I2O At the Darkest Hour. 



die with great hopes, and will never learn their mistake ; 

 whereas the man of science dies with the certainty that 

 his course is run. Science, alas, has added a pang to 

 death, for all her children. 



It is, therefore, a sterner gospel into which we of this 

 generation have to be baptized. We have partaken of 

 the tree of knowledge. The pleasant illusions of man's 

 early creeds have been brushed ruthlessly away. We 

 face Nature's hard law with no fairy tale to disguise its 

 inclemency. Immortal life will be achieved by the aid of 

 applied science ; it is what the whole scheme of evolution 

 moves forward to ; it is the dream of all the long-suffering 

 ages of man; it will be initiated on earth within three 

 centuries, perhaps within two, so rapid is the growth of 

 knowledge, so accelerated the march of discovery. But 

 we who have to initiate the great effort will not look 

 upon the dawn of the achievement, nor be among the first 

 of the sons of men who rise superior to death. 



We can but feel, therefore, that we live at humanity's 

 darkest hour the hour before the dawn. We live too 

 late to be buoyed and comforted by the illusions of 

 religion, too soon to reach the goal and snatch our lives 

 from the grasp of death. 



Have we the strength to work on, quite the same, and 

 bravely round the curve for the sake of those more fortu- 

 nate who shall come after us ? Have we the devotion to 

 face the inevitable, turn in our best work and die, uncom- 



