

MODERN MYSTICISM AND MODERN SCIENCE. 289 



power of modern table-rapping spirits does not seem to tran- 

 scend the ability to make mischief in families by publishing 

 scandal. The utmost good ever claimed on behalf of these 

 summoned immortals is only comparable to the small acts of 

 petty benevolence attributed to elves and fairies. The mighty 

 grandeur of eternity ; the rapt beatitude of its blessed ; the 

 torments of its condemned; all that is solemn and soul-stirring 

 in the teachings of revelation or the promptings of science 

 all fleet away, in the presence of a belief like this ! 



The meanness of spiritualism, even in its most exalted 

 pretensions, cannot fail to strike a mind moderately honest 

 and unprepossessed. Science and scientific men have at vari- 

 ous epochs been severely handled by professors of dogmatic 

 faith for wildness of statement and arrogance of preten- 

 sion. Even at the time being, an acerb, not to say a violent 

 discussion is maintained in regard to the question of the 

 antiquity of man upon the globe ; but Science has never been 

 accused of degrading the subjects she handles to a point of 

 meanness lower than the lowest existing standards. On the 

 contrary, it has been the invariable result of Science to exalt 

 whatever she has dealt with. 



How small and mean were the notions of Pythagoras, or 

 any other ancient sage, as to the universe, by comparison with 

 those the progress of astronomy has revealed to us ! What 

 visions of surpassing beauty has not the chemist disclosed ! 

 Before the scrutiny of his art, matter seemingly torpid and 

 motionless is resolved into myriad forms of life and move- 

 ment. Flowers and trees are more lovely for the botanist. 

 A stone-quarry becomes a temple of adoration, or a -poetic 

 fane, at the will and bidding of the geologist. No ! Science, 

 with all her arrogance, all her pride, has vulgarised nothing 

 that she ever touched ; and in respect to professions of belief, 

 scientific men are bound, by the very tenure of their office, 

 to give full expression to them. Again, whatever the errors 

 a science may inculcate, they have no quality of perpetuity, 



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