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ternal nature, to God, and to our fellow-men, we 

 are living merely by temporary shifts and expedients, 

 whicli lead to no satisfactory progress and con- 

 sequently to no enduring results. If nature has 

 rendered certain duties inevitable, let us strive to 

 know what they are, and the better we know them 

 the more thorough will be their performance. It is 

 simply because we wiU not look at these functions as 

 nature intended, that human conduct, iudividually 

 and collectively, is little better than a track of doing 

 and undoing, of blundering and reparation. Again, 

 from our historical relations we may learn how un- 

 certain is all that relates to the early history of our 

 race, and how recent is every statement that can be 

 received as certain and reliable. It teaches as strongly 

 as anything can how little reliance is to be placed on 

 tradition, and how critically exactiDg it is necessary 

 to be in aU that relates to historical evidence. From 

 our geological relations we may presume the vast 

 antiquity of our species, determine how gradual the 

 ascent has been from barbarism to civilisation, and 

 learn how vaia it is to expect that anything in human 

 progress can ever be attained save through slow and 

 piecemeal stages. Were this consideration more 

 frequently taken into account, it would lead us to be 

 less ardent in our hopes of progression, and more 

 hopeful of progress, in spite of all the doubts, delays, 



