'A Scientific 'Oss '

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 27, 2 July 1903, Page 1

'A Scientific 'Oss '

The most dogmatic of all beliefs is unbelief. Witness, for instance, the amusing and amazing positiveness of some writers in our daily papers who have lately been proclaiming as a ' scientific ' and indubitable fact, that there can be and is a code of morality independent of religion and of all reference to the will of an over-ruling Creator. In our issue of June 11 we pointed out that without God there can be no morality ; that without Him any code of ethics has neither foundation nor cop-ing-stone, neither root nor sanction ; that, having no dependence on any person or thing, it could rely solely on caprice ; and that we might take or leave what we like, according to our passions. We showed, by abundant references to the raging dissensions among the halfdozen or more contradictory, absurd, anarchical, and mutually destructive theories of the new materialism that the writers referred to above are unacquainted with the literature of the subject ori which they presume to dogmatise with such enthusiastic positiveness. They remind us of a story told some years ago by Canon McColl .' A friend of mine,' said the Canon, ' once shared the boxseat with the driver of a stage-coach in Yorkshire. Being a lover of horses, he talked with the coachman about his team, admiring one horse in particular. " Ah," said the coachman, " but that 'oss ain't as good as 'c looks ; Vb a scientific 'oss." " A scientific horse ! " exclaimed my friend ; " what on earth do you mean by that ? " "I means," replied Jehu, " n 'oss as thinks 'c knows a deal more nor 'c does." ' Conceit is the fume of little minds. Your true scientist is gifted with the inborn modesty which is about the best setting for either learning or virtue. According to Busch's gossipy book, ' Bismarck und Seine Leutc,' the Iron Chancellor gave frank expression to the practical results that would follow an attempt to set up a code of morality that should not have the will of God for its ultimate sanction : ' Take away,' said he, 'my connection with and relationship to God, and I should pack up to-morrow and return to bow oats at Varzin.' He meant, of course, wild oats.