LAW; — ITS DEFINITIONS. 57 



in the truths cf Science and the truths of Religion, 

 is a higher instinct and a truer one than the dis- 

 position which leads us to evade the difficulty by 

 pretending that there is no relation between them. 

 For, after all, it is a pretence and nothing more. 

 No man who thoroughly accepts a principle in the 

 philosophy of Nature which he feels to be incon- 

 sistent with a doctrine of Religion, can help having 

 his belief in that doctrine shaken and undermined. 

 We may believe, and we must believe, both in 

 Nature and in Religion, many things which we 

 cannot understand ; but we cannot really believe 

 two propositions which are felt to be contra- 

 dictory. It helps us nothing in such a diffi- 

 culty, to say that the one proposition belongs to 

 Reason and the other proposition belongs to Faith. 

 The endeavour to reconcile them is a necessity of 

 the mind. We are right in thinking that if they 

 are both indeed true they can be reconciled, and 

 if they really are fundamentally opposed they 

 cannot both be true. That is to say, there must 

 be some error in our manner of conception in one 

 or in the other, or in both. At the very best, each 

 can represent only some partial and imperfect 



