y, of morals and of
law, based upon that knowledge, are every day more and more, either
openly or tacitly, acknowledged to be the foundations of right action.

History also tells us that the field of the supernatural has rewarded
its cultivators with a harvest, perhaps not less luxuriant, but of a
different character. It has produced an almost infinite diversity of
Religions. These, if we set aside the ethical concomitants upon which
natural knowledge also has a claim, are composed of information about
Supernature; they tell us of the attributes of supernatural beings, of
their relations with Nature, and of the operations by which their
interference with the ordinary course of events can be secured or
averted. It does not appear, however, that supernaturalists have
attained to any agreement about these matters or that history indicates
a widening of the influence of supernaturalism on practice, with the
onward flow of time. On the contrary, the various religions are, to a
great extent, mutually exclusive; and their adherents delight in
charging each other, not merely with error, but with criminality,
deserving and ensuing punishment of infinite severity. In singular
contrast with natural knowledge, again, the acquaintance of mankind with
the supernatural appears the more extensive and the more exact, and the
influence of supernatural doctrines upon conduct the greater, the
further back we go in time and the lower the stage of civilisation
submitted to investigation. Historically, indeed, there would seem to
be an inverse relation between supernatural and natural knowledge. As
the latter has widened, gained in precision and in trustworthiness, so
has the former shrunk, grown vague and questionable; as the one has more
and more filled the sphere of action, so has the other retreated into
the region of meditation, or vanished behind the screen of mere verbal
recognition.

Whether this difference of the fortunes of Naturalism and of
Supernaturalism is an indication of the progress, or of the regress, of
humanity; of a fall from, or an advance towards, the higher life; is a
matter of opinion. The point to which I wish to direct attention is that
the difference exists and is making itself felt. Men are growing to be
seriously alive to the fact that the historical evolution of humanity
which is generally, and I venture to think not unreasonably, regarded as
progress, has been, and is being, accompanied by a co-ordinate
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