502 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



psychology recognizes it. It is futile to 

 talk of going back to Reid and Stewart, or 

 to look for the coming genius who is to re- 

 store them ; their period is gone by. 



Religion and Science. A Series of Sun- 

 day Lectures, on the Relation of Nat- 

 ural and Revealed Religion ; or, the 

 Truths revealed in Nature and Scripture. 

 By Joseph Le Conte, Professor of Geol- 

 ology and Natural History in the Uni- 

 versity of California. 324 pages. D. 

 Appleton & Co. 



The rapid multiplication of works at the 

 present time which aim to bring the views 

 of modern science into harmony with re- 

 ligious doctrines, is at once an attestation 

 of the increasing interest generally taken in 

 scientific subjects, and of the growth of a 

 catholic and more tolerant spirit in regard 

 to scientific and theological diversities of 

 opinion resulting in more earnest efforts to 

 harmonize them. The necessity for such 

 reconciliations has arisen from time to time 

 from the fact that theology has lent its sanc- 

 tion to given interpretations of natural 

 things, while it has been the general work 

 of science to revise and often to set aside 

 such interpretations in the course of its 

 progress. The main difficulty in • this work 

 of reconciliation has been the want of 

 minds great enough to grasp and to master 

 both spheres of inquiry. The efforts at 

 harmonization have generally come from 

 partisans of opposing views, who aimed at 

 agreement by demanding great concessions 

 from the opposite side. The scientists 

 often ask theologians to renounce the main 

 pretensions of theology for the sake of 

 peace, and the theologians request the sci- 

 entists to eschew three-fourths of what they 

 believe as mere pseudo-science, that con- 

 cord of opinion may be reached. And so 

 they have alternated between treating and 

 fighting, until at last a peace is conquered. 

 Mean time, as the battle subsides in one 

 field, it breaks out in another. In the field 

 of Astronomy, where once the conflict raged 

 with the greatest fury, all is now serene, 

 and the Geological struggle has also become 

 a memory. In the field of Evolution, there 

 is still a kind of warfare, much din and 

 smoke, and some bruises, if little slaughter. 

 But the conflict is now undoubtedly more 

 mild and restrained, as it will probably be 



more brief. In reviewing the past epochs of 

 the conflict, it would be unwise to forget that 

 both parties to the strife have often cared 

 more for the combat than the cause, and, 

 as in street-brawls, have often turned upon 

 the peace-maker, for human nature is pug- 

 nacious, and dislikes to be interrupted in a 

 good fight. But it is one of the grand 

 offices of science to substitute truth for 

 victory in the mental conflicts of men, 

 and therefore to reduce the virulence of 

 polemics. This is one of the ways in which 

 science exerts a liberalizing influence, and, 

 as the acerbities of controversy abate, and 

 the passions are less enlisted, the harsher 

 points of disagreement may be expected 

 gradually to drop away. 



Prof. Le Conte's admirable little book 

 is born of the best spirit of conciliation, 

 and goes over the whole ground of con- 

 flict, in its latest aspects, between Religion 

 and Science. In his preface he says : " The 

 series of lectures contained in this little vol- 

 ume is the result of an earnest attempt to 

 reconcile the truths revealed in Scripture 

 with those revealed in Nature, by one who 

 has, all his active life, been a reverent stu- 

 dent of both ; " and he adds : " I may not 

 entirely please either the mere scientist on 

 the one hand, or the mere theologian on the 

 other, but I have no apology to make for 

 this. Perhaps my views may be all the more 

 rational on that very account*" 



Prof. Le Conte's book has the rare 

 advantage of having been produced by a 

 man not only of profoundly earnest convic- 

 tions, but of thorough intellectual prepara- 

 tion. His high position in the world of sci- 

 ence has been long assured through his ori- 

 ginal contributions to some of its highest 

 questions. He was one of the pioneer ex- 

 positors of the doctrine of the correlation 

 of forces in its application to life and its 

 organization, and shows a wide and clear 

 understanding of the various bearings of re- 

 cent scientific inquiry. On the other hand, 

 he holds to the great fundamental tenets of 

 orthodox Christianity, and is therefore thor- 

 oughly prepared to consider the mutual re- 

 lations of these systems of thought* Hold- 

 ing that all truth is one, and ever consistent 

 with itself, he points out the past grounds 

 of misapprehension, and shows how they 

 may be removed, and reconciliation attained. 



