HERBERT SPENCER’S SERVICE TO RELIGION 237 
that is wrong which tends to detract from fulness of 
life — we then see that the distinction between right 
and wrong is rooted in the deepest foundations of the 
universe; we see that the very same forces, subtle, and 
exquisite, and profound, which brought upon the scene 
the primal germs of life and caused them to unfold, 
which through countless ages of struggle and death 
has cherished the life that could live more perfectly 
and destroyed the life that could only live less perfectly, 
until humanity, with all its hopes, and fears, and 
aspirations, has come into being as the crown of all 
this stupendous work — we see that these very same 
subtle and exquisite forces have wrought into the very 
fibres of the universe those principles of right living 
which it is man’s highest function to put into practice. 
The theoretical sanction thus given to right living is 
incomparably the most powerful that has ever been 
assigned in any philosophy of ethics. Human respon- 
sibility is made more strict and solemn than ever, when 
the eternal Power that lives in every event of the uni- 
verse is thus seen to be in the deepest possible sense 
the author of the moral law that should guide our lives, 
and in obedience to which lies our only guarantee of 
the happiness which is incorruptible — which neither 
inevitable misfortune nor unmerited obloquy can ever 
take away. I have but rarely touched upon a rich and 
suggestive topic. When this subject shall once have 
been expounded and illustrated with due thorough- 
ness —-as I earnestly hope it will be within the next 
few years —then I am sure it will be generally acknow- 
ledged that our great teacher’s services to religion have 
been no less signal than his services to science, unparal- 
leled as these have been in all the history of the world. 
