NPPF Commentary Line 230, P. 164

[Paul Mackin]

On Fri, 2003-10-10 at 11:05, Terrance wrote:
> 
> 
> "Vincent A. Maeder" wrote:
> > 
> > Line 230: a domestic ghost
> > 
> > Line 230 is the last line of the 8th stanza of canto two.  Mr. Shade has
> > just completed an argument in the seventh stanza that if, before we came
> > to life, we tried to imagine life we would have dismissed such musings
> > as mere nonsense. 
> 
> Is that right? I don't think that is it at all. That is not what he
> says, at all. 
> 
> he says that 
> 
> IF prior to life we had been able to imagine life, 
> what mad, impossible, unutterably weird, 
> wonderful nonsense it Might have appeared!
> 
> He doesn't say we would have dismissed it at mere nonsense. And I don't
> think that he implies that we Would have. 
> 
> The stanza that  begins 
> 
> so why join in the vulgar laughter? 
> 
> doesn't make make that argument either.


The sense seems to be that Life's coming into being is in no way a
logical and predictable consequence of anything coming before.
Therefore, we should not rule out Afterlife simply because it is not a
logical and predictable consequence of life.