CHAPTER IV. 



MATTER AND SPIRIT. 



It is the usual lot of scientific writers who maintain theorieb 

 which have not yet "become popular with the theological 

 world, to be accused of holding opinions which they not 

 only do not hold, but against which they have perhaps, on 

 every fitting occasion, publicly and emphatically protested. 

 Partly, no doubt, such misrepresentations arise from that 

 carelessness (to call it by no worse name) which too often 

 characterizes the statements of persons who have come to 

 believe that the interests of sacred truth have been com- 

 mitted to them for safe keeping. Whether the truth in 

 q^uestion derives its sacredness from time-hallowed tradition 

 or what are called the " higher instincts of our nature," 

 whether its self-appointed guardians are conservative theo- 

 logians or radical iconoclasts, extreme devotion to its 

 interests is liable to be accompanied by a lofty disregard 

 for that accuracy of statement which to the scientific in- 

 quirer seems so indispensable. It appears to be tacitly 

 assumed that the interests of Truth in the abstract can be 

 rightly subserved only by the sacrifice of divers humble 

 concrete truths. Abundant evidence of this is to be found 

 in the tracts and speeches of "teetotalers," "labour re- 

 former-j/' " friends of the People," and other sentimentalista 



