ion, we protest, need no reconciliation, for they
never were at war. Not religion, but pseudo-philosophy and so-called
theology--this it is to which science is an implacable and
irreconcilable foe. And she will never cease from her determined
opposition until the ecclesiastical idol vacates the very last niche it
occupies in its "chapel," clothes itself with the white robe of
contrition, and sits humbly upon the stool of repentance awaiting a
scientific absolution.

For us, such reconciliation is an unmeaning phrase. We never professed
to follow aught but reason's kindly light, for that we _know_ to be the
Divine Light in us. And, therefore, all that comes to us in reason's
name, comes accredited, as though from the innermost court of the Great
Presence itself. We discard nothing but what offends reason and its
ascertained laws; we bring everything before its bar. Science is to us
a Divine revelation, its teachings are among our inspired literature.
No need therefore of reconciliation between religion and science when
we resolve both, as in a final synthesis, into the root fact of all
this wondrous universe--eternal reason. And because of this, a faith
such as ours is part of the order of imperishable realities, for the
kingdom of reason, like the throne of the Eternal, is for ever and ever.

[1] _Deus Scientiarum Dominus._

XVII.

"THE OVER-SOUL."

The most serious errors in the philosophical and religious domains are
generally found to be nothing but the exaggeration, or the minimising,
of a truth, very much as evil, physical and moral, is often the
privation of a corresponding good, the absence of something which ought
to be present. Year by year the vast majority of religionists in this
Western world are seriously engaged in the commemoration of a
transcendent mystery, the humanisation, or incarnation, of the Deity in
the person of the Prophet of Nazara. As might be expected, the
upholders of this belief are by no means all agreed as to the manner in
which this momentous event came about, and, while there are many
prepared to speak of "Our Lord Jesus Christ"--and we certainly feel no
difficulty in so speaking of an elevated and saintly spirit such as
he--all are not prepared to subscribe to the precise formulation of the
mystery as given in an Athanasian creed, or a homily of a fourth
century father. Beyond admitting in a general and rather vague way
that Jesus is "Divine," many people are