EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



Spencer means when he speaks of a Power that 

 is inscrutable in itself, yet is revealed from mo- 

 ment to moment in every throb of the mighty 

 rhythmic life of the universe. 



And this brings me to the last and most im- 

 portant point of all. What says the doctrine of 

 evolution with regard to the ethical side of this 

 twofold assertion that lies at the bottom of all 

 religion ? Though we cannot fathom the nature 

 of the inscrutable Power that animates the 

 world, we know, nevertheless, a great many 

 things that it does. Does this eternal Power, 

 then, work for righteousness ? Is there a divine 

 sanction for holiness and a divine condemnation 

 for sin ? Are the principles of right living 

 really connected with the intimate constitution 

 of the universe ? If the answer of science to 

 these questions be affirmative, then the agree- 

 ment with religion is complete, both on the 

 speculative and on the practical sides ; and that 

 phantom which has been the abiding terror of 

 timid and superficial minds that phantom of 

 the hostility between religion and science is 

 exorcised now and forever. 



Now science began to return a decisively af- 

 firmative answer to such questions as these, 

 when it began, with Mr. Spencer, to explain 

 moral beliefs and moral sentiments as products 

 of evolution. For clearly, when you say of a 

 moral belief or a moral sentiment that it is a 

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