' It will be all
in all to them, and at the same time nothing, for the better people they
are, the less they will think of anything but this present life.
"What an ineffable contradiction in terms have we not here. What a
reversal, is it not, of all this world's canons, that we should hold even
the best of all that we can know or feel in this life to be a poor thing
as compared with hopes the fulfilment of which we can never either feel
or know. Yet we all hold this, however little we may admit it to
ourselves. For the world at heart despises its own canons."
I cannot quote further from Dr. Gurgoyle's pamphlet; suffice it that he
presently dealt with those who say that it is not right of any man to aim
at thrusting himself in among the living when he has had his day. "Let
him die," say they, "and let die as his fathers before him." He argued
that as we had a right to pester people till we got ourselves born, so
also we have a right to pester them for extension of life beyond the
grave. Life, whether before the grave or afterwards, is like love--all
reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it. Instinct on such
matters is the older and safer guide; no one, therefore, should seek to
efface himself as regards the next world more than as regards this. If
he is to be effaced, let others efface him; do not let him commit
suicide.
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