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SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



580 



ally. The nose was large and prominent, 

 and the jaws projected somewhat forward. 

 This man, therefore, had, as to his features, 

 some resemblance to the harsher type of 

 American physiognomy, with overhanging 

 brows, small and transverse ejes,high cheek- 

 bones, and coarse mouth. ... The woman 

 presented similar characters of stature and 

 cranial form modified by her sex. 

 The ornaments of Cromagnon were perfora- 

 ted shells from the Atlantic and pieces of 

 ivory. DAWSON Facts and Fancies in Mod- 

 ern Science, ch. 4, p. 152. (A. B. P. S.) 



2863. RELIGION AND SCIENCE NOT 

 AT VARIANCE Loyalty to Truth Aids Both. 

 Fully satisfied that religion and science 

 cannot in reality be at variance, I have 

 striven in the present publication to follow 

 out the rule laid down by the Bishop of 

 London in his excellent lecture delivered 

 last year at Edinburgh. The man of sci- 

 ence, says Dr. Tait, ought to go on, " honest- 

 ly, patiently, diffidently, observing and stor- 

 ing up his observations, and carrying his 

 reasonings unflinchingly to their legitimate 

 conclusions, convinced that it would be trea- 

 son to the majesty at once of science and 

 of religion if he sought to help either by 

 swerving ever so little from the straight 

 rule of truth." AVEBURY Prehistoric Times, 

 p'ref., p. 9. (A., 1900.) 



2864. RELIGION IMPREGNABLE IN 

 THE ESTIMATE OF SCIENCE Herbert 

 Spencer. " How truly its central position 

 is impregnable," Herbert Spencer has well 

 discerned, " religion has never adequately 

 realized. In the devoutest faith, as we ha- 

 bitually see it, there lies hidden an inner- 

 most core of skepticism, and it is this skep- 

 ticism which causes that dread of inquiry 

 displayed by religion when face to face with 

 science." True indeed; religion has never 

 realized how impregnable are many of its 

 positions. DRUMMOND Natural Law in the 

 Spiritual World, int., p. 26. (H. Al.) 



2865. RELIGION MEETS NATURAL 

 WANT General Craving of Man. This 

 world of ours has, on the whole, been an 

 inclement region for the growth of natural 

 truth; but it may be that the plant is all 

 the hardier for the bendings and buffetings 

 it has undergone. The torturing of a 

 shrub, within certain limits, strengthens it. 

 Through the struggles and passions of the 

 brute, man reaches his estate; through sav- 

 agery and barbarism his civilization; and 

 through illusion and persecution, his knowl- 

 edge of Nature, including that of his own 

 frame. The bias towards natural truth must 

 have been strong to have withstood and over- 

 come the opposing forces. Feeling appeared 

 in the world before knowledge, and thoughts, 

 conceptions, and creeds, founded on emotion, 

 had, before the dawn of science, taken root 

 in man. Such thoughts, conceptions, and 

 creeds must have met a deep and general 

 want, otherwise their growth could not 



have been so luxuriant, nor their abiding 

 power so strong. TYNDALL Fragments of 

 Science, vol. ii, ch. 15, p. 373. (A., 1900.) 



2866. RELIGION, MINGLING OF, 

 WITH SCIENCE UNDESIRABLE Nebular 

 Hypothesis Unsustained. It has indeed al- 

 ways seemed to me a circumstance to be 

 regretted that religious questions should 

 have been in any way associated with the 

 scientific difficulties involved in this particu- 

 lar question [the nebular hypothesis]. There 

 is always this objection to such associations, 

 that, in forming them, we are apt to as- 

 sociate scientific errors with religious teach- 

 ings, and these truths seem to suffer when 

 the scientific errors are exposed. Thus 

 well-meaning men have again and again in- 

 jured the cause they were most eager to 

 serve, by calling in to its aid unsuitable 

 allies. But altho I can see no religious 

 reasons for casting discredit on the theory 

 that processes have gone on and are going 

 on upon an infinitely vast scale, resembling 

 those which we see daily going on around 

 us upon a finite scale, yet it does appear 

 to me that there are many excellent scien- 

 tific reasons for doubting very gravely 

 whether all the suns which people space 

 were originally formed from masses of glow- 

 ing gas. PROCTOR Our Place among Infini- 

 ties, p. 230. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



2867. RELIGION MORE THAN 

 SENSE OF DEPENDENCE Definition In- 

 cludes the Thing To Be Defined. The defi- 

 nitions of religion have been even worse 

 than the definitions of morality. Just as 

 the attempt is made to account for morals 

 apart from the sense of duty or of obliga- 

 tion in conduct, so is the attempt made to 

 account for religion apart from the sense 

 of mind or will in Nature. The great effort 

 seems to have been to try how the essential 

 idea of religion could be either most com- 

 pletely eliminated or else most effectually 

 concealed. For example, a feeling of ab- 

 solute dependence has been specified by 

 Schleiermacher as the essence of religion. 

 Yet it is evident that a sense of absolute 

 dependence may be urgent and oppressive 

 without the slightest tincture of religious 

 feeling. A man carried off in a flood and 

 clinging to a log of wood may have, and 

 must have, a painful sense of absolute de- 

 pendence on the log. But no one would 

 think of describing this sense as a feeling 

 of religion. . . . Any plausibility, there- 

 fore, which may attach to the proposition 

 which identifies religion with the mere sense 

 of dependence is due entirely to the fact that 

 when men speak of a sense of dependence 

 they suggest the idea of a particular kind 

 of dependence namely, dependence upon a 

 being or a personality, and not dependence 

 upon a thing. That is to say, that the 

 plausibility of the definition is entirely due 

 to an element of thought which it is special- 

 ly framed to keep out of sight. ARGYLL 

 Unity of Nature, ch. 11, p. 267. (Burt.) 



