The Metaphysics of a Naturalist 97 
regret/’ With this suggestion we too may, for the present, rest 
content. 
The second obstacle discussed Professor James is merely that 
growing out of the overpopulation of the universe in event of 
general immortality ; but this is no longer a difficulty, if the results 
of the foregoing discussion are accepted, even if we go to the 
full length indicated by the following passage from Edwin Arnold’s 
^^Death — and After:” ‘Tf the Bathybius — nay, even if the trees 
and the mosses, — are not, as to that which makes them individ- 
ual, undyiug, man will never be.” But, in general, we may say 
with the author last quoted, ^Sve have to think in terms of earth- 
experience, as we have to breathe in terms of earth-envelope. 
We ought to be reassured rather than disconcerted by the fact 
that nobody can pretend to understand and depict any future 
life, for it would prove sorely inadequate if it were at present 
intelligible. ” 
Our conclusion, drawn from a purely metaphysical considera- 
tion is not at variance with that expressed by Paulsen, in his 
Ethics. A The temporal life is the phenomenal form of a life which 
is eternal as suchl' To the objection above urged that one does 
not care for an existence without consciousness, Paulsen replies: 
Well, who says that reality is without consciousness? May not the 
All-Real have an absolute consciousness of itself, of its essence?. 
And who will claim that individual beings, who have a temporal con- 
sciousness, could not have an eternal consciousness. 
To this we may add that so far as w^e know the possibility of 
reality in a strict sense is bound up with that of consciousness. 
The practical consequences of such a view as that to which we 
seem driven by purely metaphysical considerations may detain 
us for a parting word. Our life we find is not a possession, but 
a career. It consisteth not in the abundance of what one posses- 
seth. It is more than meat, i. e., it is more permanent than the 
sensuous joys which it affords. If we may believe that the little 
segment we can foresee on the earth may determine the direction 
of the future course of an eternal life, as the aim of the gun deter- 
mines the angle of trajectory of the missile, it becomes a matter 
of transcendent interest to see that the^aim is right, if we only 
can be convinced by any means that we have anything to do 
about it. For him who does not care to enter the mazes of ethical 
