128 AN EPISCOPAL TRILOGY IV 



knowledge which they display, and by the spirit 

 of equity, I might say of generosity, towards 

 science which pervades them. There is no trace 

 of that tacit or open assumption that the rejection 

 of theological dogmas, on scientific grounds, is due 

 to moral perversity, w r hich is the ordinary note of 

 ecclesiastical homilies on this subject, and which 

 makes them look so supremely silly to men whose 

 lives have been spent in wrestling with these 

 questions. There is no attempt to hide away real 

 stumbling-blocks under rhetorical stucco ; no resort 

 to the tu quoque device of setting scientific blun- 

 ders against theological errors ; no suggestion that 

 an honest man may keep contradictory beliefs in 

 separate pockets of his brain ; no question that the 

 method of scientific investigation is valid, what- 

 ever the results to which it may lead ; and that the 

 search after truth, and truth only, ennobles the 

 searcher and leaves no doubt that his life, at any 

 rate, is worth living. The Bishop of Carlisle 

 declares himself pledged to the belief that " the 

 advancement of science, the progress of human 

 knowledge, is in itself a worthy aim of the greatest 

 effort of the greatest minds." 



How often was it my fate, a quarter of a century 

 ago, to see the whole artillery of the pulpit brought 

 to bear upon the doctrine of evolution and its sup- 

 porters ! Any one unaccustomed to the amenities 

 of ecclesiastical controversy would have thought 

 we were too wicked to be permitted to live. But 



