fitly chosen to
discourse to us of nature's laws. The priests of humanity in days to
be will not be consecrated by a magical transmission of imaginary
powers, but by their ascertained capacity to open a door in heaven and
earth and reveal to us the secret workings of the Soul of the World.
We shall meet in united worship in the great cathedrals, but no more to
repeat the dead formulae of a past which is gone, but to hear the
living word of to-day, the last revelation the Supreme has made, be it
through the mouth of poet, prophet, philosopher or scientist. Then,
and only then, shall the Catholic or Universal Church be born, "coming
down out of heaven from God," visibly embracing all humanity, because
excluding none prepared to subscribe the aboriginal creed of the
supremacy of ethic, the everlasting sovereignty of the moral law.

But while we candidly acknowledge the priceless services which science
can render to morality in the way indicated, this in no way warrants
our assenting to Mr. Huxley's dictum that science is the guardian of
morality. As a matter of fact, science points at the deplorable
results of excess without any regard to morality whatsoever. She
announces them as definite facts, as certain as to-morrow's sunrise,
because she is intimately acquainted with the human organisation and
the laws which control it. But she ventures on no opinion as to the
moral worth of the acts in question; she registers results and there
her work ends. If the scientist does happily go farther, and point out
that conduct conducing to such disastrous consequences must be
irredeemably bad in itself, he is doing most praiseworthy work, but he
is no longer the scientist. He has slipped off his tripod, and is
repeating the lesson of the moralist. Let us suppose the acts in
question were not followed by unfortunate results. Say, for example,
that by uttering a falsehood, by altering a figure in a will, or on a
draft, one could inherit a fortune, what physical science could prevent
our doing so, or instruct us as to the honesty or dishonesty of the
contemplated action? Put thus, we see at a glance that the matter is
outside the province of science, and quite beyond its jurisdiction.
Morality, therefore, so far from being in the custody of science, has
nothing whatsoever to do with it, but belongs to an entirely different
order, and is ascertained by totally different methods.

If one would know the origin of the theory we ar