THE FIKST CHAPTER OF GKNKSI8. 



123 



man is the percipient. The original unit, in terms of whicli we 

 measure the distance of the sun, is the average liuman pace, 

 and in like manner our appreciation of the angular movement 

 of a planet is derived from the muscular effort which it costs 

 us to move the head, or turn round upon the heel. AVhat in 

 mathematics we speak of as " polar co-ordinates " were, in their 

 origin, simply walking foi'ward and turning round. 



Further, the discoveries of science give us no hnal ex])lana- 

 tions ; for, when an explanation is discovered for some mj^stery, 

 the explanation itself consists in the hringing to light of some- 

 thing, perhaps of many things, that are themselves unexplained, 

 and for the time inex})licahle. 



Again astronomy knows nothing of the ultimate. In its 

 most modern form, it ranges from the interior structure of an 

 atom to the farthest extremity of space which a telescope can 

 pierce, and indeed, inferentially far beyond. But, however far 

 we g(j in any direction, whether in time or space, the enquiry 

 of science will still be, " What is beyond ? " And, if it were 

 possible to give the decisive answer " There is nothing beyond," 

 then science would find that it had passed the limit of its 

 powers ; it would have no further ability to deal with the 

 situation. In order that science may deal with an event, that 

 event must have both an antecedent and a consequent; in 

 whichever direction we follow the chain of reasoning, science 

 can never bring us either to "the first thing," or to "the last 

 thing ; " it has no protology and no eschatology. 



The progress of science has been marvellous, and we may 

 expect that its future will be much more wonderful than its 

 past. But the very fact that it is progressive carries with it a 

 necessary drawback. Science has no finality ; we can never 

 rest and be thankful that there is no more to learn. The 

 hy]^otheses, which men accept to-day in science, may be 

 rejected to-morrow, and will certainly be modified. It is with 

 things that chnnge that science concerns itself, and with tlieir 

 changes, and it is the changing thought of men concerning 

 them. 



Erom each and all of these considerations we see that the 

 limitations of science preclude it from giving us any message 

 on that which is avowedly the subject of the first chapter of 

 Genesis — the Beginning. 



And the first cliapter of Genesis does not give us the message 

 of science. One example is sufticient. Astronomy is the oldest 

 of all the sciences, but there is not a liint of even its earliest 

 discoveries, not a single astronomical technicality is introduced ; 



