TWO PATHS, ONE GOAL. 



97 



works which some (hiy she must fail to meet ? Has slie taken 

 into account all the conditions of the phenomenal world, 

 including in this the moral nature of man ? 



Yes, and no, must he the answer. Science is potentially 

 bankrupt if she demand to grasp with her single hand the 

 three data of real existence, Eyo, External Nature, God. Science 

 is not and never can be bankrupt so long as she concerns herself 

 with the two first of these primary data, leaving to lleligion 

 the task of co-ordinating the three by her expert assistance. 

 It may happen tliat the department of business hitherto 

 exclusively conducted by the old firm will be encroached upon 

 by the extension of the powers and field of operations of the 

 younger, as the ages roll on, even as we see at present in the 

 great field of psychical research. But when the last word of 

 Science has been spoken on any subject, if that should ever be, 

 Eeligion must still make heard her voice as to the ultimate 

 meaning thereof. It were almost impertinence in this twentieth 

 century to proclaim the validity of Science in her own great 

 territory, the limits of which no man knows, when so recently 

 Sir William Turner could, from his presidential chair at Brad- 

 ford, say, uncontradicted : " Great is Science, and it will prevail," 

 or. Sir Michael Foster, at Dover, make even more far-reaching 

 claims for the work of Science. A mere list of the fresh veri- 

 fications of the data of Science Avere enough to stop the mouth 

 of any who might raise a suspicion of the financial stability of 

 the new partner. The works of Science have stood the test 

 of constant, able, and often hostile inspection of her assets. 

 Indeed, so convincing to many of her votaries have been the 

 proofs of her w^ealth, and power to employ that wealth, that a 

 man so generally candid as Professor Huxley was led in a 

 moment of triumph to say tliat if certain of the l)ranches of 

 the theory of evohition were true, " the frontiers of the new 

 world, within which scientific method is supreme, will receive 

 such a remarkable extension as to leave little but cloudland for 

 its rival." * 



Such a statement savours of vapouring, a proceeding so unlike 

 the v/riter's usual habit of thought and speech that one would 

 not allude to it were it not for the important purpose of showing 

 a truth brought out very forcibly by Professor Campbell Eraser 

 in his Giford Lectures.^ lieferring to the three primary data 

 of real existence, the Ego, Nature, and God, he points out the 



* " Past and Present," Nature, 1st November, 1894. 



t Philosophy of Theism: being the Gifford Lectures for 1894-96. 



