Li£iO 
after truth, and that they alone are capable of impartial 
investigation. 
An “Inaugural Address”* has been courteously sent me 
by the author, from which I exti-act the following sentence : — 
“ The thought of the continual presence of God is also, as 
in the small affairs of life, too heavy for man to bear, and 
troubles his intellect even in special scientific investigations.” 
The desire to get rid of the thought of the continual presence 
of God thus furnishes a most powerful motive to view things 
in a certain light, and to represent this view of things as 
established science, disregarding all proof to the contrary. 
So I read in a paper in the Quarterly Journal of Science for 
October, 1877, as follows: — “ We have no longer at the pre- 
sent day to concern ourselves with establishing the Evolution 
hypothesis. Almost all those who are in a position to form a 
judgment are agreed in accepting it.” (!) 
This will also account for the zeal displayed in the 
dissemination of these doctrines amid the masses of the 
people under the venerated name of Science. Amongst these 
persons there are always to be found a more than sufficient 
number, who, for their own reasons, will applaud any teacher 
that will help them to get rid of the idea of the presence of 
God. Such Professors will no doubt be rewarded by the popu- 
larity at which they aim. 
Science itself, thus misused, suffers in her turn. I read 
in the Quarterly Journal of Science : — 
“An opinion is rapidly gaining ground that the present 
scientific position of Britain is unsatisfactory, both as com- 
pared with that of certain foreign nations and with our own 
antecedents, and is consistent neither with the honour nor 
the true interests of the Empire.” f 
The review proceeds to show, that “ in speculative philo- 
sophy we have reconquered the foremost place ” ; but “ what 
we complain of then relates not to the height of our scientific 
ideas, but to the quantity of our scientific work, and the 
number of our earnest and scientific workers Let us 
look at our scientific literature. It is exceedingly rich in the 
mere number of books published, but what an overwhelming 
portion of them, as every reviewer knows to his sorrow, are 
mere compilations, elementary treatises, and the like, well- 
'* “ Is Scientific Materialism compatible with Dogmatic Theology?” The 
inaugural address delivered before the Literary and Philosophical Society of 
Liverpool, 14th October, 1877, by John Drysdale^ M.D. 
t Quarterly Journal of Science, p. 467, Oct. 18 - 6. 
