Faith in reason is exposed to the same
rational indefensibility as all other faith. And we may say with Robert
Browning,
All we have gained, then, by our unbelief
Is a life of doubt diversified by faith
For one of faith diversified by doubt.
(_Bishop Blougram's Apology_.)
And if, as I have said, faith, life, can only sustain itself by leaning
upon reason, which renders it transmissible--and above all transmissible
from myself to myself--that is to say, reflective and conscious--it is
none the less true that reason in its turn can only sustain itself by
leaning upon faith, upon life, even if only upon faith in reason, faith
in its availability for something more than mere knowing, faith in its
availability for living. Nevertheless, neither is faith transmissible or
rational, nor is reason vital.
The will and the intelligence have need of one another, and the reverse
of that old aphorism, _nihil volitum quin praecognitum_, nothing is
willed but what is previously known, is not so paradoxical as at first
sight it may appear--_nihil cognitum quin praevolitum_, nothing is known
but what is previously willed. Vinet, in his study of Cousin's book on
the _Pensees_ of Pascal, says: "The very knowledge of the mind as such
has need of the heart. Without the desire to see there is no seeing; in
a great materialization of life and of thought there is no believing in
the things of the spirit.
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