vii.] ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE. 145 



of lunar politics, in their essence incapable of being 

 answered, and therefore not worth the attention of men 

 who have work to do in the world. And he thus ends 

 one of his essays : — - 



" If wo take in hand any volume of Divinity, or school metaphysics, 

 for instance, let ns ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning 

 quantity or number ? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning 

 concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the 

 flames ; for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion." x 



Permit me to enforce this most wise advice. Why 

 trouble ourselves about matters of which, however im- 

 portant they may be, we do know nothing, and can 

 know nothing ? We live in a world which is full of 

 misery and ignorance, and the plain duty of each and 

 all of us is to try to make the little corner he can in- 

 fluence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less 

 ignorant than it was before he entered it. To do this 

 effectually it is necessary to be fully possessed of only 

 two beliefs : the first, that the order of nature is ascer- 

 tainable by our faculties to an extent which is practically 

 unlimited ; the second, that our volition counts for some- 

 thing as a condition of the course of events. 



Each of these beliefs can be verified experimentally, 

 as often as we like to try. Each, therefore, stands upon 

 the strongest foundation upon which any belief can rest, 

 and forms one of our highest truths. If we find that 

 the ascertainment of the order of nature is facilitated 

 by using one terminology, or one set of symbols, rather 

 than another, it is our clear duty to use the former ; and 

 no harm can accrue, so long as we bear in mind, that we 

 arc dealing merely with terms and symbols. 



In itself it is of little moment whether we express 

 the phenomena of matter in terms of spirit ; or the 



1 Hume's Essay * Of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy," in th« 

 '* Inquiry concern iug the Human Understanding." 



