146 SCIENCE AND MORALS 



III 



which is the Nemesis of meddling with the un- 

 knowable. 



Cinderella is modestly conscious of her ignor- 

 ance of these high matters. She lights the fire, 

 sweeps the house, and provides the dinner; and 

 is rewarded by being told that she is a base 

 creature, devoted to low and material interests. 

 But in her garret she has fairy visions out of the 

 ken of the pair of shrews who are quarrelling 

 down stairs. She sees the order which pervades 

 the seeming disorder of the world ; the great 

 drama of evolution, with its full share of pity 

 and terror, but also with abundant goodness and 

 beauty, unrolls itself before her eyes ; and she 

 learns, in her heart of hearts, the lesson, that the 

 foundation of morality is to have done, once and 

 for all, with lying ; to give up pretending to 

 believe that for which there is no evidence, and 

 repeating unintelligible propositions about things 

 beyond the possibilities of knowledge. 



She knows that the safety of morality lies 

 neither in the adoption of this or that philo- 

 sophical speculation, or this or that theological 

 creed, but in a real and living belief in that fixed 

 order of nature which sends social disorganisation 

 upon the track of immorality, as surely as it 

 sends physical disease after physical trespasses. 

 And of that firm and lively faith it is her high 

 mission to be the priestess. 



