Man's Place in Nature 199 



end of his park with some curious "sport" acci- 

 dentally produced among his flocks and herds, is 

 a Universe which we might well despise, if we did 

 not ourselves share its degradation." This is 

 hard hitting; but the rational Universe which ad- 

 mits of scientific formulation, does not turn out 

 its masterpieces accidentally. 



It is not necessary to enter into a discussion of 

 Naturalism 1 which is a particular scientific phi- 

 losophy with a name that one cannot but grudge 

 to it. But when Mr. Balfour says that Man, ac- 

 cording to Naturalism, is "no more than a phe- 

 nomenon among phenomena, a natural object 

 among other natural objects, his very existence an 

 accident, his story a brief and transitory episode 

 in the life of one of the meanest of the planets," 

 we must submit that there is more in such a state- 

 ment than science warrants. "His very existence 

 is an accident," is not a scientific statement; we 

 do not know of any great step in Nature that has 

 been taken by accident. We may use a word like 

 "episode" if we choose, but whatever be our 

 view of man, it must include the fact that he has 

 given a scientific interpretation of nature and of 

 his place in it. 



Naturalism finds the permanent reality of the 

 Universe simply in the world as revealed to us 



1 See R. Otto, "Naturalism and Religion," Trans., Lon- 

 don, 1907. 



