SCIENCE IN " BONDAGE" 89 



well established facts, but which after all turn 

 out to be nothing of the kind. This in no way 

 weakens the argument, but rather by giving an 

 additional reason for caution, strengthens it. 



If we carefully consider the matter we shall be 

 unable to come to any other conclusion than that 

 every writer, even of the wildest form of fiction, 

 is in some way and to some extent hampered and 

 limited by knowledge, by facts, by things as they 

 are or as they appear to be. That will be ad- 

 mitted ; but it will be urged that the hampering 

 and limiting with which we have been dealing 

 is not merely legitimate but inevitable, whereas 

 the hampering and limiting should such there 

 be on the part of the Church is wholly 

 illegitimate and indefensible. 



" All that you say is no doubt true," our 

 antagonist will urge, " but you have still to show 

 that your Church has any right or title to interfere 

 in these matters. And even if you can make some 

 sort of case for her interference, you have still 

 to disprove what so many people believe, namely, 

 that the right, real or assumed, has not been 

 arbitrarily used to the damage, or at least to the 

 delay of scientific progress. Chemistry," we may 

 suppose our antagonist continuing, " no doubt 

 has a legitimate right to have its say, even to 

 interfere and that imperatively, where chemical 

 considerations invade the field of biology, for 

 example. But what similar right does religion 

 possess ? For instance," he might proceed, 

 " some few years ago a distinguished physiologist, 

 then occupying the Chair of the British Associa- 



