I had also taken
it for granted that our hope of immortality, or rather our belief in
it, was founded on this same passion in us and in its universality.
The fact that there were those who had no such desire was sufficient
to show that it was no spiritual instinct or not of divine origin.
There were many more shocks of this kind--when I go back in memory to
that sad time, it seems almost incredible to me that that poor
doubtful faith in revealed religion still survived, and that the
struggle still went on, but go on it certainly did.
To many of my readers, to all who have interested themselves in the
history of religion and its effect on individual minds--its
psychology--all I have written concerning my mental condition at that
period, will come as a twice-told tale, since thousands and millions
of men have undergone similar experiences and have related them in
numberless books. And here I must beg my reader to bear in mind that
in the days of my youth we had not yet fallen into the indifference
and scepticism which now infects the entire Christian world. In those
days people still believed; and here in England, in the very centre
and mind of the world, many thousands of miles from my rude
wilderness, the champions of the Church were in deadly conflict with
the Evolutionists.
Pages:
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354