APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 145 



be compensated by their persistence and my cessation 

 after apparent death, just as the humble bulb of an 

 annual lives, whilst the glorious flowers it has put 

 forth die away. 



ccc 



My business is to teach my aspirations to confirm 

 themselves to fact, not to try and make facts 

 harmonize with my aspirations. 



Science seems to me to teach in the highest and 

 strongest manner the great truth which is embodied in 

 the Christian conception of entire surrender to the will 

 of God. Sit down before fact as a little child, be 

 prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow 

 humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature 

 leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun 

 to learn content and peace of mind since I have 

 resolved at all risks to do this. 



There are, however, other arguments commonly 

 brought forward in favour of the immortality of man, 

 which are to my mind not only delusive but mischiev- 

 ous. The one is the notion that the moral govern- 

 ment of the world is imperfect without a system of 

 future rewards and punishments. The other is: 

 that such a system is indispensable to practical 

 morality. I believe that both these dogmas are very 

 mischievous lies. 



With respect to the first, I am no optimist, but I 

 have the firmest belief that the Divine Government 

 (if we may use such a phrase to express the sum of 



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