ix THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY 209 



and, therefore, the pains and pleasures which 

 exist now may go on existing for all eternity, 

 either increasing, diminishing, or being endlessly 

 varied in their intensity, as they are now. 



It is remarkable that Hume does not refer to 

 the sentimental arguments for the immortality of 

 the soul which are so much in vogue at the 

 present day; and which are based upon our desire 

 for a longer conscious existence than that which 

 nature appears to have allotted to us. Perhaps 

 he did not think them worth notice. For indeed 

 it is not a little strange, that our strong desire 

 that a certain occurrence should happen should 

 be put forward as evidence that it will happen. 

 If my intense desire to see the friend, from whom 

 I have parted, does not bring him from the other 

 side of the world, or take me thither; if the 

 mothers agonised prayer that her child should 

 live has not prevented him from dying; experi- 

 ence certainly affords no presumption that the 

 strong desire to be alive after death, which we 

 call the aspiration after immortality, is any more 

 likely to be gratified. As Hume truly says, " All 

 doctrines are to be suspected which are favoured 

 by our passions; " and the doctrine, that we are 

 immortal because we should extremely like to be 

 so, contains the quintessence of suspiciousness. 



In respect of the existence and attributes of 

 the soul, as of those of the Deity, then, logic 

 is powerless and reason silent. At the most 



