THE ATTITUDE OF PHILOSOPHY 



approach all questions of vital importance. They 

 shrink from lifting the veil which envelops the 

 Isis-statue of Truth, lest instead of a beaming 

 countenance they may perchance encounter a 

 ghastly death's head. But philosophy should 

 harbour neither fears nor repugnances, nor 

 qualms of conscience. It is not for us, creatures 

 of a day that we are, and seeing but a little way 

 into a limited portion of nature, to say dicta- 

 torially, before patient examination, that we will 

 not have this or that doctrine as part of our 

 philosophic creed. We must feel our way as 

 best we can, gather with unremitting toil what 

 facts lie within our reach, and gratefully accept 

 such conclusions as can honestly and by due 

 process of inference and verification be obtained 

 for our guidance. We are not the autocrats, but 

 the servants and interpreters of Nature ; and 

 we must interpret her as she is, — not as we 

 would like her to be. That harmony which we 

 hope eventually to see estabUshed between our 

 knowledge and our aspirations is not to be real- 

 ized by the timidity which shrinks from logi- 

 cally following out either of two apparently con- 

 flicting lines of thought — as in the question of 

 matter and spirit — but by the fearlessness which 

 pushes each to its inevitable conclusion. Only 

 when this is recognized will the long and mis- 

 taken warfare between Science and Religion be 

 exchanged for an intelligent and enduring alli- 

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