The strength of an electric current is determined by two things—the electro-motive force, and the resistance that force has to overcome. A fraction, with the former as numerator and the latter as denominator, expresses the current-strength. The “current-strength” of the clergy towards science may also be expressed by making the positive element just referred to the numerator, and the negative one the denominator of a fraction. The numerator is not zero nor is it even small, but the denominator is large; and hence the current strength is such as we find it to be. Slowness of conception, even open hostility, may be thus accounted for. They are for the most part errors of judgment, and not sins against truth. To most of us it may appear very simple, but to a few of us it appears transcendently wonderful, that in all classes of society truth should have this power and fascination. From the countless modifications that life has undergone through natural selection and the integration of infinitesimal steps, emerges finally the grand result that the strength of truth is greater than the strength of error, and that we have only to make the truth clear to the world to gain the world to our side. Probably no one wonders more at this result than the propounder of the law of natural selection himself. Reverting to an old acquaintance of ours, it would seem, on purely scientific grounds, as if a Veracity were at the heart of things; as if, after ages of latent working, it had finally unfolded itself in the life of man; as if it were still destined to unfold itself, growing in girth, throwing out stronger branches and thicker leaves, and tending more and more by its overshadowing presence to starve the weeds of error from the intellectual soil. But this is parenthetical; and the gist of our present inquiry regarding the introduction of life is this: Does it belong to what we call matter, or is it an independent principle inserted into matter at some suitable epoch—say when the physical conditions become such as to permit of the development of life? Let us put the question with all the reverence due to a faith and culture in which we all were cradled—a faith and culture, moreover, which are the undeniable historic antecedents of our present enlightenment. I say, let us put the question reverently, but let us also put it clearly and definitely.