To make a statement of this kind useful, it is necessary to accompany each clause with some indication of the supplementary teaching necessary to make it assimilable: and such hints should be adapted not only to professed teachers, but to parents and all who have to do directly or indirectly with the education of children. It is my hope that the following clauses and explanations may be of some use also to the many who experience some difficulty in recognising the old landmarks amid the rising flood of criticism, and who at one time or another have felt shaken in their religious faith. Some of them are sure to have attained emancipation and conviction for themselves, but in so far as their own insight has led them in the general direction indicated by what follows, these will not be the last to welcome an explicit statement, even though in several places they may wish to modify and amend it. They will recognise that there is an advantage, for some purposes, in throwing old and over-familiar formulæ into new modes of expression; and that a variety in mode of formulation does not necessarily indicate a lack of appreciation of the loftiest truths yet vouchsafed to humanity. With these preliminary remarks I now submit a catechism, whereof the clauses are intended to be consistent with the teachings of Science in its widest sense, as well as with those of Literature and Philosophy, and to lead up to the substance or substratum of a religious creed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I THE ASCENT OF MAN _Q.  What are you?_ _A._  I am a being alive and conscious upon this earth; a descendant of ancestors who rose by gradual processes from lower forms of animal life, and with struggle and suffering became man. * * * * * CLAUSE I This answer does not pretend to exhaust the nature of man; another aspect is dealt with in Clause XII. It is usual to impart the latter mode of statement first; but premature dwelling on the more mystical aspect of human nature, with ignorance or neglect of the biological facts actually ascertained concerning it, only gives rise to troubled thought in the future when the material facts become known—often in crude or garbled form—and leads to scepticism. The clause as it stands is a large and comprehensive statement, that will need much time for its elucidation and adequate comprehension. Its separate terms may be considered thus:—