speaking of the earthly future, though it partly
takes us back over the ground of the previous
lecture.

In theorising about the future of finite beings, my
object is clear and limited. I am very far from
believing that philosophy confers the gift of pro-
phecy. Hegel's famous disclaimer expresses my
doctrine on this point. ¹ Philosophy comes after
the fact, and interprets it. It neither preaches
nor predicts. But yet a philosophical position is
definitely characterised by the attitude adopted
to the course of time. There are theories which
in one way or another manage to gain much sup-
port by making heavy drafts upon the future. I
am thoroughly convinced that all such theories are
in the eye of logic discredited ab initio. ² Having
recourse to what is in principle unverifiable, they
cannot be tested, ³ and, what is worse, they obstruct
genuine insight and appreciation of values. It is a
view of finite life as substantially rooted in an all-
pervading reality, and opposed to the thinness and
external motivation attendant upon such theories,
that I desire in this final lecture to elucidate. My
hope is thus to complete an outline of a philosophy
which might express the reasonable faith of resolute
and open-minded men, as suggested in the beginning
of the previous series. ⁴

I take the passages which stand at the head of

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