them. But faith is in its nature unchangeable, stationary;
Science is in its nature progressive; and eventually a divergence
between them, impossible to conceal, must take place. It then
becomes the duty of those whose lives have made them familiar
with both modes of thought, to present modestly, but firmly,
their views; to compare the antagonistic pretensions calmly,
impartially, philosophically. History shows that, if this be not
done, social misfortunes, disastrous and enduring, will ensue.
When the old mythological religion of Europe broke down under the
weight of its own inconsistencies, neither the Roman emperors nor
the philosophers of those times did any thing adequate for the
guidance of public opinion. They left religious affairs to take
their chance, and accordingly those affairs fell into the hands
of ignorant and infuriated ecclesiastics, parasites, eunuchs, and
slaves.

The intellectual night which settled on Europe, in consequence of
that great neglect of duty, is passing away; we live in the
daybreak of better things. Society is anxiously expecting light,
to see in what direction it is drifting. It plainly discerns that
the track along which the voyage of civilization has thus far
been made, has been left; and that a new departure, on all
unknown sea, has been taken.

Though deeply impressed with such thoughts, I should not have
presumed to write this book, or to intrude on the public the
ideas it presents, had I not made the facts with which it deals a
subject of long and earnest meditation. And I have gathered a
strong incentive to undertake this duty from the circumstance
that a "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe,"