There can surely be no question that the sum of
satisfaction is increasing, not merely in the gross but for each
human being, as the earth from which we sprang is being worked out of
the race, and a higher type is being developed. I may observe, too,
that although it is usually supposed, it is erroneously supposed,
that it is pure doubt which disturbs or depresses us. Simple
suspense is in fact very rare, for there are few persons so
constituted as to be able to remain in it. It is dogmatism under the
cloak of doubt which pulls us down. It is the dogmatism of death,
for example, which we have to avoid. The open grave is dogmatic, and
we say THAT MAN HAS GONE, but this is as much a transgression of the
limits of certitude as if we were to say HE IS AN ANGEL IN BLISS.
The proper attitude, the attitude enjoined by the severest exercise
of the reason is, I DO NOT KNOW; and in this there is an element of
hope, now rising and now falling, but always sufficient to prevent
that blank despair which we must feel if we consider it as settled
that when we lie down under the grass there is an absolute end.
The provision in nature of infinity ever present to us is an immense
help. No man can look up to the stars at night and reflect upon what
lies behind them without feeling that the tyranny of the senses is
loosened, and the tyranny, too, of the conclusions of his logic.
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