136 
Notices of Books. 
[January, 
slave of superstition by such men as Posner, who, in a passage 
here quoted, declares that we “ must deny God, and trample the 
Cross under foot, before we can become even scholars, far less 
masters in Natural Science.” With this vicious and unphilo- 
sophical outbreak Dr. Drysdale deals with just severity. He 
admits that thoughts of First Causes and teleological ideas 
“ tend to check the progress of investigation at numerous 
points.” The fa Ct that the majority of scientific men are not 
religious in the conventional and restricted sense of the term 
cannot, he thinks, be denied. But this adds very little strength 
to the fanatically intolerant position of Posner, since “ the field 
of science is now so enormous that a man must not only give 
himself up wholly to it, but even to a very small part of it, in 
order to make any new conquest for the domain of knowledge. 
Hence even an incapacity to judge of religious truths.” That 
there is no essential antagonism between religion and science 
the author considers is proved “ by a long roll of illustrious 
names, from Newton to Faraday.” To all the numeroust empta- 
tions to premature hypothesis and baseless speculation the 
infidel is at least as open as the believer. “ For it is possible 
for the latter to free his mind from all bias, and push back crea- 
tive interference as far as the search for phenomenal causes can 
possibly demand, and then he is in a better position for calm 
judgment than the fanatical infidel-evolutionist, for example, 
who is compelled to find a natural origin of life, and thus is 
tempted to fantastic speculation on the spontaneous generation 
of completely organised living beings with a life-history in a few 
hours from fermenting chemical compounds. Even on the 
descent of man the believer can rise to a calm and more un- 
prejudiced standpoint than the Hackelian.” Our author also 
thinks that the moral causes of mental disturbance must be 
taken into account. He remarks that “ envy, jealousy, hatred, 
and prejudice are as rife among men of science as among other 
men, and these dim the pure love of truth, which is the essen- 
tial condition of all discovery in science. Where are the quali- 
ties to counteract these most likely to be found ? Surely among 
those desiring honesty, honour, truth, love, esteem, veneration, 
and beauty, to which the highest ideal is presented in Christian 
dogmatics !” Inverting Posner’s position our author asks : 
“ May we not, therefore, say, No one can truly become a master 
in science unless he first takes up the Cross and blends indis- 
solubly the perfeCt love of truth, as a moral duty, with the love 
of truth in nature, which is the foundation of all scientific 
method ?” 
