PROEM TO GENESIS. 633 



perfect theism : when * the kingdom shall be " delivered up to God," 

 " that God may be all in all." Still, I can not help being struck with 

 an impression that Mr. Huxley appears to cite these terms of Micah, 

 as if they reduced the work of religion from a difficult to a very easy 

 performance. But look at them again. Examine them well. They 

 are, in truth, in Cowper's words — 



Higher than the heights above, 

 Deeper than the depths beneath. 



Do justly, that is to say, extinguish self ; love mercy, cut utterly 

 away all the pride and wrath, and all the cupidity, that make this fair 

 world a wilderness ; walk humbly with thy God, take His will and 

 set it in the place where thine own was used to rule. " Ring out the 

 old, ring in the new." Pluck down the tyrant from his place ; set up 

 the true Master on His lawful throne. 



There are certainly human beings, of happy composition, who 

 mount these airy heights with elastic step, and with unbated breath. 

 Sponte su^, sine lege, fidem rectum que colebat.t 



This comparative refinement of nature in some may even lead them 

 to undervalue the stores of that rich armory, which Christianity has 

 provided to equip us for our great life-battle. The text of the 

 prophet Micah, developed into all the breadth of St. Paul and St. 

 Augustine, is not too much — is it not often all too little? — for the 

 needs of ordinary men. 



I must now turn, by way of epilogue, to Professor Max Mtiller ; 

 and I hope to show him that on the questions which he raises we are 

 not very far apart. One grievous wrong, indeed, he does me in 

 (apparently) ascribing to me the execrable word " theanthromorphic " 

 {jST. C. p. 920), of which I wholly disclaim the paternity, and deny 

 the use. Then he says, I warn him not to trust too much to ety- 

 mology (p. 921). Not so. But only not to trust to it for the wrong 

 purpose, in the wrong place : just as I should not preach on the 

 virtue and value of liberty to a man requiring handcuffs. I happen 

 to bear a name known, in its genuine form, to mean stones or rocks 

 frequented by the gled ; and probably taken from the habitat of its 

 first bearer. Now, if any human being should ever hereafter make 

 any inquiry about me, trace my name to its origin, and therefore de- 

 scribe the situation of my dwelling, he would not use etymology too 

 much, but would use it ill. What I protest against is a practice, not 

 without example, of taking the etymology of mythologic names in 

 Homer, and thereupon supposing that in all cases we have thus 

 obtained a guide to their Homeric sense. The place of Nereus in the 

 mind of the poet is indisputable ; and here etymology helps us. But 

 when a light-etymology is found for Hera, and it is therefore asserted 



* 1 Cor. XV. 24, 28. f Ovid, " Metam." i. 90. 



