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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the signs of the times. The knowledge of Paley and Pearson might be supplemented, if not supplanted, by some knowledge of the movement of scientific and economic thought during the last fifty years, and proof be given that those offering themselves as teachers 'perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts.'"

The canon proceeds to discuss the relation of the Church to charitable work, but what we have already quoted will suffice to show how advanced are his views as to the kind of religious ministrations of which society stands at present in need. He believes, and we agree with him, that the Church occupies a position of exceptional advantage for holding up to men the ideals toward which they ought to strive. Ministers of religion are allowed to preach, an exercise in which other men must indulge very sparingly, if at all, on pain of being laughed at. They are supposed to be occupied at all times with the highest and most enduring interests of mankind, and they can adopt a tone of elevation and an accent of earnestness which in all others might seem out of place. Moreover, there is something in human nature which is prepared to respond to their appeals. However conventional or even sordid men may be in their daily lives, however immersed they may be in the all but universal game of grab, they feel that somewhere in their natures is a chord which might vibrate to higher impulses. To put it otherwise, every man knows that there is something iu him better than that which he habitually shows to the world or to himself; and it is for the religious teacher above all to awaken that hidden, as Matthew Arnold says, "deep-buried self" into life and activity, to make it assert its authority and power. The rest of us deal with the average man and make our appeal in general to average sentiments: the clergyman, the minister of the gospel, testifies by virtue of bis office to the existence of a divine element in human nature, and to him therefore, in dealing with men, all things are or should be possible. What he needs, however, as Canon Barnett so clearly points out, is to be armed with the kind of knowledge which will place him at the modern point of view and make him a true interpreter of the times and of contemporary human nature. Let him use the words of his creeds as far as they will go, and show the soul of truth in antiquated forms and usages; but let him not imagine that human thought can ever be confined within or fully expressed by, any formula or set of formulas: the spirit of life is a spirit of growth and of liberty.

In conclusion, we have only to say that we welcome most cordially such utterances as those of the Anglican canon, not because we suppose that he occupies precisely the point of view that we do, but because we feel that no essential claim of science is antagonized by aught that he advances in the name of religion. He may, for anything we know, hold many special opinions which we do not share; but so, these to us are of no consequence beside what we take to be his main and most characteristic belief—namely, that religion is not a fetter for the human intellect, but a garment of beauty for the whole man, and that, without a due recognition of science, no perfect or abiding form of religion can be.


HON. DAVID A. WELLS'S ARTICLES ON TAXATION.

The editor of the Popular Science Monthly is gratified that he is now able to announce to its readers and the general public, the beginning in