THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GENIUS 143 



thought, temples will be raised to the cult of 

 the infinite, whether God be called Brahma, 

 Allah, Jehovah or Jesus. And on the pavement 

 of these temples we will see men kneeling, 

 prostrated, lost in the thought of the infinite. 

 Metaphysics does nothing more than transfer 

 to within ourselves this dominant notion of the 

 infinite. And is not the conception of the ideal 

 merely a faculty reflected from the infinite, 

 which leads us, when in the presence of beauty, 

 to conceive of a still higher form of beauty? 

 Are science and the passionate desire to under- 

 stand anything else than the effect of that spur 

 towards knowledge which the mystery of the 

 universe has placed in our souls? Where are 

 the true sources of human dignity, of liberty, 

 of modern democracy, unless they are con- 

 tained in the idea of the infinite, before which 

 all men are equal ?" 



His hearers had applauded the words of the 

 scientist who had thus dizzily scrutinised the 

 mysteries of the world ; they were about to hear 

 the phrases of the philosopher, who was pon- 



