SOUNDINGS 



that presses upon us so tremendously. At the court 

 of absolute reason we see what puppets and autom- 

 ata we are, but at the court of practical justice we 

 see and feel that we are free to do right as we see the 

 right. The contradictions which Balfour sees, in his 

 chapter on "Naturalism and Ethics," between the 

 results of practical life and of abstract reasoning is 

 of a kind which one sees everywhere in the universe. 

 The circle is a perpetual contradiction. How can a 

 line go in all directions? — and in no direction? In 

 our practical lives there is an upper and an under, 

 an up and a down, but away from the earth, or con- 

 „ sidering the earth as a whole, there is no such thing. 

 Righteous indignation at the misconduct of oth- 

 ers, or self-condemnation, repentance, remorse, are 

 reasonable feelings because we actually feel them. 

 We have no choice in the matter. To whatever con- 

 clusion abstract reason leads us in regard to them, 

 it does not affect our practical conduct, because our 

 conduct is founded upon the sense of freedom. We 

 are here to act, to do, and not to reason abstractly. 

 This is the tree of the forbidden fruit. When we eat 

 of it we know things that may stand in the way of 

 our practical living. Balfour should see that we are 

 determinists or naturists when we reason, but free 

 agents when we act, and that there is no getting 

 away from the contradiction. 



I may be the duplicate of my father, or of my 

 grandfather; every one of my traits may be inher- 



297 



