Life and Guidance 119 



the universe, and may be incorporated even 

 in material things ? 



A traveller who has lost his way in a 

 mountain district, coming across a path, may 

 rejoice, saying, "This will guide me home." 

 A materialist, if he were consistent, should 

 laugh such a traveller to scorn, saying, 

 " What guidance or purpose can there be in 

 a material object ? there is no guidance or 

 purpose in the universe ; things are because 

 they cannot be otherwise, not because of any 

 intention underlying them. How can a path, 

 which is little better than the absence of 

 grass or the wearing down of stones, know 

 where you live or guide you to any desired 

 destination ? Moreover, whatever know- 

 ledge or purpose the path exhibits must be 

 in the path, must be a property of the atoms 

 of which it is composed. To them some 

 fraction of will, of power, of knowledge, and 

 of feeling may perhaps be attributed, and 

 from their aggregation something of the 

 same kind may perhaps be deduced. If 

 the traveller can decipher that, he may 



