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also. This is contradictory of consciousness, which testifies that 
volition is not a farce ; that we can compare and select one action 
rather than another; that we can, if we will, choose the right and 
reject the wrong. If we be only machines, all terms of praise 
or blame are fallacious ; there can be neither right nor wrong, 
virtue nor vice. But our whole moral consciousness testifies to 
the existence of these things ; it is a fundamental law of our 
nature that we should approve or disapprove in certain cases ; and 
consequently, whatever hypothesis contradicts this, must be so 
far unsound. The surest evidence we can have testifies that we 
are voluntary agents, and not involuntary machines. 
Several other illustrations from Tyndall's address, as well as 
from evolution in general, might be selected to show that many 
of its inferences are from insufficient or untrustworthy evidence ; 
that it often violates what we know to be laws of nature ; that 
its deductions are but seldom verified ; but what I have selected 
are sufficient for my present purpose. It must not for a moment 
be supposed that because evidence is sifted and explanations 
tested, the fullest investigation of nature is objected to ; yet 
this is what our opponents often insinuate, or openly state. 
For example, Professor Roscoe says, in the conclusion of his 
lecture at Manchester on the atomic theory, “ In order to 
flourish and produce fruit, science must be free — free to experi- 
ment and observe, without let or hindrance ; free to draw the 
conclusions which may flow from such experiments or observa- 
tions; free, above all, to speculate and theorize into regions 
removed far beyond the reach of our senses.” To all this I am 
convinced every theologian will give a hearty assent : it is not 
knowledge, but ignorance we have to fear, either in our own 
department of thought or any other. What we do object to 
are conclusions that do not flow from observation or experiment, 
speculations that are not only beyond the reach of sense, but 
also of reason ; the wandering, fancy free, in regions where 
the logician can find no solid ground for his foot, and con- 
sequently cannot follow. We object to the freedom which is 
untrammelled by the laws of observation, of inference, and of 
verification. And we object to these things more in the interest 
of science than of theology, because while science may be 
seriously hindered by the blundering of injudicious friends, or 
irrational votaries ; the fundamental bases of theology are too 
firmly seated in the consciousness of humanity ever to be over- 
turned by any amount of illogical reasoning on the part of 
its friends, or any amount of illogical rancour on the part of 
its foes. 
