XI. 



TEE REV. JAMES MARTINEAU AND TEE 

 BELFAST ADDRESS* 



PRIOR to the publication of the Fifth Edition of 

 these ' Fragments ' my attention had been di- 

 rected by several estimable, and indeed eminent, per- 

 sons, to an essay by the Rev. James Martineau, as de- 

 manding serious consideration at my hands. I tried to 

 give the essay the attention claimed for it, and pub- 

 lished my views of it as an Introduction to Part II. of 

 the ' Fragments.' I there referred, and here again re- 

 fer with pleasure, to the accord subsisting between Mr. 

 Martineau and myself on certain points of biblical Cos- 

 mogony. ' In so far/ says he, ' as Chuch belief is still 

 committed to a given Cosmogony and natural history 

 of man, it lies open to scientific refutation.' And 

 again: ' It turns out that with the sun and moon and 

 stars, and in and on the earth, before and after the ap- 

 pearance of our race, quite other things have happened 

 than those which the sacred Cosmogony recites.' Once 

 more: ' The whole history of the genesis of things Re- 

 ligion must surrender to the Sciences.' Finally, still 

 more emphatically: ' In the investigation of the genet- 

 ic order of things, Theology is an intruder, and must 

 stand aside.' This expresses, only in words of fuller 

 pith, the views which I ventured to enunciate in Bel- 



* 'Fortnightly Review.' 

 224 



