I said
something to him about the sense of power that such knowledge must
give. "Ah!" he said, "much of what I have told you is not proved,
it is only suspected. We are very much in the dark about these
things yet. Probably if a physicist of a hundred years hence could
overhear me, he would be amazed to think that a sensible man could
make such puerile statements. Power--no, it is not that! It rather
makes one realise one's feebleness in being so uncertain about
things that are absolutely certain and precise in themselves, if we
could but see the truth. It is much more like the apostle who said,
'Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief.' The thing one wonders at
is the courage of the men who dare to think they KNOW."
In one region I own that I dread and dislike the tyranny of the
specialist, and that is the region of metaphysical and religious
speculation. People who indulge themselves in this form of
speculation are apt to be told by theologians and metaphysicians
that they ought to acquaint themselves with the trend of
theological and metaphysical criticism.
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