APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 41 



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 occur- 

 rence 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 mother's agonised prayer 

 that her child should live has not prevented him 

 from dying ; experience certainly affords no pre- 

 sumption 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 suspicious- 

 ness. 



If every man possessed everything he wanted, 

 and no one had the power to interfere with such 

 possession ; or if no man desired that which could 

 damage his fellow-man, justice would have no part 

 to play in the universe. 



To fail in justice, or in benevolence, is to be 

 displeased with one's self. But happiness is impos- 

 sible without inward self-approval ; and, hence, every 



