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    Fob many years the antagonism between Science and Theology ( which miisit not be confounded with Religion ) has given theologians increasing uneasiness at the rapid advance of Science , and its acceptance by the public . They have been put to strange shif ts to " reconcile" what they could not deny . They have in the main adopted two courses : to fulminate against Science , and to prove that the teachings of Science and the teachings of Theology are the same ; the sort of proof generally consisting in that logical artifice which secures your assent for a particular by securing it for an universal , so that they having proved Sockates to be a man , you are made to * believe on the same proof that he was a Frenchman . Having overwhelmed you with rhetoric on the theme—: An undevout astronomer is madtbjfey conceive that nothing more is necessary ; yet you reasonably ask , If there are no undevout astronomers surely there are some heterodox astronomers ? Lalamde , Lapijlce , Arago rise to the memory as persons of very

    mfitliocre orthodoxy . The last -week has introduced us to two theological athletes , types of the two classes just named . The first of these is father Gbatey , the Oratorian , whOj according to the Revue des Deux Mondes , has published a new Logique to remedy the disease of the age by bringing back truaut Philosophy to the school-benches of religion . The second is Dr . W . P . Lcnt , an American diyine , who , in a Lecture on the " Functions and Province of Faith , " printed in the Christian Examiner , undertakes also to supplant the old logic . Father Gtbatbt announces a discovery ; Dr . Lujst is purely rhetorical . The Oratorian believes he has detected the one fundamental process upon which all Science and all Metaphysics is conducted ; and this process is nothing more than the theological process . What , he asks , is the process of Physical Science ? induction : of Mathematics ? the calculus 5 of Metaphysics ?

    dialectics . Now observe , all these processes are the same process : they all proceed from the particular to the general , from the contingent to the necessary , from the finite to the infinite . And when positive science , in its superb disditm for metaphysics , declares that ' man carinot transcend ^ finite knowledge because the . infinite must ever be inaccessible , in that very announcement it belies its own existence , for induction itself is a passing from the finite to the infinite . If the reader has not seen the logical sleight of mind by which this result is attained , , he will open his eyes when he liears that on the same method man passes to the knowledge of God . Reason is impotent ; faith alone can succeed , and faith will come in humility . For what is humility ? It ^ s the profound sentiment the creature has of its weakness ; it is the finite bowing before the infinite ; it is analogous to the process by which the geometer pa&ses fromthe finite to the infinite !

    Very different from this logical fence is the rhetoric of Dr . Lunt . He does not want science reconciled with religion ; he wants it banished altogether from the same sphere of thought . He says : — It may be made a question whether the philosophy of Bacon , which has wrought such marvels for the benefit of the world in physical science , has not been to an equal extent pernicious in regard to morals and reli gion . The habit which it has induced , of looking only at sensible facts and of using the understanding alone , while the higher facts of consciousness are neglected and the intuitions of the soul are ignored , has been followed by disastrous consequences .

    The successors of Bacon proceeded in the line which his sagacious and cold-hearted genius had pointed out . Locke in England gave systematic application to his principles , so far as they related to mental philosophy . But Locke was too good , too Christian a man to go where Bacon had pointed the way . Others of coarser and less scrupulous natures followed , until , under their inf luence , man was reduced to a lusty and beautiful brute , out of whom , with the dissecting knife of their subtle analysis , they had extracted all soul , —in the mysterious chambers of whose complex nature their foul chemistry had dissolved all faith , and had left only a caput mortuum of earthy matter , as the worthless residuum of immortal man . This " habit of using the understanding" is doubtless disastrous ; for the precise explanations furnished by science banish the superstitions fostered b y * priests . Euhipides , in one of his bold and thoughtful passages , declares thfttthe gods throw the world into confusion that we in our ignorance may worship them—. ; rapayfJiov evrtdevres , coo- ayvaxng .

    o-epco / x «/ avrovs , and ; it is clear that in proportion as Religion founds itself on ignorance it must dread Science . Dr . Lunt has no misgivings on this point ; he pines for the superstitions of a bygone ago , as you may see in this passage : — ' jChe ' gyeat heresy of our period ia not a denial of the Innnuculate Conception of the Vi £ gjn Jlary . or of any other of the thousand formulas of positive doctrine that proceed ea ^ cafJiedra Ronue , or from any other propaganda in Christendom . But it ia a uwesy toTittmanity P It ia a dcniul of the crowning attribute of man . It is in in iuui—iuo imw —

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    uiayeijoj , ma soul . Wo Doneyo ana worsmp a nugu > ««< ' »»»» " « wh ' jcjL lik ' e ^ et ^' chadheWzar ' s image , has ahead of gold , and feet of iron and clay . Wo are , intent upon " running a continuous wire round the globe , tliat wo may chaffer with th $ 0 riety » lB iy HgMjning—a stupendous , achievement , doubtless , which scionco hue flhpwh"jo 1 be theoretically possible , and which experiment is trying to prove practioabla ; and {\ iq wkote toorld ia leaning with eyelid * ajar to watoh the doing of the de ^ gpl ,. 41 $ it the aaino time wo have recklessly destroyed that better telegraph , whiafc © iifltoa in what wo term a / res of darkness , and which led from earth to the

    world of spirits , fetching and carrying communicationsbetween " the ' Fount * oif Being and the souls of men . ¦••¦ : > : It was surely worth while to extract this passage , if only for that linage of the " world leaning with eyelids ajar , " which is in the purest style of what Diskaem wittily calls " the American language . " For the rest , Dr . Lunt may grieve , but Science will not stop even to make way for witches . The Revue des Deux MortiSes , besides its article on Father Gkatby , has a very pleasant story by Champfxeuby ; an account of Babtouni , the sculptor ; and a continuation of the Princess Belgiojoso ' s pleasant travels in the East . But nothing that leads us to comment . In the Annales de $ Sciences Nalurettes there is * a long and curious paper by M . Camiixe Dabeste on the colouring matters of the sea . He has collected together all the observations of travellers , historians , and naturalists , and describes the various algae , infusoria , and Crustacea which give their red and yellow hues to vast tracts of sea water . The paper is too long , and not of a nature for analysis : but the curious reader will do well to seek it in the Annales .

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    AN AMERICAN TOUR . A Vacation Tour in the United States and Canada . By Charles Richard Weld , Barrister-at-Law . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . Bbfobe alluding to results , perhaps it would be well to describe the motives of A V acation Tour , and then a book , which cannot fail to interest a large class of readers , will have an additional claim upon their attention . Half a . century ago a relative of Mr . Weld ' s travelled over a very large portion of the United States and Canada . This gentleman published his experiences , and became a recognised authority on American subjects . A tour through an unsettled country was certain to furnish plenty of adventure , as , trusting to the guidance of Indians , or his own sagacity , on foot , or by canoe , the traveller made his way through forests where railways are now established , and over waters now navigated by modern steamers . Mr . Weld thinks a

    contrast between the America of fifty-five years ago and the America of to-day may not be a worthless undertaking , and the desire to chronicle the changes which have taken place had a considerable influence in determining his visit to the New World . In the short space of three months Mr . Weld , devoured ia , 700 miles of road , but he did not scamper over it in the style of Leigh Hunt ' s friend , who used to get over a play of Shakspeare ' s before breakfast , and boast that he had "done" so much . A really surprising amount of information is condensed in the compact narrative of so rapid a journey . Mr . ' Weld sees everything , without reminding the reader of his hurry ; he abandons himself to the enjoyment of his tour , and yet always keeps equal to his literary purpose . We know of no book more useful to emigrants , as the greatest pains are taken to , correct ill-founded statements or exaggerated notions . The external appearance of a place , or the incidents sure to' arise

    in travelling , are not overlooked ; but this sort of information is accompanied by what is of more consequence , and merely paves the way to sterner stuff . We must say we do not entirely sympathise so much with Mr . W ^ d when he gets reflective , for his style then becomes affecjSed and pedantic ; however , this is a fault quite apart from the excellent subject-matter . One may get an extremely definite idea of the author ' s route by referring to the map prefixed to the volume . Starting from Boston , his journey lay through Peterborough , Montreal , Quebec , Toronto , Buffalo , Cincinnati , Columbus , Washington , Richmond , Philadelphia , and New York . The strange hotel life which has grown up in the great American towns is described with a > minuteness necessary for the reader 5 and this is where Mr . Weld differs from so many ordinary writers : he tells the very thing he has to tell without thinking it beneath his own , or the reader ' s attention . The resources o £ these enormous establishments , it is well known , are marvellous , and they quite keep pace with the go-ahead propensities of their habitufs , who pass a from the

    dolcefar niente kind of existence . The Americans , justice they do to the culinary department , would seem , to reverse the maxim of eating to live by livin ^ to eat . In the bar-rooms of these hotels the customers are allowed to help themselves ; the consequence is , visits are very frequent , and the apparent liberality of the proprietors is well rewarded . No people understand the economy of time and labour so well as the Americans ; to ' rapid is the first consideration , and every contrivance is exhausted by which time may be saved . To save time they shorten their own lives , for the restless fever which pervades all classes must be fatal to longevity . This excited incapacity to be quiet accounts for the whittling propensities so common in the States , which are so far recognised amongst themselves , that the public seats in the park at Boston are covered with sheet iron . Even when attending divine worship , the Americans have no command over their , recreant limbs ; legs and arms are thrown violently about , and fans are passed from hand to hand ; the incessant stir producing a most chaotic

    The tobacco-chewing nuisance , which disgusts the strangers in the States , is brought out with horrible effect in divers practical instances . When the party were sitting down to dinner on a railway journey , a follow deposited his reeking tobacco quid" on Mr . Weld ' s plato . Like cigar smoking in Englund , tobacco chewing is a test of manhood . " What the do you mean , " said a stripling to a judge in the United States , "by calling me a boy ; I ' ve chawed these two years . " Weld does not stop among the lighter traits : from the quid ho rises to political economy . The manufacture of this chewing-tobacco is carried on to a great extent in Virginia . The presses are worked hy slaves instead of machinery , owing to the scarcity of capital , which is a drawback to progress in many of tho slave . states . The American disregard of life and limb made its duo »» rom 6 n on mu Weld , but little can any previous information prepare the icaae » desperate reality . Twocis told by Mr . Weld , nuko ono ^^ ° ™ ^ Leaving the gay and glittering scone , in the afternoon x t 0 " ; ft distance of Monroe , and proceeded by stage over u plunk ioud to ^ 'V ™ Jt ° aoomcd doubtful eighteen miles . I Avas the only passongor , and for « ° >» ° " j d jiOW 0 Vor , I inwhether tho driver would proceed with *> iinronuaorativo « W «

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    Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They ao not C ? nake laws-they interpret and try to enforce them . —JEdznburffh Sevzew .

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    j ^^^^ r , 2 $£ l § # } J q JEfePi ? M ^ ^^ ' 94 £

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 29, 1855, page 941, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2108/page/17/