APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 161 



CCCLIV 



It is Baur's great merit to have seen that the key 

 to the problem of Christianity lies in the Epistle to 

 the Galatians. No doubt he and his followers rather 

 overdid the thing, but that is always the way with 

 those who take up a new idea. 



If a man cannot do brain work without stimulants 

 of any kind, he had better turn to hand work it is 

 an indication on Nature's part that she did not mean 

 him to be a head worker. 



It is not to be forgotten that what we call rational 

 grounds for our beliefs are often extremely irrational 

 attempts to justify our instincts. 



Even the best of modern civilisations appears to 

 me to exhibit a condition of mankind which neither 

 embodies any worthy ideal nor even possesses the 

 merit of stability. I do not hesitate to express my 

 opinion that, if there is no hope of a large improve- 

 ment of the condition of the greater part of the 

 human family ; if it is true that the increase of 

 knowledge, the winning of a greater dominion over 

 Nature which is its consequence, and the wealth 

 which follows upon that dominion, are to make na 

 difference in the extent and the intensity of Want, 

 with its concomitant physical and moral degradation, 

 among the masses of the people, I should hail the 

 advent of some kindly comet, which would sweep 

 the whole affair away, as a desirable consummation. 



