SCIENCE AND RELIGION 207 



pass by a third portal into conviction of religious 

 truth. 



These seem to us to be historical statements. 

 Though the three pathways indicated may not 

 be the only ones, nor the best, they are three 

 pathways along which men have passed to re- 

 ligion. Not that they lead inevitably to religious 

 experience, for the practically baffled may become 

 a resigned and even cheerful^fatalist, the emotion- 

 ally thrilled may find a solution in some form of 

 art, and the unsatisfied scientific inquirer may 

 settle down into a contented positivist. But a 

 religious result is just as common. In some de- 

 gree the pathways may be called coercive, indicat- 

 ing at sort of bad-weather recourse to religion, 

 but perhaps bad weather of the sort indicated 

 is part of a normal human experience. 



It seems fair to add another consideration, 

 that in listening to what we have called the three 

 voices of Nature, man may be disciplined to hear 

 even more august voices. Man's struggles for 

 food and foot-hold may give him grit that helps 

 towards and in much higher grades of endeavour; 

 to be thrilled with beauty may be a step to loving 

 goodness; and to try to find out what is scienti- 

 fically true in Nature may be the beginning of 

 "waiting patiently upon the Lord." 



While we are convinced that to listen to what 

 we have called the three voices of Nature is a 



