the knower and the object known, seem to us perhaps on critical
analysis thin and insufficient. The bridge of formal logic seems too
weak to carry us safely over from a finite here to an infinite yonder,
from a contingent fact to an Absolute Reality, from something given
_in_ consciousness to Something existent outside and beyond it; but it
is an impressive and significant fact that all finite experience, both
of inner and outer events, involves a More yet, that we cannot think
finite and contingent things without rational appeal to Something
infinite and necessary, that human experience cannot be rationally
conceived except as a fragment of a vastly more inclusive Experience,
always recognized within the finite spirit, that unifies and binds
together into one self-explanatory whole all that is absolutely Real
and True, and this is Reason's conviction of God.

{xxxvi}

When once the conviction is _felt_ and the rational postulate of God is
made, it immediately verifies its practical value in the solution of
our deepest problems. A happy illustration of the practical value and
verifying evidence of the rational postulate of God has been given by
James Ward: "Suppose," he says, "that the earth were wrapt in clouds
all day while the sky was clear at night, so that we were able to see
the planets and observe their movements as we do now, though the sun
itself was invisible. The best account we could give of the planetary
motions would still be to refer them to what for us, in accordance with
our supposition, would only be an imaginary focus [or centre of
physical energy], but one to which was assigned a position identical
with the sun's [present] position."[26] This assumption would at once
unlock the mystery and account for the varying movements of these
visible bodies and the more rigorously the hypothesis were applied, the
more exactly it would verify itself. So, too, with Reason's sublime
venture of faith. The nature of self-consciousness demands the
postulate, and once it is made it _works_.

The same result follows any attempt adequately to account for the moral
imperative--the will to live the truly good life. The moral will turns
out always to be imbedded in a deeper, richer, more inclusive Life than
that of the fragmentary finite individual. There is a creative and
autonomous central self in us which puts before us ideals of truth and
beauty and goodness that are nowhere to be "found" in this world of
se