occurrences and judge of their relative importance, from man's
point-of-view.

Which was more significant and important for the good of
civilization--that countless millions of men and women, for countless
generations, in Mexico and in Persia, talked and thought and exchanged
ideas--or that one single individual, named William Shakespeare, had
some ideas which it occurred to him to put on paper?

The brain effort of a single individual more significant for future
humanity than the rise and fall of an empire! That kind of
conception--dealing with something we know about--does not strike the
matter-of-fact intellect as the height of absurdity.

Was a single painting, the Mona Lisa, of a single individual, Leonardo
da Vinci, less important than the millions of paintings made during
countless generations throughout the entire empire of China?

Do we measure the achievements of a Napoleon, an Alexander, a
Washington, by the manner of their decline and death?

It seems simple enough to us that one short life may have more meaning
for the rest of humanity in this world, than millions of other lives. We
can see and understand and measure the effects of such occurrences as
these, with the intellect.

But in regard to man's inner feelings, the soul life, because the
achievement may not be visible--because its record is not written on
paper--because its true significance is entirely shrouded in the
mysterious intention of creation, how can the intellect know that the
conscientious effort of one short life on earth, however humble, may not
have a bigger meaning and a more lasting value in the divine scheme than
the accomplishments--material, intellectual, artistic--of millions?

The spiritual side appears undoubtedly to be the highest and finest part
of man's nature--why then is it not possible that the spiritual struggle
of each and every single soul, however inconspicuous in a worldly way,
may be the thing that counts most in the everlasting scheme?

This is a question, we repeat, which all the science of all the wise men
of all the generations is completely incapable of deciding. No amount of
reasoning can disprove it, any more than it can prove it. That is the
special point I have been trying to make clear. Because the cold
processes of the intellect are inclined to dismiss as absurd all kinds
of beliefs and conceptions which they cannot verify, they need not be
abandoned on that account.

VI

SCIENCE AND THE