form is not natural, proper,
assimilable food for the soul of man.

Is this a plea then for doubt? Yes, for that philosophic doubt which is
the evidence of a faculty doing its own work. It is more necessary for
us to be active than to be orthodox. To be orthodox is what we wish to
be, but we can only truly reach it by being honest, by being original,
by seeing with our own eyes, by believing with our own heart. "An idle
life," says Goethe, "is death anticipated." Better far be burned at the
stake of Public Opinion than die the living death of Parasitism. Better
an aberrant theology than a suppressed organization. Better a little
faith dearly won, better launched alone on the infinite bewilderment of
Truth, than perish on the splendid plenty of the richest creeds. Such
Doubt is no self-willed presumption. Nor, truly exercised, will it prove
itself, as much doubt does, the synonym for sorrow. It aims at a
life-long learning, prepared for any sacrifice of will yet for none of
independence; at that high progressive education which yields rest in
work and work in rest, and the development of immortal faculties in
both; at that deeper faith which believes in the vastness and variety of
the revelations of God, and their accessibility to all obedient
hearts.

FOOTNOTES:

[95] "Degeneration," by E. Ray Lankester, p. 33.

CLASSIFICATION.

"I judge of the order of the world, although I know not its end,
because to judge of this order I only need mutually to compare the
parts, to study their functions, their relations, and to remark
their concert. I know not why the universe exists, but I do not
desist from seeing how it is modified; I do not cease to see the
intimate agreement by which the beings that compose it render a
mutual help. I am like a man who should see for the first time an
open watch, who should not cease to admire the workmanship of it,
although he knows not the use of the machine, and had never seen
dials. I do not know, he would say, what all this is for, but I see
that each piece is made for the others; I admire the worker in the
detail of his work, and I am very sure that all these wheelworks
only go thus in concert for a common end which I cannot
perceive."--_Rousseau._

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit."--_Christ._

"In early attempts to arrange organic beings in some sys