126 WHAT IS DARWINISM* 



petency and time to enter ; a few remarks, how- 

 ever, on the subject may not be out of place. 

 Those remarks, we would fain make in a 

 humble way irenical. There is need of an 

 Irenicum, for the fact is painfully notorious 

 that there is an antagonism between scientific 

 men as a class, and religious men as a class. 

 Of course this opposition is neither felt nor ex- 

 pressed by all on either side. Nevertheless, 

 whatever may be the cause of this antagonism, 

 or whoever are to be blamed for it, there can 

 be no doubt that it exists and that it is an 

 evil. 



The first cause of the alienation in question 

 is, that the two parties, so to speak, adopt dif- 

 ferent rules ^of evidence, and thus can hardly 

 avoid arriving at different conclusions. To un- 

 derstand this we must determine what is meant 

 by science, and by scientific evidence. Sci- 

 ence, according to its etymology, is simply 

 knowledge. But usage has limited its mean- 

 ing, in the first place, not to t he knowledge of 

 facts or phenomena, merely, biit to their causes 

 and relations. It was said of old, " on scientise 

 fundamentum, &6-n fastigium." No amount of 

 materials would constitute a building. They 

 must be duly arranged so as to make a sym- 



