128 The Bible of Nature 



plasm, do violence alike to philosophy and to re- 

 ligion. Those who would single out from among 

 the multitudinous differentiations of an evolving 

 universe this alone for special interposition, would 

 seem to do little honor to the Divinity they profess 

 to serve. Theodore Parker gave expression to a 

 broader and more reverent theology when he said : 

 ''The universe, broad and deep and high, is a 

 handful of dust which God enchants. He is the 

 mysterious magic which possesses," not proto- 

 plasm merely, but "the world." 



This is all very well, some one may say, but are 

 you not at least leading us to look with some favor 

 on what is a materialistic view of life ? If this be 

 the impression left, then our statement has failed 

 of its purpose. Materialism is the theory that 

 there is nothing real in the universe except redis- 

 tributions of matter and energy in the ether. To 

 which it may be answered — first, that matter, 

 energy, ether, are simply conceptual formulae of 

 science, corresponding to a reality which we can- 

 not get at, but which we get nearest when we know 

 it in ourselves as thought; and secondly, that no 

 juggling with these concepts can possibly account 

 for even the materialistic philosophy. 



"There can be little doubt," Huxley said, "that 

 the further science advances, the more extensively 

 and consistently will all the phenomena be repre- 

 sented by materialistic formulae and symbols." 



