236 WHAT IS LIFE ? 



and for ever. 1 The kingdom of knowledge is what 

 intelligent men recognize as the knowledge of the ever 

 ruling natural laws. 2 



The kingdom of knowledge therefore may be likened 

 to the parable 3 of the ten virgins, for five possessed 

 knowledge and five were ignorant of knowledge ; and 

 when the cry came, figuratively expressed, that the 



1 " What the greatest thinkers think to-day, the mass of thinkers 

 will think to-morrow, and the great army of non-thinkers will assume 

 to be self-evident the day after. This is very nearly the case at the 

 present day ; the great thinkers have gone before, the mass of 

 thinkers have followed, and the still greater mass of non- thinkers are 

 wavering and about to follow. It is no longer, with those who think 

 at all, a question of absolute faith against absolute disbelief, but of 

 the more or less shade of ' faintness ' with which they cling to the 

 ' larger hope.' " (" Modern Science and Modern Thought," S. Laing, 

 1896, p. 219.) 



2 " We can conquer nature only by obeying her laws, and in order 

 to obey her laws we must first learn what they are. When we have 

 ascertained, by means of Science, the method of nature's operations, 

 we shall be able to take her place and to perform them for ourselves. 

 When we understand the law^s which regulate the complex phenomena 

 of life, we shall be able to predict the future as we are already able 

 to predict comets and eclipses and the planetary movements." (" The 

 Martyrdom of Man," Winwood Reade, 1890, p. 513.) 



3 " I think the sayings and parables may generally be taken as 

 authentic. It is true that many of both may be found in the 

 literature of the Talmud and of older religions, but this does not 

 negative the probability that Jesus may have used them in his 

 popular addresses, and at any rate they afford a view of what his 

 doctrine and style of preaching really were ; and many of the 

 parables and shorter sayings are just such things as would be readily 

 retained in the memory and transmitted by oral tradition." 

 (" Problems of the Future," S. Laing, 1894, p. 259.) 



It is very important to remember that Jesus Christ taught by 

 parables " because seeing they see not and (hearing they hear not, 

 neither do they understand." 



