* * * *

It may also interest the reader to know that Naegeli was the first to
propose the general theory of cell formation as accepted at the present
day.

BRIEF STATEMENT OF THE WORK OF THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY

If one asked for a brief description of the work of the Open Court
Company, one would probably get the answer that the Company publishes
books and articles on Science, Religion, and Philosophy. That is not
quite exact; for that describes the ideal to which the Open Court
Company is continually striving rather than the actual work it is doing.
The ideal is Religion on a firm basis of Science, a Science of
Philosophy, and a Philosophy of Science: the only path which can lead to
this great ideal synthesis is the detailed and careful study of
sciences, religions, and philosophies.

It was this ideal that prompted the late Mr. Edward Carl Hegeler of La
Salle, Illinois, in the United States of America, to found a Company to
publish books with the object of establishing ethics and religion upon a
scientific basis. Such ideals are as old as philosophy itself. Among
modern philosophies, that founded by Comte tried, probably in the most
explicit fashion of all, to found a religion on the basis of positive
science; and at one time it appeared likely to have a lasting success.
But it is now quite plain that no philosophy which hopes to be permanent
can neglect history or put itself into uncritical opposition to the
systems that have for centuries expressed some of the dearest and
highest aspirations of mankind. It is unprejudiced and fearless
historical and critical investigation--non-sectarian in the widest
sense--in both religion, science, and philosophy, that must go before
any satisfactory synthesis. This is a great part of the work of the Open
Court Company.

Let us consider what non-sectarianism means. We cannot, for example,
isolate a single domain of science in a particular country and at a
particular time--say, mechanics in England in the eighteenth
century--and hope to make of it a thoroughly complete object of study.
In natural science, for example, we make conventional divisions simply
with the object of saving labor when dealing with the huge mass of
material that experience offers. But the narrowest specialist knows that
all workers in science, religion, and philosophy seek the Truth; and
that the Truth is bounded neither by space nor by time nor by man-made