6 Professor Benjamin Moore on 



not confine himself entirely to biology, but he would deal in part 

 with the reflection which the progress of biology must necessarily 

 have upon the whole of the subjects which the human mind 

 studied, such as sociology and matters of religion. They were 

 always striving after the infinite, and absolute in their thoughts, 

 trying by some process to reach perfection. It was an error of 

 human thought that in many cases they believed they had achieved 

 this perfection when they were really far away from it. Having 

 established what they regarded as a perfect law of science in the 

 course of a century or half century they were almost inclined to 

 fall down and worship it, although at the same time those supposed 

 perfect systems were only matters of imagination. Things that 

 were regarded as fixed and constant were by no means fixed and 

 constant. Often when they suggested a certain reform they were 

 met with the reply that their suggestion would be contrary to the 

 principles of human nature. There was nothing so idealistic, so 

 completely opposed to human nature as the Christianity of nine- 

 teen centuries ago. There was a time when there were no human 

 beings in the world. The first human beings were absolute 

 savages, with very few of the instincts of civilised man, and stage 

 by stage they found men's notions had changed, and to day they 

 were not the same as a generation ago. They were changing all 

 the time. Creation was not completed, but was going on before 

 their eyes in all the realms of human activity. A generation ago 

 Huxley and Gladstone were tilting at each other as to whether 

 certain facts in the Bible really happened or not. Now, they 

 came to the conclusion that it did not matter to religion whether 

 these things ever happened or not. Religion itself was becoming 

 a science. Religion had developed art, civilization, and morality 

 in spite of faults which everyone must admit who studied religion 

 scientifically. In religion, as much as in any other form of activity, 

 there nmst be progress. A Church must adapt itself to modern 

 movements, it must also lead those movements, and not be led by 

 them. If they found that there were people living in miserable 



