' But what if the fact should change? What if not only one,
but many fossil human bones should be found? How is a divine, who has
already said that the _Bible teaches_ the modern origin of man, to
avoid panic fears? Science is cumulative in its evidences, and it is
somewhat hazardous to undertake to say, at any point, that the _ultima
thule_ of discovery has been reached.
We reiterate now, in the conclusion of these preliminary matters, the
sentiment of Mr. Barnes that science must be free and untrammelled. No
matter what discoveries may be made, what traditions overturned, what
faiths unsettled, science must have a free rein and an open course. It
must be so; unless we return to mediaeval darkness and despotism.
Science, to be science at all, must establish its conclusions by its own
methods, and its methods must be intact and supreme, no matter what
facts they force upon the belief of mankind. It cannot accept any
extraneous authority. It cannot admit any foregone conclusions. It
cannot accept the statements, for instance, of the first chapter of
Genesis as astronomical, meteorological, geological, or ethnological
_facts_, as the able but absurd Review before referred to would insist.
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