Excerpt from The Hope of Immortality, Our Reasons for It
I Have undertaken in the following pages to state as simply as possible the reasons that urge me to a belief in the reality of the immortal life. It may be of interest to readers if I say a few words at the beginning about the "personal equation" in my own case. It has always been extremely easy for me to see the difficulties that arise in the way of a belief in immortality. I have taken pains never to escape the sight of these difficulties, but rather to seek them out and measure them at their full value. I am unhappy if I have an intimation that there lies somewhere any formidable consideration, with which I am not familiar, touching an important subject. I hold that no man knows one side or aspect of a question, unless he knows its other sides also.
Moreover, perhaps by some fault of temperament, I do not happen to have the intense yearning that many profess for an endless existence. I feel about a future life as one might feel in regard to setting forth upon an untried voyage; for example, to some distant star. So far as I have confidence that I am a citizen of a rational universe, I can conceive that the unknown voyage will be worth all the trouble it may cost. The venture stirs my interest. But otherwise, I have little sense of clinging to life, merely in order to live.
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