"RELIGION AND SCIENCE" 293 



RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 

 (From The Scots Observer, Dec. 8, 1888.) 



" For not by the rays of the sun, nor the glittering shafts of the day, 

 Must the fear of the gods be dispelled ; but by words and their wonderful play." 



Thus said Clerk Maxwell, one of the genuine scientific men of the generation 

 just past, in ridicule of the assumptions and pretensions of the hydra-headed pseudo- 

 science. And he said rightly, for true science is not, and cannot be, at variance 

 with religion. 



That there is a conflict between Religion and Science, not a mere difference 

 between certain theologians and certain "scientists," is very frequently stated as a 

 matter of fact. It is occasionally spoken of in grandiloquent phrase as the Incom- 

 patibility of Religion and Science ! Of course, if there be even a fragment of truth 

 in this, it is matter of very serious import indeed ; but it is prudent in all such 

 cases to ask the simple question, " On what authority is the statement made ? " 

 The answer to this will either make careful investigation imperative, or render it 

 altogether unnecessary. To this question, then, and to this alone, the present 

 article is devoted. 



There are not very many people who really know what science is, though 

 there are many who think they do, and who even pose successfully, so far as the 

 public is concerned, as scientific men. This may seem a somewhat bold statement, 

 but it is capable of easy proof. Let us take an analogy or two to begin with. 



1. A is a " medical man." What do you understand by such a phrase ? Does 

 it necessarily imply that, if you were seriously ill, you could with confidence submit 

 yourself to A's professional care? Are there no quacks on the Register? If you 

 think there are none, don't read any further. I am not addressing you. I look for 

 some common-sense in my readers. 



2. B is a " military man." Does this imply that he is capable of conducting a 

 campaign, of leading a company, or even of putting an awkward squad through 

 their facings ? By no means, and you know it quite well. Yet you persist in calling 

 B a "military man," though he may be merely a re-incarnation of Bardolph, Pistol, 

 or Parolles ! 



3. C is a "business man." The term includes the trusty family lawyer, as well 

 as the bankrupt speculator ! 



4. D is a " scientific man." We've got to him at last. Well ! the term was 

 applied to Lord Brougham, and to Dionysius Lardner ; it is still applied to Isaac 

 Newton. 



It was for this reason that, in speaking of Clerk Maxwell, I had to make a 

 slight but important qualification of the term, and to call him a genuine scientific 

 man. But in that italicised word there is a whole world of meaning. It opens an 

 abyss of impassable width among the group of so-called "scientific men" leaving 



