SYNTHESIS OF THE NATURAL AND THE SUPERNATURAL 



" No coward soul is mine : 



No trembler in the world storm troubled sphere : 

 I see heaven's glories shine. 



But faith shines equal arming me from fear." 



One is almost thankful for death since it calls forth such 

 heroic faith — a faith which does not cower in the presence 

 of the king of terrors, but stands up exulting in the 

 assurance of victory. It is not only heroic, it is an 

 experience which transcends physical nature. Nature, as 

 known to physics, cannot think either about itself or any- 

 thing else. It does not know, and cannot know, a remem- 

 bered past or an expected future, It cannot, therefore, 

 think of "glories beyond the world's storm troubled 

 sphere." But nature at its highest—that is human 

 nature — can think. Not only is it true that man can think, 

 it is true also that while he remains man he must think, 

 and among the thoughts he cannot keep from arising with- 

 in him is, to say the least, the possibility of living '' beyond 

 this bank and shoal of time." For whatever may be true 

 of individual men, or individual tribes, history has put it 

 beyond doubt that ** man thinks he was not made to die," 

 and remembering that this thought is a potent factor in the 

 process of development, it cannot be a mockery and 

 deception ; must on the other hand be in its essence a 

 prophecy of its fulfilment. Thus the sotil of poetry, like 

 the spirit of rehgion, is conscious of fellowship with an 

 answering soul. Philosophy and science, too, are, in the 

 last few decades, looking in the same direction for a theory 

 of evolution which best accounts for all the facts. I have 

 spoken of the primal Energy, and of its explanation as 

 important in the discussion. Now philosophy is discover- 

 ing that the only satisfactory explanation of energy is to 

 be found in terms of spirit. "How can we think, nay, 

 why must w^e think that there is in nature the power of 

 doing work which we name Energy?" asks A. M. Fair- 

 bairn, of Mansfield, Oxford. And he answers the question 



