region—the region of the higher emotions—and to respect science as it would have science respect it. Then all will be well.
It is observable that Dr. Abbott is no more anxious to discuss the strict theological doctrine of redemption than he is to enter into the details of the third chapter of Genesis. He prefers to deal with the process of redemption in its most general aspects, as consisting in the action of a higher nature on a lower. Taken in this accommodated and accommodating sense it is not at all hard to believe in; and the evolutionist may well congratulate himself that a term of such special theological import, so commonly associated with the supposed efficacy of bloody sacrifices, is capable of being explained by a doctor of divinity in so natural and human a manner. It is satisfactory, also, to note that the reverend doctor does not summon the modern philosopher, on pain of intellectual confusion, to accept the Bible or any portion of it, but only such truths as are affirmed by the "universal consciousness." He mentions certain chapters of the Bible, but chiefly for the purpose of deprecating the spending of much time upon a discussion of their meaning. In spite, therefore, of an apparently aggressive tone, the learned doctor's article, when closely examined, may almost be regarded as a kind of Eirenicon. Possibly, like a very ancient scriptural character, he may have meant to say worse things than he actually succeeded in uttering. Science has its foes, who would like to hear it denounced; but it is not always easy to command the prophets. Many of them know too much, and are too sound at heart, to rail at the modern Israel.
A few words in conclusion. The evolutionist, or, as we should prefer to say, the modern scientific thinker, is not necessarily or naturally an irreligious man. Conversing, as he tries to do, with truths of deep and wide significance, and seeing, as perhaps no one not engaged on equally wide questions can see, the littleness of all individual thought and effort in comparison with the vast operations of Nature and the limitless record of human action in general, he is not prone either to set his own personality up as an object of worship, or voluntarily to cage himself in a narrow materialistic philosophy. What he sees and feels at every moment is, that the universe outruns him on every side, and that he can only be baffled and beaten in any attempt to do more than take due note of the succession of phenomena. It is a duty with him, however, to limit his affirmations to the exact facts he has observed. To go beyond them would be to him as distinctly a sin as to others it would be an act of piety. This is why he can not join in many of the devout phrases by which others ease their hearts. It is not that his heart does not at times require easing too, or that these phrases have not, considered in themselves and in their associations, a decided efficacy for that purpose, but simply that he does not himself feel authorized to make the affirmations which the phrases either make or imply. The average member of society has probably little
