of the Ecolut'wn Philosophy. 19 



ingman anxious that his work shall be well done, rather 

 than make him strive to do as little as possible for his 

 wages ; which shall abolish shoddy clothes and Buddensiek 

 buildings ; which shall do away with the adulteration of 

 foods and drugs ; which shall create a divine discontent 

 with the " old clothes " of superstition and unreason with 

 which the average man has been satisfied to array his intel- 

 lectual and religious nature, this, if not answering to all 

 that we mean by religion, is the natural and consistent 

 product of a Eeligion of Life. Go into yonder church 

 select it almost at random, if you please, from any quarter 

 of these two great cities these Siamese twins whose 

 common artery is our beautiful Brooklyn bridge and 

 question its members as to the character and meaning of 

 its creed. How many will you find who really know any- 

 thing about the dogmas which they are supposed to profess 

 and believe a belief in which, in many instances, is 

 deemed essential to salvation ? How many of our city 

 congregations, of whatever sect, would sit patiently and 

 hear the cold logic of Calvinism brought home to their 

 understandings ? Against all these duplicities of thought 

 and life, so prevalent in this transition period, the phi- 

 losophy of evolution enters an emphatic protest, seeing that 

 that only can promote growth of inanly and womanly char- 

 acter which is vitally and really appropriated by the under- 

 standing, and allowed its legitimate bearing upon the 

 healthful activities of life. 



Evolution recognizes the continuity of thought the 

 solidarity of the race the indebtedness of the present to 

 the past. It does not therefore endeavor to establish the 

 new truth or the higher social ideal by violent or revolu- 

 tionary methods. It seeks for the soul of truth in things 

 false for the soul of good in things evil seeing that 

 evils and falsehoods are usually goods and truths out of 

 their proper relations. Evil is mal-adjustment. Its cor- 

 rection should therefore be sought by readjustment, rather 

 than by destruction. Evolution would build on the exist- 

 ing good, rather than seek to lay an entirely new founda- 

 tion. In the church, Evolution beholds an institution 

 capable of bestowing infinite benefits upon mankind ; yet 

 as organized and directed in the past, and to a great degree 

 in the present, it has been and is an institution of doubtful 

 utility. It has repressed the individual reason, teaching 



