Not only do I disbelieve in the need for compensation, but I
believe that the seeking for rewards and punishments out of
this life leads men to a ruinous ignorance of the fact that
their inevitable rewards and punishments are here.
If the expectation of hell hereafter can keep me from
evil-doing, surely a fortiori the certainty of hell now will
do so? If a man could be firmly impressed with the belief that
stealing damaged him as much as swallowing arsenic would do
(and it does), would not the dissuasive force of that belief
be greater than that of any based on mere future expectations?
And this leads me to quote words written by an old friend and
colleague of his, Sir Spencer Walpole:--
Of all the men I have ever known, his ideas and his standard
were, on the whole, the highest. He recognized that the fact
of his religious views imposed on him the duty of living the
most upright of lives; and I am very much of the opinion of a
little child, now grown into an accomplished woman, who,
when she was told that Professor Huxley had no hope of future
rewards and no fear of future punishments, emphatically
declared: "Then I think Professor Huxley is the best man I
have ever known."