58 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the spirit of Religion and what, for want of a better word, I will call 

 the spirit of Rationalism, are here defined. Neither of the two being 

 able by mere argument to convince the othei', they must rely upon 

 gradually leavening the minds of men with prepossessions in the 

 direction which each respectively favors. The time may come when 

 Rationalism will have so far prevailed that a belief in the miraculous 

 will have disappeared ; the time may also come when the Christian 

 Revelation, historically accepted, will everywhere be adopted as God's 

 account to man of ultimate incomprehensibilities. Surely, no man 

 who has ever fairly examined his own consciousness can deny that 

 elements leading to either of these two conclusions exist within his 

 own mind. He must be a very hardened believer to whom the doubt, 

 " Is the miraculous really possible ? " never suggested itself. And he 

 must in turn be a very unscientific Rationalist who has never caught 

 himself wondering whether, after all, the Resurrection did not take 

 place. Nor, so far as we may at this epoch discern the probable 

 direction of the contest, is it possible to estimate very accurately the 

 influence which science will exercise upon it. On the one hand, it will 

 certainly bring within the mental grasp of common men that view of 

 law and causation which, in Hume's time, was confined to philosophers 

 and their followers, and was attained rather by intellectual conceptions 

 than by such common experiences of every-day life and thought as we 

 have at present. On the other hand, it will purge religion of its more 

 monstrous dogmas, and further, by calling attention to the necessity 

 cf proving fact by fact, and again, by clearing up the laws of evi- 

 dence, will tend to deepen in the minds of religious people the value 

 and meaning of Revelation ; while, at the same time, by its frank 

 admission of hopeless ignorance, it will concede to faith a place in the 

 realm of fact. Every man will have his own views as to the issue of 

 the conflict : for the present it is sufficient for him, if he can be fully 

 satisfied in his own mind. 



2. The predisposition in men's minds in favor, whether of Religion 

 or Rationalism, will be created and sustained solely by moral means. 

 This is the conclusion toward which I have been steadily working 

 from the beginning of this paper to the end of it. The intellect of 

 both Christian and Rationalist will have its part to play ; but that 

 part will consist in presenting, teaching, and enforcing each its own 

 morality upon the minds of men. I need not say that I use the word 

 morality as expressing in the widest sense all that is proper for and 

 worthy of humanity, and not merely in the narrower sense of individ- 

 ual goodness. Rationalism will approach mankind rather upon the 

 side of the virtues of the intellect. It will uphold the need of caution 

 in our assent, the duty of absolute conviction, the self-sufficiency of 

 men, the beauty of law, the glory of working for posterity, and the 

 true humility of being content to be ignorant where knowledge is 

 impossible. Religion will appeal to man's hopes and wishes recorded 



