Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/56

20 it is inconsistent with the evidence of all our daily life's every experience. The most positive knowlege or faith camot give us either the strength or the skill required for action, it can not supply the practice of that subtle soul multifarious mechanism, which must have gone before in order that a change may be effected from an idea into action. First and foremost let us have the works, that is, practice, practice, practice! The requisite faith will come in due time―be sure of that!

What we are most subtle in.—By fancying for many thousands of years, evenu things (nature, tools, property of every kind) to have both life and soul and a capacity for working harm and checking human purposes, the sense of impotence among mankind has been much greater and much more frequent than it ought to have been, for one had to secure the things in the same way as men and beasts, by dint of force, coercion, flattery, treatics, sacrifices—and herein lies the origin of the great majority of superstitious customs, that is, of an important and perhaps preponderant, yet wasted and useless constituent of all activity hitlerto displayed by mankind. But because the sense of impotence and fear has been so strong, and for a long time been subject to almost constaut stimulation, the sense of power has become so subtle that, in this respect, man can rival with the most delicate balance. It has become his