XIV. 

 THE STABILITY OF TRUTH. 



"Grau, theurer Freund, ist alle Theorie, 

 Und griin des Lebens goldner Baum." GOETHE. 



WITHIN the last few years three notable assaults 

 have been made on the integrity of science. Two of 

 these have come from the hostile camp 

 Assaults on the of mediffival meta ph y sics, the other from 

 integrity of , , * , , 



science t very front of the army of science 



itself. Salisbury, Balfour, and Haeckel 

 agree in this, that " belief " may rest on foundations un- 

 known to "knowledge," and that the conclusions of sci- 

 ence may be subject to additions and revisions in accord- 

 ance with the demands of " belief." To some considera- 

 tions suggested in part by Balfour's Foundations of 

 Belief and Haeckel's Confession of Faith of a Man of 

 Science, I invite attention in the present paper. 



The growing complexity of civilized life demands 

 constantly more knowledge as to our material surround- 

 ings and greater precision in our recog- 

 nition of the invisible forces or tendencies 

 about us. We are in the hands of the 

 Fates, and the greater our activities the more evident 

 become these limiting conditions. The secret of man's 

 power is to know his limitations. To this end we 

 need constantly new accessions of tr*uth as to the uni- 

 verse and better definition of the truths which are old. 

 334 



