SCIENCE. 



397 



him, which breathes in the memorable poem of Lucre- 

 tius. In all literature there is no single line more true 

 than the famous line — "Tantum religio potuit suadere 

 malorum." Nor is it less certain, on the other hand, that 

 the highest type of human virtue is that which has been 

 exhibited in some of those whose whole inspiration and 

 rule of life has been founded on religious faith. Reli- 

 gious conceptions have been historically the centre of all 

 authority, -md have given their strength to all ideas ot 

 moral obligation. Accordingly, we see that the same 

 hatred which inspired Lucretius against Religion because 

 of its power for evil, now inspires other men against it 

 because of its power for good. Tnose who wish to sever 

 all the bonds which bind human society together, the 

 State, the Church, the Family, and whose spirits are in 

 fierce rebellion against all Law, human or divine, are and 

 must be bitter enemies of Religion. The idea must be 

 unendurable to them of a Ruler who cannot be defied, 

 of a Throne which cannot be overturned, of a Kingdom 

 which endureth throughout all generations. The belief 

 in any Divine Personality as the source of the inexorable 

 laws of Nature is a belief which enforces, as nothing 

 else can enforce, the idea of obligation and the duty of 

 obedience. 



It is not possible, in the light of the unity of Xature, to 

 reconcile this close and obvious relation between religious 

 conceptions and the highest conditions of human life with 

 the supposition that these conceptions are nothing but a 

 dream. The power exercised over the mind and conduct 

 of Mankind, by the belief in some Divine Personality with 

 whom they have to do, is a power of having all the marks 

 that indicate an integral part of the system under which 

 we live. But if we are to assume that this belief does 

 not represent a fact, and that its origin is any other than 

 a simple and natural perception of that fact, then this ne- 

 gation must be the groundwork of all speculations on the 

 subject, and must be involved, more or less directly, in 

 every argument we use. But even on this assumption it 

 is not a reasonable explanation of the fundamental post- 

 ulates of all Religion— namely, the existence of super- 

 human Beings — to suppose that the idea of personality 

 has been evolved out of that which is impersonal ; the 

 idea of Will out of that which has no Intelligence ; the 

 idea of life out of that which does not contain it. 



On the other hand, if we make the only alternative as- 

 sumption — namely, that there is a God, that is to say, a 

 Supreme Being, who is the Au'hor of creation, — then the 

 origin of man's perception ot this fact ceases to have any 

 mvstery other than that which attaches to the origin of 

 every one of the elementary perceptions of his mind and 

 spirit. Not a few of these perceptions tell him of realities 

 which are as invisible as the Godhead. Of his own pas- 

 sions his perception is immediate — of his own love, of his 

 own anger, of his own possession of just authority. The 

 sense of owing obedience may well be as immediate as 

 the sense or a right to chim it. Moreover, seeing the 

 transcendent power of this perception upon his conduct, 

 and, through his conduct, upon his fate, it becomes an- v 

 tecedeutly probable, in accordance with the analogies of 

 Nature and of all other created Beings, that from the 

 very first, and as part of the outfit of his nature, some 

 knowledge was imparted to him of the existence of his 

 Creator, and of the duty which he owed to Him. 



Of the methods by which this knowledge was imparted 

 to him, we are as ignorant as of the methods by which 

 other innate perceptions were implanted in him. But no 

 special difficulty is involved in the origin of a perception 

 which stands in such close relation to the unity ot Nature. 

 It has been demanded, indeed, as a postulate in this dis- 

 cussion, that we should discard all notions of antecedent 

 probability — that we should take no'.hing for granted, 

 except that Man started on his course furnished with 

 what are called his senses, and with nothing more. And J 

 this demand may be acceded to, provided it be well un- j 

 derstood what our senses are. If by this word we are to I 



understand nothing more than the gates and avenues of 

 approach through which we derive an impression of ex- 

 ternal objects — our sight, an l touch, and smell, and taste, 

 and hearing — then, indeed, it is the most violent of all 

 assumptions that they are the only faculties by which 

 knowledge is acquired. There is no need to put any dis- 

 paragement on these senses, or to undervalue the work 

 they do. Quite the contrary. It has been shown in a 

 former chapter how securely we may rest on the wonder 

 and on the truthfulness of these faculties as a pledge and 

 guarantee of the truthfulness of other faculties which are 

 conversant with higher things. When we think of the 

 mechanism of the eye, and of the inconceivable minute- 

 ness of the ethereal movements which that organ enables 

 us to separate and to discriminate at a glance, we get 

 hold of an idea having an intense interest and a supreme 

 importance. If adjustments so fine and so true as these 

 have been elaborated out of the unities of Nature, whe- 

 ther suddenly by what we imagine as Creation, or slow- 

 ly by what we call Development, then may we have the 

 firmest confidence that the same law of natural adjust- 

 ment has prevailed in all the other faculties of the per- 

 ceiving and conceiving mind. The whole structure of 

 of that mind is, as it were, revealed to be 3 structure 

 which is in the nature of a growth — a structure whose 

 very property and function it is to take in and assimilate 

 the truths of Nature — and that in an ascending order, ac- 

 cording t ~> the rank of those truths in the system and con- 

 stitution of the Universe. In this connection of thought 

 too great stress cannot be laid on the wonderful language 

 of the senses. In the light of it the whole mind and 

 spirit of Man becomes one great mysterious retina for re- 

 flecting the images of Eternal Truth. Our moral and in- 

 tellectual preceptions of things which, in their very na- 

 ture, are invisible, come home to us as invested with a 

 new authority. It is the authority of an adjusted struc- 

 ture — the mental organization of which has been molded 

 by what we call natural causes — these being the causes 

 on which the unity of the world depends. 



And when we come to consider how this molding, and 

 the molding of the human body, deviates from that of the 

 lower animals, we discover in the nature of this deviation 

 a law which cannot be mistaken. That law points to the 

 higher power and to the higher value in his economy of 

 faculties which lie behind the senses. The human frame 

 diverges from the frame of the brutes, so far as the mere 

 bodily senses are concerned, in the direction of greater 

 helplessness and weakness. Man's sight is less piercing 

 than the eagle's. His hearing is less acute than the 

 owl's or the bat's. His sense of smell may be said hardly 

 to exist at all when it is compared with the exquisite 

 susceptibilities of the deer, of the weasel, or of the fox. 

 The whole principle and plan of structure in the beasts 

 which are supposed to be nearest to him in form, is a 

 principle and a plan which is almost the converse of that 

 on which his structure has been organized. The so- 

 called man-like Apes are highly specialized ; Man on the 

 contrary is as highly generalized. They are framed to 

 live almost entirely on trees, and to be dependent on ar- 

 boreal products, which only a very limited area in the 

 globe can supply. Man is framed to be independent of 

 all local conditions, except indeed those extreme con- 

 ditions which are incompatible with the maintenance of 

 organic life in any form. If it be true, therefore, that he 

 is descended from some " arboreal animal with pointed 

 ears," he has been modified during the steps of that 

 descent on the principle of depending less on senses such 

 as the lower animals possess, and more and more on what 

 may be called the senses of his mind. The unclothed and 

 unprotected condition of the human body, the total 

 abscence of any organic weapon of defense, the want of 

 teeth adapted even for prehension, and the same want of 

 power for similar purposes in the hands and fingers — 

 these are all changes and departures from the mere 

 animal type which stand in obvious relation to the mental 



