382 COSMIC PHILOSOPHT. [vt. in. 



must assist us greatly in the scientific study of the universe. 

 Not only must we inquire, with Sokrates, into the divine 

 purposes subserved by the structure of the eyes and the 

 position of the alimentary canal ;^ but we shall also find it 

 desirable to interpret the design exhibited in the inclinations 

 of the planetary axes ; and our knowledge of chemistry must 

 be deemed incomplete until we have ascertained the creative 

 plan in the arrangement of combining equivalents.^ Not 

 only will light thus be thrown upon many facts which would 

 else have remained for ever wrapped in impenetrable dark- 

 ness ; but the mere recognition of an anthropomorphic 

 purpose or providence in the constitution of things is said to 

 afford unfailing consolation amid perplexity and suffering. 

 He who cherishes the belief in the conscious supervision of 

 a personal Deity is held to possess the surest of safeguards 

 against scepticism and despair. 



A hypothesis which holds out such brilliant hopes may 

 well be retained in our Cosmic Philosophy, if it can be shown 

 to be in harmony with the demonstrated scientific truths 

 upon which that philosophy rests. But if this cannot be 

 done, then the hypothesis must be discarded, even though it 

 should carry with it all our hopes and wishes in indiscriminate 

 ruin. It has been well said that "we must follow Truth, 

 though she lead us to Hades." The noble quest in which 

 Science engages is the quest, not of faith or of consolation, 

 but of truth ; and, with the scientific philosopher, loyalty to 

 truth is the first principle of religion. The disagreeableness 

 of a weU-supported conclusion furnishes no sort of justifica- 

 tion for not accepting it, save to those minds which are I 

 irreligious as well as unscientific. He who is loyal to Truth I 



^ Xenophon, Memorabilia, i. 4. § 6. 



® "The iuoiganic world, considered in the same light, would not fail to 

 exhibit unexpected evidences of thought, in the character of the laws regu- 

 lating chemical combinations, the action of physical forces, the universal 

 attraction, etc. Even the history of human culture ought to be investigated 

 from this point of view."— Agassiz, Essay on Classification, p. 199. 



