LAW; ITS DEFINITIONS. 55 



sent a scientific truth. If it be really true in one 

 department of thought, the chances are that it 

 will have its bearing on every other. And if it 

 be not true, but erroneous, its effect will be of 

 a corresponding character ; for there is a brother- 

 hood of Error as close as the brotherhood of Truth. 

 Therefore, to accept as a truth that which is not 

 a truth, or to fail in distinguishing the sense in 

 which a proposition may be true, from other senses 

 in which it is not true, is an evil having conse- 

 quences which are indeed incalculable. There 

 are subjects on which one mistake of this kind 

 will poison all the wells of truth, and affect with 

 fatal error the whole circle of our thoughts. 



It is against this danger that some men would 

 erect a feeble barrier by defending the position, 

 that Science and Religion may be, and ought to 

 be, kept entirely separate; — that they belong to 

 wholly different spheres of thought, and that the 

 ideas which prevail in the one province have no 

 relation to those which prevail in the other. This 

 is a doctrine offering many temptations to many 

 minds. It is grateful to scientific men who are 

 afraid of being thought hostile to Religion. It is 



