Religion as a Factor in Human Evolution 683 



quest of man still, as he draws electricity from the rushing 

 waters, as he strives to fathom and explain "life," as he com- 

 pares the economic and happy results of cooperation with the 

 wasteful effects of competition, as he observes the "conse- 

 crated" life of a Christian with the reckless and brutish life 

 of a heathen. 



Man's effort to understand "Energy" and his discovery of 

 its subtle all-pervasive elusiveness has caused him to view 

 it with increasing reverence, and to regard it as an expression 

 of that same power and agency "in whom we live and move 

 and have our being." Condensed Energy it is which bestows 

 on man his powers and possibilities; such Energy may exist 

 in greatly more condensed state, as a much higher and more 

 perfect "existence," though veiled to our senses or under- 

 standing. Thus man has felt, and he reaches out, he aspires 

 longingly toward that great Energy or Power of the universe. 

 He desires to link himself with that power, he feels that it 

 is the active part of himself, it becomes his most cherished, 

 his religious aspiration. 



Our first duty then is to try to ascertain whether any law 

 or principle of life has been steadily acting along the pathway 

 of man's history, that has stimulated to successively higher 

 phases of religious aspiration, and successively higher planes 

 of religious life. If such can be clearly indicated, then the 

 second duty will be to trace as completely as we now can — 

 with the fragmentary material at command — the successive 

 stages in religious advance that mankind has passed through. 

 Third, a special examination will then be made of the causes 

 that operated to unfold to mankind the character and attri- 

 butes of a supreme Energy, Power, or Being, who governed 

 this world and equally the universe beyond. Fourth, a com- 

 parison will then be instituted between progressive, stationary, 

 and regressive religions and the agencies at work which give 

 to each of these their tendencies and present position. Fifth, 

 a review will be made of recent religious development, from 

 the scientific and the spiritual standpoints. 



Before entering on the first point, it should be noted in 

 connection with it that Romanes in his latter-day earnest 



