New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-10-22
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
FAITH AND SCIENCE.

X
It is misfortune that the two camps into which
the intellectual world is now divded-those of Sci
enee and Religion understand little of one an
other Even the weapons of one side are almost
unknown to the other. Such is the defective tram
ing in the theological schools that that great hhpe-
ment with which the army Of science has won al
most all its grand victories in modern progress-the
process of scientific reasOnmg-ls an rihstruhon'
with which the young theoOgians are almost utterly
nnacquainted-the camWldtiUe process OF REASONING,
by which one little fact is piled upon another until
AZ length after weary labor. broad generalization
can be erected which shall be guide to all future
Investigation; the delicate and conscientious Daanc
ing of probabilities, until ut last result Is OBTAINED
q little more probable than any other, and this be-
comes clew for other research; the basis OF all
conclusions solely on facts though under the gnd-
Ance Of hypothesis, and the confidence in the i'm
berative, alembracing nature of law, suffering no
exceptions and eternaly and everywhere the same
these are processes and modes of thought to which
most theolOgians are strangers. The conclusions
thus obtained seem to them weakly based the pro-
cesses too subtitle, and the Laws liable to con-
slant interruption and exception. The consequence
Is that at the present time most Of our Schools OF
Theology have sympathy with modern sclentlhc
thought and do not in the least appreciate the van
fairgrounds it has gained. Their instruction In
Natural Theology" is given precisely it was
rs though Darwin and his school had not existed.
The enemies they attack no longer exist, and the
weapons they hurl fall wide of the mark. They
fight with the ghost of the past instead Of the bona
kde and terrible foes of to-day
When at length the tremendous current of skepti-
csm ano atheism reaches from England-as 1t
Is to do in few years-our religious guides VIII
be utterly untitled to meet it, and we shall repeat
the desOate experience of modern Germany III the
matter of Faith and Science.
On the other hand the physicists Of the day have
no proper appreciation of the great facts Of conscious
ness and of the wants of the SOUL and do not regard
the experiences laws discovered in the great
physical" realm at all equal in value to those of
the world of matter. In their own field they show
themselves often dOgmatio and unscienti6c In
their modes of thought the theolOgians-as, for
instance, Buechner in his bald atheism and some
what violent materiasm in the " POrleSRRgeH u6ber
die Dat1cia 'scke Theorie ct cd."
Dr. Thompson, the author of the work whose title
is given above is one of the few modern theolo-
rians who can look scientific facts and conclusions
seuarely in the face, and who can appreciate scen-
ti6c reasoning. Darwinsm to his mind is not spec
ter of infdehty nor the confrmatOnof geology the
overthrow of the Bible, nor the antiquity Of Man
Of proved the destruction of religion. His treat
men of all these important topics in great contrast
to that of many German and English theologans.
He examines each its own merits, and appreciates
the cumulative nature of the arguments OF science
OH each of these questions. He is not TOO ready 10
object to conclusion because it is not fully demon
Itrated as yet nor tooeager to accept what physicists
sometimes claim rather hastily as axioms or settled
!rnths
With all this candid, philosophical habit of mind.
aud the authors well known scholastic attainments,
tits pity that his conclusions so important sub
Iects were given ont i'm this hafcOlOquia lecture
hke volume, wherein such miscellany OF topics are
discussed as the Jewish Cosmogony, the Antiquity OF
Man Darwinsm. the Sabbath. WOman's Rights, the
Social Compact Marriage, and Christian Philan-
thropy, and where the Typical Man" On capital
letters is represented as Edward EverettW We
protest too against a scholars using such word as
SCIENTIST which smacks of the whole school Of
half-cducated philosophers in biology" who have
attempted to Introduce so many outandish words.
Dr. Thompson's object, he informs us in this vol
uue is especially to discuss the great question:
Hoo to adjust the fdctS Of Science 10 tie BibieF
With this purpose the first great tOpewhich meets
him is the Biblical account of Mans Creation. n
sosnogOny, he shows its vast superiority IN simple
ity and majesty to many other heather cosmOgonies
out he admits throughout its main purpose 70 be
Pritual rather than scientific and, though he finds
general concurrence with the late results Of Science
he does not lls many the0lagians have unwisely
doncl press this harmony too closely. The grand
truth which it reveals to the world IS in his view,
that the universe is the work of person al Gre
alofH
=. discussing tho Origin OF Man the author
naturally comes at once to the great modern Typo
thesis Of Development" His treatment Of DaTwinisn
Systematically candid and ne admits that the theory
is as consistent with the doctrine Of creation by q
personal God rs any other. I'm fact, he might have
claimed that it is a more worthy conception OF the
Creator than that which makes him continually
interiors in the laws he has formed. His objections
TO the Hypothesis arc scientific and well tahel-snch
AZ AgassiZ or GuyOt have Oitercd-thOugh the
scientific mind of the world is more and more con-
sidtiing them as unsound, and is rapidly adopting
the theory as if not complete Hypothesis Of Origin,
at least wonderful explanation of great numbers of
the forms of life existing, Dr. Thompson wisely
takes the ground that the " Origin OF Life Is yet
amystery, and must be referred back to Divine
POwer-regardng GhcSe recent experiments IN
Spontaneous Generation as does the President OF
the British Association, who in the recent meeting
at Exeter said " In the various processes Of
crystallization Of precipitation, &c, which we
witness in dead matter cannot see the faintest
shadow of an approach TO the formation of organic
sfucrre still less to the wonderful series of changes
which are concerned in the growth and even the
perpetuaton of even the lOSliest plant"
To the possible physical generic connection Of Man
with the lower anInSls, DIR. Thompson offers the
usual obeetons--those quoted from NJ Rochet as
the strongest being prepared, however, probably to
admit that, if these ever answered, and mans
physical structure be proved to be inimmedlate con-
nection with lower types, the contrast IN bis spirit
nal powers with the animals only makes the proba-
ility of the independent existence and creation OF
his soul the stronger. The most ultra development