THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTION 21 



remains theistic, is to create an enthusiasm in which the 

 cosmic emotion shall coalesce with the sense of social duty, 

 in which self-abnegating submission to the natural order and 

 self-abnegating service of man shall be regarded as the 

 double function of all human beings in the evolution of the 

 universe. Such an enthusiasm makes serious demands upon 

 unselfishness ; for God, revealed by Science as the Order of 

 the Universe or Law, is divested of anthropomorphic per- 

 sonality, while the claims of humanity become daily more 

 exacting. Yet Keligion has always been able to draw largely 

 upon the capital of unselfishness in men, and to find her 

 drafts accepted. Meanwhile, such enthusiasm offers much 

 to the individual ; it frees him from those arbitrary notions 

 original sin, grace, salvation and damnation, election 

 which were the banes and bugbears of anthropomorphic 

 theology. The fear of God, as of a severe parent or a hard 

 taskmaster, disappears. The love of men our brethren 

 succeeds to that very shadowy and subjective emotion which 

 was called the love of God. 



The Sermon on the Mount retains its value when we read 

 it as the preacher of that sermon meant it to be read. The 

 virtues of faith and hope and love do not fail for want of 

 exercise. We still exclaim : * Though He slay me, yet will 

 I trust in Him ! ' We still acknowledge our complete and 

 absolute dependence on the power which brought us hither 

 and will conduct us hence. Love, the greatest of these three, 

 will always form the binding element of human existence. 

 Science institutes no monastery, no sacerdotal celibacy, no 

 sacrifice of natural affection for the attainment of personal 

 salvation. And what an extension of its province has the 

 virtue of love received from Science! It is no longer con- 

 fined to families and friends, and fellow-countrymen, and 

 foreign people whom we wish to convert. It covers the 

 whole creation and the world of man's inventions. It is co- 

 extensive with discovery, commensurate with law and life; 

 for curiosity is love. How far more lovingly we look on 

 Nature now than when we regarded it as alien and cursed. 

 It is certainly natural, when inspired by Science, to feel true 



