did not think that men of his
own age in his own generation would accept his theory, and most of
them did not.

The opposition which, as a consequence of this natural conservatism,
is so constantly ready to manifest itself, is as human as the envy
which, much as we may bewail the fact, accompanies all individual
success. A history of this phase of scientific progress is of itself
very interesting and of great psychological importance. A short sketch
of it will serve the purpose of placing the opposition of churchmen to
science in the category where it belongs, and will make this subject
appear in its true light of a very natural and universal psychic
manifestation, not a religious or supposed theological phenomenon.

As a matter of fact, it is comparatively easy to show that there are
many more incidents of opposition to the progress of science on the
part of scientists because of their conservatism, than on the part of
ecclesiastics because of religion or theology. There has scarcely ever
been a really important advance made in science, a really new
discovery announced, which has not met with such bitter opposition on
the part of the men who were most prominent in the science concerned
at the time, as to make things very uncomfortable for the discoverer,
and on many occasions this opposition has taken on the character of
real persecution. It will be at once said that this is very different
from the formal condemnation by organized bodies of truths in science,
with all that this implies of ostracization and of discouragement on
the part of scientific workers. The history of science is full of
stories showing that formal scientific bodies refused to consider
seriously what were {397} really great discoveries, or that scientific
editors not only rejected papers representing valuable original
research, but even did not hesitate to discredit their authors in such
a way as to make it extremely difficult for them to pursue their
studies in science successfully, and still more to prevent them from
securing such positions as would enable them to carry on their
scientific investigations under favorable circumstances. In a word,
persecution was carried out just as far as possible, and the result
was quite as much discouragement as if the opposition were more
formal. It is not hard to show, on the other hand, that while formal
opposition by Church authorities was very rare, rejection by medical
and scientific societies and by th