' ! 



26 



FACTS AND FANCIES 



introduced to what may be termed a religion as 

 well as a philosophy. On one view, man be- 

 comes a god to himself ; on another, nature be- 

 comes his god ; on the third, a Supreme Being, 

 the Creator of both, All three religions exist 

 in the world in a vast variety of forms, and it 

 is questionable if any human being does not 

 more or less give credence to one or the other. 

 Scientific men, even when they think proper 

 to call themselves idealists, must reject the first 

 of the above alternatives, since they cannot 

 doubt the objective existence of external na- 

 ture, and they know that its existence dates 

 from a time anterior to our possible existence 

 as human beings. They may hold to either 

 of the others ; and, practically, the minds of stu- 

 dents of science are divided between the idea 

 of a spontaneous evolution of all things from 

 self-existent matter and force, and that of the 

 creation of all by a self-existent, omnipotent, and 

 all-wise Creator. From certain points of view, 

 it may be of no consequence whether a scien- 

 tific man holds one or other of these views. 

 Self-existent force or power, capable of spon- 

 taneous inception of change, and of orderly 

 and infallible development according to laws 

 of its own imposition or enactment, which is 



