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In conclusion, let me say a few words to those who dread what has been called the materialistic tendency of modern science, and who may have thought that, in forecasting the future triumphs of physiology, I have entered upon ground which ought to have been sacred.
There are not a few persons who still think that in seeking to know how the animal body is built up, and in imitating some of its actions, we are in danger like Frankenstein of constructing a monster, which will ultimately destroy our most precious faith in God and in spiritual things.
To these objections I would answer in the words of the author of the Religio Medici, " There is no danger to profound these mysteries, no sanctum sanctorum in philosophy[1]."
"I call the effects of nature the works of God, whose hand and instrument she only is; and therefore to ascribe His actions to her is to devolve the honour of the principal
- ↑ Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Part i. Sect. xvi.
gent and careful in comparing his hypotheses, ready to abandon his invention as soon as it appears that it does not agree with the course of actual occurrences.
"This constant comparison of his own conceptions and supported with observed facts under all aspects, forms the leading employment of the discoverer; this candid and simple love of Truth, which makes him willing to suppress the most favourite production of his own ingenuity as soon as it appears to be at variance with realities, constitutes the first characteristic of his temper. He must have neither the blindness which cannot, nor the obstinacy which will not, perceive the discrepancy of his fancies and his facts.
"He must allow no indolence, or partial views, or self-complacency, or delight in seeming demonstration to make him tenacious of the schemes which he devises, any further than they are confirmed by their accordance with nature. The framing of hypotheses is, for the inquirer after truth, not the end, but the beginning of his work. Each of his systems is invented, not that he may admire it and follow it into all its consistent consequences, but that he may make it the occasion of a course of active experiment and observation. And if the results of this process contradict his fundamental assumptions, however ingenious, however symmetrical, however elegant his system may be, he rejects it without hesitation. He allows no natural yearning for the offspring of his own mind to draw him aside from the higher duty of loyalty to his sovereign, Truth; to her he not only gives his affections and his wishes, but strenuous labour and scrupulous minuteness of attention."— Whewell, Novum Organon Renovatum, p. 80.
