200 HUMANISM 



XI 



the course of our experience. Similarly, if I am comparing 

 the merits of the scientific theory that the transmission of 

 light is effected by the vibrations of a hypothetical reality 

 called the ether with those of a more poetic theory that 

 it is due to the flapping of equally hypothetical cherubs 

 wings, my decision will certainly be affected by the 

 consideration that I can probably discover regular ways of 

 manipulating the ether, but can hardly hope to control the 

 movements of the cherubs. 



An assumed reality, then, approves itself to be true in 

 proportion as it shows itself capable of rendering our life 

 more harmonious ; it exposes itself to rejection as false 

 in proportion as it either fails to affect our experiences, or 

 exercises a detrimental effect upon them. Knowledge is 

 power, because we decline to recognize as knowledge what 

 ever does not satisfy our lust for power. 



It follows (5) that Ultimate Reality must be absolutely 

 satisfactory. For that is the condition of our accepting 

 it as such. So long as the most ultimate reality we have 

 reached in thought or deed falls short in any respect of 

 giving complete satisfaction, the struggle to harmonize 

 experience must go on, lead to fresh efforts, and inspire 

 the suspicion that something must exist to dissolve away 

 our faintest discords. We cannot acquiesce therefore in 

 what we have found. Or rather our acquiescence in it 

 would at most betray the exhaustion of despair. To this we 

 might be reduced for a season, but the hope would always 

 rise anew that somehow there was something better, truer 

 and more real lurking behind the apparent ultimates of 

 our knowledge. For illustration I need merely appeal to 

 the well-known fact that an other world is always 

 conceived as a better world. The absolutely satisfactory 

 alone would rise superior to such doubts. It would be 

 psycJiologically impossible to suspect it of bearing hidden 

 horrors in its breast. The thought is no doubt abstractly 

 conceivable, but a human mind could hardly be found 

 seriously to entertain it. Similarly we might play with 

 the idea of a progress in knowledge which should not 

 only fail to be a progress in harmony, but should reveal 



