218 ON VAKIABILITY AND ADAPTATION 



We are, to paraphrase Roux's words and employ Carlyle's 

 simile, but sticklebacks in a puddle. What can the stickleback 

 in his insignificant pool know of the workings of the great 

 universe ? Faith is essential to and inherent in our human 

 nature : it depends upon and grows upon that which is not 

 demonstrable : the realm of the spirit is apart from the realm 

 of science. To presume, with this imperfect knowledge, to test 

 and criticize revealed religion is futile, to presume upon this 

 insecure foundation to build up our faith is absurd. Keep 

 therefore the two apart ; strive ever to gain a deeper insight 

 into the truths of the natural world, and at the same time nourish 

 what is spiritual within us ; but do not waste time and energy 

 in attempting to harmonize things which can only be harmonized 

 when all is open and all is known, 



And Faith, triumphant, ceases to exist, 

 Transmuted into Knowledge absolute. 



Now I am convinced that in this attitude of Pasteur there 

 is a profound truth. The blatant infidelity of the present day 

 is, it seems to me, founded upon this vain attempt, this in- 

 evitable failure, to harmonize knowledge and faith — things 

 which to-day cannot be discussed the one in terms of the other. 

 Whether the attempt be made by those deeply religious, or the 

 reverse, the result is almost equally disastrous. At the most I 

 would say that the studies of the individual worker upon nature 

 and natural phenomena must inevitably influence the life and, 

 through the life, the faith also of that individual. This, however, 

 is one thing. To go into the market-place — or magazine — and 

 discourse dogmatically concerning these matters is quite another. 



Few, however, have attained unto this philosophy, sound 

 though it be, and thus it is with some temerity that to-night I 

 take up this discussion of life. Too few realize that religion is 

 assuredly not based on matter, or, to put it in another form, 

 that all things have their spiritual as well as their material aspect. 

 Let me impress upon you that I have to deal with the material 

 aspect of life only, and that doing so, while acknowledging its 

 existence, I do not venture to discuss the spiritual aspect ; 

 that thus I do not come before you as a materialist : and if to 

 some who have not reached thus far, if to those who cannot 

 dissociate the spiritual from the material in living matter, it 



