VI 



THE MEETING PLACE OF SCIENCE AND 

 RELIGION^ 



By Albert Einstein 



STRANGE is our situation here upon earth. Each 

 of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, 

 yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. 



From the standpoint of daily Hfe, however, there is 

 one thing we do know : that man is here for the sake 

 of other men — above all for those upon whose smiles 

 and well-being our own happiness depends, and also 

 for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we 

 are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a 

 day I realize how much my own outer and inner life 

 is built upon the labors of my fellow-men, both living 

 and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in 

 order to give in return as much as I have received. 

 My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing 

 sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work 

 of other men. 



I do not believe we can have any freedom at all in 

 the philosophical sense, for we act not only under ex- 

 ternal compulsion but also by inner necessity. Scho- 

 penhauer's saying — "A man can surely do what he 

 wills to do, but he cannot determine what he wills" — 

 impressed itself upon me in my youth, and has always 

 consoled me when I have witnessed or suffered life's 



^Reprinted from The Forum by permission. P 



93 



