304 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



called mystical experience, is laying a foundation for 

 the proper spiritual training and development of 

 human mind, and shows us how the idea of God 

 may be efficacious as a dominant idea in the all- 

 important process of sublimation. And finally that, 

 since the scientific mode of thought is of general and 

 not merely local or temporary validity, to build a 

 religion on its basis is to make it possible for that 

 religion to acquire a stability, a universality, and a 

 practical value hitherto unattained. 



We are yet at the very beginning of that task, but 

 I cannot close better than by reminding you of another 

 biological fact of importance, that from all analogy 

 the human species is yet near the beginning of its 

 evolutionary career, and that man has before him 

 vast tracts of time to set against the vastness of his 

 tasks. 



A chapter in the history of Earth closed with the 

 appearance of man. In man, the IVeltstoff \\2id been 

 made able to think and feel, to love beauty and truth — 

 the cosmos had generated soul. A new chapter then 

 began, a chapter in which we all are characters. 

 Matter had flowered in soul. Soul has now to mould 

 matter. 



That moulding of matter by spirit is, under one 

 aspect. Science ; under another. Art ; under still 

 another. Religion. Let us be careful not to allow 

 the moulding forces to counteract each other when 

 they might be made to co-operate. 



