The examples which have suggested its possibility are quite misleading 173 The positive system is really far more based on superstition than any religion 175 Its appearance can only be accounted for by the characters and circumstances of its originators 175 And a consideration of these will help us more than anything to estimate it rightly 178 And will let us see that its only practical tendency is to deaden all our present interests, not to create any new ones 179 CHAPTER VIII. THE PRACTICAL PROSPECT. It is not contended that the prospect just described will, as a fact, ever be realised 183 But only that it will be realised _if_ certain other prospects are realised 185 Which prospects may or may not be visionary 186 But the progress towards which is already begun 187 And also the other results, that have been described already 187 Positive principles have already produced a moral deterioration, even in places where we should least imagine it 187 As we shall see if we pierce beneath the surface 189 In the curious condition of men who have lost faith, but have retained the love of virtue 189 The struggle was hard, when they had all the helps of religion 190 It is harder now 190 Conscience still survives, but it has lost its restraining power 191 Temptation almost inevitably dethrones it 192 And its full prestige can never be recovered 193 It can do nothing but deplore; it cannot remedy 194 In such cases the mind's decadence has begun; and its symptoms are 194 Self-reproach 195 Life-weariness 195 And indifference 195 The class of men to whom this applies is increasing, and they are the true representatives of the work of positive thought 196 It is hard to realise this ominous fact 197 But by looking steadily and dispassionately at the characteristics of the present epoch we may learn to do so 198 We shall see that the opinions now forming will have a weight and power that no opinions ever had before 199