unishment' no doubt people were sometimes terrified into 'goodness'
by the picture of that dread vista of torment, as no doubt they were
bribed into it by the companion picture of a green unbounded Paradise;
but, O my friend, what an unworthy kind of goodness, the mere mask of
virtue! And now that the Inferno has practically disappeared from our
theology, the belief in eternal life simply means unlimited cakes and
ale, for good and evil alike, for all eternity. How such a belief can
be moralising I fail to understand. To my mind, indeed, far from being
moralising, this belief in immortality is responsible for no
inconsiderable portion of the wrong and misery of the world. It is the
baneful narcotic which has soothed the selfish and the slothful from
the beginning. It is that unlimited credit which makes the bankrupt.
It simply gives us all eternity to procrastinate in. Instead of
manfully eating our peck of dirt here and now, we leave it and all
such disagreeables to the hereafter.

'He said, "I believe in Eternal Life,"
As he threw his life away--
What need to hoard?
He could well afford
To squander his mortal day.
With Eternity his, what need to care?--
A sort of immortal millionaire.'

LECTOR. I am glad to be reminded, Scriptor, that you are a poet, for the
line of your argument had almost made me forget it. One expects other
views from a poet.

SCRIPTOR. When, my dear Lector, shall we get rid of the silly idea that
the poet should give us only the ornamental view of life, and rock us to
sleep, like babies, with pretty lullabies? Is it not possible to make
_facts_ sing as well as fancies? With all this beautiful world to sing
of--for beautiful it is, however it be marred; with this wonderful
life--and wonderful and sweet it is though it is shot through with such
bitter pain; with such _certainties_ for his theme, we yet beg him to
sing to us of shadows!

And you talk of 'faith.' 'Faith' truly is what we want, but it is faith
in the life here, not in the life hereafter. Faith in the life here! Let
our poets sing us that. And such as would deny it--I would hang them as
enemies of society.

LECTOR. But, at all events, to keep to our point--you at least _hope_
for immortality. If Edison, say, were suddenly to discover it for us as
a scientific certainty, you would welcome the news?

SCRIPTOR. Well, yes and no! Have you seen the 'penny' phonographs in the
Strand? You should go and have a pe