58 A Crumb for the [v. 



the ability to exchange good hard blows in a fair 

 English fight. 



It is with some diffidence that I venture to add my 

 voice to a conversation carried on by such accom- 

 plished speakers, but the present seems to be a 

 proper occasion for calling attention to some of the 

 misconceptions which ordinarily cluster around the 

 treatment of questions relating to the soul and a 

 future life. In thus entering upon the discussion, I 

 do not feel called upon to defend any particular solu- 

 tion of the main question at issue. Going by the 

 " light of Nature " alone — to use the old-fashioned 

 phrase — it will be generally conceded that the pro- 

 blem of a future life is so abstruse and complicated 

 that one is quite excusable for refraining from a 

 dogmatic treatment of it. Nay, one is not only 

 excusable, one is morally bound not to dogmatise 

 unless one has a firmer basis to stand on than any 

 of us are likely to find for some time to come. 

 We may entertain hypotheses in private, but we are 

 hardly entitled to urge them upon our friends until 

 we feel assured, in the first place, that we have duly 

 fathomed the conditions requisite for a rational 

 treatment of the problem. 



It would appear that some of the participators 

 in the " Modern Symposium " have not sufficiently 



