EVOLUTION 181 



is as far removed from the true scientific attitude as the 

 shallow-minded rejection of all established beliefs. The 

 childhood of the race accumulated much which its 

 manhood is compelled to lay aside, and the world needs 

 a thorough going over of its stock in trade. Such work 

 cannot be done all at once, or once for all, for it must be 

 a gradual sloughing off as the spirit of inquiry becomes 

 more generally diffused. 



It must be evident that this spirit is diametrically op- 

 posed to intolerance, and that it can find no common 

 ground with those who confidently affirm that the pres- 

 ent organization of society is as good as it can be; that 

 the present republics of the w r orld represent the highest 

 possible expression of man in reference to government; 

 that the past has discovered all that is best in education; 

 that the mission of religion is to conserve the past 

 rather than to grow into the future. This is not the 

 spirit of unrest, of discomfort, but the evidence of a 

 mind whose every avenue is open to the approach of 

 truth from every direction. Like the tree, it is rooted 

 and grounded in all the eternal truths that the past has 

 revealed, but is stretching out its branches and ever- 

 renewed foliage to the air and sunshine, and taking into 

 its life the forces of to-day. 



In his essay on Intellect, Emerson says: 



Gvd offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. 

 Take which you please, you can never have both. Between these 

 as a pendulum, man oscillates. He in whom the love of repose 

 predominates will accept the first creed, the first philosophy, the 

 first political party he meets, most likely his father's. He pets 

 rest, commodity, and reputation; but he shuts the door of truth. 

 He in whom the love of truth predominates will keep himself aloof 



