352 THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



and subline offers every man with open eyes and an 

 aesthetic sense an incalculable sum of choicest gifts. 

 Still, however valuable and agreeable is the immediate 

 enjoyment of each single gift, its worth is doubled by 

 a knowledge of its meaning and its connection with 

 the rest of nature. When Humboldt gave us the 

 "outline of a physical description of the world" in 

 his magnificent Cosmos forty years ago, and when he 

 combined scientific and aesthetic consideration so 

 happily in his standard Prosjiects of Nature, he justly 

 indicated how closely the higher enjoyment of nature 

 is connected with the " scientific establishment of 

 cosmic laws," and that the conjunction of the two 

 serves to raise human nature to a higher stage of 

 perfection. The astonishment with which we gaze 

 upon the starry heavens and the microscopic life in 

 a drop of water, the awe with which we trace the 

 marvellous working of energy in the motion of matter, 

 the reverence with which we grasp the universal 

 dominance of the law of substance throughout the 

 universe — all these are part of our emotional life, 

 falling under the heading of " natural religion." 



This progress of modern times in knowledge of the 

 true and enjoyment of the beautiful expresses, on the 

 one hand, a valuable element of our monistic religion, 

 but is, on the other hand, in fatal opposition to Chris- 

 tianity. For the human mind is thus made to live on 

 this side of the grave ; Christianity would have it ever 

 gaze beyond. Monism teaches that we are perishable 

 children of the earth, who, for one or two, or, at the 

 most, three generations, have the good fortune to 

 enjoy the treasures of our planet, to drink of the 

 inexhaustible fountain of its beauty, and to trace out 

 the marvellous play of its forces. Christianity would 



