The main
point in his orthodoxy is unquestionably a most valuable contribution to
the general faith of his time and country. That point is the adventure
which he narrates under the similitude of the voyage that ended in the
discovery of England. He set out to find the empirical truth of human
nature and the meaning of human life, as these are to be explored in
experience. When he found them, it was infinitely surprising to him to
become aware that the system in which his faith had come at last to rest
was just Christianity--the only system which could offer any adequate
and indeed exact account of human nature. The articles of its creed he
recognised as the points of conviction which are absolutely necessary to
the understanding of human nature and to the living of human life.
Thus it comes to pass that in the midst of a time resounding with pagan
voices old and new, he stands for an unflinching idealism. It is the
mark of pagans that they are children of Nature, boasting that Nature is
their mother: they are solemnised by that still and unresponsive
maternity, or driven into rebellion by discovering that the so-called
mother is but a harsh stepmother after all.
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