62 



SYMBIOSIS 



in the Times that, the philosophy of Herbert Spencer has gone 

 out of fashion and this for the reason that there "is no hint or 

 promise of religion to be found in it." The critic in short hopes 

 for a salvation of the world from religion " creative religion." 

 " For what is religion," he says, " but an affirmation of absolute 

 values." 



I sympathise to a certain extent with such " creative religion," 

 which would probably have enjoyed the sympathy of Spencer, 

 too, were he alive to-day, in so far at least as it affirms absolute 

 values. It is not to be forgotten, however, that, unfortunately, 

 our religious beliefs are also apt to be coloured by our instincts 

 to the detriment of conduct. Let us have by all means recourse 

 to absolute values. But when super-natural sanction, as so 

 often in the past, does not suffice, let us attempt to supplement 

 religious by natural sanctions. Spencer emphatically held that 

 there was a place for religion in the scheme of things. As he 

 states in Part I., of the " First Principles " : 



Religion, everywhere present as a warp running through the weft 

 of human history, expresses some eternal fact ; while Science is an organised 

 body of truths ever growing, and ever being purified from errors. And 

 if both have bases in the reality of things, then between them there must 

 be a fundamental harmony. 



Meanwhile our conclusion is that the highest sanction of 

 Nature is bestowed upon that biological relation which, whilst 

 demanding appropriate restraints of the appetites, yet provides 

 the utmost opportunity that each being may develop for the 

 good of all. 



