Mr. Bertrand Russell in What I Believe (Kegan Paul) has
obviously written rather unmethodically and hastily. He asserts his freedom from religious errors, his disbelief in God or immortality. " I believe," his creed begins, " that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive." " Metaphysicians have advanced innumerable arguments to prove that the soul must be immortal," he informs us. " There is one simple test by which all these arguments can be demolished. They all prove equally that the soul must pervade all space. But as we are not so anxious to be fat as to live long, none of the metaphysicians in question have ever noticed this application of their reasoning." An alarming ignorance cr disingenuity ! Every metaphysician worth reading has implicitly or explicitly, within proper limits, professed exactly what Mr. Russell denies that they have noticed ! On the constructive side Mr. Russell an- nounces that " the good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge " ; and devotes a great deal of his book to arguing that the clearest application of his principle is the practice of Birth Control.
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