ally the boast of its advocates that it
must be. An extreme value, as we see, they are resolved to give to
life; they will not tolerate those who deny its existence. But they are
obliged to find it in the very place where hitherto it has been thought
to be conspicuous by its absence. It is to be found in no better or
wider future, where injustice shall be turned to justice, trouble into
rest, and blindness into clear sight; for no such future awaits us. It
is to be found in life itself, in this earthly life, this life between
the cradle and the grave; and though imagination and sympathy may
enlarge and extend this for the individual, yet the limits of its
extension are very soon arrived at. It is limited by the time the human
race can exist, by the space in the universe that the human race
occupies, and the capacities of enjoyment that the human race possesses.
Here, then, is a distinct and intelligible task that the positive
thinkers have set themselves. They have taken everything away from life
that to wise men hitherto has seemed to redeem it from vanity. They have
to prove to us that they have not left it vain. They have to prove those
things to be solid that have hitherto been thought hollow; those things
to be serious that have hitherto been thought contemptible. They must
prove to us that we shall be contented with what has never yet contented
us, and that the widest minds will thrive within limits that have
hitherto been thought too narrow for the narrowest.

Now, of course, so far as we can tell without examining the matter,
they may be able to accomplish this revolution. There is nothing on the
face of it that is impossible. It may be that our eyes are only blinded
to the beauty of the earth by having gazed so long and so vainly into an
empty heaven, and that when we have learnt to use them a little more to
the purpose, we shall see close at hand in this life what we had been
looking for, all this while, in another. But still, even if this
revolution be possible, the fact remains that it is a revolution, and it
cannot be accomplished without some effort. Our positive thinkers have a
case to be proved. They must not beg the very point that is most open to
contradiction, and which, when once duly apprehended, will be most sure
to provoke it. If this life be not incapable of satisfying us, let them
show us conclusively that it is not. But they can hardly expect that,
without any such showing at all, the world will