The Idolatry of Science 



in a moving space, can hardly offer like con- 

 solation to a man's heart ; and the binomial 

 theorem can never be accepted as a substitute 

 for Shakespeare either in the noonday or twi- 

 light of life. Science has brought up its 

 " prancing cohorts " in modern times to 

 vulgarize thought and destroy imagination ; 

 but the great writers of old enjoyed a freedom 

 from the poison gases that stifle the letters 

 of to-day, for no Darwin had shattered for 

 them the story of the creation of man ; no 

 Huxley had questioned for them the very 

 existence of God ; to them a comet might 

 be a sign from Heaven of coming portents on 

 the earth ; and to them the thunder among 

 the hills might be the voice of God himself ; 

 to them when the Spirit of God moved upon 

 the face of the waters at the creation of the 

 world, the word went forth " Let there be 

 light, and there was light," and this decree 

 of the Almighty had not been degraded into 

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