THE GOSPEL OF NATURE 



Yet I would not say that the study of Nature did 

 not favor meekness or sobriety or gentleness or for 

 giveness or charity, because the great Nature stud 

 ents and prophets, like Darwin, would rise up and 

 confound me. Certainly it favors seriousness, truth 

 fulness, and simplicity of life; or, are only the seri 

 ous and single-minded drawn to the study of Na 

 ture? I doubt very much if it favors devoutness or 

 holiness, as those qualities are inculcated by the 

 church, or any form of religious enthusiasm. De 

 voutness and holiness come of an attitude toward 

 the universe that is in many ways incompatible with 

 that implied by the pursuit of natural science. The 

 joy of the Nature student like Darwin or any great 

 naturalist is to know, to find out the reason of 

 things and the meaning of things, to trace the foot 

 steps of the creative energy; while the religious 

 devotee is intent only upon losing himself in infinite 

 being. True, there have been devout naturalists and 

 men of science; but their devoutness did not date 

 from their Nature studies, but from their training, 

 or from the times in which they lived. Theology 

 and science, it must be said, will not mingle much 

 better than oil and water, and your devout scientist 

 and devout Nature student lives in two separate 

 compartments of his being at different times. In 

 tercourse with Nature I mean intellectual inter 

 course, not merely the emotional intercourse of the 

 sailor or explorer or farmer tends to beget a habit 

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