t
counsel to each. But now, as I have said, the most of men lie
sick, as it were of a pestilence, in their false beliefs about
the world, and the tale of them increases; for by imitation
they take the disease from one another, like sheep. And
further it is only just to bring help to those who shall come
after us--for they too are ours, though they be yet unborn;
and love for man commands us also to help strangers who may
pass by. Since therefore the good message of the Book has this
wall and to set forth in public the medicine of the healing of
mankind.'

The people of his time and neighbourhood seem to have fancied that the
old man must have some bad motive. They understood mysteries and
redemptions and revelations. They understood magic and curses. But they
were puzzled, apparently, by this simple message, which only told them
to use their reason, their courage, and their sympathy, and not to be
afraid of death or of angry gods. The doctrine was condensed into four
sentences of a concentrated eloquence that make a translator
despair:[170:1] 'Nothing to fear in God: Nothing to feel in Death: Good
can be attained: Evil can be endured.'

Of course, the doctrines of this good old man do not represent the whole
truth. To be guided by one's aversions is always a sign of weakness or
defeat; and it is as much a failure of nerve to reject blindly for fear
of being a fool, as to believe blindly for fear of missing some
emotional stimulus.

There is no royal road in these matters. I confess it seems strange to
me as I write here, to reflect that at this moment many of my friends
and most of my fellow creatures are, as far as one can judge, quite
confident that they possess supernatural knowledge. As a rule, each
individual belongs to some body which has received in writing the
results of a divine revelation. I cannot share in any such feeling. The
Uncharted surrounds us on every side and we must needs have some
relation towards it, a relation which will depend on the general
discipline of a man's mind and the bias of his whole character. As far
as knowledge and conscious reason will go, we should follow resolutely
their austere guidance. When they cease, as cease they must, we must use
as best we can those fainter powers of apprehension and surmise and
sensitiveness by which, after all, most high truth has been reached as
well as most high art and poetry: careful always reall