se above the ecclesiastical, until the religious
freedom of the individual is at last becoming generally and securely
established.

Only by this overthrow of ecclesiastical authority was rendered possible
that unchecked freedom of intellectual inquiry which has been the great
positive factor in modern advance. Step by step men have learned to know
the condition, the history, the natural laws of the material world in
which they live and the social world of which they are a part. The
bearing of this growing knowledge on the conception of the spiritual life
has been various,--seeming for a while to lie wholly apart from it; then
at times menacing its existence or contracting its scope; again arming it
with powerful weapons and enlarging its ideals. Of the latest chapters
in the story of science, one has retold the origin of Christianity,
divested it of miracle and revelation, and translated it into purely
natural and human terms. Another chapter has fixed the general trend of
the universe known to man as an ever advancing and broadening movement,
under the name of Evolution.

Amid all these changes the Christian church has continued to present its
ideals, precepts, incitements; partly affirming them in contradiction of
all denial, partly adapting them to the changes of time and thought. The
moral and spiritual interpretation of life has not been confined to the
church, but has been voiced in each generation by poets, moralists,
reformers, statesmen, each after his thought. Out of the conflict and
confusion a substantial agreement and harmonious ideal is at last
appearing. More clearly and confidently in our day than ever before the
universe may be seen and felt by man as a Cosmos,--a beautiful order.

This bird's-eye view will grow more distinct and vivid if we study
certain typical figures which group themselves as the representatives of
succeeding generations. Our conventional division of centuries will
serve as a convenient framework for four groups.

In the sixteenth century we have Sir Thomas More, uniting the highest
virtue of the church with the clearest intelligence of the new thought,
and setting forth in Utopia the ideal to be sought,--not mere individual
salvation, not an ecclesiastical fold, but a human commonwealth of free,
happy, and virtuous citizens.

Instead of the peaceful growth of such a society,--made impossible by
selfishness, ignorance, and passion,--comes social upheaval and religious