Page:Chance, love, and logic - philosophical essays (IA chancelovelogicp00peir 0).pdf/41

 how it is that in spite of an infinity of possible hypotheses, mankind has managed to make so many successful inductions.[24] And for the bearing of mathematical studies on the wisdom of life, the following is certainly worth serious reflection: "All human affairs rest upon probabilities. If man were immortal [on earth] he could be perfectly sure of seeing the day when everything in which he had trusted should betray his trust. He would break down, at last, as every great fortune, as every dynasty, as every civilization does. In place of this we have death." The recognition that the death of the individual does not destroy the logical meaning of his utterances, that this meaning involves the ideal of an unlimited community, carries us into the heart of pure religion.