490 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. ' 



But, according to the universal teaching of all schools of materialism, 

 the true criterion of the value of an action is its pleasurable tendency. 

 Show that it is not conducive to human gratification, and it ceases to 

 be virtuous. Let materialism efface from the world the old spiritual 

 dogmas on which ethics have hitherto rested, and the somber picture 

 of the great poet of the last century will assuredly be realized : 



" Religion, blushing, veils her sacred fires 

 And, unawares, Morality expires : 

 Nor public flame, nor private, dares to sbino, 

 Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine." 



It may be said that consequences are the scarecrows of fools ; that 

 things are what they are, and that it is our wisdom to see them as 

 they are ; that their consequences will be what they will be, and can 

 in no way alter the facts of which they are the outcome. This is true 

 enough, but it is not the whole truth. Consequences assuredly do 

 deserve our attention. "Exitus acta probat" is a faithful saying, 

 and with it accords that utterance of a diviner wisdom, " By their 

 fruits ye shall know them." A reductio ad absurdum is a good logical 

 process. Why ? Because man consists in reason. And so the fact, 

 if fact it be, as I believe, that the doctrines of materialism issue in 

 unreason, in that " universal darkness " of which Pope prophesied, 

 raises a strong presumption against them. If they are true, the last 

 word of philosophy is spoken in the verse of Baudelaire, ' ; Resigne- 

 toi, mon ame, dors ton sommeil de brute." But to tell me that this 

 is the conclusion of the whole matter, is in flat contradiction to my 

 deepest and most assured certitudes. Certain to me is the reasonable- 

 ness of the universe. It is cosmos, not chaos. Be its final cause 

 immeasurably distant from our knowledge, yet every part of the 

 process through which it moves is found, when examined, to be 

 intelligible. " Nothing is that errs from law." There are mysteries, 

 indeed, and locked doors, everywhere. As Hegel saw, every convex is 

 concave, and every concave convex. But this is not contradiction nor 

 unreason. Certain also to me is the supremacy of duty. Whatever is 

 doubtful, of this I am ineffably sure, that right I must do, whatever 

 the result ; that on the side of right I must be, whether it triumph or 

 not. And as certain to me is the sacredness of love. I do not speak of 

 those amours de chair at which we have glanced with the French nov- 

 elist, but of that passion for the ideal, which is the light of life : 

 "Luce intellettual, piena d" amore, 



Amor di vero ben pien di letizia, 



Letizia che trascende ogni doiore." 

 But that which in my heart is love, in my conscience justice, in my 

 intellect reason, is one and the same thing ; it is the primary truth of 

 which my whole moral being is full ; and any doctrine which con- 

 tradicts it is condemned already, even if it were, apparently, as well 

 established, as materialism is, manifestly, ill established. For, in 



