most profitable
for the race, so I am persuaded that every individual endeavour to attain
it, provided only that such endeavour is unbiassed and sincere, ought
without hesitation to be made the common property of all men, no matter in
what direction the results of its promulgation may appear to tend. And so
far as the ruination of individual happiness is concerned, no one can have
a more lively perception than myself of the possibly disastrous tendency of
my work. So far as I am individually concerned, the result of this analysis
has been to show that, whether I regard the problem of Theism on the lower
plane of strictly relative probability, or on the higher plane of purely
formal considerations, it equally becomes my obvious duty to stifle all
belief of the kind which I conceive to be the noblest, and to discipline my
intellect with regard to this matter into an attitude of the purest
scepticism. And forasmuch as I am far from being able to agree with those
who affirm that the twilight doctrine of the "new faith" is a desirable
substitute for the waning splendour of "the old," I am not ashamed to
confess that with this virtual negation of God the universe to me has lost
its soul of loveliness; and although from henceforth the precept to "work
while it is day" will doubtless but gain an intensified force from the
terribly intensified meaning of the words that "the night cometh when no
man can work," yet when at times I think, as think at times I must, of the
appalling contrast between the hallowed glory of that creed which once was
mine, and the lonely mystery of existence as now I find it,--at such times
I shall ever feel it impossible to avoid the sharpest pang of which my
nature is susceptible. For whether it be due to my intelligence not being
sufficiently advanced to meet the requirements of the age, or whether it be
due to the memory of those sacred associations which to me at least were
the sweetest that life has given, I cannot but feel that for me, and for
others who think as I do, there is a dreadful truth in those words of
Hamilton,--Philosophy having become a meditation, not merely of death, but
of annihilation, the precept _know thyself_ has become transformed into the
terrific oracle to Oedipus--

"Mayest thou ne'er know the truth of what thou art."

* * * * *

APPENDIX

AND

SUPPLEMENTARY ESSAYS.

* * * * *

APPENDIX.