CH. vi] Immortality 187 



and his system crumbles into dust. Or perhaps the flaw 

 is trivial and unimportant. If it annoys us, so that we 

 are constantly reminded of it, the result is the same. 

 Even more vitally true is this of a search that is not 

 merely intellectual but spiritual as well. -If we try to 

 find a perfect harmony of all the aspects of life, only too 

 often does some really unimportant point cause us to 

 lose our sense of proportion. We become obsessed, and 

 all appreciation, even of the fragments which before we 

 thought we had understood, falls away. One, as a child, 

 sees a pig killed sees its apparent terror and pain, and, 

 when he asks for explanation, is told that God wills 

 that animals suffer for the sake of providing men with 

 food, and from that moment hates religion, feeling that 

 it hypocritically orders the faithful to wear magic 

 spectacles through which the horrors of a hideous 

 world are made invisible. For such an one, if there is a 

 God He is not good. Another has prayed earnestly and 

 the loved one for whom he prayed has died, or taken to 

 evil courses. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name" 

 becomes a mockery, and Christ a self-deceiver or a 

 lying prophet. Another watches the struggles of a 

 parent in the clutches of chronic alcoholism, knows the 

 misery it brings and the hopelessness of the struggle, and 

 for him all talk of freedom is henceforth the meaningless 

 babble of a fool. 



If these and similar ideas arise in early childhood, 

 when secrecy plays a great part in life, and the mind is 

 not ready to make wider observations, a complex may 

 be initiated which is difficult or impossible to eradicate. 

 Unbelief can hardly be reprehended in such a case, as 

 long as the life lived is good. Rather, one is inclined to 

 do homage to a noble life so debarred from enjoyment 

 and understanding; and one cannot but look forward to 

 the joy of such a soul when another life removes the veil 

 and the eyes see clearly. That there must be compensa- 



