38 PROLOGUE I 



fessional and business needs, is increasing and will 

 continually increase. The phraseology of Super- 

 naturalism may remain on men's lips, but in 

 practice they are" Naturalists. The magistrate 

 who listens with devout attention to the precept 

 " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live " on 

 Sunday, on Monday, dismisses, as intrinsically 

 absurd, a charge of bewitching a cow brought 

 against some old woman; the superintendent of 

 a lunatic asylum who substituted exorcism for 

 rational modes of treatment would have but a 

 short tenure of office ; even parish clerks doubt 

 the utility of prayers for rain, so long as the wind 

 is in the east ; and an outbreak of pestilence sends 

 men, not to the churches, but to the drains. In 

 spite of prayers for the success of our arms and 

 Te Deums for victory, our real faith is in big 

 battalions and keeping our powder dry ; in know- 

 ledge of the science of warfare ; in energy, 

 courage, and discipline. In these, as in all other 

 practical affairs, we act on the aphorism "Laborare 

 cst orare " ; we admit that intelligent work is the 

 only acceptable worship ; and that, whether there 

 be a Supernature or not, our business is with 

 Nature. 



It is important to note that the principle of the 

 scientific Naturalism of the latter half of the nine- 

 teenth century, in which the intellectual move- 

 ment of the Renascence has culminated, and 



