Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/118

Rh science? Can there be antagonism between the truth and the real interests of man? — is not truth our highest interest? Or, is truth of mere fact perchance not our highest interest? — is there perhaps such a thing as gradation in truths, and an inward truth that must be supreme for us, but which yet may be antagonised by the truths of Nature? And if our nature looks both to truths of fact and to truths of worth, is there some ghastly gulf in our being? — are we the victims of a tragic chasm between two indestructible wants of ours? Or if again not so, if deeper knowledge harmonises these wants, what is this rational path to our peace?

Your present question can hardly have for most minds the interest which so directly belongs to the question of Immortality, discussed by you last year; at least, not on its surface. Yet a study of it in the detail of the subsidiary questions just stated will not only secure the clearness needed for an intelligent answer, but will bring to view how really deep its interest is. It will show this to be no less profound, while far more inclusive, than that of your earlier problem. For this reason, I venture to offer you the reflexions that have passed in my mind in the endeavour to clear up these more detailed questions. These defining questions I will ask you to consider with me in their proper succession.