170 THE CREED OF SCIENCE, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL. 



unsounded by scientific plummet, uninterrogated by 

 experiment or observation, now lies our hope ; in the 

 great sphere of the possible, which Science should know 

 is great, and which scientific thinkers like Herbert 

 Spencer assure us is very great indeed, there is ground 

 for our hope of further life ; and this hope, as it has 

 ample room to live, so it resides in a region, it is fed 

 from a source, which is perfectly secure from all possible 

 assaults or check by positive science. 



And the answer of the positive scientific thinker 

 to this line of argument is something to the following 

 effect : 



Whether consciousness is to be finally lost out of the 

 universe is a question that might be discussed, and on 

 the whole Science leans to the opinion that it will be 

 lost; but at least there is no question about the final 

 extinction of our particular consciousness. It goes with 

 its old physical basis, the body, and in particular with the 

 brain, the organ of memory, without which there is no 

 consciousness. And we are asked Is Nature so waste- 

 ful and so blind as to throw away consciousness after 

 painfully attaining to it ? Yes : she is blind and 

 wasteful and indifferent ; such is the lesson of evolution. 

 But she can afford to be wasteful, for she is infinitely 

 rich, as astronomy teaches. There are other stars and 

 suns and systems in the universe, enough and to spare, 

 where consciousness and life, and perhaps something 

 better and greater, has been produced, or perhaps life 

 and consciousness has there attained to fairer and state- 

 lier forms than on the earth, where it is just possible 

 that the plastic forces of Nature have only made one 

 of their poorest attempts, great as you are disposed to 

 rate them. Moreover, Science has nowhere affirmed that 

 all the systems of the heavenly bodies collapse at the 



