1868.] NEWBERRY. — SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION. 283 



richer lessons, stronger arguments, or more eloquent illustrations 

 than from his discoveries. 



And yet, while conceding conscientiousness and purity of motive 

 to the vast majority of our men of science, and acknowledging the 

 contributions they have made and are making to human happiness, 

 compelled by my sense of justice to defend their spirit, approve 

 their methods, admire their devotion, and assert their usefulness, 

 I cannot deny that the tendency of modern investigation is 

 decidedly materialistic. All natural phenomena being ascribed to 

 material and tangible causes, the search for and analysis of these 

 causes have begotten a restless activity and an indomitable energy 

 which will leave no stone unturned for the attainment of their 

 object. But while this is apparent, and, indeed, inevitable, as has 

 been seen from the sketch of the growth of modern science, I am 

 far from sharing the alarm which it excites in the minds of many 

 good men. Nor would I encourage or excuse that spirit of con- 

 servatism — to call it by no harsher term — which, for the safety of 

 a popular creed, would by any and all means repress, and, if 

 possible, arrest investigations that, it is feared, may become revo- 

 lutionary and dangerous. 



Such opposition, in the first place, must be fruitless. All 

 history has proved that persecution by physical coercion or 

 obloquy is powerless to arrest the progress of ideas, or quench the 

 enthusiasm of the devotees of a cause approved by their moral 

 sense. The problems before our men of science must be solved in 

 the manner proposed, if human wisdom will suffice for the task. 

 In every department of science are men actuated simply by a 

 thirst for truth, whom neither heat nor cold, privation nor opposi- 

 tion, will hold back from their self-appointed tasks. We may, 

 therefore, accept it as a finality, that this problem will be carried 

 to its logical conclusion. 



In the second place, if possible, the arrest of scientific investiga- 

 tion would be not only undesirable, but an infinite calamity to our 

 race. As has been so often said, truth is consistent with itself. 

 If, therefore, our faith in this or that is based on truth, we have 

 no cause for fear that this truth will be proved untrue by other 

 truths. And more than this : it seems to me that, in the reach 

 and thoroughness of this material investigation, we may hope for 

 such demonstration of the reality of things immaterial as shall pro- 

 duce a deeper and more universal faith than has ever yet prevailed. 



Through this very spirit of scepticism which pervades the 



