512 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



biblical Cosmogony. "In so far," says lie, "as Church 

 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 appear- 

 ance 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 Religion must 

 surrender to the Sciences." Finally, still more emphatically: 

 "In the investigation of the genetic 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 Belfast. "The impregnable 

 position of science," I there say, "may be stated in a few 

 words. We claim, and we shall wrest from Theology, the 

 entire domain of Cosmological theory." Thus Theology, 

 so far as it is represented by Mr. Martineau, and Science, 

 so far as I understand it, are in absolute harmony here. 



But Mr. Martineau would have just reason to complain 

 of me, if, by partial citation, I left my readers under the 

 impression that the agreement between us is complete. 

 At the opening of the eighty-ninth session of the Man- 

 chester New College, London, on October 6, 1874, he, its 

 principal, delivered an address bearing the title "Religion 

 as affected by Modern Materialism;" the references and 

 general tone of which make evident the- depth of its 

 author's discontent with my previous deliverance at Belfast. 

 I find it difficult to grapple with the exact grounds of this 

 discontent. Indeed, logically considered, the impression 

 left upon my mind by an essay of great aesthetic merit, con- 

 taining many passages of exceeding beauty, and manysenti- 

 ments which none but the pure in heart could utter as 

 they are uttered here, is vague and unsatisfactory. The 

 author appears at times so brave and liberal, at times so 

 timid and captious, and at times, if I dare say it, so 

 imperfectly informed, regarding the position he assails. 



At the outset of his address Mr. Martineau states with 

 some distinctness his "sources of religious faith." They 

 are two "the scrutiny of Nature "and "the interpreta- 

 tion of Sacred Books." It would have been a theme 

 worthy of his intelligence to have deduced from these two 

 sources his religion as it stands. 'But not another word is 

 said about the "Sacred Books." Having swept with the 



