24 SELECTIONS FROM HUXLEY 



existence of almost any general view respecting the mode of 

 governance of the universe. No doubt, from the first, there 

 were certain phenomena which, to the rudest mind, pre- 

 sented a constancy of occurrence, and suggested that a fixed 

 5 order ruled, at any rate, among them. I doubt if the grossest 

 of Fetish worshipers ever imagined that a stone must have 

 a god within it to make it fall, or that a fruit had a god within 

 it to make it taste sweet. With regard to such matters as 

 these, it is hardly questionable that mankind from the first 



10 took strictly positive and scientific views. 



But with respect to all the less familiar occurrences which 

 present themselves, uncultured man, no doubt, has always 

 taken himself as the standard of comparison, as the center 

 and measure of the world ; nor could he well avoid doing so. 



15 And finding that his apparently uncaused will has a powerful 

 effect in giving rise to many occurrences, he naturally enough 

 ascribed other and greater events toother and greater volitions, 

 and came to look upon the world and all that therein is, as 

 the product of the volitions of persons like himself, but 



20 stronger, and capable of being appeased or angered, as he 

 himself might be soothed or irritated. Through such concep- 

 tions of the plan and working of the universe all mankind 

 have passed, or are passing. And we may now consider, 

 what has been the effect of the improvement of natural 



25 knowledge on the views of men who have reached this stage, 

 and who have begun to cultivate natural knowledge with no 

 desire but that of " increasing God's honor and bettering 

 man's estate." 



For example : what could seem wiser, from a mere material 



30 point of view, more innocent, from a theological one, to an 

 ancient people, than that they should learn the exact succes- 

 sion of the seasons, as warnings for their husbandmen ; or 

 the position of the stars, as guides to their rude navigators ? 

 But what has grown out of this search for natural knowledge 



