THE RELATION OF EVOLUTION TO MATERIALISM 53 



hopes and aspirations; as then, so now, the germ of living truth has, 

 in the course of ages, become so encrusted with meaningless traditions 

 which stifle its growth that it is necessary to break the shell to set it 

 free; as then, so now, it has become necessary to purge religious belief 

 of dross in the form of trivialities and superstitions. This has ever been 

 and ever will be the function of science. The essentials of religious 

 faith it does not, it cannot, touch, but it purifies and ennobles our 

 conceptions of Deity, and thus elevates the whole plane of religious 

 thought. 



