AGNOSTICISM 327 



to the human race, not only for the present, but must 

 be for countless generations to come. If accepted, it 

 would become the disorganizer of the most enduring 

 and sacred human institutions, and the destroyer of 

 human happiness. It takes away from life all that is 

 dearest and best, and leaves humanity to gaze eter- 

 nally into " the blackness of darkness," with no hope 

 of ever receiving a single ray of light. 



It is impossible that the human mind should ever 

 make the Unknowable the ultimate foundation of a 

 philosophy of life and duty. 



What have I to do with thee, O thou Unknowable, 

 thou impenetrable darkness, destroyer of my hopes 

 and joys ! — what canst thou'demand of me or I of thee? 

 Thou art darkness, and in thee is no light at all. Why 

 should I prefer thee to the faith that "God is light, 

 and in him is no darkness at all? " Surely the way of 

 darkness is the way of death, but the way of light 

 leadeth unto life. 



So far as human duty is concerned, the Unknowable 

 must be to me as though it were not. To make, as 

 Mr. Spencer does, man's highest duty to consist in a 

 ceaseless effort to know The Unknowable, is a totally 

 impracticable creed, for the moment the creed is 

 adopted, all effort would cease, unless man is so fool- 

 ish as to regard wasting his time in an absolutely 

 fruitless search after truth as the chief end of life. 



If the creed of Agnosticism is good, it must be so 

 for a race of beings that we know not of. If it is 

 true, then its truth and human nature are eternally at 

 war with each other. To call Agnosticism a reconcil- 

 iation of all things is to make for it claims without 

 foundation, for it is opposed to human nature itself. 

 That which is fundamentally irreconcilable with the 

 nature of man cannot be the reconciler of things 

 which involve the highest interests of humanity. 



