Page:The Praises of Amida, 1907.djvu/22

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The Praises of Amida.

darkness, how can we have a definite aim before us, and how, lacking that aim, can we think of making progress towards a goal? It follows, therefore, that happiness and progress are, both of them, empty expressions incapable of realization, and that we ourselves are vainly trying to realize things that cannot be realized. Why is that? We cannot tell.

4. Again, you will sometimes find people who will tell you that it is impossible to discover the raison d'ĉtre of life by looking only at the individual self. The individual, they say, is a portion of the State or of Society, and apart from these he is nothing. If, however, we look upon the individual as a constituent member of the whole body, we shall see that the end which the individual must aim at is the happiness or the progress of the Slate or of Society.

A man born blind can know nothing of the word outside and cannot therefore become a leader of others. How is it possible then that the man, who does not know wherein lies his own happiness or advancement, can understand the