from flesh. Such existence
is absolutely inconceivable. If we are going to construct what
you call a "religion," it must be founded on observed and known
facts. Theories, to be of value, must be in accord with all the
facts that are known; otherwise they are worthless. We need not
try to get back of facts or behind the truth. The _why_ will
forever elude us. You cannot move your hand quickly enough to
grasp your image back of the mirror.

--_Mind_, New York, March, 1899.

THIS CENTURY'S GLORIES.

The laurel of the nineteenth century is on Darwin's brow. This
century has been the greatest of all. The inventions, the discoveries,
the victories on the fields of thought, the advances in nearly
every direction of human effort are without parallel in human
history. In only two directions have the achievements of this
century been excelled. The marbles of Greece have not been equalled.
They still occupy the niches dedicated to perfection. They sculptors
of our century stand before the miracles of the Greeks in impotent
wonder. They cannot even copy. They cannot give the breath of
life to stone and make the marble feel and think. The plays of
Shakespeare have never been approached. He reached the summit,
filled the horizon. In the direction of the dramatic, the poetic,
the human mind, in my judgment, in Shakespeare's plays reached its
limit. The field was harvested, all the secrets of the heart were
told. The buds of all hopes blossomed, all seas were crossed and
all the shores were touched.

With these two exceptions, the Grecian marbles and the Shakespeare
plays, the nineteenth century has produced more for the benefit of
man than all the centuries of the past. In this century, in one
direction, I think the mind has reached the limit. I do not believe
the music of Wagner will ever be excelled. He changed all passions,
longing, memories and aspirations into tones, and with subtle
harmonies wove tapestries of sound, whereon were pictured the past
and future, the history and prophecy of the human heart. Of course
Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and Kepler laid the foundations of
astronomy. It may be that the three laws of Kepler mark the highest
point in that direction that the mind has reached.

In the other centuries there is now and then a peak, but through
ours there runs a mountain range with Alp on Alp--the steamship
that has conquered all the seas; the railway, with its steeds of
steel with