36 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



be a special and peculiar subject, yet he is connected 

 with the universal system in which he lives by the 

 elements, phenomena, and forces of which he consists. 



It must not be supposed, as it is asserted with 

 ever-increasing clamour, that such a method and 

 theory can ever destroy the civilized basis of society, 

 and the morality and dignity with which it should 

 be informed, as if we were again reducing man to 

 the condition of a beast. Such an outcry is in itself 

 a plain and striking proof that we have not yet 

 emerged from the mythical age of thought, since 

 it is precisely a mythical belief which prompts this 

 angry protest against the noble and independent 

 research after truth. 



It is impossible that the results of positive and 

 rational science should in any way destroy the neces- 

 sary conditions of civilized life and of the high standard 

 of goodness which should form, elevate, and bring it 

 to perfection. We must, however, remember that it 

 was not rational science, nor the ethics of law, which 

 established the a priori rules of a just and free society, 

 but the necessities of society itself led to the a pos- 

 l< ! tori formulation of laws. Theoretic science sub- 

 sequently explained these laws, and perfected their 

 form and organism, infusing into them a nobler pur- 

 pose ; but it was the necessities of nature which first 

 dictated the balance, system, and harmony of the 

 alliances and associations of materials and pheno- 

 mena as they now exist, which rendered possible the 



