accordance as they fall one side or the other of a certain line. The
conscience of the modern man feels that no one deserves either Heaven
or Hell. Moreover, this same {94} conscience doubts whether any one
really deserves complete perpetuation. All men are of mixed nature;
some elements seem to deserve to be eliminated, and others to survive.
Thus the moral indictment against the old expectation of judgement is
that no one deserves either of its extremes.

A just judgement would be not between man and man, saving one and
condemning the other, but between different parts of each of us. For
in man good and evil are always present: what we ask for is not
complete survival, but the ultimate elimination of some parts and the
constant growth of others; we desire change, not permanence.[9]
Moreover, even in the short space of life which we can observe,
elimination and selection are clearly present. The child and the old
man are one, not by identity but by continuity of life. The main
object of education is to further and confirm this beneficent change.
Once more, this, or something like it, is often put forward as the
meaning of the doctrine of "judgement." But when the creed states that
Jesus will "come again in glory to judge both the quick and dead," it
means the Jewish eschatological expectation, and to use its language to
express modern thought is unfair to both.

All such thoughts are _a priori_, and can never convince the reluctant.
The path of wisdom is not to weigh the merits of various inconclusive
arguments, but to distinguish between Desire and Knowledge.

{95}

Desire for most men is to remain essentially as they are. The healthy
enjoy life, and even the unhealthy cling to it. If we are candid most
of us admit that we should like indefinitely prolonged existence, that
we have an infinite curiosity to know what is going to happen in the
world, and a wish to take part in its development. That is Desire.

Over against Desire is Knowledge. We know that matter is
indestructible, though it changes its form, and that energy is equally
indestructible, but constantly varies its form. If Life be similar to
energy this gives us reason to believe that it is permanent, but that
its form changes. If, however, Life be a form of Energy, not a force
similar to it, there is no reason to expect its permanence. The chief
reason against this view is that whereas we can convert heat into
electricity, or electricity