NATURAL VEEStrS SUPEENATUEAL 45 



growth, its development; and it is precisely this 

 active and inquiring spirit, this readiness to correct 

 its errors, and this eagerness to reach a larger gen- 

 eralization, that makes it the enemy of the tradi- 

 tional theology. It abandoned the Ptolemaic system 

 of astronomy for the Copernican, because the latter 

 was found to be the most complete generalization ; 

 but theology still adheres to its Ptolemaic system of 

 things. To seek to discredit science because it has 

 made mistakes, and has had to unlearn many things, 

 is to deny the very principle of progress ; it is to 

 reflect upon the child because he grows into a man. 

 The main outlines of the physical universe science 

 has undoubtedly finally settled ;. the great facts of 

 astronomy and geology are not to be reversed or set 

 aside. It is only in the details, the filling in of the 

 picture, that errors are still likely to occur. No, 

 what theology has to fear, and what is working such 

 mischief with it, is not the " infallibility " of science, 

 but it is the scientific Spirit, the spirit that demands 

 complete verification, that applies past experience to 

 new problems, that sees that immutable laws lie at 

 the bottom of all phenomena, and that is skeptical 

 of all exceptions to the logical course of events 

 until they are irrefragably proved. 



Science is ignorant enough, without doubt, about 

 many things. After it has done its best, the mys- 

 tery of creation is as deep as before. But what it 

 has taught the race, and what the race can never 

 unlearn, is that the sequence of cause and effect is 

 inviolable, that the order of the physical universe is 



