EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



would be that the question itself is now a mean- 

 ingless anachronism. 



The critic may say, as I have heard it said, that 

 the facts we allege of the unknowable that it is 

 one, eternal, uncreated, supra-personal, and supra- 

 intelligent are of no use to him and can be of 

 no use to us. They afford no solace, no guidance, 

 no inspiration. And certainly if he asks whether 

 what we believe to be our partial knowledge of 

 that which, in its essence, transcends knowledge, 

 in any way affects the conduct or the happiness of 

 the Spencerians, we must answer that it does not. 

 But we must add that the problem is not to find 

 something useful or potent or satisfying or solacing, 

 but to find what is true; and, in our allegiance to 

 Truth, to refrain from seeking to outstrip her, but 

 to be content, or, at any rate, willing, merely to 

 follow wherever she leads. 



This, also, we may add. It may appear that 

 doubt and an assertion of ignorance must mean 

 mental distress, or, at least, mental unrest; and 

 certainly the creed which I have tried to present 

 is no bulwark in the hour of sorrow as is that 

 which teaches, in glorious imagery, that "under- 

 neath are the Everlasting Arms." On the other 

 hand, it is still left to us that we may "faintly 

 trust the larger hope"; and, further, the belief in 

 the unknowable is not entirely without its own 

 solace, though we strenuously repudiate the sug- 

 gestion that we believe in it for that reason. It 

 is immeasurably better than blank materialism; 

 358 



