Chapter 9

Death, then, is for the individual but a transfer from one physical state of existence to another, according to the "authors'"[86] idea; and so, on the largest scale, the death or final loss of energy by the whole visible universe has its counterpart in the acquirement of a maximum of life, the correlative unseen world. According to this theory, therefore, as the psychical or spiritual phenomena of the visible world only begins to be manifested with some complex aggregate of material phenomena, therefore it is necessary for the continuance of mind in a future state to have some sort of material vehicle also, which the ether is supposed to supply. "The essential weakness of such a theory as this," says Fiske, "lies in the fact that it is thoroughly materialistic in character. We have reason for thinking it probable that ether and ordinary matter are alike composed of vortex rings in a quasi-frictionless fluid; but whatever be the fate of this subtle hypothesis, we may be sure that no theory will ever be entertained in which analysis of ether shall require different symbols from that of ordinary matter. In our authors' theory, therefore, the putting on of immortality is in nowise the passage from a material to a spiritual state. It is the passage of one kind of materially conditioned state to another." This theory, dealing with matter, should receive support by actual experience, as matter is a subject of investigation. To accept it, therefore, as being possible without any positive evidence for its support, it remains but a weak speculation, no matter how ingenious it may seem.

To support an after life, which is not materially conditioned, I agree with Mr. Fiske, that although it will be unsupported by any item of experience whatever, it may nevertheless be an impregnable assertion.

If all were to agree, what we call matter is really force, as it certainly is, for if matter were not force it would be unthinkable, being force it becomes thinkable; this point I have touched on before, but it may be well to elaborate on it a little just here. The great lesson that Berkeley taught mankind was that what we call material phenomena are really the products of consciousness co-operating with some unknown power (not material) existing beyond consciousness. "We do very well to speak of matter," says Fiske, "in common parlance, but all that the word really means is a group of qualities which have no existence apart from our minds." The ablest modern thinkers, then, believe that the only real things that exist are the mind and God, and that the universe is only the infinitely varied manifestation of God in the human conscience. It is evident, then, that _matter_, the only thing the materialist concedes real existence, is simply an orderly phantasmagoria; and God and soul, which materialists regard as mere fictions of the imagination, are the only conceptions that answer to real existence.[87]

For instance, let us see what it is we know about a table. You say you can see it; I can respond that all you are conscious of is that the nerves of your eye have undergone a change. You say, I can check my sight of it by touching it; to this I reply, all that you are really conscious of is a sensation, and that something outside of you has produced it. But that all that is outside of me is anything more than the manifestation to me of a power or of God, is an inference and cannot be proven. To constant manifestations of this power, always assuming the same form and characters which can be studied, different names have been given; but that the dust of the street or beat of our heart is anything else but that peculiar manifestation of the infinite God, cannot be contradicted.

Mr. Savage says, "The movement of electricity along a telegraph-line is accompanied by certain molecular changes in the wire itself; but the wire is not electricity, neither does it produce it. Thus modern science has found it utterly impossible to explain mind either as a part or a product of matter. It is perfectly reasonable, then, for any man to believe in a purely intellectual and spiritual existence, apart from any material form or substance."

To comprehend the immortal life is an impossibility; it transcends any earthly experience of man. The caterpillar probably knows nothing about any life higher than that of his toilsome crawling on the ground; but that is no proof against the fact that we know he is to become a butterfly. The boy knows nothing about manhood, and cannot know. Though he sees men and their labors all about him, he has and can have no conception whatever of what it means to be a man; it transcends all experience.[88] "The existence," says Fiske, "of a single soul, or congeries of psychical phenomena, unaccompanied by a material body, would be evidence sufficient to demonstrate this hypothesis. But in the nature of things, even were there a million such souls round about us, we could not become aware of the existence of one of them; for we have no organ or faculty for the perception of soul apart from the material structure and activities in which it has been manifested throughout the whole course of our experience. Even our own self-consciousness involves the consciousness of ourselves as partly material bodies. These considerations show that our hypothesis is very different from the ordinary hypothesis with which science deals. _The entire absence of testimony does not raise a negative presumption, except in cases where testimony is accessible._"

My object has not been to prove the purely spiritual theory of a future life, but to show that it is a theory that intelligent people can entertain as a foundation for their belief "in the hope of immortality." But that the spiritual life instead of the material life is the state in which we can hope for immortality, I think there can be no question; and such was the opinion of Paul[89] when he wrote: "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption.... So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

Footnotes:

[1] The Law of Disease, in College Courant, Vol. XIV.

[2] Winchell. Evolution, p. 113.

[3] Comparative Zoology, p. 43. 1876.

[4] Huxley. Physical Basis of Life.

[5] Johnson, Ency.

[6] Comparative Anatomy--Orton, p. 32.

[7] Analytical Anatomy and Phys.--Cutter, p. 16.

[8] Biography of a Plant.

[9] See Huxley--Invertebrate Animals, Anatomy of.

[10] Phys. Basis of Life.

[11] Beginnings of Life, p. 104, Vol. I.

[12] Monthly Micros. Jour., May 1, '69, p. 294.

[13] Chem. and Phys. Balance of Organic Nature, 1848, p. 48 (trans.).

[14] Inaugural Address, Aug. 19, 1874.

[15] Haeckel--Hist. of Creation.

[16] See Haeckel--Evol. of Man.

[17] Evolution of Man, Vol. II, p. 445.

[18] Johnson's Cyclopedia, Article "Evolution."

[19] Sumner, in Johnson's Cyc.

[20] Christian Union, Vol. XIII, No. 17, p. 322.

[21] Gen. i. 1.

[22] St. John i. 1.

[23] St. John i. 3.

[24] Hist. of Creation, p. 8.

[25] _Ibid._, p. 324.

[26] Heb. xi. 3. Revised English Ed.

[27] _Loc. cit._, Vol. I, p. 323.

[28] _Loc. cit._, Vol. I, p. 324.

[29] Indications of the Creator.

[30] Evolution and Progress, p. 26, Rev. Wm. I. Gill.

[31] Natürl. Schöpfungsgesch., pp. 643-5.

[32] Paget, Lectures on Surgical Pathology, 1853, Vol. I, p. 71.

[33] Ueber die Richtung der Haare am menschlichen Körper.

[34] Pop. Sci. Monthly, June, 1879, p. 250.

[35] See Sci. Am., May 18, 1878.

[36] Source of Muscular Power, Proc. Roy. Inst., June 8, 1866. Am. I. Sci., II, xlii, 393, Nov. 1866.

[37] Comparative Zoology, p. 45.

[38] Correlation of the Vital and Physical Forces, p. 54.

[39] On the time required for the transmission of volition and sensation through the nerves, Proc. Roy. Inst.

[40] Comparative Zoology, p. 165.

[41] Sci. Amer., Nov. 13, 1876, p. 328.

[42] Marshall, Outline of Physiology. Amer. Ed., 1868, p. 227.

[43] Macmillon's Magazine, Pop. Sci. Monthly, April, 1876.

[44] "Principles of Psychology," 1869, No. 20, p. 24.

[45] J. S. Lombard, N. Y. Med. Jour., Vol. V, 198, June, 1867.

[46] _Loc. cit._, p. 23.

[47] The apparatus employed is illustrated and fully described in Brown-Sequard's Archives de Phys., Vol. I, 498, June, 1868. By it the 1-4000th of a degree Centigrade may be indicated.

[48] L. H. Wood, "On the influence of mental activity on the excretion of phosphoric acid by the kidneys." Proc. Conn. Med. Soc., Nov., 1869, p. 197.

[49] _Loc. cit._, p. 24.

[50] Address of Dr. F. A. P. Barnard, as retiring president, before the Am. Ass. for Adv. of Sci., Chicago meeting, Aug. 1868. "Thought cannot be a physical force, because thought admits of no measure."

[51] Derivation hypothesis of life and species, forming fortieth chapter of his Anatomy of Vertebrates, republished in Am. Jour. Sci., II, xlvii, 33, Jan. 1869.

[52] Prehistoric Times, p. 354, by Lubbock.

[53] Madness in Animals, Jour. Mental Sci., July, 1871. Dr. W. L. Lindsay.

[54] Facultés Mentales des Animaux, 1872, Tom. XI, p. 181.

[55] Primeval Man, 1869, pp. 145-147.

[56] Prehistoric Times, 1865, p. 473.

[57] "Conferences ser les Théorie Darwinienne," 1869, p. 132.

[58] Philosoph. Trans., 1773, p. 262.

[59] Prof. Whitney, p. 309.

[60] Phys. and Pathol. of Mind. Dr. Maudsley. 3d ed., 1868, p. 199.

[61] Nature, January 6, 1870, p. 257.

[62] Problems i. 21.

[63] Johnson's Cyc. Article "Faith." C. P. Krauth.

[64] Darwin's Descent of Man, p. 117.

[65] See Descent of Man, p. 96.

[66] See Tyndall's Belfast Address.

[67] Purgatory of Suicides.

[68] Thoughts on Atheism, p. 4.

[69] Monologium and Proslogium.

[70] Meditations de Primaphilosophia Prop. 2, p. 89.

[71] Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God.

[72] Elements of Psychology.

[73] Thoughts on Atheism, by Holyoake, p. 4.

[74] Proverbs xvii. 22.

[75] Henry Ward Beecher.

[76] See W. T. Harris. Johnson's Encyc. "Soul."

[77] Unseen Universe.

[78] Rood. "Sound," Johnson's Encyc.

[79] See R. G. Ingersoll's Lecture on Hell.

[80] Savage.

[81] "The Unseen World." John Fiske, p. 21.

[82] Fortnightly Review, June 1875, p. 784.

[83] Ninth Bridgewater Treatise.

[84] Of the Unseen Universe.

[85] Anagram. Nature, Oct. 15, 1874.

[86] Of the Unseen Universe.

[87] Fiske. Unseen World, p. 52.

[88] Savage. Relig. of Evol., p. 246.

[89] 1 Corinthians, xv., verses 50-54 (Part of). _Revised English Ed._, 1877.

Transcriber's Notes:

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