20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Man, her last work, who seemed so fair, 



Such splendid purpose in his eyes, 



"Who rolled the psalm to wintry skies, 

 Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer, 



"Who trusted God was love indeed, 



And love Creation's final law — 



Though Nature, red in tooth and claw 

 "With ravine, shrieked against his creed — 



Who loved, who suffered countless ills, 



Who battled for the True, the Just, 



Be blown about the desert dust, 

 Or sealed within the iron hills? 



No more? A monster then, a dream, 



A discord. Dragons of the prime, 



That tare each other in their slime, 

 Were mellow music matched with him. 



O life as futile, then, as frail ! 



O for thy voice to soothe and bless ! 

 What hope of answer, or redress? 

 Behind the veil, behind the veil. 



Tennyson, In Memoriam. 

 {By kind permission of Lord Tennvson.) 



These noble and solemn lines of a great poet sum up in a few 

 words what may be called " the Gospel of Modern Thought." They 

 describe what is the real attitude of most of the thinking and earnest 

 minds of the present generation. On the one hand, the discoveries 

 of science have so far established the universality of law, as to make 

 it impossible for sincere men to retain the faith of their ancestors in 

 dogmas and miracles. On the other, larger views of man and of his- 

 tory have shown that religious sentiment is an essential element of 

 human nature, and that many of our best feelings, such as love, hope, 

 conscience, and reverence, will always seek to find reflections of them- 

 selves in the unseen world. Hence faith has diminished and charity 

 increased. Fewer believe old creeds, and those who do, believe more 

 faintly ; while fewer denounce them, and are insensible to the good 

 they have done in the past and the truth and beauty of the essential 

 ideas that underlie them. 



On the Continent, and especially in Catholic countries, where relig- 

 ion interferes more with politics and social life, there is still a large 

 amount of active hostility to it, as shown by the massacre of priests 

 by the French Communists ; but, in this country, the old Voltairean 

 infidelity has died out, and no one of ordinary culture thinks of de- 

 nouncing Christianity as an invention of priestcraft. On the contrary, 

 many of our leading minds are at the same time skeptical and religious, 

 and exemplify the truth of another profound saying of Tennyson : 



