MEN I HAVE PAINTED
In the library one day, while I was painting and he was talking on the same subject, he swept his arm around the room, and said, "You must not think that I speak without knowledge of the subject—that, like many who simply say 'I do not believe,' I have not studied it. Look at the titles of these books; all, or almost all, in this room are works on religion. I have made myself master of the thought of theologians of all times and of all creeds. I do not speak idly and ignorantly." Such was the point of view of the scientist. Every rational mind must agree with the deductions drawn from an investigation of natural processes, yet the wisdom of men may possibly be foolishness to God. Tyndall held that there was no such thing as absolute truth, that all things seemed to possess two qualities—activity and change. What the final activity and the final change may be who can tell?
A Hair, they say, divides the False and True;
Yes; and a single Alif were the clue,
Could you but find it, to the Treasure-house,
And peradventure to the Master too;
Whose secret Presence, through Creation's veins
Running, Quicksilver-like eludes your pains:
Taking all shapes from Máh to Máhi; and
They change and perish all—but He remains.
Not long ago I asked a young man who had been a Presbyterian, and who had gone over to Rome with the intention of becoming a monk—he has not yet put on the cowl—if there was any proof to be given in favour of agnosticism, of unbelief. He answered, "None." I then asked, "Is there any real proof of the Divinity of Christ?" and he answered, "None." On referring him to the strange fact of the conversion of St. Paul, he said, "That may
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