The Soldier and the Hunchback ! and ?

THE SOLDIER AND THE HUNCHBACK Vv We are of course no happier when we examine the Many, separately or together. They converge and diverge, each fresh hill-top of knowledge disclosing a vast land unexplored ; each gain of power in our telescopes opening out new galaxies ; each improvement in our microscopes showing us life minuter and more incomprehensible. A mystery of the mighty spaces between molecules ; a mystery of the ether-cushions that fend off the stars from collision! A mystery of the fulness of things ; a mystery of the emptiness of things! Yet, as we go, there grows a sense, an instinct, a premonition—what shall I call it ?—that Being is One, and Thought is One, and Law is One—until we ask What is that One? Then again we spin words—words—words. And we have got no single question answered in any ultimate sense. What is the moon made of? Science replies ‘Green Cheese.” For our one moon we have now two ideas: Greenness, and Cheese. Greenness depends on the sunlight, and the eye, and a thousand other things. Cheese depends on bacteria and fermentation and the nature of the cow. “Deeper, ever deeper, into the mire of things !” Shall we cut the Gordian knot? shall we say “There is God”? What, in the devil’s name, is God? If (with Moses) we picture Him as an old man showing us His back parts, who shall blame us? The great Question 11g