Reason, Observation and Experience--the Holy Trinity of Science--have
taught us that happiness is the only good; that the time to be happy is
now, and the way to be happy is to make others so. This is enough for
us. In this belief we are content to live and die. If by any possibility
the existence of a power superior to, and independent of, nature shall
be demonstrated, there will then be time enough to kneel. Until then,
let us all stand nobly erect.
118. The Old and the New Old ideas perished in the retort of the
chemist, and useful truths took their places. One by one religious
conceptions have been placed in the crucible of science, and thus far,
nothing but dross has been found. A new world has been discovered by the
microscope; everywhere has been found the infinite; in every direction
man has investigated and explored, and nowhere, in earth or stars,
has been found the footstep of any being superior to or independent
of nature. Nowhere has been discovered the slightest evidence of any
interference from without.