54 INTRODUCTION. 



sanctions for a moral progress are forever secure. 

 None of the sanctions of religion are withdrawn by 

 adding to them the sanctions of Nature. Even those 

 sanctions which are supposed to lie over and above 

 Nature may be none the less rational sanctions. 

 Though a positive religion, in the Comtian sense, is 

 no religion, a religion that is not in some degree posi- 

 tive is an impossibility. And although religion must 

 always rest upon faith, there is a reason for faith, and 

 a reason not only in Reason, but in Nature herself. 

 When Evolution comes to be worked out along its 

 great natural lines, it may be found to provide for all 

 that religion assumes, all that philosophy requires, 

 and all that science proves. 



Theological minds, with premature approval, have 

 hailed Mr. Kidd's solution as a vindication of their 

 supreme position. Practically, as a vindication of the 

 dynamic power of the religious factor in the Evolution 

 of Mankind, nothing could be more convincing. But 

 as an apologetic, it only accentuates a weakness which 

 scientific theology never felt more keenly than at the 

 present hour. This weakness can never be removed 

 by an appeal to the ultra-rational. Does Mr. Kidd 

 not perceive that any one possessed of reason enough 

 to encounter his dilemma, either in the sphere of 

 thought or of conduct, will also have reason enough 

 to reject any " ultra- rational " solution ? This di- 

 lemma is not one which would occur to more than one 

 in a thousand ; it has tasked all Mr. Kidd's powers to 

 convince his reader that it exists ; but if exceptional 

 intellect is required to see it, surely exceptional in- 

 tellect must perceive that this is not the way out of it. 

 One cannot, in fact, think oneself out of a difficulty of 



