[410]
But justice forbids raising an outcry against Roman Catholicism
for this. In 1864 a number of excellent men in England drew up
a declaration to be signed by students in the natural sciences,
expressing "sincere regret that researches into scientific
truth are perverted by some in our time into occasion for
casting doubt upon the truth and authenticity of the Holy
Scriptures." Nine tenths of the leading scientific men of
England refused to sign it; nor was this all: Sir John Herschel,
Sir John Bowring, and Sir W. R. Hamilton administered, through
the press, castigations which roused general indignation against
the proposers of the circular, and Prof. De Morgan, by a parody,
covered memorial and memorialists with ridicule. It was the old
mistake, and the old result followed in the minds of multitudes
of thoughtful young men.[411]
And in yet another Protestant country this same mistake was
made. In 1868 several excellent churchmen in Prussia thought it
their duty to meet for the denunciation of "science falsely so
called.
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