Evolution is Progress 287 



probably true that inspiration and intuition are today less 

 effective, relatively, than they have been; but that is a 

 temporary condition, due to the revolutionary progress in 

 objective knowledge, which has upset and discredited so 

 much of subconscious inference; but which will, without 

 doubt, become the basis for a higher inspiration in due 

 course. 



All the records, and they are many, show that older wis- 

 dom was usually lesser wisdom, not only in that it ignored 

 some subjects later studied; but it was also wisdom of 

 lower order in that it showed an intellectual power of lesser 

 training, producing beliefs, and approving errors, which to 

 later thought were obviously wrong ; and even in the limited 

 light then available should have been rejected. 



For example, the minds which could continue to attribute 

 the supernatural control of all things, to the erratic lunatics 

 of the Greek Mythology, or to the childish deities of Egypt, 

 are obviously and incontestably inferior to those of even 

 the populace of today. And the priests of those cults 

 would appear as children when placed beside those who in 

 Israel, recognized a justice-dealing Jehovah. We recognize 

 certain principles of wisdom as being old, and remaining 

 common to all breeds, as elements of their strength ; but the 

 weaknesses in old beliefs measure the intellectual grade of 

 their teachers, more clearly than the truths do. The great 

 truths, noble wherever found, some of which all ancient 

 religions possessed, are true today, and some are no better 

 understood today. It is not to be said that old belief was 

 without true value; on the contrary it is clear that the old, 

 was, when new, usually better than its preceding belief. 



