Page:Bierce - Collected Works - Volume 11.djvu/255

Rh minds sufficiently logical to think of it that way, and to them annihilation is not a dis- agreeable thing to contemplate and expect.

In this matter of immortality, people's be- liefs appear to go along with their wishes. The man who is content with annihilation thinks he will get it; those that want immort- ality are pretty sure they are immortal; and that is a very comfortable allotment of faiths. The few of us that are left unprovided for are those who do not bother themselves much about the matter, one way or another.

The question of human immortality is the most momentous that the mind is capable of conceiving. If it is a fact that the dead live all other facts are in comparison trivial and without interest. The prospect of obtaining certain knowledge with regard to this stupen- dous matter is not encouraging. In all coun- tries but those in barbarism the powers of the profoundest and most penetrating intellig- ences have been ceaselessly addressed to the task of glimpsing a life beyond this life; yet to-day no one can truly say that he knows. It is as much a matter of faith as ever it was.

Our modern Christian nations profess a pas- sionate hope and belief in another world, yet the most popular writer and speaker of his