XV. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR REALITIES. 



It is said that every tie in the Panama Railway cost 



a man his life. Whether this be true or not, it may 



serve as an illustration of the progress 



e price o ^£ human knowledge. Every step in the 



advance of science has cost the life of a 

 man. And this price of truth has been paid in two dif- 

 ferent ways. It may take a lifetime of the severest 

 labour to find out a new fact. No truth comes to man 

 unless he asks for it ; and it takes years of patience and 

 devotion to ask of Nature even one new question. He 

 is already a master in science who can suggest a new 

 experiment. 



In the second place, the truth-seeker has had to 

 struggle for his physical life. Each acquisition of 

 truth has been resisted by the full force of the inertia 

 of satisfaction with preconceived ideas. Just as a new 

 thought comes to us with a shock which rouses the re- 

 sistance of our personal conservatism, so a new idea is 

 met and repelled by the conservatism of society. 



And as each individual in his own secret heart be- 

 lieves himself in some degree the subject of the favour 



of the mysterious unseen powers, so 



The mystic , • .. • n ,.u c j 



. ^ does society m all the ages find a mys- 



sanction. . , ^ , 



tic or divine warrant for its own attitude 

 toward life or action, whatever that may be. 

 366 



