The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Buried Temple, by Maurice Maeterlinck

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Title: The Buried Temple

Author: Maurice Maeterlinck

Translator: Alfred Sutro

Release Date: November 4, 2006 [EBook #19711]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BURIED TEMPLE ***

Produced by Al Haines

The Buried Temple

By

Maurice Maeterlinck

Translated by Alfred Sutro

LONDON : GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.

RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1

Published in April 1902

Reprinted:--
POCKET EDITION, March 1911
November 1911
July 1919
December 1921
October 1924

Twenty first Thousand

(All rights reserved)

Printed in Great Britain

NOTE

Of the five essays in this volume, two only, those on "The Past" and
"Luck," were written in 1901. The others, "The Mystery of Justice,"
"The Evolution of Mystery," and "The Kingdom of Matter," are anterior
to "The Life of the Bee," and appeared in the _Fortnightly Review_ in
1899 and 1900. The essay on "The Past" appeared in the March number of
the _Fortnightly Review_ and of the New York _Independent_; and parts
of "The Mystery of Justice" in this last journal and _Harper's
Magazine_. The author's thanks are due to Messrs. Chapman & Hall,
Messrs. Harper & Brothers, and the proprietors of _The Independent_ for
their permission to republish.

CONTENTS

I. THE MYSTERY OF JUSTICE
II. THE EVOLUTION OF MYSTERY
III. THE KINGDOM OF MATTER
IV. THE PAST
V. LUCK

I

THE MYSTERY OF JUSTICE

1

I speak, for those who do not believe in the existence of a unique,
all-powerful, infallible Judge, for ever intent on our thoughts, our
feelings and actions, maintaining justice in this world and completing
it in the next. And if there be no Judge, what justice is there? None
other than that which men have made for themselves by their laws and
tribunals, as also in the social relations that no definite judgment
governs? Is there nothing above this human justice, whose sanction is
rarely other than the opinion, the confidence or mistrust, the approval
or disapproval, of our fellows? I