550 



scie:ncje. 



[Vol. VIU., No. 201 



until many are doubting whether there is any 

 solid substratum beneath : but the instinct which 

 gave those creeds their influence is unchanged. 



The religions and philosophies of the orient 

 seem to have little in common with modern 

 science. The sage of the east did not try to climb 

 the ladder of knowledge step by step. He sought 

 a wisdom which he supposed far superior to all 

 knowledge of earthly phenomena obtainable 

 through the senses. The man of science of the 

 west seeks knowledge by gradual accumulation, 

 striving by comparison and experiment to elimi- 

 nate the errors of individual observations, and 

 doubting the possibility of attaining wisdom in 

 any other way. The knowledge which he has, 

 or seeks, is knowledge which may be acquired 

 partly by individual effort and partly by co-opera- 

 tion, which requires material resources for its 

 development, the search for which may be organ- 

 ized and pursued thi-ough the help of others, 

 which is analogous in some respects to property 

 which may be used for power or pleasure. The 

 theologian and the poet claim that there is a 

 wisdom which is not acquired, but attained to, 

 which cannot be communicated or received at 

 pleasure, which comes in a way vaguely expressed 

 by the words ' intuition,' or 'inspiration,' which 

 acts through and upon the emotional rather than 

 the intellectual faculties, and which, thus acting, 

 is sometimes of irresistible power in exciting and 

 directing the actions of individuals and of com- 

 munities. 



The answer of the modern biologist to the old 

 Hebrew question, viz.. " Why are children born 

 with their hands clinched, while men die with 

 their hands wide open ? " would not in the least 

 resemble that given by the rabbis ; yet this last it 

 is well that the scientist should also remember ; 

 '• Because on entering the world men would grasp 

 every thing, but on leaving it all slips away." 

 There exist in men certain mental phenomena, the 

 •study of which is included in what is known as 

 ethics, and which are usually assumed to depend 

 upon what is called moral law. Whether there is 

 such a law, and whether, if it exists, it can be 

 logically deduced from observed facts in nature or 

 is only known as a special revelation, are questions 

 upon which scientific men in their present stage 

 of development are not agreed. There is not yet 

 any satisfactory scientific basis for what is recog- 

 nized as sound ethics and morality throughout the 

 civilized world : these rest upon another founda- 

 tion. 



This procession, bearing its lights of all kinds, 

 smoky torches, clear-burning lamps, farthing rush- 

 hghts, and sputtering brimstone matches, passes 

 through the few centuries of which we have a 



record, illuminating an area which varies, but 

 which has been growing steadily larger. The in- 

 dividual members of the procession come from, 

 and pass into, shadow and darkness, but the light 

 of the stream remains. Yet it does not seem so 

 much darkness, an infinite night, whence we 

 come and whither we go, as a fog which at a little 

 distance obscures or hides all things, but which, 

 nevertheless, gives the impression that there is 

 light beyond and above it. In this fog we are 

 living and groping, stumbling down blind alleys, 

 only to find that there is no thoroughfare, getting 

 lost and circling about on our own tracks as on a 

 jumhie prairie ; but slowly and irregularly we do 

 seem to be getting on, and to be establishing some 

 points in the survey of the continent of our owti 

 ignorance. 



In some directions the man of science claims to 

 lead the way ; in others, the artist, the poet, the 

 devotee. Far-reaching as the speculations of the 

 man of science may be, ranging from the con- 

 stitution and nature of a universal protyle, 

 through the building of a universe to its resolution 

 again into primal matter or modes of motion, he 

 can frame no hypothesis which shall explain con- 

 sciousness, nor has he any data for a formula 

 which shall tell what becomes of the individual 

 when he disappears in the all-surrounding mist. 

 Does he go on seeking and learning in other ways 

 or other worlds? The great mass of mankind 

 think that they have some information bearing on 

 these questions : but, if so, it is a part of the wis- 

 dom of the orient, and not of the physical or 

 natural science of the Occident. Whether after 

 death there shall come increase of knowledge, 

 with increase of desires and of means of satisfying 

 them, or whether there shall be freedom from all 

 desire, and an end of coming and going, we do 

 not know ; nor is there any reason to suppose that 

 it is a part of the plan of the universe that we 

 should know. We do knosv that the great ma- 

 jority of men think that there are such things as 

 right and duty, — God and a future life, — and 

 that to each man there comes the opportunity of 

 doing something which he and others recognize 

 to be his duty. The scientific explanation of a 

 part of the process by which this has been brought 

 about, as by natural selection, heredity, education, 

 progressive changes hi this or that particular mass 

 of brain matter, has not much bearing on the 

 practical question of ' What to do about it?' But 

 it does, nevertlieless, indicate that it is not a char- 

 acteristic to be denounced, or opposed, or neg- 

 lected, since, even in the ' struggle-for-existence ' 

 theory, it has been, and still is, of immense im- 

 portance in human social development. 



"Four men," says the Talmud, " entered Para- 



