The great currents of human destiny seem more than
ever to move by forces which tend to no particular
point. There is a drift, tremendous and overpowering,
due to nobody in particular, but to hundreds of millions
of small impulses. Achilles is dead, and the
turn of the Myrmidons has come.
“Myrmdons, race feconde
Myrmidons,
Enfin nous commandons:
Jupiter livre le monde
Aux Myrmidons, aux Myrmidons.
Voyant qu’ Achille succombe,
Ses Myrmidons, hors des rangs,
Disent: Dansons sur sa tombe
Ses petits vont etre grands.”
My last defence is that the Universe is an organic
unity, and so subtle and far-reaching are the invisible
threads which pass from one part of it to another
that it is impossible to limit the effect which even
an insignificant life may have. “Were
a single dust-atom destroyed, the universe would collapse.”
" . . . who of men can tell
That flowers would bloom, or that green fruit would
swell
To melting pulp, that fish would have bright mail,
The earth its dower of river, wood, and vale,
The meadows runnels, runnels pebble-stones,
The seed its harvest, or the lute its tones,
Tones ravishment, or ravishment its sweet
If human souls did never kiss and greet?”
True belief is rare and difficult. There is
no security that the fictitious beliefs which have
been obtained by no genuine mental process, that is
to say, are not vitally held, may not be discarded
for those which are exactly contrary. We flatter
ourselves that we have secured a method and freedom
of thought which will not permit us to be the victims
of the absurdities of the Middle Ages, but, in fact,
there is no solid obstacle to our conversion to some
new grotesque religion more miraculous than Roman
Catholicism. Modern scepticism, distinguishing
it from scholarly scepticism, is nothing but stupidity
or weakness. Few people like to confess outright
that they do not believe in a God, although the belief
in a personal devil is considered to be a sign of
imbecility. Nevertheless, men, as a rule, have
no ground for believing in God a whit more respectable
than for disbelief in a devil. The devil is not
seen nor is God seen. The work of the devil is
as obvious as that of God. Nay, as the devil
is a limited personality, belief in him is not encumbered
with the perplexities which arise when we attempt
to apprehend the infinite Being. Belief may often
be tested; that is to say, we may be able to discover
whether it is an active belief or not by inquiring
what disbelief it involves. So also the test
of disbelief is its correspondent belief.
