152 WHAT IS LIFE ? 



to grasp the fact but this progress the reli- 

 gious world will not understand and thwarts. 1 

 Nature has decreed that ultimately the whole of 



his enemies, is of a higher order. But he continues to leave little 

 impress on nature or his surroundings ; he is still in wants and 

 instincts merely as his fellow denizens of the wilderness. 



" We look again, after a comparatively short interval, and a mar- 

 vellous transformation has taken place a transformation which is 

 without any parallel in the previous history of life. This brute-like 

 creature, which for long ages lurked in the woods and amongst the 

 rocks, scarcely to all appearances cf so much account as the higher 

 carnivora with which he competed for a scanty subsistence, has ob- 

 tained mastery over the whole earth. He has organized himself into 

 great societies. The brutes are no longer his companions and com- 

 petitors. He has changed the face of continents. The earth pro- 

 duces at his will ; all its resources are his. The secrets of the universe 

 have been plumbed, and with the knowledge obtained he has turned 

 the world into a vast workshop where all the powers of nature work 

 submissively in bondage to supply his wants. His power at length 

 appears illimitable ; for the source of it is the boundless wealth of 

 knowledge stored up in the great civilisations he has developed, every 

 addition to this knowledge but offering new opportunities for further 

 expansion." (" Social Evolution," Benjamin Kidd, 1895. p. 31.) 



1 " The fruits from the ' tree of knowledge ' have ever been for- 

 bidden ; and the priesthood, who fancied themselves alone in the 

 possession of the truth, have ever carefully reserved these for their 

 own benefit, and to the detriment of the rest of humanity. When 

 Copernicus, three hundred years ago, did away with the geocentric 

 delusion, and founded our present system of the universe, a storm of 

 indignation arose, and the Church hurled the same anathemas against 

 it, as it did thirty years ago when Darwin withdrew the last support 

 from the anthropocentric delusion." ("The History of Creation," 

 Prof. Ernst Haeckel, 1892, vol. ii. p. 470.) 



" The essence of religion is inertia : the essence of science is 

 change," (" The Martyrdom of Man," Winwood Reade, 13th edition, 

 1890, p. 34. 



" I am firmly persuaded that whatever is injurious to the intellect 

 is also injurious to moral life ; and on this conviction 1 base my con- 

 duct with respect to Christianity. That religion is pernicious to the 

 intellect ; it demands that the reason shall be sacrificed upon the 



