ven as we have accommodated ourselves to
those of history. We should soon make allowance for the evils we
could not escape and for inevitable evils. The wiser among us, for
themselves, would lessen the sum total of the latter; and the
others would meet them half-way, even as now they go to meet many
certain disasters which are easily foretold. The amount of our
vexations would be somewhat decreased, but less than we hope; for
already our reason is able to foresee a portion of our future, if
not with the material evidence that we dream of, at least with a
moral certainty that is often satisfying; yet we observe that the
majority of men derive hardly any profit from this easy
fore-knowledge. Such men would neglect the counsels of the future,
even as they hear, without following it, the advice of the past."

Not to know the future is extremely inconvenient, to say the least, and
it may present itself as the next most needed advance in progress. The
question is in the air; the demand for its solution may increase, and
demands penetrate the unknown and reconstruct it for the higher use of
man. Meanwhile, as Mr. Maeterlinck continues:--

"Our life must be lived while we wait for the word that shall solve
the enigma, and the happier, the nobler our life, the more vigorous
shall it become, and we shall have the more courage,
clear-sightedness, boldness to seek and desire the truth.... We
should live as though we were always on the eve of the great
revelation, and we should be ready with welcome, with, warmest and
keenest and fullest, most heartfelt and intimate welcome. And
whatever the form it shall take on the day that it comes to us, the
best way of all to prepare for its fitting reception is to crave
for it now, to desire it as lofty, as perfect, as vast, as
ennobling as the soul can conceive. It must needs be more
beautiful, glorious, and ample than the best of our hopes. For when
it differs therefrom or even frustrates them, it must of necessity
bring something nobler, loftier, nearer to the nature of man, for
it will bring us truth. To man, though all that he value go under,
the intimate truth of the universe must be wholly, pre-eminently
admirable. And though on the day it unveils, our meekest desires
turn to ashes and float on the wind, still there shall linger
with