Having made this confession, there seems to be
no alternative but to postulate an utter discrepancy
between human thought and real existence, or
between human knowledge and truth, which is the
correspondence of thing and thought. For, at no
point is knowledge found to be in touch with real
being ; it is everywhere demonstrably conditioned
and relative, and inadequate to express the true
reality of its objects. What remains, then, except
to regard human knowledge as completely untrust-
worthy, as merely of phenomena ? If we cannot know
any reality, does not knowledge completely fail ?



KNOWLEDGE DOES NOT FAIL



271



Now, in dealing with the moral life of man,
we saw that the method of hard alternatives was
invalid. The moral life, being progressive, was
shown to be the meeting point of the ideal and
the actual ; and the ideal of perfect goodness was
regarded as manifesting itself in actions which,
nevertheless, were never adequate to express it.
The good when achieved was ever condemned as
unworthy, and the ideal when attained ever pressed
for more adequate expression in a better character.
The ideal was present as potency, as realizing itself,
but it was never completely realized. The absolute
good was never reached in the best action, and
never completely missed in the worst.
