But there does spring from naturalism a
positive religion, whose fundamental motives are those of service,
wonder, and renunciation: service of humanity in the present, wonder at
the natural truth, and renunciation of a universe keyed to vibrate with
human ideals.

"Have you," writes Charles Ferguson, "had dreams of Nirvana
and sickly visions and raptures? Have you imagined that the
end of your life is to be absorbed back into the life of God,
and to flee the earth and forget all? Or do you want to walk
on air, or fly on wings, or build a heavenly city in the
clouds? Come, let us take our kit on our shoulders, and go out
and build the city _here_."[265:25]

For Haeckel "natural religion" is such as

"the astonishment with which we gaze upon the starry heavens
and the microscopic life in a drop of water, the awe with
which we trace the marvellous working of energy in the motion
of matter, the reverence with which we grasp the universal
dominance of the law of substance throughout the
universe."[266:26]

There is a deeper and a sincerer note in the stout, forlorn humanism of
Huxley:

"That which lies before the human race is a constant struggle
to maintain and improve, in opposition to the State of Nature,
the State of Art of an organized polity; in which, and by
which, man may develop a worthy civilization, capable of
maintaining and constantly improving itself, until the
evolution of our globe shall have entered so far upon its
downward course that the cosmic process resumes its sway; and,
once more, the State of Nature prevails over the surface of
our planet."[266:27]

FOOTNOTES:

[223:1] PRELIMINARY NOTE.--By _naturalism_ is meant that system of
philosophy which defines the universe in the terms of _natural science_.
In its dogmatic phase, wherein it maintains that _being is corporeal_,
it is called _materialism_. In its critical phase, wherein it makes the
general assertion that the natural sciences constitute the only
_possible knowledge_, whatever be the nature of reality itself, it is
called _positivism_, _agnosticism_, or simply _naturalism_.

[226:2] Lucretius: _De Rerum Natura_, Bk. II, lines 569-580. Translation
by Munro.

[229:3] The reader will find an interesting account of these opposing
views in Locke's chapter on _Space_, in his _Essay Concerning Human
Understanding_.

[230:4]