Lord Shaftesbury on Science and Religion.
In a recent address, the Earl of Shaftesbury says: If he had the wealth of Glasgow, or the wealth of a few people in it, so far from fearing the progress of science, as many people did, he would spend no end of money to encourage it. He would urge upon these masters of wisdom that they did not plunge deep enough; they should go further and wider and higher. He wished a thousand times as many minds were engaged in scientific pursuits. A few eminent men held a monopoly, and they crushed the public with their crude and abundant fancies. But there was no greater folly than that committed by those who would maintain revealed truth by counter-theories. The Bible has suffered far more from its friends than from its enemies. In their timidity, they have deprecated inquiry, and so have appeared to distrust their own Zion. In their over-zeal—as if the Bible could not take care of itself—they have proceeded to give explanations and interpretations which the language of Scripture would never justify, and then some clever scientific man has laid hold of it, and in his criticisms overthrown the faith of many by his just and his ridiculing observations. Had he the wealth of Glasgow he would say to Max Muller and his Orientalists: "Here is the sum of £50,000; collect the facts you require. Send abroad your men. You say languages are dying out; send abroad and take the dying speech, the last confessions of these dying tongues." He would send the same sum to Professor Tyndall, and say to him: "Accumulate your facts; I do n't care about your theories, but turn your powerful intellect to the pursuit of facts." He firmly believed that if Glasgow or any wealthy city were to come down with such a means of advancing science they would see that, in less than ten years, that grand old book would be, like the ark upon the top of Mount Ararat surveying the subsiding of the waters, and rejoicing in the restoration of life and joy.—Sel.