24 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 



Similarly if we begin at the other end, and inquire what 

 scientific truth can unite Science and Religion. It is at once 

 manifest that Religion can take no cognizance of special 

 scientific doctrines; nor any more than Science can take 

 cognizance of special religious doctrines. The truth which 

 Science asserts and Religion indorses cannot be one fur- 

 nished by mathematics ; nor can it be a physical truth ; nor 

 can it be a truth in chemistry ; it cannot be a truth belong- 

 ing to any particular science. No generalization of the 

 phenomena of space, of time, of matter, or of force, can be- 

 come a Religious conception. Such a conception, if it any- 

 where exists in Science, must be more general than any of 

 these must be one underlying all of them. If there be a 

 fact which Science recognizes in common with Religion, it 

 must be that fact from which the several branches of Sci- 

 ence diverge, as from their common root. 



' r Assuming then, that since these two great realities are 

 constituents of the same mind, and respond to different as- 

 pects of the same Universe, there must be a fundamental 

 harmony between them; we see good reason to conclude 

 that the most abstract truth contained in Religion and the 

 most abstract truth contained in Science must be the one in 

 which the two coalesce. The largest fact to be found within 

 our mental range must be the one of which we are in search. 

 Uniting these positive and negative poles of human thought, 

 it must be the ultimate fact in our intelligence. 



8. Before proceeding in the search for this common 

 datum let me bespeak a little patience. The next three 

 chapters, setting out from different points and converging to 

 the same conclusion, will be comparatively unattractive. 

 Students of philosophy will find in them much that is more 

 or less familiar ; and to most of those who are unacquainted 

 with the literature of modern metaphysics, they may prove 

 someAvhat difficult to follow. 



Our argument however cannot dispense with these chap- 



