THE RELATION OF EVOLUTION TO MATERIALISM 53 
hopes and aspirations; as then, so now, the germ of living truth has, 
in the course of ages, become so encrusted with meaningless tradifions 
which stifle its growth that it is necessary to break the shell to set it 
free; as then, so now, it has become necessary to purge religious belief 
of dross in the form of trivialities and superstitions. This has ever been 
and ever will be the function of science. The essentials of religious 
faith it does not, it cannot, touch, but it purifies and ennobles our 
conceptions of Deity, and thus elevates the whole plane of religious 
thought. 
