else,--that the ceaseless play of phenomena is no mere sport of
Titans, but an orderly scene, with its reason for existing, its

"One divine far-off event
To which the whole creation moves."


Difficult as it is to disentangle the elements of reasoning that
enter into these complex groups of feeling, one may still see, I
think, that it is speculative interest in the world, rather than
anxious interest in self, that predominates. The desire for
immortality in its lowest phase is merely the outcome of the
repugnance we feel toward thinking of the final cessation of
vigorous vital activity. Such a feeling is naturally strong with
healthy people. But in the mood which I have above tried to
depict, this feeling, or any other which is merely
self-regarding, is lost sight of in the feeling which associates
a future life with some solution of the burdensome problem of
existence. Had we but faith enough to lighten the burden of this
problem, the inferior question would perhaps be less absorbing.
Could we but know that our present lives are working together
toward some good end, even an end in no wise anthropomorphic, it
would be of less consequence whether we were individually to
endure. To the dog under the knife of the experimenter, the world
is a world of pure evil; yet could the poor beast but understand
the alleviation of human suffering to which he is contributing,
he would be forced to own that this is not quite true; and if he
were also a heroic or Christian dog, the thought would perhaps
take away from death its sting. The analogy may be a crude one;
but the reasonableness of the universe is at least as far above