OPPOSITION OF THE SCIENTIFIC CLASS. 



291 



ment for the scientific class coming so generally to this 

 conclusion, I might feel the more embarrassed in present- 

 ing myself in direct opposition to so many men possessing 

 talents and information. As the case really stands, the 

 ability of this class to give at the present time a true re- 

 sponse upon such a subject appears extremely challenge- 

 able. It is no discredit to them, that they are, almost with- 

 out exception, engaged, each in his own little department 

 of science, and able to give little or no attention to other 

 parts of that vast field. From year to year, and from age 

 to age, we see them at work, adding no doubt much to the 

 known, and advancing many important interests, fcut, at 

 the same time, doing little for the establishment of com- 

 prehensive views of nature. Experiments in however nar- 

 row a walk, facts of whatever minuteness, make reputa- 

 tions in scientific societies ; all beyond is regarded with 

 suspicion and distrust. The consequence is, that philoso- 

 phy, as it exists amongst us, does nothing to raise its vo- 

 taries above the common ideas of their time. There can, 

 therefore, be nothing more conclusive against our hypoth- 

 esis in the disfavor of the scientific class than in that of 

 any other section of uneducated men. There is even less ; 

 for the position of scientific men with regard to the rest of 

 the public is such, that they are rather eager to repudiate 

 than to embrace general views, seeing how unpopular 

 these usually are. The reader may here be reminded 

 that there is such a thing in human nature as coming to 

 venerate the prejudices which we are compelled to treat 

 tenderly, because it is felt to be better to be consistent at 

 the sacrifice of even judgment and conscience than to have 

 a war always going on between the cherished and the 

 avowed. Accordingly, in the case of a particular doctrine, 

 which, however unjustly, is regarded as having an ob- 

 noxious tendenc}', it is not surprising that scientific men 

 view it with not less hostility than the common herd. For 

 the very purpose of maintaining their own respect in the 

 concessions they have to make, they naturally wish to find 

 all possible objections to any such theory as that of pro- 

 gressive development, exaggerating every difficulty in its 

 way, rejecting wherever they can, the evidence in its 

 favor, and extenuating what they cannot reject ; in short, 

 taking all the well recognised means which have been so 

 often employed in keeping back advancing truths. If this 

 looks like special pleadmg. I can only call upon th *? reader 



