The times., 1898-02-21
SCIENCE NOT PRoFANE.
The Search for Truth the Most
Sacred Work of Man

sac Fe1 W Ork Oh MAI.
Major James Albert Clark last night al
Theosophical Hall. Metzerott building,
addressed the society, the subject being
THE Sanctity of Scientific Search The
historical aspect of the subject began
with the cup OF hemlock administered 10
Socrates; but the main drift of reasoning
was confined to Christendom. and began
with the burning of the Alexandria IL
brary.
Bruno's death at the stake, nearly four
hundred years ago, the anniversary of
which was celebrated last week in Rome
by over 800 students. was commented up
on. The speaker also alluded at some
length 10 the philosophy of Giordano
Bruno. whose works. especially the
"Spaccio.' were held as textbooks by the
more studious Theosophists. Abiding to
the assaults of theology, Prof. Andrew
D. Whites 1.-THE Warfare of Science"
was cited as an example of how science
can talk back. Touching the charge that
scientists were heretics. a case in point
of local interest was cited, where the
annual report of the Smithsonian Insti-
tuition q decade ago. after part of the edi-
ton had left the press, was stopped be-
cause valuable scientific contribution
by one of Washington's most eminent
scientists on "The Status of the Mind
Problem was deemed Offensive TO ortho-
doxy. The first clause of this anathema
tized production reads: "rhere is re-
viYal of interest in the study of the
mind" The beginning of the last para
graph reads: This view of mind has all
the promise of a true science. Mind is
great power in the world. It has
wrought mighty changes in the past and
is destined to work still mightier ones
in the future. And an experimental psy-
chology is destined to place the laws of
mind within the grasp of man. even as
experimental physics and chemistry have
placed the laws of matter within his
power"
"The average student the lecturer
continued. will fail to find due warrant
for such bfgoted Interference in the pub
lication of such matter in a purely scien-
tific and public document. unless it be
reasoned that, true to ecclesiastical tra-
ditons. those who fear the sight of truth
will never find it.
Such q course in the long run cannot
but divorce the orthodox churches from
intelligence and ally them with ignorance
and superstition. where for generations
they have nestled as fowery beds of
ease
The speaker quoted another instance in
a recent publication, the Sunday-schooI
Times. The opening paragraph reads:
'Self-l<nowledge is the poorest kind of ig-
norance. A man who studies himself
thinks that he knows himself" The con-
clause reads: Look outward. not
inward, is a thousand times better as a
guide of conduct than the old pagan
maxim, Know thyself. . The speaker
1T is doubtful whether Scion. the chief
of the seven sages whose Solomonic mot
to was Know thyself' prov. xiv, 81, if
now would know himself,
and the orthodox writer. too. must of ne
cessity look outward for his own con-
science. 1t is just such fanatieal and
bigoted zealots who have invested the
fair ethics of Christianity as rendered in
the earlier Greek interpretations with
theological garment of as many colors as
Joseph's coat. and in their last analysis
have resolved their difference into an
war of words rather than
into an actual contest of principles. The
great pity is that the church had not
canonized the great scientific thinkers
who have been the interpreters of nature,
instead of anathematizing them athe-
lists and burning them at the stake"