208 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



normal and necessary discipline of the developing 

 human spirit, we do not think that Man can find 

 abiding satisfaction in Nature's voices alone. 

 Invigorating, inspiring, and instructive they cer- 

 tainly are, but, as we have seen, they are full of 

 perplexities, and it is with a certain sad wist- 

 fulness'that we hear their echoes dying away in 

 the quietness of our minds like the calls of curlews 

 on the moorland as they pass farther into the 

 mist. Happy, then, in that quietness are those 

 who have what Sir Thomas Browne called "a 

 glimpse of incomprehensibles, and thoughts of 

 things which thoughts but tenderly touch." 



It must be carefully noted that we have spoken 

 only of those pathways to religion which the 

 growth of Science has most directly affected. 

 We have not spoken of the ethical approach to 

 religion, by which many take refuge from the 

 contradictions of moral experience, nor of the 

 approach to religion which is followed by those 

 who are able to see in history, and especially in 

 the Founder of Christianity, a direct Revelation 

 of what is otherwise only groped after. 



THE CONFLICT BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELI- 

 ,GiON. It was Clerk Maxwell who spoke of the 

 absurdity of trying to keep "idea-tight compart- 

 jments" in our minds, and although some men 

 appear to achieve considerable success in keep- 

 ing their scientific convictions unrelated to their 



