Religion  then  becomes  a  thing  not  independent  of  the  general
progress  of  the  human  mind.  May  I  not  add,  that  the  S^khya
preference  of  knowledge  to  blind  faith  receives  also  a  justifica-
tion ?  For  not  only  science  seems  to  outgrow  the  popular  con-
ception of  things,  which  would  be  naturally  embodied  even  in
the  most  faultless  or  divinely-dictated  religious  book,  if  it  was  to
serve  as  a  vehicle  for  instructing  men  in  rude  times ;  but  also
reason  seems  to  outgrow  faith,  if  even  she  does  so,  by  aid  of  an
education  to  which  faith  ministers;  and  so  our  conceptions  at
length  burst  the  very  mould  in  which  they  were  cast.  On  the
whole,  then,  without  wearying  you  here  by  reverting  to  pecu-
liarities before  explained,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  in  a  certain
law  of  progress,  and  abide  by  the  Sdnkhya  esteem  of  right
knowledge  as  the  true  liberation  of  the  soul."

"  But  since  you  talk  of  progress,"  answered  Blancombe,
"where  has  your  school  got  to?  Is  it  moving  forward  now?
If  it  satisfied  the  deepest  convictions  of  men,  it  would  have  a
growing  hold  on  multitudes ;  and  this  is  a  test  which  your  own
theory  of  science  renders  appropriate.  Whereas  I  have  recently
learned,  that  in  all  India  the  adherents  of  your  school  are  very
few  indeed.  Men  have  found  your  system  wanting ;  and  such  a
verdict  of  men's  conscience  corresponds  with  the  failure  of  all


534  FINAL  ANSWER  TO  SA'NKHYAST  SPEAKER.
similar  speculations  elsewhere,  whether  found  among  the  sensual
sceptics  of  Rome  when  her  simpler  faith  had   grown   cold  in
her,  or  among  the  Sadducees  of  Judeea,  or  among  those  of  the
modems  who  have  criticism  to  destroy  without  faith  to  build.
