g the other Hell that most
people believed in.

Although it was December the evening was mild and clear. The full moon
deluged the town with silvery light, and the cloudless sky was jewelled
with myriads of glittering stars.

Looking out into the unfathomable infinity of space, Owen wondered what
manner of Being or Power it was that had originated and sustained all
this? Considered as an explanation of the existence of the universe,
the orthodox Christian religion was too absurd to merit a second
thought. But then, every other conceivable hypothesis was
also--ultimately--unsatisfactory and even ridiculous. To believe that
the universe as it is now has existed from all eternity without any
Cause is surely ridiculous. But to say that it was created by a Being
who existed without a Cause from all eternity is equally ridiculous.
In fact, it was only postponing the difficulty one stage. Evolution
was not more satisfactory, because although it was undoubtedly true as
far as it went, it only went part of the way, leaving the great
question still unanswered by assuming the existence--in the
beginning--of the elements of matter, without a cause! The question
remained unanswered because it was unanswerable. Regarding this
problem man was but--

'An infant crying in the night,
An infant crying for the light
And with no language but a cry.'

All the same, it did not follow, because one could not explain the
mystery oneself, that it was right to try to believe an unreasonable
explanation offered by someone else.

But although he reasoned like this, Owen could not help longing for
something to believe, for some hope for the future; something to
compensate for the unhappiness of the present. In one sense, he
thought, how good it would be if Christianity were true, and after all
the sorrow there was to be an eternity of happiness such as it had
never entered into the heart of man to conceive? If only that were
true, nothing else would matter. How contemptible and insignificant the
very worst that could happen here would be if one knew that this life
was only a short journey that was to terminate at the beginning of an
eternity of joy? But no one really believed this; and as for those who
pretended to do so--their lives showed that they did not believe it at
all. Their greed and inhumanity--their ferocious determination to
secure for themselves the good things of THIS world--were conclusive
pr