Comment and Discussion. ix 



regard science," he says, "meaning astronomy, geology, 

 biology, etc., as being properly natural or in the order of 

 nature. I I'egard science as distinct from and extrinsic 

 to nature. Hence natural salvation, to be attained in 

 the progress of science, is to me a confusion of terms, a 

 misnomer." 



In other words, the growth of human knowledge is not 

 in the order of nature, but supernatural, or preternatural ; 

 not a part of the natural evolution of life on the earth, 

 but something superadded to it, presumably from a 

 supernatural source. 



Another critic of more sectarian bias carries the same 

 conception to greater length. " But for Christianity," he 

 says, " which is a supernatural revelation from God to man, 

 associated with a divine effort to save mankind, there 

 would be no science. It is the elevation and enlighten- 

 ment of the minds of men that come to us through Jesus 

 Christ, which makes modern science possible." 



This writer appears not to remember that science and 

 the sciences were well advanced in India, Egypt, and 

 Greece many centuries before the era of Jesus. 



A teacher of biology writes : — 



" You speak of the ' personal axis ' of life, — the axis of 

 self-consciousness in a cell, or in the human brain. What 

 is meant by the term ? " 



