42 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



opponents with their own weapons. Do not go forth with 

 old dogmas to meet scientific truths, as with the armour of 

 mediaeval times against the weapons of to-day. Study science 

 for yourselves ; meet scientific fact and assertion by counter- 

 assertion and counter-fact You will find that in science, 

 more, perhaps, than in commonplace things, there are always 

 two sides to every great question ; and you will never fight or 

 gain your battle more readily, or more honestly, than by 

 testing every point by your own knowledge, and by opposing 

 to the advance of your adversaries a barrier of like kind to 

 that which forms their most potent means of offence. Thus, 

 if for no other reason than to defend and establish the beliefs 

 dear to you and yours, you should cultivate science-studies ; 

 and in no province more than in that of the biologist and 

 zoologist can you successfully labour in this way. From the 

 biological citadels of our day, with their numerous disturbing 

 and perplexing theories regarding matter and mind, have 

 proceeded the attacking parties, whose sallies have most 

 perplexed the camp of orthodoxy ; and I could not, there- 

 fore, invite you to a better field for study, or to a better place 

 for demonstrating the " other side " to the great questions 

 of the day, than by asking your earnest attention during the 

 session we inaugurate to-night. 



Lastly, let me say a closing word in defence of earnest, 

 honest, and sober scientific inquiry in the direction of the 

 subjects I have just been proclaiming as those of vital 

 interest to common religion. I say "defence," for some 

 appear to think that the inquiries of honest science, made in 

 all cases for the intellectual and social benefit of mankind, 

 are fit objects for criticism, not always of the most charitable 

 or just nature. To charge the scientific inquirer with 

 "Atheism," "Materialism," or any other of the numerous 

 "isms" of so-called heterodoxy, which are always ready at 

 the beck and call of the theologian, is generally deemed not 

 only a light, but a very right and just procedure. I am 

 not here to defend unwarrantable speculation, but I do 

 strenuously advocate freedom of inquiry in all cases. I 



