f NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH 110 



often that contact is to be described as collision, or 

 violent friction ; and how great the heat, how little 

 the light, which commonly results from it. 



In the interests of fair play, to say nothing of 

 those of mankind, I ask, Why do not the clergy as 

 a body acquire, as a part of their preliminary 

 education, some such tincture of physical science 

 as will put them in a position to understand the 

 difficulties in the way of accepting their theories, 

 which are forced upon the mind of every thought- 

 ful and intelligent man, who has taken the trouble 

 to instruct himself in the elements of natural 

 knowledge ? 



Some time ago I attended a large meeting of 

 the clergy, for the purpose of delivering an address 

 which I had been invited to give. I spoke of some 

 of the most elementary facts in physical science, 

 and of the manner in which they directly contra- 

 dict certain of the ordinary teachings of the clergy. 

 The result was, that, after I had finished, one 

 section of the assembled ecclesiastics attacked me 

 with all the intemperance of pious zeal, for stating 

 facts and conclusions which no competent judge 

 doubts ; while, after the first speakers had subsided, 

 amidst the cheers of the great majority of their 

 colleagues, the more rational minority rose to tell 

 me that I had taken wholly superfluous pains, that 

 they already knew all about what I had told them, 

 and perfectly agreed with me. A hard-headed 

 friend of mine, who was present, put the not un- 



68 



