"The next great series of battles were fought on those great fields occupied by such sciences as Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. Even before these sciences were out of their childhood--while yet they were tottering mainly towards, childish objects and by childish steps--the champions of that same old mistaken conception of rigid Scriptural interpretation began the war. The catalogue of chemists and physicists persecuted or thwarted would fill volumes."
After alluding to many other battle-fields of science which might not for want of time be dwelt upon at length the lecturer reviewed the battle grounds of medicine and anatomy on which some of the severest warfare has been waged.
The speaker here remarked that "perhaps the most unfortunate thing that has ever been done for Christianity is the tying it to forms of science and systems of education, which are doomed and gradually sinking. Just as in the time of Roger Bacon excellent but mistaken men devoted all their energies to binding Christianity to Aristotle. Just as in the time of Reuchlin and Erasmus they insisted on binding Christianity to Thomas Aquinas, so in the time of Vesalius such men gave all efforts to linking Christianity to Galen. The cry has been the same in all ages. It is the same which we hear in this age against scientific studies--the cry for what is called 'sound learning.' Whether standing for Aristotle against Bacon, or Aquinas against Erasmus, or Galen against Vesalius, or making mechanical Greek verses at Eton, instead of studying the handiwork of the Almighty, or reading Euripides with translations instead of Leasing and Goethe in the original, the cry always is for 'sound learning.' The idea always is that these studies are safe."
The speaker next proceeded to show that not alone in Catholic countries, has such warfare been waged, and that even now in Protestant America the fight is going on.
One of the fields on which the severest warfare had raged in Protestant countries was that of Geology. "From the first lispings of investigators in this science there was war. The early sound doctrine was that fossil remains were lusus naturae--freaks of nature--and in 1517 Fracastor was violently attacked because he thought them something more. No less a man than Bernard Palissy followed up the contest, on the right side, in France, but it required 150 years to carry the day fairly against this single preposterous theory. The champion who dealt it the deadly blow was Scilla, and his weapons were facts obtained by examination of the fossils of Calabria, (1670). But the advocates of tampering with scientific reasoning soon retired to a now position. It was strong, for it was apparently based upon Scripture--though, as the whole world now knows, an utterly exploded interpretation of Scripture. The new position was that the fossils were produced by the deluge of Noah. In vain had it been shown by such devoted Christians as Bernard Palissy that this theory was utterly untenable; in vain did good men protest against the injury sure to result to religion by tying it to a scientific theory sure to be exploded--the doctrine that the fossils were remains of animals drowned at the flood continued to be upheld by the great majority as 'sound' doctrine. It took 120 year for the searchers of God's truth, as revealed in nature--such men as Buffon, Linnaeus, Woodward, and Whitehurst--to run under these mighty fabrics of error, and by statements which could not be resisted, to explode them.
"Strange as it may at first seem, the war on geology was waged more fiercely in Protestant countries than Catholic, and of all countries England furnished the most bitter opponents. You have noted already that there are generally two sorts of attacks on a new science. First, there is the attack by pitting against science some great doctrine in theology. You saw this in astronomy, when Bellarmine and others insisted that the doctrine of the earth's revolving about the sun is contrary to the doctrine of the Incarnation. So now against geology it was urged that the scientific doctrine that the fossils represented animals which died before Adam was contrary to the doctrine of Adam's fall, and that death entered the world by sin. Then there is the attack by the literal interpretation of texts, which serves a better purpose generally in arousing prejudice. It is difficult to realize it now, but within the memory of the majority of those before me, the battle was raging most fiercely in England, and both these kinds of artillery were in full play and filling the civilized world with their roar. Less than thirty years ago, the Rev. J. Mellor Brown was hurling at all geologists alike, and especially at such Christian divines as Dr. Burkland, Dean Conybeare, and Pye Smith, and such religious scholars as Professor Sedgwick, the epithets of 'Infidel,' 'Impugner of the Sacred Record,' and 'Assailant of the Volume of God.' His favorite weapon was the charge that these men were 'attacking the Truth of God,' forgetting that they were simply opposing the mistaken interpretations of J. Mellor Brown. He declared geology 'not a subject of lawful inquiry;' he speaks of it as 'a dark art,' as 'dangerous and disreputable,' as a 'forbidden province.' This attempt to scare men from science having failed, various other means were taken.
"To say nothing about England, it is humiliating to human nature to remember the trials to which the pettiest and narrowest of men subjected such Christian scholars in our country as Benjamin Silliman and Edward Hitchcock. But it is a duty and a pleasure to state here that one great Christian scholar did honor to religion and to himself by standing up for the claims of science despite all these clamors. That man was Nicholas Wiseman, better known afterward as Cardinal Wiseman. The conduct of this pillar of the Roman Catholic Church contrasts nobly with that of timid Protestants who were filling England with shrieks and denunciations. Perhaps the most singular attempt against geology was that made by a fine specimen of the English Don, Dean Cockburn of York, to abuse its champions out of the field. Without apparently the simplest elementary knowledge of geology, he opened a battery of abuse. He gives it to the world at large by pulpit and press; he even inflicts it upon leading statesmen by private letters. But these weapons did not succeed. They were like Chinese gongs and dragon lanterns against rifled cannon. Buckland, Pye Smith, Lyell, Silliman, Hitchcock, Murchison, Agassiz, Dana, and a host of of noble champions besides, pressed on the battle for truth was won. And was it won merely for men of science? The whole civilized world declares that it was won for religion; that thereby has infinitely increased the knowledge of the power and goodness of God."
The lecturer classed the present opposition of the Catholics to the Free School system in this country among the long list of battles between science and theology and concluded his lecture as follows:
"But, my friends, I will not weary you with so recent a chapter in the history of the great warfare extending through the centuries. There are cheering omens. The greatest and best men in the churches--the men standing at centers of thought--are insisting with power, more and more, that religion shall no longer be tied to so injurious a policy--that searchers for truth, whether in Theology or Natural Science, shall work on as friends, sure that, no matter how much at variance they may at times seem to be, the truths they reach shall finally be fused into each other. No one need fear the result. No matter whether science shall complete her demonstration that man has been on the earth six thousand years or six hundred thousand. No matter whether she reveal new ideas of the Creator or startling relations between his creatures--the result, when fully thought out, will serve and strengthen religion not less than science. The very finger of the Almighty has written on history that science must be studied by means proper to itself, and in no other way. That history is before us all. No one can gainsay it. It is decisive, for it is this: There has never been a scientific theory framed for the use of Scriptural texts, which has been made to stand. This fact alone shows that our wonderful volume of sacred literature was not given for any such purpose as that to which so many earnest men have endeavored to wrest it. The power of that volume has been mighty indeed. It has inspired the best deeds our world has known. Despite the crusts which men have formed about it--despite the fetters which they have placed upon it--Christianity has blessed age after age of the past, and will go on as a blessing through age after age of the future. Let the Warfare of Science, then, be changed. Let it be a warfare in which religion and science shall stand together as allies, not against each other as enemies. Let the fight be for truth of every kind against falsehood of every kind--for justice against injustice--for right against wrong--for beauty against deformity--for goodness against vice--and the great warfare which has brought so many sufferings, shall bring to the earth God's richest blessings."