100 LECTURES 



tinue to be extended to its closely allied profession of 

 medical jurisprudence, for very frequently an exact 

 knowledge of physiology is demanded of its practitioners 

 to come to just conclusions. And thus it can be shown 

 that there is not a single activity in which men engage 

 that will not, in the future, either by a direct knowledge 

 of one or another of the biological sciences, or through an 

 improvement in our methods adopted for mental training 

 engendered by their introduction into our system of edu- 

 cation, be more or less beneficially influenced thereby. 



We have another great institution with us that of re- 

 cent years has been powerfully influenced by the growth 

 of our newly acquired knowledge of natural laws, and 

 must, of necessity, appreciate that fact still more sensi- 

 bly in the future. I refer to religion and to Christianity; 

 but there has been so very much said and written upon 

 this subject, during the last half century, that it would 

 seem to be almost impossible to even refer to so vast a 

 field for comment here with the hope of bringing any 

 new light to bear. To my mind, time alone is required 

 for the true and lasting adjustments to be arrived at in 

 such premises. The broadest thinkers in the church are 

 not slow in seeing that truth alone controls scientific 

 progress; every page in human history establishes that 

 fact, and surely, religion has nothing to fear from any such 

 quarter. And it must be evident that wise indeed will 

 be that church that can most rapidly and surely accom- 

 modate itself, at all times, to ,the intellectual growth of 

 the world. It can but redound to her 

 credit, broaden her conceptions, and improve religious 

 teachings and methods. Scientific criticism is so keen, 

 so exacting, and so impartial, in these days, that it con- 

 stitutes the most formidable foe extant to anything that 

 may arise, even within the very ranks of science, at all 

 incompatible with what is true; and it is simply out of 

 the question to have any hypothesis live for a moment, 

 come from whence it may, unless it be reared upon 

 ample, veil attested facts and figures. It will meet with 

 almost instant refutation at the very hands of scientific 

 men themselves, and if any layman choose to test the 

 truth of this, and test how exacting science is in these 

 respects as to the question of matter of fact, he has but 

 to do and publish some small piece of monographic 

 work in biology, into which he has allowed to creep er- 

 rors here and there, to appreciate how promptly the 

 workers in similar fields will take pleasure in publicly 

 correcting them for his instruction and guidance in the 



