THE GLORY OF THE WAY 



tion or passing reference. One day he called our 

 attention to the late Dr. John W. Draper s book, 

 &quot; The History of the Conflict between Religion 

 and Science, which had just appeared and was 

 attracting much attention. It had made a deep 

 impression on him, and nothing would do but 

 he must read a page of it to the class, as a fine 

 example of insight and eloquence. The eminent 

 author had turned aside for a moment from his 

 historical thesis to show that man belonged 

 among the atoms and was startlingly insignificant 

 when compared to the celestial bulks ; and this is 

 what our professor read us, with solemn face and 

 deep tremulous voice: 



Seen from the sun, the earth dwindles away to a mere 

 speck, a mere dust-mote glistening in his beams. If 

 the reader wishes a more precise valuation, let him hold 

 a page of this book a couple of feet from his eye and 

 then let him consider one of the dots or full stops. 

 That dot is several hundred times larger in surface than 

 is the earth as seen from the sun. Of what conse 

 quence then can such an almost imperceptible particle 

 be ? One might think that it could be removed or even 

 annihilated and never be missed. Of what consequence 

 is one of those human monads on the surface of this all 

 but invisible speck, of whom scarcely one will leave a 

 trace that he has ever existed ? Of what consequence 

 is man, his pleasures or his pains? DRAPER S &quot;Con 

 flict,&quot; International Scientific Series, p. 174. 



The unanswerable interrogation with which our 

 professor rounded up this quotation, a kind of 



