170 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



we are in possession of working hypotheses which, as working hypothe- 

 ses, are final. 



There is an interesting resemblance between the attitude of science 

 toward the facts she discovers and the attitude of the church toward 

 Christian doctrine. 



1. A fact once discovered is discovered once for all. The discovery 

 can never be invalidated. The church beheves that the faith was 

 delivered once (for all) to the saints. 



2. Facts are the touchstones by which theories are tried. Science 

 holds that no theory which is out of harmony with a single fact can 

 possibly be true. The church similarly insists that her faith is a 

 touchstone of truth, a finaUty which every theory must allow for and 

 the true philosophy include. 



3. The functions of religion and of practical science are similar. 

 The function of both is the guidance of life. For "theology," as a 

 great American theologian has recently said, "is a practical discipline." 

 ReUgion must heal men's hearts and mold their conduct, or it amounts 

 to nothing. 



4. The sense in which Christian faith and scientific rules of art can 

 be said to survive the downfall of scientific systems is identical. The 

 two classes of working hypotheses are alike in the nature of their 

 finality. This last point requires to be elaborated. 



A trustworthy working hypothesis once discovered is a permanent 

 acquisition of the race. It stands fast amid the wreck of systems. 

 But it is not the conception of its first discoverer that survives. That 

 conception is of necessity adjusted to the Weltanschauung of which it 

 is a part. All the conceptions of a man or of an age are hnked together. 

 They form an organism. Each fits into every other. Any change 

 in any one of a man's ideas is likely to involve a change, minute 

 or revolutionary, in every other. The mental picture by which a 

 fact or a belief is represented can never be permanent. When the 

 history of any working hypothesis which has had a history is studied, 

 its unity dissolves before our eyes. It resolves itself into a series of 

 conceptions which are alike only in this, that they furnish the same 

 practical guidance. 



