Page:Science the handmaid of religion.djvu/8

 4 up for want of learning and logic with anathema and abuse.

I shall endeavour to show in this address (I know I shall do it most imperfectly) in what ways science is indeed the handmaid of religion; that is, how, in the common work they both have to perform in the world, science may be regarded as playing the humbler part in the same work, aiding, not superseding, religion in her work among men.

It will be necessary, however, first to point out that a very erroneous view has been taken of the office of science by those who have sought to be considered her best friends. Priding themselves on being considered practical, they have regarded science only as the means by which the physical conditions of men's lives may be bettered. Far be it from me to disparage the efforts of science in this respect. To increase the productiveness of the earth's surface, to ensure conditions of health and physical well-being for its inhabitants, to plan gigantic works by means of which communication between its most distant points is secured, to add in a thousand ways to the comfort and prosperity of mankind, are achievements which justly ensure for science our gratitude and admiration.

But the work of science does not end here. Man has a soul as well as body; or, if that language be considered inexact, man has intellectual wants as well as physical, and his happiness