330 ^ag Sermons, gssatrs, mttr Behrc^s. [xiv 



letters ; just as you give a Grenadier a bearskin cap, to 

 make him look more formidable than he is by nature. 



I repeat, the path indicated and followed by Descartes 

 which we have hitherto been treading, leads through 

 doubt to that critical Idealism which lies at the heart 

 of modern metaphysical thought. But the "Discourse" 

 shows us another, and apparently very different, path, 

 which leads, quite as definitely, to that correlation of all 

 the phenomena of the universe with matter and motion, 

 which lies at the heart of modern physical thought, and 

 which most people call Materialism. 



The early part of the seventeenth century, when Des- 

 cartes reached manhood, is one of the great epochs of the 

 intellectual life of mankind. At that time, physical 

 science suddenly strode into the arena of public and 

 familiar thought, and openly challenged, not only Philo- 

 sophy and the Church, but that common ignorance 

 which passes by the name of Common Sense. The asser- 

 tion of the motion of the earth was a defiance to all 

 three, and Physical Science threw down her glove by the 

 hand of Galileo. 



It is not pleasant to think of the immediate result of 

 the combat ; to see the champion of science, old, worn, 

 and on his knees before the Cardinal Inquisitor, signing 

 his name to what he knew to be a lie. And, no doubt, 

 the Cardinals rubbed their hands as they thought how 

 well they had silenced and discredited their adversary. 

 But two hundred years have passed, and however feeble 

 or faulty her soldiers, Physical Science sits crowned and 

 enthroned as one of the legitimate rulers of the world 

 of thought. Charity children would be ashamed not to 

 know that the earth moves ; while the Schoolmen are 

 forgotten ; and the Cardinals well, the Cardinals are at 

 the (Ecumenical Council, still at their old business of 

 trying to stop the movement of the world. 



