IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE 23 



from the hand which lets it go; that light and heat come and 

 go with the sun ; that sticks burn away in fire ; that plants 

 and animals grow and die; that if he struck his fellow-savage 

 a blow he would make him angry, and perhaps get a blow in 

 return, while if he offered him a fruit he would please him and 5 

 perhaps receive a fish in exchange. When men had acquired 

 this much knowledge, the outlines, rude though they were, 

 of mathematics, of physics, of chemistry, of biology, of moral, 

 economical, and political science, were sketched. Nor did 

 the germ of religion fail when science began to bud. Listen 10 

 to words which, though new, are yet three thousand years 



old:- 



"... When in heaven the stars about the moon 

 Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, 

 And every height comes out, and jutting peak 15 



And valley, and the immeasurable heavens 

 Break open to their highest, and all the stars 

 Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart." l 



If the half-savage Greek could share our feelings thus far, 

 it is irrational to doubt that he went further, to find, as we do, 2 o 

 that upon that brief gladness there follows a certain sorrow, 

 the little light of awakened human intelligence shines so mere 

 a spark amidst the abyss of the unknown and unknowable ; 

 seems so insufficient to do more than il uminate the imper- 

 fections that cannot be remedied, the aspirations that cannot 25 

 be realized, of man's own nature. But in this sadness, this 

 consciousness of the limitation of man, this sense of an open 

 secret which he cannot penetrate, lies the essence of all reli- 

 gion ; and the attempt to embody it in the forms furnished by 

 the intellect is the origin of the higher theologies. . 30 



Thus it seems impossible to imagine but that the founda- 

 tions of all knowledge secular or sacred were laid when 

 intelligence dawned, though the superstructure remained for 

 long ages so slight and feeble as to be compatible with the 



1 Need it be said that this is Tennyson's English for Homer's Greek ? 



