On pragmatic principles we cannot reject any hypothesis if
consequences useful to life flow from it. Universal conceptions, as
things to take account of, may be as real for pragmatism as
particular sensations are. They have indeed no meaning and no
reality if they have no use. But if they have any use they have that
amount of meaning. And the meaning will be true if the use squares
well with life's other uses.
Well, the use of the Absolute is proved by the whole course of men's
religious history. The eternal arms are then beneath. Remember
Vivekananda's use of the Atman: it is indeed not a scientific use,
for we can make no particular deductions from it. It is emotional
and spiritual altogether.
It is always best to discuss things by the help of concrete
examples. Let me read therefore some of those verses entitled "To
You" by Walt Whitman--"You" of course meaning the reader or hearer
of the poem whosoever he or she may be.
Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem;
I whisper with my lips close to your ear,
I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you.
O I have been dilatory and dumb;
I should have made my way straight to you long ago;
I should have blabb'd nothing but you, I should have chanted nothing
but you.
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