THE SERENE EVANGEL OF SCIENCE 163 



II 



In this serene evangel the opening promise may well prove to be 

 the most fruitful and important. It is desperately hard to decide 

 just how large a part has been played in the history of religious feeling 

 by physical want and weakness and fear; but it has been very large. 

 When a thoughtful delver into the psychology of religion tells us that 

 "hungering after righteousness is an irradiation of the crude instinct 

 of food-getting," our lips may start to word a protest; yet we must 

 agree with the author of The Mystic Rose that every man, when he 

 happens to be brought down face to face with the elemental realities 

 of existence, birth and death, hunger and thirst, ipso facto becomes a 

 religious subject. And it is indisputable that in the dim abysses of 

 time, when primitive man first became feelingly aware of his own 

 weakness, he soon learned to appeal for help to something outside 

 himself. Then, with the development of the race, with the growth of 

 needs and emotions and capacities, this instinct to look beyond the 

 known kept taking on new aspects, until it is almost impossible to 

 trace the remote and humble origins of many phases of religious 

 experience. From the transcendental ecstasies of St. Mary of 

 Ognies and other famous ascetics it might seem a far cry to the 

 physiological needs of early man, yet who can be quite sure that they 

 are not closely akin ? 



In any event, the factors just enumerated have been powerfully 

 operative in a score of ways. King Hunger has made many sinners; 

 but he has also made many saints. Pain and suffering and fear have 

 driven many men to violate laws and conventions; but they have 

 driven more to seek some superhuman stay and solace. "I am lord 

 of bodies, I am lord of souls," runs the proud vaunt of Poverty in 

 one of the saddest of the Little Gray Songs; and it is heartbreak- 

 ingly true. 



But what if want and distress should be replaced by comparative 

 material comfort? What if Poverty should be driven from his 

 lordship, and King Hunger should be dethroned? There can be 

 little doubt, I think, that we should see a decided decrease in the 

 number of men and women who profess a need of the supernatural. 



