OF THE KINGDOM OF MATTER. 



143 



truth weighs like a nightmare, I believe, upon many of the 

 best minds of the day. They watch what they conceive to 

 be the progress of materialism in such fear, and powerless 

 anger, as a savage feels when during an eclipse the great 

 shadow creeps over the face of the sun. The advancing 

 tide of matter threatens to drown their souls ; the tightening 

 grasp of law impedes their freedom ; they are alarmed lest 

 man's moral nature be debased by the increase of his 

 wisdom." ("Lay Sermons," p. 142, third edition.) 



Some may be inclined to think that such ideas are a 

 little extravagant, though, with a reservation, they may be 

 said almost to approach the sublime. The writing is so 

 vigorous and the choice of expression so perfect that such 

 aspiring sentiments are sure to be popular in these days. 

 Those who devote themselves to science may entertain the 

 opinion that it might be best for her interests that her 

 disciples should not endeavour to gain followers by the 

 grandeur or sublimity of their prophetic assurances, or even 

 by fine writing and powerful language, but rather by telling 

 the story they have to tell as distinctly as possible, without 

 exaggeration, and with simplicity and truthfulness ; but a 

 purely scientific view of things is narrow and one-sided, and 

 not to be accepted by those who have received the dogma 

 of the universal operation of physical causation. 



Nothing is more likely to destroy the power of forming 

 a correct judgment concerning scientific questions than the 

 habit of considering what changes of opinion would follow 

 in the event of such and such new views proving to be 

 really true. In science and in philosophy the attention 

 ought to be concentrated upon the facts, and the judgment 

 should be exercised independently, with the sole object of 



