I PROLOGUE 7 



the further back we go in time and the lower the 

 stage of civilisation submitted to investigation. 

 Historically, indeed, there would seem to be an 

 inverse relation between supernatural and natural 

 knowledge. As the latter has widened, gained in 

 precision and in trustworthiness, so has the 

 former shrunk, grown vague and questionable ; as 

 the one has more and more filled the sphere of 

 action, so has the other retreated into the region 

 of meditation, or vanished behind the screen of 

 mere verbal recognition. 



Whether this difference of the fortunes of 

 Naturalism and of Supernaturalism is an indica- 

 tion of the progress, or of the regress, of 

 humanity ; of a fall from, or an advance towards, 

 the higher life ; is a matter of opinion. The point 

 to which I wish to direct attention is that the 

 difference exists and is making itself felt. Men 

 are growing to be seriously alive to the fact that 

 the historical evolution of humanity, which is 

 generally, and I venture to think not unreason- 

 ably, regarded as progress, has been, and is being, 

 accompanied by a co-ordinate elimination of the 

 supernatural from its originally large occupation of 

 men's thoughts. The question How far is this 

 process to go ? is, in my apprehension, t!Jfe 

 Controverted Question of our time. ^ 



Controversy on this matter prolonged, bitter, 

 and fought out with the weapons of the flesh, as 



