snows. March, then, men in Man!

"But is it men who attain? Or Man? Or not even he, but God? We do
not know. We know only the impulse and the call. The gleam on the
snow, the upward path, the urgent stress within, that is our certainty,
the rest is doubt. But doubt is a horizon, and on it hangs the star of
hope. By that we live; and the science blinds, the renunciation maims,
that would shut us off from those silver rays. Our eyes must open, as
we march, to every signal from the height. And since the soul has
indeed 'immortal longings in her' we may believe them prophetic of
their fruition. For her claims are august as those of man, and appeal
to the same witness. The witness of either is a dream; but such dreams
come from the gate of horn. They are principles of life, and about
them crystallizes the universe. For will is more than knowledge, since
will creates what knowledge records. Science hangs in a void of
nescience, a planet turning in the dark. But across that void Faith
builds the road that leads to Olympus and the eternal gods."

By the time he had finished speaking the sun had risen, and the glamour
of dawn was passing into the light of common day. The birds sang loud,
the fountain sparkled, and the trees rustled softly in the early
breeze. Our party broke up quietly. Some went away to bed; others
strolled down the gardens; and Audubon went off by appointment to bathe
with my young nephew, as gay and happy, it would seem, as man could be.
I was left to pace the terrace alone, watching the day grow brighter,
and wondering at the divers fates of men. An early bell rang in the
little church at the park-gate; a motor-car hooted along the highway.
And I thought of Cantilupe and Harington, of Allison and Wilson, and
beyond them of the vision of the dawn and the daybreak, of Woodman, the
soul, and Vivian, the spirit. I paused for a last look down the line
of bright statues that bordered the long walk below me. I fancied them
stretching away to the foot of Olympus; and without elation or
excitement, but with the calm of an assured hope, I prepared to begin
the new day.

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

AFTER TWO THOUSAND YEARS
PLATO AND HIS DIALOGUES
THE MEANING OF GOOD
JUSTICE AND LIBERTY
A POLITICAL DIALOGUE
RELIGION AND IMMORTALITY
RELIGION: A CRITICISM AND A FORECAST
THE GREEK VIEW OF LIFE
LETTERS FROM JOHN CHINAMAN
APPEARANCES: BEING NOTES ON TRAVEL
AN ESSAY O