e not impressions borne in upon the soul of man as he stands
a spectator of the universe which religion alone attempts to formulate?
Certain impressions are expressed by the sciences and the arts. 'How
wonderful!'--exclaims man, and that is the dawn of science; 'How
beautiful!'--and that is the dawn of art. But there is a still higher, a
more solemn, impression borne in upon him, and, falling upon his knees,
he cries, 'How holy!' That is the dawn of religion."

Mr. Le Gallienne does not see that this is all imagination. "The heavens
declare the glory of God," exclaims the Psalmist. On the other hand,
a great French Atheist exclaimed, "The heavens declare the glory of
Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton."

Mr. Le Gallienne does not see, either, that man did not exclaim, "How
holy!" when he first fell upon his knees. His feeling was rather, "How
terrible!" The sense of holiness is a social product--a high sublimation
of morality. Man had to possess it himself, and see it highly
exemplified in picked specimens of his kind, before he bestowed it upon
his gods. Deities do not anticipate, they follow, the course of human
evolution.

Mr. Le Gallienne is an Optimist. He is young and prosperous, and,
judging from his poetry, happily married. He is therefore satisfied that
all is for the best--if properly understood; just as when an alderman
has dined, all the world is happy.

There are such people, however, as Pessimists, and Mr. Le Gallienne
hates them. Schopenhauer, for instance, he rails at as a "small
philosopher." whose ideas were only the "formulation of his own special
disease, the expression of his own ineffably petty and uncomfortable
disposition." At which one can only stare, as at a mannikin attacking a
colossus. Spinoza too can be treated jauntily if he does not fall into
line with Mr. Le Gallienne. George Meredith is treated with abundant
respect, but he is wronged by being enrolled as a facile optimist, and
"the strongest of the apostles of faith." He is certainly nothing of the
kind, in Mr. Le Gallienne's sense of the words. He has faith in reason
and humanity, but this is a very different thing from faith in the
idols--even the greatest idol--of the Pantheon.

"There is too much pain in the world," said Charles Darwin, who knew
what he was talking about, and always expressed himself with moderation.
In the moral world, pain becomes evil; and the problem of evil has ever
been the crux of Theism. It cannot be solve