APOLOGY FOB THE BELFAST ADDRESS. 207 



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 enun- 

 ciated by me. In doing so he transgressed the bounds 

 of science at least as much 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 extrava- 

 gances of the religious world ; at the very inadequate 

 and foolish notions concerning this universe which are 

 entertained by the majority of our authorised religious 

 teachers ; at the waste of energy on the part of good 

 men over things unworthy, if I may say it without dis- 

 courtesy, 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 chi- 

 meras, which astound all thinking men, it did not 

 appear to me extravagant to claim the public tolerance 

 for an hour and a half, for the statement of more reason- 

 able views views more in accordance with the verities 

 which science has brought to light, and which many 

 weary souls would, I thought, welcome with gratifica- 

 tion and relief. 



But to come to closer quarters. The expression to 

 which the most violent exception has been taken is 

 this: 'Abandoning all disguise, the confession I feel 

 bound to make before you is, that I prolong the vision 



