SCIENCE AND RELIGION 199 



and sociality, co-operation and sacrifice, may be 

 interpreted not as mere Utopias contradicted by 

 experience, but as the highest expressions of the 

 central evolutionary process of the natural world. ' 



To return to our general theme, we must ad- 

 mit that for long ages Man learned in a hard 

 school, and that the severity of the lessons often 

 brought him to his knees. It seems to be an 

 historical fact that many a man has become 

 religious when he reached the limit of his practical 

 endeavour and was baffled. When our naive an- 

 cestors had done all they could and felt themselves 

 powerless and were afraid, they offered gifts, 

 or sacrifices, or prayers. It is surely true that 

 the fear of Nature has sometimes led men to the 

 fear of the Lord. 



But as Man has become more and more master 

 of Nature, he has ceased to offer sacrifice or to* 

 pray for rain; and this pathway to religion is 

 not so well trodden now as it was in ancient days. 

 Let us think vividly of our ancestors living in 

 caves, fearful of wild beasts, often dying of 

 hunger or of poison, without wood- work or metals, 

 without fire, without foresight, and quite unable 

 to look to the general weal. What a contrast 

 between this picture and our life to-day. For 

 now-a-days, the serpent that bites Man's heel is 

 in nine cases out of ten microscopic; year by year 

 Man increases his mastery over the physical 



