that all their arguments apply, with exactly the same force, to prove an
immortality, not only of _brutes_, but even of _plants_; though in such
a conclusion as this they are never willing to acquiesce."--Whately,
_l.c._ p. 67.
[42] "Nor are we therefore authorised to infer _a priori_, independent
of Revelation, a future state of retribution, from the irregularities
prevailing in the present life, since that future state does not account
fully for these irregularities. It may explain, indeed, how present evil
may be conducive to future good, but not why the good could not be
attained without the evil; it may reconcile with our notions of the
divine justice the present prosperity of the wicked, but it does not
account for the existence of the wicked."--Whately, _l.c._ pp. 69, 70.
[43] "So reason also shows, that for man to expect to earn for himself
by the practice of virtue, and claim, as his just right, an immortality
of exalted happiness, is a most extravagant and groundless
pretension."--Whately, _l.c._ p. 101. On the other hand, however, the
Archbishop sees no unreasonableness in a man's earning for himself an
immortality of intense unhappiness by the practice of vice. So that life
is, naturally, a venture in which you may lose all, but can earn
nothing. It may be thought somewhat hard upon mankind if they are pushed
into a speculation of this sort, willy-nilly.
[44] _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_. Ed. Hartenstein, p. 547.
CHAPTER X.
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