2 o6 MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



i enemies and friends of religion, to the disgust of 

 all clear thinkers. The only true sense in which any 

 being or thing can be said to be supernatural is that 

 in which we use it with reference to the creation of 

 matter or energy or the constitution of natural law. 



I The power which caused these things is above nature, 

 but not outside of nature, for matter, energy, and 

 law must be included in, and in harmony with, the 



i creative will. 



To return from this digression, if man is a part 

 of nature, then we see how not only his bodily or 

 ganism conforms to natural structures and laws, but 

 how his mind is in harmony with the external world, 

 so that he can comprehend it, enter into it, and 

 utilise it for his own purposes. Even his moral and 

 religious ideas must in this case be more or less 

 adapted to his conditions of existence as a part of 

 nature. We have here also a sure guarantee for the 

 correctness of our perceptions and of our conclusions 

 respecting the laws of nature. In like manner, there 

 is here a sense in which man is above nature, because 

 he is placed at the head of it. In another sense he 

 is inferior to the aggregate of nature, because, as 

 Agassiz well puts it, there is in the universe a wealth 

 of endowment of the most comprehensive mental 

 manifestations which he can never fully compre 

 hend. 



Still further, if the universe has been created, then 

 just as its laws must be in harmony with the will of 



