forgotten past. Might not the symbols he
needs, the hypotheses, images, the touchstone for all that cannot be
explained, be less frequently sought in that which he knows is not
true, and more often in that which will one day be a truth? Does the
unearthing of bygone terrors, or the borrowing of light from a Hell
that has ceased to be, make death more sublime? Does dependence on a
supreme but imaginary will ennoble our destiny? Does justice--that
vast network woven by human action and reaction over the unchanging
wisdom of nature's moral and physical forces--does justice become more
majestic through being lodged in the hands of a unique judge, whom the
very spirit of the drama dethrones and destroys?

25

Let us ask ourselves whether the hour may not have come for the earnest
revision of the symbols, the images, sentiments, beauty, wherewith we
still seek to glorify in us the spectacle of the world.

This beauty, these feelings and sentiments, to-day unquestionably bear
only the most distant relation to the phenomena, thoughts, nay even the
dreams, of our actual existence; and if they are suffered still to
abide with us, it is rather as tender and innocent memories of a past
that was more credulous, and nearer to the childhood of man. Were it
not well, then, that those whose mission it is to make more evident to
us the beauty and harmony of the world we live in, should march ever
onwards, and let their steps tend to the actual truth of this world?
Their conception of the universe need not be stripped of a single one
of the ornaments wherewith they embellish it; but why seek these
ornaments so often among mere recollections, however smiling or
terrible, and so seldom from among the essential thoughts which have
helped these men to build, and effectively organise, their spiritual
and sentient life?

It can never be right to dwell in the midst of false images, even
though these are known to be false. The time will come when the
illusory image will usurp the place of the just idea it has seemed to
represent. We shall not reduce the part of the infinite and the
mysterious by employing other images, by framing other and juster
conceptions. Do what we may, this part can never be lessened. It will
always be found deep down in the heart of men, at the root of each
problem, pervading the universe. And for all that the substance, the
place of these mysteries, may seem to have changed, their extent and
power remain