288 LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [xiv, 



to that correlation of all the phenomena of the universe with 

 matter and motion, which lies at the heart of modern physical 

 thought, and which most people call Materialism. 



The early part of the seventeenth century, when Descartes 

 reached manhood, is one of the great epochs of the intellectual 

 life of mankind. At that time, physical science suddenly strode 

 into the arena of public and familiar thought, and openly 

 challenged not only Philosophy and the Church, but that 

 common ignorance which passes by the name of Common 

 Sense. The assertion of the motion of the earth was a defiance 

 to all three, and Physical Science threw down her glove by 

 the hand of Galileo. 



It is not pleasant to think of the immediate result of the 

 combat ; to see the champion of science, old, worn, and on his 

 knees before the Cardinal Inquisitor, signing his name to what 

 he knew to be a lie. And, no doubt, the Cardinals rubbed 

 their hands as they thought how well they had silenced and 

 discredited their adversary. But two hundred years have 

 passed, and however feeble or faulty her soldiers, Physical 

 Science sits crowned and enthroned as one of the legitimate 

 rulers of the world of thought. Charity children would be 

 ashamed not to know that the earth moves ; while the School 

 men are forgotten ; and the Cardinals well, the Cardinals are 

 at the (Ecumenical Council, still at their old business of trying 

 to stop the movement of the world. 



As a ship, whicji having lain becalmed with every stitch of 

 canvas set, bounds away before the breeze which springs up 

 astern, so the mind of Descartes, poised in equilibrium of doubt, 

 not only yielded to the full force of the impulse towards physical 

 science and physical ways of thought, given by his great con 

 temporaries, Galileo and Harvey, but shot beyond them; and 

 anticipated, by bold speculation, the conclusions, which could 

 only be placed upon a secure foundation by the labours of 

 generations of workers. 



Descartes saw that the discoveries of Galileo meant that the 

 remotest parts of the universe were governed by mechanical 



