328 SCIENCE AND MYSTICISM 



this sanction, for the pursuit of science springs from a 

 striving which the mind is impelled to follow, a ques- 

 tioning that will not be suppressed. Whether in the 

 intellectual pursuits of science or in the mystical pur- 

 suits of the spirit, the light beckons ahead and the 

 purpose surging in our nature responds. Can we not 

 leave it at that? Is it really necessary to drag in the 

 comfortable word "reality" to be administered like a 

 pat on the back? 



The problem of the scientific world is part of a 

 broader problem — the problem of all experience. Ex- 

 perience may be regarded as a combination of self 

 and environment, it being part of the problem to 

 disentangle these two interacting components. Life, 

 religion, knowledge, truth are all involved in this 

 problem, some relating to the finding of ourselves, some 

 to the finding of our environment from the experience 

 confronting us. All of us in our lives have to make 

 something of this problem; and it is an important 

 condition that we who have to solve the problem are 

 ourselves part of the problem. Looking at the very 

 beginning, the initial fact is the feeling of purpose in 

 ourselves which urges us to embark on the problem. 

 We are meant to fulfil something by our lives. There 

 are faculties with which we are endowed, or which we 

 ought to attain, which must find a status and an outlet 

 in the solution. It may seem arrogant that we should in 

 this way insist on moulding truth to our own nature; 

 but it is rather that the problem of truth can only spring 

 from a desire for truth which is in our nature. 



A rainbow described in the symbolism of physics is 

 a band of aethereal vibrations arranged in systematic 

 order of wave-length from about -000040 cm. to 

 •000072 cm. From one point of view we are paltering 



