168 RIGHT REV. THE BISHOP OP DOWN, D.D., ON 



the new psychology and psychical research to sphitual healing 

 and Christian Science, from profound philosophical speculations 

 to the most frantic forms of spiritualism, we can trace the 

 movement of the human spirit in its revolt against mechanism. 

 There is indeed in our time a wonderful re-discovery of the soul. 

 A quarter of a century ago a clever materialistic writer wrote an 

 article in one of the great monthlies which he called " The death 

 of the soul." His point was that no serious thinker any longer 

 believed in the soul as something higher than, and different 

 from, the mechanism of the brain. It was a foolish thesis even 

 then ; but it had a certain degree of plausibility. It would now 

 be impossible. During the last quarter of a century the 

 spiritual side of our experience has been asserting its reality in 

 a very wonderful way. 



The thinker whose work is attracting most attention at the 

 present time is Henri Bergsou. A profound physiologist, as well 

 as a profound psychologist, he is presenting to the world a new 

 conception of life in its relation to the universe. And the most 

 stiiking and important fact in this new doctrine is that it 

 approaches the problem of life not from the side of mechanism 

 but from the side of psycliical and conscious experience. And 

 this mode of approach has the effect of yielding a new justification 

 of tlie freedom of the will and a view of the world in which is 

 found ample room for the spiritual. Though I would deprecate 

 any slavish adherence to Bergson's philosophy as a whole, I must 

 welcome him as a pioneer who is opening out a new road into 

 the realms of thought and revealing new visions of spiritual 

 reality. 



Side by side with Bergson's work must be placed the new 

 realization, which is coming to many scientific minds, that the 

 categories of mechanism are insufficient for the explanation of 

 the immense variety of nature. As a most remarkable illustration, 

 I would mention two articles in recent numbers of the Hibhert 

 Journal with the suggestive title. Is there one Science of Nocture ? 



The result of our enquiry into this first great difficulty in the 

 way of belief is distinctly reassuring. We have reason to think 

 that the bondaoe to the mechanical view of the world will not 

 long hold the mind of man. 



Before leaving this part of our subject let me point out that 

 we have been in the habit of taking too narrow a view of the 

 nature of science, and that this fact is to a very great degree 

 tlie cause of our trouble. In considering science in relation to 

 religion we have thought too much of only one branch of it, the 

 tlieoretical. 



