One day woman will be wise enough and brave enough to dictate terms, as she did ages ago in old Aryavarta. When that day comes, and the really Divine Motherhood planted in every true woman's soul is recognized by man and woman alike, God grant that she may thenceforth hold the fort till the Kali-Yuga is at full tide, and the Spiritual Evolution of our present Humanity is fully accomplished. In the meantime the world will have learned to _know_ Jesus, who and what he was, and how he became the Christ, and will have joined in his Divine Mission to man, as the teeming millions joined in old India under Christna ages ago. CHAPTER IX HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE The history of every people, of all time, and of every religion of which we have any record, reveals a similar origin, course, and destiny. We of the present day have the advantage of these records upon which to institute comparisons, ascertain relations, and draw conclusions. True, the partisans and postulants of all these religions at the present day will claim exception in favor of their own cult, and regard as sacrilegious and profane any attempt to institute comparisons and draw general conclusions. Any attempt to persuade them of their error would be useless. The essentials of their religion will not be called in question, but on the other hand, they will find that it is impossible to escape from the habitual and universal tendencies in which they are involved. However veritable may have been the original revelations, the tendencies and habits of weaving around them the traditions and superstitions of folklore seem to have been inevitable and universal. It is the province of Science to ascertain the facts in any given case, to institute comparisons, and to draw deductions and generalizations dispassionately and relentlessly. It is thus that every tradition, superstition, creed, dogma, and revelation comes under review, and is placed on trial. True science has no preconceived notion, no foregone conclusion. Each subject examined must tell its own story and in its own way, and stand or fall measured by intrinsic evidence and revealed fact. To this tribunal every episode in the life of man and the history of the human race must at last come. What are the _facts_? What do they reveal and signify? To most religionists this method and aim of science seem as relentless and dogmatic as their own creed or dogmas. It is a sifting and discriminative process, that, while relentless, is in the end eminently Just, and in the end will be found to be the revealer of all that is essential and true in religion itself. In itself, science is not and never can be a religion. It is a _method_ only, which, like a search-light, reveals all religions in all their essentials, and places them in their true light. Religion _per se_ is an essential element in the nature and life of man and of the human race.