SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND BIBLICAL STUDY. 35 



afresh in the twentieth century. I plead rather for a more 

 careful inductive survey of the special phenomena of the 

 universe as detected in human nature and revealed in certain 

 phases of human consciousness, and especially in the Will. 



Modern popular theologians are apt to pride themselves 

 on steering clear of what is called Calvinism, in spite of the 

 warning voice of the late Prof. Mozley. 



Shutting their eyes to another side of truth, they affirm 

 the freedom of the will ; though they have learnt that this 

 freedom is limited, a fact admirably set forth by the Bishop 

 of London in his ord Bampton lecture. Scientific men on 

 the contrary seem to draw in the direction of physical 

 fatalism ; at least this is an inference frequently fathered 

 on their writings. 



Yet the Will after all is the chief known factor in the 

 universe ; and with the Will we must associate the ego, and 

 with the ego the law of Right ; and whence are these ? 

 are they the fortuitous products of matter, or are they the 

 outflow of the original personal Mind? Scientific men need 

 not be deterred from giving the true answer through fear of 

 playing into the hands of religion. Let them speak out their 

 deepest and most abiding convictions on this supreme question. 

 Surely they are prepared to affirm that the Theistic hypo- 

 thesis will account for certain observed facts in the universe, 

 and that a consideration of the spiritual side of human 

 nature turns this hypothesis into a conviction. They are 

 then within measurable distance of the Christian Faith, 

 which invites the Theistic conviction to become a personal 

 experience. 



The Chairman (T. Chaplin, Esq., M.D.) — I am sm-e we owe 

 oui" best thanks to Canon Girdlestone for his valuable and timelj^ 

 paper. I speak of it as timely, because I believe the Victoria 

 Institute is now just thirty years in existence, and this paper may, 

 in a certain measure, be regarded as a report of scientitic progress 

 during these thirty years. When this Institute was first founded 

 such a paper could not have been written, and we have surely cause 

 for thankfulness that so much progress has been made in this 



D 2 



