Each is
the mechanism whereby the other exists.
Life, then, is not the having been born--it is rather an effort to be
born. But why should some succeed in attaining to this future life
and others fail? Why should some be born more than others? Why
should not some one in a future state taunt Lazarus with having a
good time now and tell him it will be the turn of Dives in some other
and more remote hereafter? I must have it that neither are the good
rewarded nor the bad punished in a future state, but every one must
start anew quite irrespective of anything they have done here and
must try his luck again and go on trying it again and again ad
infinitum. Some of our lives, then, will be lucky and some unlucky
and it will resolve itself into one long eternal life during which we
shall change so much that we shall not remember our antecedents very
far back (any more than we remember having been embryos) nor foresee
our future very much, and during which we shall have our ups and
downs ad infinitum--effecting a transformation scene at once as soon
as circumstances become unbearable.
Nevertheless, some men's work does live longer than others. Some
achieve what is very like immortality. Why should they have this
piece of good fortune more than others? The answer is that it would
be very unjust if they knew anything about it, or could enjoy it in
any way, but they know nothing whatever about it, and you, the
complainer, do profit by their labour, so that it is really you, the
complainer, who get the fun, not they, and this should stop your
mouth.
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