Page:Thruston speech upon the progress of medicine 1869.djvu/21

19 In conclusion, let me say a few words to those who dread what has been called the materialistic tendency of modern science, and who may have thought that, in forecasting the future triumphs of physiology, I have entered upon ground which ought to have been sacred.

There are not a few persons who still think that in seeking to know how the animal body is built up, and in imitating some of its actions, we are in danger like Frankenstein of constructing a monster, which will ultimately destroy our most precious faith in God and in spiritual things.

To these objections I would answer in the words of the author of the Religio Medici, " There is no danger to profound these mysteries, no sanctum sanctorum in philosophy ."

"I call the effects of nature the works of God, whose hand and instrument she only is; and therefore to ascribe His actions to her is to devolve the honour of the principal