108 THE LIGHT OF DAT 



but contrary to reason and against the argument of 

 our proper senses." A good many other people be- 

 lieved so too about that time. Poor Ann Aikens, 

 young, intelligent, and beautiful, was stretched upon 

 the rack, then burned with fagots and blown with 

 gunpowder at Smithfield, all because she could not 

 believe, agaiast the "argument of her proper senses," 

 in transubstantiation, that the bread and wine the 

 priest had mumbled over remained anything but 

 bread and wine. 



The skepticism of our day is mainly the result of 

 science, of the enormous growth of our natural 

 knowledge. In its light the old theology and cos- 

 mology look artificial and arbitrary ; they do not fit 

 into the scheme of creation as science discloses it. 

 Our science is undoubtedly ignorant enough. We 

 know no more about final causes, after science has 

 done its best, than we did before, but familiarity 

 with the laws and processes of the world does un- 

 doubtedly beget a habit of mind unfavorable to the 

 personal and arbitrary view of things which the 

 old theology has inculcated. Science has at least 

 taught us that the universe is all of a piece or 

 homogeneous ; that man is a part of nature ; that 

 there are no breaks or faults in the scheme of crea- 

 tion, and can be none. One thing follows from 

 another or is evolved from another, the whole 

 system of things is vital, and not mechanical, and 

 nothing is interpolated or arbitrarily thrust in from 

 without. All our natural knowledge is based upon 

 these principles. It is only in theology that we 



