their stars declare
to us anything high or holy, is no more rational than to say that
Brighton does, which itself, seen at night from the sea, is a long braid
of stars descended upon the wide horizon. All that the study of nature,
all that the love of truth, can do for the positivist is not to guide
him to any communion with a vaster power, but to show him that no such
communion is possible. His devotion to truth, if it mean anything--and
the language he often uses about it betrays this--let us know the worst,
not let us find out the best:--a wish which is neither more nor less
noble than the wish to sit down at once in a slop upon the floor rather
than sustain oneself any longer above it on a chair that is discovered
to be rickety.

Here then again, in this last resource of positivism we have religion
embodied as a yet more important element than in any of the others; and
when this element is driven out of it, it collapses yet more hopelessly
than they do. By the whole positive system we are bound to human life.
There is no mystical machinery by which we can rise above it. It is by
its own isolated worth that this life must stand or fall.

And what, let us again ask, will this worth, be? The question is of
course, as I have said, too vague to admit of more than a general
answer, but a general answer, as I have said also, may be given
confidently enough. Man when fully imbued with the positive view of
himself, will inevitably be an animal of far fewer capacities than he at
present is. He will not be able to suffer so much; but also he will not
be able to enjoy so much. Surround him, in imagination, with the most
favourable circumstances; let social progress have been carried to the
utmost perfection; and let him have access to every happiness of which
we can conceive him capable. It is impossible even thus to conceive of
life as a very valuable possession to him. It would at any rate be far
less valuable than it is to many men now, under outer circumstances that
are far less favourable. The goal to which a purely human progress is
capable of conducting us, is thus no vague condition of glory and
felicity, in which men shall develop new and ampler powers. It is a
condition in which, the keenest life attainable has continually been
far surpassed already, without anything having been arrived at that in
itself seemed of surpassing value.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] 'Hippolyta.--_This is the silliest stuff I ever heard._
Theseus.