they must—while it is just because he is so different from them that he does so suffer. Unquestionably the view is very real to him. He says, "You fancy that you would have long repose before rebirth—but do not deceive yourselves. Between the last moment of consciousness and the first appearance of the new life, 'no time' intervenes—it is as quickly by as a lightning-flash, even if living creatures measure it by billions of years or cannot measure it at all. When the mind is away, timelessness and succession are compatible with one another."[1] He even fancies that the mass may look approvingly on his doctrine at the start, since it means immortality of a certain kind and the most ordinary impulses of self-preservation will respond to it.[2] m Equally, he suspects, the finer, nobler spirits will be at first depressed and in danger of extirpation (even as he had been), leaving the commoner, less sensitive nature to survive[3]—a probability the reverse of the view first stated, and, I should say, likelier. He is thus not really certain as to what the popular effect of his doctrine will be—now he suspects one consequence and now another. The only thing we or he can speak with real assurance about is its effect on himself—for to him the doctrine became something like a religion.
But if a religion, it is one without the gestures that often accompany religion. It is "mild to those who do not believe it; it has no hell and no threats—the only result is that one is left with a fleeting life in his consciousness."[4] It were horrible to think of sin in such a connection; whatever we do, even if we repeat it innumerable times, is innocent, and if the thought of eternal recurrence does not convince us, there is no blame, as there is no merit, if it does.[5] He has no desire that the doctrine should become a religion suddenly—it must sink into men's minds slowly; whole generations must work on it—long, long must it be small and weak. What are the two millenniums during which Christianity has existed—the greatest thought will require many millenniums![6] He wishes the doctrine stated
