pe is the product of that interaction, sometimes in the
way of antagonism, sometimes in that of profitable interchange, of the
Semitic and the Aryan races, which commenced with the dawn of history,
when Greek and Phoenician came in contact, and has been continued by
Carthaginian and Roman, by Jew and Gentile, down to the present day. Our
art (except, perhaps, music) and our science are the contributions of
the Aryan; but the essence of our religion is derived from the Semite.
In the eighth century B.C., in the heart of a world of idolatrous
polytheists, the Hebrew prophets put forth a conception of religion
which appears to me to be as wonderful an inspiration of genius as the
art of Pheidias or the science of Aristotle.

"And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

If any so-called religion takes away from this great saying of Micah,
I think it wantonly mutilates, while, if it adds thereto, I think it
obscures, the perfect ideal of religion.

But what extent of knowledge, what acuteness of scientific criticism,
can touch this, if any one possessed of knowledge, or acuteness, could
be absurd enough to make the attempt? Will the progress of research
prove that justice is worthless and mercy hateful; will it ever soften
the bitter contrast between our actions and our aspirations; or show us
the bounds of the universe and bid us say, Go to, now we comprehend the
infinite? A faculty of wrath lay in those ancient Israelites, and surely
the prophet's staff would have made swift acquaintance with the head of
the scholar who had asked Micah whether, peradventure, the Lord further
required of him an implicit belief in the accuracy of the cosmogony of
Genesis!

What we are usually pleased to call religion nowadays is, for the most
part, Hellenised Judaism; and, not unfrequently, the Hellenic element
carries with it a mighty remnant of old-world paganism and a great
infusion of the worst and weakest products of Greek scientific
speculation; while fragments of Persian and Babylonian, or rather
Accadian, mythology burden the Judaic contribution to the common stock.

The antagonism of science is not to religion, but to the heathen
survivals and the bad philosophy under which religion herself is often
well-nigh crushed. And, for my part, I trust that this antagonism will
never cease; but that, to the end of time, true science will continue to
fulfil one of her mo