CHAPTER VI. 



ON IMMORTALITY: COUNTERTHESIS. 



1. SUCH is the argument of Science, seemingly de- 

 cisive against a future life. As we listen to her array of 

 syllogisms, our hearts die within us. The hopes of men, 

 placed in one scale to be weighed, seem to fly up against 

 the massive weight of her evidence, placed in the other. 

 It seems as if all our arguments were vain and unsub- 

 stantial, as if our future expectations were the foolish 

 dreams of children, as if there could not be any other 

 possible verdict arrived at upon the evidence brought 

 forward. 



Nevertheless, it is a remarkable fact that there still 

 exist amongst us types of mind quite distinct from the 

 theological, that remain wholly unconvinced by the 

 scientific logic men who cannot and will not accept 

 the verdict as final. There are those who persist in 

 believing, however seemingly rigorous the reasoning, 

 however true the premises from which the conclusion is 

 drawn, and however apparently exhaustive the whole 

 series of scientific arguments, that still there is a hidden 

 vice, an undetected flaw somewhere ; there is something 

 not yet taken into account in these arguments addressed 

 to the logical understanding; a side or aspect of our 



