498 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



the solar system what it is, will any theologian deny my 

 right to entertain and express this theoretic view? Time 

 was when a multitude of theologians would have been 

 found to do so when that arch enemy of science which 

 now vaunts its tolerance would have made a speedy end of 

 the man who might venture to publish any opinion of the 

 kind. But, that time, unless the world is caught strangely 

 slumbering, is forever past. 



As regards inorganic nature, then, we may traverse, 

 .without let or hindrance, the whole distance which sepa- 

 rates the nebulas from the worlds of to-day. But only a few 

 years ago this now conceded ground of science was theolog- 

 ical ground. I could by no means regard this as the linal 

 and sufficient concession of theology; and, at Belfast, I 

 thought it not only my right but my duty to state that, as 

 regards the organic world, we must enjoy the freedom 

 which we have already won in regard to the inorganic. I 

 could not discern the shred of a title-deed which gave any 

 man, or any class of men, the right to open the door of 

 one of these worlds to the scientific searcher and to close 

 the other against him. And I considered it frankest, 

 wisest, and in the long run most conducive to permanent 

 peace, to indicate, without evasion or reserve, the ground 

 that belongs to Science, and to which she will assuredly 

 make good her claim. 



I have been reminded that an eminent predecessor of 

 mine in the presidential chair expressed a totally different 

 view of the cause of things from that enunciated by me. 

 In doing so he transgressed the bounds of science at least 

 as nfuch as I did; but nobody raised an outcry against 

 him. The freedom he took I claim. And looking at what 

 I must regard as the extravagances of the religious world; 

 at the very inadequate and foolish notions concerning this 

 universe which are entertained by the majority of our 

 authorized religious teachers; at the waste of energy on 

 the part of good men over things unworthy, if I may say 

 it without discourtesy, of the attention of enlightened 

 heathens; the fight about the fripperies of Ritualism, and 

 the verbal quibbles of the Athanasian Creed; the forcing 

 on the public view of Pontigny Pilgrimages; the dating 

 of historic epochs from the definition of the Immaculate 

 Conception; the proclamation of the Divine Glories of 

 the Sacred Heart standing in the midst of these 



