The Progress of the Race 
other purpose than that of amusing the 
darkness. So, too, is it possible that some 
stupendous incident may suddenly surge 
from without, from another world, from a 
new phenomenon, and either inform this 
effort with definitive meaning or definitively 
destroy it. But we must proceed on our 
way as though nothing abnormal could ever 
befall us. Did we know that to-morrow 
some revelation —a message, for instance, 
from a more ancient, more luminous planet 
than ours—were to root up our nature, to 
suppress the laws, the passions, and radical 
truths of our being, our wisest plan still 
would be to devote the whole of to-day to 
the study of these passions, these laws, and 
these truths, which must blend and accord 
in our mind; and to remain faithful to the 
destiny imposed on us, which is to subdue 
and to some extent raise within and around 
us the obscure forces of life. None of these, 
perhaps, will survive the new revelation; 
but the soul of those who shall up to the 
end have fulfilled the mission that is pre- 
eminently the mission of man must inevi- 
tably be in the front rank of all to welcome 
341 
