4 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



organism differing from all other organisms in the 

 power of thought, in reflection and self-consciousness. 

 What variety of answers would be given, I dare not 

 guess; but I hazard the belief that the majority, if 

 the suggestion were put before them, would agree 

 that his deepest need was to discover something, 

 some being or power, some force or tendency, which 

 was moulding the destinies of the world — something 

 not himself, greater than himself, with which he yet 

 felt that he could harmonize his nature, in which he 

 could repose his doubts, through faith in which he 

 could achieve confidence and hope. 



That need has been felt by all those to whom life 

 has been more than a problem of the unreflective 

 satisfaction of instincts and desires — however pure 

 those instincts, or beautiful those desires; it has been 

 felt by all in whom the problem of existence has 

 been apprehended by intellect and disinterested 

 imagination. 



I say all. There may be rare creatures who, se- 

 cure in strength of body and mind and in unham- 

 pered unfolding of their faculties, possess a confi- 

 dence by which this need is never felt. They are 

 like those whom Wordsworth drew for us in the "Ode 

 to Duty" :— 



"There are who ask not if thine eye 

 Be on them; who, in love and truth, 

 Where no misgiving is, rely 

 Upon the genial sense of youth: 

 Glad hearts! without reproach or blot; 

 Who do thy work and know it not." 



