Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- I THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF PALÆONTOLOGY
- II THE INTERPRETERS OF GENESIS AND THE INTERPRETERS OF NATURE
- III MR GLADSTONE AND GENESIS
- IV THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY
- V SCIENCE AND MORALS
- VI SCIENTIFIC AND PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC REALISM
- VII SCIENCE AND PSEUDO-SCIENCE
- VIII AN EPISCOPAL TRILOGY
- IX AGNOSTICISM
- X THE VALUE OF WITNESS TO THE MIRACULOUS
- XI AGNOSTICISM: A REJOINDER
- XII AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY
- XIII THE LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH AND THE LIGHT OF SCIENCE
- XIV THE KEEPERS OF THE HERD OF SWINE
- XV ILLUSTRATIONS OF MR. GLADSTONE'S CONTROVERSIAL METHODS
- XVI HASISADRA'S ADVENTURE
VI - SCIENTIFIC AND PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC REALISM
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- I THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF PALÆONTOLOGY
- II THE INTERPRETERS OF GENESIS AND THE INTERPRETERS OF NATURE
- III MR GLADSTONE AND GENESIS
- IV THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY
- V SCIENCE AND MORALS
- VI SCIENTIFIC AND PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC REALISM
- VII SCIENCE AND PSEUDO-SCIENCE
- VIII AN EPISCOPAL TRILOGY
- IX AGNOSTICISM
- X THE VALUE OF WITNESS TO THE MIRACULOUS
- XI AGNOSTICISM: A REJOINDER
- XII AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY
- XIII THE LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH AND THE LIGHT OF SCIENCE
- XIV THE KEEPERS OF THE HERD OF SWINE
- XV ILLUSTRATIONS OF MR. GLADSTONE'S CONTROVERSIAL METHODS
- XVI HASISADRA'S ADVENTURE
Summary
Next to undue precipitation in anticipating the results of pending investigations, the intellectual sin which is commonest and most hurtful to those who devote themselves to the increase of knowledge is the omission to profit by the experience of their predecessors recorded in the history of science and philosophy. It is true that, at the present day, there is more excuse than at any former time for such neglect. No small labour is needed to raise oneself to the level of the acquisitions already made ; and able men, who have achieved thus much, know that, if they devote themselves body and soul to the increase of their store, and avoid looking back, with as much care as if the injunction laid on Lot and his family were binding upon them, such devotion is sure to be richly repaid by the joys of the discoverer and the solace of fame, if not by rewards of a less elevated character.
So, following the advice of Francis Bacon, we refuse inter mortuos queer ere vivum; we leave the past to bury its dead, and ignore our intellectual ancestry. Nor are we content with that. We follow the evil example set us, not only by Bacon but by almost all the men of the Kenaissance, in pouring scorn upon the work of our immediate spiritual forefathers, the schoolmen of the middle ages.
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- Essays upon some Controverted Questions , pp. 237 - 264Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1892