Even from amongst the wisdom of her bitterest enemies 309

All false revelations, in so far as they have professed to be infallible, are, from the Catholic standpoint, abortive Catholicisms 311

Catholicism has succeeded in the same attempt in which they have failed 313

CHAPTER XIII.

BELIEF AND WILL.

The aim of this book 315

Has been to clear the great question as to man’s nature, and the proper way of regarding him, from the confusion at present surrounding it 317

And to show that the answer will finally rest, not on outer evidence, but on himself, and on his own will, if he have a will 319

NOTE.

In this book the words ‘positive,’ ‘positivist,’ and ‘positivism’ are of constant occurrence as applied to modern thought and thinkers.  To avoid any chance of confusion or misconception, it will be well to say that these words as used by me have no special reference to the system of Comte or his disciples, but are applied to the common views and position of the whole scientific school, one of the most eminent members of which—­I mean Professor Huxley—­has been the most trenchant and contemptuous critic that ‘positivism’ in its narrower sense has met with.  Over ‘positivism’ in this sense Professor Huxley and Mr. Frederic Harrison have had some public battles.  Positivism in the sense in which it is used by me, applies to the principles as to which the above writers explicitly agree, not to those as to which they differ.

W.H.M.

Is Life Worth Living?

CHAPTER I.

THE NEW IMPORT OF THE QUESTION.

    A change was coming over the world, the meaning and direction of
    which even still is hidden from us, a change from era to
    era.—­Froude’s History of England, ch. i.

What I am about to deal with in this book is a question which may well strike many, at first sight, as a question that has no serious meaning, or none at any rate for the sane and healthy mind.  I am about to attempt inquiring, not sentimentally, but with all calmness and sobriety, into the true value of this human life of ours, as tried by those tests of reality which the modern world is accepting, and to ask dispassionately if it be really worth the living.  The inquiry certainly has often been made before; but it has never been made properly; it has never been made in the true scientific spirit.  It has always been vitiated