THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



son who is dominated by a single idea which colours 

 all his thoughts and acts; we find in such an one a 

 certain power of achievement, but with this power 

 there is apt to be rashness of opinion and intolerance 

 to opposition; such a person is called a fanatic, be- 

 cause he is governed rather by imagination than by 

 judgement. So, too, a society living under such a state 

 of domination is likely to make a great change in con- 

 ditions, to make what we are now apt to call progress, 

 although it is better to class it merely as a change; 

 it is also true that such a change is characterized by 

 a certain lack of balance; qualities are neglected 

 which should be cultivated to maintain good civiliza- 

 tion. When the religious impulse with its emphasis on 

 the cultivation of the supernatural is too strong, ig- 

 norance and superstition prevail amongst the common 

 people ; and when science, which seeks knowledge and 

 power, is not kept within bounds, society drifts into 

 industrialism and moral confusion. It may be, the 

 chief cause of the Renaissance was that it came at a 

 period when the emotions and the reason were closer 

 to a state of balance than before or after. 



It is easy for us to see the misery, the injustice, the 

 gross ignorance and superstition, which prevailed 

 during the Middle Ages. But the flower of that civ- 

 ilization, such a man as St. Francis of Assisi, who 

 truly sought and even found a mystical communion 

 with God, inspires us with a feeling of reverential 

 wonder. In comparison with such a religious life as he 



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