heart  wants  is  its  chance.  It  will  willingly  forego
certainty  in  universal  matters  if  only  it  can  be  allowed
to  feel  that  in  them  it  has  that  same  inalienable  right
to  run  risks,  which  no  one  dreams  of  refusing  to  it  in
the  pettiest  practical  affairs.  And  if  I,  in  these  last
pages,  like  the  mouse  in  the  fable,  have  gnawed  a  few
of  the  strings  of  the  sophistical  net  that  has  been
binding  down  its  lion-strength,  I  shall  be  more  than
rewarded  for  my  pains.
To  sum  up :  No  philosophy  will  permanently  be
deemed  rational  by  all  men  which  (in  addition  to
meeting  logical  demands)  does  not  to  some  degree
pretend  to  determine  expectancy,  and  in  a  still
greater  degree  make  a  direct  appeal  to  all  those  pow-
ers of  our  nature  which  we  hold  in  highest  esteem.
Faith,  being  one  of  these  powers,  will  always  remain
a  factor  not  to  be  banished  from  philosophic  con-
structions, the  more  so  since  in  many  ways  it  brings
forth  its  own  verification.  In  these  points,  then,
it  is  hopeless  to  look  for  literal  agreement  among
mankind.
The  ultimate  philosophy,  we  may  therefore  con-
clude, must  not  be  too  strait-laced  in  form,  must  not
in  all  its  parts  divide  heresy  from  orthodoxy  by  too
sharp  a  line.  There  must  be  left  over  and  above  the
propositions  to  be  subscribed,  ubique,  semper,  et  ab
omnibus,  another  realm  into  which  the  stifled  soul
may  escape  from  pedantic  scruples  and  indulge  its
own  faith  at  its  own  risks;  and  all  that  can  here  be
done  will  be  to  mark  out  distinctly  the  questions
which  fall  within  faith's  sphere.
