124 SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT SCIENCE AND LIFE. 



ever opinions or conclusions we may reach. That im- 

 pulsiveness, so common to men, and which is still so 

 strong notwithstanding the restraining influences of cen- 

 turies of civilization, because it was one of the strongest 

 traits of our early ancestors, is thereby checked, and 

 the calm and surer, because slower conviction is secured. 

 This judicial quality of mind is essential to a people liv- 

 ing under a self-government, and in proportion to its 

 more or less complete possession by that people, is the 

 stability of the government measured. 



There is also another and a very great advantage from 

 scientific study, and that is a regard for truth, irrespec- 

 tive of any consequences that may follow its establish- 

 ment. A person engaged in this study is engaged in a 

 search for truth. The objects of his investigation are as 

 a rule, though not always, dissociated from those things 

 about which social, or partisan, or theologic controversy 

 rages. He is prying into some portion of the world of 

 nature about which the opinions and passions of men are 

 not engaged. He is really occupied in a voyage of dis- 

 covery, and generally speaking, he has a fair field. 



There are, I know, some great subjects that excite bitter 

 controversy. There were the Ptolemaians and the Cop- 

 ernicans ; the cataclysts and the ants-cataclysts ; the Dar- 

 winians and the special-creationists ; and no one can deny, 

 but that the subjects which gave rise to these opposing 

 forces, fiercely aroused the passions of men. They 

 aroused the passions of men, because they came in di- 

 rect collision with established and cherished modes of 

 thought, and beliefs ; and when these are touched, the 

 passions are at once kindled. But even when these con- 

 troversies have arisen, the provocation from the scien- 

 tific side has often been not a direct one. 



The unsuspecting and careless reader of Darwin's first 

 book, "The Origin of Species" — the book that precipi- 

 tated the great ninteenth century revolution — would 



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