The Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin Catherine of Siena

 “I am persuaded,” said Claude Bernard, “that the day will come, when the man of science, the philosopher and the poet will all understand each other.” Whatever we may think of this prophecy, we most of us feel that the one-sided absolutism of the past, whether religious or scientific, is no longer possible. The inevitable vehemence of the reaction against bigotry and superstition has, in a measure, spent itself, and the best minds of the present, influenced by the spirit of Socrates’ claim to wisdom, are cautiously and tentatively feeling their way to a nicer adjustment of the scales of thought.