14 APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 



l.XII 



Harmonious order governing eternally continuous 

 progress — the web and woof of matter and force 

 mterweaving by slow degrees, wthout a broken 

 thread, that veil which lies between us and the 

 Infinite — that universe which alone we know or can 

 know ; such is the picture which science draw^s of 

 the world, and in proportion as any part of that 

 picture is in unison with the rest, so may we feel 

 sure that it is rightly painted. 



LXIII 



Mix salt and sand, and it shall puzzle the wisest of 

 men, with his mere natural appliances, to separate all 

 the grains of sand from all the grains of salt ; but a 

 shower of rain will effect the same object in ten 

 minutes. 



LXIV 



Elijah's great question, "Will you serve God or 

 Baal ? Choose ye," is uttered audibly enough in the 

 ears of every one of us as we come to manhood. 

 Let every man who tries to answer it seriously ask 

 himself whether he can be satisfied with the Baal of 

 authority, and with all the good things his worshippers 

 are promised in this world and the next. If he can, 

 let him, if he be so inclined, amuse himself with such 

 scientific implements as authority tells him are safe 

 and will not cut his fingers ; but let him not imagine 

 he is, or can be, both a true son of the Church and a 

 loyal soldier of science. 



LXV 



Ecclesiasticism in science is only unfaithfulness V 

 to truth. 



