is
a choice: but whatever choice we make, we make it at our peril. If a
man chooses to turn his back altogether on God and the future, no one
can prevent him; no one can show beyond reasonable doubt that he is
mistaken. If a man thinks otherwise and acts as he thinks, I do not
see that any one can prove that _he_ is mistaken. Each must act as he
thinks best; and if he is wrong, so much the worse for him. We stand
on a mountain pass in the midst of whirling snow and blinding mist,
through which we get glimpses now and then of paths which may be
deceptive. If we stand still we shall be frozen to death. If we take
the wrong road we shall be dashed to pieces. We do not certainly know
whether there is any right one. What must we do? 'Be strong and of a
good courage.' Act for the best, hope for the best, and take what
comes.... If death ends all, we cannot meet death better."[5]

[1] An Address to the Philosophical Clubs of Yale and Brown
Universities. Published in the New World, June, 1896.

[2] Compare the admirable page 310 in S. H. Hodgson's "Time and Space,"
London, 1865.

[3] Compare Wilfrid Ward's Essay, "The Wish to Believe," in his
_Witnesses to the Unseen_, Macmillan & Co., 1893.

[4] Since belief is measured by action, he who forbids us to believe
religion to be true, necessarily also forbids us to act as we should if
we did believe it to be true. The whole defence of religious faith
hinges upon action. If the action required or inspired by the
religious hypothesis is in no way different from that dictated by the
naturalistic hypothesis, then religious faith is a pure superfluity,
better pruned away, and controversy about its legitimacy is a piece of
idle trifling, unworthy of serious minds. I myself believe, of course,
that the religious hypothesis gives to the world an expression which
specifically determines our reactions, and makes them in a large part
unlike what they might be on a purely naturalistic scheme of belief.

[5] Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, p. 353, 2d edition. London, 1874.

{32}

IS LIFE WORTH LIVING?[1]

When Mr. Mallock's book with this title appeared some fifteen years
ago, the jocose answer that "it depends on the _liver_" had great
currency in the newspapers. The answer which I propose to give
to-night cannot be jocose. In the words of one of Shakespeare's
prologues,--

"I come no more to make you laugh; things now,
That bear a weighty and a seriou