328 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



knows much beyond what observation has disclosed. 

 To this, human life is constantly bearing witness. A 

 single illustration may suffice, as presented in man s 

 knowledge of ideal excellence, towards which moral life 

 is striving, notwithstanding that no man sees this 

 excellence presented in any example before him. Our 

 place in Nature is such, that when we consider the 

 whole range of organic life, and the position of human 

 life in the midst of it ; when we think of our conception 

 of Duty, and of the service this conception has rendered 

 in the battle for human progress, we must form, 

 out of these materials, a representation of Nature as 

 a whole. We must contemplate Nature as an orderly 

 system, in the midst of which organic life of every 

 specific type is tending towards the perfecting of 

 its own form ; while rational life is ever bearing 

 witness, more or less clearly, even in the midst of in 

 dividual degeneration, to an ideal of moral excellence. 

 It is, however, too often true, that the significance of 

 life s testimony can be read, only as it is written large 

 over the penalties following upon human folly and 

 wickedness. 



Knowledge must be our guide ; ignorance must be 

 our warning, against dogmatic assertion, or security 

 and slumber; reasoning our increasing exercise, in 

 the spirit of inquiry and expectation. Agnosticism is 

 unreasoning and unreal, if it be anything more than 

 acknowledgment of the limit of our powers, whether 

 they be powers of observation, of induction, of rational 

 insight, or of scientific imagination. Guided by 

 Science, we are in possession of a more intimate know 

 ledge of Nature than has ever before been at command 

 of men. We are in this way, specially secured against 



