94 Life and Matter [chap. v. 



indeed, but it is not enough for the race. 

 Other parts of Haeckel's writings show 

 that it is not enough, and that his conception 

 of what he means by Godhead is narrow and 

 limited to an extent at which instinct, 

 reason, and experience alike rebel. No one 

 can be satisfied with conceptions below the 

 highest which to him are possible : I doubt 

 if it is given to man to think out a clear 

 and consistent system higher and nobler 

 than the real truth. Our highest thoughts 

 are likely to be nearest to reality : they 

 must be stages in the direction of truth, 

 else they could not have come to us and 

 been recognised as highest. So, also, with 

 our longings and aspirations towards ultimate 

 perfection, those desires which we recognise 

 as our noblest and best : surely they must 

 have some correspondence with the facts of 

 existence, else had they been unattainable 

 by us. Reality is not to be surpassed, 

 except locally and temporarily, by the ideals 

 of knowledge and goodness invented by a 

 fraction of itself ; and if we could grasp 



