Art and Science 



more invulnerable than living forms are. Pro- 

 positions prey upon and are grounded upon one 

 another just like living forms. They support 

 one another as plants and animals do ; they are 

 based ultimately on credit, or faith, rather than 

 the cash of irrefragable conviction. The whole 

 universe is carried on on the credit system, and 

 if the mutual confidence on which it is based 

 were to collapse, it must itself collapse im- 

 mediately. Just or unjust, it lives by faith ; 

 it is based on vague and impalpable opinion 

 that by some inscrutable process passes into 

 will and action, and is made manifest in matter 

 and in flesh : it is meteoric suspended in mid- 

 air ; it is the baseless fabric of a vision so vast, 

 so vivid, and so gorgeous that no base can 

 seem more broad than such stupendous base- 

 lessness, and yet any man can bring it about 

 his ears by being over-curious ; when faith fails 

 a system based on faith fails also. 



Whether the universe is really a paying con- 

 cern, or whether it is an inflated bubble that 

 must burst sooner or later, this is another 

 matter. If people were to demand cash pay- 

 ment in irrefragable certainty for everything 



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