THE END 291 



the influence of which he had been brought up. We 

 have the evidence of his old friend, Mr. Otto Hehner, 

 in the sympathetic obituary communicated by him 

 to the Journal of the Society of Public Analysts, that 

 while still in the Andersonian College and not much 

 more than twenty years of age, the two young 

 men discussed philosophical questions, the one "in- 

 fluenced by inheritance from Covenanting ancestors," 

 the other by that " from unorthodox and agnostic 

 surroundings." 



Let not any reader suppose from this that Ramsay at 

 any time of his life drifted so far away from orthodoxy as 

 to join " with men who make a mock of holy things." 

 Such an attitude would be rare, even at the present day, 

 though there are still too many people who misunder- 

 stand and misrepresent the position of men of science, 

 forgetful of the fact that of all men they are the best 

 qualified and the most disposed to feel the awe of the 

 great mystery in which man's life, and the purpose of 

 all being, is immersed and enveloped. The Creed of 

 Science has been used as the title of a book. But such 

 a phrase is very difficult to interpret. It seems to 

 imply that science is stationary, whereas the character- 

 istic of all science is progress ; if there were any fixed 

 tenet which could be attributed to science or to scientific 

 men as a body, it would at once become associated with 

 authority, whereas science submits to no dicta and to 

 no dogma. 



The position reached by Ramsay seems revealed in a 



