Social idealism / by R. Dimsdale Stocker.

  • Richard Dimsdale Stocker
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Social idealism / by R. Dimsdale Stocker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Ludicrous as they appear, we cannot help feeling that such replies are typical. So far as one can gather, however it may have been at a former age, nowadays very little serious concern is exhibited as to the after-life. It is in this life, it is here, amidst all the interests and problems of to-day, that our spiritual centre of gravity is realised to be. And at best, our entrance into a higher sphere is therefore re- garded in the light of a doubtful boon ; while at worst, I should say, such a thought is little more than meaningless to many. For, sup- posing the existence of such a state were granted, how should we proceed to picture it ? How, as Huxley inquired, can we conceive of our personality as a thing apart from the phenomena of life ? In endeavouring to form such a conception, all that we discover is, that we are hypostatising a word ; and, as Huxley adds, it alters nothing, if, with Fichte, we assume the Universe to be nothing but a manifestation of ourselves. In truth, it is scarcely to be wondered at that men should exhibit indifference to the problem. For, save
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