146 SCIENCE AND MORALS. m 



know nothing have been the prime cause and con- 

 tinual sustenance of that evil scepticism which is 

 the Nemesis of meddling with the unknowable. 



Cinderella is modestly conscious of her igno- 

 rance of these high matters. She lights the fire, 

 sweeps the house, and provides the dinner; and 

 is rewarded by being told that she is a base crea- 

 ture, devoted to low and material interests. But 

 in her garret she has fairy visions out of the ken 

 of the pair of shrews who are quarrelling down 

 stairs. She sees the order which pervades the 

 seeming disorder of the world; the great drama of 

 evolution, with its full share of pity and terror, 

 but also with abundant goodness and beauty, un- 

 rolls itself before her eyes; and she learns, in her 

 heart of hearts, the lesson, that the foundation of 

 morality is to have done, once and for all, with 

 lying; to give up pretending to believe that for 

 which there is no evidence, and repeating unin- 

 telligible propositions about things beyond the pos- 

 sibilities of knowledge. 



She knows that the safety of morality lies 

 neither in the adoption of this or that philosoph- 

 ical speculation, or this or that theological creed, 

 but in a real and living belief in that fixed order 

 of nature which sends social disorganisation upon 

 the track of immorality, as surely as it sends phys- 

 ical disease after physical trespasses. And of that 

 firm and lively faith it is her high mission to be 

 the priestess. 



