Herbert Spencer. 17 



" In religion let ns recognize the high merit that from the 

 beginning it has dimly discerned the ultimate verity, and 

 has never ceased to insist upon it. . . . From the tirst the 

 recognition of this su})reme verity, in however imperfect a 

 manner, has been its vital element ; and its varioiis defects^ 

 once extreme but gradually dimiuishing, have been so many 

 failures to recognize in full that which is recognized in j)art. 

 The truly religious element of religion has always been 

 good ; that which has proved untenable in doctrine and 

 vicious ill ])ractice has been its irreligious element: and 

 from this it has been ever undergoing purification. 



*'And now observe that, all along, the agent which has 

 effected the purification has been science. We habitually 

 overlook the fact that this has been one of its functions. 

 Kelisjion ignores its immense debt to science : and science 

 is scarcely at all conscious how much religion owes it. Yet 

 it is demonstrable that every step by which religion has pro- 

 gressed from its first low conception to the comparatively 

 high one it has now reached, science has helped it, or rather 

 forced it, to take : and that even now science is urging fur- 

 ther steps in the same direction Otherwise contem- 

 plating the facts, we may say that religion and science have 

 been undergoing a slow differentiation ; and that their cease- 

 less conflicts have been due to the imperfect separation of 

 their spheres and functions. Religion has, from the first, 

 struggled to unite more or less science with its nescience ; 

 science has, from the flrst, kept hold of more or less nes- 

 cience as though it were a part of science. Each has been 

 obliged gradually to relinquish that territory which it wrong- 

 fully claimed, while it has gained from the other that to 

 which it had a right ; and the antagonism between them has 



been an inevitable accompaniment of this process So 



long as the process of differentiation is incomplete more or 

 less of antagonism must continue. Gradually, as the limits 

 of possible cognition are established, the causes of conflict 

 will diminish. And a permanent peace will be reached 

 when science becomes fully convinced that its explanations 

 are proximate and relative ; while religion becomes fully 

 convinced that the mystery it contemplates is ultimate and 

 absolute." (Part I., Chap. V.) 



These, in barest outline, are some of the things that Her- 

 bert Sj)encer has begun to teach the human race. The 

 fields of knowledge are wide, and many have been the la- 



