ii2 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



I have devoted to investigation in the domain of spiritism on 

 some altogether different aim. I think the results might have 

 been somewhat more fruitful." 



It does seem such a pity that the Personal Omnipotence, 

 when He constructed the terrestrial and the heavenly gardens, 

 had not also made it perfectly clear that it was He who did it. 

 Really, why should poor men with their partially perfected 

 brains be forced to seek in this manner for what they might 

 think ought to be perfectly obvious from the beginning? Then 

 again, the old question arises, are there in this terrestrial garden 

 at least no poisonous fruits, and no adders under the flowers ; 

 and if so, how is it that benevolent Omnipotence has allowed 

 them ? And a thousand more questions of the same kind might 

 be asked. But our gentle Knights leap over all of them. 



There is much with which we agree in the various essays 

 and we would like, had we space, to examine each in turn. 

 One of the best is that by Professor Sylvanus Thompson. But 

 we must really protest against his definition of religion. " What, 

 then," he asks, " is this common element, this Religion which is 

 at the back of all religions ? I take it they all presuppose this : 

 in the first place, the existence of Higher Powers than man ; 

 and in the second place, though not quite universally, that there 

 is a life beyond, an immortality of the soul; and thirdly, that 

 there is an obligation of right conduct, of justice, of mercy, of 

 obedience to duty." Now really the true definition of religion 

 lies only within the third of these clauses. Religion has nothing 

 whatever to do with any form of faith or belief or philosophical 

 deduction. It is the property of the human mind instilled into 

 us by intertribal evolution, because it has been absolutely 

 necessary for our development. In fact, it is as easily explained 

 by the theory of evolution as are our hands, feet, and teeth. 

 Without it mankind, and probably most gregarious animals, 

 would have perished ages ago. Religion is really what the 

 word means, namely obligation and duty. It is what we must 

 do for the nation or race apart from ourselves. The nation or 

 tribe which is not religious must inevitably perish. Surely this 

 is plain enough to the meanest understanding, and there is no 

 necessity to attach to this great word the much inferior cog- 

 nitions which some seek to attach to it in order to support their 

 theses. To-day we see the most magnificent exhibition of 

 religion; but it is not found so much in the thousands of pastors 



