160 



E. WALTER MAUNDER, F.R.A.S., ON 



The inferences we may choose to draw from the language are not 

 in the same plane with the language itself. 



I am much struck by the writer's caution displayed in page 123. 

 Most of us are inclined to say that space is infinite because we are 

 imable to conceive of it otherwise. True scientific principles forbid 

 us to dogmatise on points into which we are unal^le to investigate. 

 We ought to be thankful to him for reminding us that " science has 

 no finality." It would be well if this principle were borne in mind 

 in all branches of scientific investigation. We should be saved a 

 good deal of pretentious nonsense about the "final and irrevocable 

 results of modern scientific investigation." 



I am inclined to agree with the writer that all true science must 

 rest on observation (page 125). With regard to the seventh day rest, 

 I may venture to contend that it implies the continuance of the earth 

 in the condition in which it was when man was placed upon it. 

 There have been since that time none of the organic changes which 

 the history of the earth's crust displays before man's appearance 

 on it. 



I should be inclined to put another interpretation on the 

 "evening and the morning" (page 133). But as the writer simply 

 states his own impressions, controversy would be out of place. 



I may conclude with the remark that I read Mr. F. H. Capron's 

 Conflict of Truth some years ago with great satisfaction. It is an 

 attempt to show that Genesis i does not conflict, on any point, with 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer's Synthetic Fhilosojyhy. I am glad to find that 

 the work- has gone through several editions. It would be quite 

 as easy to show that Genesis i was reconcilable with any other 

 genuinely scientific treatise which may in the future supersede 

 Mr. Spencer's. And for this reason : that Genesis i cannot conflict 

 with any scientific conclusions, since it deals with matters anterior 

 to, and beyond, all scientific conclusions whatsoever. I may add 

 that Mr. Capron has recently published a new work called the 

 Anatomy of Science. If it is as good as his former work it will be 

 well worth reading. 



Mr. Joseph Graham : If we agree to the statement that " the 

 creation of light, that is of matter and energy, involves the creation 

 of Time ; for Time enters in as an essential element of light," it 

 seems to me the hint of verse 2, alluded to on the same page, 

 becomes of more importance than the lecturer implies. "In the 



