XXI WHY LIVE A MORAL LIFE ? 381 



" Sons of earth, where'er ye dwell, 

 Shun temptation's magic spell. 

 Truth is Heaven, and falsehood. Hell, 

 Lawless lust a demon fell." 



The general answer I would now give to the question, 

 " Why live a moral life ? " is — from the purely Rationalistic 

 point of view — first, that we shall thereby generally secure 

 the good opinion of the world at large, and more especially 

 of the society among which we live ; and that this good 

 opinion counts for much, both as a factor in our happiness 

 and in our material success. Secondly, that, in the long 

 run, morality pays best; that it conduces to health, to 

 peace of mind, to social advancement ; and at the same 

 time, avoids all those risks to which immoral conduct, 

 especially if it goes so far as criminality, renders us liable. 



It must be conceded that both these reasons, which 

 are really but one, are of a somewhat low character ; 

 yet it seems to me they are all which the Agnostic can, 

 logically, rely upon. It will also be evident that they will 

 be of little value in cases of great temptation, or in those 

 more frequent cases in every-day life where the standard 

 of morality is already low. To raise this standard, and 

 thus increase the force of public opinion as an incen- 

 tive to morality, we require to increase the proportionate 

 number of the naturally moral, and we have at present no 

 way of doing that. 



There remains only one other answer, which, at present, 

 is only applicable among that section of the community 

 which has obtained conviction of the reality of a future life 

 through Modern Spiritualism, and is, therefore, influenced 

 by the teachings as to the nature of that life of which I 

 have sketched the barest outlines. Some of my readers 

 may object that Modern Spiritualism is not Rationalism, 

 and is, therefore, outside this discussion ; to which I reply 

 — Why not ? It is founded on a personal and critical obser- 

 vation oi facts. Is not that rational ? Is it more rational to 

 refuse to investigate these facts, or to deny them without 

 investigation ? I myself had been for nearly thirty years 

 an Agnostic when I began to investigate these phenomena, 

 and found them, against all my prepossessions, to be 



