e the required enthusiasm possible human nature would
have to be completely changed 168

Two existing qualities, for instance, would have to be magnified
to an impossible extent--imagination 169

And unselfishness 170

If we state the positive system in terms of common life, its
visionary character becomes evident 172

The examples which have suggested its possibility are quite
misleading 173

The positive system is really far more based on superstition than
any religion 175

Its appearance can only be accounted for by the characters and
circumstances of its originators 175

And a consideration of these will help us more than anything to
estimate it rightly 178

And will let us see that its only practical tendency is to deaden
all our present interests, not to create any new ones 179

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PRACTICAL PROSPECT.

It is not contended that the prospect just described will, as a
fact, ever be realised 183

But only that it will be realised _if_ certain other prospects are
realised 185

Which prospects may or may not be visionary 186

But the progress towards which is already begun 187

And also the other results, that have been described already 187

Positive principles have already produced a moral deterioration,
even in places where we should least imagine it 187

As we shall see if we pierce beneath the surface 189

In the curious condition of men who have lost faith, but have
retained the love of virtue 189

The struggle was hard, when they had all the helps of religion 190

It is harder now 190

Conscience still survives, but it has lost its restraining power 191

Temptation almost inevitably dethrones it 192

And its full prestige can never be recovered