The promises referred to must be looked for in scientific treatises that deal in generalisations. It is not to be disputed that, since the renaissance in Europe of the rational and sceptical spirit, that is to say, in the last two or three centuries, the view has been proclaimed that all human life may be regulated by natural laws without the interposition of dogmas, either metaphysical or religious. Attempts of this kind have been numerous. Büchner, in his treatise on “Force and Matter,” in which he tried to give a general conception of the universe based on the scientific knowledge of the nineteenth century, made very plain statements on this point. “We must seek the foundation of morality,” said the German populariser, “elsewhere than in the timeworn and fantastic belief in the supernatural. Science must replace religion; belief in the real existence of a natural and immutable order in things must displace belief in spirits and ghosts; natural moral law must take the place of artificial or dogmatic morality.”[283] Büchner even tried to indicate what natural morality is. According to him it is “the law of mutual consideration of the equal rights of each person, both from the general and the individual point of view, so as to assure the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Everything that damages or destroys the common good is ‘evil;’ everything that favours it is ‘good.’” The other question, as to whither we are going, finds an answer in the materialistic and scientific breviary of Büchner. He disputes the idea of immortality, which has been supported by nearly all the religions, and comes to the conclusion that there is nothing appalling to a man, “imbued with the principles of philosophy, in the conception of the annihilation of the individual life.” “Annihilation is perfect rest; it is freedom from all pain and escape from the sensations that torture the body and the mind—as was explained so clearly in the great religion of Buddha; it is not to be feared, but rather to be coveted when life has reached its normal term and when old age has come with its inevitable assemblage of infirmities.” I do not wish to suggest that the views I have just quoted are peculiar to Büchner. That writer has served to a large extent as the mouthpiece of ideas current among the materialistic and positivist men of science of his time. In Haeckel’s book, “The Riddle of the Universe,” which appeared nearly half a century after the first edition of “Force and Matter,” the same ideas are to be found. He also has found answers to the questions that absorb mankind. In his opinion also, as I have shown in chap. v. the problem of natural morality resolves itself into the social instincts of man, and has nothing to do with religious dogma. As for the destiny of man, he concludes as follows: “The best end we can desire after a courageous life, spent in doing good according to our light, is the eternal peace of the grave.”[284]