A NEW PHASE OF AN OLD CONFLICT 543 



extension of the span of human life, within a few decades, is an index 

 of what has already been attained in this direction. 



The fact that any one, to-day, can buy at small cost works of the 

 best thinkers and poets, and excellent reproductions of works of art, is 

 a witness to how much richer, not only our external, but also our inner 

 lives have become, through technical achievements that rest absolutely 

 on scientific progress. So, a fruitful stream, bearing all manner of 

 opportunities for intellectual and esthetic culture, flows among the 

 people. 



Yet more deeply does science now influence the spiritual life of man. 

 Self-respect 1 has already been alluded to as holding first place among 

 the conditions that make for happiness. No religion can impart this 

 highest good of mankind, this deep harmony which can withstand all 

 vicissitudes of life. This results from the circumstance that every reli- 

 gion is impelled to construct a fixed and permanent standard for all 

 believers out of the mode of thought of its founder. Now the founder 

 must have been able to raise himself far above the level of his contem- 

 poraries in order to become such a founder. But it is no less true that 

 he must have stood on the foundation which his time furnished, other- 

 wise he could have had no profound influence over his own age. Herein 

 lies a necessary limitation. 



Again, to science we owe our recognition of the evolution of the 

 human species and of its continued foregoing to higher and higher 

 planes of thought and feeling. This recognition involves the corollary 

 that every religion, in proportion as it becomes older, is brought into 

 ever greater contradiction with the science of the present. 



Protestantism is nothing else than a four-century effort to accom- 

 modate the content of the christian religion to the time, more fully than 

 was possible with the Eomish church. This form of religion succeeded, 

 accordingly, for several hundred years in meeting the needs of the 

 masses, but not so completely those of more advanced religious thinkers. 

 Here again the tendency to become outgrown, which is inherent in 

 every religion, became irresistible, and a sense of the conflict disturbed 

 the conscience, alike of the most spiritually minded and of the multitude. 



In contrast with this inevitable, inexpugnable, drift toward senes- 

 cence of all religions, science shows itself of another character, as being 

 eternally young. Since with her no condition, no cognition, is ever 

 regarded as final or unalterable, and since by her all things are sub- 

 jected to a ceaseless, conscientious criticism, errors may indeed occur, 

 but they can not become firmly fixed. "Inner self-respect," the un- 

 shakable determination to tolerate no internal contradiction, is her life's 

 element and the condition of her existence, hence she must, as against 

 death, defend herself against every attempt to limit the right of criti- 



iThe word "self respect" is here used to designate a freedom from all 

 conflict between the thinking and the doing, between "I will" and "I must." 



