A MAP OF LIFE are made of, but he cannot tell us what we are made for: and by comparison with this altogether vital matter, what he has to say, interesting as it is, is but trivial. In other words, short of God telling us, we cannot be told; and short of being told we cannot know. We can of course theorize — or in plain English, guess. There is one, and only one, colourable alternative to a revelation from God as a means of knowing the purpose of man’s existence. We might simply take human nature as it is, study it, come to a full and accurate knowledge of it : we could then reason from man’s nature as to the particular purpose for which a being of that nature must have been made: or, avoiding the idea of purpose altogether, we might reason as to the best use to which a being of those powers could be put. This, I say, is a colourable alternative. Indeed, for one who is unaware of the revelation of God, it is the highest exercise of the intellect. With this method, had God not told us what was in His mind, we should have had to rest content.* Yet we may be glad that He did not so leave us, since it is hable to error in many ways, of which two are of capital importance : ( I ) There may be error in the reading of human nature. Most of men’s efforts to read human nature, and frame a system of life in accord with it, err by inability to seize the whole. One part of human * See Chapter XII. 14 ^