AS TO OURSELVES 



physical bodies, most of which are furi- 

 ously burning. To speak at all about 

 physical life, they first should walk on 

 this earth like other people. But every 

 such school of thought, whether astron- 

 omers, physicists, or biologists, have this 

 bond of union between them, namely, the 

 doctrine that we ourselves are things which 

 have come into existence in essentially the 

 same way as other things do, 



No contradiction could be greater than 

 that between this doctrine and the greatest 

 truth which underlies this human world, 

 as it can be expressed in these few words : 



Things are not responsible, but persons 

 are. 



Every person, however insignificant he 

 may seem to be, entails responsibility in 

 one way or another. Thousands of poor 

 immigrants are daily landed upon our 

 shores, every one of whom then looks in- 

 significant enough. And so they are quite 

 191 



