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PART III. 
The Conclusion. 
No one can doubt the great abilities of Professor Tyndall as 
a lecturer ; but these very powers give him great control of an 
ludience, and enable him to place all his characters before his 
hearers in the light which suits him best. We have in a sort 
of scenic representation an array of great names, who all are 
brought before us with the appearance of contributing their re- 
spective testimony to the truth of his assertion “ that science 
has in great part conquered the domain that was supposed to 
belong to religion.” When interrogated, one by one, however, 
it is obvious that their witness agrees not together. 
Did his Manchester audience really consent to view things ex- 
actly in the light in which Tyndall placed them ? Were they all 
persuaded to believe that “ the doctrine of the grand old Pagans, 
Democritus, Epicurus, and Lucretius really received its consum- 
mation at the hands of the immortal John Dalton? ” Imagine 
the surprise of this most staid and rather precise north-country 
“ Friend,” who used to boast that he could carry on his back all 
the books be ever read — who never swerved from the paths of 
pure reason, nor ever brought to its consummation the theory of 
“ molecules ” at all — when charged with being the reviver of 
“ the dangerous doctrine of the heathen” ! Whatever the private 
sentiments of this “ immortal ” man might be on the subject of 
religion, the habitual reticence of his education probably did not 
allow him to divulge; and most certainly a charge of the above 
description would have raised in his mind profound wonder and 
disgust. His atomic views were essentially his own ; and Europe 
did homage to the depth of his intellect, whilst at the same time 
England was allowing him to wear himself away in the laborious 
and ill-paid task of a schoolmaster ! 
I truly think his advice would have been to leave such subjects 
alone, and not to venture on themes which no one can understand. 
I will refer, in the next place, to Mr. Darwin, as one 
who has deeply influenced the scientific, and perhaps still 
more, the ywcMt/o-scientific mind of our era. It is not 
necessary that I should express my sincere acquiescence 
in the universal tribute of admiration to the eminence of 
this gentleman as a Naturalist ; from which concession it must 
not be inferred that I accept either in whole or in part his ex- 
