ABSTRACT
The progress of science may be likened to the ascent of a mist-covered mountain, of unknown and perhaps infinite height, up the sides of which we are slowly and laboriously groping our way, making our access as secure and permanent as we can; in some parts, indeed, constructing a good broad road. The shoutings are called a conflict of science and religion, and are given other sounding titles, but they do not amount to much on either side. The best plan is not to waste breath in shouting, but to forge on ahead, and try to make a decent road, or even a bridge, for the weaker brethren. A pair of iron levers, one on the ground, the other some hundred yards away on a post, are often seen to be sympathetically connected; for when a railway official hauls one of them through a certain angle the distant lever or semaphore-arm revolves through a similar angle.
