10 LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [i. 



in their conceptions of the universe and of themselves, and has 

 profoundly altered their modes of thinking and their views of 

 right and wrong. I say that natural knowledge, seeking to 

 satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still 

 spiritual cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to 

 ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to discover those 

 of conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality. 



Let us take these points separately ; and, first, what great ideas 

 has natural knowledge introduced into men s minds ? 



I cannot but think that the foundations of all natural know 

 ledge were laid when the reason of man first came face to face 

 with the facts of Nature : when the savage first learned that the 

 fingers of one hand are fewer than those of both; that it is 

 shorter to cross a stream than to head it; that a stone stops 

 where it is unless it be moved, and that it drops from the hand 

 which lets it go ; that light and heat come and go with the sun ; 

 that sticks burn away in a fire; that plants and animals grow 

 and die ; that if he struck his fellow-savage a blow he would 

 make him angry, and perhaps get a blow in return, while if he 

 offered him a fruit he would please him, and perhaps receive a 

 fish in exchange. When men had acquired this much knowledge, 

 the outlines, rude though they were, of mathematics, of physics, 

 of chemistry, of biology, of moral, economical, and political 

 science, were sketched. Nor did the germ of religion fail when 

 science began to bud. Listen to words which, though new, are 

 yet three thousand years old : 



&quot;. . . When in heaven the stars about the moon 

 Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, 

 And every height comes out, and jutting peak 

 And valley, and the immeasurable heavens 

 Break open to their highest, and all the stars 

 Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart.&quot; l 



If the half-savage Greek could share our feelings thus far, it is 

 irrational to doubt that he went further, to find, as we do, that 

 upon that brief gladness there follows a certain sorrow, the 

 little light of awakened human intelligence shines so mere a spark 

 1 Need it be said that this is Tennyson s English for Homer s Greek 2 



