APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 13 



Who shall count the host of weaker men whose 

 sense of truth has been destroyed in the effort to 

 harmonise impossibilities whose life has been 

 wasted in the attempt to force the generous new 

 wine of Science into the old bottles of Judaism, 

 compelled by the outcry of the same strong party ? 



When Astronomy was young ' ' the morning stars 

 sang together for joy," and the planets were guided 

 in their courses by celestial hands. Now, the 

 harmony of the stars has resolved itself into 

 gravitation according to the inverse squares of the 

 distances, and the orbits of the planets are deducible 

 from the laws of the forces which allow a schoolboy's 

 stone to break a window. 



The lightning was the angel of the Lord ; but it 

 has pleased Providence, in these modern times, that 

 science should make it the humble messenger of man, 

 and we know that every flash that shimmers about 

 the horizon on a summer's evening is determined by 

 ascertainable conditions, and that its direction and 

 brightness might, if our knowledge of these were 

 great enough, have been calculated. 



Why should the souls [of philosophers] be deeply 

 vexed ? The majesty of Fact is on their side, and the 

 elemental forces of Nature are working for them. 

 Not a star conies to the meridian at its calculated 

 time but testifies to the justice of their methods 

 their beliefs are "one with the falling rain and with 

 the growing corn. " By doubt they are established, 

 and open inquiry is their bosom friend. 



