364 THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



gave some support to the error in teaching that man 

 only has a sensitive soul, not the animal. 



How much more elevated is our monistic ethics 

 than the Christian in this regard ! Darwinism teaches 

 us that we have descended immediately from the 

 primates, and, in a secondary degree, from a long 

 series of earlier mammals, and that, therefore, they 

 are " our brothers " ; physiology informs us that they 

 have the same nerves and sense-organs as we, and the 

 same feelings of pleasure and pain. No sympathetic 

 monistic scientist would ever be guilty of that brutal 

 treatment of animals which comes so lightly to the 

 Christian in his anthropistic illusion — to the " child 

 of the God of love." Moreover, this Christian con- 

 tempt of nature on principle deprives man of an 

 abundance of the highest earthly joys, especially of 

 the keen, ennobling enjoyment of nature. 



IV. — Since, according to Christ's teaching, our 

 planet is "a vale of tears," and our earthly life is 

 valueless and a mere preparation for a better life to 

 come, it has succeeded in inducing men to sacrifice 

 all happiness on this side of eternity and make light 

 of all earthly goods. Among these " earthly goods," 

 in the case of the modern civilized man, we must 

 include the countless great and small conveniences of 

 technical science, hygiene, commerce, etc., which have 

 made modern life cheerful and comfortable ; we must 

 include all the gratifications of painting, sculpture, 

 music, and poetry, which flourished exceedingly even 

 during the Middle Ages (in spite of its principles) , and 

 which we esteem as " ideal pleasures"; we must 

 include all that invaluable progress of science, espe- 

 cially of the study of nature, of which the nineteenth 

 century is justly proud. All these " earthly goods," 



