THE VISIBLE IS ONLY ITS SHADOW. 



75 



our lecturer tells us the visible is unreal. To him to whom all is 

 visible, all would then be unreal. 



Mr. Klein seems to ignore two great basal facts, the fact of 

 evil, which he terms " an illusion," and the fact of Christ. He 

 quotes the last verse of Gen. i., seemingly to prove that what 

 succeeded that in Chap. iii. is only the evasion of a difficulty ? 

 Certainly God's work is perfect but in a universe of free moral 

 agents imperfection can enter, and has actually done so, otherwise why 

 blame the Germans, if as an expression of the thought of God 

 they are " absolutely perfect," page 69. Are the Torquemadas, 

 the Abdul d' Ahmets, the Landrus, " the expression of the thought 

 of God"? The very suggestion is blasphemous. God made man 

 upright, as the Wise Man tells us, but man has sought out many 

 inventions. If we ask what practical effect on life and conduct 

 such themes can have, we are brought face to face with the 

 infinitely small. 



Lt.-Col. Mackixlay writes: — I am grateful to Mr. Klein for his 

 paper which will, I trust, provoke a good discussion : it brings 

 before us in a forceful way some of the many ambiguities and 

 limitations by which we are surrounded ; at the same time I must 

 confess, there seems to be in it a certain want of accuracy and 

 balance. 



Some things, not accepted by all, are taken for granted without 

 any proof, as for instance that the human race is still in its 

 infancy (pp. 55, 57, 64, 70). Notwithstanding the fact that the 

 civilisation of past milleniums was considerable, and in some 

 ways, as in sculpture, at times exceeded ours ; while there are 

 millions of savages on the earth at the present moment far below 

 many of the peoples of antiquity. 



I doubt if the statements at the bottom of page 60 and at the 

 top of page 61 will bear investigation, when all the conditions are 

 carefully examined. 



I cannot think the use of the word spiritual in the paper is very 

 definite or consistent with its general usage. On pages 54 and 66 

 ir may be taken to mean the laws of nature, which are not at once 

 api^arent ; but on page 70 the word seems to be employed in its more 

 ordinary usage. It is of great help in any careful paper to define 

 the exact meanings attached to any keywords employed. 



The recognition of the properties of radium, the constitution 

 of matter, the principles of relativity, and many other modern 

 methods of research have opened out new vistas of thought ; 

 but it hardly seems wise to indulge in rash generalities, as for 

 instance that because a point in space exists before it is reached, 

 that therefore an event in time (pp. 64 and 65) may exist before 

 it has come ! It is easy to imagine the impossible, but is it a 

 matter of practical utility to do so? 



