112 At the Darkest Hour. 



Our ancestors, too, were solaced by pleasing illusicr.s 

 concerning a mythic life-after-death. The " soul of man ''' 

 was believed to live on, disembodied and self-conscious, 

 after the body died. The founders of religious cults 

 made skilful use of this iljusion and framed vast systems 

 of ritual and dogma, in confident reliance on which 

 millions lived and died, and even rushed to death, .reck- 

 lessly, battling for creed's sake. The second of the great 

 religious systems of our era was successfully propagated 

 and has been maintained by promises of paradise to those 

 who fall fighting for the faith. The devout Christian 

 regulates his life with reference to " heaven," and dies in 

 the hope of going thither immediately after death, — • and 

 this although the Founder of Christianity apparently 

 taught that the kingdom of God was the earth. 



The point here made, however, is in effect that in past 

 centuries, so far as human beings have aspired to longer 

 life and desired continued existence, the aspiration has 

 been satisfied by a partial faith in " soul " life. Such be- 

 lief has sufficed considerably to assuage the pang of 

 dying, and incidentally has led the devotee to despise 

 corporeal life and disdain the earth as an abiding place. 

 This, indeed, is the spirit and morale of Christian and 

 Mohammedan life. Terrestrial life is subordinate and de- 

 sirable only as a period of preparation and a point of 

 departure for a paradise beyond the grave. This has 

 been the consolation and the mental attitude of our fore- 



