62 Influence of our view of the world

Again: it may be quite true that we shall follow observed laws, as far as we have apprehended them, with a care proportioned to our knowledge, whatever may be our theory of the universe without us. But the effect of the world upon our imagination, and through imagination upon our character, will depend upon the view which we take of its relation to ourselves and to GOD. If we regard it as inextricably bound up with man, as waiting, in some sense, for the true fulfilment of his destiny, as suffering from his failures, as contributing to the fulness of one life, it is evident that our attitude towards it will be different from that of students who acknowledge no present moral relationship and no permanent connexion between man and the rest of creation, who regard the region of finite being open to us as a field simply for intellectual research. To him who believes that all creation is a living revelation of GOD, that which phenomena serve to indicate will be far more precious than that which we can define in them by isolating parts of the moving whole and treating them as fixed. Such a faith in the divine life of things, which can become most real, is capable of producing in him who holds it habits of reverence and tenderness and sympathy which profoundly affect his whole tone of thought and temper and conduct. Whether

through imagination.

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for good or for evil there is an almost infinite difference of character between the pedlar for whom the primrose 'a yellow primrose is and nothing more' and the poet to whom

the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

Again: nothing, I believe, can be more clear than that the conclusion as to rules of action, apart from all considerations of effective motive and sanction, will be the same whether we follow the method of a wide utilitarianism or base our system of morality on intuitional ideas of right. But though it may be, as I am ready to grant, of no moment as to laying down rules of action what abstract theory we hold as to the basis of morality; it is of the greatest moment as to character whether we regard our rules as determined by reference to ourselves and by what we can see of their working, or by their relation to some infinitely larger order in which we are a part: whether, that is, we call a thing good because it is seen to be useful within the present sphere of our experience or because we hold that it is in conformity with an absolute law of the working of which we see as yet but little.

Reflections of the same kind apply to all

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Importance of what we think.

other articles of belief, even the most abstract. These have not only an effect upon outward action, but also upon those inward processes of thought and feeling which fashion our permanent constitution. In this respect what we think of things is at least as important as what we do. We are called upon in a word to pursue truth in opinion not less than truth in action: to discipline and elevate the imagination: to purify and ennoble the affections: to reach forward in every direction to a fuller and more perfect knowledge of the ways of GOD within us and without us. If then we turn aside from a reverent contemplation of the mysteries of life, if we refuse to throw upon them the light which we can gather, if we make no effort to realise their ennobling magnificence because we suppose, for the most part falsely, that their grandeur has no practical significance; we leave undone that which, according to our opportunities, we are bound to do. We take to ourselves a mutilated character. We suffer one great part of ourselves to remain undisciplined, unstrengthened, unused, which (as we may reasonably believe) if not on earth yet in some larger field of being, will require for the fulfilment of its office, the results of that exercise which our present conditions are fitted to supply.

CHAPTER III.

THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH A SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEMS MUST BE SOUGHT.

OUR inquiries hitherto have established two important conclusions, (1) that we are placed in the midst of mysteries, and that we carry within ourselves mysteries, from which escape is impossible; and (2) that we are so made and so placed that we are constrained to look upon them, to seek and to shape some solution of them, to live according as we interpret them. The problems of life, in a word, are inevitable; and the answers which they receive are of the most direct practical importance to those who render them.

We have now to consider the conditions under which the answer to these problems must be sought. And I do not think that I can better introduce what I have to say upon the subject in relation to present difficulties than by

W. G. L.

5

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Dangers from dominant influences.

a reference to the famous passage of the Novum Organum in which Bacon sums up the prolific sources of the phantoms of the cave.'

These false and misleading spectres, which simulate the form of Truth, spring, he tells us, for the most part from certain prevailing views, from an excessive passion for synthesis or analysis, from a preference for some particular period in the history of the world, from "a telescopic or microscopic character" of mind. Now I am by no means prepared to maintain that we are not haunted still by spectres of the tribe, of the market and of the theatre: that we do not suffer from the preponderating influence of the objects of sense, from the misunderstanding of current terms, from the attractiveness of brilliant theories; but the spectres of the cave seem to crowd about us just now in greater numbers than all these and to disturb our judgment more deeply, partly by their fictitious terrors and partly by their unsubstantial beauty. Or to drop the image and speak plainly, there seems to be a growing danger lest all facts should be forced into one category, lest one method of investigation should be armed with an absolute despotism, lest one verifying test should be transformed into a universal necessity.