THE GENESIS OP NATURE. 



39 



take up a position no better and no worse than that of the 

 mediaeval judges of Galileo. It is nothing else than clothing 

 modern science in the cast-off garments of the historic odium 

 theologicum. If truth is to be reached, the way to it must 

 be blocked by no barriers of preconceived opinions. It is 

 unlawful to erect upon its highway a placard " No road here ; 

 this is not a scientific way." Tlie path to truth is the common 

 right of man. The proper method for arriving at scientific 

 knowledge is that of gathering and sorting facts and 

 generalizing from them to conclusions; and this must be 

 done along every line of research in order to obtain a full 

 result, in order to get an all-round true conclusion. We may, 

 therefore, not only argue scientifically from Nature to the 

 fact of God ; but, if by any means whatever we have obtained 

 the fact of God, we may use that fact to elucidate and explain 

 the meaning of the fact and history of Nature. Examine this 

 striking coup (Vml of science given by a leading biologist.* 

 "The wliole order of nature, including living and lifeless 

 matter — man, animal, and gas — is a network of mechanism, 

 the main features and many details of which have been made 

 more or less obvious to the wondering intelligence of mankind 

 by the labour and ingenuity of scientific investigators. But no 

 sane man has ever pretended, since science became a definite 

 body of doctrine, that we know or ever can hope to know or 

 conceive of the possibility of knowing, whence this mechanism 

 has come, why it is there, whither it is going, and what there 

 may or may not be beyond and beside it which our senses are 

 incapable of appreciating. These things are not ' explained ' 

 by science, and never can be." 



Here is the " mechanism " with the voice of science within 

 it, and the silence of science around it ; and that voice 

 re-echoes through its sphere ; " it is a mechanism — a network 

 of effect — there must therefore be a cause for all." Science 

 cannot tell us "why it is there," but it does tell us, as we have 

 already seen, who caused it to be there. Tlie ordinary methods 

 of scientific enquiry do not exclude the examination of nature 

 in the light of God. They do not render its importance 

 less. They do not militate against this being the only 

 ultimate way, by which the origin and course of Nature 

 shall at last be fully comprehended and rightly under- 

 stood. We can learn much about the production of articles of 

 pottery by scientifically examining their character and 



* Professor Eay Laiikester in Times, May, 1903. 



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