What does naturalism take away from us? It leads, of course, to a somewhat dead view of things. In its extreme forms it takes the view that we live in a gigantic and mechanical universe, a meaningless machinery of planets and suns, in which man has accidentally appeared as a minute speck of life, negligible and ephemeral. Stressing the third term alone, this view is true enough. It means that if man is to improve his life, he must only deal with the external, visible world. There is nothing ‘real’ save what man can reach through his senses. So man should invent and build new machinery and amass as many facts as possible about the visible world and set about to ‘conquer nature’. This standpoint turns man outwards. It makes him see his field of activities as only outside himself. It makes him think that by discovering some fresh facts about the material universe he will be able to assuage his own sorrow and pain. There is today a very remarkable turning outwards of mankind, connecte...