researches and speculations, to be of any real value, should have a bearing upon the means of their social elevation and happiness. The mass of scientific speculations, which are every day offered to the world by men, who are not animated by a deep interest in the elevation of their race, and who exercise their talents merely to build up systems, or to satisfy a spirit of controversy, or personal ambition, are perfectly valueless. What is more futile than barren philosophical speculation, that leads to no great practical results?"

MEANS OF EFFECTING A FINAL RECONCILIATION BETWEEN RELIGION AND SCIENCE.

BY ALBERT BRISBANE.

The Intellectual History of Humanity has been one series of combats, one ceaseless war. Religion has warred with Religion, Sect with Sect, Philosophy with Philosophy, and System with System. Doubt, uncertainty, and contradiction have bewildered the human mind, and the Human Race have been wandering blindly amidst fragments of doctrines and systems, which have choked up and hidden the road of truth, and led them innumerable times astray upon false routes.

The most unfortunate contest, however, which has taken place, is that between Religion and Science, or Faith and Reason. These two means or powers, by which man obtains knowledge, have been completely divided, and arrayed in hostile opposition to each other. They have undermined reciprocally each other's labors; they have combatted with, and tyrannized by turns over each other. I call this combat of Faith and Reason the most unfortunate, because had they been united, had they combined their powers, had they aided each other, they would have discovered, centuries since, enough of universal Truth to have put an end to the war of Religions, Sects, and Philosophies, which has bewildered human judgment, dispelled the deep spiritual gloom in which Humanity is sunk, and put it on the true road of progress to universal knowledge.

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A part only of Universal Truth has descended upon this earth, and that part is broken into a thousand fragments,

and scattered confusedly among as many sects and systems. So long as the intellectual Powers of Man, that is, Faith and Reason, are in conflict with each other, the human mind will not have strength enough to collect these broken fragments together, and unite them in a harmonious whole. Neither Faith nor Reason alone can do it. All the intellectual Powers in man must combine, and united in their strength, they must drag from out the rubbish of sects and doctrines the fragments of truths which they contain, and unite them together. As universal Truth has not yet descended upon the earth, they then must, to complete her divine statue, proceed to an integral study of God and the material Universe, which is the external emblem and manifestation of his internal activities.

To have two concise designations of the two sources of knowledge, I will call the first source Reason, and the second Faith. Faith is first active in the human mind; we find that in the savage state, long before the Reason begins to search for first principles, Faith reveals to man the existence of a God, his Immortality, and other great truths. Reason follows later, and only exercises its power, when it is developed and cultivated. Its function is to elucidate, define, and explain clearly the nature of the spontaneous conceptions of the soul, and to discover the exact sciences.

The ideas of God and Immortality, which have their source in the spontaneous conceptions of the Soul, become with time so blended with the images and symbols under which they are represented, that the original ideas can no longer be conceived separate from them. Hence to destroy the image or symbol, appears to the believer to be the destruction of the idea itself, and hence his tenacious adherence to external forms and symbols, and the accusation of impiety and irreligion, which he casts upon Reason, when it criticizes and attacks them.

Reason, on the other hand, generally carries its criticisms to an extreme; it does not separate the forms or dress, in which the ideas of the Divinity and Immortality are clothed, from those grand Ideas themselves; it does not separate the Symbols from the truths which they cover, but, confounding the two, wanders so far astray as to deny

often the existence of a God and the Immortality of the Soul. It then falls into irreligion and atheism, and a complete breach takes place between Faith and Reason. The two means of knowledge in man then clash with, instead of lending to each other their aid. Faith denounces Reason as impious, and Reason accuses Faith of a puerile credulity.

Which is in the wrong, Faith or Reason, Religion or Science? Both; the Priesthood should elevate their forms and symbols, as human reason develops itself, and becomes capable of explaining the truths or dogmas of Religion in, a purer and more scientific manner; and Science, instead of criticizing the mere Forms and Symbols in which the truths of Religion are clothed, or attacking, as it so often does, those truths themselves, should have studied them with respect, and endeavored to explain scientifically their

nature.

To produce a reconciliation and union between Faith and Reason, the latter must discover the nature of the soul, and its origin, and learn that its spontaneous Conceptions are absolutely true, however false the images and symbols may be in which they are clothed. It must then study and discover the nature of the truths which the soul conceives, and explain them scientifically to Faith, so that the strong aspiration which exists in man to believe may be fully gratified. Thus will Faith which clings to its instinctive conceptions, and Reason which clings to its scientific deductions, be satisfied, and the contest, which has been so long going on between them, be terminated, and a union effected.

Science must progress so far as to understand fully the nature of the soul, and the elements composing it.* When it discovers that the intellectual, active Principle in Man is good, when it discovers its divine Origin, then it will believe in the truths which the Soul spontaneously

*Up to the time of CHARLES FOURIER, this had not been done. Science had always condemned human nature as imperfect or degraded, and it could not, under the influence of such a belief, respect and confide in the instinctive conceptions which go forth from the soul. FOURIER has proved human nature to be good, true, and holy, although he rocognises that it is now prevented and degraded by our false systems of society. - A. B.

conceives, take them as the basis of its researches, and study them with profound respect. When enlightened Faith sees this, it will be satisfied; it will recognise Reason with joy as a sister-partner in the search of Truth, and will accept the full and scientific explanations, furnished by Reason, of the great problems, which it had previously conceived but only in a general or abstract manner. It will then see that the function of Reason is to explain and demonstrate clearly, what it conceives vaguely and in general terms; and it will then lean upon it and seek cordially its aid.

Bigotry, we must expect, will hold tenaciously to ancient forms and symbols, and reject ignorantly the progressive enlightenment of Reason, as superficial Reason will always criticize, doubt, and deny, without examining deeply or affirming. But Bigotry is to true Faith, what shallow, criticizing Reason, and empty denial are to that profound Reason, which investigates integrally and scientifically.

Thus Faith conceives spontaneously, while Reason analyzes and proves scientifically:- these are the two Sources of knowledge in Man. There should be Union and Concert of action between them, between the two means which the Soul possesses of obtaining knowledge. The intellectual nature of Man is ONE, and all its powers should be directed to the same ends. First come the spontaneous conceptions of the Soul; they precede the investigations of Reason, and on the light which should guide it on in the great work of discovering universal Truth. Reason follows, and with study and investigation explains the true and full nature of the problems, which before were only indistinctly conceived.

In the early history of the Human Race, when the only truths of a universal nature known were those conceived spontaneously by the Soul, all knowledge was confined to the precincts of the Temple, and treasured up by the Priesthood. Later, as human Intelligence developed itself, a new order of truths, separate from those of Religion, began to be brought to light, and sciences, discovered by the observations of the senses and the reflections of reason, were promulgated.

Mankind have thus had two teachers of Truth,

Faith and Reason, or Religion and Science, and the two institutions which have been established to propagate their instructions, are the Church and the University.

Whenever the Priesthood have been powerful, and their sway firmly established, Science has had to bow to and obey Religion, and Reason to be silent; but whenever the power of the Priesthood has been weakened, and its control over Science broken, then Reason has sought retribution for the tyranny to which it had been subjected, and has criticised and attacked the rites, forms, and dogmas of Religion. An epoch of Doubt and Irreligion follows such a movement, as an epoch of simple Faith, and often blind Superstition, preceded it.

I have pointed out the principle which should be proceeded upon to effect a final Accord of Faith and Reason, or of Religion and Science. I will now explain briefly the practical means, which must be employed to realize this great object, an object second in importance to no

other.

1. The social condition of the mass of Mankind must be vastly improved; their minds must be cultivated and developed, and their feelings ennobled and elevated. When poverty and harassing cares deaden the Sympathies and noble Impulses of the Soul, and Ignorance and grovelling pursuits degrade or pervert the Intelligence, how can the one feel with purity, and the other understand scientifically the great truths of the Universe? So absorb

ed or degraded are the feelings and faculties of the vast Majority, by the miseries, conflicts, discords, wrongs, and prosaic occupations of our false Societies, that the desire and aspirations for universal Truth are smothered, and the power of comprehending it destroyed.

So long as the great body of the Human Race are sunk in ignorance and degradation, Religion must present its great Truths to them in the simplest manner, and clothe them in material images and symbols. So long as this is the case, Science will disregard and criticise the simple explanations and symbols of Religion, and the contest between them will be continued. They cannot be reconciled until the dogmas of Religion are taught with scientific purity, and there is an intelligent Humanity capable of comprehending them.