MR. MALLOCK ON OPTIMISM. 541 



quins of ecclesiasticism, we must forego those visions ; we must 

 look within for our reward. Better to face a sterile universe than 

 submit to a spiritual tyranny. But to us the universe is not ster- 

 ile, nor is life without meanings which might almost be pro- 

 nounced " august." The theological solution of the problem is 

 simply an adjournment : the next world is to clear up the mys- 

 teries of this. The scientific solution may be summed up in the 

 word " adaptation." There is a law in things which slowly re- 

 veals itself to careful observation ; and just as that law is read, 

 learned, marked, and obeyed, does human life grow in value and 

 more and more carry its own justification within itself. " It doth 

 not yet appear what we shall be " is a saying very applicable to 

 the future of our race upon the earth. Supposing it possible that 

 religion should in the future take the form of an earnest study of 

 the laws of life and of morality, personal and social, who can 

 forecast the glory that might yet be revealed in this despised 

 humanity of ours ? And who would not feel, in presence of such 

 a transfiguration, that it was " good for us to be here " ? If any- 

 thing will thus transfigure society, we venture to affirm that it 

 will be science pursued in a religious spirit — that is, regarded as a 

 ministry of truth and good to mankind. There is a force avail- 

 able here that is at present little understood. It may possibly 

 never be understood by more than a few: no one can answer 

 for that ; but it is impossible not to hope that some day, for a 

 religion based on relics and texts, on myths and traditions, on 

 dogma and ritual, on barren erudition at one end of the scale, bois- 

 terous sentiment at the other, and infinite mystification through- 

 out, may be substituted one founded on the truth of nature and di- 

 rected with undivided aim to the perfecting of humanity. Already 

 we see, here and there, how much of pure happiness the right ad- 

 justment of human relations can create ; and we do not see why 

 the law, by virtue of which such happiness is produced, should 

 not become more widely known and more faithfully observed. 

 It is the habit of the self-styled orthodox to fling all the failures 

 of the universe at our heads, as if we had produced them, or were 

 at least specially responsible for explaining them. The habit is 

 an idle one : the responsibility is not ours ; but now that the light 

 of scientific — that is, of verifiable — truth has come into the world, 

 we do hold ourselves responsible for bearing witness to it, and 

 causing it to shine as widely as possible. And, as we are not an- 

 swerable for the past, neither do we assume to control or predict 

 the future. We see merely a duty in the present, a duty the per- 

 formance of which will bring peace, tranquillity, and security. 

 This is not optimism, but it is in every man's power to make it a 

 religion. 



