I874-75-1 8 5 



wherever they have gone, and by the great majority of their read- 

 ers. That the address itself was, moreover, in some sense abnor- 

 mal and unsuited to the place and occasion, is evident from the ef- 

 fects produced by its delivery. At once it became the perfect tocsin 

 of a religious warfare. Certain organs and advocates of a party which 

 I need not name, immediately hailed it as spoken in advocacy of 

 their opinions. It was the object of attack from those who hold 

 opposing views on religious subjects. Pulpit, platform, lecture- 

 room opened fire on it. The pamphlets written in reply already, 

 and the reviews in periodicals, would almost constitute a library of 

 polemical theology. It has been noticed with the highest disa- 

 proval by public bodies and in public assemblies, while crowded 

 auditories have cheered these sentiments. The Roman Catholic 

 hierarchy in this country have issued a lengthened pastoral to their 

 flocks in condemnation of its tenets ; and although differing from 

 portions of this document, I feel bound, in honesty, to add that 

 the objections therein taken to it, on scientific grounds, appear to 

 me to be valid and weighty. A perfect civil, or rather indeed as it 

 might be styled an uncivil warfare, raged on the subject in the 

 daily and weekly papers. 



As a specimen of the comments passed on Professor Tyndall's 

 views, I may be permitted to read the following from one of the 

 leading journals in the new world — viz, the New York Times ; — 



" Professor Tyndall attacks these questions with characteristic 

 boldness, but beyond making a somewhat vehement defence of the 

 right of physical science to deal with the ultimate problem of 

 being, he can hardly be said to have robbed them of a single diffi- 

 culty. What is to be considered the most startling part of the 

 address is the' following personal avowal which it contains : — 

 'Abandoning all disguise, the confession that I feel bound to 

 make before you is, that I prolong the vision backward across the 

 boundary of the experimental evidence, and discern in that mat- 

 ter,, which we in our ignorance, and notwithstanding our professed 

 reverence for its Creator, have hitherto covered with opprobium, 

 the promise and potency of every form and quality of life.' " 



On which avowal the editor remarks — " This is certainly a close 



