4 
MALLERY. 
edge, and this was because science had not yet risen above 
the misty horizon. The two most prominent schools de¬ 
pending severally upon revelation and intuition had not yet 
been supplanted by the new school founded on observation. 
Revelation means the withdrawal of a veil that conceals 
the truth, and that withdrawal was once supposed to be 
possible only by the graciousness of divinity, not by man’s 
endeavor, which was impious. The very quality of such 
revelation prohibited discussion upon itself even as an ex¬ 
planation of phenomena. It permitted discussion and reason¬ 
ing from itself—that is, from its own dogmas—only within the 
usual bounds of orthodoxy, namely, those which were decided 
and maintained by the physically, not mentally, strongest 
battalions. Throughout all the ages, records of which exist, 
it was fiercely proclaimed in every language, over all known 
lands and seas, that blind belief was the noblest of human 
virtues and reason was the most potent of Satan’s tempta¬ 
tions. Science, on the other hand, demands that the veil 
hiding truth must be withdrawn by man. One of our 
favorite living poets has been lauded for his determination 
of the subject in the beautiful lines :— 
Science was Faith once ; Faith were Science now, 
Would she but lay her bow and arrows by 
And arm her with the weapons of the time. 
But this touching plaint is utterly false as a proposition of 
fact—or, with greater courtesy to Mr. Lowell—it is founded 
in illusion. The essence and attitude of science, ever since 
its genesis, have been opposed to the essence and attitude of 
religious faith and that antagonism must continue. St. Paul 
pronounced a grand definition of faith that has been a text 
for eighteen centuries. Last year a sarcastic definition was 
circulated that “ Faith is belief in what you know is not 
true.” Whether the reverent or the cynical definition be 
adopted, the intrinsic antagonism between faith, however it 
may be modified, and science, to whatever degree it may be 
perfected, can never be annulled, not even by their coin¬ 
cidence in all averments, except that one on which agreement 
