the continuation of a struggle that commenced when Christianity
began to attain political power. A divine revelation must
necessarily be intolerant of contradiction; it must repudiate all
improvement in itself, and view with disdain that arising from
the progressive intellectual development of man. But our opinions
on every subject are continually liable to modification, from the
irresistible advance of human knowledge.

Can we exaggerate the importance of a contention in which every
thoughtful person must take part whether he will or not? In a
matter so solemn as that of religion, all men, whose temporal
interests are not involved in existing institutions, earnestly
desire to find the truth. They seek information as to the
subjects in dispute, and as to the conduct of the disputants.

The history of Science is not a mere record of isolated
discoveries; it is a narrative of the conflict of two contending
powers, the expansive force of the human intellect on one side,
and the compression arising from traditionary faith and human
interests on the other.

No one has hitherto treated the subject from this point of view.
Yet from this point it presents itself to us as a living
issue--in fact, as the most important of all living issues.

A few years ago, it was the politic and therefore the proper
course to abstain from all allusion to this controversy, and to
keep it as far as possible in the background. The tranquillity of
society depends so much on the stability of its religious
convictions, that no one can be justified in wantonly disturbing