KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNKNOWABLE 



not only because philosophic doubt or suspension 

 of judgment is less unbearable as a mental state 

 than some suppose, and not even merely because 

 anything that saves us from dogmatism makes 

 for intellectual health and a decent humility; not 

 merely because it leaves us free to dream the most 

 salutary dream that there are more things in 

 heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our 

 philosophy; but especially because, in leaving us 

 unbound either by the facile optimism or the 

 plausible pessimism which, each alike, is an argu 

 ment against action, it permits us to use our ac 

 tivities in the practical belief that, even though, 

 as we suspect, the Eternal is non-moral or supra- 

 moral, yet evil is not an irreducible or even a 

 necessary fact of existence. We are still free to 

 believe, with the immortal Socrates, that to the 

 wise man no evil can happen. Doubt of any 

 kind, said Goethe, can be relieved only by action, 

 and our doubt of the attributes of the unknowable 

 can thus be practically solved. If it impel to 

 action, it may be worth more than any positive 

 belief. 



