoclasts, or that in their 

 efforts to emancipate themselves from time-honored errors, they 

 necessarily prostituted the liberty they gained to selfish or sensual 

 purposes. On the contrary, the most important advances which 

 the human intellect has made within these latter centuries have 

 been due to the efforts of men of the purest and most conscientious 

 character ; men whose lives were devoted with the utmost single- 

 ness of purpose to determine "what is truth;" men who, knowing 

 that all truth must be consistent with all other truth, were willing 

 to go whithersoever it should lead. If it shall prove that they 

 have been occupied with " mint, anise, and cumin," omitting the 

 " weightier matters of the law," it is also true that in no other 

 way could the material laws of the universe be thoroughly investi- 

 gated than by making them the subjects of an absorbed and 

 undivided attention. It would be as just to impugn the motives 

 and decry the merits of the maker of our almanacs because his 

 mathematical calculations were not interlarded with moral maxims, 

 as to reproach the student of natural phenomena because he did 

 his work so well, and left to others the co-ordination of the results 

 of his efforts with the accepted dogmas of religious faith. And it 

 is not true, in any sense, that these devotees of science have lived 

 in vain ; for to them we mainly owe the fact that man is not only 

 wiser now than formerly, but that he is better and happier. 



In justice to the man of science we must claim lor him the 

 position of co-laborer with, and indispensable ally to, the philan- 

 thropists and moralists: for from no source have they drawn 



