INTKODUCTION. 



1. I PEOPOSE in the following pages to give the chief 

 conclusions reached by Modern Science on the central 

 questions of religion, morals, and society, to state, in a 

 word, the general creed of Science ; and, as the scientific 

 faith may still be fallible, or of unequal degrees of credit, 

 I propose, in the second place, to offer some comments 

 and criticisms on some of its more doubtful articles, with 

 a view to their reconsideration or revision. 



Already many have taken in hand to set forth the 

 scientific faith, together with the grounds on which it 

 rests. In particular, eminent physicists and naturalists 

 both in this country and in Germany Huxley, Clifford, 

 Tyndall, Haeckel, Helmholtz, Tait, and Balfour Stewart 

 have all attempted it in essays, addresses > or books, with 

 more or less pretence at fulness. But the physicists and 

 naturalists, though they may be depended upon to reflect 

 accurately the tendency of scientific thought on the 

 questions within their respective provinces which touch 

 on the sphere of religion, do not speak with the same 

 authority on questions moral, social, or philosophical. 



The scientific thinkers, to whom the work more 



