IS IT DESIRED ? '^']'] 



The Other half of the world is convinced that a 

 future life is unprovable, if not impossible, and often 

 prepared to argue this thesis at length. But it is 

 even more reluctant to bring its a priori arguments 

 to the test of practical experiment. And why should 

 both parties agree in objecting to treat the subject 

 like any other, as a question of supreme practical 

 interest, to be settled by reasoning and investig- 

 ation ? Such conduct naturally raises doubts about 

 the sincerity of men's professions of interest in the 

 subject. In fact, it would not, in spite of the appa- 

 rent paradox, perhaps be too much to say that a 

 final establishment of the reality of a future life 

 would prove highly inconvenient to all parties, and 

 this inconvenience is the real reason of men's dislike 

 to its investigation. The generality of men do not 

 care enough about their future to welcome a belief 

 which would make it really necessary to look far 

 ahead, and they do not want to care about it.^ So 

 it is extremely convenient to leave the future life in 

 the realm of vague speculation, to be believed when 

 desired, and to be disregarded when belief would 

 suggest unpleasant reflections, in order to avoid 

 regarding it as a fact to be steadily and consistently 

 kept in sight. For a fact is something which must 

 be faced, even though it may be very tmpleasant to 

 do so, but an opinion may be manipulated so as to 

 suit the exigencies of the occasion. 



§ 2. But this disregard of the future is often not 

 only admitted but defended, on the ground that over 



^ It is gratifying to find this view as to the comparative rarity 

 of real interest in this question, supported by the high authority 

 of Mr. F. W. H. Myers, whose unrivalled experience has caused 

 him to come to substantially the same conclusions about the real 

 feelings of men. (Cp. Proceedings of the Psychical Soc, pt. xvi. 

 P- 339-) 



