52 THE CREED OF SCIENCE, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL. 



nation of the world. Let it here suffice to say that 

 while purpose as well as wisdom is denied, power and 

 even creative power is allowed, in the fact of evolution ; 

 while the further question, whether this power which 

 admittedly shows itself in Nature, though it is itself 

 invisible, non-phenomenal, and so to speak behind Nature 

 should be described as supernatural or by some term 

 of less equivocal meaning, is merely a question of words. 

 The existence of the power is admitted by evolutionists 

 themselves, as well as by so great a thinker as Kant, 

 who is now in such special favour with them. Our 

 belief goes further, for the reasons already assigned : we 

 believe in a purpose, and we believe that purpose to be 

 a good one. In holding this faith, we are at issue both 

 with the evolutionist and the pessimist. In holding fast 

 by purpose as the principle of the universe, we differ 

 from the former ; in holding that it is good, we differ 

 from the latter. Both convictions are articles of faith 

 that do not admit of perfect demonstration ; neither are 

 they always held with the same unwavering strength 

 of conviction. Indeed, at times both are sorely tried. 

 When we look around and see that justice is not yet 

 enthroned in the world; when we see the terrible 

 struggle for existence, in which virtue does not triumph ; 

 when we see the conditions, sometimes terrible as death 

 itself, which the necessities of this struggle exact, not 

 merely from the over-sensitive but from the best and 

 bravest spirits ; when we find the perpetual intervention 

 of this formidable thing which we must call chance, in 

 the crises of our own lives to make or mar them ; and 

 when, disturbed with these reflections, we look through 

 history for support for our faith, and see that the truth 

 has not always triumphed or the good cause prevailed, 

 and that the crises of history, as well as of our own 



