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attempt to know God is to “ attempt the solution of an in- 
soluble problem/' simply because the finite mind cannot know 
everything about him, no less so is it with regard to science, 
and, indeed, every other thing the mind can think of. For 
does not reason in the sphere of science reach ultimates that 
baffle it? It has gathered together under its eye certain 
phenomena; it has pointed out some of their relations, but 
that which is beyond, which the microscope cannot detect, 
which the magnet cannot attract, which all the fine instru- 
ments of science cannot touch or unveil, is the mystery of 
all, and in the presence of which science, as such, is dumb. 
As another illustration of defective logic, take the words 
of Professor Tyndall : — “ Trees grow, and so do men, and 
horses; and here we have new power incessantly introduced 
upon the earth. But its source, as I have already stated, is 
the sun ; for he it is who separates the carbon from the oxygen 
of the carbonic acid, and thus enables them to recombine." 
But it occurs to one to ask him what the sun could do in such 
a case if there were no vitality, and no organization ; let these 
be given, and the sun may do wonders ; but in their absence, 
what can he do ? Now, it is not reason that is at fault here, 
but reasoning. It is the logic that is to blame. If, then, 
religion leads men to take in the whole facts, is it not a much 
more rational thing than a science that either by design or 
obliviousness excludes an essential part ? 
18. This claim to a monopoly of reason on the side of science 
is made by the false issue which is raised. “If religion and 
science are to be reconciled, the basis of reconciliation must 
be the deepest, widest, and most certain of all facts, that the 
power which the universe manifests to us is utterly inscrutable ;" 
so Mr. Spencer says. But is not this a fearful gulf over which 
science and religion are called upon to shake hands ? Why 
assert that science and religion require to be reconciled? 
When, amid the harmonies of the universe did they ever 
quarrel or create a discord ? Scientific men and religious men 
have quarrelled, and there is need now, as on many former 
occasions, for their being reconciled. But to speak of science 
as one sphere of truth, and religion as another, requiring to be 
reconciled, is to trifle. As the child with a ringing sound in 
his ear may fancy some bell is ringing, so certain men interpret 
the discordant sounds of their own thinkings as if they were 
the clashing of realities without. 
19. And then, why assume that the “power which the 
universe manifests " is “ utterly inscrutable " ? If utterly 
inscrutable, why does Mr. Spencer say that the universe 
“ manifests" it? If “inscrutable," what can he or any other 
