th indifference or suspicion. We see no necessary
gulf to separate our political or scientific convictions from those of
the wisest and most intelligent men who may differ from us in religion.
In pursuing those studies in which they can sympathise, starting from
principles which they can accept, and using methods which are theirs as
well as ours, we shall best attain the objects which alone can be aimed
at in a Review,--our own instruction, and the conciliation of opponents.

There are two main considerations by which it is necessary that we
should be guided in our pursuit of these objects. First, we have to
remember that the scientific method is most clearly exhibited and
recognised in connection with subjects about which there are no
prepossessions to wound, no fears to excite, no interests to threaten.
Hence, not only do we exclude from our range all that concerns the
ascetic life and the more intimate relations of religion, but we most
willingly devote ourselves to the treatment of subjects quite remote
from all religious bearing. Secondly, we have to remember that the
internal government of the Church belongs to a sphere exclusively
ecclesiastical, from the discussion of which we are shut out, not only
by motives of propriety and reverence, but also by the necessary absence
of any means for forming a judgment. So much ground is fenced off by
these two considerations, that a secular sphere alone remains. The
character of a scientific Review is determined for it. It cannot enter
on the domains of ecclesiastical government or of faith, and neither of
them can possibly be affected by its conclusions or its mode of
discussion.

In asserting thus absolutely that all truth must render service to
religion, we are saying what few perhaps will deny in the abstract, but
what many are not prepared to admit in detail. It will be vaguely felt,
that views which take so little account of present inconvenience and
manifest danger are perilous and novel, though they may seem to spring
from a more unquestioning faith, a more absolute confidence in truth,
and a more perfect submission to the general laws of morality. There is
no articulate theory, and no distinct view, but there is long habit, and
there are strong inducements of another kind which support this
sentiment.

To understand the certainty of scientific truth, a man must have deeply
studied scientific method; to understand the obligation of political
principle requires a