9 



the study of a time when, by mystical or intellectual 

 inspirations, men strove eagerly to know the 

 meaning of life, its origins, and its issues ; and 

 may lead us to the discovery of the seeds and 

 wells of its fertility. The Greeks prophesied that 

 before man can determine his place and service 

 in this world he must form some theory of the 

 world as a whole ; the ages of faith prophesied 

 that great deeds must be born of great faith 

 and of great conceptions. 



To those who live only in the past, or only 

 in the present, there seems in the discriminations 

 of the comparative historian to be a certain 

 cold-bloodedness. Are not the ears of this critic, 

 so aloof from the murmuring of creed and con- 

 troversy, are they not deaf to the voices of the 

 spirit which he would interpret to us ? A dis- 

 tinguished bishop who was among my hearers, 

 with the fervour and gentle humour so well known 

 in him, rallied me not for celebrating science but 

 for putting religion to rout. Yet in our own day 

 surely the argument is changed, not in form only 

 but in very nature ; so changed by the concep- 

 tions of evolution, which have entered the mind 

 of churchman and layman alike, that not a few 



