true that he who has seen more will live
more wisely, for in an individual case instinct or authority may be
better sources of aspiration than experience. But we trust instinct and
authority because we believe them to represent a comprehensive
experience on the part of the race as a whole, or on the part of God. He
whose knowledge is broadest and truest would know best what is finally
worth living for. On this account, most men can see no more reasonable
plan of life than obedience to God's will, for God in the abundance of
his wisdom, and since all eternity is plain before him, must see with
certainty that which is supremely worthy.

We mean, then, that the selection of our ideals shall be determined by
the largest possible knowledge of the facts pertaining to life. We mean
to select as one would select who knew all about the antecedents and
surroundings and remote consequences of life. In our own weakness and
finitude we may go but a little way in the direction of such an
insight, and may prefer to accept the judgment of tradition or
authority, but we recognize a distinct type of knowledge as alone worthy
to justify an individual's adoption of an ideal. That type of knowledge
is the knowledge that comprehends the universe in its totality. Such
knowledge does not involve completeness of information respecting all
parts of reality. This, humanly speaking, is both unattainable and
inconceivable. It involves rather a conception of the _kind_ of reality
that is fundamental. For a wise purpose it is unnecessary that we should
know many matters of fact, or even specific laws, provided we are
convinced of the inner and essential character of the universe. Some of
the alternatives are matters of every-day thought and speech. One cannot
tell the simplest story of human life without disclosing them. To live
the human life means to pursue ideals, that is, to have a thing in mind,
and then to try to accomplish it. Here is one kind of reality and power.
The planetary system, on the other hand, does not pursue ideals, but
moves unconscious of itself, with a mechanical precision that can be
expressed in a mathematical formula; and is representative of another
kind of reality and power. Hence a very common and a very practical
question: Is there an underlying law, like the law of gravitation,
fundamentally and permanently governing life, in spite of its apparent
direction by ideal and aspiration? Or is there an underlying power, like