The Buried Temple | Page 7

in his heart an
immutable instinct of justice, than it was wonderful and inexplicable
that the gods should be just, or the forces of the universe. It is as
difficult to account for the essence of our memory, our will, or
intelligence, as it was to account for the memory, will, or intelligence
of the invisible powers or laws of Nature; and if, in order to enhance
our curiosity, we have need of the unknown or unknowable; if, in order
to maintain our ardour, we require mystery or the infinite, we shall not
lose a single tributary of the unknown and unknowable by at last
restoring the great river to its primitive bed; nor shall we have closed a
single road that leads to the infinite, or lessened by the minutest
fraction the most contested of veritable mysteries. Whatever we take
from the skies we find again in the heart of man. But, mystery for
mystery, let us prefer the one that is certain to the one that is doubtful,
the one that is near to the one that is far, the one that is in us and of us
to the harmful one from without. Mystery for mystery, let us no longer
parley with the messengers, but with the sovereign who sent them; no
longer question those feeble ones who silently vanish at our first
inquiry, but rather look into our heart, where are both question and
answer; the answer which it has forgotten, but, some day perhaps, shall
remember.
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Then we shall be able to solve more than one disconcerting problem as
to the distribution, often very equitable, of reward and punishment
among men. And by this we do not mean only the inward, moral
reward and punishment, but also the reward and punishment that are
visible and wholly material. There was some measure of reason in the
belief held by mankind from its very origin, that justice penetrates,
animates as it were, every object of this world in which we live. This
belief has not been explained away by the fact that our great moral laws
have been forcibly adapted to the great laws of life and matter. There is
more beyond. We cannot refer all things, in all circumstances, to a
simple relation of cause and effect between crime and punishment.
There is often a moral element also; and though events have not placed
it there, though it is we alone who have created it, it is not the less
powerful and real. Of a physical justice, properly so called, we deny the
existence; but besides the wholly inward psychologic justice, to which
we shall soon refer, there is also a psychologic justice which is in
constant communication with the physical world; and it is this justice
that we attribute to we know not what invisible and universal principle.
And while it is wrong to credit Nature with moral intentions, and to
allow our actions to be governed by fear of punishment or hope of
reward that she may have in store for us, this does not imply that, even
materially, there is no reward for good, or punishment for evil. Such
reward and punishment undoubtedly exist, but they issue not from
whence we imagine; and in believing that they come from an
inaccessible spot, that they master us, judge us, and consequently
dispense us from judging ourselves, we commit the most dangerous of
errors; for none has a greater influence upon our manner of defending
ourselves against misfortune, or of setting forth to attempt the
legitimate conquest of happiness.
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Such justice as we actually discover in Nature does not issue from her,
but from ourselves, who have unconsciously placed it there, through
becoming one with events, animating them and adapting them to our
uses. Accident, disease, the thunderbolt, which strike to right or to left,
without apparent reason or warning, wholly indifferent as to what our

thoughts may be, are not the only elements in our life. There are other,
and far more frequent, cases when we have direct influence on the
things and persons around us, and invest these with our own personality;
cases when the forces of nature become the instruments of our thoughts,
which, when unjust, will make improper use of them, thereby calling
forth retaliation and inviting punishment and disaster. But in Nature
there is no moral reaction; for this emanates from our own thoughts or
the thoughts of other men. It is not in things, but in us, that the justice
of things resides. It is our moral condition that modifies our conduct
towards the external world; and if we find this antagonistic, it is
because we are at war with ourselves, with the essential laws of our
mind and our heart. The attitude of Nature towards us is uninfluenced