and Science is the
continuation of a struggle that commenced when Christianity began
to attain political power. A divine revelation must necessarily be
intolerant of contradiction; it must repudiate all improvement in
itself, and view with disdain that arising from the progressive
intellectual development of man. But our opinions on every subject are
continually liable to modification, from the irresistible advance of
human knowledge.

Can we exaggerate the importance of a contention in which every
thoughtful person must take part whether he will or not? In a matter so
solemn as that of religion, all men, whose temporal interests are not
involved in existing institutions, earnestly desire to find the truth.
They seek information as to the subjects in dispute, and as to the
conduct of the disputants.

The history of Science is not a mere record of isolated discoveries; it
is a narrative of the conflict of two contending powers, the expansive
force of the human intellect on one side, and the compression arising
from traditionary faith and human interests on the other.

No one has hitherto treated the subject from this point of view. Yet
from this point it presents itself to us as a living issue--in fact, as
the most important of all living issues.

A few years ago, it was the politic and therefore the proper course to
abstain from all allusion to this controversy, and to keep it as far as
possible in the background. The tranquillity of society depends so
much on the stability of its religious convictions, that no one can
be justified in wantonly disturbing them. But faith is in its nature
unchangeable, stationary; Science is in its nature progressive; and
eventually a divergence between them, impossible to conceal, must take
place. It then becomes the duty of those whose lives have made them
familiar with both modes of thought, to present modestly, but
firmly, their views; to compare the antagonistic pretensions calmly,
impartially, philosophically. History shows that, if this be not done,
social misfortunes, disastrous and enduring, will ensue. When the old
mythological religion of Europe broke down under the weight of its own
inconsistencies, neither the Roman emperors nor the philosophers of
those times did any thing adequate for the guidance of public opinion.
They left religious affairs to take their chance, and accordingly those
affairs fell into the hands of ignorant and infuriated ecclesiastics,
parasites, eu