344 THE EIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



and prosperity will continue their progressive develop- 

 ment until they far surpass even the height of the 

 nineteenth century. 



In order to compass these high aims, it is of the 

 first importance that modern science not only shatter 

 the false structures of superstition and sweep their 

 ruins from the path, but that it also erect a new 

 abode for human emotion on the ground it has cleared 

 — a "palace of reason," in which, under the influence 

 of our new monistic views, we do reverence to the 

 real trinity of the nineteenth century — the trinity of 

 " the true, the good, and the beautiful." In order to 

 give a tangible shape to the cult of this divine ideal, 

 we must first of all compare our position with the 

 dominant forms of Christianity, and realize the 

 changes that are involved in the substitution of the 

 one for the other. For, in spite of its errors and 

 defects, the Christian religion (in its primitive and 

 purer form) has so high an ethical value, and has 

 entered so deeply into the most important social and 

 political movements of civilized history for the last 

 1,500 years, that we must appeal as much as possible 

 to its existing institutions in the establishment of our 

 monistic religion. We do not seek a mighty revolution, 

 but a rational reformation, of our religious life. And 

 just as, 2,000 years ago, the classic poetry of the 

 ancient Greeks incarnated their ideals of virtue in 

 divine shapes, so may we, too, lend the character of 

 noble goddesses to our three rational ideals. We 

 must inquire into the features of the three goddesses 

 of the monist — truth, beauty, and virtue ; and we 

 must study their relation to the three corresponding 

 ideals of Christianity which they are to replace. 



I. — The preceding inquiries (especially those of the 



