214 THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



on the one side, were bound to pursue the path 

 towards eternal bliss, and the luckless poor and 

 miserable, on the other hand, were driven into the 

 paths of the damned. 



A critical comparison of the countless and manifold 

 fantasies which belief in immortality has produced 

 during the last few thousand years in the different 

 races and religions yields a most remarkable picture. 

 An intensely interesting presentation of it, based on 

 most extensive original research, may be found in 

 Adalbert Svoboda's distinguished works, The Illusion 

 of the Soul and Forms of Faith. However absurd 

 and inconsistent with modern knowledge most of 

 these myths seem to be, they still play an important 

 part, and, as " postulates of practical reason," they 

 exercise a powerful influence on the opinions of 

 individuals and on the destiny of races. 



The idealist and spiritualist philosophy of the day 

 will freely grant that these prevalent materialistic 

 forms of belief in immortality are untenable ; it will 

 say that the refined idea of an immaterial soul, a 

 Platonic " idea " or a transcendental psychic sub- 

 stance, must be substituted for them. But modern 

 realism can have nothing whatever to do with these 

 incomprehensible notions ; they satisfy neither the 

 mind's feeling of causality nor the yearning of our 

 emotions. If we take a comprehensive glance at all 

 that modern anthropology, psychology, and cosmology 

 teach with regard to athanatism, we are forced to this 

 definite conclusion : " The belief in the immortality 

 of the human soul is a dogma which is in hopeless 

 contradiction with the most solid empirical truths of 

 modern science." 



