we place ourselves outside both the one and the other,
which for us is impossible?

Madness perhaps it is, and great madness, to seek to penetrate into the
mystery of the Beyond; madness to seek to superimpose the
self-contradictory dreams of our imagination upon the dictates of a sane
reason. And a sane reason tells us that nothing can be built up without
foundations, and that it is not merely an idle but a subversive task to
fill the void of the unknown with fantasies. And nevertheless....

We must needs believe in the other life, in the eternal life beyond the
grave, and in an individual and personal life, in a life in which each
one of us may feel his consciousness and fed that it is united, without
being confounded, with all other consciousnesses in the Supreme
Consciousness, in God; we must needs believe in that other life in order
that we may live this life, and endure it, and give it meaning and
finality. And we must needs believe in that other life, perhaps, in
order that we may deserve it, in order that we may obtain it, for it may
be that he neither deserves it nor will obtain it who does not
passionately desire it above reason and, if need be, against reason.

And above all, we must feel and act as if an endless continuation of
our earthly life awaited us after death; and if it be that nothingness
is the fate that awaits us we must not, in the words of _Obermann_, so
act that it shall be a just fate.

And this leads us directly to the examination of the practical or
ethical aspect of our sole problem.

FOOTNOTES:

[47] _De natura deorum_, lib. i., cap. 41.

[48] _Op. cit._

[49] _Guia Espiritual que desembaraza al alma y la conduce por el
interior camino para alcanzar la perfecta contemplacion y el rico tesoro
de la paz interior_, book iii., chap. xviii., Sec. 185.

[50]

O land of Alvargonzalez,
In the heart of Spain,
Sad land, poor land,
So sad that it has a soul!

[51]

To living a life of blessed quiet here on earth,
Either matter or soul is a hindrance.

[52] Eso que llaman derecho penal, y que es todo menos derecho.

[53] _The Autocrat of the Breakfast-table._

XI

THE PRACTICAL PROBLEM

L'homme est perissable. II se peut; mais perissons en resistant,
et, si le neant nous est reserve, ne faisons pas que ce soit une
justice.--SENANCOUR: _Obermann_, lettre xc.

Several times in the devious course of these essays I have defined, in