100 FACTS AND FANCIES 



of years something better may come out of it, 

 for we know that this will be of no avail to us, 

 and we feel that it is impossible. Thus the 

 agnostic philosophy, if it be once accepted as 

 true, seriously raises the question whether life 

 is worth living. 



But if worth living, then it mUst be for the 

 immediate and selfish gratification of our de- 

 sires and passions ; and since we are deprived 

 of God and conscience, and right and wrong, 

 and future reward or punishment, and all men 

 are alike in this position, there can be nothing 

 left for us but to rend and fight with our fellows 

 for such share of good as may fall to us in the 

 deadly struggle, that we may reach such happi- 

 ness as may be possible for us in such an 

 existence, err» we drift into nonenity. Here, 

 again, we are told that the struggle will some 

 time lead to the survival of the fittest, and that 

 the fittest may inaugurate a new and better 

 reign of peace. But the world has already 

 lasted countless ages without arriving at this 

 result. It cannot concern me individually, any 

 more than what happens to-day concerns the 

 extinct ichthyosaur or the megatherium. All 

 that is left for me is to "eat and drink, for 

 to-morrow I die." 



