Page:Tolstoy - Essays and Letters.djvu/175

 REASON AND RELIGION 159

^ of his life seems obscure to a man, this does not prove that his reason is incompetent to expLain that meaning ; it only indicates that he has credulously accepted too mucli that is irrational, and that what has not been verified by reason must be set aside.

And, therefore, my answer to your root question, as to wlietiier we must strive to attain a clear understand- iuix of our inner life, is, tliat tliat is the most necessary an<l important thing we can do in life. It is necessary and important ])erause tlie only rea'^onable meaning of our life consists in fulfilment of tlie will of (Jod, who has sent us here. liut tlie will of God is known, not by some extraordinary miracle, the writinir of tlie law by the finger of the Deity on stone tjiblets, the compilation by the aid of the Holy Ghost of an infal- lible book, or by the infallibility of any holy man or collection of men, but only by the use of reason by all men, transmitting both by deed and by word, one to another, the consciousness of truth that is ever more and more elucidating itself to them. That knowledge never has been, nor ever will be, complete, but it ever increases as humanity advances : the longer we live the more clearly we know God's will, and, consequently, the more we know what we should do to fulfil it. And so I think the clearing up by each man (however small he may seem to himself or to others — the least are the greatest) of all religious truth accessible to him, and its expression in words (for expression in words is one sure sign of complete clearness in thought), is one of the chief and most holy duties of man.

I shall bij very glad if my reply in any degree satisfies you.

[Nov. 2d, 1894.]