This consideration should dispel all the alarm that is felt by the defenders of religion in view of the general diffusion of popular scientific treatises. The brief statement of a false or groundless scientific theory, even by its defender, is often its most effectual refutation. A magnificently imposing argument often shrinks into insignificance when its advocate is forced to state its substance in a compact and close-jointed outline. The articulations are seen to be defective, the joints do not fit one another, the coherence is conspicuously wanting. Let then error do its utmost in the field of science. Its deficient data and its illogical processes are certain to be exposed, sometimes even by its own advocates. If this does not happen the defender of that scientific truth which seems to be essential to the teachings and faiths of religion, must scrutinize its reasonings by the rules and methods of scientific inquiry. If science seems to be hostile to religion, this very seeming should arouse the defender of Theism and Christianity to examine into the grounds both by the light and methods which are appropriate to science itself. The more brief and compact and popular is the argument which he is to refute, the more feasible is the task of exposure and reply. Only let this be a cardinal maxim with the defender of the truth, that whatever is scientifically defended and maintained must be scientifically refuted and overthrown. The great Master of our faith never uttered a more comprehensive or a grander maxim than the memorable words, “To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice.” It would be easy to show that the belief in moral and religious truth and the freedom in searching for and defending it which was inspired by these words have been most efficient in training the human mind to that faith in the results of scientific investigation which characterize the modern scientist. That Christian believer must either have a very imperfect view of the spirit of his own faith, or a very narrow conception of the evidences and the effect of its teachings, who imagines that the freest spirit of scientific inquiry, or the most penetrating insight into the secrets of matter or of spirit can have any other consequence than to strengthen and brighten the evidence for Christian truth.
N. P.
Yale College, May, 1872.
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE TO SECOND EDITION.
The five lectures embodied in this First Series of Half Hours with Modern Scientists were first published as Nos. I.—V. of the University Scientific Series. In this series the publishers have aimed to give to the public in a cheap pamphlet form, the advance thought in the Scientific world. The intrinsic value of these lectures has created a very general desire to have them put in a permanent form. They therefore have brought them out in this style. Each five succeeding numbers of this celebrated series will be printed and bound in uniform style with this volume, and be designated as second series, third series, and so on. Henceforth it will be the design of the publishers to give preference to those lectures and essays of American scientists which contain original research and discovery, rather than to reprinting from European sources. The lectures in the second series will be (1) On Natural Selection as Applied to Man, by Alfred Russel Wallace; (2) three profoundly interesting lectures on Spectrum Analysis, by Profs. Roscoe, Huggins, and Lockyer; (3) the Sun and its Different Atmospheres, a lecture by Prof. C. A. Young, Ph.D., of Dartmouth College; (4) the Earth a great Magnet, by Prof. A. M. Mayer, Ph.D., of Stevens Institute; and (5) the Mysteries of the Voice and Ear, by Prof. Ogden N. Rood, of Columbia College. The last three lectures contain many original discoveries and brilliant experiments, and are finely illustrated.
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ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE.
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