Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/371

 observe the habits of animals, study the effects of the sun and the arrangement of stars, but this would not elevate his love, for the knowledge of the sun and stars is of no higher character than that which tells in what kind of soil would grow the best corn.

It is moral truth that elevates man. That the first people should have had the knowledge of applied natural science, as it exists in steamships, railroads, printing presses and the like, was not necessary. While this is useful to society of our kind, it is not indispensable to a high, moral and spiritual development; and possibly it would not even be cultivated among us if we were a genus of man that intently aspired toward the acquisition of spiritual truth and life. Without the knowledge of applied science primeval man could know that the Creator had made man. They could know that they were spiritual beings clothed with material bodies; that there is a life after death; that the acquisition of wisdom and love from the Creator and their delights and uses are the purpose of creation, and to fulfil that purpose God should be loved, and His Divine order preserved. Though there were no telegraphs, steel war-ships, or printing presses, they could have known how God brought forth the spiritual world, and through it the natural; how