orders" to accept, but to be quietly sneered at by "the enlightened"—no longer a fetich, whose defenders must become persecutors or "apologists," but a most fruitful fact, which religion and science may accept as a source of strength to both.[1]
| PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. |
VI.—MAN OF SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHER.
By HERBERT SPENCER.
CLEAR as are the connections between the priesthood and the several professions thus far treated of, the connection between it and the professions which have enlightenment as their function is even clearer. Antagonistic as the offspring now are to the parent they were originally nurtured by it.
We saw that the medicine-man, ever striving to maintain and increase his influence over those around, is stimulated more than others to obtain such knowledge of natural phenomena as may aid him in his efforts.
Moreover, when seeking to propitiate the supernatural beings he believes in, he is led to think about their characters and their doings. He speculates as to the causes of the striking things he observes in the Heavens and on the Earth; and whether he regards these causes as personal or impersonal, the subject-matter of his thought is the subject-matter which, in later times, is distinguished as philosophical—the relations between that which we perceive and that which lies beyond perception.
As was said at the outset, a further reason why he becomes distinguished from men around by his wider* information and deeper insight is that he is, as compared with them, a man of leisure. From the beginning he lives on the contributions of others; and therefore he is better able to devote himself to those observations and inquiries out of which science originates.
Save some knowledge of medicinal herbs and special animal
- ↑ To the fact that the suppression of personal convictions among "the enlightened" did not cease with the Medicean Popes there are many testimonies. One especially curious was mentioned to the present writer by a most honored diplomatist and scholar at Rome. While this gentleman was looking over the books of an eminent cardinal, recently deceased, he noticed a series of octavos bearing on their backs the title Acta Apostolorum. Surprised at such an extension of the Acts of the Apostles, he opened a volume and found the series to be the works of Voltaire. As to a similar condition of things in the Church of England may be cited the following from Froude's Erasmus: "I knew various persons of high reputation a few years ago who thought at bottom very much as Bishop Colenso thought, who, nevertheless, turned and rent him to clear their own reputations—which they did not succeed in doing." See work cited, close of Lecture XI.
