As the little boy evolved from his inner consciousness his idea of the camel, of which he had never seen even a picture, so man in olden times evolved his theories of the origin of the world and of himself, and the part he was to play in life. According to his primitive way of thinking, the earth--which he regarded as the center of the universe--was a very small affair, over which Nature presided as a sort of satrap whose rulership was subject to interference at any time by the Great King. According to his theory there were two sets of laws, natural and divine, and they were often in conflict with each other. But man always had the right to appeal his case to the higher authority when not satisfied with Nature’s rulings. She had neither part nor jurisdiction in the human mind or soul--that coming not by way of her but directly from God. This was essentially the belief of millions for thousands of years, and it is the belief of millions today. This is the soil in which nearly all the creeds of today are rooted. The old theologians made a distinction between God’s works and Nature’s works, divine laws and natural laws. It is because of this dual idea of God and Nature that the most fruitful scientific discovery of all time is barred from the schools in some states and denounced as “atheism” from many a pulpit. Those who hold to the old theology do not realize how completely science has destroyed the foundations of their ancient belief, nor have they any conception of what an incalculable service modern thought has been to religion in clearing it of its impediments. The bringing of science and reason to play in the progress of man, the bringing of the blind forces of Nature more and more under subjection to his enlightened intelligence--this is but Nature exalting herself. Having built up a higher plane, the human plane, Nature works upon that to refine and ennoble herself--not purposely, or only so far as man works with a purpose. All, all is Nature. Transcriber’s note: Obvious printing errors, such as partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected. Full stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added. Spelling in common use at the time of publishing, such as “aligator” and “agelong”, has been kept as is. Obvious typos have been corrected.