A symbolic
embodiment of this spirit may be seen in the motor car and the aeroplane
as they are often used. These indeed need not be ministers of paganism.
The glory of swift motion and the mounting up on wings as eagles reach
very near to the spiritual, if not indeed across its borderland, as
exhilarating and splendid stimuli to the human spirit. But, on the other
hand, they may be merely instruments for gratifying that insane human
restlessness which is but the craving for new sensations. Along the
whole line of our commercial and industrial prosperity there runs one
great division. There are some who, in the midst of all change, have
preserved their old spiritual loyalties, and there are others who have
substituted novelty for loyalty. These are the idealists and the pagans
of the twentieth century.
Another potent factor in the making of the new times was the scientific
advance which has made so remarkable a difference to the whole outlook
of man upon the earth. Darwin's great discovery is perhaps the most
epoch-making fact in science that has yet appeared upon the earth. The
first apparent trend of evolution seemed to be an entirely materialistic
reaction.
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