But they see that the discovery on man's part that his life was nothing more than this would mean a complete change in its mechanism, and that thenceforward its entire action would be different.

They therefore seek a refuge in saying it _may_ be more than this.

But what do they mean by _may be_?
Do they mean that in spite of all that science can teach them, in spite of that uniformity absolute and omnipresent which alone it reveals to them, which day by day it is forcing with more vividness on their imaginations, and which seems to have no room for anything besides itself--do they mean that in spite of this there may still be a second something, a power of a different order, acting on man's brain and grappling with its automatic movements?
Do they mean that that '_heathen_' and '_gross_' conception of an immaterial soul is probably after all the true one?
Either they must mean this or else they must mean the exact opposite.

There is no third course open to them.[36] Their opinion, as soon as they form one, must rest either on this extreme or that.

They will see, as exact and scientific thinkers, that if it be not practically certain that there is some supernatural entity in us, it is practically certain that there is not one.