The Advance Of Knowledge Is An Infinite

By Religion, Then, I Understand A Propitiation Or Conciliation Of Powers Superior To Man Which Are Believed To Direct And Control The Course Of Nature And Of Human Life.

Even The Recognition Of An Individual Whom We See Every Day Is Only Possible As The Result Of An Abstract Idea Of Him Formed By Generalization From His Appearances In The Past.

If The Test Of Truth Lay In A Show Of Hands Or A Counting Of Heads, The System Of Magic Might Appeal, With Far More Reason Than The Catholic Church, To The Proud Motto, 'quod Semper, Quod Ubique, Quod Ab Omnibus' [always, Everywhere, And By All], As The Sure And Certain Credential Of Its Own Infallibility.

Dwellers By The Sea Cannot Fail To Be Impressed By The Sight Of Its Ceaseless Ebb And Flow, And Are Apt, On The Principles Of That Rude Philosophy Of Sympathy And Resemblance... To Trace A Subtle Relation, A Secret Harmony, Between Its Tides And The Life Of Man... The Belief That Most Deaths Happen At Ebb Tide Is Said To Be Held Along The East Coast Of England From Northumberland To Kent.

For When A Nation Becomes Civilized, If It Does Not Drop Human Sacrifices Altogether, It At Least Selects As Victims Only Such Wretches As Would Be Put To Death At Any Rate. Thus The Killing Of A God May Sometimes Come To Be Confounded With The Execution Of A Criminal.