zn. v.] RELIGION AS ADJUSTMENT. 461 



agencies which produce small-pox we compel to defeat them- 

 selves. And thus, in many ways, we extract profit and 

 gratification from that which is ugly and noxious; as the 

 refuse of gas-works and the drainings of stables, when dealt 

 with by the chemist, yield rich dyes and delicate perfumes. 



Thus, as science advances. Nature is better understood. 

 As art progresses, she inflicts less pain and bestows more 

 pleasure. Once hated as an enemy, she is at last revered as 

 a benefactor. Gradually it comes to be perceived that all 

 pain arises from disregard of her wisely-framed ordinances ; 

 and that, by conformity to those ordinances, pain may ulti- 

 mately be avoided. Where the ancient man saw nothing 

 but capricious volition, the modern man beholds force acting 

 by invariable methods. The former knew not that the pain 

 under which he was writhing resulted from a violation of 

 Nature's edicts, and he sought to prevent its recurrence by 

 sacrifice and supplication. The latter knows that Nature's 

 commandments are not to be broken. He knows that to 

 their infringement there is attached an inevitable penalty, — 

 that misery will follow disobedience, the first time, the 

 second time, every time ; and he therefore learns to obey. 

 Matter does not put off its resistance to save from broken 

 bones ; the stomach does not stop digesting, that poison may 

 be innocuous ; the law which couples imprudent exposure 

 with bronchitis and pneumonia will not cease to operate, 

 though thousands die ; nerve-tissue will not renounce its 

 properties, to prevent indulgence in evil thoughts and yield- 

 ing to sinful inclinations from depraving the imagination and 

 weakening the will. To be delivered from evil, we must 

 avoia t'ne mal-adjustments of which evil is the consequence 

 and the symptom. Hence, while to the aboriginal man 

 malevolence was the only conceivable source of suffering, 

 the reverent follower of science perceives the truth of the 

 paradox that the infliction of pain is subservient to a bene- 

 ficent end. " l'ei"vading all nature, he sees at work a sterD 



