224 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



XL 



THE REV. JAMES MARTINEAU AND THE 

 BELFAST ADDRESS. 1 



T)RIOR to the publication of the Fifth Edition of 

 JL these ' Fragments ' my attention had been directed 

 by several estimable, and indeed eminent, persons, to 

 an essay by the Eev. James Martineau, as demanding 

 serious consideration at my hands. I tried to give the 

 essay the attention claimed for it, and published my views 

 of it as an Introduction to Part II. of the ' Fragments.' 

 I there referred, and here again refer with pleasure, to 

 the accord subsisting between Mr. Martineau and myself 

 on certain points of biblical Cosmogony. ' In so far/ 

 says he, ' 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 appearance 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 



1 Fortnightly Review. 1 



