INTRODUCTION 



statements on the nature of religion occurs in 

 the essay on Draper's " Science and Religion." 

 Here religion is defined in the other and some- 

 what conflicting sense, which the " Cosmic Phi- 

 losophy " also exemplifies. " All animals seek 

 for fulness of life ; but in civilized man this 

 craving has acquired a moral significance, and 

 has become a spiritual aspiration ; and this emo- 

 tional tendency, more or less strong in the hu- 

 man race, we call religious feeling or religion. 

 Viewed in this light religion is not only some- 

 thing that mankind is never likely to get rid of, 

 but it is incomparably the most noble as well 

 as the most useful attribute of humanity." 



In sum, then, we get from this collection 

 of passages an impression that Fiske at this 

 period was tending to emphasize the positive 

 emotional aspiration, rather than the negative 

 sense of mystery, as the essential element of 

 religion, and through an elaboration of hypo- 

 theses which could not be proved, but which, as 

 he felt, could be permitted (at least as spiritual 

 exercises), was seeking to give these aspirations 

 an ideal form, an intellectual accompaniment, 

 which would tend to render them definite, even 

 if it could not give them demonstrable warrant. 



38. In the "Excursions of an Evolution- 

 ist," whose Preface was written in October, 1 883, 

 we find the record of the speech at the farewell 

 cxx 



