158 THE LIGHT OF DAT 



religion was. All this is from the point of view of 

 the impartial intellect, and is this point of view to 

 be denied ? 



To the intellectual man evil is only the privation 

 of good as cold is the privation of heat. Indeed, 

 this is what St. Augustine, speaking as a philoso- 

 pher, said. As the life of the globe depends upon 

 degrees of heat and cold, depends upon differences, 

 fluctuations, inequalities, etc., so human develop- 

 ment depends upon a mixture of good and evil. 

 Overcome evil with good, that is growth in morals ; 

 overcome ignorance with knowledge, that is growth 

 in intellect. Sin as a state of condemnation or 

 alienation from God, in consequence of Adam's 

 transgression, — of this theological conception of sin, 

 what can the intellect know ? It can know nothing. 

 It sees that the condition of life everywhere is strug- 

 gle, in the vegetable as well as in the animal worlds, 

 in the spiritual as in the intellectual realm. It 

 sees that the law of the survival of the fittest is 

 everywhere operative. It sees that ideal good never 

 is and never can be attained. The ideal is an air 

 line ; the practical is the devious path through bog 

 and over hill. 



Wherever man is, the ideal will soar above him. 

 Wherever man is, pain and conflict will attend him. 

 One of our poets, Mr. Gilder, has dared affirm that 

 wherever God is, are pain and struggle also. 



" By all moat noble in us, by the light that streams 

 Into our waking dreams, 



Ah ! -we who know what Life is, let us live I 

 Clearer and freer who shall doubt ? 



