122 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



And if this logic completes its work in the human 

 soul, what will be the result ? Will Christianity 

 still stand firm as the rock against which the waves 

 surge ? That depends altogether upon what you 

 understand by Christianity. All fixed dogmas will 

 certainly fall research will sweep them away by 

 means of its logic and the theory of life, which 

 will stand firm, will not be the Catholic, nor the 

 Protestant, nor the Jewish, nor the Mahommedan, 

 but the theory of the ideal ! ' 'If you choose to call 

 this ideal Christian, very well, you are entitled to 

 do so.' In conclusion we have a little Bible lesson. 

 ' Read the New Testament. Two things are necessary 

 for man, love of God and love of his neighbour. If 

 he possesses these, he possesses the highest to which 

 he can aspire ; on the one hand, he is in union with 

 the universal principle which we may call God or 

 nature, just as we please ; universal harmony to its 

 utmost extent this is love of God; and on the 

 other hand, he possesses love of his neighbour, the 

 ideal humanity, which begins among the brutes 

 and ends with man in his social and intellectual 

 aspect. If you like to call this the Christian theory 

 of the universe well and good ! This will be the 

 rock against which no wave will dash, or rather, it 

 will not be the rock in the midst of the waves, but it 

 will be the highest wave of evolution^ which certainly 

 cannot be overtopped by any lower wave ! ' 



These remarks seem not to require a long 



