ch. ni.J RELIGION. 5 



" At the present day the most usual argument for the 

 existence of an intelligent God is drawn from the deep 

 inward conviction and feelings which are experienced by 

 most persons. 



" Formerly I was led by feelings such as those just 

 referred to (although I do not think that the religious 

 sentiment was ever strongly developed in me), to the firm 

 conviction of the existence of God and of the immortality 

 of the soul. In my Journal I wrote that whilst standing in 

 the midst of the grandeur of a Brazilian forest, ' it is not 

 possible to give an adequate idea of the higher feelings of 

 wonder, admiration, and devotion which fill and elevate the 

 mind.' I well remember my conviction that there is more 

 in man than the mere breath of his body ; but now the 

 grandest scenes would not cause any such convictions and 

 feelings to rise in my mind. It may be truly said that I am 

 like a man who has become colour-blind, and the universal 

 belief by men of the existence of redness makes my present 

 loss of perception of not the least value as evidence. This 

 argument would be a valid one if all men of all races had 

 the same inward conviction of the existence of one God ; 

 bat we know that this is very far from being the case. 

 Therefore I cannot see that such inward convictions and 

 feelings are of any weight as evidence of what really exists. 

 The state of mind which grand scenes formerly excited in 

 me, and which was intimately connected with a belief in 

 God, did not essentially differ from that which is often 

 called the sense of sublimity ; and however difficult it may 

 be to explain the genesis of this sense, it can hardly be 

 advanced as an argument for the existence of God, any 

 more than the powerful though vague and similar feelings 

 excited by music. 



" With respect to immortality, nothing shows me [so 

 clearly] how strong and almost instinctive a belief it is as 

 the consideration of the view now held by most physicists, 

 namely, that the sun with all the planets will in time grow 

 too cold for life, unless indeed some great body dashes into 

 the sun and thus gives it fresh life. Believing as I do that 

 man in the distant future will be a far more perfect crea- 

 ture than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and 

 all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihila- 

 tion after such long-continued slow progress. To those 

 who fully admit the immortality of the human soul, the 

 destruction of our world will not appear so dreadful. 



