ON IMMORTALITY : COUNTERTHESIS. 179 



arranged so as to abundantly defeat and disappoint them. 

 So Nature shows herself here and now ; why then should 

 she not disappoint you in your hopes of a hereafter of 

 compensation ? But be comforted ; what you complain 

 of is only a pain during this life, and moreover a diminish- 

 ing pain, as Nature has provided mitigations. Hereafter 

 you will not feel the loss of what you now so passionately 

 ask. Further, mankind shall in time reconcile themselves 

 to the thought that this life is the only theatre for 

 earthly love a conclusion that should carry with it the 

 serious admonition, to prize more highly those that we 

 love, from whom we must part so soon ; to cherish more 

 clearly the love that lives only on earth. But will not 

 the conclusion tend also to harden the heart ? It need 

 not be feared ; though a little hardness might not be 

 amiss in regard to this matter. At least it will throw 

 an additional and ineffable sadness over life ? It may 

 be so ; but it also removes a standing menace from life, 

 in killing the future fear as well as hope. 



3. And now that this great question has been 

 sufficiently debated, it remains for us to review briefly 

 the main points in the evidence, and to state what 

 material points have been established by Science, and 

 what she has failed to establish. 



Science, we think, has made out the r dependence of 

 our mind and present consciousness on bodily conditions, 

 so far as to justify the conclusion that the dissolution of 

 the body carries with it the dissolution of our present 

 consciousness and memory, which are reared on the 

 bodily basis. At least, it raises apprehension in the 

 highest degree that this will be the case. Again, Science 

 partly by what Darwin has established, partly by 

 other evidence only recently accessible respecting the 



