ROCKS, STORMS, AND PERIL- 1868-1874 425 



For a long time I stood on the defensive, hoping that 

 the provisions made for the growth of religious life 

 among the students might show that we were not so 

 wicked as we were represented; but, as all this seemed 

 only to embitter our adversaries, I finally determined to 

 take the offensive, and having been invited to deliver a 

 lecture in the great hall of the Cooper Institute at New 

 York, took as my subject "The Battle-fields of Science/' 

 In this my effort was to show how, in the supposed in- 

 terest of religion, earnest and excellent men, for many 

 ages and in many countries, had bitterly opposed various 

 advances in science and in education, and that such oppo- 

 sition had resulted in most evil results, not only to science 

 and education, but to religion. This lecture was published 

 in full, next day, in the "New York Tribune "; extracts 

 from it were widely copied; it was asked for by lecture 

 associations in many parts of the country ; grew first into 

 two magazine articles, then into a little book which was 

 widely circulated at home, reprinted in England with a 

 preface by Tyndall, and circulated on the Continent in 

 translations, was then expanded into a series of articles in 

 the ' * Popular Science Monthly, ? ' and finally wrought into 

 my book on "The Warfare of Science with Theology." 

 liTeach of these forms my argument provoked attack ; but 

 all this eventually created a reaction in our favor, even in 

 quarters where it was least expected. One evidence of this 

 touched me deeply. I had been invited to repeat the 

 lecture at New Haven, and on arriving there found a 

 large audience of Yale professors and students ; but, most 

 surprising of all, in the chair for the evening, no less a 

 personage than my revered instructor, Dr. Theodore 

 Dwight Woolsey, president of the university. He was of 

 a deeply religious nature ; and certainly no man was ever, 

 under all circumstances, more true to his convictions of 

 duty. To be welcomed by him was encouragement indeed. 

 He presented me cordially to the audience, and at the 

 close of my address made a brief speech, in which he 

 thoroughly supported my positions and bade me God- 

 speed. Few things in my life have so encouraged me. 



