1 6 EVOL UTION AND NA TUEAL THEOLOGY. 



of years may elapse between a Buddha and a 

 Christ, a Homer and a Shakspeare, a Phidias and 

 a Michael Angelo, or an Aristotle and a Newton. 

 And while generations bow down in wonder at 

 the unapproachable greatness of these masters of 

 Eeligion, Art, and Science, some of whom have 

 actually been deified by their admirers, yet such 

 gigantic abilities as theirs are so rare as to be 

 practically far beyond our powers of imitation. 

 The mind, like the body, has its limits of possible 

 development, varying in every individual, and in 

 every age ; and it would be a mistake to suppose 

 that a man's mental and bodily capabilities depend 

 entirely on his own efforts ; for though he is very 

 liable to underrate or overrate them, it is phy- 

 sically impossible for him to exert himself beyond 

 them. Any really great genius must strike out 

 a perfectly independent course for himself from 

 the beginning, and advance in it alone. Compe- 

 titors he may have ; masters or rivals in his own 

 age he can have none. He cannot begin where 

 his predecessors left off; for to be their equal, 

 he must stand as far above his own age as they 

 stood above theirs. The influence of men of 

 genius has raised the average standard of man- 

 kind ; but it has not raised the masses to their 



