The  ray  pursues  its  way  unimpeded,  and  innumerable  open,
ardent  eyes  long  for  it  and  sometimes  seem  to  feel  the  pres-
ence of  the  luminous  wave  moving  forward  on  its  victorious
'  See  on  this  subject  the  author's  Vers  d'un  philosophe,  p.  198.
502  NON-RELIGION  OF    THE   FUTURE.
course.  Must  their  search  eternally  be  vain  ?  If  there  is  no
definitive  reason  for  affirming  it,  there  is  still  less  any  categor-
ical reason  for  denying  it.  It  is  a  matter  of  chance,  the  man
of  science  might  say  ;  it  is  a  matter,  also,  of  perseverance  and
intelligence,  would  be  added  by  the  philosopher.
The  fact  that  we  are  to-day  capable  of  stating  such  prob-
lems in  regard  to  the  destiny  of  the  universe  seems  to  indicate
Positive  evi-       something  like    an    advance   in   the    direction  of
deuce  of  ultimate    solving  them  ;  thought  is  unable  to  advance  upon

reality  beyond  a  certain  point  ;  the  conception  of
an  ideal  presupposes  the  existence  of  a  more  or  less  imperfect
realization  of  it.  In  the  tertiary  period  no  animal  speculated
about  the  universal  society.  A  true  conception  of  the  ideal,
if  the  truth  about  the  matter  could  be  known  mathematically,
would  be  found  to  possess,  in  all  probability,  an  enormous
number  of  chances  of  being  realized  ;  properly  to  state  a  prob-
lem is  to  have  begun  to  solve  it.  A  purely  mathematical  cal-
culation of  the  external  probabilities  of  the  case  does  not,
therefore,  express  the  real  value  in  the  domain  of  intelligence
and  morality,  because  in  matters  of  intelligence  and  morality,
possibility,  probability,  and  the  powers  upon  which  the  reali-
zation of  the  fact  depends,  lie  in  thought  which  is  a  concentra-
tion of  inner  and,  so  to  speak,  living  chances.
