THE EPOCH OF HOPE 83 



as opposed to those of God the Father, motion, expansion, and 

 disintegration to produce strength, vitality and hereditary of 

 energy, and strength and determination, skill, daring and 

 courage, by which qualities man has in the past defeated races 

 of angels who have been his superiors throughout millions of 

 years, and from whom he has fled in fear and trembling to 

 the mountain tops, caves, trees, where his indomitable perse- 

 verance and energy and its consequent increase of brain power 

 had enabled him to successfully battle against all previous 

 troubles of existence and now finds he is being steadily defeated 

 by cold, ice, wind, rain and snow. So there grew within him a 

 wondrous superstitious dread of these mysterious powers which 

 his mind was yet too weak to know or understand, but whose 

 dread influences he too keenly felt were conquering the king- 

 doms he had so slowly won during the ten or twenty million 

 years of his previous existences, and his spirit rebelled against 

 this unequal fight and he started to call upon the heavens, 

 sun, stars, and moon to afflict him no more. 



Thus grew the first seeds of religion out of man's fears, 

 superstition and reverence ; thus born, is it any wonder 

 that these have been the three tools used by the wise to 

 hew out the mystic rites of religious beliefs, erect its 

 temples and idols, and formulate its teachings and fables 

 in which the wise and strong have for the last three 

 hundred thousand years clothed the truths of nature, in order 

 that they might be better able to govern the follies and rebel- 

 lions of the weak? Why should we wonder, therefore, that 

 the greatest work of Science to-day must certainly be to dig 

 out from the hot-bed of this religious rubbish-heap of supersti- 

 tion, bigoted doctrine and intolerant claims to infallibility, 

 some semblance to the truth of the divine revelations of God 

 and Nature, for God and Nature are alone infallible? Live to 

 love and trust God ; be natural in all you do ; honest and kind 

 in word and actions ; energetic, temperate, careful and useful 

 to others, using your capability, skill and wisdom to the best 

 of your ability and strength ; fear neither church, man nor 

 danger ; learn from the past to remodel your future ; remember 

 sorrow and trouble and difficulty are the best masters to teach 

 you success ; be gentle with the weak, firm with those you have 

 to direct ; always endeavour to be a man as well as a gentleman. 

 Make this the code of your life, and remember virtue is the 



