5 i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



entire "Creed of Christendom." But, perhaps, Matthew Arnold's 

 " Empedocles on Etna," which appeared in 1853, best enables us to 

 appreciate the religious state of the younger generation. The soul of 

 man hangs like a mirror, blown upon by every wind, and 



"A thousand glimpses wins, 

 And never sees a whole." 



Man is the sport of the gods, man 



"Who knows not what to helieve, 

 Since he sees nothing clear, 

 And dare stamp nothing false where he finds nothing sure." 



The gospel of the writer is that of Stoicism : 



" Once read thy own breast right, 

 And thou hast done with fears ; 

 Man gets no other light, 

 Search he a thousand years." 



He repudiates all compromises such as that which had been offered by 



" In Memoriam " : 



" Born into life! who lists, 

 May what is false hold dear, 

 And for himself make mists 

 Through which to see less clear ; 

 The world is what it is, for all our dust and din. 



" Streams will not curb their pride, 

 The just man not to entomb, 

 Nor lightnings go aside 

 To give his virtues room ; 

 Nor is that wind less rough which blows a good man's barge. 







"Fools! That in man's brief term 

 He can not all things view, 

 Affords no ground to affirm 

 That there are gods who do ; 

 Nor does being weary prove that he has where to rest." 



The impression one gets from such a poem is one of despair ; the 

 agnostic tone is quite as pronounced as that of any writer at the 

 present day ; but there is much less hope, no outlook into the future, 

 no talk of the future destiny of humanity, which, however vague and 

 dreamy, is better than the dead level of an agnostic introspection. 

 And yet this poem was written by one whose contemporary writings 

 are quite free from this despairing tone, who has faith in a tendency 

 not ourselves, and believes that we can learn something of it from the 

 Bible and the best literature of all ages. This change in tone, which 

 is not peculiar to Matthew Arnold, I attribute to a great extent to the 

 new vistas opened up by the school of evolutionists, and by the writers 



