Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/85

Rh, and held up to public hatred. Scarcely a capital step has been taken in any branch of research but it has been branded as atheistic. Dean Wren, the father of the celebrated architect, upheld the geocentric theory of the universe and the immovability of the earth in a strain worthy of Caccini or Scioppius. It was objected against the Royal Society that its "members neglected the wiser and more discerning ancients and sought the guidance of their own unassisted judgments, and that by admitting among them men of all countries and religions they endangered the stability of the English Church." It was urged that experimental philosophy was likely to lead to the overthrow of Christianity, and even to atheism. Among these writers a prominent place belongs to Henry Stubbs, of Warwick, and the Rev. Richard Cross, of Somerset, the latter of whom charged the Fellows of the Royal Society with "undermining the universities, destroying Protestantism, and introducing Popery"!

It would have been fortunate for Bruno, Galileo, and not a few of their colleagues, if the Inquisition and the Order of Jesus had taken the same view of the tendency of their researches. The discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton excited an outburst of hostility very similar to that which has in our own times greeted the theory of organic evolution. Then geology became the great bugbear; then followed the nebular hypothesis, till, as we have just hinted, anti-scientific jealousy concentrated itself upon the views of Darwin, Wallace, and their followers. If we read the controversial literature which has issued from the English press within the last half century, and note the motives therein imputed to men of science, we can scarcely doubt what would have been the fate of Buckland, Lyell, Sedgwick, Oken, Carus, Richard Owen, Darwin, had their enemies possessed as much power as malice. It must also be remembered that the practical applications of science and all attempts at its extension among the public have been met with a hostility no less pronounced. Franklin's lightning-conductor and Jenner's discovery of vaccination have been condemned from the pulpit as impious and blasphemous attempts to set aside the decrees of Heaven. A similar condemnation has since been pronounced against the use of anæsthetics, especially in midwifery.

The late Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, the London University, and the British Association, have each in turn passed through a tempest of abuse. The last-mentioned body, indeed, is still regularly "preached at" in every town which it visits.

In France the Chancellor, D'Aguesseau, refused a license to print Voltaire's "Letters on England," because the author therein expounded the discoveries of Newton, and disproved the vortex theory of Descartes. For adopting Locke's denial of innate ideas, a lettre de cachet was issued against Voltaire, and he was compelled to seek safety in flight. More recently the freedom of science seems to be recognized in France, Germany, and even in Italy. We must not,