98 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



nition which omits life and thought must be inadequate, 

 if not untrue. Are questions like these warranted? 

 Why not? If the final goal of man has not been yet 

 attained; if his development has not been yet arrested, 

 who can say that such yearnings and questionings are 

 not necessary to the opening of a finer vision, to the 

 budding and the growth of diviner powers? When I 

 look at the heavens and the earth, at my own body, 

 at my strength and weakness, even at these ponderings, 

 and ask myself, Is there no being or thing in the uni- 

 verse that knows more about these matters than I do; 

 what is my answer? Supposing our theologic schemes 

 of creation, condemnation, and redemption to be dissi- 

 pated; and the warmth of denial which they excite, and 

 which, as a motive force, can match the warmth of af- 

 firmation, dissipated at the same time; would the unde- 

 flected human mind return to the meridian of absolute 

 neutrality as regards these ultra-physical questions? Is 

 such a position one of stable equilibrium? The channels 

 of thought being already formed, such are the questions, 

 without replies, which could run athwart consciousness 

 during a ten minutes' halt upon the weathered crest of 

 the Matterhorn. 



