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principally for the computation of the constants in the planetary and 
lunar theories. Mr. Babbage says that the method of calculation is too 
Herculean for the human brain ; and he is therefore inventing a machine 
for the purpose of doing that which no human mind can accomplish. 
(Hear, hear.) The Saturday Review made a little fun of me in reference to 
an expression I made use of at Sion College, as to the difference between pure 
and mixed science. I suppose that that Saturday Reviewer must have been 
present, and that his notion of mixed science was something like the notion one 
might have of mixed spices ! (Laughter.) If he had known anything at all 
about science, he would have found that the term “ mixed science” was one for 
which the “ Encyclopeedia Metropolitana” is responsible. Well, then, I say 
that, if we have to admit the hypotheses of pure science with such extreme 
caution, how are we to deal with mixed science ? Professor Morris has 
referred to a work which was, no doubt, written well up to its day, but which 
is far behind the science of the present day — Cardinal Wiseman’s lectures 
on “ The Connection between Science and Revelation.” Most of the difficulties 
there mentioned have been swept away by the onward progress of science. 
There was, however, one point taken up by Cardinal Wiseman which I 
believe to be a very sound one, and that was, that in the infancy of most 
sciences they appeared to be opposed to Revelation, but that as they 
advanced, their apparent opposition to Revelation was removed. He showed 
that that opposition arose from imperfect hypotheses, and that when these 
were corrected, it was found that the sciences which in the beginning appeared 
to be most antagonistic to Revelation were those which most peculiarly illus- 
trated and verified the truth of Revelation ; so that as science advanced it was 
its lot to come more in accordance with what we believed to be revealed truth. 
(Hear, hear.) And I think, whether in regard to geology, anthropology, or 
language, that those who observe the fleeting, changing hypotheses of these 
sciences, must know and feel that so far from their progress diverging further 
and further from Divine Revelation, there are the strongest symptoms 
(where those sciences are only fairly cultivated, and men will stick to their 
facts irrespective of hypotheses) of a tendency to throw more and more 
light on that which we believe to be Divine Revelation. (Hear, hear.) 
The Meeting was then adjourned. 
