'No!' Baruch thought she referred to her child, and he was silent.
'You are a philosopher,' said Madge, after a pause. 'Have you never
discovered anything which will enable us to submit to be useless?'
'That is to say, have I discovered a religion? for the core of
religion is the relationship of the individual to the whole, the
faith that the poorest and meanest of us is a person. That is the
real strength of all religions.'
'Well, go on; what do you believe?'
'I can only say it like a creed; I have no demonstration, at least
none such as I would venture to put into words. Perhaps the highest
of all truths is incapable of demonstration and can only be stated.
Perhaps, also, the statement, at least to some of us, is a sufficient
demonstration. I believe that inability to imagine a thing is not a
reason for its non-existence. If the infinite is a conclusion which
is forced upon me, the fact that I cannot picture it does not
disprove it. I believe, also, in thought and the soul, and it is
nothing to me that I cannot explain them by attributes belonging to
body. That being so, the difficulties which arise from the perpetual
and unconscious confusion of the qualities of thought and soul with
those of body disappear. Our imagination represents to itself souls
like pebbles, and asks itself what count can be kept of a million,
but number in such a case is inapplicable. I believe that all
thought is a manifestation of the Being, who is One, whom you may
call God if you like, and that, as It never was created, It will
never be destroyed.'
'But,' said Madge, interrupting him, 'although you began by warning
me not to expect that you would prove anything, you can tell me
whether you have any kind of basis for what you say, or whether it is
all a dream.' 'You will be surprised, perhaps, to hear that mathematics, which, of
course, I had to learn for my own business, have supplied something
for a foundation. They lead to ideas which are inconsistent with the
notion that the imagination is a measure of all things. Mind, I do
not for a moment pretend that I have any theory which explains the
universe. It is something, however, to know that the sky is as real
as the earth.'
They had now reached Great Ormond Street, and parted. Clara and
Marshall were about five minutes behind them. Madge was unusually
cheerful when they sat down to supper.