To the Christians, indeed, it is quite open to make their supposed shame their glory, and to say that their heaven would be nothing _if_ describable.

The positivists have bound themselves to admit that theirs is nothing _unless_ describable.
What then, let us ask the enthusiasts of humanity, will humanity be like in its ideally perfect state?
Let them show us some sample of the general future perfection; let them describe one of the nobler, ampler, glorified human beings of the future.

What will he be like?
What will he long for?
What will he take pleasure in?
How will he spend his days?
How will he make love?
What will he laugh at?
And let him be described in phrases which _when pressed_ do not _evaporate in contradictions_, but which have some _distinct meaning_, and _are not incompatible with exact thought_.

Do our exact thinkers in the least know what they are prophesying?
If not, what is the meaning of their prophecy?
The prophecies of the positive school are rigid scientific inferences; they are that or nothing.

And one cannot infer an event of whose nature one is wholly ignorant.
Let these obvious questions be put to our positive moralists--these questions they have themselves suggested, and the grotesque unreality of this vague optimism will be at once apparent.