1884. J 
Analyses of Books. 
753 
is not worth living,” there is room to ask “ to whom ?” Cer- 
tainly not to all the many who are in harmony with the spirit of 
the present age, whose aim is high living, and low — very low — 
thinking, very well content with “ business ” during the day, and 
Little Bethel, or the tavern parlour, or the parliamentary 
debating society at night. 
C. N. points out that “ very little pleasure is felt in connec- 
tion with continuous organic functions unless they have been 
interrupted by ill-health or abstinence. There is little delight in 
normal muscular activity, or in deep drawn breaths of fresh air, 
except to the invalid who has long been pent in a sick room.” 
Most true; indeed the portions of our bodies susceptible of 
pleasure are few and small, whilst the great rest exerts its 
functions when in health without our consciousness. 
He continues : “ The darkest, the most logical, the most 
absolutely immoral form of pessimism is sponsored by Calvin. 
But the exile of the middle ages is over long ago ; the husks 
which the swine did eat are forgotten ; even the good father is 
superannuated, and we are striving chiefly to retain faith in the 
fatted calf.” 
What a truthful picture ! 
He continues : “ World-weariness sets in, and with it a new 
form of pessimism, more subtle, and perhaps more paralysing. 
Yet the dodtrine of Schopenhauer can scarcely be called new, 
seeing that it is in reality a one-sided presentation of a religion 
more ancient than Christianity. Having worn out the first suit 
of mourning which we borrowed from the East, forthwith we 
proceed to borrow another, different in pattern, but equally dismal. 
St. Paul gives us over to Buddha.” From the East ! 
“ Ach, des Lebens Bluthen sind verfallen 
Vor des Ostens melancholisch Wehen.” 
C. N. ably maintains that the existence and development of 
conscious life on the earth cannot be comprehended save on a 
theory the very opposite to that of Schopenhauer. “ Evolution 
has been possible because sentient beings have, on the whole, 
liked life, and taken delight in the exercise of their faculties.” 
Under the strange title, “ Mars’ Hill in London,” Mr. Moncure 
Conway notices the recent encounter between Mr. Herbert 
Spencer and Mr. F. Harrison, and the summing up of Mr. 
Justice Stephen. Mr. Spencer admits that the “ Unknowable” 
has nothing necessarily moral about it. Mr. Harrison might 
make a still wider confession concerning his Positivism, with its 
new God “ Humanity ” — almost too absurd to be capable of 
serious discussion. For what shall we say of a creed whose 
apostle Comte abandoned his devoted wife, who had nursed him 
through an attack of insanity, and formed a liaison with the 
wife of a convidt ? 
“ Agnosticism and Theism ” is a kind of manifesto by Dr. W. 
