THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



and enjoyable life is innate in every man and higher 

 animal, and so far just; it only began to be censured as 

 sinful when Christianity directed the thoughts of men 

 to eternal life, and taught them that their life on earth 

 was only a preparation for the future. We shall see 

 afterwards, when we come to weigh the value of life 

 (chapter xvii.), that this asceticism is unjustifiable and 

 unnatural. But as every legitimate enjoyment can 

 become wrong by excess, and every virtue be turned 

 into vice, so a narrow hedonism is to be condemned, 

 especially when it allies itself with egoism. However, 

 we must point out that this excessive thirst for pleasure 

 is in no way connected with materialism, but is often 

 found among idealists. Many convinced supporters of 

 theoretical materialism (many scientists and physicians, 

 for instance) lead very simple, blameless lives, and are 

 little disposed to material pleasures. On the other hand, 

 many priests, theologians, and idealist philosophers, who 

 preach theoretical idealism, are pronounced hedonists in 

 practice. In olden times many temples served at one 

 and the same time for the theoretic worship of the gods 

 and for practical excesses in the way of wine and love; 

 and even in our day the luxurious and often vicious lives 

 of the higher clergy (at Rome, for instance) do not fall 

 far short of the ancient models. This paradoxical situ- 

 ation is due to the special attractiveness of everything 

 that is forbidden. But it is utterly unjust to extend the 

 natural feeling against excessive and egoistic hedonism 

 to theoretical materialism and to monism. Equally 

 unjust is the habit, still widely spread, of depreciating 

 matter, as such, in favor of spirit. Impartial biology 

 has taught us of late years that what we call "spirit" 

 is — as Goethe said long ago — inseparably bound up with 

 matter. Experience has never yet discovered any spirit 

 apart from matter. 



On the other hand, pure dynamism, now often called 



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