new; in a sense they mark progress. But the
adulterations are the artificial accumulations of centuries of
uncontrolled speculation. They are the necessary result of the old
method and the warrant for its revision--they mark the impossibility of
progress without the guiding and restraining hand of Law. The felt
exhaustion of the former method, the want of corroboration for the old
evidence, the protest of reason against the monstrous overgrowths which
conceal the real lines of truth, these summon us to the search for a
surer and more scientific system. With truths of the theological order,
with dogmas which often depend for their existence on a particular
exegesis, with propositions which rest for their evidence upon a balance
of probabilities, or upon the weight of authority; with doctrines which
every age and nation may make or unmake, which each sect may tamper
with, and which even the individual may modify for himself, a second
court of appeal has become an imperative necessity.

Science, therefore, may yet have to be called upon to arbitrate at some
points between conflicting creeds. And while there are some departments
of Theology where its jurisdiction cannot be sought, there are others in
which Nature may yet have to define the contents as well as the limits
of belief.

What I would desire especially is a thoughtful consideration of the
method. The applications ventured upon here may be successful or
unsuccessful. But they would more than satisfy me if they suggested a
method to others whose less clumsy hands might work it out more
profitably. For I am convinced of the fertility of such a method at the
present time. It is recognized by all that the younger and abler minds
of this age find the most serious difficulty in accepting or retaining
the ordinary forms or belief. Especially is this true of those whose
culture is scientific. And the reason is palpable. No man can study
modern Science without a change coming over his view of truth. What
impresses him about Nature is its solidity. He is there standing upon
actual things, among fixed laws. And the integrity of the scientific
method so seizes him that all other forms of truth begins to appear
comparatively unstable. He did not know before that any form of truth
could so hold him; and the immediate effect is to lessen his interest in
all that stands on other bases. This he feels in spite of himself; he
struggles against it in vain; and he finds perhaps to his