Ill ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 163 



" If we take in hand any volume of Divinity, or school 

 metaphysics, for instance, let us .ask, Docs it contain any abstract 

 reasoning concerning quantity or number / No. Docs it contain 

 any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and exist- 

 ence ? No. Commit it then to the flames ; for it can contain 

 nothing but sophistry and illusion. " 1 



Permit me to enforce this most wise advice. 

 Why trouble ourselves about matters of which, 

 however important they may be, we do know 

 nothing, and can know nothing ? We live in a 

 world which is full of misery and ignorance, and 

 the plain duty of each and all of us is to try to 

 make the little corner he can influence somewhat 

 less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it 

 was before he entered it. To do this effectually 

 it is necessary to be fully possessed of only two 

 beliefs : the first, that the order of Nature is 

 ascertainable by our faculties to an extent which 

 is practically unlimited ; the second, that our vol- 

 ition 2 counts for something as a condition of the 

 course of events. 



Each of these beliefs can be verified experiment- 

 ally, as often as we like to try. Each, therefore, 

 stands upon the strongest foundation upon which 

 any belief can rest, and forms one of our highest 



1 Hume's Essay "Of the Academical or Sceptical Philo- 

 sophy," in the Inquiry concerning the Human Understanding. 

 [Many critics of this passage seem to forget that the subject- 

 matter of Ethics and Esthetics consists of matters of fact aad 

 existence. 1892]. 



2 Or, to speak more accurately, the physical state of which 

 volition is the expression. [1892]. 



M 2 



