xvn THE DESIRE FOR IMMORTALITY 319 



than for a laboratory in which to test the prima facie 

 evidence for human immortality ? 



Surely the paradox of such a state of affairs would be 

 a sheer impossibility, if there really existed any desire for 

 probing into the mystery of death. Is it not obvious on 

 the face of it then, if there exists a desire for a future life 

 in any sense, it is not a desire for scientific knowledge 

 thereof, but a feeling of a very peculiar character which 

 well merits further analysis? It is an attempt at such an 

 analysis that I shall venture to contribute to the study of 

 human psychology. 



There is clearly some grave error in the plea embodied 

 in the literary tradition we began by stating. But I am 

 very far from thinking that it is mere cant and sheer 

 humbug, or consciously deceptive. I hope to show rather 

 that it springs in good faith from a natural illusion, and 

 even that, in a manner, while distorting, it reflects a real 

 truth about human feeling. And in explaining away this 

 misleading tradition, I hope at the same time to divest of 

 its paradoxical appearance the suggestion that the vast 

 majority of men either do not desire a future life at all, or 

 only do so in such a curious and limited way that this desire 

 is a negligible quantity in the estimation of their actions. 



I shall most fitly begin by suggesting an explanation 

 of the phenomenon that de facto so little account is taken 

 of the inevitableness of death. That this must be the 

 case is a result which follows from the general principle 

 that our attitude towards all the aspects of life, must be 

 such as will enable us to act vigorously and efficiently. 

 Applied to the prospect of death, this principle renders 

 it certain that the thought of death cannot be allowed 

 to paralyse action, that means must be discovered for 

 carrying on the business of life in death s despite. Of 

 such means two are most prominent, the suppression of 

 the thought of death by a resolute and systematic 

 determination not to entertain it, and a religious rein- 

 terpretation which so transfigures it that it no longer forms 

 an impediment to action. Of these the latter is clearly 

 the more truly logical and satisfactory, but as a matter 



