pertains, not to
this wild death element of Time; that triumphs over Time, and _is_, and
will be, when Time shall be no more.'[3] {100} Man's place in the
universe may, according to Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, be nearer the
centre of things than has so commonly come to be accepted. Modern
discovery, he maintains, has thrown light on the interesting problem of
our relation to the Universe; and even though such discovery may have
no bearing upon theology or religion, yet, he thinks, it proves that
our position in the material creation is special and probably unique,
and that the view is justified which holds that 'the supreme end and
purpose of this vast universe was the production and development of the
living soul in the perishable body of man.' And another, a convinced
and ardent disciple of Evolution, the late Professor John Fiske, argues
that, 'not the production of any higher creature, but the perfecting of
humanity is to be the glorious consummation of Nature's long and
tedious work.... Man seems now, much more clearly than ever, the chief
among God's {101} creatures.... The whole creation has been groaning
and travailing together in order to bring forth that last consummate
specimen of God's handiwork, the Human Soul.'[4] If this be so, this
conclusion arrived at by those who do not hold the ordinary faith of
Christendom, then the objection that the Incarnation could not have
taken place for the redemption of such a race as ours, in a world which
is so poor a fraction of the infinite universe, falls to the ground;
and the protest of a devout modern poet carries conviction with it:

This earth too small
For Love Divine! Is God not Infinite?
If so, His Love is infinite. Too small!
One famished babe meets pity oft from man
More than an army slain! Too small for Love!
Was Earth too small to be of God created?
Why then too small to be redeemed?[5]

Man may, or may not, occupy a 'central position in the universe': other
worlds may, {102} or may not, be inhabited: this earth may be but a
minute and insignificant speck amid the mighty All, this at least is
certain, that not by mere magnitude is our rank in the scale of being
to be decided, and that in the spirit of man will be found that which
approaches most nearly to Him who is Spirit. 'The man who reviles
Humanity on the ground of its small place in the scale of the Universe
is,' according to Mr. Frederic Harrison, 'the kind of man who s