Here is a theory which is worth considering. May it not be that God
adapts the proofs of that which it is important that man should know to
the intellectual progress of mankind? Is it certain that the same
evidence which sufficed for the foundation of religious faith five
hundred years ago will suffice equally well to-day? Truths are eternal;
laws of Nature vary not. But of the world's thoughts there is a
childhood, a youth, a manhood; and there may be various classes of
arguments suited to various stages of progress.
Again, assuming that the materialist takes a contracted view of the
economy of human life, ignoring every portion of it except its present
phase, (that phase being but the preparation for another and a higher,)
may it not be, that, as the world advances, men may gradually be
permitted, occasionally and to a limited extent, to become aware of
influences exerted from a more advanced phase of existence over this?
May it not be that the links connecting the two phases of existence are
gradually to become more numerous and apparent?
Such are the general views which William Howitt's work is intended to
illustrate and enforce.
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