CONVICTION 337 



in life which is worth attaining. Probably in the recesses 

 of his solemn mind there exists inhibited the seed of 

 humour, awaiting an awakening by such an impulse. 

 The same advice would seem to apply to the propagation 

 of religion; it has, I believe, the merit of being entirely 

 orthodox advice. 



We cannot pretend to offer proofs. Proof is an idol 

 before whom the pure mathematician tortures himself. 

 In physics we are generally content to sacrifice before 

 the lesser shrine of Plausibility. And even the pure 

 mathematician — that stern logician — reluctantly allows 

 himself some prejudgments; he is never quite convinced 

 that the scheme of mathematics is flawless, and mathe- 

 matical logic has undergone revolutions as profound as 

 the revolutions of physical theory. We are all alike 

 stumblingly pursuing an ideal beyond our reach. In 

 science we sometimes have convictions as to the right 

 solution of a problem which we cherish but cannot 

 justify; we are influenced by some innate sense of the 

 fitness of things. So too there may come to us convic- 

 tions in the spiritual sphere which our nature bids us 

 hold to. I have given an example of one such conviction 

 which is rarely if ever disputed — that surrender to the 

 mystic influence of a scene of natural beauty is right and 

 proper for a human spirit, although it would have been 

 deemed an unpardonable eccentricity in the "observer" 

 contemplated in earlier chapters. Religious conviction 

 is often described in somewhat analogous terms as a 

 surrender; it is not to be enforced by argument on those 

 who do not feel its claim in their own nature. 



I think it is inevitable that these convictions should 

 emphasise a personal aspect of what we are trying to 

 grasp. We have to build the spiritual world out of 

 symbols taken from our own personality, as we build 



