448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



able, it is thereby outside all this field of the Known. In other words- 

 Religion (of the Unknowable type) is ex hypothesi outside the sphere 

 of knowledge, of civilization, of social discipline, of morality, of prog- 

 ress, and of happiness. It has no part or parcel in human life. It fills 

 a brief and mysterious chapter in a system of philosophy. 



By their fruits you shall know them is true of all sorts of religion. 

 And w^hat are the fruits of the Unknowable but the Dead Sea apples ? 

 Obviously it can teach us nothing, influence us in nothing, for the abso- 

 lutely incalculable and unintelligible can give us neither ground for 

 action nor thought. N'or can it touch any one of our feelings, but that 

 of wonder, mystery, and sense of human helplessness. Helpless, object- 

 less, apathetic wonder at an inscrutable infinity may be attractive to a 

 metaphysical divine : but it does not sound like a working force in the 

 world. Does the Evolutionist commune with the Unknowable in the 

 secret silence of his chamber ? Does he meditate on it, saying, in 

 quietness and confidence shall be your strength ? One would like to 

 see the new Imitatio Ignoti. It was said of old, Ignotum omne pro 

 magnijico. But the new version is to be Ignotum omne pro divino. 



One would like to know how much of the Evolutionist's day is con- 

 secrated to seeking the Unknowable in a devout way, and what the reli- 

 gious exercises might be. How does the man of science approach the 

 All-Nothingness ? and the microscopist, and the embryologist, and the 

 vivisectionist ? What do they learn about it, what strength or com- 

 fort does it give them ? Nothing — nothing : it is an ever-present 

 conundrum to be everlastingly given up, and perpetually to be asked of 

 one's self and one's neighbors, but without waiting for the answer. 

 Tantalus and Sisyphus bore their insoluble tasks, and the Evolutionist 

 carries about his riddle without an answer, his unquenchable thirst to 

 know that which he only knows he can never know. Quisque suos 

 patimur Manes, But Tantalus and Sisyphus called it Hell and the 

 retribution of the Gods. The Evolutionist calls it Religion, and one 

 might almost say Paradise. 



A child comes up to our Evolutionist friend, looks up in his wise 

 and meditative face, and says, **' O wise and great Master, what is 

 religion ? " And he tells that child, It is the presence of the Unknow- 

 able. " But what," asks the child, " am I to believe about it ? " " Be- 

 lieve that you can never know anything about it." " But how am I to 

 learn to do my duty ? " " Oh I for duty you must turn to the known, 

 to moral and social science." And a mother wrung with agony for the 

 loss of her child, or the wife crushed by the death of her children's 

 father, or the helpless and the oppressed, the poor and the needy, men, 

 women, and children, in sorrow, doubt, and want, longing for some- 

 thing to comfort them and to guide them, something to believe in, to 

 hope for, to love, and to worship — they come to our philosopher and 

 they say, "Your men of science have routed our priests, and have 

 silenced our old teachers. What religious faith do you give us in its 



