The best foundation possible for a life of happiness is vigor, ability and good character. For the lack of none of these can wealth properly atone. There is an apparent tendency to waken to the situation. I hope it will come soon enough for our young men and young women to get past a desire for such establishments in life as their parents already have. With this difficulty removed, with our widespread education, with the constant diffusion of both information and ideals from our periodical press I have every hope that the evolution of a new, a finer, and more vigorous race, will come with a rapidity which nothing that the past has done would lead us to expect. CHAPTER XI SCIENCE AND THE BOOK We of the twentieth century have an overwhelming desire to be up to the times. Nothing but the latest news on any subject will completely satisfy. We are more anxious for late information than for accurate information. We have an almost unconquerable feeling that if it is late it must be accurate. All of us are sensitive to being thought behind the times. We feel that no stigma can be more invidious in the intellectual world than the stigma of being out of date. This pervades the masses quite as strongly as it does the more cultured classes. Under these conditions everybody wants to know the latest theory that science has to offer concerning anything that can be brought within the range of their interests. As a result everybody would like to know about evolution, were it not for the fact that a great mass of people have been brought to believe that there is something inherently irreligious in the idea. Our people have a saving sense of the value of religion. Denominational control may set lightly upon them. Certain long revered doctrines may have little practical influence upon them. Yet inherently they all believe in religion, and most of them believe themselves to be religious, as indeed they really are. It is a most wholesome tendency which leads us to esteem religion as the main interest in life. We must feel a sense of shame when we consciously permit the influences, which most favorably mold our character, to weaken their hold upon our lives. Certainly in our time religion is the essential agent by which character is molded. Any of us would be foolishly short-sighted were he willing to weaken the hold of religion upon his life for the sake of a scientific theory, the truth or falsity of which could have but little practical bearing upon his conduct. We must hold to religion at all hazards. We may, when circumstances so suggest, change our denominational allegiance. We may and often do interpret our faith quite at variance with the ecclesiastical body with which we are connected. We may constantly modify and develop our beliefs. But it is a pitiful life which has lost the staying and strengthening influence of religion. I believe this conviction is deep-rooted in the minds of our people and that it deserves the place it holds.