NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH 121 



fessedly based upon matters of fact. Thus the clerical 

 profession has to deal with the facts of Nature from a 

 certain point of view; and hence it comes into contact with 

 that of the man of science, who has to treat the same facts 

 from another point of view. You know how often that 

 contact is to be described as collision, or violent friction; 

 and how great the heat, how little the light, which commonly 

 results from it. 



In the interests of fair play, to say nothing of those of 

 mankind, I ask, Why do not the clergy as a body acquire, 

 as a part of their preliminary education, some such tincture 

 of physical science as will put them in a position to under- 

 stand the difficulties in the way of accepting their theories, 

 which are forced upon the mind of every thoughtful and 

 intelligent man, who has taken the trouble to instruct him- 

 self in the elements of natural knowledge ? 



Some time ago I attended a large meeting of the clergy, 

 for the purpose of delivering an address which I had been 

 invited to give. I spoke of some of the most elementary 

 facts in physical science, and of the manner in which they 

 directly contradict certain of the ordinary teachings of the 

 clergy. The result was, that, after I had finished, one 

 section of the assembled ecclesiastics attacked me with all 

 the intemperance of pious zeal, for stating facts and con- 

 clusions which no competent judge doubts; while, after the 

 first speakers had subsided, amidst the cheers of the great 

 majority of their colleagues, the more rational minority rose 

 to tell me that I had taken wholly superfluous pains, that 

 they already knew all about what I had told them, and 

 perfectly agreed with me. A hard-headed friend of mine, 

 who was present, put the not unnatural question, "Then 

 why don't you say so in your pulpits?" to which inquiry 

 I heard no reply. 



