140 SHEMITIC CIVILIZATION. 



more consoling; we shall bear this testi- 

 mony, that we have been true and sincere 

 at heart. 



Truth to say, I may not linger on such 

 thoughts. History proves this truth, that 

 there is a transcendent instinct in human 

 nature, which urges it to a nobler goal. 

 The development of mankind is not to be 

 explained by the hypothesis that man is 

 only a finite being ; virtue but a refinement 

 of egoism ; religion but a cheat. Our toil is 

 not in vain, gentlemen. Whatever the author 

 of The Book of Ecclesiastes may have said, in 

 a moment of depression, science is not the 

 worst pursuit which God has given to 

 the sons of men. It is the best. If all is 

 vanity, he who devotes his life to Truth will 

 not be more deceived than others. If Truth 

 and well-being are real, and of that we are 

 assured beyond all contradiction, they who 

 search for them and love them, are they 

 who will have lived best. 



Gentlemen, we shall not meet again : in 

 my next lecture I shall go into the depths 



