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



are, practically, interpretable only by the methods and the 

 formulae of physics : and, finally, in the observance by both 

 metaphysical and physical thinkers of Descartes maxim assent 

 to no proposition the matter of which is not so clear and distinct 

 that it cannot be doubted. 



When you did me the honour to ask me to deliver this 

 address, I confess I was perplexed what topic to select. For 

 you are emphatically and distinctly a Christian body ; while 

 science and philosophy, within the range of which lie all the 

 topics on which I could venture to speak, are neither Christian, 

 nor Unchristian, but are Extrachristian, and have a world of 

 their own, which, to use language which will be very familiar to 

 your ears just now, is not only &quot; unsectarian,&quot; but is altogether 

 &quot; secular.&quot; The arguments which I have put before you 

 to-night, for example, are not inconsistent, so far as I know, 

 with any form of theology. 



After much consideration, I thought that I might be most 

 useful to you, if I attempted to give you some vision of this 

 Extrachristian world, as it appears to a person who lives a good 

 deal in it ; and if I tried to show you by what methods the 

 dwellers therein try to distinguish truth from falsehood, in 

 regard to some of the deepest and most difficult problems that 

 beset humanity, &quot; in order to be clear about their actions, and 

 to walk sure-footedly in this life,&quot; as Descartes says. 



It struck me that if the execution of my project came any 

 where near the conception of it, you would become aware that 

 the philosophers and the men of science are not exactly what 

 they are sometimes represented to you to be ; and that their 

 methods and paths do not lead so perpendicularly downwards as 

 you are occasionally told they do. And I must admit, also, that 

 a particular and personal motive weighed with me, namely, the 

 desire to show that a certain discourse, which brought a great 

 storm about my head some time ago, contained nothing but the 

 ultimate development of the views of the father of modern 

 philosophy. I do not know if I have been quite wise in allowing 



