FREDERICK MAITRICE AND SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT.
[To Tar Einros or vu "Srrenror."]
SIR,—In connexion with the discussion which has arisen out of the important address given by the President of the British Association, I think the following extract from a sermon preached by the Rev. Frederick Denison Maurice, M.A., at Lincoln's Inn, on March 2nd, 1856, is very much to the point, and makes one realize what a wonderful broad mind he must have had at a time when thought was not nearly so advanced as it is to-day. He is speaking of the marriage feast of Cana of Galilee.
"If we take those words literally, if we suppose the Evangelist to mean what he says, then we must assume that what happened then was but an instance of the working of a universal law. We shall conclude that all living processes—be they slow or rapid, be they carried on in- the womb of nature or through the inter- vention of human art—have their first power and principle in Him, that without Him Nothing could become that does become. Such a belief undoubtedly carries us into great depths and heights. It increases the wonder with which we regard every dynamical discovery. It gives solemnity and awfulness to the investigations of science. It forbids trifling in them. It stimu- lates courage and hope in them. It makes all superstitious dread of them sinful. The Word who is the Light of men will Himself teach those who seek humbly and diligently to enter into those operations of life of which He is the first Mover."
—I am, Sir, &e., HENRY S. WALKER.
Park House, Wortley, near Sheffield.
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