142 Contemporary Evolution. 



out of general consciousness and become " forgotten ^ 

 rather than " rejected." 



Such being the relations existing between Christianity 

 and physical science, What it may be asked, can be the 

 peculiar character of science teaching which tends to 

 prolong the hostility which has so long occupied us ? 



Shortly : then, it is not the science teaching itself, it is 

 the metaphysics which consciously or unconsciously happen 

 so often to have been propagated with it. In considering 

 the teaching of physical science, two very different things 

 require to be well distinguished : (i) the facts as to the 

 co-existences and sequences of phenomena ; and (2) the 

 special system of philosophy which such facts may be 

 made use of to inculcate. 



Physical science, being by its very nature occupied ex- 

 clusively with phenomenal conceptions, must plainly be 

 capable of adaptation to, or explanation by, more than 

 one system of philosophy ; and that it is so experience 

 proves. The Berkeleyan, the Kantist, the peripatetic, and 

 the materialist find no difficulty in presenting the facts of 

 science in harmony with their respective views. We have 

 seen that physical science itself must be simply indifferent 

 as regards Christianity, but the very reverse is of course 

 the case with the materialistic or pantheistic philosophical 

 systems so often associated with it. The existence of such 

 association is notorious, and the names of Vogt and Btich- 

 ner may well be quoted as prominent inculcators of such 



