I 4 HUMANISM t 



forces of nature, great as it is, does not amount to 

 incommensurability. And it denies that any of the great 

 questions of human concern have been irrevocably 

 answered against us. For most of them have not even 

 been asked in the pragmatist manner, and in no case 

 has there been that systematic and clear-sighted endeavour 

 which extorts an answer from reluctant nature. In 

 short, no doctrine better calculated to stir us to activity 

 or more potent to sustain our efforts has ever issued from 

 the philosophic study. 



It is true that to gain these hopes we must make bold 

 to take some risks. If our action is a real factor in 

 the course of events, it is impossible to exclude the 

 contingency that if we act wrongly it may be an 

 influence for ill. To the chance of salvation there must 

 correspond a risk of damnation. We select the condi 

 tions under which reality shall appear to us, but this 

 very selection selects us, and if we cannot contrive to 

 reach a harmony in our intercourse with the real, we perish. 



But to many this very element of danger will but add 

 to the zest of life. For it cannot but appear by far 

 more interesting than the weary grinding out of a 

 predetermined course of things which issues in meaning 

 less monotony from the unalterable nature of the All. 

 And the infinite boredom with which this conception of 

 the course of nature would afflict us, must be commingled 

 with an equal measure of disgust when we realise that on 

 this same theory the chief ethical issues are eternally and 

 inexorably decided against us. Loyal co-operation and 

 Promethean revolt grow equally unmeaning. For man 

 can never have a ground for action against the Absolute. 

 It is eternally and inherently and irredeemably perfect, 

 and so leaves no ground for the hope that the 

 appearances which make up our world may somehow 

 be remoulded into conformity with our ideals. As they 

 cannot now impair the inscrutable perfection of the 

 Whole, they need not ever alter to pander to a criticism 

 woven out of the delusive dreams of us poor creatures 

 of illusion. 



