If it cannot be made to do this, if it vanishes into mist as we near it, and takes a different shape to each of us as we recede from it; still more, if only some can see it, and to others it is quite invisible--then we must simply set it down as an illusion, and waste no more time in pursuit of it.

But that it is not an illusion is the great positivist claim for it.
Heaven and the love of God, we are told, were illusions.

This 'highest good' we are offered, stands out in clear contradistinction to these.

It is an actual attainable thing, a thing for flesh and blood creatures; it is to be won and enjoyed by them in their common daily life.

It is, as its prophets distinctly and unanimously tell us, some form of happiness that results in this life to us, from certain conduct; it is a thing essentially for the present; and '_it is obviously_,' says Professor Huxley, '_in no way affected by abbreviation or prolongation of our conscious life_.' This being the case, it is clearly not unreasonable to demand some explicit account of it; or if no sound account of it be extant, to enquire diligently what sort of account of it is possible.