The Soldier and the Hunchback ! and ?

THE SOLDIER AND THE HUNCHBACK to pieces our tower of thought, but rooted up the foundation- stone and ground it into finer and more poisonous powder than that into which Moses ground the calf. These golden Elohim! Our calf-heads that brought us not out of Egypt, but into a darkness deeper and more tangible than any darkness of the double Empire of Asar. Hume put his little ? to Berkeley's God-!; Buddha his ? to the Vedic Atman-!—and neither Hume nor Buddha was baulked of his reward. Ourselves may put? to our own? since we have found no ! to put it to; and wouldn't it be jolly if our own second ? suddenly straightened its back and threw its chest out and marched off as ! ? Suppose then we accept our scepticism as having destroyed our knowledge root and branch—is there no limit to its action? Does it not in a sense stultify itself? Having destroyed logic by logic—if Satan cast out Satan, how shall his kingdom stand? Let us stand on the Mount, Saviours of the World that we are, and answer “Get thee behind me, Satan!” though refraining from quoting texts or giving reasons. Oho! says somebody; is Aleister Crowley here ?—Samson blinded and bound, grinding corn for the Philistines! Not at all, dear boy! We shall put all the questions that we can put—but we may find a tower built upon a rock, against which the winds beat in vain. Not what Christians call faith, be sure! But what (pos- sibly) the forgers of the Epistles—those eminent mystics !— meant by faith. What I call Samadhi—and as “ faith with- 121