"Certainly," I agreed, "and subject to constant revision."
"And after that?"
"Well," I said, "now comes the point Audubon raised. Is it necessary to include also the postulate that Good can be realized?"
"But surely," objected Wilson, "here at least there is no room for what you call faith. For whether or no the Good can be realized is a question of knowledge."
"No doubt," I replied, "and so are all questions—if only we could know. But I was assuming that this is one of the things we do not know."
"But," he said, "it is one we are always coming to know. Every year we are learning more and more about the course and destiny of mankind."
"Should you say, then," I asked, "that we are nearer to knowing whether or no the soul is immortal?"
He looked at me in sheer amazement; and then, "What a question!" he cried. "I should say that we have long known that it isn't"
"Then," I said, "if so, we know that the Good cannot be realized."
"What!" he exclaimed. "I had not understood that your conception of the Good involved the idea of personal immortality."