44 Reports and Proceedings — Mr. A. Gelkies Address 



humanity. Let us tlierefore avoid all needless provocation of contro- 

 versy. I fear that, in Scotland, profitable controversy is in the mean 

 time impossible. So much, of the odium theologiciim is at once imported 

 into the discussion, that all impartial consideration of the subject is 

 nearly hopeless. Let us be on our guard also against an arrogant or 

 contemptuous tone towards our assailants. A man of science may 

 be, in his own way, as intolerant as the opponents whose narrow- 

 mindedness he ridicules. It is indeed difficult at times to restrain 

 the natural indignation which arises when we see the flippant 

 criticism of men who ostentatiously proclaim their ignorance of what 

 they criticise, or when we hear the public warned against science 

 and scientific men as dangerous and subversive of religion. And 

 though we may feel called upon now and then to speak out in 

 protest, yet if our cause be as true and noble as we believe it to be, 

 such opposition can deal it no permanent injury. Strong in this 

 assurance, we may well refrain from seeking often to vindicate it. 

 Thus shall we best conserve the modesty and dignity of true science. 

 The slow growth of truth is like the protracted rise of a great 

 cathedral — its very tardiness is evidence and guarantee of strength, 

 and durability. But while I recommend the quiet following out of 

 our own special work, let no one sujopose that I would for one 

 moment counsel anything that bore even the remotest aspect of 

 pusillanimity. To conceal anything we know or believe, from fear 

 of the consequences to ourselves of its being divulged, could not but 

 lower us in the estimation of the outer world, and, what is worse, it 

 "would lower us in our own. Nor could we hope to retain our self- 

 respect- if, when occasion called, we shrank from defending opinions 

 which in our own inner soul we believed to be true. Yet it is 

 surely unnecessary, in the spirit of knight-errantry, to ride about the 

 world charging whatever we may think to be prejudice or error, but 

 which really does not oppose our progress. Let us rather be content 

 to labour and to wait. Time, that great winnower, will sift the 

 true from the false : what of error may be in our work will de- 

 servedly perish ; what of truth it may contain will assuredly live. 

 In reflecting upon this question of the relations between science and 

 religion, and especially upon the opposition which science encounters 

 from many thoroughly honest and estimable men, I am profoundly 

 impressed by the significance of the evidence of continual change in 

 the past history of the universe. The book of nature, like the 

 prophet's scroll, is written within and without ; and over all that 

 vast palimpsest, the dominant idea, expressed in thousands of varied 

 and ever-varying forms, is the idea of continual progression. As 

 far back in time, and as far away in space, as our powers of observa- 

 tion can lead us, we find evidence of this onward march of creation. 

 It is stamped on every lineament of the glol)e upon which we dwell ; 

 there is not a mountain or valley, not a river-bed or seashore, tliat is 

 not eloquent of change. And when we come to decipher the records 

 of our planet's history, enfolded within its rocky crust, we find that 

 what is true of mere dead matter is yet more marvellously true of 

 organised existence. DoAvn in the rocks beneath us lie th& 



