"THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE" 433 



to modify his first estimate of the men engaged on the Union 

 and Confederate sides ; but it is certain that he never materially 

 changed it. His judgment was based not alone upon the exploits 

 of Morgan's cavalry; the record of the First Kentucky Confeder- 

 ate Brigade appealed strongly both to his reason and to his im- 

 agination. He felt that those men by their soldierly qualities 

 and endurance did credit to the race, and among the last of his 

 writings was a short poem called "The Orphan Brigade" cele- 

 brating their remarkable deeds. It was "arms and man" he 

 sang and not a political party ; nor war itself, for it was his firm 

 conviction " that all armed struggles are monstrous ills which 

 permanently weaken and degrade the states that wage them." 



"The Interpretation of Nature" contains a course of lectures 

 delivered in the Andover Theological Seminary in 1893. This 

 book was in a way the forerunner of "The Individual," and 

 many of the considerations there presented in relation to the 

 critical points in the continuity of natural phenomena and the 

 resultant occurrence of the unexpected, were to be more fully 

 elaborated in the later volume. It also shows the same note of 

 faith in a continual progress toward a higher life as well as the 

 conviction that the world is governed not by blind force but 

 by purposeful intelligence. These conclusions, together with the 

 simplicity and directness of statement, made the book a delight 

 to many readers. Furthermore, in those parts which deal with 

 personal religion, it is in a fashion a piece of self-revelation. 



He himself says in the preface to "The Interpretation of 

 Nature": "My first contact with natural science in my youth 

 and early manhood had the not uncommon effect of leading me 

 far away from Christianity. Of late years a further insight into 

 the truths of nature has gradually forced me once again towards 

 the ground from which I had departed." Indeed in his journal 

 there is a corroborative paragraph relating to this youthful 

 phase of experience which is not without significance. 



I860. Time was when all the fearful doctrines of the so-called Christian 

 church were rooted in my mind. Great Nature! I thank you it is no longer 



