ts, prodigious,
irrefutable, call us to order when we would deduce life from our
reasonings, and would wait to act until we have ended philosophizing. It
is this happy necessity that prevents the world from stopping while man
questions his route. Travelers of a day, we are carried along in a vast
movement to which we are called upon to contribute, but which we have
not foreseen, nor embraced in its entirety, nor penetrated as to its
ultimate aims. Our part is to fill faithfully the role of private, which
has devolved upon us, and our thought should adapt itself to the
situation. Do not say that we live in more trying times than our
ancestors, for things seen from afar are often seen imperfectly: it is
moreover scarcely gracious to complain of not having been born in the
days of one's grandfather. What we may believe least contestable on the
subject is this: from the beginning of the world it has been hard to see
clearly; right thinking has been difficult everywhere and always. In the
matter the ancients were in no wise privileged above the moderns, and it
might be added that there is no difference between men when they are
considered from this point of view. Master and servant, teacher and
learner, writer and artisan discern truth at the same cost. The light
that humanity acquires in advancing is no doubt of the greatest use; but
it also multiplies the number and extent of human problems. The
difficulty is never removed, the mind always encounters its obstacle.
The unknown controls us and hems us in on all sides. But just as one
need not exhaust a spring to quench his thirst, so we need not know
everything to live. Humanity lives and always has lived on certain
elemental _provisions_.

We will try to point them out. First of all, humanity lives by
confidence. In so doing it but reflects, commensurate with its conscious
thought, that which is the hidden source of all beings. An imperturbable
faith in the stability of the universe and its intelligent ordering,
sleeps in everything that exists. The flowers, the trees, the beasts of
the field, live in calm strength, in entire security. There is
confidence in the falling rain, in dawning day, in the brook running to
the sea. Everything that is seems to say: "I am, therefore I should be;
there are good reasons for this, rest assured."

So, too, mankind lives by confidence. From the simple fact that he is,
man has within him the sufficient reason for his being--a pledge of
a