The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy |
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Common terms and phrases
absolutely abstract actually affirmation apparition automatic writing Balfour Stewart believe census chance character conceive conception consciousness contradiction course death demands demnation determinism deterministic divine Edmund Gurney emotional empiricism empiricist environment escape eternal ethical evidence evidence recorded evil existence experience fact faith feel genius give gnosticism Gurney Gurney's hallucination Hegel hegelian Hodgson human hypothesis ideal individual infinite intellectual judgment large number living logical Malcolm Guthrie matter means mediumship ment mental mind monism mood moral moral universe Myers nature of things negation ness never notion object passion pessimism phenomena philosopher physical point of view possible practical prove psychical pure question rational reflex action relations religion religious result scepticism scientific seems sense Sidgwick simply sort space subjectivism suppose theism theoretic thinker thought thousand answers tical tion true truth universe whole word
Popular passages
Page 11 - Our passional nature not only lawfully may, but must, decide an option between propositions, whenever it is a genuine option that cannot by its nature be decided on intellectual grounds ; for to say, under such circumstances, " Do not decide, but leave the question open...
Page 150 - With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man knead, And there of the Last Harvest sowed the Seed: And the first Morning of Creation wrote What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.
Page 160 - Ah Love! could you and I with Him conspire To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire, Would not we shatter it to bits — and then Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!
Page 74 - Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the argument of the earth, And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own, And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own, And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers, And that a kelson of the creation is love...
Page 227 - They parted - ne'er to meet again! But never either found another To free the hollow heart from paining They stood aloof, the scars remaining, Like cliffs, which had been rent asunder; A dreary sea now flows between; But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, Shall wholly do away, I ween, The marks of that which once hath been.
Page 62 - These then are my last words to you: Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
Page 215 - It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it ? neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? but the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
Page 213 - He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha ; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting.
Page 163 - Past utterance and past belief, And past the blasphemy of grief, The mysteries of nature's heart,— And though no muse can these impart, Throb thine with nature's throbbing breast, And all is clear from east to west.
Page 44 - Despicable biped ! what is .the sum-total of the worst that lies before thee ? Death ? Well, Death ; and say the pangs of Tophet too, and all that the Devil and Man may, will or can do against thee ! Hast thou not a heart ; canst thou not suffer whatsoever it be ; and, as a Child of Freedom, though outcast, trample Tophet itself under thy feet, while it consumes thee ? Let it come, then ; I will meet it and defy it...