26 NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 



its first form, seeking for the philosopher's stone and the trans- 

 mutation of metals, gave way to alchemy in its second form, seek- 

 ing for the elixir of life and remedies more or less magical for 

 disease ; and this in turn yielded to the search for truth as truth. 

 More and more the "solemnly constituted impostors" were re- 

 sisted in every field. A great line of physicists and chemists began 

 to appear. Though theological modes of reasoning continued to 

 sterilize much effort in chemistry down to our own century, more 

 and more the old influence was thrown off ; more and more truth 

 was sought as truth ; less and less science was bent to aid in the 

 alleged " saving of souls." " Black magic " with its satanic appa- 

 ratus vanished, only reappearing occasionally among miracle- 

 mongers and belated theologians. " White magic " became leger- 

 demain.* 



In our own time some attempt has been made to renew this 

 war against the physical sciences. Joseph de Maistre, uttering 

 his hatred of them, declaring that mankind has paid too dearly 

 for them, asserting that they must be subjected to theology, lik- 

 ening them to fire good when confined and dangerous when scat- 

 tered about has been one of the main leaders among those who 

 can not relinquish the idea that our body of sacred literature 

 should be kept a controlling text-book of science. The only effect 

 of such teachings has been to weaken the legitimate hold of re- 

 ligion upon men. 



In Catholic countries the effort has been of late years mainly 

 confined to excluding science or diluting it in university teach- 

 ings. Early in the present century a great effort was made by 

 Ferdinand VII of Spain. He simply dismissed the scientific pro- 

 fessors from the University of Salamanca, and until a recent 

 period there has been general exclusion from Spanish universi- 

 ties of professors holding to the Newtonian physics. So, too, the 

 contemporary Emperor of Austria attempted indirectly something 

 of the same sort ; and at a still later period "Popes Gregory XVI 

 and Pius IX discouraged, if they did not forbid, the meetings of 

 scientific associations in Italy. In France, war between theology 

 and science, which had long been smoldering, came in the years 

 1867 and 1868 to an outbreak. Toward the end of the last century, 

 after the Church had held possession of advanced instruction for 

 more than a thousand years, and had, so far as it was able, kept 

 experimental science in servitude after it had humiliated Buffon 



* For a reappearance of the fundamental doctrine of black magic among theologians, 

 see Rev. Dr. Jewett, Professor of Pastoral Theology in the Prot. Episc. Gen. Theolog. Semi- 

 nary of New York, Diabolology : The Person and Kingdom of Satan, New York, 1889. For 

 their reappearance among theosophists, see Elephas Levi, Histoire de la Magie, especially 

 the final chapters. 



