thought to be religion's sake! But as, in the
days of Galileo, men declared the province of
the Bible to be invaded by the first truths of
astronomy, so in our own day the fundamental
principles of geology, as necessary and as
clearly true, are cried down on the same score
by many an unreflecting disputant. Thus
speaks Galileo of his own case:—"Before all
things we must make sure of facts. To these
the Bible cannot be opposed. The Holy Spirit
has taught how we are to reach heaven, not
how heaven moves. It is setting the reputation
of the Bible on a hazard, to view the
matter otherwise, and, as our opponents do,
instead of expounding Scripture according to
facts surely proved, rather to force nature,
to deny experiment, to despise the intellect.
Neither is it any rash or reckless thing if any
man should not adhere to antiquity. It is
not in the power of any man of science to alter
his opinions, to turn them this way and that;
he cannot be commanded; he must be
convinced. To cause our doctrine to disappear
from the world, it is not enough to shut the
mouth of a man, as those imagine who measure
the judgment of others by their own. It
would be necessary not merely to prohibit a
book, and the writings of the adherents of the
doctrine, but to prohibit all science; to forbid
men to look towards the heavens, in order
that they should see nothing that does not
fit with the old system, while it is explained
by the new.

"It is a crime against truth; when men seek
the more to suppress her, the more clearly
and openly she shows herself. But to
condemn one opinion, and leave the rest
standing, would be still worse, for it would
give men the chance of seeing an opinion
proved to be true, which had been condemned
as false. But to forbid Science itself, would
be against the Bible, which teaches, in a
hundred places, how the greatness and glory
of God are wonderfully seen in all his works,
and are to be read in their full divinity in the
open book of the heavens; and let none
believe that we have completed the reading
of the sublime thoughts which stand written
in characters of light on those pages, when we
have gazed on the brightness of the sun and
stars at their rising and setting, which, indeed,
the beasts also can do; but there are therein
mysteries so profound, ideas so sublime, that
the nightly labours, the observations, the
studies of hundreds of the acutest minds,
after a thousand years of research, have not
yet fully penetrated them; but the pleasure of
investigation and discovery endures eternally."

So spoke one of the world's workers; and
there is still need that he should speak, for
although the form of the old antagonism be
altered, too much of its spirit yet remains.
Truth cannot contradict truth, and all truth
gained is a step gained, which brings man
nearer to Heaven. Nevertheless, it is useful
to take heed lest some of us perform a
travestie upon this independent spirit.

The man who does not flinch from the
acceptance of a new truth and the
contradiction of old error, must be qualified to know
the nature of that error which he contradicts.
Only a man whose mind has been directed
earnestly to any branch of knowledge, who
has learned its strength and weakness, can be
qualified to add safely to its stores, or to
contradict conclusions which his neighbour may
thrust flippantly aside, ignorant altogether of
the premises on which they rest. A man of
quick parts may, indeed, strike out new and
correct ideas upon a subject concerning which
he is generally ill-informed; but if he wish
that his idea should be useful, he must place
it in the hands of one of the world's workers,
who has spared no pains to teach himself
upon that special subject all that his brethren
know. That ladies and gentlemen ignorant
of medicine call educated physicians allopaths,
and so forth; that young students ignorant of
mathematics write books (one such book we
have seen) professing to disprove the
"Principia " of Newton, and all matters of that sort,
do not result from thought, but from the want
of thinking. Newton may be wrong, and
homoeopathy may be right, and everybody
may think what he pleases; but to disprove
Newton, or to prove that medicine is most
active when you take it in the smallest
imaginable doses, is a task for which men
should prepare themselves with a long course
of study. Those who work for the world
have to work cautiously and painfully through
long years of experiment and labour. To
be sure, also, the soldier is prepared, through a
long series of drills, for the work that he also
has to do. Which workman ought to claim
the gratitude of states, which helps most
largely to fulfil the law of human progress,
all our readers know. But the phantasm of
glory will not yet forsake the battle-field; and
still the applause of courts and nations echoes
round the soldier's tent, leaving the laboratory
and the study silent. Unimpeded the world's
work goes on, and daily we receive a host of
benefits from unrewarded hands.

CHIPS.

RUINS WITH SILVER KEYS.

WE are on our way to inspect some fine
historic ruins—they are Simpson's ruins.
Through hop-grounds, over hills, here and
there affording pleasant glimpses of the sea,
the road winds to the slope where the
memorable battle of Pumpkinfield was fought.
Here a fine old king fell, and here a tyrant
first made his footprint sink into the soil of
England. Schoolboys are still shown terrible
pictures of the battle. The village lies in the
valley, near the ruins of the Abbey founded by
the conqueror of Pumpkinfield, to celebrate
his victory.

We know all about the ruins. We have