MODERN SCIENCE AND NATURAL RELIGION. 125 
Still, although the mental and spiritual nature of man can- 
not be altogether passed by by the scientific man in any con- 
clusions ke may draw from his studies of nature,—for mental 
and spiritual facts are as positive existences as the sun and 
the earth,—far more attention is paid to physical science, and 
far greater progress has been made in its study than in that 
connected with the inner man, and it is to the modern reading 
of what is called “the book of nature,” and its bearing on the 
older deductions from it, the attention of the reader is more 
especially directed. The book of nature is one whose leaves 
have been well thumbed by many careful readers,—read and 
re-read and differently interpreted by successive generations of 
students, and by the same student in different stages of his edu- 
cation; and we must bear in mind that this book is to a consider- 
able extent written in a foreign language, the niceties and 
peculiarities of which are still only partially understood by its 
ablest scholars. So much so, indeed, that it is like a picture, 
the most perfect, the most sublime, the most expressive that 
can be conceived, but still a picture, which each observer 
reads through the idiosyncrasies of his own mind; and as 
even articulate words, in our own language, convey different 
shades of meaning to different minds, we must be prepared, 
to some extent, for different interpretations of recognised 
facts of science. 
But while prepared to accept fully and most gladly any 
clearly-proved facts, no matter what may be involved in the 
recognition,—more than this, while willing to give all due 
consideration to any probable theory which cannot as yet be 
regarded as proved,—we must carefully distinguish between 
facts and theories, and remember that the history of scientific 
progress is the history of a long list of erroneous, imperfect, 
and discarded theories, each preparing the way for less erro- 
neous interpretations. None recognise this more clearly than 
the great apostles of modern science ; for instance, the late Mr. 
Darwin said, in his Descent of Man, p. 885: ‘‘ Many of the 
views which have been advanced are highly speculative, and 
some, no doubt, will prove erroneous. False facts are highly 
injurious to the progress of science, for they often long endure ; 
but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, 
as every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their false- 
ness ; and when this is done, one path of error is closed, and the 
road to truth is often at the same time opened.” Professor 
Huxley is, if possible, even more definite. He says: ‘ Our 
way of looking at nature and speaking about her varies from 
year to year, but a fact once seen, a relation of cause to effect 
once demonstratively apprehended, are possessions which 
