n
attacked by the bigoted and narrow-minded as leading to infidelity.

Other great discoverers, though they may not have been charged with
irreligion, have had not less obloquy of a professional and public
nature to encounter. When Dr. Harvey published his theory of the
circulation of the blood, his practice fell off, [143] and the medical
profession stigmatised him as a fool. "The few good things I have been
able to do," said John Hunter, "have been accomplished with the greatest
difficulty, and encountered the greatest opposition." Sir Charles Bell,
while employed in his important investigations as to the nervous system,
which issued in one of the greatest of physiological discoveries, wrote
to a friend: "If I were not so poor, and had not so many vexations
to encounter, how happy would I be!" But he himself observed that his
practice sensibly fell off after the publication of each successive
stage of his discovery.

Thus, nearly every enlargement of the domain of knowledge, which has
made us better acquainted with the heavens, with the earth, and with
ourselves, has been established by the energy, the devotion, the
self-sacrifice, and the courage of the great spirits of past times, who,
however much they have been opposed or reviled by their contemporaries,
now rank amongst those whom the enlightened of the human race most
delight to honour.

Nor is the unjust intolerance displayed towards men of science in the
past, without its lesson for the present. It teaches us to be forbearant
towards those who differ from us, provided they observe patiently, think
honestly, and utter their convictions freely and truthfully. It was a
remark of Plato, that "the world is God's epistle to mankind;" and to
read and study that epistle, so as to elicit its true meaning, can
have no other effect on a well-ordered mind than to lead to a deeper
impression of His power, a clearer perception of His wisdom, and a more
grateful sense of His goodness.

While such has been the courage of the martyrs of science, not less
glorious has been the courage of the martyrs of faith. The passive
endurance of the man or woman who, for conscience sake, is found
ready to suffer and to endure in solitude, without so much as the
encouragement of even a single sympathising voice, is an exhibition of
courage of a far higher kind than that displayed in the roar of battle,
where even the weakest feels encouraged and inspired by the enthusiasm
of sympathy a