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the current-strength. The "current-strength" of the 

 clergy towards science may also be expressed by mak- 

 ing the positive element just referred to the numerator, 

 and the negative one the denominator of a fraction. 

 The numerator is not zero nor is it even small, but the de- 

 nominator is large ; and hence the current strength is 

 such as we find it to be. Slowness of conception, even 

 open hostility, may be thus accounted for. They are 

 for the most part errors of judgment, and not sins 

 against truth. To most of us it may appear very sim- 

 ple, but to a few of us it appears transcendently won- 

 derful, that in all -classes of society truth should have 

 this power and fascination. From the countless modifi- 

 cations that life has undergone through natural selec- 

 tion and the integration of infinitesimal steps, emerges 

 finally the grand result that the strength of truth is 

 greater than the strength of error, and that we have 

 only to make the truth clear to the world to gain the 

 world to our side. Probably no one wonders more at 

 this result than the propounder of the law of natural 

 selection himself. Reverting to an old acquaintance of 

 ours, it would seem, on purely scientific grounds, as if 

 a Veracity were at the heart of things j as if, after ages of 

 latent working, it had finally unfolded itself in the life of 

 man ; as if it were still destined to unfold itself, growing in 

 girth, throwing out stronger branches and thicker leaves, 

 and tending more and more by its overshadowing pres- 

 ence to starve the weeds of error from the intellectual 

 soil. 



But this is parenthetical ; and the gist of our present 

 inquiry regarding the introduction of life is this : Does 

 it belong to what we call matter, or is it an independent 

 principle inserted into matter at some suitable epoch 



