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Cedars of Lebanon: All Things Are Possible
- Abstract
The partition: A naturalist once arranged the following experiment: a glass receptacle was filled with water and divided into two compartments by a glass partition. In one compartment there was placed a pike, and in the other, an assortment of small fish which serve ordinarily as food for the pike. The pike did not observe the glass partition, and threw himself toward his prey; naturally, he collided sharply with the barrier. He repeated his efforts many times and always with the same disillusioning result. Finally, seeing that all his exertions were in vain, the pike gave up—so completely, that when the glass barrier was removed, a few days later, he began to swim peacefully among the fish and no longer thought to attack them. Does not the same thing happen with men? It might be that the ideas they hold on the boundaries between “this world” and “the other world” are merely habitual and not at all, as they were thought to be before Kant, dependent on the nature of things; nor need these ideas be dependent on the nature of the human mind, as has been affirmed since Kant. The partition doubtless exists, and renders vain all our attempts to escape beyond the limits of knowledge. But it may also be the case that, in the course of our existence, a moment comes when the partition is suddenly removed.
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