( i66 ) 



CHAPTEE XI. 



THE WAY OF ESCAPE. 



Toi sum up the conclusions hitherto arrived at. Our 

 philosophers have made the mistake of forgetting that 

 they cannot carry the rough and ready language of 

 common sense into precincts within which politeness 

 and philosophy are supreme. Common sense sees life 

 and death as distinct states having nothing in common, 

 and hence in all respects the antitheses of one another ; 

 so that^wlth common sense there should be no degrees 

 of livingness, but if a thing is alive at all it is as much 

 alive as the most living of us, and if dead at all it is 

 stone dead in every part of it. Our philosophers have 

 exercised too little consideration in retaining this view 

 of the matter. They say that an amoeba is as much 

 a living being as a man is, and do not allow that a 

 well-grown, highly educated man in robust health is 

 more living than an idiot cripple. They say he differs 

 from the cripple in many important respects, but not 

 in degree of livingness. Yet, as we have seen already, 

 even common sense by using the word " dying " admits 

 degrees of life ; that is to say, it admits a more and a 

 less ; those, then, for whom the superficial aspects of 



