But no man is able to accomplish such a feat.  The fact of his continued existence proves plainly that he still desires sensation, and desires it in such positive and active form that the desire must be gratified in physical life.  It would seem more practical not to deceive one’s self by the sham of stoicism, not to attempt renunciation of that with which nothing would induce one to part.  Would it not be a bolder policy, a more promising mode of solving the great enigma of existence, to grasp it, to take hold firmly and to demand of it the mystery of itself?  If men will but pause and consider what lessons they have learned from pleasure and pain, much might be guessed of that strange thing which causes these effects.  But men are prone to turn away hastily from self-study, or from any close analysis of human nature.  Yet there must be a science of life as intelligible as any of the methods of the schools.  The science is unknown, it is true, and its existence is merely guessed, merely hinted at, by one or two of our more advanced thinkers.  The development of a science is only the discovery of what is already in existence; and chemistry is as magical and incredible now to the ploughboy as the science of life is to the man of ordinary perceptions.  Yet there may be, and there must be, a seer who perceives the growth of the new knowledge as the earliest dabblers in the experiments of the laboratory saw the system of knowledge now attained evolving itself out of nature for man’s use and benefit.

II

Doubtless many more would experiment in suicide, as many now do, in order to escape from the burden of life, if they could be convinced that in that manner oblivion might be found.  But he who hesitates before drinking the poison from the fear of only inviting change of mode of existence, and perhaps a more active form of misery, is a man of more knowledge than the rash souls who fling themselves wildly on the unknown, trusting to its kindliness.  The waters of oblivion are something very different from the waters of death, and the human race cannot become extinct by means of death while the law of birth still operates.  Man returns to physical life as the drunkard returns to the flagon of wine,—­he knows not why, except that he desires the sensation produced by life as the drunkard desires the sensation produced by wine.  The true waters of oblivion lie far behind our consciousness, and can only be reached by ceasing to exist in that consciousness,—­by ceasing to exert the will which makes us full of senses and sensibilities.