SCIENCE AND RELIGION 201 



to steady himself in the thought of some Abiding 

 Reality, saying as of yore, "I will lift up mine 

 eyes unto the hills." 



FROM EMOTIONAL STRAIN TO RELIGION. We 

 have already spoken of Nature's appeal to the 

 human emotions, which seems to us to be one 

 of the big formative influences in human evo- 

 lution. Admitting that the emotional note varies 

 with our science, from age to age, and from race 

 to race, we venture to say that a love of Nature 

 is an essential human relation lost for a while 

 in ultra-urban conditions which makes all the 

 world kin, and is one of the saving graces of life. 



Our present point is that the sense of wonder, 

 for instance, in the presence of Nature, which 

 lies near the roots of science and of philosophy, 

 is and will continue to be one of the footstools 

 of religion. Nature is at times so overpowering 

 in its beauty or in its awesomeness, that we feel 

 it too big for our humanity. Thus at the limit 

 of his emotional tension Man has often become 

 a worshipper. Some indeed poets and painters 

 and musicians find relief in their art, and in this 

 some maintain that there is an essentially reli- 

 gious quality. What seems to us quite clear when 

 we consider such magnificent pieces of poetic 

 literature as the Nature-Psalms is this, that men 

 surcharged with emotion in the contemplation 

 of Nature may keep their sanity by finding a 



