THE NEW WINE
275
What God
is
in Himself the
Agnostic
declares
is
not given
man to understand , much less to discuss ,
and this maxim
finds full
affirmation
in
“ Ascension
Day, " when Crowley
writes :
I deny
nothing —at the term
It is just Nothing
I affirm
.
Man is but an ephemeron :
We float upon
the blue
Like sunlight specks in dew ,
And like the moonlight on the lake we
lie
.?
Yet he rises
:
Golden
,
the electric spark
of
man
is
drawn
Deep
in
the bosom
of
the world
,
to
soar
New
-
fledged
,
an
eagle
to
the dazzling dawn
With lidless eyes undazzled
,
to
arise
,
Son
of
themorning
,
...
3
finds Freedom as his God
:
And Freedom stands
,
re
-
risen from the rod
,
A
goodlier godhead than
the broken God
."
It
was
in
the
winter
of
1619 that Descartes
made
the famous resolution
to
“
take nothing for truth with
out the clear knowledge that
it
is
such
."
Thus Jove
like
he
discrowned
the authority
of
a
thousand years
,
and though
the symbolization
of
his ideas was often
at
variance
with
the
logic
of
his facts
,
it
is
to
him
alone that present
-
day
agnosticism
must look
back
on
as
its
founder
.
Berkeley
,
as
we have
seen
,
carried
the
Cartesian
principle
to
its
logical
result
;
Hume
,
1
The Sword
of
Song
,
vol
.
ii,
p
.
163
,
?
Mysteries
:
Lyrical
and Dramatic
,
vol
.
i,
p
.
95
.
3
The Fatal Force
,
vol
.
i,
p
.
145
.
Mysteries
:
Lyrical
and Dramatic
,
vol
.i,
p
.
107
.