PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 343 



the investigations of the botanist and zoologist.* Natural selec- 

 tion indeed — no less than artificial (he was accustomed to say), 

 is to a limited extent a fact of observation ; and the practical 

 question is to determine approximately its reach of application, 

 and its sufficiency as an actual agency, to enibvace larger series 

 of organic changes lying beyond the scope of direct human ex- 

 perience. It is for the rising generation of conscientious zoolo- 

 gists and botanists to attack this problem, and to ascertain if 

 practicable its limitations or modifications. 



These broad and fearless views, entertained and expressed as 

 early as 1860, or 1861, exhibiting neither the zealous confidence of 

 the votary, nor the jealous anxiety of the antagonist, received 

 scarcely any modification during his subsequent years. Nor did 

 it ever seem to occur to hira that any reconstruction of his reli- 

 gious faith was involved in the solution of the problem. So 

 much religious faith indeed was exercised by him in every scien- 

 tific judgment, that he regarded the teachings of science but as 

 revelations of the Divine mode of government in the natural 

 world: to be diligently sought for and submissively accepted; 

 with the constant recognition however of our human limitations, 

 and the relativity of human knowledge. f Not inappropriately 

 may be here recalled a characteristic statement of the office of 

 hypothesis, made by him some ten years earlier : presenting a 

 consideration well calculated to restrain dogmatism — whether in 

 science or in theology. " It is not necessary that an hypothesis 

 be absolutely true, in order that it may be adopted as an expres- 

 sion of a generalization for the purpose of explaining and pre- 

 dicting new phenomena : it is only necessary that it should be 

 well conditioned in accordance with known mechanical prin- 

 ciples. . . . Man with his finite faculties cannot hope in 

 this life to arrive at a knowledge of absolute truth : and were 

 the true theory of the universe, or in other w^ords the precise 

 mode in which Divine Wisdom operates in producing the phe- 

 nomena of the material world revealed to him, his mind would 

 be unfitted for its reception. It would be too simple in its ex- 

 pression, and too general in its application, to be understood 

 and applied by intellects like ours. "J 



* "In the investigation of nature, we provisionally adopt hypotheses 

 as antecedent probabilities, which we seek to prove or disprove by sub- 

 sequent observation and experiment : and it is in this way that science 

 is most rapidly and securely advanced." (Agricult. Report, 1856, p. 456.) 



f With reference to the intimations of the comparative antiquity of 

 man, Henry quoted with sympathetic approbation the sentiment so Well 

 expressed by the Bishop of London in a Lecture at Edinburgh, that "The 

 man of science should go on honestly, patiently, diffidently, observing 

 and storing up his observations, and carrying his reasonings unflinch- 

 ingly to their legitimate conclusions, convinced that it would be treason 

 to the majesty at once of science and of religion, if he sought to help 

 either by swerving ever so little from the straight line of truth." {Smith- 

 sonian Report for 1868, p. 33.) 



i Proceed. Am. Assoc. Albany, Aug. 1851, pp. 86, 87. 



117 



