302 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



ical science, in revealing some of the mechanism of 

 mind, is helping us to appreciate the value of so- 

 called mystical experience, is laying a foundation for 

 the proper spiritual training and development of hu- 

 man mind, and shows us how the idea of God may 

 be efficacious as a dominant idea in the all-important 

 process of sublimation. And finally that, since the 

 scientific mode of thought is of general and not 

 merely local or temporary validity, to build a re- 

 ligion on its basis is to make it possible for that re- 

 ligion to acquire a stability, a universality, and a 

 practical value hitherto unattained. 



We are yet at the very beginning of that task, but 

 I cannot close better than by reminding you of an- 

 other biological fact of importance, that from all 

 analogy the human species is yet near the beginning 

 of its evolutionary career, and that man has before 

 him vast tracts of time to set against the vastness of 

 his tasks. 



A chapter in the history of Earth closed with the 

 appearance of Man. In man, the Weltstoff had been 

 made able to think and feel, to love beauty and 

 truth — the cosmos had generated soul. A new chap- 

 ter then began, a chapter in which we all are char- 

 acters. Matter had flowered in soul. Soul has 

 now to mould matter. 



That moulding of matter by spirit is, under one 

 aspect. Science; under another. Art; under still an- 

 other. Religion. Let us be careful not to allow 

 the moulding forces to counteract each other when 

 they might be made to co-operate. 



