Why, When No Honest Man Will Deny In Private That Every Ultimate Problem Is Wrapped In The Profoundest Mystery

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Why, when no honest man will deny in private that every ultimate
problem is wrapped in the profoundest mystery, do honest men proclaim
in pulpits that unhesitating certainty is the duty of the most foolish
and ignorant? Is it not a spectacle to make the angels laugh?We are
a company of ignorant beings, feeling our way through mists and
darkness, learning only be incessantly repeated blunders, obtaining a
glimmering of truth by falling into every conceivable error, dimly
discerning light enough for our daily needs, but hopelessly differing
whenever we attempt to describe the ultimate origin or end of our
paths; and yet, when one of us ventures to declare that we don't know
the map of the universe as well as the map of our infinitesimal parish,
he is hooted, reviled, and perhaps told that he will be damned to all
eternity for his faithlessness...
-- Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), "An agnostic's Apology",
Fortnightly Review, 1876

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