THE QUARTERLY 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



JULY, 1873. 



I. SECTS AND SCIENCE. 



tHE land is full of disputes about sectarianism, de- 

 nominationalism, religion, and materialism, literature, 

 and science. There was a time when we had only 

 two choices — to believe as Romanists or Anglicans ; gra- 

 dually we rose to have three, and Churchmen and Non- 

 conformists took each their place ; but now the busy brain 

 has split these into numerous parties, and the whisperings 

 and breathings of history have passed through the stage of 

 the yEolian harp, and risen into violent storms threatening 

 to destroy. Galileo's reputed muttering is becoming one 

 of- the most powerful voices of modern times, and the terrible 

 " still it moves " is, in some form or other, heard from the 

 mouths of most scientific men, who threaten to make 

 science a power in every department of government, and, 

 as some of them suppose, in all things relating both to 

 thought and action. We do not take the latter view, but 

 we take (perhaps not all) the former. We do not believe 

 that physical science will ever govern the whole world, or 

 the lives of the best of men ; we do not even believe that 

 moral science will rule paramount, or any science whatever 

 that we can understand, because we consider that there 

 will be a movement forwards, always in advance of our 

 reason. But no man who knows the force of natural truths 

 can help distinctly wishing that man may rapidly be taught 

 to see their beauty, and gain the power that lies within 

 them to aid him in the labours of his life, as well as in all 

 his thoughts and aspirations. 



The hopes of humanity from natural science are high ; 

 and when we think of our ancestors wending through the 

 rainy, roadless, and mud lands of Europe, with straw for 

 their boots and their stockings, and of ourselves rushing in 

 an express train, sleeping in an apartment heated with hot 

 water, we have a foundation for our confidence. When we 

 see the laws of health setting kingdoms in motion to stop 

 by united action the plague nursery among the pilgrims to 

 Mecca, and when we learn that civilisation may be promoted 



vol. in. (n.s.) 2 P 



