1868.] NEWBERRY. — SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION. 285 



in kind, to that which evolves from the germ, the bud, the leaf, 

 the flower, and the fruit in plant-life, — a development which, when 

 unchecked and free, will be regular and inevitable, but which is so 

 modified by the accidents of race, climate, soil, geographical 

 position, etc. as to render it difficult to say whether the rule or 

 the exception has, in his judgment, greatest potency. If he were 

 a consistent Darwinist, the accidents of development would be 

 its law. 



Among the students of " Social Science," — a new and important 

 member of the sisterhood of sciences, — as in most of the other de- 

 partments of modern investigation, two groups of devotees are 

 found ; one patiently and conscientiously studying the problems of 

 social organization, inspired with the true spirit of the Baconian 

 Philosophy, ready to follow whithersoever the facts shall lead, and 

 having for their object that noblest of all objects, the increase of 

 human happiness. The other class of investigators, in whom the 

 bump of destructiveness is largely developed, would be delighted 

 to tear down the whole fabric of society, and abrogate all laws, 

 both human and divine. Looking upon man as literally the 

 creature of circumstances, as an inert atom driven about by 

 material forces, conscience and responsibility are by them repudi- 

 ated, and laws and penalties regarded simply as relics of barbaric 

 despotism. The dreary soul-killing creed of these fatalists is 

 fortunately so repugnant to the reason and feelings of the majority 

 of men, that there is little danger that their efforts will reach their 

 legitimate conclusion in throwing society into a state of anarchy 

 and chaos. 



In Theology or Biblical Science the tendency of modern inves- 

 tigation is so distinctly felt, that I need only refer to it. The 

 spirit of independent criticism, so noticeable elsewhere, is still 

 more conspicuous here ; assuming sometimes the form of derisive 

 scepticism, but oftener of cold, passionless judgment on the 

 reported facts of sacred history, or the psychological phenomena 

 of religious faith, studied simply as scientific problems. 



The names ot Strauss, Kenan, and Colenso, will suggest the 

 results to which men, possibly honest, are led by this so-styled 

 " enlightened and emancipated spirit of enquiry ;" while " Ecce 

 Homo" and cognate productions may be considered as the fruit of 

 this spirit, tempered by a very liberal but apparently sincere faith. 



Aside from these more marked examples of the decided " set " 

 in the tide of modern religious opinions, we everywhere see 



