erily, but never with the
weapons of malice and wickedness. This mode of treating science, if
persisted in, must end only in chagrin and defeat to the parties
employing it, for the simple reason that it does violence to reason,
nature, and all the laws of man's being. Science cannot be turned aside
in her strenuous and ever-successful progress by any such impediments
thrown in her way. The clear, calm, cogent facts and inferences of the
philosopher cannot be met successfully by the half-suppressed shriek of
the mere Biblicist. And it must be at once perceived that any such
treatment of science, any such half-concealed fear of the progress of
science, any such unfair and spiteful bearing toward scientific men,
argues a secret distrust of the system or doctrine which is assumed to
be held and professedly defended. These petulant and much disturbed
editors and divines must be really afraid that the ground is being
undermined beneath their feet. If a man _really believes_ the
inspiration and infallibility of the Scriptures, he may feel perfectly
at ease as to any facts present or past in the wide universe. But if he
is not so sure of them, and wishes, for some personal or interested
motive, to believe them, he will be easily disturbed by anything which
seems to militate against them. If the Scriptures are true, they can
never be shown to be false--if they are not true, we ought not to wish
to believe them.

The spirit and temper above indicated are wholly out of harmony with the
general spirit of Protestant Christianity. It has ever been the boast of
Protestantism that it seeks the light, that it seeks discussion, that
it asserts the right of private judgment, that it courts investigation,
and is willing to expose all its claims to the broad light of day. It
claims to be an everlasting protest against priestly tyranny, and
monkish authority, and abject spiritual servitude in the laity. Strange,
if in this new phase of its history it should fail to be true to itself!

After the Christian world came generally to accept the statement of
Chalmers that the writings of Moses do not fix the antiquity of the
world, and before science had begun to moot seriously the questions of
the unity of the race, the universality of the Noahian deluge, and the
antiquity of man, it was the custom of clergymen generally to reecho the
true Protestant strain. They claimed science. They expected much of her.
They wished full and free discussion in