204 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



ditioned, is not only futile ; it is wasted, because, if it 

 could be successful, it would not be beneficial. All talk 

 about "pure reason" and "practical reason." in which, 

 by the former, man cannot prove the existence of a 

 final cause, nor comprehend the unconditioned ; and by 

 the latter, that he must still believe in a final cause, 

 notwithstanding his intellect is limited to time and 

 space, or the conditioned, is an irrelevant conception, 

 and an illogical philosophy. It is not "practical 

 reason" to pursue the unattainable, but to confine our- 

 selves to that which reason teaches us is attainable and 

 practical. The understanding of our needs in the ob- 

 vious relations we bear, to the real sources of our 

 welfare, the physical and psychical universe, is what 

 should be the aim of man. If truth is that which works 

 to the benefit of man, and error that which works to his 

 injury, or rather to the injury of the race, it is man's 

 own brain that must determine what is truth, and what 

 is error. Where else than his own brain, is he to form 

 his judgments upon that matter? He must make the 

 test, his own welfare, for there is no other visible 

 power upon which he can rely in his every day prac- 

 tical problems. He must work them out himself. 



Truth is the universe. There can be no absolute 

 truth of a part separate from the whole universe. 

 Everything is effected by every other thing, and there- 

 fore cannot be correctly interpreted apart. There is 

 nothing existing that does not fit into the whole, and 

 work with the whole. In this light only can it be 

 truth. The intellect of man cannot encompass the in- 

 finite universe, only a small part of it. Man's knowl- 

 edge, therefore, is not of absolute truth, but relative 

 only. He must be satisfied with this limitation of his 

 knowledge. The term "self and not-self" is intended 



