xxxii INTRODUCTION 



is neither trifling nor a punishment for most of us; 

 it is an experience filled with promise, with delights, 

 with great expectations. 



But we do desire, often with yearning unspeakable, 

 to explain the mysteries; to be assured that all the 

 beauties philosophy has described, all the rewards re- 

 ligion has promised, are actual, and not plausible the- 

 ories only. Religion actually proves nothing; neither 

 does philosophy — In the sense in which men require 

 proof to-day. Philosophy investigates and interprets. 

 Religion professes and has faith. But neither gives 

 to reason convictions which can withstand the attacks 

 of doubt and despair when the "lights are low and 

 all the wheels of being slow." 



We need to say in justice to the philosopher that 

 he is "the spectator of all time and of all existence," 

 to use Plato's interpretation. He must hold his con- 

 clusions in abeyance. He must keep himself outside 

 the whirl of events, yet he must constantly be aware 

 of them. Philosophy's relation to science is to inter- 

 pret the facts It discovers, often fragmentary. Re- 

 ligion then takes this Interpretation and idealizes it, 

 glorifies it perhaps. Science, in this connection, con- 

 stantly checks religious Impulse. Religion, with equal 

 right, may warm up science. 



We are not for a moment removing philosophy and 

 religion from their rightful places. They have given 

 to experience, and will continue to give, riches of 

 knowledge and hope. We simply say they have not, 

 with all their striving, explained the enigma of crea- 

 tion — the eternal paradox of whence, why, and 

 whither. Perhaps this is not a justified indictment. 



