ix THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY 211 



edly no rational man can undertake to do. This negative 

 belief, indeed, cannot produce either morality or good 

 dispositions, but can operate in an analogous fashion, by 

 powerfully repressing the outbreak of evil tendencies. 



* 4 But it will be said, is this all that Pure Reason can 

 do when it gazes out beyond the bounds of experience? 

 Nothing more than two articles of faith f Common sense 

 could achieve as much without calling the pkilosophers to 

 its counsels ! 



" I will not here speak of the service which philosophy 

 has rendered to human reason by the laborious efforts of 

 its criticism, granting that the outcome proves to be mere- 

 ly negative : about that matter something is to be said in 

 the following section. But do you then ask, that the 

 knowledge which interests all men shall transcend the 

 common understanding and be discovered for you only by 

 philosophers 1 The very thing which you make a reproach, 

 is the best confirmation of the justice of the previous con- 

 clusions, since it shows that which could not, at first, have 

 been anticipated ; namely, that in those matters which con- 

 cern all men alike, nature is not guilty of distributing her 

 gifts with partiality ; and that the highest philosophy, in 

 dealing with the most important concerns of humanity, is 

 able to take us no further than the guidance which she 

 affords to the commonest understanding." * 



In short, nothing can be proved or disproved 

 respecting either the distinct existence, the 

 substance, or the durability of the soul. So far, 

 Kant is at one with Hume. But Kant adds, as 

 you cannot disprove the immortality of the soul, 

 and as the belief therein is very useful for moral 

 purposes, you may assume it. To which, had 

 Hume lived half a century later, he would prob- 



* Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Ed. Hartenstein, p. 547. 

 157 



