6 PROLOGUE I 



of morals and of law, based upon that knowledge, 

 are every day more and more, either openly or 

 tacitly, acknowledged to be the foundations of 

 right action. 



History also tells us that the field of the 

 supernatural has rewarded its cultivators with a 

 harvest, perhaps not less luxuriant, but of a 

 different character. It has produced an almost 

 infinite diversity of Eeligions. These, if we set 

 aside the ethical concomitants upon which natural 

 knowledge also has a claim, are composed of 

 information about Supernature ; they tell us of 

 the attributes of supernatural beings, of their 

 relations with Nature, and of the operations by 

 which their interference with the ordinary course 

 of events can be secured or averted. It does 

 not appear, however, that supernaturalists have 

 attained to any agreement about these matters, or 

 that history indicates a widening of the influence 

 of supernaturalism on practice, with the onward 

 flow of time. On the contrary, the various 

 , religions are, to a great extent, mutually ex- 

 clusive ; and their adherents delight in charging 

 each other, not merely with error, but with 

 criminality, deserving and ensuing punishment 

 of infinite severity. In singular contrast with 

 natural knowledge, again, the acquaintance of 

 mankind with the supernatural appears the more 

 extensive and the more exact, and the influence 

 of supernatural doctrines upon conduct the greater, 



