the posture and
temper of the parties; and particularly to refer to the tone and spirit
of the religious press and the pulpit, respecting the alleged
discoveries and claims of science, and their bearing upon the religious
opinion of the time.

Moreover, in passing, the present writer begs permission to say that he
speaks from the orthodox side of this question; he hails from the
orthodox camp; he wears the clerical vesture of the Scottish worthies;
and is affiliated theologically with Knox and Chalmers, with Edwards and
Alexander, with the New York _Observer_ and the Princeton _Review_. This
much we beg to say, that what follows in these pages may be fully
understood.

No one who has been attending to the subject with any degree of interest
can have failed to observe that science, in her investigations upon the
grand and momentous themes which have absorbed her attention in these
latter years, has exhibited, and does still exhibit, a steady and
well-defined purpose, and has pursued it with a singularly calm, sober,
unimpassioned, yet resolute temper. Its posture is firm, steady,
self-poised, conscious of rectitude, and anticipative of veritable and
valuable results. Its spirit, though eager, is quiet; though
enthusiastic, is cautious; though ardent, is sceptical; though flushed
with success, is trained to the discipline of disappointment. Its object
is to interrogate nature. It stands at the shrine and awaits the
response of the oracle. It would fain interpret and make intelligible
the wondrous hieroglyphics of this universe, and specially the mystic
characters traced by the long-revolving ages upon the stony tablets of
this planet Earth. It has in the first instance no creed to support, no
dogmas to verify, no meaning to foist upon nature; its sole and single
query is, What does nature teach? What _is_ fact? What _is_ truth? What
_has_ occurred in the past annals of this planet? What _is_ the actual
and true history of its bygone ages, and of the dwellers therein? These
are its questions, addressed to nature by such methods as experience has
taught will reach her ear, and it does not hesitate to take nature's
answer. It does not shrink, and quake, and grow pale lest the response
should overturn some ancient notion. It does not dread to hear the
response, lest morals or religion should be thereby imperilled. It
boldly and resolutely takes the teaching of nature, whatever it may be.
Its conviction is that truth never