We have seen that men's actions (their deliberate

and conscious actions, for we will speak afterwards of

unconscious  habits) all have the same origin. Those that

are called virtuous and those that are designated as

vicious, great devotions  and petty knaveries, acts that

attract and acts that repel, all  spring from a common

source. All are performed in answer  to some need of the

individual's nature. all have for their  end the quest of

pleasure, the desire to avoid pain.

	 We have seen this in the last section, which is but a

very  succinct summary of a mass of facts that might be

brought  forward in support of this view.

 It is easy to understand how this explanation makes those 

still imbued with religious principles cry out. It leaves no 

room for the supernatural. It throws over the idea of an 

immortal soul. If man only acts in obedience to the needs 

of his nature, if he is, so to say, but a "conscious

automaton,"  what becomes of the immortal soul? What of

immortality, that last refuge of those who have known too

few pleasures and too many sufferings, and who dream of

finding some compensation in another world?

	 It is easy to understand how people who have

grown up  in prejudice and with but little confidence in

science, which  has so often deceived them, people who

are led by feeling  rather than thought, reject an

explanation which takes from  them their last hope.