| Show THE REAL maurice the belgian philosopher writes in harpers maga zine on the limitations 0 the senses and the wonders of the universe that lie beyond their ken what keeps and will long still keep us from enjoy ing the treasures of the universe Is the hereditary resignation with which we tarry in the gloomy prison of our senses he says our imagination as we lead it to day accommodates itself too readily to that captivity it is true that it is the slave 0 those senses which alone feed it but it does not cultivate enough within it self the intuitions and presentiments which tell it that it Is absurdly cap alve and that it must seek outlets even beyond the most resplendent and most infinite circles which it pic tures to itself it is important that our imagination should say to itself more and more seriously that the real world begins thousands of mil lions of leagues beyond its most am bilious and daring dreams never was it entitled nay bound to be more madly foolhardy than now all that it succeeds in building and multiplying in the most enormous space and time that it is capable of conceiving Is nothing compared with that which is already the smallest revelations 0 science in our humble dally life teach it that even in that modest environment it can not cope with reality that it la constantly be ing overwhelmed disconcerted daz aled by all the unexpected that lies hidden in a stone a salt a glass 0 water a plant an insect it la al ready something to be convinced of this tor that places us in a state 0 mind that watches every occasion to break through the magic circle of our blindness it persuades us also that we must hope to find no decisive truths within this circle that they all he hidden beyond let us say to ourselves that among the possibilities which the universe still hides us one 0 the most palpable the least ambitious and the least disconcerting Is the possibility ot a means of enjoying an existence much more spa clous lofty perfect durable and se j cure than that which as offered to us by our actual consciousness admit ting this possibility and there are few as probable the problem of our immortality is in principle solved |
