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THE RIGHT SOLUTION
far as he can. Belief thus acquired is further directly strengthened and nourished by daily 'suggestion' in the form of prayer and sacrament. This is, however, only the triumph of ritual. There is no question of the merit or truth of the matter of belief yet; one merely forces oneself to believe what one is told is the truth. But the great enemy of faith is reason and the rational bent of the mind. Hence, where science has acquired the ascendancy over superstition, faith is put on its trial to justify its being. This means nothing but the death of the latter where it is unreasoning and unreasoned.
The conflict that is now raging between Science and Religion in the West including America is of this nature. The two books which I have referred to above are the natural product of the psychology of the age in which science has driven out all else except what is exact and definitely conceivable from the field. Here and there you, no doubt, still come across men, who, dissatisfied with a purely mechanical explanation of life, try to fight a valiant rear-guard against the foe. But they are really sad at heart, and have the conviction stamped on their faces that they are fighting against fearful odds.
73.
Yet I maintain that if they will only reburnish their blades, if they will only give up their false preceptors and misleading guides, if they will but throw away the erroneous commentaries of which they are enamoured, in short, if they will but unburden themselves of the enormous load of the traditions and theories of men, and turn, or rather re-turn, to the original source, with a clean slate of the imagination, and seek to decipher the word of law, as entombed in the artistic pictograms to be found there, they will still discover the true fountain of Goodness and Beauty and Truth,' from the waters of which all true sciences shall ever be proud to quench their thirst.
I repeat that the writers of the books of the mystic faiths were not only scientists, but gifted artists as well. Instead of expressing themselves in words they "painted " their ideas in pictures, which were subsequently described in words. Today it is not enough to be able to read the language of such a scripture of truth as a dialect; this will not solve the underlying mystery. A dictionary will fail to tackle a
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