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122 The Human Cyclethe human intellect, the collective human reason will eventuallyarrive at purity and be able to found human thought and lifesecurely on a clear rational basis entirely satisfying to the intelligence.His first article of faith is no doubt the commonexpression of our egoism and arrogant fallibility, but it is alsosomething more; it expresses this truth that it is the legitimatefunction of the reason to justify to man his action and his hopeand the faith that is in him and to give him that idea and knowledge,however restricted, and that dynamic conviction, howevernarrow and intolerant, which he needs in order that he maylive, act and grow in the highest light available to him. Thereason cannot grasp all truth in its embrace because truth is tooinfinite for it; but still it does grasp the something of it which weimmediately need, and its insufficiency does not detract from thevalue of its work, but is rather the measure of its value. For manis not intended to grasp the whole truth of his being at once, butto move towards it through a succession of experiences and aconstant, though not by any means a perfectly continuous selfenlargement.The first business of reason then is to justify andenlighten to him his various experiences and to give him faithand conviction in holding on to his self-enlargings. It justifiesto him now this, now that, the experience of the moment, thereceding light of the past, the half-seen vision of the future. Itsinconstancy, its divisibility against itself, its power of sustainingopposite views are the whole secret of its value. It would notdo indeed for it to support too conflicting views in the sameindividual, except at moments of awakening and transition, butin the collective body of men and in the successions of Time thatis its whole business. For so man moves towards the infinity ofthe Truth by the experience of its variety; so his reason helpshim to build, change, destroy what he has built and prepare anew construction, in a word, to progress, grow, enlarge himselfin his self-knowledge and world-knowledge and their works.The second article of faith of the believer in reason is alsoan error and yet contains a truth. The reason cannot arrive atany final truth because it can neither get to the root of thingsnor embrace the totality of their secrets; it deals with the finite,