sition in an
age of dense ignorance, and claimed too much infallibility to admit of
enlightenment. Nevertheless, the Church feels the spirit of the age
and slowly moves. At the present time it is being _slowly_ permeated
by the modern spirit of agnostic scepticism, which is another form of
ignorance.

Mankind generally occupy the intrenched camp of ignorance within which
they know all its walls embrace; outside of which they look upon all
that exists with feelings of suspicion and hostility, and alas, this
is as true of the educated as of the uneducated classes. It was the
French Academy that laughed at Harvey's discovery and at Fulton's plan
of propelling steamboats, and even at Arago's suggestion of the
electric telegraph, as the Royal Society laughed at Franklin's
proposed lightning rods. It was Bonaparte who treated both Fulton and
Dr. Gall with contempt. It was the medical Faculty that arrayed itself
against the introduction of Peruvian bark, which they have since made
their hobby; and it was the same Edinburgh Review which poured its
ridicule upon Gall, that advised the public to put Thomas Gray in a
straight-jacket for advocating the introduction of railroads. Equally
great was the stupidity of the French. The first railroad was
constructed in France fifty years ago. Emil Periere had to make the
line at his own expense, and it took three years to obtain the consent
of the authorities. Their leading statesman, Thiers, contended that
railroads could be nothing more than toys. We remember that a
committee of the New York Legislature was equally stupid, and
endeavored to prove in their report that railways were entirely
impracticable. English opposition was still more stupidly absurd. Both
Lords and Commons in Parliament were entirely opposed. "The engineers
and surveyors as they went about their work were molested by mobs.
George Stephenson was ridiculed and denounced as a maniac, and all
those who supported him as lunatics and fools." "George Stephenson
although bantered and wearied on all sides stood steadfastly by his
project, in spite of the declarations that the smoke from the engine
would kill the birds and destroy the cattle along the route, that the
fields would be ruined, and people be driven mad by noise and
excitement."

Nothing is better established in history than the hostility of
colleges and the professional classes to all great innovations. "Truly
(says Dr. Stille in his Materia Medica) nearly eve