The Light of the East May 1946

But who barring the thoughtless and irresponsible Utopian has not at times felt creeping into his heart like a deadly poison that paralyses all his energies this feeling of the vanity of all the labours of Nature and of man ? Who has not felt at times the horrid temptation to say : " What is the good of all these efforts ? What do they lead to ? " and to rest on his oars like the tired seaman w [...] For the second it led to wisdom to the right apprecition of things the realization of the vanity of much that seems great and of the lasting value of a few things that seem small. [...] As a matter of fact one of the most curious anlogies between the schoolmen of the East and those of the \Vest is that their discussions always open on a clear and objective statement of the objections that have been raised against the theory which they mean to defend ( the parrapaksa or the videtur quo(' non) ; a prcedure which very few moderns -- and perhaps with good reasons ----- have ve [...] Do you see now the cause of this difference ? For the mediaevals as for me they are the outline of the ways which lead to the solution of a vital question of a question that spontaneously arises from the depths of our soul and which arises thence with such urgency that our mind will never rest satisfied until it has got the answer. [...] The book is as the author himself says ' a confession " containing as he adds " not only four documents of a battle but four sttions along this winding serpentine path the end of which is just as unknown to me the traveller as the day of my own death ". The last words of this sentence explain we believe the title of the book.