200 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



forces; he coins wealth out of the thin air; he 

 annihilates distance with his deep devices; he 

 makes the ether carry his messages; he is extend- 

 ing his kingdom to the heavens; and he is making 

 experiments on the control of life. And there is 

 nothing to lead us to believe that Man has more 

 than begun to enter into his kingdom. 

 The increasing mastery of Nature and the as- 

 sociated enormous increase in human comfort 

 and prosperity must be traced to the application 

 of science, and perhaps this is one of the indirect 

 ways in which scientific development hinders 

 rather than helps the growth of religious feeling.. 

 This is a very simple consideration, but surely 

 one of importance, that the scientific strengthen- 

 ing of Man's foothold in the struggle for existence 

 tends, for rougher minds at least (and "we are 

 not all the finest Parian"), to close one of the 

 pathways to religion. In saying this we are not 

 unaware that the practical tasks ahead are stern 

 enough. For man has still a very imperfect 

 mastery of himself and our civilization is full 

 of misery. In face of the often terrible failures 

 of human endeavour, the element of tragedy 

 in things as they are, and the chill that follows 

 the vision of our fair earth and all that it contains 

 becoming cold and cindery as the moon, many a 

 one of great repute in the world of science we 

 think of men like Clerk Maxwell or Kelvin seeks 



