So long as we have such a number of sects and churches, many of which differ essentially, and all of which differ to some extent, it cannot affect any one’s feelings to be told that church is not religion. It is this truth that science has accentuated, and the inevitable consequence has been that the churches, though they at first might have vehemently opposed certain scientific facts, and yet more certain rash speculations founded on them, have afterwards quietly striven to modify their views and their dogmas so that they should not clash with absolute scientific truths. That many such attempts at reconciliation between science and churches have been feeble and absurd does not disprove, but confirms, the existence of the above tendency. Though perhaps it would be difficult to give a true definition of religion as distinguished from church, the conception which every thinking man forms of it is probably clear enough to allow him to realize that some churches are farther from the ideal than others. If it be true that the progress of science has been instrumental in impelling the development of churches in the direction of a future religion of ideal beauty and ideal truth, and that such a religion must necessarily be in complete harmony with scientific facts, then the animosity of science and religion is to a sound mind incomprehensible. Yet Nordau unhesitatingly takes for granted that religion and science are naturally antagonistic. He takes very seriously the assumption of the French neo-Catholics that henceforth science will have to make room for religion. Had he any sense of humour, he would not have thus betrayed how _jalousie de métier_ animates him to no small extent. He mixes up science and the scientists in a most amusing manner when he compares the neglected scientist with the idolized saint, and asks, “What saintly legend is as beautiful as the life of an enquirer who spends his existence bending over the microscope?” Does our alienist aspire to go down to posterity with a halo around his head? He regrets the good old time when the daily Press of that date said, “We live in a scientific age,” when “the news of the day reported the travels and the marriages of scientists, the _feuilleton_ novels contained witty allusions to Darwin, etc.” Nordau completely denies that there is any foundation for the assertion of the French symbolists that science has become bankrupt—that it has not fulfilled its promises to humanity. In order to refute it, he gives us the long list of scientific achievements to which scientists who militate against religion have accustomed us, beginning with spectrum analysis and finishing up with instantaneous photography. He demands for science the respect and trust of humanity, not only on the ground of what science has accomplished, but also on the ground of what it will accomplish.