226 MY DEVON YEAR 



grow cold ; many humane spirits become indifferent ; 

 but Time, the Master- Builder, has in his keeping 

 human intellects unborn that shall show greater 

 courage in this matter as a result of higher reason. 

 We cannot see more than dim finger-posts pointing 

 to nothing ; but the sons of the morning may read 

 them when we are gone, and face the darkness like 

 men, not flee from it like cowards. 



Let us be charitable to ideas : there is little danger 

 in that ; for each carries its own seed, and if the seed 

 be sterile, no human necessity arises to destroy it ; 

 and if the seed be fertile, there is no human power 

 that can do so. For a time the world will often 

 prefer a prosperous error to an afflicted truth ; but 

 only for a time. The centuries witness every human 

 fallacy return to its dust, while that which is true 

 remains immortal. Of truth, indeed, may the word 

 be spoken ; but of nothing else. 



Concerning Nature I say that her cult is reasonable 

 because it fulfils the conditions of a working creed. 

 Much is hidden, but much is lucid and practical ; 

 the element of mystery does not lack ; yet the 

 rudiments are easily grasped. A lively sense of the 

 necessity for obedience is the first lesson to be learned. 

 Break her laws, and she will break you. That is clear 

 even to the fool. Nature lives and goes forward, and 

 is always in the van of human intellect. Outworn 

 creeds fall like the flower whose fruit, set from 

 better pollen than her own, is destined to uplift the 

 next generation of blossoms into a nobler beauty than 



