Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/620

602 construction of Bach's fugues, or supplied the missing harmony to the original score of the "Messiah." For a correct exegesis of the Apocalypse, or the Book of Job, we should not go to the scientist, but to the trained and acute Biblicist; and when our thoughts are turned toward the sources and interpretations of natural phenomena, to whom shall we look for direction and guidance, but to those who have made these phenomena their life-long study? "Every one for his own."

If the destruction of these more recent theories, or their immediate and unreserved acceptance, were our only alternative, there might be some excuse for attacking them, even with the very unsuitable and impotent weapons with which most of us are furnished. But why can we not suffer ourselves to "make haste slowly" in regard to these questions which are so difficult, and, in a certain sense, so remote? The most enlightened scientists hold their views not rigidly, but flexibly, expecting them to undergo various modifications, as truth is gradually unsealed and error eliminated. They invite both scrutiny and correction; and, when argument is met by argument, proof with counter-proof, when premises are shown to be false, methods insufficient, or inferences illogical, none are more ready and generous in acknowledgment of mistakes. The absence of assertion is particularly noticeable in their writings. Their opinions are frequently prefaced with such phrases as "So far as I can discover," "Is it not probable," "Are we not justified in believing;" thus appealing to the intelligence and discernment of the reader, instead of seeming to compel his acquiescence. Darwin's first words in the second volume of the "Descent of Man" are, "I have fallen into a serious and unfortunate error;" and he frankly states that his explanation of certain coincidences is wholly erroneous. Does this candid admission detract from his general trustworthiness? Certainly not, to the equally candid reader. In summing up the main conclusions at the close of this elaborate work, he alludes to the still higher destiny which man may hope for in the distant future; but he instantly checks the incipient speculation with the characteristic utterance of the true devotee of science: "But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason allows us to discover it. I have given the evidence to the best of my ability."

These untiring students ask only unrestricted right of search and freedom of discussion. Shall this modest request be practically denied them? Shall the weak timidity and the unreasoning hostility of the sixteenth century forever repeat themselves in the presence of a fresh idea? Verily, a stranger in the world of thought fares hard at our hands. We are forgetful to entertain it until its wings appear, and that is not Scriptural hospitality.

Tyndall beautifully says: "Science desires not isolation, but freely combines with every effort toward the bettering of man's estate. The lifting of the life is the essential point." Are the sarcasms of the