148 CONSCIOUSNESS 



most abiding relief is to be found in that instinct 

 for self-abnegation which underlies our aesthetic 

 emotions. Accepted as a counsel of despair, self- 

 abandonment would only set free the demons ; 

 but, proceeding from the influence of the aesthetic 

 impulse, it is not merely the hopeless relinquish- 

 ment of a struggle ; it is an emotion that is 

 strengthened and illuminated by feelings of 

 adoration, trustfulness, and love which give the 

 beaten soul an assurance of victory. 



Man's instinctive expectation of a cause for 

 every happening appears to be the origin of the 

 sense of injustice which has influenced incalcul- 

 ably the ideas of individuals and communities. 

 If I am industrious and of good conduct if, that 

 is to say, I act in accordance with the teaching I 

 receive I ought, on any reasonable view of 

 things, to be prosperous. Success is always held 

 out as, at all events, an incidental fruit of right- 

 eousness. But, as a matter of fact, this expecta- 

 tion is constantly belied. We see good men in 

 trouble and oppressed, the wicked flourishing in 

 prosperity, often, indeed, obtained by the oppres- 

 sion of the good. The crops of the religious are 

 blighted, whilst those of a blasphemer come to 

 harvest. This does violence to our reasoning 

 instinct our impulse to infer and renders us 

 dissatisfied and unhappy. Since first man became 

 conscious of his condition his cry has gone up 

 against life's injustice. He may, in some degree, 

 be reconciled to it by habit. And religion offers 

 him potent consolations. It urges that what 

 appears to be injustice is the consequence of sin, 

 is a discipline for the character, or the inscrutable 

 ordering of an All-wise Providence, to be accepted 

 without question in trusting self-abandonment. 



