1892 FORECAST OF THE ROMANES LECTURE 221 



is universal good, aad other optimistic figments, such as 

 that which represents " Providence " under the guise of a 

 paternal philanthropist, and bids us believe that every- 

 thing will come right (according to our notions) at last. 



As to " Immortality " again [he refers his critic to his 

 book on " Hume "]. I do not think I need return to 

 " subjective " immortality, but it may be well to add that 

 I am a very strong believer in the punishment of certain 

 kinds of actions, not only in the present, but in all the 

 future a man can have, be it long or short. Therefore in 

 hell, for I suppose that all men with a clear sense of right 

 and wrong (and I am not sure that any others deserve 

 such punishment) have now and then "descended into 

 hell " and stopped there quite long enough to know what 

 infinite punishment means. And if a genuine, not merely 

 subjective, immortality awaits us, I conceive that, without 

 some such change as that depicted in the fifteenth chapter 

 of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, immortality must 

 be eternal misery. The fate of Swift's Struldbrugs seems 

 to me not more horrible than that of a mind imprisoned 

 for ever within the flammantia moenm of inextinguishable 

 memories. 



Further, it may be well to remember that the highest 

 level of moral aspiration recorded in history was reached 

 by a few ancient Jews — Micah, Isaiah, and the rest — who 

 took no count whatever of what might or might not 

 happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me 

 why the same point should not by and by be reached by 

 the Gentiles. 



He admits that the generality of mankind will 

 not be satisfied to be told that there are some topics 

 about which we know nothing now, and do not seem 

 likely ever to be able to know more; and, conse- 

 quently, that in the long-run the world will turn to 

 those who profess to have conclusions : — 



