vi LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH AND SCIENCE 233 



those who turn back from the narrow path to 

 " remember " it is, morally, about on a level with 

 telling a naughty child that a bogy is coming to 

 fetch it away. Suppose that a Conservative 

 orator warns his hearers to beware of great 

 political and social changes, lest they end, as in 

 France, in the domination of a Robespierre ; what 

 becomes, not only of his argument, but of his 

 veracity, if he, personally, does not believe that 

 Robespierre existed and did the deeds attributed 

 to him ? 



Like all other attempts to reconcile the results 

 of scientifically- conducted investigation with the 

 demands of the outworn creeds of ecclesiasticism, 

 the essay on Inspiration is just such a failure as 

 must await mediation, when the mediator is 

 unable properly to appreciate the weight of the 

 evidence for the case of one of the two parties. 

 The question of " Inspiration " really possesses no 

 interest for those who have cast ecclesiasticism 

 and all its works aside, and have no faith in any 

 source of truth save that which is reached by 

 the patient application of scientific methods. 

 Theories of inspiration are speculations as to the 

 means by which the authors of statements, in 

 the Bible or elsewhere, have been led to say what 

 they have said and it assumes that natural 

 agencies are insufficient for the purpose. I 

 prefer to stop short of this problem, finding it 

 more profitable to undertake the inquiry which 



