2 26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



quite mistaken. It is vaguely imagined that tlie worship of Nature 

 is neither more nor less than classical paganism, and that to adoj^t it 

 would be to revive the " golden years " Shelley sings of, to substitute 

 a Madre Natura for the Christian Church, and Pan or Apollo for Christ. 

 This is a misconception of precisely the same sort as that which re- 

 gards Nature as pitiless and inhuman. Let us always remember that 

 Nature, as we are using that most ambiguous of words, is opposed sim- 

 ply to the supernatural. Sometimes, as I pointed out, it is opposed 

 to man. When j^aganism is said to be a worship of Nature, the 

 word is used in a third sense, and one somewbat indeterminate. It 

 is opposed rather to civilization. Paganism did not confine itself to 

 the worship of inanimate Nature. It deified, to be sure, the sun and 

 moon, the sky, tlie morning and evening star, and all the principal 

 phenomena of inanimate Nature. But it worshiped also certain dei- 

 ties who were supposed to preside over human life, powers of birth, 

 raai-riage, and death, protectors of tribes and cities, powers of war 

 and commerce, powers of the human mind. When we call it Nature- 

 w^orship, therefore, we are not using the word Nature simply as op- 

 posed to man. But it so happened, we may say quite accidentally, 

 that in its worship of tlie phenomena of man paganism paused ab- 

 ruptly. The worshiping disposition in the ancient nations decayed as 

 society advanced ; they ceased to increase their Pantheon as human 

 phenomena became known to them. The consequence is, that the dei- 

 ties that have to do with human life in paganism concern only what 

 is most elementary and primitive in human life. To people in the 

 tribal stage paganism would have seemed to embrace the whole of 

 humanity as well as inanimate Nature. But when nations had left 

 that stage far behind them, when they had devised complicated poli- 

 tics, and invented arts and sciences, paganism still remained in its 

 old condition. It did not progress, and in the last ages of the ancient 

 world the traditional religions reflected the image of a much simpler 

 time. This in reality deprived them of all influence except with the 

 rural population, but at the same time it gave them a charm to all 

 those who were influenced by that reaction against civilization and 

 progress which is always going on. The same charm is felt by us 

 when we look back upon paganism. When we see statues of Pan or 

 Faunus, when we read Homer, we feel the fascination of naivete and 

 simplicity. And to express Avhat we feel we fall back upon the un- 

 fortunate and overworked word Nature. We say these old pagans 

 worshiped Nature, meaning apparently to say that their thoughts and 

 feelings had not been much modified by the influence of thinkers, in- 

 ventors, systematizers, that in fact their minds were in a childlike 

 state, and had the freshness and joyousness of childhood. 



Evidently Nature here is not in any way opposed to the supernatu- 

 ral. The supernatural could not enter into any creed more than it 

 entered into the creeds of these so-called worshipers of Nature. 



