RELIGION AS ADJUSTMENT 



that, with the progress of generahzation, the 

 conception of voUtion is gradually excluded 

 from all those groups of phenomena in the 

 production of which the human will is not 

 implicated, and is replaced by the conception 

 of a uniform force, whose actions may be fore- 

 seen or modified, and whose effects, if harm- 

 ful, may be avoided. Our ability to predict the 

 simpler phenomena of nature has deprived them 

 of the terrors due primitively to our anthropo- 

 morphic explanations of them. Armies retreat- 

 ing from destruction — like that of Nikias — 

 have never been checked in their course by 

 eclipses which had been foreseen ; and comets 

 have been beheld with equanimity since they 

 have been known to move in conic sections. But 

 coincident with the progress of our ability to 

 predict these simpler phenomena has been the 

 progress of our ability to modify those which 

 are more complicated. The advancement of 

 science is also the advancement of art. Pene- 

 trating inquisitively into the secrets of Nature, 

 we employ our information in extorting from her 

 her treasures. Fire is not the only bad master 

 that we have contrived to make a very good 

 servant. We transform heat into motion, and 

 improve our means for travelling. We change 

 electricity into motion, and facilitate the trans- 

 fer of intelligence. The agencies which pro- 

 duce smallpox we compel to defeat themselves. 



303 



