192 THE CREED OF SCIENCE, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL. 



afford some inducement to him who occupies a lower 

 moral level to do his duty better, though the man of 

 higher virtue will not need it. To the former the doing 

 good actions over and above what society exacts, as of 

 charity and mercy and pity, may be recommended as a 

 good spiritual investment against future contingencies, 

 which may be repaid with high interest, though it is 

 also possible and rather more likely that Nature will 

 repudiate the whole supposed debt. There seems, indeed, 

 one case where she stands debtor the case of sacrifice ; 

 of great sacrifice for principle, or other voluntary sacri- 

 fice, without expectation of reward, here or hereafter; 

 and this, where nothing was demanded, may be the one 

 case where the Purpose which rules the universe will 

 acknowledge the obligation, though how, or where, or 

 when, it would be hazardous to conjecture. 



Our only consolation is our assurance that what 

 takes place finally will, on the whole, be just and rational. 

 It will be rational ; for reason now rules the universe 

 from the atom to the star, from the solar and sidereal 

 systems to our more wonderful bodily and mental 

 systems. It will, on the whole, be just ; for though irre- 

 gularities and brief pains may hereafter exist as now, so 

 also they may be eliminated altogether as errors over 

 which Nature has triumphed. We hope for improve- 

 ment, upon the whole, for this fact of improvement in 

 the evolution of something ever better is the deepest 

 thing in the purpose of the universe, as even Science 

 shows. Nature is capable of greater, juster, more rational 

 things elsewhere, for she is constantly reaching after 

 these things here, and with this assurance we may 

 rest. 



It may, however, be said that the further existence 

 here shadowed forth is hardly worth the having, being 



