Item 27 - Letter from William Whewell

WW hopes HJR does not think he is 'fiercely disposed to fight' him. 'As to your attack on experimental science, I dare say that when you had explained all the angry language that you thought it fair to use, when you found her poaching beyond her own domains, we should not be very wide apart...Only one thing I protest against, and that is the being called upon to shew what is the best and highest and most fitting of human studies. For my own part I altogether dislike the moods comparative and superlative, and I have often thought that men would be much improved by being debarred all use of them except in cases of mensuration. What I do hold is that inductive science is a good thing, and, as all truth is consistent with itself, I hold that if inductive science be true it must harmonize with all the great truths of religion; nor do I see how any one can persuade one's self to believe that all this tempting system of discoverable truths is placed within our reach, as it were on purpose, while it is at the same time tainted with the poison of irreligion - a sort of tree of knowledge and of death, both in one, without the merciful prohibition attached to it...It is by no means correct to consider advances in science as rejection of what was known for something new. The novelty, if the philosophy has been duly inductive, includes old truths and shews them from a new point of view...As for for the contemplative devotion you speak of, I am not at all disposed to depreciate it, but I do not see how it can be made the object of education or communication'. Is HJR aware that George Airy has been elected to the Lucasian Chair - 'the best they could have chosen'.