The Doctrine of Retribution Author:William Jackson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: He exercised a reserve on religious subjects which (to quote a safe authority) "perhaps even scandalized some of the more ardent and on-pressing spirits." In thi... more »s posthumous publication are discussed the all-important beliefs in God and immortality. Mill does not allow them the position of beliefs. He characterizes them as hopes only, and adds many limitations. Still, as hopes, he advises us to cherish them. They are, in his view, contributions to individual happiness; they are also useful to mankind. Here, then, he resembles Hume. Now, for these cautious predilections Mill is held by his friends unfaithful to Positive thinking. He is pronounced guilty of aberrations as great as Comte's. His memory is mourned with a kind of contemptuous pity. The surprise and disappointment expressed on this occasion by leaders of Positive thought, furnishes a fair index to what, in their opinion, is the logical outcome of their method. It would appear unable to tolerate even the modest hope that there exists a God, or that He reserves an immortality for men. Such is the attitude maintained by no unskilful advocacy. It brings to its advocates personal credit, praise, and pecuniary gain. What may be the next stage of its evolution—what the method portends to its disciples—are questions which people will answer differently, according to their estimate of certain other elements of change. As a rule, every crisis of thought and feeling which shakes traditionary beliefs will make, if it does not find, a corresponding crisisin affairs. It so happens that, coincidently with the spread of Atheism and Scepticism, there is going on a vast social re-arrangement. The movement is not confined to England. On the contrary, it is felt by every civilized nation, from Russia, across Europe, to America, and so ro...« less