THE 
 
 (qONSOLATIONS 
 
 ^.1EN€E 
 

 University of California 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 Dr. JOSEPH LeCONTE 
 
 GIFT OF MRS. LECONTE. 
 
 No. 
 
""'mi^.:. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/consolationsofscOOstrarich 
 
THE. 
 
 L) 
 
 OF aiEM 
 
 OR- 
 
 Contriktions of Science to the Hope of Immortality 
 and Kindred Tliemes. 
 
 BY 
 
 JACOB STRAUB, A. M. 
 
 AuTHOB OP •• Prophecy and Pbophets," etc., etc. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 HIRAM W. THOMAS, D. D. 
 
 PASTOB OP THE PKOPIiE'S CHUBCH, CHICAGO, ILL. 
 
 It ia It myself. — Jesus. 
 
 FOURTH ElIDITIOISr. 
 
 CHICAGO : 
 S. W. STRAUB & CO. 
 
 i8SS. 
 
COPYRIGHT, ie»o, 
 SY JACOB STRAUB. 
 
 AXJi BiaaTS BBSEBVED. 
 
 Obo. Dahisls, Printer, 
 79 & 81 Randolph St., Chioaffo. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 TO THE DYING AND THE BEREAVED; TO THE MINISTERS OP CONSO 
 
 LATION; AND TO A SAINTLY MOTHER WHO WAS DEEPLY 
 
 INTERESTED IN THESE PAGES, BUT COULD NOT 
 
 TAEEY FOR THEIR COMPLETION, THIS WORK 
 
 IS DEDICATED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 A WORD with the reader is asked before he enters on 
 the perusal of the following pages. While I have 
 no apologies to offer for imperfections that may be found 
 in the work, I am desirous that the benefits intended in 
 my labors shall be realized. None will dispute that the 
 subject treated is of the very greatest magnitude and 
 interest, — the most difficult to properly treat, and one 
 in respect to which there is the most intense soHcitude, 
 
 My calling in life has supplied me a many-years' in- 
 timacy with the newly bereaved and the dying not alone, 
 but with the thoughtful people not intimately in the 
 presence of death. And it was from the voices of 
 minds in those conditions that I was prompted to set 
 about these labors. 
 
 It was also seen that many times where there ex- 
 ists the most serene confidence that all is well, there 
 remain yearnings for still more definite light, — particu- 
 larly from the facts of nature — from the established 
 truths of science. In the present time, when the more 
 capable minds are so strongly impressed with the results 
 of science, and the necessity that every theory should 
 be solvable by the facts of nature, while still choosing to 
 believe, entire contentment in the claim of a future life 
 
 would, generally, require that some form of proof from 
 
 5 
 
6 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 nature should sustain it. It is also to be seen that the 
 believer, as well as the unbeliever, is represented in the 
 demand for light from this source. 
 
 Such a disposition is, however, not to be rated as 
 really unbelieving. Nor, in the full light of the f aqts, is it to 
 be deplored. It is characterized by a happy indication. 
 It indicates an expectance, if not of a stronger abstract 
 belief, still of a stronger assurance, by foreseeing the 
 added means of belief from nature's own evidence. The 
 power of abstract belief is in many ways of great value, 
 when not abused ; and should be well cultivated. But 
 in its import of good to man, it is not the equal of this 
 much needed assurance of life's continuance in another 
 and superior world. 
 
 Besides, this, also, has been a motive to the undertak- 
 ing of the work : that, if successful, it would not only 
 effect great relief and happiness to many, but would add 
 new stimuli to moral and spiritual enterprises generally. 
 
 In setting about the work, it was foreseen, at once, 
 that, to meet the ends in view, there were certain diffi- 
 culties to be encountered ; provided it should be treated 
 affirmatively and aggressively ^ as the facts were warrant- 
 ing and as it required to be done. First, the facts to be 
 employed were mainly in the biological and psychological 
 field. And though they were familiar to readers of that 
 class of literature, it was literature little familiar to the 
 average reader; while to a very large class who were 
 had in mind, the facts and their principles would be 
 altogether new. And without procuring from them a 
 
PEEFACE. 7 
 
 considerable application of thought in reading, the im- 
 port would, at times, fail to be apprehended. 
 
 Also, in making the application of these facts, without 
 this previous qualification, at times effort would be re- 
 quired tp follow the lines of evidence, on the part of 
 those not readily inclined to the labor of close reason- 
 ing. Then, too, though the facts might be sufficiently 
 familiar, and so, also, the processes of reasoning em- 
 ployed, their new application might, for a time, be to 
 some extent confusing. But mainly in the new applica- 
 tion of old facts, lies the achievement of the work. 
 
 These difficulties were constantly in mind in its execu- 
 tion. Language was sought with reference to its sim- 
 plicity. Figures were, for the most part, left unused. 
 And so, too, as far as practicable, of technicalities. 
 Facts were defined and applied in the barest forms of lan- 
 guage possible. And it is confidently believed that by 
 the painstaking of which the subject will, by most peo- 
 ple, be deemed worthy, the most abstruse parts of the 
 work will be satisfactorily mastered, by quite nearly 
 every one of ordinary education. 
 
 It is, however, impossible to make light reading of 
 such a subject. Hence, it is not claimed for the book. 
 None should be encouraged to find it of such a character. 
 Only when one is willing to bestow a worthy amount of 
 labor on a subject which involves so great an interest, 
 should he be encouraged to set out upon the task of 
 reading it. 
 
 Besides, it is not expected to run on as smoothly as 
 
8 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 would a book of equal profundity which consists largely of 
 but the repetition of often exhibited and familiar thoughts. 
 It would be more proper to consider it as a text-book on 
 the subject matter on which it treats, and to be frequently 
 reviewed and referred to, than that a casual reading of 
 it should suffice. 
 
 Preparatory to the main part of the work, there are 
 placed several chapters on subjects not intimately relat- 
 ing thereto, by the following of which it was hoped the 
 reader, not conversant with its line of thought, might 
 be led in some measure to anticipate the principles em- 
 ployed and the manner of their employment ; thus the 
 more readily to follow the courses of the arguments to 
 their proper conclusions. Also, for the sake of simplic- 
 ity, but few authorities are brought in. They are such, 
 however, as are quite universally established, and which 
 could be conveniently referred to in any place ; or, with 
 little trouble, be procured from publishers. Many tempt- 
 ing references from equally good, but more obscure, 
 authors were from this consideration set aside. 
 
 Though indirectly, in the main, the subject of a future 
 life has been quite extensively written upon. The pos- 
 sibilities and probabilities as to such a state, have in 
 this way been searched over with much care and learn- 
 ing ; though with quite opposite results. Generally, too, 
 little has been attempted beyond what is merely specu- 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 lation. Hence, it is to be expected that, by many, the 
 appearance of this work will be regarded with a negative 
 interest — as but still another on the list of unsuccessful 
 attempts to scientifically ground the hope of man's future 
 life and immortality. It is, however, to be hoped that 
 in such cases, in the prospect of a new method of treat- 
 ing the subject, there may be encouragement sufficient 
 to cause an examination of the claims here submitted. 
 
 I am unconscious of having treated the subject in 
 any place negatively or tentatively ; but in all places 
 positively and conclusively ; from a sense of entire as- 
 surance that with an adequate exposition of the facts, 
 their evidence of a future life not alone, but of a proper 
 immortality, could not be disputed. Only where I have 
 made due mention of it, have I varied from this rule. 
 And these instances were not where the main question was 
 under consideration ; but only where the probable condi- 
 tions incident to the established fact, were canvassed. 
 
 Hence, what failures may be found in making the 
 conclusions attained legitimate, are attributable to over- 
 sight in the clear rendering of the arguments employed, 
 and not to a want of a requisite tendency of the facts 
 themselves. But at no stage of an investigation is all said 
 that can and will be said. And what has in this work been 
 imperfectly accomplished, the future, at some hands, 
 will make more clear and strong. 
 
 The work was originally designed in two volumes. 
 And in changing the plan, with a view to harmony with 
 
10 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 plans concerning other forthcoming works, to bring the 
 essential matter into the limits of one, required abridg- 
 ing, in some places, more than I felt sure was best. It 
 would have satisfied me better to have expanded more 
 under some heads. But the limits were fixed over which 
 I could not consistently pass. 
 
 In a word to friends who have, for years, been urging 
 me to hasten its publication, I would say that it seemed 
 to me best to make haste slowly, and to mature thor- 
 oughly a system of evidence, which, from its being so 
 largely new to the popular mind, might be extensively 
 misunderstood and excite much hostile criticism. I 
 have hastened, but not at the cost of thoroughness. All 
 needed time I freely gave to it. On the literature I be- 
 stowed less thought than on the subject matter. If in 
 that respect I have been successful enough to leave my 
 positions well understood, I am content. 
 
 J. STRAUB. 
 Chicago, III, 1884. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Introduction ..-..-- 15 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Purpose Indicated 26 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 Immortality in History. — Evidence that the Belief in 
 THE Existence of Self in a Rational State beyond 
 Death, is an Elevating Influence on the Race 40 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 An Important Need of the Church is the Ability to 
 
 Place more Emphasis on the Future Life - 60 
 
 • 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Importance of Realizing Powers, Especially in Appre- 
 hending the Evidences in Relation to the Doctrine 
 of Immortality 72 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Tendency of Science to Confieim the Theory of a State 
 
 OF Immortality - - - . - . 82 
 
 11 
 
12 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Location op the Spiritual State. — Insensible Worlds 
 THAT WE Know of. — A Universal Mineral Ether 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 Insensible Worlds that We Know op, Continued. — 
 The Vegetable Realm. — A Vegetable Ether Uni- 
 versal 108 
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 Insensible Worlds that we Know of, Continued. — The 
 Animal Element in Nature. — ^Its Position Interior 
 OP THE Vegetable. — Its Special Superior Forces 
 AND Prerogatives. — The Animal Ether, Etc. - 127 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Insensible Substances, Continued. — Intellect Further 
 
 Considered 144 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The Moral Element and State - - - - 159 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 The Religious Element and State - - - 180 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 Man in His Essential Self Continues Beyond the Limits 
 
 of Physical Existence. — The Objections Re viewe d 188 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER Xm. 
 
 Man in His Essential Self Continues Beyond the Limits 
 OF Physical Existence, Continued. — The Argument 
 FOR THE Affirmative ... - - 228 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Man's Proper Immortality Affirmed by the Organic Law 
 OF His Being 267 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Questions Respecting the Relation op the Two 
 Worlds. — The Laws and Modes of Mental Inter- 
 course, OR THE Transmission of Thought - 292 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Questions Concerning the Relation of the Two Worlds, 
 Continued. — Difficulties Necessarily Attending 
 THE Transmission of Thought. — They Become more 
 Formidable between Residents of the Two Worlds 8if 
 
 CHAPTER XVn. 
 
 Questions Respecting the Relations of the Two Worlds, 
 Continued. — Facts Establishing the Possibility 
 OF Inteecoltise between Minds in the Flesh and 
 those Beyond. — Conditions of Lucid Intercourse Ex- 
 tremely Rare. — Special Devices for the Attainment 
 OF Intercourse Impracticable and Dangerous to 
 Mind and Morals 839 
 
14 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 CHAPTER XVin. 
 
 Considerations op the Claims op Intercourse between the 
 Two Worlds. — The Probable and the Improbable. — 
 Its Appearance in the Bible, Etc. - - - 868 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Approximate Analysis of Real Life in the Land Immortal.- 
 Changes that are Possible ; that are Probable ; that 
 ARE Improbable ; that are Impossible. — Bodily State 
 AND Advantages. — Death and *'Old Age" Abolished. 
 — Palpable Surroundings. — Recognitions, Reunions I 
 
 AND Companionships. — Education and Worship - 892 I 
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 Concluding Replections and Parting Words - 428 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 THEKE have been periods when the world held more 
 of the angry spirit of controversy — when the war 
 of words was more common ; but there was, perhaps, 
 never a time when so much deep and honest thought 
 was given to the great questions of religion, and when 
 the people were so willing, and even anxious to know 
 the truth, as now. And it may be noted that, as the 
 love of truth is coming to possess the public mind, and 
 as mankind are studying these questions with a broader 
 intelligence and a clearer realization of their relative 
 place and importance, the lines of debate are narrowing 
 down to a few vital points. It is no longer possible in 
 any intelligent community to awaken much interest over 
 such questions as the cut of a gown, or the mode of 
 baptism, or the use of instrumental music in a church. 
 Such debates can have only a local or party interest. 
 Nor does the public inind care much about many of the 
 non-essential isms that divide the Protestant churches, 
 nor those even that are peculiar to the Catholic church. 
 And why these changes? It is because men of 
 broader minds are coming to see that in the practical 
 work of religion we are all aiming at the same thing ; 
 and that whilst some methods may be more efficient 
 
 15 
 
X6 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 than others, the important thing is that the work be 
 done. And in the domain of thought, or looking at re- 
 ligion as a system of doctrines, it is seen that the whole 
 issue turns upon a few vital points, and that if these be 
 clearly established, the foundations are secure ; but if 
 these be lost, or be not accepted by faith and reason, 
 then all is lost and there is nothing left about which 
 serious thinkers care to argue. 
 
 First among these vital questions — first in the order 
 of reason, and fundamental to the others, is that of 
 Theism — Is there a God? Is there such a thing as 
 Spirit? Does Spirit, Intelligence, Keason, lie back of 
 matter, informing and controlling its phenomena, or 
 is what we call intelligence or reason a result of phys- 
 ical laws ? Is mind as it appears in man but the last 
 product of physical organism, or is the mind a some- 
 thing in itself; an entity that gathers about itself a 
 living body? And second, and closely related to the 
 question of Theism, is that of man's continued life be- 
 yond what we call death. Does he live on beyond this 
 change in which the body goes back to dust ? And it 
 will be seen that the one question depends very largely 
 upon the other. If mind and reason begin in matter, 
 and result from it and this matter that has evolved 
 mind, itself die, and go back to its inorganic state, why 
 should not mind also be dissolved? But if mind be 
 first, if spirit have in itself a life of its own, and have 
 simply dwelt in matter as a house, then why may it not 
 survive ? And if it be accepted and proved that there 
 is this finer world of spirit, and that man's real being is 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 cast and conditioned in that world and that both man 
 and his world shall last forever, then arises the question 
 of final cause, or for what is such an existence intended, 
 and how should such a life be lived? And here come 
 in the great questions of righteousness, of duty, and re- 
 lated to these are questions of the ethical character of 
 God, and as to what help through inspiration and the 
 vicariousness of love is offered to man in such a life as 
 this, and what is to be the final destiny of the race. 
 
 And thus we can see the real questions of thought 
 centering at last about a few vital points. And it may 
 be noted again, that certain modifying influences have 
 come in to change both the spirit and the ground of the 
 debates. 
 
 The earlier and the middle ages, or the ages of faith,, 
 affirmed largely and without any hesitancy or misgiving 
 as to the certainty of what they taught. They could 
 define the Trinity, and map out the exact location and 
 limits of heaven and hell. But it came to be known 
 after while that these teachers knew very little of the 
 present nature of man and of the world in which he 
 lived, and as this ignorance of things near at hand be- 
 came more and more apparent, there arose a suspicion 
 and a distrust of what had been taught about God, and 
 the soul, and the future. And it was only natural that 
 under these circumstances men should begin the work of 
 actual investigation in the study of themselves and of 
 their present world ; and as a result of these studies 
 the nature and the mystery of m'rxn liimself, and to him- 
 self, have so widened and deepened, and the world and 
 
 2 
 
18 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 the universe have so enlarged that mankind now stand 
 amazed and almost overpowered before the revelations 
 of their own discoveries. This, together with the natural 
 reaction from a once too large and easy faith, has 
 brought about a state of thought where many do not 
 care to either affirm nor yet to deny, but say, " We do not 
 know." And men who are not agnostics are so influ- 
 enced by this larger vision of themselves and the uni- 
 verse that there is more of the true modesty of faith 
 and less of that offensive dogmatism that was once in- 
 tolerant even of a question, and looked upon honest 
 doubt as a sin ; and there seems also to be more of the 
 teachable spirit, and the desire to learn. 
 
 The attention of mankind having been called to the 
 material side of things, and their studies of nature 
 having led to such marvelous results, it was not strange 
 that the great questions of religion that had before been 
 largely metaphysical should come over to the material. 
 When chemistry had traced nature back to simple ele- 
 ments, and astronomy had resolved planets and suns 
 into a great order and bound all worlds fast in the law 
 of gravity, it was natural that men should ask. What 
 evidence of God have we found here ? What evidence 
 of a spiritual nature in man ? In other words, it was 
 natural that they should try to make a science of re- 
 ligion, as well as of nature. And it is just here that 
 the struggle is going on now ; and here it is likely to 
 continue for years to come. And it is just at this point 
 that Mr. Straub enters the field with his able and timely 
 work on "The Consolations of Science." 
 
INTKODUCTION. 19 
 
 Many have feared that the results of science would be> 
 not only to unsettle the public mind, but to leave the 
 world with less faith in the great central doctrines of 
 religion. As we have seen, as mankind began to look 
 at the larger facts and questions of the universe, the 
 lesser questions — the little side issues of party, began 
 to drop out of sight. But the great questions remain. 
 They will not drop out of sight, nor can thoughtful 
 minds lightly turn from them. Nor can they be taken, 
 out of the hands of science and passed back again to 
 the church where they once were. Keligion has become 
 a matter of the people ; the scientific men of our time 
 are the thinking men. Science having done so much to 
 clear up other mysteries and to lighten the burdens of 
 labor, naturally has the ear and the sympathy of the 
 people. Moreover, it is felt that all truth should be in 
 harmony — that God's two great revelations, the Bible 
 and nature, should teach the same things. 
 
 Men of large thought and faith and who have really 
 believed in the truths of revelation, have at no time 
 doubted that all of this sublime study of the natural — 
 this apparent going into bondage to the material, and for 
 the time seeing nothing else, would at the last bring the 
 mind to a clearer realization of the divine. They have 
 believed that this everywhere presence of law, that at 
 first seemed to push back the thought and the necessity 
 of a God — ^to account for the phenomena of the universe . 
 without God, would at last reveal the ^i^iinency of his wnaWW<^ 
 presence, not outside of nature and law, but inside; 
 and thus the fact of the divine be felt and confessed by 
 
20 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 all. And minds thus illumined have felt all the time 
 that as another result, man himself, instead of dwin- 
 dling almost into nothingness in comparison to the im- 
 mensity of things about him, would rise to the higher 
 conception of himself, not as a handful of vitalized 
 dust, but as a life, a spirit, dwelling now in the flesh, 
 but having his real being in the unseen world of truths 
 and principles and moral affections, and hence related 
 to the divine and the imperishable ; in his real self, or in 
 the essence of his being, immortal. 
 
 So deeply is our author imbued with this faith and 
 feeling that he maintains that all the deeper lines of 
 scientific thought, and of the discoveries made, point in 
 this direction, and are even now far on the way to make 
 the conclusion, if not irresistible, at least so reasonable 
 as not to be doubted ; and he predicts a near time when 
 the fact of a continued life beyond death shall be so 
 reahzed that all shall walk in the light and ecstasy of an 
 assured immortality, and of personal identity, and the 
 sweet companionship of dear ones forever. 
 
 The patiently arranged facts, and the careful inductions 
 by which these conclusions are reached, must be found 
 in Mr. Straub's own words ; but we may say that the 
 appearance of such a work is just now most opportune. 
 Many minds are doubting ; many are asking for more 
 than the words of the Bible; many are fearing that 
 science is working the destruction of faith. At such a 
 time this patient thinker and scholar comes along to tell 
 us of " The Consolations of Science ; " that real science 
 is not the enemy of real Christian faith, but the friend ; 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 and is opening wider the doors that lead into the " Holy 
 of Holies, " to Spirit and God ; that there is an " unseen 
 universe " lying over against and within that which is 
 visible and apparent to the senses. The outer, the vis- 
 ible, is in a state of constant whirl and change ; it may 
 be resohed back into its original elements, or dissipated 
 in inpalpable gases ; but the universe of life and princi- 
 ples in which man finds his consciousness, his freedom, 
 his real self-hood, is not and cannot be affected by any 
 of these outer changes. Man may sum up in himself 
 all there is of nature below him ; but this is not his full 
 measure ; he is more ; h«. is a spirit ; he has a moral 
 nature ; he has the " free-will " that Mr. Darwin admits 
 is " a mystery insoluble to the naturalist. " And thus 
 man, though a part of nature, and with a body con- 
 ditioned in natural laws, has a something beyond this, 
 and hence he may give back his body to the earth and 
 yet himself live on in his finer, his real world of spirit. 
 
 And thus, in the light of evolution, the argument for 
 immortality seems to gather strength ; for somehow in 
 the long way man has picked up, or come to possess, 
 and to be, a something more than matter. He has at- 
 tained to liberty, to self-hood, to a moral nature ; to a 
 life conditioned in truths and principles that are neces- 
 sarily imperishable ; and having reached this, why not 
 from this deeper rooting in the very essence of things, 
 continue to live on forever? 
 
 There is one phase or postulate, however, of the doc- 
 trine of evolution, that in the present form of the doc- 
 trine, seems to conflict with the Christian idea of 
 
22 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 immortality, and that is the doctrine of the " Tsiirvival 
 of the strongest." There is a school of theologians 
 who teach a " conditional immortality ; " or that man is 
 not immortal in the essence of his being, but may at- 
 tain immortality through virtue; and that failing of 
 this, he naturally falls back into non-existence; and 
 with this view the " survival of the strongest " seems to 
 be in perfect accord. But this is not Christianity. 
 Christianity is essentially beneficent. Its very genius 
 places it on the side of the weak, and carries it over 
 into the land of shadows and death to save the perishing. 
 It gathers, not the strong and the well who " need not a 
 physician, " but goes to the sick and the dying. It is a 
 gospel to the blind, and the deaf, and the imprisoned ; 
 and under its gentle touch even the " bruised reed shall 
 not be broken." Christianity teaches that man is a 
 child of God ; that in his very essence he is the " off- 
 spring " of God ; and that God's greatest care and love 
 go out for the lowest, the worst, the lost, the dead. 
 
 But, admitting the theory of a Theistic evolution as a 
 method or process in the great order of things, it may favor, 
 and even illustrate the fact that only goodness can survive, 
 that evil is a passing phase in the experience and train- 
 ing of souls whilst in the body, and that the spirit in 
 its onward march shall cast off these earthly conditions 
 and rise into the higher perfection of the life celestial. 
 This view holds to all that is tenderest and dearest in 
 the genius of Christianity in saviug the weakest and the 
 most imperfect ; but it saves and develops only the good, 
 and transcends and casts off the bad ; and hence looks 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 to the ultimate perfection and the final harmony of the 
 moral universe, and not to the old and offensive doc- 
 trine of the permanence and perpetuity of evil and suf- 
 fering forever. The moral judgment of mankind is not 
 offended at the presence of evil and suffering in the 
 process of development, or in the experience of men, 
 and in the evolution of the good, but any theory that 
 makes evil and suffering appear not only in the process, 
 but in the last result, makes a Theodicy impossible ; it 
 leaves the works of God not only unfinished, but un- 
 finishable. It leaves the moral order not only imper- 
 fect, but deformed ; and hence it leaves to faith but an 
 imperfect God — a God that is not the best ; and hence is 
 not God at all. But this view, notwithstanding the 
 powerful and persistent efforts that are made to force it 
 upon the unwilling faith of the age, is fast loosing its 
 hold as a vital belief. Indeed, it has ceased to have 
 much weight with the great mass of thinkers. 
 
 It seems then that science is to add her testimony to 
 the Bible in affirming the great truth of the immortality 
 of the race ; not only of the individual but of all ; and 
 hence the immortality of society ; the conscious pursuit 
 and joy of friendship, of truth, of love, forever. And 
 this, -with the thought that evil shall end and suffering 
 cease, opens up a future that should give mankind 
 strength and resignation and hope amidst the trials and 
 sorrows of " this present evil world. " 
 
 It is evident that if immortality be not a fact, the 
 fact can never be proved ; nor can it ever be known. 
 We cannot stand on this side of death and certainly 
 
24 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. ] 
 
 affirm that the soul does not live on ; and if each one | 
 
 at death should cease to be, no voice can ever reach us I 
 
 from the land of nothingness to tell us there is no future ; | 
 
 nor shall we know that we ever had a past ; that we J 
 
 ever were. The argument then, and the facts, so far as | 
 
 argument and facts can go, must be on one side ; and ] 
 
 that is the side of life. Life is. Why should it cease to be ? ! 
 
 Life is a fact — a persistent energy, making possible and i 
 
 holding all there is in thought, in beauty, in love, in joy. • 
 
 Death is a nonentity, a nothing; or only a passing ■ 
 
 phase, or an appearance. Death has no God, for " God ; 
 is not the God of the dead, but of the living " — of life, 
 and hence, in the world of the real there is no death. 
 
 H. W. Thomas. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE PURPOSE INDICATED. 
 
 ATHOEOUGH realization of the continuance of the 
 self of man with all the essential parts of his 
 being beyond death, could hardly fail to produce a ben- 
 eficial change in the habit of human thought, and con- 
 sequently in human conduct. Hence, to establish such a 
 realization in the minds of the people is one of the 
 most pressing needs of the age. Especially were such 
 a sentiment beneficial if ifc included the facts that the 
 social dependencies of mankind are not changed in the 
 change of worlds, and that the consequences of right 
 and wrong doing in this life are necessarily met with in 
 the life beyond. 
 
 The prevailing realization as to life is such as to 
 limit it wholly to this visible state. All that there is 
 for man to do and to be, is, practically, with reference 
 to temporal life only. Hence, in a general way, life is 
 little influenced by any of the strong and generous 
 impulses which the consciousness of a responsible 
 after- death existence would call forth. Notwithstanding 
 that there is commonly some impression that something 
 of self continues in the great hereafter — a common 
 expectance and hope of immortality — the impression 
 lacks realness ; and hence the impulses derived from it 
 
 25 
 
26 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 are in the main weak and ineffectual. And, on the 
 other hand, the overwhelming sense of this world — 
 the unqualified realization of these visible surroundings, 
 tending with the average mind to impress this as the 
 whole of human existence — chiefly influences the plan- 
 nings and policies of action among mankind, who are 
 so largely predisposed to overreaching selfishness. 
 
 Looking about upon the world we are living in, and 
 seeing its large adaptation to human happiness, with 
 abundance to supply every need, we may well be aston- 
 ished to see so much suffering, even in communities of 
 superior intelligence — so much solicitous hard straining,. 
 on the part of many good people, to make the ends meet 
 in the matter of an adequate living. And this suggests 
 the questions : Is human effort rightly directed ? Is 
 there not an oversight of some greatly important prin- 
 ciple of action to which this suffering and this all-ab- 
 sorbing solicitude may be due ? Instead of co-operative 
 effort, is there not a conflict of interest, leading to 
 mutual aggression? Is it not too common that the 
 success of one is dependent on the corresponding failure 
 of another ? Are the struggles for subsistence not more 
 struggles one with another, than with the resources of 
 nature ? 
 
 It will be conceded that the means of subsistence and 
 of enjoyment are too little sought in the resources of 
 nature or in the equitable development of a common 
 interest, and too much by appropriating from the right- 
 ful possessions of fellow beings. The exchange of 
 commodities from hand to hand, as in the commercial 
 
THE PURPOSE INDICATED. 27 
 
 world, is itself one means of producing from nature, 
 and is indispensable to the common good. It serves to 
 convey substance to all the parts and members of the 
 common body of the race, as by the nutritive circulation 
 of the animal body all its functions are ministered to. 
 And also by it there is conveyed some of the needed 
 fraternal feeling throughout the great brotherhood. But 
 too commonly by a short-sighted disregard for the rights 
 .of others, the beautiful equity of this system is im- 
 paired by diverting what belongs to one, to the title and 
 uses of another, breeding discord and distress to the 
 extent the wrong is indulged. 
 
 There is no injustice in according a larger return to 
 the one who achieves more, either by muscle or by brain ; 
 it is rightfully due to him. But this must not be from 
 the possessions of others, without an equivalent. En- 
 terprise and genius must not enlarge themselves in this 
 way, or beware of penalties to be paid somewhere ! 
 
 But so common is the disposition to this kind of 
 sharp bargaining — this "shrewd-business-man" kind of 
 operation — that little objection is raised to it. What 
 the rich autocrat thus is doing, the penniless underling 
 would do. The want of recognizing this injustice is 
 not the mistake of a few nor a class. It is rather a 
 characteristic error of the age, and to be corrected by 
 the introduction of new principles concerning life, — by 
 a reform in popular thought that will bring people from 
 even selfish motives to seek the good of others. 
 
 And what thought, brought into common favor, would 
 be better calculated to abolish this oppression in the 
 
28 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 social body than that which would take in the life 
 beyond the grave as a reality, and that generally one is 
 followed there by the companions of this life, and that 
 the deserts of this life will continue in some measure to 
 affect the soul's happiness in the next ? 
 
 Then, again, in times of general business depression, 
 accompanied by more than the usual business disasters, 
 there is complaining of want of integrity among men 
 in business relations. And among the diversity of 
 opinions as to the cause, there seems to be one theory 
 quite commonly accepted, which is, this same selfishness. 
 And this might solve the whole problem concerning 
 the evil, if we were content with the immediate cause 
 only, and cared not to understand the remoter cause, 
 which must be remedied before we cease to have trouble 
 of this kind. From a general relaxation of the too 
 rigid intolerance toward the liberties of the people an 
 extreme is attained. Instead of holding restraint upon 
 others too tightly, it has come to be the disposition to 
 let go too much — ^to care too little for the deportment of 
 others. From a too narrow view to conserve but the 
 interest of self, too little has been the disposition to care 
 for the proper growth of the moral sense in others. 
 
 A large part of the world has been affected by a 
 formative period of this kind ; partly as the result of 
 certain humane reforms that were persistently urged on 
 by a school of strong agitators. And so great is this 
 change, that whereas a quarter of a century ago, in this 
 country, slavery was commonly approved, now even 
 former slaveholders express themselves opposed to it. 
 
IHE PURPOSE INDICATED. 29 
 
 And in respect to religious tolerance the change is quite 
 as great. A quarter of a century ago, to be out of the 
 line of established orthodoxy was to peril one's soul; 
 now, where there is enough religion to admit of belief 
 that one has a soul, it is considered of trifling im- 
 portance whether he worships by orthodoxy or hetero- 
 doxy, or even worships at all. 
 
 The growth of liberality has been surprising; but, 
 outside of special friendships, the attainment made has 
 been more to an indifference than to a proper liberality. 
 The large tolerance of our times is to a great extent 
 merely an indifference toward others. And if there is 
 little ill will in it there is likewise little positive good 
 will. Practically, it is that there is little choice at all in 
 the fare of the unaffiliated neighbor. Much of this 
 liberality takes the bad shape of a mere willingness 
 that others may do quite as they please, so long as one 
 himself is undisturbed and thriving in his own inclina- 
 tions ; largely ignoring that invaluable spirit of mutual 
 help among mankind, pertaining to all classes of necessi- 
 ties and uses. Such is not to be confounded with true 
 liberality which consists in sacrificing for the good of 
 others — contributing aid to them in achieving success 
 in all the interests of life. 
 
 This formative period will, however, not pass without 
 leaving many good results — substantial gains over the 
 past. Yet the reaction which is to be foared, and 
 which is even now expressing itself in these laments of 
 bad faith in business and social relations, is likely to 
 chill this large tolerance' and carry a large part of pop- 
 
30 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ular sentiment back again far toward the extreme from 
 whence it was wrested. Only the timely acceptance of 
 a sentiment of liberality on a basis of universal co-op- 
 eration of the members of the race to elevate each 
 other's lives, and so the common life of society, can 
 avail to reap any very large gain from the crisis. 
 
 The love of possession is not wrong. The gratifica- 
 tion of self, the establishment of self interest, the ac- 
 quisition of estates and pleasant surroundings, the 
 subjugation and culture of wild nature, rendering it 
 more beautiful and useful, are in harmony with the 
 highest sense of right. And when one pursues these 
 ends in the spirit of a common interest with his fellows, 
 he brings himself into happy accord with the Deity, 
 and achieves for himself an essential good. Only the 
 tendency to overreach, and trespass on the rights of 
 another, to divert from his possessions to his own, to 
 refuse him co-operative sympathy, can convert the dis- 
 position to acquire into wrong. 
 
 Whatever other conditions may be found essential to 
 man's real happiness, the well-being of his fellow man, 
 the inspiring influence of his love, gratitude and appre- 
 ciation, as well as temporal aid from him, is positively 
 indispensable in all places and states of his being. 
 God's chief blessing to man is his fellow man. In him 
 he has the essential external help in the development 
 and utilization of his possessions. Sharing the world 
 with an innumerable family of brothers and sisters — 
 making it to be the common estate of the Great Father 
 for his earthly household, makes the few acres that fall 
 
TEMPOEAL AID. 31 
 
 to his lot infinitely more valuable to him than were the 
 title of continents and seas outstretched over the whole 
 face of nature, without the companionship and co-op- 
 eration of his fellows. The sense of value in it at all 
 would be expelled from it by the expulsion of those by 
 whose appreciation of it, mainly, he gathers the idea of 
 its worth. 
 
 TEMPORAL AID NOT ALL THAT IS NEEDED. 
 
 Yet the smallest part of the value of this com- 
 panionship consists in the manifold material aid that is 
 realized thereby. Man lives not by bread alone. He 
 has a nature with wonderful endowments of thought 
 and feeling, requiring appropriate supplies. And these 
 unsupplied would presently leave him an object of 
 misery and imbecility. These supplies are to a large 
 extent the result of reciprocity between the beings who 
 possess these attributes of life in common. There is 
 an influence from the thought and feeling of a fellow 
 being upon which one who has thought and feeling of 
 his own depends for the increase and enjoyment of 
 these parts of his nature. They yield satisfaction only 
 by exchanging with others. What does a fountain yield 
 into which nothing flows, — that has no receptacle into 
 which to flow? The waters themselves would stagnate 
 and die. And what were thoughts and affections to us 
 without intelligent and affectionate objects unto whom 
 to transfer them ? It is readily recalled that the mind 
 that is shut up, having to retain its ideas in itself for 
 want of a companion unto whom to impart them, 
 
32 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 presently becomes unproductive; and, in like manner,, 
 the loving sensibilities. And the same results follow 
 when not thus ministered to by others. 
 
 The intelligent and refined at once feel the loss keenly 
 when placed in social surroundings that neither receive 
 nor impart upon the grade of their own attainments; 
 and to be permitted to resume proper relations, a festiv- 
 ity of soul takes place which is as gratifying and 
 refreshing to its nature as is physical nourishment to 
 the hungry body. 
 
 From every point of view the law is verified that an 
 individual life, abstracted from all associations of its 
 kind, is greatly impoverished and incapable of rising, 
 or even of continued subsistence ; and that to himself 
 no less than to others man owes it to seek the compe- 
 tence and accomplishment of his fellow man. Man is 
 ever the chief factor of man's happiness, and to bless 
 his own existence rightly and fully, every transaction, 
 commercially and socially, he must make with consider- 
 ation of its effect on the welfare of others as well as 
 on his own. Even from the lowest type he may not 
 withhold, with impunity, the aid that would augment 
 happiness and usefulness. Every character of his as- 
 sociation has a weight, the influence of which, however 
 remotely, affects his own condition. 
 
 But as in the relation of human lives to each other 
 lies the chief interest to human existence, and, under 
 the Deity, the main power of human elevation, to the 
 abuses of that relation must also be charged the bulk of 
 human misery. And in fact there it is found. The 
 
TEMPOBAL AID. 33 
 
 disturbing cause of the major part of human distress 
 is not in the Creator, nor in the world man lives in, but 
 principally in the blindness or infirmity by which, in 
 the eagerness to supply his wants, he is misled into 
 trespassing on the domain of others. The light of a 
 true life and of a true immortality has not yet risen 
 upon his understanding, and in this most disastrous 
 ignorance, he has too commonly made the prey upon 
 others the field of his enterprise, and sought his ad- 
 vancement in the depression, instead of the elevation, 
 of his neighbor. 
 
 The evil has, in general terms, been pointed out, and 
 by a large number recognized, and the Christianization 
 of the world has been uniformly indicated as the only 
 remedy. And truly the Christian life is the point to be 
 attained. But in Christianizing, special motives are 
 commonly appealed to. The bare word of duty to 
 the sleeping or the dead is insufficient. The history of 
 mankind uniformly teaches that the reforms of life 
 come about by first introducing reforms in the mode of 
 thought; directing the aspirations to the objects 
 corresponding. with the change contemplated. 
 
 One prominent adjunct to reform has been civil legis- 
 lation put into the hands of a judiciary and executive. 
 There has not been much lack of good laws ; especially 
 when they have come from the representatives of the 
 people ; but, however intelligently devised, equal genius; 
 has usually foiled them, by the evil disposed. Good 
 people have little need of legal restraints, while the bad 
 usually manage to live in disregard of them. The 
 
34 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 needed reform is not given into the hands of the legis- 
 lator, nor the executive, but to him who is able to 
 institute the requisite new order of thought. He is the 
 first to elevate the lives of the people who will first ele- 
 vate their thoughts and direct their aspirations toward 
 ends that come within the provisions of that universal 
 equity born of the consideration of man's immortal uni- 
 ty with man and with God. 
 
 It may also be questioned whether the Christian 
 Church of to-day is bringing to bear all the motives in 
 its Christianizing work that were employed by the Apos- 
 tolic Church. Man is not fully appealed to when his 
 endless existence, with a never-ceasing responsibility for 
 the deeds of life, is not also appealed to. He is not 
 fully appealed to when the great outlying future of 
 his life beyond death is not made to duly appear, 
 wherein his brother is his companion still, bearing 
 witness of the right and the wrong received at his 
 hands. Being appealed to in the wholeness of his ap- 
 pointed duration and responsibilities, the restricted, 
 selfish policies of this life may soon become too mean 
 for his taste. And his energetic ambition may be set to 
 achieving the greater ends of life — the enriching of 
 mankind in intelligence, and the love of purity and 
 equity. His positive interest to have them so, would be 
 a power to overcome his disinclination to work in the 
 vineyard of souls, to which ordinary entreaties are 
 without avail. 
 
 By this view of life, in which the good of the whole 
 is seen to be a necessity to self, while it may not be out 
 
TEMPORAL AID. 35 
 
 of a brother's love for a brother, yet a brother's 
 behavior toward a brother will be attained. And 
 more : would it not be the disposition, under the reali- 
 zation of this state of social unity, presently to look 
 about for the means to realize also that bond of love 
 which is the chief basis of this unity of life and interest 
 of man in man? Assured of its existence and of the 
 superior happiness its realization would confer, would 
 not even the selfish seek to realize it ? Would not the 
 masses be largely influenced to that end — accepting 
 gladly the hand that would lead the way to this great 
 good ? What but this same Gospel principle of a fellow 
 love, brought to a realization, was it that so strongly 
 attached the poor to Jesus, to follow him and partake 
 of his words of soothing friendship with gladness ? 
 
 During late years much has been said of the uni- 
 versal brotherhood, and the largest part of our progress 
 is due to the efficiency with which many pulpits, ros- 
 trums, books and journals have forced this sentiment 
 upon public notice. But its intellectual recognition is far 
 more extensive than its realization. As a philosophy, 
 it is very commonly accepted, while as a rule of life it 
 extends to but few. And the question is : Why ? The 
 answer may be implied in another question : Is the 
 term " brotherhood " rightly understood ? Brothers by 
 a common human blood are sometimes aliens at heart, 
 and as readily sacrificed on the altar of greed as is an 
 ox on the shambles. 
 
 We have not the full meaning of the brotherhood of 
 man, when we limit life's duration to this visible world. 
 
36 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 and its sphere of mutual interest to commercial busi- 
 ness transactions, however large a good may be realized 
 under these conditions. The life and the brotherhood 
 must be seen to continue independently of the death of 
 the body, and the mutual obligation to include all 
 spiritual aids. 
 
 If man's existence is seen to terminate at death, it 
 is not bad reasoning — certainly not improbable reason- 
 ing, from the basis of the average attainment in human 
 nature, to conclude that he who will have had the ad- 
 vantage till then, will have had a real gain — will have 
 best served his own interest. Such might well plead : 
 What could it matter to one that he had wronged his 
 brother, if he should have no existence before the time 
 should come at which he would be sensible of the injury 
 that the wrong had been to himself ? All the past is 
 dropped into absolute oblivion at the end of conscious 
 existence; and to the one that has passed that point 
 there is no past and has not been. What once 
 was, to him who is not, was not. Only to such as have 
 adequate conscious existence is there a past — has any- 
 thing transpired. That these conclusions should follow, 
 then, from an unbelief in a proper hereafter, determin- 
 ing man's state to be so indistinguishable from that con- 
 sidered of the common brute, and thus justifying him 
 in a conduct so much like that of the brute, might not 
 appear strange or surprising to such as have prepared 
 themselves therefor by suitable consideration of what 
 such unbelief, if common and natural to mankind, 
 would result in, or would have resulted in. 
 
TEMPOBAL AID. 87 
 
 That the native humanities in man are under all con- 
 ditions of humanizing tendencies, is plain enough ; but 
 these, it will be remembered, always await proper mental 
 stimuli, and what large generosities are to be found among 
 unbelievers must owe their origin to mental stimuli of 
 requisite insight or belief at sometime having occurred 
 to ancestry. But, always unknown to himself, in its 
 fullness, man is measurably conscious of his immortal- 
 ity, and the great ideas and generous impulses incident 
 to its awakening power and tendency, to some extent, 
 have followed and determined the better sentiments of 
 his heart. And is it then not apparent that the spirit 
 of injury and overreaching has more of its own way 
 by whatever measure of unbelief in a common, mutually- 
 responsible life hereafter, exists? 
 
 The thoughts of such an immense future, character- 
 ized in that way, are necessarily deterring to the evil, as 
 well as elevating to the good, sentiments of life. 
 
 It is not too much to say, then, that the change in the 
 habit of thought most needed at the present time, is 
 that to which the dissemination of right views of im- 
 mortality would lead, — ^that as true as the coming to- 
 morrow in which are the consequences of to-day, comes 
 the day beyond the nightfall of death to find us still 
 there and in the society and life claims of our neighbors, 
 however different from this in material and aspect that 
 state may be. 
 
 To see himself identified with a life extending inde- 
 pendently of the flesh into the state or states beyond, 
 there to recognize his full self-hood and to some extent, 
 
38 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 at least, the sensitive companionship of those who were 
 on earth associated with him in society, is what no one 
 can do and continue his interest in an exclusive selfish- 
 ness or in any callings that work disadvantageously to 
 present society. Setting aside the just apprehension 
 of a deeper consciousness of the equitable awards of 
 his Maker, and the remembrance that others may have 
 of the good and the bad of his previous life, the ever- 
 present thought of that great outspreading life beyond 
 the grave, with its inflowings into the soul from those 
 new and near spiritual surroundings of enchanting 
 sceneries, holy lives, and divine instructors, also would 
 tend to speedily expel from him all low desires, — sepa- 
 rating the pure, generous humanity from the base 
 elements of rudimental existence. 
 
 And to the achievement of this much needed mental 
 reform, it is important that science make the great con- 
 tribution that with an insuppressible tendency at every 
 point it seems ready to make. Never was there more 
 conceded from science to immortality than now. Every 
 law in physical nature, relating thereto, that has been 
 unraveled, is found to be a clue leading beyond the 
 threshold of the spiritual. And the time may well be 
 considered as quite near at hand when the lines of es- 
 tablished science, by the conceded rules of knowledge, 
 will be so fully and plainly carried out as that the im- 
 mortal land will be as confidently regarded as is a neigh- 
 boring continent by the one not having personally resided 
 thereon. The event of this realization is justly to be 
 regarded as the main great crisis in the mundane great 
 
TEMPORAL AID. 39 
 
 history of the race ; not because it shall be the period 
 of the greatest mental maturity but because of its being 
 the accession of the most directly elevating motives to 
 life, — the occasion when the social body of life will be 
 put in the most direct pursuit of its highest ends — to 
 make of this world and all worlds the very best for all. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 Immortality in History. Evidence that the Belief in 
 THE Existence of Self in a Eational State Beyond 
 Death, is an Elevating Influence on the Eace. 
 
 THE influence of the doctrine of the proper future 
 life of man, on the progress of mankind, has but few, 
 though important, illustrations in history. Prior to the 
 enunciation of Christianity, there were very few clear 
 ideas on the subject popularly entertained. While a 
 few of the most gifted, spiritually and intellectually, ap- 
 prehended somewhat clearly the true nature of the state, 
 the masses had not attained to the maturity in which 
 alone the appreciation of it becomes possible. In view 
 of the law of growth that applies to the aggregate race 
 of man the same as it does to the individual, it is not 
 reasonable to expect to find in the early history thereof, 
 commonly pervading it, the high order of thought 
 properly belonging to a later period, and which is better 
 suited to subjects of such a character. 
 
 In the natural history of man, more than in the 
 records he has written of himself, is to be seen the 
 grade of thought and the class of ideas which were 
 evolved from his primitive life. Although this theory 
 will hardly provide for the extraordinary individuals 
 that at times are seen to have risen in life and thought 
 
 40 
 
IMMORTALITY IN HISTOEY. 41 
 
 far above the surrounding level, by whose capacities the 
 Superintending Life above erected standards of princi- 
 ples for the lives below to ascend upon as fast as men- 
 tal and moral vitality were attainable. 
 
 Only in instances of exceptionally early maturity, does 
 the sentiment of immortality manifest itself as strong- 
 ly in youth as in middle life; and there not as 
 strongly as in well-preserved old age, where, with a good 
 physical condition, the higher order of faculties begin 
 to rise into supremacy, and the more far-reaching con- 
 ceptions gather in the principles of faith and philos- 
 ophy that extend beyond the restrictions of this life into 
 the life beyond. So, likewise, in the earlier and more 
 physical states of the race, we would expect to find gen- 
 erally a smaller development of spiritual sense, and to 
 see it both weaker in its impression upon life and less 
 perfectly apprehending principles of such a nature. 
 
 In the great antiquity, back of historic times, it is 
 difficult to find what were the particular thoughts of the 
 people on the great problem of the future state. That our 
 remote ancestry of those times thought upon it, is plain 
 enough every way, but what form their speculations took 
 in detail, we have not the means to determine. The in- 
 tellectual world is seen to have been quite stationary 
 during many centuries from the time history was first 
 written, and it is but reasonable to suppose that during 
 as many centuries next preceding, the doctrines of 
 future life were quite the same as at the time they began 
 to be put on record ; and we would expect to find them 
 
42 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 all the time growing less defined while following the 
 course of time backward. 
 
 ERAS OF SPECIAL ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 However, evidences are being noted of there being 
 periodicity in the course of the development of the 
 race, — that there are intellectual and inspirational eras, 
 — ^that with a sort of tidal action, at times intelligence, 
 or some form of it, fluctuates above its natural level ; 
 so that we have come to speak of an age of historians, 
 an age of poets, an age of science, and so on. And that 
 inspirational periods are of like occurrence would natu- 
 rally follow. And from this, taken with the fact that a 
 basic sameness in the original religions is from nearly 
 all standpoints now being seen, belief is obtaining with 
 some of the best philologists (who are best qualified to 
 determine), that all present forms of religion originated 
 in one inspirational era, in a time perhaps deeply 
 buried in the unknown past. However, investigation 
 has not gone far enough to do away with a difference of 
 opinion as to this. 
 
 But while there is no uniformity of conclusion in detail 
 as to how the future life was regarded by the adherents 
 of the great religions in the limits of the historic period, 
 setting aside extremists, whose special claims may not 
 be considered in the limits of this brief chapter, the 
 teachings may be classified into immortality proper, 
 apotheosis and metempsychosis. But neither, purely 
 so. They were more or less confounded with each 
 other; showing unsettled thought on the subject. 
 
IMMORTALITY IN HISTORY. 43 
 
 In the great divisions of Egypt and India, metemp- 
 sychosis — the transmigration of the soul — was the uni- 
 versally accepted belief. In Chaldea, the sentiment of 
 future life was weak, but there is no clear proof of 
 transmigration having found favor with them, beyond a 
 few slight innovations. The Chaldean mind fluctuated 
 between a proper immortality and a deification of at 
 least mortals of note. 
 
 The worship of the heavenly bodies as the abode of 
 spirits, which also is seen to have been originally prac- 
 ticed in Egypt and India, prevailed to the last with the 
 Chaldeans. These spirits were graded as the heavenly 
 bodies themselves were — from omnipotence, as typified 
 by the sun, down to capacities little above the grade of 
 mortals, as typified by diminutive stars. Out of this 
 doctrine grew the doctrine of apotheosis (the translation 
 of mortals into demigods and gods), probably near the 
 time that the doctrine of transmigration took its origin. 
 Both doctrines became enlarged into disgusting details, 
 in later years. About the time that it began to be 
 believed that Bel, or Baal, the spirit of the sun, was an 
 earthly prince translated into the heavens to become 
 the spirit of the monarch of the day, gods, heroes and 
 men began to be identified with the forms of the lower 
 animals. 
 
 Believing that a human soul, distinguished among his 
 kind, might rise to the eminence of the gods in the 
 heavens, would be a natural starting point for the 
 inquiry. What, then, becomes of the souls of the rest of 
 mankind ? And it is among this class of believers that 
 
44 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 we find the first approach toward proper conceptions of 
 immortality. 
 
 Among the Chaldeans, in the Hebrew branch, we find 
 the first account of spiritual beings, — angels, — seen in 
 human form. As to where was their place and what 
 was their form, when disappearing from human view, 
 they seem to have had nothing more definite than the 
 viewless air in its upper regions — toward or among the 
 stars, in ethereal abodes, perhaps well enough suited to 
 continue the general human shape. That these angels 
 were beheved to be the souls of ordinary mortals, is not 
 probable, though their relation with mortals, and per- 
 haps also their mortal origin, was fully believed. But 
 that the souls of common mankind remained in more 
 humble locations, near the earth or in some mystical 
 region under the earth, would be in harmony with the 
 opinion of the average Hebrew, from the time of Abra- 
 ham to the carrying away in the Chaldean captivity. 
 
 The writer of Genesis represents the patriarchs as 
 being at death gathered to their people (xxv: 8; 
 XXXV : 29; xlix: 33), though the burial place of 
 Abraham was far from that of his fathers. The writer 
 of the First Book of Kings, with a change in the form 
 of language, represents essentially the same thought in 
 reference to the death of David and Solomon, many 
 years later. They slept with their fathers (ii: 10; 
 xi : 43), though David's burial was not with his fathers. 
 This return to their people, which was a hope with them 
 for centuries at least, extending back to the days of 
 Abraham, who probably in faith differed little from his 
 
IMMORTALITY IN HISTOEY. 45 
 
 fathers, was more than the commingling of bodily dust. 
 It was a union of the self of one with the selves of 
 the others, whatever the bodily appointments might have 
 been expected to be. Jacob expected to go down to the 
 grave (sheol — state of the departed) unto his son (Gen. 
 xxxvii : 35), whom he believed to have been devoured by 
 wild beasts. David, in like faith, dried his tears in the 
 expectation of some day going to his dearly beloved 
 child (II Sam. xii: 23). 
 
 While little specific reference to a future life is made 
 in the Old Testament Scriptures, the omission may be 
 quite easily accounted for on the supposition that their 
 view of it, such as it was, was so well known as not 
 to need rehearsing. In our thoughtful day, who, in writ- 
 ing a history of the State or of the Church, would think 
 to insert, extensively,, our speculations of future life ? 
 It is only in the history of a dogma that systematic 
 statements thereof are likely to occur. 
 
 While, as already observed, in ancient Chaldea, the 
 mother of Jewry, the sentiment of the future life was 
 weak, yet in Jewry it had gained strength, — whether 
 much more of clearness or not. Where we find abundant 
 references to the angel of the Lord, and the angels of 
 the Lord, in places where spiritual beings alone could be 
 referred to, and where necromancy, all about, was suffi- 
 ciently credited as a reality to warrant Saul, by means 
 of it, to evoke the spirit of Samuel (I Samuel xxviii: 
 10), the sentiment of a future existence was evidently 
 strong enough to materially modify the habits of the 
 people. 
 
46 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 The most perfect form of the doctrine, then, at the 
 time extant, we find to have been in the minds of this 
 people. Though the doctrine of transmigration W8,s 
 strong in Egypt, and they were in close contact with 
 that people for a score of centuries, and until a short 
 time before our era, they imbibed little of it. 
 
 They may not have believed in the endless continu- 
 ance of the human soul, but so long as it existed it was 
 its own human self, and was never transformed into a 
 brute, nor reinvolved in flesh of any kind, after its de- 
 parture from the present embodiment. And, upon the 
 whole, their belief in respect to future life was a stimu- 
 lant to the higher part of their nature, a fact comport- 
 ing well with their general superiority as a people. 
 
 RELATIVE VALUE OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF FUTURE LIFE. 
 
 To expect a continuance of life in a state beyond 
 death, though with many distortions of ignorance and 
 perverted passion characterizing the thought, is a strong 
 incentive to the mind, and probably in all cases some 
 advantage to life. To live at all, is a thought of grave 
 influence ; but to what extent beyond the moderation of 
 passion affected by it, the doctrine of transmigration 
 may stimulate to any good, is not plain. What one's 
 sensibilities would be when transferred into an ox, croc- 
 odile, serpent or insect, could not be very definitely imag- 
 ined, but there is little doubt that the prospect would be 
 depressing to all that self appreciation so necessary to 
 progress. 
 
 One might have the assurance of being personally 
 
IMMORTALITY IN HISTOEY. 47 
 
 Gxempt from such a fate, but, while believing in it, would 
 necessarily be affected by contemplating it in his sur- 
 roundings. The melancholy state of the unfortunates 
 moving about him in lower animal forms, would im- 
 press him correspondingly. These horrid tombs of 
 gross flesh, incarcerating loved ones, would imprison 
 his own life in overpowering gloom under which 
 no aspirations toward proper attainments could form. 
 For fear of like consequences he would hardly dare to 
 descend into what he would regard as vice, but with the 
 incubus of that spectacle of misery ever bearing down 
 on him, he could not well rise to the use of the finer 
 sentiments that characterize the greater and happier 
 people of the world. History corroborates this view of 
 the case. Where those religious principles have held sway, 
 the cloud of mental night has hung. And ages of time 
 have wrought no perceptible improvement. They have 
 long years ago attained to all that their religion can do 
 for man. The soul of a people cannot rise above the 
 provisions of its religion. 
 
 Greece is supposed to have been the oldest of Euro- 
 pean nations of civilized attainments, and for wealth of 
 intellect, from the time of Homer to Aristotle, was un- 
 surpassed by any nation in the world. The religion of 
 that great people was a wonderful mixture from Asia, 
 Egypt, and primitive European tribes. In the main 
 they were very tolerant ; and by the intellectual center 
 they constituted, readily drew to themselves the more 
 rational types of the several great religions. But their 
 fine poetic nature expanded their religious thought into 
 
48 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 an indefinable tissue of myth. They believed in trans- 
 migration, with some modification by the doctrine of 
 apotheosis, which was prevalent with the native barba- 
 rian Greeks, and added to by colonization from Asia, 
 perhaps Phoenicia. The element of transmigration, 
 together with their mystic ceremonies, was brought from 
 Egypt. These two main doctrines of immortality, 
 apotheosis and transmigration, brought together in the 
 great mind of the Greek, resulted in something far 
 different from, and superior to, either, as previously 
 known. 
 
 The early superiority of the Greeks, however, may 
 have been as much due to a favorable mixture of races 
 as to anything that their yet incomplete religion could 
 have done for them. But proper sentiments of religion 
 can lead to high attainments beyond all other motives. 
 It is, then, the most exalted, and therefore the most ex- 
 alting, sentiment of life, and the subsequent temporary 
 greatness of that people must have largely depended on 
 their superior attainments in this direction. 
 
 The Greeks were lovers of mystery, but at the same 
 time eagerly sought to verify everything by the senses. 
 Hence, to them, the disembodied soul was still material. 
 <* It is exhaled with the dying breath, or issues through 
 the warrior's wounds. The sword passes through its 
 uninjured form as through the air. It is to the body 
 what a dream is to waking action. Eetaining the shape, 
 \ineaments and motion the man had in life, it is im- 
 mediately recognized upon appearing" (The Doctrine of 
 Future Life. — Alger, p. 175). As bodily substance was 
 
IMMORTALITY IN HISTORY. 49 
 
 of physical atoms, the soul was of divine atoms. Being 
 itself material, though divine, it often was materially 
 affected by other bodily conditions, and even after death, 
 by perhaps no choice of its own, might become entangled 
 with the living body of another soul and thus be re-ad- 
 mitted to this world by supervention of the native occu- 
 pant and usurping the senses of that body. This might 
 be of a man or of a lower animal. 
 
 This was essentially the demonology of the Greeks. 
 Their transmigration was, however, more of the nature 
 of a succession of human bodily existences than what is 
 properly known as transmigration — an indiscriminate 
 transfer into the bodies of all orders of animal life — and 
 was quite commonly looked upon as a favor. Pythag- 
 oras, bom five hundred and eighty years B. C, the 
 first of the great sages of Greece, was quite of the Egyp- 
 tian order of transmigrationists. He not only pretended 
 to recollect his adventures in previous lives, even to the 
 name and the shield he bore at the siege of Troy, but 
 to recognize, in the piteous howls of a dog whom his 
 master was beating, the cries of a dear friend who had 
 died years before. He was, however, more of an agi- 
 tator of a philosophy than a systematic philosopher,, 
 and has transmitted his views only by the reports that 
 contemporaries have made of him. The statements re- 
 ferred to sufficiently indicate the visionary character of 
 the man. 
 
 Plato, who was less influential with his contempora- 
 ries than Pythagoras with his, yet incomparably the 
 better philosopher, frequently made use of language 
 4 
 
50 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 which, if used prosaically, would necessarily commit 
 him to the same doctrine in essentials. Yet, while being 
 a well understood believer in immortality, his position 
 in respect to transmigration of the soul is not taken with 
 sufficient clearness to obviate doubt. Though it is 
 claimed that " the conception of the metempsychosis is 
 so closely interwoven both with his physical system and 
 with his ethical as to justify the conviction that Plato 
 looked upon it as legitimate and valid, and not as merely 
 a figurative exposition of the soul's life after death" 
 (The Doctrine of a Future Life, p. 190). 
 
 In brief, then, we note the Greek doctrine of a future 
 life to have had this advantage over that of the Asiatic 
 and African transmigrationists : It regarded the sub- 
 stance of the soul as being divine and deific, not in the 
 fact that it originated from, and was re-absorbed into, the 
 Supreme Spirit, but it was this in its separate individu- 
 ality. Added to the repeated bodily existences through 
 Which the soul might be called to traverse, its normal 
 destiny, by its deific nature, was a seat among the gods. 
 
 The principles which were lacking in the Greek doc- 
 trine of a future life, in making it a permanently elevat- 
 ing power to mankind, are to be seen in the following facts : 
 By the nature of their theology, the life of the soul 
 might not be endless ; the gods themselves were sub- 
 ject to mutilations and transformations, both of body 
 and of estate, and in none of these respects had they 
 necessarily endless life; the individual soul, in rising 
 toward the region or state of the gods, was subject to 
 such eccentric transformations as to destroy, in thought- 
 
IMMORTALITY IN HISTORY. 51 
 
 ful people, all certainty as to the desirableness of future 
 existence; the bond of fraternal sympathy between 
 souls was not universal, nor necessarily enduring. 
 These negatives one needs but to read to realize the de- 
 pressing influence they necessarily would exert on human 
 ambition after the poetry in them had ceased its effect. 
 Such conceptions of the future — ultimate failure of life's 
 loftiest aim of incessantly advancing toward higher 
 attainments, and the possible separation of the bond of 
 interest that holds in affectionate consideration every 
 man as being a brother — are unfitting to intelligent 
 life, for the rugged labor necessary to even sustain a 
 high order of attainments ; while to further climbing 
 they remove the main incentive. 
 
 It is not here assumed that there were no principles 
 at fault besides their doctrine of future life, which con- 
 tributed to the failure of Greek civilization. They were 
 numerous, but mainly in this feature of their religion. 
 It is difficult to see how, with proper conceptions of 
 Deity, human fraternity and immortality, a people could 
 retrograde in civilization ! Eight conceptions of these 
 must be abandoned before the soul can return to lower 
 levels. In them are provided all virtues requisite for 
 its ceaseless progress. That there is to be seen higher 
 civilization consequent upon the introduction of higher 
 ideas of immortality, is illustrated in this instance of 
 Greece, whose theology differed little from that of 
 Egypt, and was little superior to that of India, but whose 
 theory of future life was above them both, in the full 
 measure that it excelled them in intelligence and in 
 
52 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 moral refinement. That the higher view of future life 
 occasioned the superior civilization, rather than con- 
 trariwise, may be inferred from the fact that, as with all 
 peoples of their time, their instruction was chiefly de- 
 rived from their religious institutions, philosophy and 
 religion being essentially one ; that the civil forms of 
 government of the two blended nations were quite sim- 
 ilar and would have required little alteration by the 
 union. Hence, necessarily, the change that first oc- 
 curred must have been in their religion, wherein the 
 only change of importance was in their doctrine of 
 future life ; resulting in essentially that form of it which 
 prevailed with them through the entire period of their his- 
 tory from Socrates down. The doctrine of future life 
 changed but little in that time, while the civilization 
 ceased not to grow in conformity thereto. And it 
 were not incredible that their civilization might have 
 been prolonged and still further developed, if their re- 
 ligious standard had been of the requisite higher order, 
 and embraced the more perfect views of the future 
 state. Unlike the Christian standard, there was little 
 of it which was above the easy conformity of the av- 
 erage Greek citizen of their best age ; while the outlook 
 of the future had little to stimulate enterprise. At the 
 summit there was an end of climbing, and the next 
 movement was necessarily a descent. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN VIEW. 
 
 Of the influence of the Christian doctrine of future 
 life, we may judge in part by the peoples who have re- 
 
IMMORTALITY IN HISTORY. 53 
 
 ceived it in its purity, and so retained it for at least 
 some generations. And here it is unsafe, as many have 
 done, to include under Christianity all who have set 
 claim to its name. The large order of people, headed 
 by the pope in Kome, is the result of a compromise ac- 
 tion on the part of the early Christian emperors, with 
 heathenism, by which was left out much that was Chris- 
 tian and incorporated largely of what was only pagan, 
 thus bringing the two factions together under the spe- 
 cious name, The Christian Church. The doctrine of 
 future life, in these changes, lost nearly all resemblance 
 to its original self. The soul was left immortal, and, 
 if at death it had been sound in the prescribed faith of 
 the Church, was admitted into a Paradise of unending 
 happiness; but if not thus sound, was at the world's 
 general judgment day hurled into an abyss of fire, of 
 varied and unending torments. And although this doc- 
 trine was specially emphasized, if not introduced, from 
 considerations of the good of mankind, in rendering the 
 Church more efficient in its saving work, under its most 
 strenuous and terrible advocacy and its enforcement 
 by spiritual anathemas and inquisitorial tortures, the 
 Christian world sank down to its lowest ebb of degrada- 
 tion. The decline was not wholly owing to this error 
 concerning future life, though it visibly became the 
 chief means of that most inhuman terrorism under 
 which, personal worth becoming generally powerless, 
 the popular mind and heart shrank away. 
 
 Those centuries of so-called Christian rule, during 
 which the world was shrouded in a night equally dark 
 
54 o'ONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 as that of any pagan age in the historic period of 
 Europe or Asia, must not be confounded with the 
 Christianity of the New Testament. A failure to make 
 this discrimination is to be untrue to science and 
 unjust to the most beneficent cause instituted for man- 
 kind. Protestantism directed its reform chiefly at Kom- 
 ish usurpations, interfering little with doctrinal prin- 
 ciples. While it did not correct the Komish error 
 i3oncerning future life, it yet made the correction 
 possible by laying liberally the foundation for the free- 
 dom of inquiry. And out of that achieved liberty of 
 the investigation of the original authorities, souls for 
 whom it was natural soon came to believe more in har- 
 mony with the manifest belief of the Apostolic Church. 
 The doctrine of future life, as developed by Christ and 
 his apostles, was that the personal self continued be- 
 yond death. Eather, it taught that death was only the 
 dissolution of the i)hysical body — the physical organism 
 comprising the senses which identified the proper self 
 with this rudimental existence. Its dissolution was 
 therefore of trifling importance as compared with the 
 ordinary conception of death. And beyond the incur- 
 rence of a measure of suffering likely to attend upon it, 
 and perhaps the regret at going out from the visible 
 presence of things and persons dearly loved in this state, 
 there was nothing unloved or unwelcomed in the great 
 but natural change. Death was scarcely unlike when, 
 among friends and tender dependent ones, one is on 
 the eve of embarking on a final voyage to a chosen 
 home among loved ones far away. He has no doubt 
 
IMMORTALITY IN HISTORY. 55 
 
 about the successful arrival abroad ; and there is an- 
 ticipated nothing unpleasant in the passage itself — per- 
 haps a much-needed rest — but his heart aches with 
 yearning for the ones to be left. He foresees their 
 mourning for him, and their sighing for the aids he 
 could render them. Besides the strong inducements of 
 this character to tarry, there was with this people gen- 
 erally a fevered anxiety to depart and live farther from 
 sin and in a more congenial world, and to meet with 
 the many loved ones watching and waiting their arrival 
 on the immortal land. St. Paul but speaks for the 
 whole Apostolic Church when he says : " I am in a 
 strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to 
 be with Christ, which is far better : Nevertheless to 
 abide in the flesh is more needful for you" (Phil, i: 23, 
 24). 
 
 The Apostolic Christian was not disposed to selfishly 
 withdraw from the world that needed him, though stay- 
 ing were manifold suffering. But all things being duly 
 ready for the departure, and realizing that " all whom 
 he stayed for were taken forever, " he would accept his 
 release with gratitude — with the gladness which the 
 homesick child experiences when receiving the parental 
 message to " pack up at once and come. " 
 
 Hardly a clue is given of what may have been their 
 conception relative to the location and mode of existence 
 in the immortal state. Judgment of it is formed rather 
 by the occurrences which the apostles put on record 
 than by the oral teachings which they left us. The 
 Savior's references to the character of the future life 
 
56 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 are few, but wonderfully comprehensive and clear. His 
 reply to the argument of the Sadducees, referring to 
 the woman who successively had the seven brothers in 
 marriage, must be taken as his conception of that state, 
 as to its general character. It would appear therefrom 
 that the condition of life in that world would no longer 
 require betrothals after the custom prescribed by Moses, 
 of which was this unjust law requiring the brother to 
 marry the widow of a deceased brother, possibly against 
 the choice of both. However, it is not a necessary in- 
 ference of the passage that the conjugal tie, which refers 
 to a mental and moral as well as a physical distinction 
 of the race, shall not continue in the immortal exist- 
 ence. The reply is, however, an affirmation of the soul's 
 immortality. "Neither can they die any more" (Luke, 
 XX : 27, 28). And as to the rank of life, he declares 
 them equal unto the angels and descendants from God, 
 being children of the resurrection. Being worthy of 
 endless life after the death of the body, was proof that 
 they were of divine substance, which children of the 
 Deity alone possessed. 
 
 Their equality with the angels was inferable from 
 the appearance of angels being so much in the likeness 
 of men as to be commonly mistaken for them. The 
 mortal origin of the angels may well be concluded from 
 this same comprehensive reply. The angels and the 
 souls of men are equals, in the sense that all human 
 beings are equals. The souls of men being immortals — 
 worthy of being raised — are God's children, as the 
 angels among all Jews were believed to be, and hence, 
 
IMMORTALITY IN HISTORY. 57 
 
 being essentially the same, a sameness of previous state 
 is not only possible but probable. 
 
 Another instance of the Master's allusions to this 
 subject is in his reference to his Father's house of many 
 mansions (John, xiv: 2, 3). By this he argues the 
 grouping of society by special friendships, not unlike in 
 this life where the social spirit centers in races, nations, 
 neighborhoods and families. And does this mean all ? 
 Does it mean races, nations, and families only ? Does 
 it not mean regions, perhaps worlds, in some way con- 
 sistent with the elements constituting a spiritual uni- 
 verse ? Does it not mean, though somewhat remotely, 
 scenery of forms and movements, animate and inani- 
 mate, lights, shadows and colors, the eternal counter- 
 part of the mind, and from which alone the immortal 
 senses must feed the mind ? To reason these out of 
 existence would be to reason sanity and entity out of 
 the soul itself. 
 
 The Great Teacher truly has left us only few words, but 
 many gracious and most satisfying thoughts, in respect 
 to the future life. How much the immediate disciples 
 received of the import of these brief words we know 
 not ; but they saw enough to create a strong preference 
 for " the world to come, " and to induce them to live in 
 accordance with the highest morality, to practice 
 charity toward even their enemies, and to make the 
 salvation of their fellow beings their central purpose of 
 life. 
 
 And it here only remains to be said, that though too 
 soon after the Master's departure this good element of 
 
58 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 faith was overpowered by the darkness of the times 
 and the light of the world went under eclipse, during 
 its prevalence there was attained by its believers the 
 highest life known to mankind. And always where the 
 Bible became accessible to the people, the highest 
 order of society prevailed. 
 
 How much of its good influence has been due to its 
 superior doctrine of future life may be approximately 
 estimated by the common stress placed by believers on 
 the hope of the " home in heaven, " attainable by prac- 
 ticing the faith and the love of Jesus. But much of 
 the true Christian life went out when its doctrine of im- 
 mortality suffered its pagan mutilations, excluding 
 after death a large part of the race from attaining ref- 
 ormation and fellowship with the higher life ; thus cut- 
 ting off their own hope and the hope of their friends in 
 them. For the event of such a separation and loss, it 
 was necessary to somewhat harden the heart against 
 the unregenerate class, and against great fondness for 
 any, even for children, as upon the contingency of their 
 final failure to gain heaven, a great love for them might 
 be a great and permanent pain. 
 
 Mainly to this sad innovation of the New Testament 
 doctrine of future life must be attributed the outrages 
 on mankind instigated by the Church, as aggressions 
 and usurpations are not known to have found favor 
 with the adherents to the simple teaching of Christ on 
 the subject, in any age. 
 
 It will be recognized that that doctrine of future life 
 in which man views, with the most perfect realization, 
 
IMMORTALITY IN HISTOEY. 59 
 
 his conscious self-hood beyond death in a world as real 
 as the one he now lives in, ever attended by his fellow 
 beings whose well-being is his own interest, is the best 
 suited to the progress of the race, and is fairly to be re- 
 garded as indispensable. And so, to the evidence of 
 science, history adds its confirmations of the world's 
 great need of a more substantial hope of future life em- 
 bodying the conditions referred to. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 An Important Need of the Church is the Ability to 
 Place More Emphasis on the Future Life. 
 
 It is, by many devout people, believed that the 
 church is not making the progress in arresting evil that 
 it should, considering its social and civil advantages. 
 
 And allowing on account of impatient temperaments, a 
 fair deduction from this claim, and rejoicing too, that 
 there is in the world a power doing as much for the 
 welfare of mankind as the church with all its defects is 
 plainly doing, the question yet recurs : Is that great 
 and invaluable body actually at its best, with the ad- 
 vantage of position that it holds ? 
 
 Admitting that in the development of man's moral 
 nature the process is necessarily slow, that there is so 
 large a' part of the great body of the race so largely an- 
 imal as that but slight impressions can be made by the 
 best of appliances, and remembering how soon the 
 powerful light of the personal Master was swallowed up 
 by the same great darkness, still the lack of success is 
 not wholly explained. It does not explain why so large 
 an intelligence, extending throughout the enlightened 
 world, continues to have so little effect upon the selfish 
 motives ; that so many evils which are fully seen in 
 
 60 
 
NEED OF THE CHURCH. 61 
 
 their enormity are still finding tolerance by so many 
 even of church relations. 
 
 Eeally, one cannot help feeling that there is some- 
 thing of great importance being overlooked. There is 
 too wide a difference between man's knowledge of the 
 moral law and his fulfillment of its requirements, argu- 
 ing that a much wanted motive of some kind is absent. 
 There is needed the force of principle or conception of 
 truth, relating to the interest of life, to bring man's 
 moral and spiritual nature up nearer abreast with his 
 knowledge of right. It is probable that we have in the 
 New Testament the whole system of moral uprightness 
 necessary to man's happiness, taught and simplified 
 down to the easy comprehension of any ordinary mind ; 
 and yet all the appeals to the most fearful torments 
 after death by one class, and the most powerful induce- 
 ments of heaven by another class, of believers, together 
 with the ever impressive picture of the loving, self-deny- 
 ing Jesus held steadily forth by all classes of Christians, 
 have not succeeded in holding the church fellowship, 
 in any branch of it — conservative or liberal — up to the 
 standard of rectitude and happiness assigned to it in 
 primitive times by even its enemies ! Besides, the 
 primitive church, as a class, exhibited a willingness, 
 nay a happiness, in incurring bodily and social discom- 
 fiture, even to severe suffering, for the sake of the 
 welfare of Christianity, known to extremely few believers 
 of to-day. They were at the same time as attentive to 
 temporal duty, practicing the usual arts and trades of 
 life, when permitted to do so, as Christians at the pres- 
 
62 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ent time. They were " diligent in business, fervent in 
 spirit, serving the Lord." They had no less love for 
 this temporal world, only they loved the world to come 
 much more ; and first of all sought to shape their lives 
 in harmony with the requirements of that world. By 
 this understanding, the world to come, as compared 
 with this world, was the proper state and home for the 
 soul. This present was every way temporary, and 
 subordinate to the future. It could then with little sac- 
 rifice be given up. They had a satisfactory knowledge of 
 the Master and the dear departed in that other world, and 
 knew him to be requiring of themselves as he did when 
 on earth. His promise they believed — ^that he would be 
 with them always, even to the end of the world. He 
 was as ever their loving Master — their Great High 
 Priest. He was the ordained of God, and enthroned in 
 life above them — the all-sufficient friend and Savior of 
 themselves and theirs. 
 
 As may be easily seen, to have a thorough realiza- 
 tion of these things, rendered their self-denial as to 
 things in this life very natural and easy. To dispense 
 with that which was in the way of the better — the more 
 desirable — though it might cost suffering, was a work of 
 cheerfulness. In this philosophical view of the matter, it 
 is plainly possible to bring about all the great changes 
 seen in the average people of the apostolic church, by 
 establishing the same realization of a future life, con- 
 nected with the consideration of the same great require- 
 ments of that state. 
 
 To the church more than to any other institution, 
 
NEED OF THE CHURCH. 63 
 
 mankind are looking for moral and spiritual direction. 
 What is there admitted is commonly considered admis- 
 sible. And what it sees fit to condemn, the popular 
 sense is likely to pronounce against. Its responsibility 
 is therefore immense. Hence, it should be solicitous 
 for every means that will enable it to rightly utilize this 
 public confidence. 
 
 By the same co-ordination of accredited facts it has 
 been conceded to be the chief repository of the intel- 
 ligence concerning another world. Its precepts, its 
 claims, have come from another world. It claims to 
 exist by appointment from the world of spirits, where 
 the Divine Presence is more apparent, and where, too, 
 the decisions of the Divine WiU are more perfectly real- 
 ized and obeyed. If, then, the people believe too little, 
 and incorrectly, in a future life, it is largely because 
 the church has been unable or unwilling to intelligently 
 teach concerning it. The failure is probably due to 
 both these causes. In an age of science people will in 
 some measure require scientific proof. This is forth- 
 coming at the expense of patient investigation in that 
 direction, and in a clearness, also, sufficient to excite 
 belief in the future life on the part of most people who 
 are not organically indisposed to a faith of the kind. 
 
 Apparently this investigation has not been made on 
 account of an anticipation that in its conclusions cer- 
 tain dogmas, which were deemed essential, might neces- 
 sarily have to be largely modified or wholly abandoned. 
 And, as a shift, it was urged that revelation alone was 
 sufficient; and the fact that the general instinct of 
 
64 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 mankind anticipated a future life, was esteemed all the 
 corroboration from science that was necessary. 
 
 And, moreover, the plea supplementing this, by the 
 rank and file of preachers and teachers, was that im- 
 mortality was an inscrutable subject, and, further than 
 a matter of dogma, was unessential to gospel work 
 among mankind. From this has arisen a skepticism of 
 a most dangerous magnitude in the very body of the 
 church. From want of scientific confirmation of the 
 traditional faith in the Bible account of future life, con- 
 sistency with the prevailing habit of thought, that any- 
 thing to be intelligently received must be reducible to 
 science, rendered it necessary to discontinue this pow- 
 ei*ful element of apostolic success. 
 
 Thus is the church bereft of one of its chief powers 
 over the souls of men, and become, to a large extent, a 
 mere matter of social policy, and liable to stray to any 
 point where the popular voice may be clamoring for a 
 good time. ' And so this great elevating power is come 
 to be more trailing after than leading in the affairs of 
 mankind. 
 
 Of the extension of life to beyond the grave there is 
 no very strong certainty, with many of even the ruling 
 number of its membership. And the practice of the 
 higher principles of Jesus, on account of the apparent 
 shortness of life in this world, considering, too, the 
 greatness of the undertaking, is usually thought as 
 rather too much for mortals to succeed in. So, then, 
 to live on about as nearly right as is customary in 
 church relations, is the extent of Christian fidelity 
 
JESUS AND IMMORTALITY. 65 
 
 sought after or stipulated. And it may well be asked, 
 how long can this state of things endure — at this dead 
 level — with the church degenerating into a mere social 
 society, ready to accept any moral state that the social 
 taste may incline to ? 
 
 JESUS AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 Jesus recognized the importance of grounding his dis- 
 ciples firmly in the faith of immortality. In this simple 
 fact he was not unlike the founders of the other great 
 religions of the world. With the evident purpose of 
 impressing upon them the re-assuring fact of the contin- 
 uance of life in its essential wholeness and self-hood 
 beyond the death of the body, even while yet personally 
 with them, he took the chief ones of his disciples with 
 him into the mountain, and in transfiguration before 
 them, talked face to face with Moses and Elias ; thus to 
 their open vision — to their senses, — verifying the immor- 
 tality of man. 
 
 To them there was but one means of verification be- 
 yond their intuition and the reliance they could place 
 on the testimony of others. This was the witness of 
 the senses. Science had not accumulated its present 
 immense store of facts and principles bearing on the- 
 subject. To be the companion of Jesus was to be the- 
 witness of the " supernatural " — prophecy, spiritual 
 power over physical substances, and angel visitations — 
 all of which could not fail to contribute much to cause 
 the realization of the personal continuance in the spirit- 
 
66 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ual state, which so strongly characterized them while in 
 his presence and during all the subsequent time they 
 lived. Only for a few days following his arrest and ex- 
 ecution was there any abatement in the zeal of their 
 discipleship. Seeing him in the power of his enemies 
 and dying at their hands, led them for the moment to 
 despair and lapse into their former belief. 
 
 They even then shared the common hope of some 
 sort of rising of the dead, held by the average Jew, 
 which was little, if any, inferior to that of most Chris- 
 tian people of to-day. 
 
 But this ordinary hope was every way insufficient to 
 support them as his chosen vessels to carry his truth 
 before the world. And the tendency already, on the 
 morning of the third day, was toward abandonment of 
 the work. Their obstinate unbelief of the women, and 
 of the men going to Emmaus, who testified to having 
 seen him, and that he was " risen indeed, " was such as 
 to merit his sharp rebuke. 
 
 But the crisis was forever passed, when they looked 
 upon him who had been dead, and were challenged to 
 handle him : " Behold my hands and my feet, that it 
 is I, MYSELF " (Luke xxiv: 39). To their minds the un- 
 natural, spiritual ghost was now at once and forever 
 banished from the immortal land, and the personal self 
 of man, with all his essential appointments, took its 
 place. When they thought the presence to be his spirit, 
 they were in terror, but when they saw it to be himself, 
 they were reunited with him in their old familiar love. 
 The spirit world again became the real world, with all 
 
JESUS AND IMMOKTALITY. 67 
 
 the great attractions of life being from that higher and 
 greatly superior state. 
 
 They were seen to be lacking the great incentive to 
 steadfast perseverance, while in possession of but the 
 ordinary belief of mankind in respect to life in the 
 future. With all which the ordinary faith could do for 
 them, as a motive, aided by the knowledge of the value 
 of the truths committed to their charge, and by the 
 powerful love of Christ yet fresh in its influence on 
 their hearts, they were powerless to face the world and 
 to brook the required self-denials for the sake of their 
 Master's kingdom, till the full character and certainty of 
 that world was added. 
 
 But mark the difference from the hour of his visita- 
 tion to them from the dead — his personal return from 
 beyond physical death. The former sense of death 
 existed no more. Death might be accompanied with 
 fearful pain inflicted by the ingenious torture of ene- 
 mies, and dreaded on that account, but as to itself, 
 properly, it had lost its sting, and the grave its victory. 
 From that hour they were practically occupants of a 
 new existence, as truly so as though they had stepped 
 out of their flesh. That they thought no longer the 
 thoughts on the greater subjects of life the rest of the 
 world indulged in, is sufficiently evident in what they 
 said and how they deported themselves. Neither were 
 they irregular in their ideas, nor fanatical in their 
 deportment, but were the most sane of all people. 
 
 If it be said that this great change was owing to the 
 miracle of the Holy Ghost at the Day of Pentecost, 
 
68 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 bringing about an extraordinary transformation, which 
 is not to be under-estimated, it is not to be overlooked 
 that prior to that remarkable visitation, they were lifted 
 entirely above their previous level — that they were 
 brought together in that assembly by a lofty considera- 
 tion which the facts of the few weeks previous had 
 evoked. Peter, previously slender in courage, was no 
 longer a coward in the face of death, nor reticent before 
 the world; being now conscious that his flesh was 
 all of which his enemies could deprive him, which, 
 save a short period of suffering, would affect him no 
 more than the rending of his mantle would do. The 
 world's wisdom respecting life and its needs was won- 
 derfully changed from the view which was taken from 
 his standpoint of a present endless life. The superior life 
 universally accorded to the apostles, in the enlightened 
 world, was but such as might be expected to follow from 
 the view of the future life they possessed. Kemembering 
 that with them it was not faith, not doctrine written in 
 a book and signed, not sentiment, but realization, un- 
 encumbered by doubt ! 
 
 While the Master truly said, " Blessed are they who 
 have not seen and yet have believed, " the real occasion 
 of his visit to them at the time of the announcement 
 of this great truth, was to demonstrate the life beyond 
 the tomb by personally returning from that state in a 
 naturalness quite indistinguishable from his former self. 
 That there was at this time something superior to ordi- 
 nary nature about him, is to be judged from the alarm 
 they felt at his presence, which, however, was soon dis- 
 
APOSTOLIC AND MODERN CHRISTIANS. 69 
 
 pelled by his kindly words and challenge to examine 
 his person and be satisfied of his identity. 
 
 The power of believing beyond the evidence of the 
 senses, he taught them to consider a greater qualifica- 
 tion than that of working miracles ; nevertheless, of the 
 ocular demonstration of future life there was a necessity 
 to them, as they were, and in view of the hardships they 
 were to encounter in the work of his ministry. While 
 the abstract power of believing was important, there 
 was a need of supporting that belief by external evi- 
 dence. Intuition and faith must lead the way in 
 discoveries, but if discoveries do not follow after to con- 
 firm, the belief becomes a superstition, and a hindrance 
 to progress. 
 
 THE APOSTOLIC AND MODERN CHRISTIAN COMPARED. 
 
 As compared with the Apostolic Christian, the aver- 
 age Christian of to-day is less reliant in a hope beyond 
 the grave, in about the same measure in which he 
 practices less self-denial for the cause of the Master. 
 There is among believers much said in respect to death 
 and futurity, but chiefly with reference to a necessity of 
 a religious preparation for the final contingencies in- 
 volved in- them. And judging altogether from the much 
 that is thus said on the subject, in public and private, the 
 conclusion is justifiable that what is said is often very 
 feebly believed by the parties themselves urging it. It is 
 doubtful whether the Christian of to-day believes much 
 more strongly and rationally in immortality than did 
 
70 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 the Jew in the time of our Lord, and whether he is not 
 quite as deficient in those higher requirements of the 
 Christian law, with its multiform aggressive duties, as 
 was the Jew then deficient in the weightier matters of 
 Moses' law, judgment and mercy. With his restricted 
 ideas of human existence, as to duration, the Jew 
 was too selfish, and too limited in equity and in com- 
 passion, to bear with his neighbor. Will the Christian, 
 with similarly contracted ideas of the duration of the 
 essential man, probably work out more successfully the 
 great principles of his Master in sacrificing for the ele- 
 vation of his neighbor and his enemy? is the question 
 to be solved by the special claimants of Jesus, as well 
 as by the Christian public generally. 
 
 Is not the steady but very slow improvement of the 
 masses in Christian countries, more owing to the passive 
 granting of liberties and institutions of learning, secu- 
 lar and sacred, by the public, together with a pulpit of 
 more or less efficiency in .shaping popular sentiment, 
 than to a Christlike going forth to the spiritually needy, 
 with personal sympathy and encouragement to a better 
 life, — teaching the unconcerned and the vicious that his 
 life is intended for higher uses than to operate on the 
 grade on which he is now living? It is beyond dispute 
 that this work of soul-culture, as a prime object of life, 
 is dependent on a principle which is able to command 
 great self-denial ; which would, it seems, be largely the 
 result of properly believing the primitive Christian doc- 
 trine of immortality, — as much so to the church of the 
 present as it was to that of the olden time. 
 
APOSTOLIC AND MODERN CHRISTIANS. 71 
 
 It is necessary that the church accept with extreme 
 care any innovations upon its customary belief. Eash- 
 ness here might be a disaster to mankind, of no small 
 magnitude, But it should be also careful, in looking 
 after its means to success, to know with certainty that 
 it is in possession of every principle that can militate 
 for human good ; and should adopt without hesitation 
 the precedents of faith and practice established by the 
 Master himself and by his immediate discipleship, 
 none of which is more prominent than the appeal to an 
 immortality of a higher and more perfect life — a life of 
 tangible realities, of the eternal companionship of man, 
 and infallible responsibility to God — ^in the world beyond 
 death. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 Importance of Eealizing Powers, Especially in Appre- 
 hending THE Evidences of Science in Kelation to 
 the Doctrine of Immortality. 
 
 REALIZATION is chiefly on the plane of the external 
 senses. The external world is to us the great reality, 
 because we see it, feel it, and otherwise observe of it by 
 our senses. To this we are so accustomed as to render 
 it, in some instances, quite difficult to get life properly 
 impressed by the facts that lie beyond the sphere of the 
 senses. And for this reason the realities which lie 
 interior of visible nature are little available to the un- 
 derstanding of a large part of mankind. 
 
 It is only by special intellectual discipline of quite 
 high order, that one may attain the ability to recognize 
 hot only the underlying forces of external nature, but 
 also ^ those external phenomena which, from their vast- 
 ness, may not be brought within the scope of the senses. 
 There is a sort of mental clairvoyance by which truly 
 scientific minds are able to realize worlds which such as 
 rely only on the very limited use their senses can render 
 them, hardly know of. It is not difficult to see the 
 mind, by this means, entering world after world, as its 
 intellectual vision enlarges to take in system after sys- 
 tem of forces and laws that belong to special planes or 
 
 72 
 
THE EEALIZING POWEBS. 73 
 
 strata of being, or as it is newly made acquainted with 
 combinations of elements and forces in our OAvn common 
 world. 
 
 It is not to be overlooked that the enlargement of 
 mental capacity and the advancement in knowledge are 
 mainly from the ability to realize what is only mentally 
 seen, w^hether introduced by the senses or caught up 
 from intellectual reflection. No mental operation is 
 satisfactory — becomes assimilated with the mind — till 
 all the essential parts and their proper conclusions are 
 realized distinctly. They must be seen by the intellect- 
 ual vision in all their parts, as really as the external 
 eye beholds an external object. A fact, in pure math- 
 ematics, requires to be realized, and to stand out before 
 the intellect to mental view, with its elements prop- 
 erly gathered and joined as an objective structure, 
 before it is satisfactory and become a matter of knowl- 
 edge. Mind is creative and, in some part of it, orig- 
 inative. In mechanism the object may externally 
 exist in draft or model, but before the hands go into 
 operation, it is erected in thought and become a mental 
 creation. Or the imaginative mind, following out cer- 
 tain rhythmic impulses, reaches into the unknown and 
 originates the object and produces it to the mental 
 senses — a real thing. Mentally holding in hand known 
 elements of fact, the mind feels its way into the unknown, 
 still further to obtain needed facts or principles, as the 
 builder of wood or stone does for his structure, till a 
 sense of completeness satisfies it, and the parts are put 
 together, and it is a complete mental device, to be 
 
74 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 looked upon, left standing and returned to, as if it were 
 a statue or a house. 
 
 Thus is the power of realization of essential impor- 
 tance in the abstract domain; but we shall find the 
 need of it more apparent when we come to the consider- 
 ation of the palpable substances of nature, where enti- 
 ties lie concealed from the senses ; or what is practically 
 the same, where their vastness is such that the phys- 
 ical senses can take no observation of their wholeness. 
 Let us instance the planetary character of our earth. 
 It is round — a ball of immense size. Standing upon it 
 in the most favorable position, but little of the curva- 
 ture of its surface is discernible by the unaided eye. 
 It appears a level, extending indefinitely into the hori- 
 zon in every direction, giving the false realization that 
 the earth is of a flat surface. Even he, to whom its 
 roundness is by the intellect unquestionably apparent, 
 may be strongly affected by this false realization ; and 
 instead of enjoying the proper realization, of an exist- 
 ence elevated on the outer surface of a ball, his pre- 
 vailing realization may be that he is but on a level 
 plain or depressed below. Or to extend the principle 
 to another phase of our terrestrial state, the realization 
 is that the sun and other heavenly bodies move about 
 the earth — rising from beneath in the east and going 
 down beneath in the west, the earth not only being the 
 center of, but itself mainly, the universe. This is the 
 impression derived through our external senses, unaided 
 by any intellectual device, and shows how imperfect and 
 limited is their service in defining truth to us. The true 
 
THE BEALIZING POWEES. 75 
 
 realization, and which is a mental conception only, is 
 that the vast earth is a satellite, rotating about the 
 sun, which is of such transcendent vastness as, by com- 
 parison, to reduce the earth to insignificance. Or, prop- 
 erly, leaving the earth in all its true immensity, and 
 thus allowing the comparison, the realization of the 
 sun's vastness would be a globular mass whose outer 
 limits would lie beyond where probably ordinary con- 
 ception has placed infinity. 
 
 And taking yet another instance connected with our 
 planetary state. The false realization is that our abode 
 is stationary and the celestial scenery thus moves about 
 us. The true realization is of the earth being one in 
 the great panorama of worlds, moving in silent velocity 
 through space at a rate of over sixty thousand miles in 
 an hour. Of such a rate of traveling, and of such an 
 extensive track, it is not to be expected that ordinary 
 mortals can at their best have proper appreciation or 
 distinct realization. But the approximate realization of 
 these vastnesses is yet a necessity to the astronomer in 
 obtaining a ready command of his most magnificent 
 science. 
 
 By these illustrations it is seen that life is mentally 
 transferable into states indefinitely beyond the scope of 
 physical perception, where the deeper and more funda- 
 mental facts of nature, as well as the more inspiring, 
 become unquestionable realities — sceneries capable of 
 exciting in it aspirations after still higher and more 
 gratifying attainments. Every system of principles in 
 nature is a thing of beauty, and to realize these occtdt 
 
76 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 works, is to be impressed by the beautiful, and to be 
 elevated. 
 
 But this pertains to physical principles no more than 
 to moral and spiritual, all of which are discernible as 
 realities analogous to substances. We see an expression 
 of a certain nature in man adapting him to goodness. 
 And, in the conception of its principles, it becomes an 
 intellectual reality — a structure that we name the moral 
 principle — recognized by the intellectual and moral 
 senses. Internal, mental pictures exert an influence 
 upon life hardly less potent than do the representations 
 or the realities of external nature, if developed to a 
 clearness attainable under a high state of excitement. 
 One greatly important work in the moral reform of an 
 individual is to remove from the imagination pictures of 
 immorality, and to supply their places with those of 
 virtue. The libertine in solitude recalls the scenes of 
 revelry, — the fevered imagination paints new ones, and, 
 in gazing upon them, resistance becomes overpowered, 
 and he is the victim to a calling which his better nature 
 despises. A change of scenery is necessary. The moral 
 nature must gain strength by the contemplation of 
 scenes of an opposite character, constantly presented to 
 the mind, suggested by personal illustrations or devised 
 and drawn from contemplation. 
 
 One is capable, then, by certain forms of mental dis- 
 cipline, to attain the ability to abstract himself from 
 the power of the external senses, and to cause the hid- 
 den properties and forces of nature, reached only by 
 the intellect, to take definite form before him, on which 
 
THE KEALIZING POWERS. 77 
 
 he may rely with all the assurance that the external 
 senses can warrant. The success of the mental effort 
 largely depends on this ability. Unless one can thus 
 shape any well proved principle or fact in nature and 
 give it substantial /orw before his mind's eye, he will be 
 able to make but little advancement in the higher ele- 
 ments of knowledge in any department. The doors to 
 the substantial realities in nature to which his outer 
 senses are not adapted, and which comprise the major 
 part ^f existence proper, are practically closed to him. 
 And his life must remain imprisoned in about the same 
 narrow limits of sensuous observation that circumscribe 
 the lower animals, and beyond which, the aspirations 
 of thought he might have could hardly rise. 
 
 The mind can grow only as intuitions lead the way, 
 and as it places reliance on intellectual perceptions. It 
 must attain to the power of intellectual clairvoyance. 
 The culture of that gift must not be neglected by him 
 who would be the subject of those happifying im- 
 pressions which the Creator has placed for his inheri- 
 tance. He who would acquaint himself with the inner 
 glories of nature, and know about the primary realities — 
 the invisible substances and powers on which visible, ex- 
 ternal nature depends for every property it possesses — 
 must learn to behold by the light of the intellect. 
 
 He, more especially, who would do justice to inquiry 
 after the truth of immortality, must bring this accom- 
 plishment with him to his work; otherwise, he must 
 expect but little satisfaction from his toil. Spiritual 
 things, it was said, are spiritually discerned. And so. 
 
78 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 too, of the principles in nature that evidence a future 
 life; they necessarily are more refined and therefore 
 more subtile in their character, and require not only the 
 use of good judgment but strong realizing sense, to prop- 
 erly apply them. It is also necessary to remember that 
 a strong mineralistic bias is given to science by a large 
 part of its cultivators; and to correct this, so that 
 science shall have its full import on a subject of this 
 character, will require that special effort be made at 
 realization. The spiritual side of nature has been little 
 thought upon, or been shunned, from fear of ridicule or 
 of being judged, by the masters, heretical in science. 
 
 Customary observation of claims to such an existence 
 we may, then, justly suspect of being unduly mineralis- 
 tic ; so much so as to mislead even the most judicious 
 of scientists. While they have rightly claimed that the 
 student has no .choice in the matter of belief, but must 
 abide by evident truth, the external senses have been 
 the basis of realization over the indisputable proofs of 
 inductive reasoning. To avoid believing strongly in 
 what has the scientific probabilities somewhat against it 
 is natural to a conscientious scholar, but to pass lightly 
 upon what, if true in science, would achieve a universal 
 blessing, and that out of fear of ill favor from others, 
 is certainly as unbecoming as anything could well be to a 
 patron or cultivator of knowledge among mankind. 
 While he has no choice in believing, he should be ex- 
 pected in his researches to have reference to discoveries 
 that would be of the larger benefit to the race. 
 
 The disposition of science to conserve the interest of 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF KEALIZING POWERS. 79 
 
 mankind by directing investigation chiefly toward me- 
 chanical arts, is a prominent reason why the realiza- 
 tion has been so exclusively miner alistic. By discoveries 
 of this kind the comforts and conveniences of life have 
 been much enlarged, and thereby discoverers have 
 become celebrated, though too rarely requited in tem- 
 poral returns. Also false teachings in religion must come 
 in for a share of this responsibility. It has been com- 
 monly given out from a religious standpoint, that the 
 spiritual state is in no sense material, and that necessa- 
 rily nature could not be supposed to have indications of 
 such an existence. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF REALIZING POWERS. 
 
 Customary thought will to some extent induce realiza- 
 tion. Even known fiction becomes a reality, and from 
 it persons, locations and events will have place in the 
 reader's memory, as lasting as those of actual existence ; 
 and thus may be highly serviceable, as well as at times 
 detrimental, to life. Hence to increase this power with 
 respect to a desired object, it is necessary to habitually 
 indulge the consideration of its reality. If objection be 
 taken to this, that it may lead to the establishment of 
 errors by allowing what is not true to be confirmed as 
 fact, it may be answered, that scientific culture among 
 the people is quite a failure from lack of this qualifica- 
 tion. People are too little accustomed to enter into a 
 realization of demonstrated trath. 
 
80 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 DELUSION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 Besides, as seen, the senses themselves are often de- 
 ceived, rendering appearances that are not founded in 
 fact. The dictates of reason are to be ever regarded as 
 the most reliable of evidence. Eeference has already 
 been made to instances in relation to the rotundity of the 
 earth, its motions and state among the heavenly bodies, 
 where the delusion of the senses is known and yet per- 
 sisted in, in defiance of knowledge. The reliability of 
 the external senses is unfavorably affected in at least 
 two ways : in the derangement of the organs themselves 
 and in the disordered condition of the faculties in sym- 
 pathy with them. To the insane mind the aberrations 
 are often so complete as to produce imaginary objects 
 not having the least foundation in fact, being only the 
 external reflections of the chimeras created by the dis- 
 ordered fancy within. And yet of such strength may a 
 false realization of this kind become, as to render its 
 victim an object of great danger. Indispensable as 
 those senses are, their services must be received with 
 care, as by reason of liabilities of this character they 
 are not always able to report nature correctly. The 
 true observation, by whatever instrumentalities, is always 
 being made by the sane mind within. Taking for exam- 
 ple the eye, it can only observe according to the capac- 
 ity and state of the intelligence which is back of it, and 
 beholding through it. The eye of the brute, though 
 more perfect in mechanism than that of man, yet sees 
 less of material nature because of a less sentient mind 
 
DELUSION OF THE SENSES. 81 
 
 behind it. A very poor eye in the head of a large, bright 
 intellect sees immensely, while an eagle eye before a 
 deficient mind sees little more than the objects of per- 
 sonal wants. 
 
 It is by the ability to place reliance on existences 
 intellectually seen — and in many cases discernible by 
 that means only — that the greater and more inspiring 
 truths become accessible to man. Here is the thresh- 
 old leading to the grandeurs above, waiting the ability 
 to advance and take possession. One's destiny is at the 
 dark base of the sublime ascent, unless he succeed to 
 this requisite means of following nature through its or- 
 derly but somewhat intricate routes from its beginnings 
 to its summits in infinity. In ascending a mountain, it 
 is often the case that clouds impinge upon its rugged 
 sides, and we have nothing but the tortuous and dimly 
 defined path on which to rely for direction. Faithful 
 climbing upon this path results in a position above the 
 bewildering clouds — a position from which may be 
 clearly seen what previously baffled the understanding. 
 So, faithfully relying on well proven principles of nature, 
 hidden from the senses though they may be, will in 
 due time lead to the observation of other principles, and 
 thus onward, till by mental clairvoyance our opaque 
 world will have become a great transparency, displaying 
 in combination, substances and states of such beauty 
 and order and purity — so many substantial, bright 
 worlds lying within the same space, so many grand uni- 
 verses — as that there shall attach no more mystery to 
 either spirit or spirit world. 
 
 6 
 
CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 Tendency of Science to Confirm the Theory of a 
 State of Immortality. 
 
 THE prevailing consideration has been that for in- 
 struction in spiritual things one must go to 
 revelation alone. Science could testify to nothing of 
 that character. And we find very much of that thought 
 still, even among well-informed people. Probably from 
 the fact that revelation itself implies a spiritual exist- 
 ence, and affirms the future life in such plain, compre- 
 hensive language, speaking of it with the assurance 
 that one speaks of the objects of external nature, people 
 have come to regard it as the source of what knowledge 
 is to be had of the existence beyond death. And truly, 
 revelation has not only led the way in the understanding 
 of this great truth, but it has been to the greater and 
 more intelligent part of the race, the only reliance in 
 respect to intelligence of that world. And that rev- 
 elation has been of immense importance in this respect, 
 as well as in respect to the moral needs of the race, 
 can scarcely be disputed in the light of the facts of or- 
 dinary history. The simple could understand enough of 
 it to have a wholesome and comforting trust in a life 
 beyond the tomb ; while those of higher intelligence saw 
 
 82 
 
THE TENDENCY OF SCIENCE. 83 
 
 in it at least a corroboration of their intuitive belief of 
 that state, and nothing to materially conflict with the 
 deductions of science in respect to it ; and, because of it, 
 belief in the hereafter has been much stronger. 
 
 But there has been, nevertheless, with the scientific- 
 ally inclined believers in revelation, very commonly, a 
 feeling of disappointment that natural principles did not 
 afford stronger proof of future life. Also those inclined 
 to array themselves as mineralists against it, from choice 
 of opposition or from real unbelief, felt very content to 
 consider that nature's verdict was at least neutral on 
 the question, and that the belief might be safely classi- 
 fied as a superstition to which, mainly, people of weak 
 minds might be expected to yield credence. It has, 
 therefore, not been easy with ordinary mankind, to 
 cherish a full realization of a future state, or to place 
 very strong reliance on the claims of it. A cause is not 
 clearly established while the evidence of an important 
 witness is not yet given. Nature, while ever unwilling 
 to deny the immortality, till recently, could, by hardly 
 any of her oracles, fully affirm. Besides, from the self- 
 imposed, excessive mineralistic habits of reasoning re- 
 ferred to, scientists were disposed to pass unthinkingly 
 over the facts therein in which the solid proofs are 
 found. 
 
 BIGOTRY NOT LIMITED TO A CLASS. 
 
 Bigotry is by no means confined to religionists. Nor 
 is fanaticism exclusively the product of religiously 
 heated brains. Few great minds can, with their pranc- 
 
84 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ing energies, be sufficiently passive to be unbiased 
 observers of nature. They are to be expected to come 
 from their schools, to a large extent shaped by their 
 schooling, with their faculties of thought directed mainly 
 by pre-conceptions, and with their learning consisting, 
 in a large measure, in but the transfer of the ideas of 
 their teachers. It is incidental to the law of education, 
 and, while it may be deplored, may seldom be overcome. 
 Indeed, who shall rightly understand himself in respect 
 to this, since it is not a matter of conscience or personal 
 honesty, but of involuntary conception ? The mental eye 
 is living, sentient, and cannot help seeing the object to 
 which it is directed. And it could not be expected to 
 not recognize what is seen. And the hard training tends 
 to all the more tightly adjust it to its view. So what 
 is out of that line of vision will have little chance of 
 recognition by the eye which, by education, is best qual- 
 ified to judge of it. The ignorant one is unfitted for the 
 work of discovery. If he were to drift about upon the 
 domain of nature more impartially than the one of cult- 
 ure, and come in contact with a valuable principle, the 
 unsentient mind would not recognize it. So here we 
 are placed. 
 
 To change over to new views, or to introduce a new 
 element of philosophy, is commonly the work of an ec- 
 centric, who, by certain efficient qualities of mind, well 
 cultivated, finding the clue of some new departure, 
 readily takes it up, and pursues it far enough to make 
 the discovery of important new principles, which, after 
 a time of usually hard struggle, are admitted to favor 
 
THE TENDENCY OF SCIENCE. 85 
 
 with the schools, and thus become the sentiment of the 
 people. But eccentrics are not commonly safe people. 
 Where they are once serviceable, ten times they may be 
 hindrances to progress, and destructive to needful and 
 costly institutions. 
 
 Evidently, to be at its best, and in the fulfillment of 
 its mission, science needs the ability to vary from its 
 customary points of view, to take into consideration 
 other phases and sides of nature, than those commonly 
 recognized. Too commonly investigation is pushed 
 along only seeking the establishment of previously de- 
 termined ends. And no minutiae bearing upon this 
 could well escape detection, while basic, large and quite 
 conspicuous principles, unaccustomed to thought, might 
 pass unnoticed. All great discoveries have been stum- 
 bled over and trampled upon by previous cultivators of 
 science, because they were not suspected. 
 
 Happily among the developments of thought in sci- 
 entific circles of the present time, there is a marked tend- 
 ency toward the spiritual side of nature. Perhaps not 
 from design, but more from the direction inquiries in 
 certain branches of physical philosophy have taken dur- 
 ing the last few years. Causes of physical phenomena 
 have been inquired after by more persistent and penetra- 
 tive search. The " affections " of matter have been 
 considered more attentively and seen to be expressions 
 of systems of nature farther internal than the plane on 
 which physical philosophy has usually been regarded. 
 Properties and forces in nature are seen to disappear 
 from view beyond the senses and the means of physical 
 
86 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 I 
 
 analysis, transferring their causes as well as effects to 
 regions unknown, and to connect with entities there no 
 less real and substantial than are those they are identi- 
 fied with on the visible plane. This is not without a 
 meaning which is strongly attracting attention. 
 
 That there is a something in that region, may not be 
 doubted by him who is familiar with these facts, and is 
 fairly disposed to credit what he sees. And that some- 
 thing cannot be less substantial — less consistent, in its 
 own nature and state, than is the world which we re- 
 alize about us. And the conclusion is scarcely avoidable 
 that our existence, as to realization, is but with one of 
 the several states of nature — the crude, physical, — ^with 
 a higher related therewith, to be made in turn our 
 abode on becoming released by the sundering of the ties 
 that now hold us to this. That all scientists join in 
 this conclusion, would be quite too much to affirm. Yet 
 that such is the attainment in science, as to the exist- 
 ence of these occult forces, traceable from visible to in- 
 visible nature, there would hardly be found a dissenting 
 voice among recognized scholars. 
 
 But a few references will aid in confirming this con- 
 clusion : Prof. E. L. Youmans, of our country, in the in- 
 troduction to a work on the correlation and conservation 
 of force, in which he has collected papers from a goodly 
 number of the standard writers of the old world, in 
 matters of science, makes these decisive statements: 
 " There are many who deplore what they regard as the 
 materializing tendencies of modern science. They main- 
 tain that this profound and increasing engrossment of 
 
THE TENDENCY OF SCIENCE. 87 
 
 the mind with material objects, is fatal to all refining 
 and spiritualizing influence. The correctness of this 
 conclusion is open to serious question ; indeed the his- 
 tory of scientific thought not only fails to justify it, but 
 proves the reverse to be true. It shows that the tend- 
 ency of this kind of inquiry is ever from the material 
 toward the abstract, the ideal, the spiritual. * * 
 
 The course of astronomic science has thus been on a 
 vast scale to withdraw attention from the material and 
 sensible, and to fix it upon the invisible and super-sen- 
 suous. It has shown that a pure principle forms the 
 immaterial foundation of the universe. From the 
 baldest materiality we rise at last to a truth of the spirit 
 world, of so exalted an order that it has been said * to 
 connect the mind of man with the spirit of God.' * * 
 Scientific inquiries are becoming less and less questions 
 of matter, and more and more questions of force ; ma- 
 terial ideas are giving place to djmamical ideas. While 
 the great agencies of change with which it is the business 
 of science to deal — heat, light, electricity, magnetism, 
 and affinity, have been formerly regarded as kinds of 
 matter, * imponderable elements,' in distinction from 
 other material elements, these notions must now be re- 
 garded as outgrown and abandoned, and in their place 
 we have an order of purely immaterial forces. * * 
 Star and nerve-tissue are parts of the same system — 
 steUar and nervous forces are correlated. Nay, more : 
 sensation awakens thought, and kindles emotion, so 
 that this wondrous dynamic chain binds into living 
 unity the realms of matter and mind through measure- 
 
88 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 less amplitudes of space and time " (Correlation and 
 Conservation of Forces, pp. 11,, 12, 41). 
 
 Mr. Youmans here speaks for modern science, as 
 advocated by many of its reliable patrons, cultivators 
 and masters ; though it may not be representing the 
 conclusions of all the leading naturalists. He has 
 stepped aside, for the moment, from the discussion of 
 science itself to make this incidental statement of his 
 conclusion, while not all others, so far as I know, have 
 done so. That they might make similar statements, 
 when off duty, would be true of some, and has been, 
 and probably would be, of the large majority of them. 
 Nothing they have said, so far as I can recall, with per- 
 haps a very few exceptions, would be construed into 
 dissent. 
 
 Prof. Tyndall, without question well at the head of 
 physical philosophy both as a theorist and a demonstra- 
 tor, having furnished to the world more thorough proof 
 of the conservation and correlation doctrine than any 
 other, speaking of the transmission of light by means 
 of the luminiferous ether, from the glowing platinum 
 wire across the space to the eye, and thence through 
 the humors of that organ, impinging upon the nervous 
 coating of the optic nerve to produce the phenomenon 
 of sight, says : " Up to this point, we deal with pure 
 mechanics ; but the subsequent translation of the shock 
 of the ethereal waves into consciousness, eludes the 
 analysis of science. * * * ^he motion thus 
 imparted is transmitted with measurable, and not very 
 great, velocity to the brain, where, by a process which 
 
THE TENDENCY OF SCIENCE. 89 
 
 science does not even tend to unravel, the tremor of 
 the nervous matter is converted into the conscious im- 
 pression of light " (On Kadiation, pp. 19, 11). 
 
 Mr. Tyndall's statement of the case is good and fair, 
 characteristic of the conscientious scholar. He is 
 brought, by scientific research, face to face with a sub- 
 stance which is wholly beyond the domain of the phys- 
 ical, so far as regards physical appliances of discovery. 
 And yet there is no fact in nature more apparent than 
 that of this entity into which the objective realities have 
 by the beam of light been thus conveyed. This con- 
 sciousness, so seizing and utilizing the picturing impres- 
 sions of light is, finally, the very self of being. 
 
 The substance that knows is itself the thing to which 
 he has traced the phenomenon of light, and at the do- 
 main of which he was obliged to drop the clue. But this 
 is not all there is to this fact. This super- sensuous en- 
 tity thus beyond the reach of sensuous tests, is a force 
 resident in certain forms of physical force which it di- 
 rects and impels as in the case of bodily movements. It 
 likewise points to substances embodying those forces, 
 though they are not sufficiently near, as to state, to be 
 brought under any sensuous test — substances of adequate 
 refinement for the immediate residence of the mental 
 principle of consciousness, — " spiritual, " Mr. Youmans 
 might denominate it. But a substance is not without 
 properties characterizing it. And properties determine 
 laws, all of which determine a world and a universe, 
 analagous to the one of our present surrounding. 
 
 However little direct reference may be found made to 
 
90 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 it, the fact that the scientific thought of the day is 
 drifting toward the recognition of a spiritual universe 
 and the continuance of the human self into it at the de- 
 mise of this existence, is very clear. While, too, by the 
 clearness of the accepted facts of the science of to-day 
 on which these conclusions are based, there is hardly a 
 conceivable chance that the tendency will ever decline, 
 but will rather all the while increase. The extreme 
 views of evolution, that life is but a state of mineral 
 attainment, and that to its accidental shiftings all its 
 diversities and families are due, also are received with 
 more caution, and on more reflection are being more 
 commonly qualified by their patrons. Hence, not only 
 may we look presently to see men most eminent in 
 science openly favoring, as a matter of science, a future 
 life for man, but favoring, also, special designs by an 
 Omnipotent Mind, in the origin of organisms. 
 
 Dr. W. B. Carpenter, in a note appended to a recent 
 paper on " Charles Darwin : His Life and Work, " in the 
 " Modern Keview " of July, 1882, expresses his dissent 
 from this school of evolutionists as follows : " It is, I 
 think, greatly to be regretted that some of the more 
 ardent advocates of the evolution doctrine are contin- 
 ually (by neglect of this important distinction), leading 
 their disciples to look at ' natural selection ' as the 
 cause of particular adaptations of structure to function ; 
 whereas it simply expresses the fact that the creatures 
 in whom these adaptations had come to exist, would be 
 the fittest to survive, and would be likely to transmit 
 them hereditarily. How they came to exist, natural 
 selection tends not in the least to explain " (p. 516). 
 
THE TENDENCY OF SCIENCE. 91 
 
 I close this chapter by an appropriate quotation from 
 Prof. Winchell, a wide and favorably known writer on 
 natural sciences: "The unseen world is destined to 
 become like a newly discovered continent. We shall 
 visit it ; we shall hold communication with it ; we shall 
 wonder how so many thousands of years could have 
 passed without our being introduced to it" (Sketches 
 of Creation, p. 371). 
 
CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 Location of the Spiritual State. — Insensible Worlds 
 THAT We Know of. — A Universal Mineral Ether. 
 
 AMONG the questions concerning a future life, the 
 following are of frequent occurrence: Where is 
 that world located? Is it of a palpable nature? What 
 does it resemble ? What are human appearances, habits 
 and occupations ? The answers to some of these may 
 be given with much confidence, based on the most ob- 
 vious reasons ; others must be left to inferences from 
 obscure data, of little more than conjecture. To the 
 consideration of the first of these the present chapter is 
 devoted ; the others will be reserved for their appropri- 
 ate place farther along in the book. 
 
 In respect to location, we may first point out the pos- 
 sibilities, and then what are the necessities, of such a 
 state as that to which the intellect, the senses and the 
 passions are suited. The latter must also be reserved 
 for the proper place farther along. In order to ascertain 
 what states may possibly exist to serve for the abode of the 
 spirit, we must see what surrounding nature consists of, 
 — how far it extends and what its laws and principles 
 provide for ; for however remote from this body of phys- 
 ical existence the qualities of that other existence may 
 
 92 
 
LOCATION OF SPIKITUAL STATE. 93 
 
 place it, the two states are connected and reciprocate in 
 the one common system of cause and effect. Hence the 
 spiritual is to be traced from the physical by the employ- 
 ment of the ordinary intellect of man directed toward 
 the spiritual. And reflecting upon the surprising dis- 
 closures nature is all the time rendering to persistent 
 genius, one becomes readily prepared to see that in 
 variety of states nature is exhaustless. Worlds may 
 exist within worlds, and, without impinging, occupy the 
 same space. And thus planes of existence in uni- 
 versal extent, as to realization separate, but in space 
 identical, may be multiplied to infinity. 
 
 That the same cup might at the same moment of 
 time be many times filled by as many substances of un- 
 like properties, or unlike phases of the same properties, 
 is by no means difficult to understand, when we see that 
 of substances so nearly alike as water, salt, sugar, and 
 alcohol, the volume of water is not augmented by add- 
 ing thereto a considerable quantity of the other ele- 
 ments in the order of the fineness of their ultimate 
 particles. Glass is less porous than wood, yet will 
 transmit visible light, which wood will not. Wood, how- 
 ever, will transmit electricity which glass will not. 
 Both will transmit terrestrial magnetism which iron 
 will not ; while with more or less freedom either will 
 transmit heat. This unlikeness of effects is owing to a 
 corresponding unlikeness of properties in these sub- 
 stances. 
 
 SUBSTANCES OF UNLIKE! PROPERTIES. 
 
 Wherein the properties are not common or are es- 
 
94 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 sentially unlike, the one substance is a nonentity to the 
 other. Glass, so far as it is transparent, is to the lu- 
 miniferous ether nihil. It is not resisted, not impressed 
 by it, hence to it is vacuous. Between the magnetic poles 
 the diamond is practically a non-existence. As to the sub- 
 stance that plies between the points of the needles, the 
 interlying adamant offers no resistance, occupies no 
 space and excludes nothing. Between the substance 
 which draws the needle to the earth's pole and that of 
 the cohesive attraction in the diamond itself, which 
 grasps the ultimate particles of an impalpable gas and 
 binds them into a mass of unrivaled hardness, there is 
 an analogy and a distant relation, but they are so 
 wanting in common properties as to be essentially vacu- 
 ous to each other. 
 
 Substances, therefore, may occupy the same space 
 simultaneously, in proportion as they are wanting in 
 common properties or the same properties are affected 
 by essentially unlike qualities. The variety of sub- 
 stances wanting in common properties, it is seen may be 
 without limit ; but the principle of their interlying one 
 another, without impinging, is definitely known by the few 
 illustrations cited. Within the same infinite space there 
 may be universe within universe infinite in number, 
 each complete and substantial within itself — ^the ex- 
 treme ones having little in common, and connecting 
 mainly through those filling the immense disparity 
 between. 
 
 The use of the common terms "high" and "low," 
 " far " and " near, " is in reference to extension in space 
 
LOCATION OF SPIEITUAL STATE. 95 
 
 upward, do^vnward or lateral ; but there are extensions 
 that do not involve external or visible space, which like- 
 wise may be infinite. The common grades in the order 
 of nature indicate this. A few yards of coarse yarn 
 may fill the spool it would require hundreds of yards of 
 thread to fill, and that would perhaps contain as many 
 miles of the fibre of silk. Of two skulls equally spacious, 
 one may contain a thousand-fold more extent of nerve 
 fibre than the other. And without enlarging the cranium 
 the same brain may be immensely extended by years of 
 healthful mental and moral culture. From its extreme 
 ignorance to its extreme enlightenment the mind may 
 have, in that same skull, traveled many great distances 
 and looked upon many grades of attainment. And 
 though there may be conveniences to facilitate the ad- 
 vancement of the mind from one state of intelligence to 
 another or one state of refinement to another, without 
 much personal effort, as railways and steamships facili- 
 tate travel from one place to another to the utmost 
 point of the earth, distance is overcome in the one case 
 as truly as in the other. However in the one case it is 
 done by change of location, in the other, by change of 
 states within the same cranial limits. 
 
 Distance in our visible state is denoted by measure- 
 ment of space, because of the mutual impenetrability of 
 substances having common properties. Such substances 
 must lie outside of each other, and thus impress the 
 mind of distance as the interval of space interlying 
 localities. And so common has been this apprehension, 
 and so natural is it to the dwellers on this or any other 
 
96 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 plane of homogeneous existence, to which resident senses 
 must always be adapted, that it is extremely difficult 
 to obtain an impression of distance, as applied to a 
 diversity of states or planes of unlike substances, irre- 
 spective of visible space. And for a time, plain, legiti- 
 mate proof will, of necessity, be dimly apparent and of 
 little force upon the realizing senses. And until the 
 evidence has been often repeated, and re-enforced by 
 many experiences, so as to give re-assurance to the men- 
 tal senses, the veils before the invisible world will lift 
 slowly. 
 
 LITERAL DISTANCE TRAVERSED BY MIND. 
 
 Time, space and substance are fundamental realities, 
 and are apprehended by any appreciable measure of in- 
 telligence, though never wholly comprehended. Time 
 is the measure of duration as applied to substance at 
 rest or in motion. Joined with substance in motion it 
 is one of the measures of distance. The remotenesses of 
 states of substance pertaining to thought or to sense, 
 are approximately to be judged by the time consumed in 
 the passage from one to the other. From the absence 
 of any mathematical instruments applicable to such 
 states, their measurement must lack the accuracy of 
 the surveyor or the astronomer. But the engineer who 
 knows the fleetness of his engine, has some idea of his 
 whereabouts by consulting his chronometer. Even yet 
 there are people who judge of distance only by the time 
 consumed in traveling. So, in the progress from one 
 state of mentality, morality, or spirituality, to another ; 
 
LOCATION OF SPIRITUAL STATE. 97 
 
 knowing something of the forces employed, the inteiiying 
 distance may be judged of by the time required in the 
 transit. Indefinite as the measure may be, the disparity 
 of the states of being in their extremes is not only 
 known, but known to be great, involving years, and, when 
 considered by races, centuries of advancement. But, 
 also, the attainment of each higher state of thought and 
 feeling involves the attainment of corresponding higher 
 planes of substance. 
 
 As the necessity of time in traveling from one local- 
 ity to another, is proof of interlying distance, so, in 
 mental and spiritual progress, its necessity is equally 
 evidence of the most indubitable character, that mind, 
 with its attendant life, overcomes literal distance, and 
 advances through interlying forces that resist its move- 
 ment from first to last. Vacuous space would dispense 
 with time. The luminiferous ether having so few prop- 
 erties in common with ordinary matter, that matter 
 being so nearly vacuous to it, there is but a trace of 
 time apparent in the transmission of light — about one 
 second only in one hundred and ninety-two thousand 
 miles. But the traverse of the mind in the attainment 
 of knowledge is visibly slow ; and so with moral and 
 spu'itual refinement. The elements that impinge on 
 those living substances and resist them in their progress, 
 are, therefore, very real and palpable to them, however 
 unperceived from the sensuous state. 
 
 There are, therefore, two ways in which distance is to 
 be estimated in nature, — as on the same plane and as 
 between planes or states ; that which results from sub- 
 
 7 
 
98 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 stances having essentially the same properties and may 
 not occupy the same space — must lie outside of each 
 other, and that which results from a want of essentially 
 the same properties or their being affected by the same 
 qualities, in which case substances, without impinging, 
 might lie within each other and practically occupy the 
 same space, — the distance being expressed by the meas- 
 ure of their unsameness. With the first — objects lying 
 outside and apart from each other — the physical eye 
 renders the mind familiar. The mass of human minds 
 realize no other. The second is apprehensible by the 
 mental senses alone ; being effective beyond where the 
 physical cease to avail. And to render it familiar or 
 accessible to the understanding, this mode of perception 
 calls for culture ; as the eye, the ear, the touch and the 
 taste are brought to any requisite acuteness and strength 
 by training. On these the inductive nature must depend 
 in bringing to consciousness those inner realms of ele- 
 ments lying away from external view, and finally those 
 also which constitute the spiritual abode of man. 
 
 In respect to the necessity of developing the realizing 
 powers — the quality or efficiency of mind to cause ab- 
 stract principles to definitely stand forth to view, and 
 to satisfactorily see the facts and substance of inner 
 nature, to which I have referred in a previous chapter, 
 the eminent scientist, Mr. Tyndall, bears important 
 testimony, which I take pleasure in placing before the 
 reader in this place. Mr. Tyndall says, "The life 
 of the experimental philosopher is twofold. He lives 
 in his vocation a life of the senses, using his hands, 
 
LOCATION OF SPIEITUAL STATE. 9^ 
 
 eyes and ears in his experiments, but such a question as 
 that now before us (light) carries him beyond the margin 
 of the senses. He cannot consider, much less answer, 
 the question, 'What is light?' without transporting 
 himself to a world which underlies the sensible one, 
 and out of which, in accordance with rigid law, all op- 
 tical phenomena spring. To realize this sub-sensible 
 world, if I may so use the term, the mind must possess 
 a certain pictorial power, thus to visualize the invisible. 
 It must be able to form definite images of the things 
 which that sub-sensible world contains, and to say that 
 if such and such a state of things exists in that world, 
 then the phenomena which appear in ours must, of 
 necessity, grow out of this state of things " (Lectures in 
 America, p. 34). Hence, not alone to those who would 
 follow mental and spiritual forces into the unseen 
 regions is this reliance on mental vision and power of 
 mental construction a necessity ; the student of physics 
 needs it also in a measure, if not in as much efficiency. 
 The great discoveries of the world were all delayed 
 tni the arrival of this attainment to the mind of man 
 in sufficient force. Apples had been seen falling for 
 more than five thousand years before the inductive mind 
 of Newton grasped the phenomenon and from it pro- 
 ceeded to develop the foundation principles of the stellar 
 universe, reducing astronomy to a science as palpable 
 as that of architecture. The force that moves toward 
 the sun, and that which moves from it, by which the 
 parent orb adjusts every planet, and determines its 
 fleetness on its orbit, are no less real substances than 
 
100 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 are the iron beams of the great crane which carries so 
 easily about it its tons of metal or rock, dependent at 
 arm's length. In one case the forces are not indicated 
 to the physical eye ; the physical eye directed toward 
 them rests on vacuity. In the other case force is indi- 
 cated by the iron mask in which it is embodied. In 
 "both, and in all cases, it is visible to the mental eye 
 alone. And while with the great telescope the astrono- 
 mer may fill his soul with the grandeur of the great 
 material worlds that before him swim in the great 
 spaces, there is, in the same locality traversed by the 
 telescope, the universe of substance embodying the forces 
 on which these masses of matter in this wonderful ex- 
 hibition rest, to which the telescope and the microscope 
 are totally blind. 
 
 The most abundant of the elemental substances sur- 
 rounding the existence of man, is oxygen, constituting 
 one-half of the ponderable part of the globe, eight- 
 ninths of the water by weight, and a fifth part of the 
 air we breathe. It is universally present with man : an 
 indispensable ingredient in all the food he eats, the 
 water he drinks and the air he breathes. And yet its 
 existence had not entered into human knowledge till Dr. 
 Priestly's discovery of it so recently as 1774. Tasteless, 
 colorless, odorless, and impalpable, it was constantly 
 released in chemical processes, undetected by the senses 
 to which those properties are necessary for recognition. 
 This brings us to see how small are the limits to which 
 our senses would restrict us, and how soon, going in 
 whatever direction we choose in science, we must rely 
 wholly on the mental vision — the inductive eye. 
 
LOCATION OF SPIKITUAL STATE. 101 
 
 Chemistry, the basic physical science, illustrates in 
 every process that the physical world is not only a com- 
 posite unit of many elements, but that underlying these 
 are endless systems of forces, the evidences of worlds 
 of elements lying beyond the sensuous state. In a work 
 of this kind, extended reference to this science is not 
 essential. To the ordinary understanding the impor- 
 tant truth may be fully set forth by a few illustrations, 
 without going far into details. I take a piece of ice ; 
 it is mineral as truly as stone or metal and is capable 
 of a large measure of resistance. I apply a low degree 
 of heat to it ; it is changed to the form of water. I in- 
 crease the heat, and it is palpable vapor. I apply more 
 heat, and it is wholly invisible. It is the same sub- 
 stance, however ; and, but for the relaxing influence of 
 heat on the centripetal force of its ultimate atoms, it 
 would have continued its solidity. It is the same com- 
 pound gas, — condensed in the first case and rarified in 
 the second ; capable of strong resistance in the first state, 
 in the second it is impalpable ; at one time it is visible, 
 and invisible at the other. And so the piled-up mount- 
 ains of ice at the poles may be regarded as immense 
 volumes of gas bound down and solidified by frost; 
 while, under a few degrees less of frost, another volume 
 of the same gas, in the state of water, — somewhat 
 between the solid and volitant states — is rolling about in 
 the external cavities of the earth, as oceans, seas, lakes, 
 and rivers. With a few degrees of yet less frost, 
 another volume of the same is seen drifting in the sky 
 overhead, in the form of clouds ; and with a yet less 
 
102 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 measure of cold, a fourth state of this gas may be de- 
 tected as invisibly suspended in the transparent atmos- 
 phere about us. 
 
 Eut there is no substance that may not in like manner 
 be resolved into invisibility. We watch the process of 
 a bar of steel, as palpable an object as could be referred 
 to, under the influence of heat. At first it becomes red, 
 then white, then finally it disappears in flame and is 
 lost to view. The human body itself, fluids, flesh and 
 bones, is likewise common material, and constitutes no 
 exception to the rule of common resolvability. It is 
 held in the visible state and made thus serviceable to 
 its wonderful inhabitant, by simply that one great con- 
 densing agent, inter-atomical centripetal force. Let 
 that be relaxed by the touch of the proper countervail- 
 ing force, and the frail house of the soul, too, is van- 
 ished from sight. 
 
 No part of the mineral universe is an exception, it is 
 perfectly safe to say. The mental eye is even now look- 
 ing upon all as a transparency. 
 
 LOCATION OF THE SPIBIT WORLD. 
 
 Then as to where the spirit world may be located in 
 space, it may be said that no substance essentially unlike 
 it in properties or their qualities, will interfere with its 
 existence anjrwhere. Our world and that, or a world of 
 that state, may occupy the same space. That in space 
 the spiritual universe is identical with the physical, is 
 unavoidable. The question can only be. Do the worlds, 
 of whatever character, of the spiritual universe, cor- 
 
LOCATION OF SPIKITUAL STATE. 103 
 
 respond in location with those of the physical ? Are its 
 inhabited centers identical in space with those that sus- 
 tain the residents of flesh ? Admitting the possibility 
 that the spirit worlds are located in the spaces interly- 
 ing the mineral worlds, there are special reasons for 
 answering in the affirmative. While the outlying spaces 
 are entirely occupied by substances cognate with those 
 of the visible state, giving passage to light and the at- 
 tractive forces that incessantly move between worlds 
 and on which the immense stellar structure rests, 
 the spiritual, which is like continuous, must be there 
 as well. But in the places where are gathered and or- 
 ganized into shapely, lovely worlds, out of their nascent 
 state, the elements from vast surrounding areas — where 
 life, spirit and mind are revealed in connection with 
 mineral forms, as seen in this world, and which seem 
 improbable save in such aggregations, — there, too, would 
 the finger of expectancy point as the location of the cor- 
 responding spirit world — the immediate abode of the soul 
 that has passed beyond the flesh. The immediate abode ; 
 not that anything appears that would suggest a final 
 retention to one locality — that an endless life endlessly 
 requiring scenic inspirations should be withheld from 
 going abroad through the splendors of a universe of 
 that character. 
 
 But, however intimately the states may combine in 
 location, and inseparable as the two great departments of 
 being may finally be as universal substances, a particular 
 physical world would hardly be a necessity to a correspond- 
 ing spiritual world, any more than that a spiritual body is 
 
104 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 permanently dependent on that which is earthly. Eather 
 as the physical body dies and goes into re-distribution 
 with the elements whence it originated, so might the 
 earth in the long ages to come, or sooner, be retaken by 
 the ever-flowing currents passing by and through it, to 
 be drifted asunder and into new arrangements, or be 
 permanently sundered, particle from particle. Claims 
 of such, however respectably maintained, are founded 
 on nothing better than the unqualified fact of never 
 ceasing change itself. Yet, the world was once without 
 living forms and so, also, may pass on again into condi- 
 tions fatal to their existence. 
 
 The question of immortality is not in the least affected 
 by the shifting character of external nature — the form- 
 ation or the destruction of material worlds. However 
 the spiritual world may be characterized by shifting 
 scenes, obedient to the laws of its own elements, the 
 destruction of the physical world would not affect the 
 spiritual as much as a thunderstorm on Jupiter would 
 the atmosphere of our planet, when we come to consider 
 the great disparity that must lie between the two orders 
 of substances. 
 
 The old-time Christian thought associated the world 
 of the blest with the upper atmosphere or far beyond 
 somewhere. This idea was practicable enough till the 
 shape and motion of the earth were ascertained. Then 
 to the intelligent Christian what was above at the even- 
 ing prayer was below at the morning ; and the saints, 
 who were at one time in the supposed direction of 
 heaven, were, at another time, in the supposed direction 
 
T^OCATION OF SPIRITUAL STATE. 105 
 
 of its opposite. With much propriety, however, do we 
 in our time and ever, use the term high to denote the 
 exalted state — the most refined ever being the superior. 
 The scale running from the immature to the mature. 
 As when we speak of high intelligence, high morality 
 or high civilization, we have reference to extensive 
 attainments in these elements of being. In using the 
 phrase, " The High and Holy One, " reference is had to 
 the Deity, who is omnipresent as to location, and is as 
 much below as above ; but in excellence being the infi- 
 nite superior, is only above. So likewise " the highest 
 heaven, " often referred to in religious discourse, is to be 
 understood as the state of the highest perfections of 
 life. 
 
 But while there is ample room for a world for the im^ 
 mortals leaving this world, anywhere where nature itself 
 may be found, it is difficult to see what importance at- 
 taches to its location. In relation to universal space, 
 no one can tell where our earth is located. Yet that 
 fact does not in the least disturb our enjoyment of its 
 delightful apartments, or afford cause for homesickness. 
 It is more to our purpose to know what and how it is 
 than where it is. 
 
 This chapter would hardly be complete without some 
 special reference to the primary state of the substance 
 we call mineral. By common consent the ultimate 
 analysis of matter is a present and, seemingly, a final 
 impossibility. Back of the impalpable state is the ir- 
 resolvable aggregate of substances, permanently inac- 
 cessible to all physical means of apprehension. And 
 
106 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 yet while the analysis of science is at this point unable 
 to proceed, the mind, by means of its inductive powers, 
 may extend the search far toward what may be settled 
 as its primal form; thus attaining conclusions by a 
 process hardly less reliable than that of sensuous 
 demonstration itself. The known forms of substances, 
 as rocks and metals, are plainly the result of adequate 
 causes, to be seen in the properties of their essences 
 which bring them into crystallization, under favorable 
 surroundings. These several essences point back to 
 an ulterior oneness, by the oneness of sympathy, how- 
 ever remote, that connects them all, — and also in the 
 fact of their many common properties and strong re- 
 semblances. 
 
 And, incidentally, from this it seems necessary also, 
 in order to account for the origin of these forms, to re- 
 sort to the theory of an adequate mind presiding over 
 this oneness, and by special, designing volitions imping- 
 ing upon it the special modes of force required for these 
 forms, — ordaining thus the constitution, laws, and feat- 
 ures of nature, as they appear to us. 
 
 These states are not alone inaccessible to the facul- 
 ties of sense, but to the mental eye only their necessity 
 is visible. As infinity is known and talked about as 
 familiarly as a household object, and yet its necessity 
 is the nearest approach the finite mind can make toward 
 its reality. 
 
 However their origin, the mineral universe is an ag- 
 gregation of special mineral ethers as numerous as the 
 several kinds of substance that appear in nature. And 
 
LOCATION OF SPIKITUAL STATE. 107 
 
 of these, again, many ethers may be necessary in com- 
 bination to render them recognizable objects. To each, 
 also, there is a place in the order of nature that no othei 
 supplies. Each is a link in the chain of mineral being 
 that may nowhere be wholly absent. A mineral universe 
 is but an all-pervading mineral ether, generalizing all 
 the special forms, which, under favorable circumstances, 
 would pass into crystallization and become tangible, 
 and enter into the composition of worlds, but otherwise 
 would remain in their imponderable states. Then, 
 though there might be no rocks, iron, silver or gold on 
 another planet, their ethers, more or less plentiful, would 
 be there ; while our own earth must contain many ele- 
 ments no chemist yet has found, and which may abound 
 in tangible forms on other spheres. 
 
 This, then, is the external surrounding of man in his 
 present state of living, of which he is embodied, of 
 which his bodily senses are organized, to the perception 
 of which they are adapted, and where the mind performs 
 its first evolutions. From it, then, let us proceed to 
 other states of being and their ethers farther inward. 
 
CHAPTEK YII. 
 
 Insensible Worlds that We Know of, Continued. — The 
 Vegetable Kealm. — A Vegetable Ether Universal. 
 
 THE last chapter calls attention to the worlds of sub- 
 stances lying beyond the reach of the external senses, 
 but more especially those of the mineral kingdom, and 
 with reference to ultimately defining the location of the 
 spiritual state and abode of man. Before proceeding 
 to the next topic, the definition of the word " mineral " 
 should be given. By doing so, it will be seen quite in- 
 clusive of all sensuous substances. Prof. Dana observes 
 under the head. What is a mineral? *'It has been ob- 
 served that Mineralogy, the third branch of Natural 
 History, embraces everything in nature that has not 
 life. Is, then, every different thing not resulting from 
 life, a mineral ? Are earth, clay, and all stones, minerals ? 
 Is water mineral 7 All the materials here alluded to 
 properly belong to the mineral series. * * * * 
 Water has no qualities which should separate it from the 
 mineral kingdom. All bodies have their temperature of 
 fusion ; lead melts at 612 deg. F. ; sulphur at 226 deg. F. ; 
 water at 32 deg. ; mercury at — 39. No difference, there- 
 fore, of this kind can limit the mineral departments. Ice 
 is as properly a rock as limestone ; and were the tempera- 
 
 108 
 
WHAT IS A MINERAL? 10» 
 
 ture of our globe but a little lower than it is, we would 
 rarely see water except in solid crystal-like masses or 
 layers. Our atmosphere, and all gases occurring in 
 nature, belong for the same reason to the mineral king- 
 dom. Several of the gases have been soKdified, and 
 we can not doubt that at some specific temperature each 
 might be made solid. * * A mineral, then, is any sub- 
 stance in nature not organized by vitality, and having a 
 homogeneous structure, 
 
 " The Jirst limitation here stated — not organized by 
 vitality — excludes all living structures, or such as have 
 resulted from vital powers ; and the second — a homoge- 
 neous structure — excludes all mixtures or aggregates" 
 (Manual of Mineralogy. -^pp. 14, 15). 
 
 This definition of mineral, in respect to a distinction 
 as to the mineral and the vegetable and animal forms 
 of matter, representing also, as it does, the common 
 view of the subject, is such as to leave, after all, aU vis- 
 ible existence of the order of mineral elements, only 
 that in one instance it has been in the hands of the 
 vital forces, and in the other it has not. Vegetable 
 matter is composed of the substances of the earth and 
 the atmosphere, and may be resolved back again into the 
 original gases and ethers from which it was evolved by 
 these special forces styled " vital. " Before it was ap- 
 propriated by the vegetable it was in its gaseous or 
 ethereal states, and might have been reduced to, perhaps, 
 corresponding rocks and metals. 
 
 Then, associated with these mineral substances or ethers, 
 are to be seen, by the individual forms representing them, 
 
110 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 the vital elements or ethers, but higher and farther inward 
 on the grade of being, the lower of these being the veg- 
 etable. The lovely plant, existing partly in the earth 
 and partly in the air, and deriving subsistence from 
 both, represents the first in the order of this indefinitely 
 numerous series of universes interlying the mineral. 
 
 Arid thus it is seen that inner from and beyond our 
 external and visible surrounding, there is a state with a 
 substance of very unlike and superior qualities. It 
 presents not only much greater activity, but also a 
 species of instinct. The plants that are standing about 
 my table as silent witnesses to my labors, as to all that 
 I see of them, are minerals, constructed into these lovely 
 forms by the real plants operating upon them from the 
 vegetable state within. The structures are easily enough 
 comprehended, but the construction — the putting to- 
 gether — by these adequate internal agents from within 
 executing the work, is confessedly a superhuman diffi- 
 culty. They are too orderly to occur from accident, and 
 too much operating toward ends to be without a species 
 of sense. The symmetry is pleasing, the coloring in 
 richness and pattern is matchless ; while the distilled 
 odors are in the highest measure exhilarating. But all 
 this, so far as chemistry can enlighten us, is only inert 
 material, owing the delightful arrangements to vital or- 
 ganisms within inaccessible to chemistry, existing as the 
 adequate causes. These vital individuals, as they them- 
 selves enlarge, and their individual needs increase, erect 
 about them these material trellises, enveloping themselves 
 with myriad prismatic splendors and loading the adja- 
 
^ THE VEGETABLE KEALM. Ill 
 
 cent atmosphere with the most enchanting aromas. " I 
 say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not ar- 
 rayed like one of these. " And for the incense that filled 
 his royal apartments, this prince was indebted to the 
 labors of these lovely, living laboratories of nature. 
 
 THE PLANT NOT A MINERAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 That the plant is not due to a phase of mineral forces, 
 or a spontaneous production from that kingdom, is made 
 certain by several well recognized facts : The soils and 
 atmospheres most suited to its growth are unproductive 
 till the living germ or cell is properly inserted. Volu- 
 minous speculations concerning spontaneous generation 
 have failed to obviate the difficulty which this single 
 fact interposes. Though it is extremely difficult, if not 
 finally impossible, to determine when soil, water or at- 
 mosphere may not contain some form of living germ 
 which extreme heat or chemical erosion may not have 
 destroyed, the facts that in the most favorable con- 
 ditions, vegetable life does not issue from the soil without 
 ^having been deposited there, and that from it it is in no 
 form seen originating, are strong evidence against spon- 
 taneous generation. Also, the nature of vegetable life, 
 — descending through all time by families and types, is 
 in conflict with the theory of its production from the 
 mineral state. The properties of the mineral kingdom 
 are such as to render it of almost interminable variety ; 
 and the vegetable, to be the product of the mineral, or 
 even to be primarily dependent on it, should be of corre- 
 sponding variety. The plowed field, instead of yielding 
 
112 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 vegetation in well marked types and families, as wheat, 
 oats, com, apples, grapes, etc., should issue heteroge- 
 neous mixtures of these, somewhat in correspondence 
 with the soils producing them. If the typal character- 
 istics of these families should be continuous, maintain- 
 ing their typal identities, as the several ingredient 
 minerals persistently retain their elemental identities, 
 then as minerals in the soils are aggregated in very un- 
 like mixtures, so the vegetable forms resulting from them, 
 should be found in corresponding confusion, — various 
 typal characteristics jumbled into the same individual 
 product. In the language of chemistry, the plant might, 
 accidentally, in one example, be pure wheat, in another, 
 the oatate of wheat or the bicornate of wheat, according 
 to the combination of the evolving minerals present. 
 Unless there be attributed to the mineral, ;per se, the 
 voluntary power to suppress its own properties in ac- 
 cordance with the requirements of this family or typal 
 persistence in plants, the last probability of their being 
 forms of the mineral state, disappears. 
 
 It could be of no avail to say that vegetable life, with 
 its forms once attained — evolved as we see it — is now- 
 advanced to the superior position where, by an inherent 
 conservative law of selective subsistence, and by repro- 
 duction from seed or other form of cell, it maintains its 
 types, and is quite independent of any originating qual- 
 ities of the mineral compounds from which it is subsisted. 
 This were only shifting the difficulty to a more pleasing 
 distance, without, in any measure, getting rid of it ! Let it 
 be admitted that, at the point where our agriculture 
 
THE VEGETABLE REALM. 113 
 
 takes vegetable life, it is too far developed to be any 
 longer susceptible of the soil's originating qualities; 
 then we need only to go back to the alleged beginning — 
 to protoplasm, the conversion of mineral into organic 
 forms; and here the same difficulty presents itself. 
 Again, it requires to be explained why, from the indis- 
 criminate aggregates, should ascend such orderly con- 
 servative types? And, suppose it be said that the 
 ethers, in requisite densities, properly formed the simple- 
 slime of protoplasm ; does this explain why, in this proper- 
 assembling of elements, parts of the general mass are*, 
 retained and other parts are rejected, in such precisely, 
 suitable measures as to establish even the mere typal 
 structures or embodiments, saying nothing of their tend- 
 ency to persistence, and why this assembling, itself 
 takes place ? 
 
 But the same protoplasmic process is present in all 
 vital forms, in the highest as truly as in the lowest. 
 The mineral aliment for the germ, incased about it in 
 the seed, becomes available by the action of the adja- 
 cent elements rendering it pulpy and viscid, and thus, 
 suitable to be wrought into cell-structure, to which pur- 
 pose it becomes, in part, appropriated by the liberated 
 life of the incipient plant. Then, the same state of 
 mineral substance relied on for spontaneous generation 
 being present in all orders of vegetable production, spon- 
 taneity, if true at all, should be true and visible everywhere- 
 — as well in our cultivated fields as on sea bottoms I' 
 The aliments of the same seeda^ instead of being re^ 
 
 8 
 
114 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 stricted to the production of but the one type, should 
 produce in variety, as the constituents of the aliment 
 could hardly in any two cases be wholly the same or of 
 the same proportions, and the excitants are never exactly 
 the same. 
 
 With a nearly total want of resemblance between the 
 vital and mineral forces, an apology were due to the 
 reader for occupying the space with arguments for their 
 separate substances and planes of being, but for claims 
 of the doctrine of spontaneous generation that have 
 been extensively and ingeniously urged upon the at- 
 tention of the popular mind. From what is obvious of 
 the two kingdoms, their relationship is scarcely more 
 than that of the builder and his material. 
 
 As has been said, the facts in the orderly construction 
 of the human habitation, in which the builder reaches 
 forth and intelligently selects the material suited to his 
 purpose, correspond well with the facts in relation to 
 the production of the plant. From the surrounding 
 material in earth, water and air, this instinctive indi- 
 vidual of internal vegetable life, extending its invisible 
 hands, selects and appropriates the elements needed in 
 constructing its requisite body ; proceeding in this way 
 until the internal — the plant itself — has attained the 
 full development of its individual nature. 
 
 By this it is not only seen that the vegetable subjects 
 the mineral, but that it is all the time preceding its min- 
 eralization, — that it is a substance affected with typal 
 instincts and forces, and is as truly, though not as com- 
 pletely, independent of the elements which it selects as 
 
THE VEGETABLE KEALM. 115 
 
 is the mason of the stones which he builds about him- 
 self into a wall. 
 
 It undergoes modification in great variety, from the 
 mineral state. When growing in localities differing in. 
 soils and temperatures, it varies correspondingly in 
 structure and habit. But that these conditions have 
 not influenced the typal form itself, is manifest in the 
 fact that it is not any more available for hybridizing 
 with other plants than before. It has not left its orbit 
 and come nearer to others. Its relation with other 
 plant lives is left wholly unchanged. All that is ap- 
 parent in these modifications is to be explained by ref- 
 erence to the fact that its development is amid 
 surroundings which impinge upon it favorably or un- 
 favorably according to the indications of the special 
 modes of growth that are seen. The food supplied from 
 soil and atmosphere has been more favorable to one part 
 of the organism and less to another, according to how 
 the modification has tended. 
 
 By the same principle, the application of intelligent 
 cultivation enables the plant to display qualities and 
 forms quite unknown in the original representatives of 
 its family. Like man, the unaided plant is never at its 
 best. 
 
 But, however such changes may be effected in it by 
 the mineral state, each family must be regarded as a 
 separate form of its general life, with a fixed and dis- 
 tinct order of qualities, which, by a system of germina- 
 tion, is conveyed along from generation to generation. 
 
116 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 the tendency always being to enlarge the number of 
 its representatives. 
 
 IT IS UNIVERSALLY PRESENT. 
 
 Its universal presence is assured by what assures a 
 universal mineral presence : na.mely, its forces! These 
 are possible only with a universal wholeness of the sub- 
 stances embodying them ! " Nature abhors a vacuum " 
 in one order of substance no more than in that of 
 another. It so abhors because of its universal tendency 
 to equilibrium. The vegetable element, with its typal 
 lines, in the process of developing its forms or in la- 
 tency waiting, in rareness or profusion, is to be con- 
 sidered as extending universally — co-extending with the 
 mineral and spiritual universes. 
 
 Hence, on every mineral world, swimming in the se- 
 rum of infinite space, of requisite mineral representation, 
 and of proper density and temperature, vegetation may 
 safely be supposed to be decking the surface of nature 
 as on our own. Every such terrestrial floor throughout 
 his many mansioned house, the Great Father has over- 
 spread with this living beauty. 
 
 VEGETABLE IN THE SPIRITUAL STATE POSSIBLE. 
 
 But there is yet another view to be sought of this 
 vegetable universe ; not for anything that it might con- 
 tribute to the theory of it as a separate entity, but with 
 a purpose to approximate an understanding as to how 
 it may be related with the spiritual side of being. For 
 concluding that, as shown, it is not identical with the 
 
THE VEGETABLE REALM. 117 
 
 mineral, through which it manifests its existence, the 
 question to one who is in love with this form of nature, 
 may readily occur, May not this vegetable soul reveal 
 itself on the spiritual side as well, and perhaps in still 
 more lovely ways and forms ? Part of what may con- 
 stitute all the answer that may be safely given to this, 
 is deferred till farther along. 
 
 Knowing why or from what this element makes its 
 appearance in the present visible state, and knowing 
 also what must be the qualities of substance in the 
 spiritual realm, one might legitimately judge of the 
 probability of the vegetable manifesting itself there as 
 well. The most probable way of accounting for its 
 presence here is to consider that its requirements bring 
 it, — ^that finding in these material elements a required 
 subsistence and means of development, it appropriates 
 them to its use. Should then the substances of the 
 spirit state correspondingly afford supplies to the nature 
 of any of its forms, it would follow that they, in such 
 modes of life as would harmonize with the peculiarities 
 of that state, would be represented there. In modes of 
 being, human life conforms to the peculiarities of the 
 present state, and will, it may be assumed, have no 
 trouble in appearing even more perfectly in the next, 
 however unlike this it may be. So, likewise, might the 
 vital forces of the vegetable exhibit extreme variations 
 in their modes of manifestation in the same two states 
 in which man is represented ; and without the loss or 
 change of identity. That it operates on this mineral 
 side for the sake of subsisting and maturing itself, may 
 
118 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 "be true to a limited extent. That is, subsistence and 
 maturity result to it by the food it derives from the 
 material world. But when we consider that bodily food 
 does not assimilate with life at all — even the life which 
 it sustains — but only acts as an excitant to life by trans- 
 ferring certain forces to it which are wholly immaterial, 
 we no longer see the strict necessity of mineral food to 
 even the support of life, per se, unless we show that 
 from no other source than the mineral that excitant 
 may proceed. Appetite does not call for additions of 
 elements with a view to placing them into life. It is 
 more like the mason calling for brick to lay them into 
 the surrounding wall, when he is only seeking the im- 
 pressions of comfort the house supplies. Or, what may 
 more clearly illustrate, the electrician who needs more 
 electric force does not call* for more electricity, but or- 
 ders up repairs and more cups to his battery. The 
 battery is but the bridge over the interlacing atoms of 
 which that certain force issues to impress itself upon 
 the adjacent medium, there to be transformed into spe- 
 cial modes of force as the new recipient may direct. 
 
 This is precisely the office of the material body. The 
 ultimate fibers of food taken into the system in response 
 to appetite, go only into the formation of minute cells — 
 cups of batteries — for delivering force upon life itself, 
 or upon some interlying semi- vital ether which conducts 
 it thither, by the impulse of which is produced the sat- 
 isfying sensation of vital activity. Not a single min- 
 eral fiber or atom goes beyond the cups, some of which 
 
THE VEGETABLE REALM. 119 
 
 are barely, though distinctly, visible by the most power- 
 ful microscopic aid. 
 
 That these visible cells are of the innermost line, im- 
 mediately against which the life functions are arranged, 
 it is at present neither possible nor important to say. 
 It is, however, entirely safe to say that while their 
 variety is necessarily great, answering to the great va- 
 riety of functional wants, beyond where the utmost 
 microscopic power is effectual, there may be man^ 
 classes of cells much more diminutive, which, by their 
 special natures, are delivering special impulses an^ 
 awakening the required special activities. 
 
 Every atom, of whatever substance, stops in or within 
 the walls of a cell. Thence, after being " broken down " 
 by the traversing force, it returns to the earth as it was, 
 to be followed by the new atom taking its place, in turn 
 to be also broken down to retake its place among the 
 elements of its kind. 
 
 That I may not seem to the casual reader, who may 
 not have followed closely the researches of science on 
 this point, to be advancing peculiar views, I will here 
 insert a brief quotation from Dr. Wm. B. Carpenter, 
 the eminent English physiologist, who is so favorably 
 known throughout the educated world, especially in that 
 branch of science. The quotation is from a chapter 
 specially devoted to this subject, and given to the world 
 in a compilation of scientific papers edited by Prof. E. 
 L. Youmans, already referred to : 
 
 " Thus, during the whole life of the animal, the or- 
 ganism is restoring to the world around both the mate- 
 
120 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 rials and the forces which it draws from it ; and, after 
 its death, this restoration is completed, as in plants, by 
 the final decomposition of its substance" (Correlation 
 and Conservation of Force, p. 443). 
 
 At j&rst reading this language might appear to affirm 
 quite too much for the purpose for which I have here 
 introduced it. But the reader will observe, that the 
 professor affirms of the organism exactly what I have 
 affirmed. At its death both the materials and the 
 forces which the organism drew from the world are re- 
 turned to it. None will have disappeared into and 
 become a part of the entity which evoked and wove 
 them into form. And of course when released they re- 
 turn to the state whence they were taken; as the 
 materials of the ordinary battery, having been " broken 
 down " by the passage of force, are, together with their 
 own inhering force, returned to the world from whence they 
 were taken. The life entity itself, however, the agent in the 
 construction of the plant form, not having been of this 
 world, could not return to it, but must, at this death, 
 return back on its own side of nature, a continuous 
 plant, or to be redistributed with the ether of its own 
 elements, possibly to reappear in new individuals of its 
 order. 
 
 If, then, we were to propose to answer the question 
 suggested by this train of thought. May this vegetable 
 ether develop any of its types on the spiritual side of 
 nature, to contribute a floral beauty to the attractive- 
 ness of that state? we would need only to consider 
 T7hether that state is characterized with substances 
 
THE VEGETABLE KEALM. 121 
 
 analogous to the mineral ; that is, of an inert, passive 
 quality, which might afford it this requisite nourish- 
 ment — the passage of the stimulant impulses that it 
 would require to have impinge upon itself in order to 
 excite its life to growth. 
 
 The slight traces of semi-rational instinct that ap- 
 pear, are to be referred to the general law of appetite (not 
 all of which, however, refers to material food) and to some 
 extent indicate that the vegetable has means of gratifi- 
 cation and growth which do not necessarily involve the 
 use of the substances of the mineral state. However, 
 these traces are too obscure for data on which to rest 
 any decisive observations. Though the disposition often 
 seen in the plant to seek light, warmth and water, is to 
 be classed with the general promptings of its nature to 
 go after bodily subsistence, whether that be mineral or 
 of some other order of passive existence. But, at least, 
 the propagative disposition, in which is something of 
 the nature of the selection of kind, is not to be classed 
 with appetites of this character. It is, however, the 
 evidence of a want, the supply of which is on the side 
 of its own domain, and which is a principal motive in 
 the development of the individual life. Also, the vege- 
 table being graded between the mineral and animal 
 states, where the semblance of the mineral substance is 
 found in association with the animal, rational or irra- 
 tional, the presence of the vegetable kingdom might 
 well be expected. 
 
 It might, also, be well here to refer briefly to the 
 modes of vegetable life as bearing on this question. 
 
122 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 The ordinary plant subsists by being inserted partly in 
 the earth and partly in the air, — very few being more 
 in the earth. But while this is true of the largest num- 
 ber, it represents only a portion of the kingdom, and is 
 not at all universal. And of these, the weight of their 
 forms impressing their bases in the earth, may be as- 
 signed among the causes of their taking this position, 
 which, being habitual, has resulted in a class of mouths 
 that are suited to obtaining nourishment under the sur- 
 face of the ground. For, granting that their organi- 
 zation unfits them for any other mode, there is meaning 
 in the fact that the rootlets are most abundant near the 
 surface, where the soil is more rare, and the atmosphere 
 circulates with greater freedom. Other plants, however, 
 are of aquatic nature, and live chiefly or entirely in the 
 water, drifting from place to place. Others live entirely 
 from the atmosphere, even in the arid atmosphere of 
 tropical deserts. The Epidendrum ' will for years live 
 and bloom, suspended from a ceiling in mid air, and 
 nourished from the atmosphere alone. 
 
 But it is apparent, that while any state, to be charac- 
 terized with order, figure and fixity, must be character- 
 ized by forces corresponding with those of the external 
 world — cohesion, gravitation, etc. — they might not be in 
 the same proportion to each other, from which the mode 
 of being might not be the same. Besides, what is 
 greatly important, with the higher orders of existence, 
 new forces, more intimately related with volition, are 
 found supervening the mineral ; as in the case of the 
 will dissolving and resolving the magnetic energies of the 
 
THE VEGETABLE REALM. 123 
 
 living body, at discretion. And though the law of grav- 
 itation is, in the mineral state, without a known solvent 
 that may neutralize or mitigate its hold, or reverse its 
 tendency, is such a power not to be anticipated in the 
 living ethers with their special and superior forces ? In 
 animal economy mineral forces become reversible or 
 subservient to those of volition. The demonstration of 
 this fact, by even so small a circumstance as the move- 
 ment of living muscles in obedience to the impulses of 
 the mind, is some assurance of the prevalence of that 
 principle of force sufficiently great to produce, in a state 
 so superior as that which must be accorded to the spir- 
 itual, possibly great changes in the modes of being. 
 This might be true alike of its passive substances and 
 of the inhabiting life, vegetable and animal ; while the 
 character of the modification would be favorable to 
 their existence rather than otherwise. 
 
 It is hardly possible to conceive of a state having 
 individual existences, as the world of spirits must be 
 allowed to have, without having palpable scenery, re- 
 sponding to their needs ; but, with the active presence 
 of some, and possibly of many, forces little known or 
 whoUy unknown to us, no settled conclusion as to its 
 details can be indulged. This encouraging fact, however, 
 remains ; the state is not inferior but superior to our 
 present. Hence its greater gratifications to our superior 
 nature would seem a necessity. The prevailing evi- 
 dences also are in favor of a correspondence in the es- 
 sential features of that world with the one we live in. 
 The evidences that apply to its existence, determine its 
 
124 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 being of a cosmical character, and as being remotely 
 allied with this visible existence. But astonishing little 
 would be the alteration required in the forces of this 
 existence to render many of its details very unlike what 
 they now are, to which vegetable and animal life would 
 need to conform. But as the type of the vegetable is 
 not determined by mineral conditions, to appear in any 
 existence at all, would be to appear in its own nature 
 and form to the extent that surroundings would admit. 
 And so with the animal. So, then, of that land that 
 lies far inward of this, spread out into a radiant uni- 
 verse, the substance may hold in modification, but may 
 not change the type of any life which may extend there 
 from any other world. 
 
 Moreover, the vegetable extending inward to the 
 realm of the spiritual would, necessarily, be of the 
 highest types contained in that ether. The history of 
 vegetable life on the planet has been extensive enough 
 to substantiate this claim. In the gross, unsettled state 
 of the mineral world, vegetable life has been corre- 
 spondingly gross. The vegetable growth, during the 
 ages when the elements contained immense quantities 
 of carbon, was dense and vast as at no other time ; 
 growing and perishing in rapid succession, and thus car- 
 rying the carbon with it down into the earth in reserva- 
 tion for the future comfort of man. The varieties seem not 
 to have been numerous, but of the crudest types, de- 
 veloped in the grossest fiber and forms ; in the main, 
 leathery, spongy, unseemly, flowerless, colorless, vapid 
 and vile. The finer elements, which emit the agreeable 
 
THE VEGETABLE REALM. 125 
 
 odors accompanying the bloom of fruitage, had not yet 
 been reached by nature's laboratory; nor was the 
 material yet in hand whereof to overspread the petals 
 with radiant spiculce. The rainbow had not yet been 
 set in the heavens, nor on the plant. And the types 
 then prevalent have either wholly disappeared, or 
 shrunken from giant trees to the trivial diminutiveness 
 of a few inches. 
 
 The history of the vegetable kingdom is thus de- 
 scribed by a distinguished writer: "We see only 
 detached bits of that green web which has covered our 
 earth ever since the dry land first appeared ; but the 
 web itself seems to have been continuous throughout 
 all time ; though ever as breadth after breadth issued 
 from the creative loom, the pattern has altered, and 
 the sculpturesque and graceful forms that illustrated its 
 first beginnings and its middle spaces have yielded to 
 flowers of richer color and blow, and fruits of fairer 
 shade and outline; and for gigantic club mosses, 
 stretching forth their hirsute arms, goodly trees of the 
 Lord have expanded their great boughs ; and for the bar- 
 ren fern and the calamite, clustering in thickets beside the 
 waters, or spreading on flowerless hill slopes, luxuriant 
 orchards have yielded their ruddy flush, and rich har- 
 vests their golden gleam" (Testimony of the Kocks. — 
 Hugh Miller, p. 502). 
 
 The vegetable has thus far well proven its ability to 
 keep pace with the progress of the mineral world in 
 promptly issuing higher and more lovely forms as the 
 mineral substance became refined. Hence the proba- 
 bility is that though the specimens may be stationary, 
 
126 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE 
 
 or floating in the diviner atmosphere ; and though they 
 might germinate after the earthly manner, and so like- 
 wise fade and die ; or, by insensible gradations, might 
 rise into and recede from view ; or, like the banyan tree, 
 beset their appointed bounds by ever renewed growth, 
 it is not in the nature of things that the loveliest plants 
 of earth should equal those inspiring the senses of the 
 immortals in the gardens celestial. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 Insensible Worlds that We Know of, Continued. — 
 The Animal Element in Nature. — Its Position In- 
 terior OF THE Vegetable. — Its Special Superior 
 Forces and Prerogatives. — The Animal Ether, Etc. 
 
 SOME strong resemblances may be seen between the 
 vegetable and animal kingdoms. In certain forms 
 they appear to be of the same order of existence. Each 
 is divided into families and types, and these again into 
 varieties, maintaining, for the most part, strict genealo- 
 gies and descending in races. Sex lines and the prop- 
 agation of their species are characteristic of both. The 
 propagation by conjunction of the sexes is about as com- 
 mon in one kingdom as in the other. Their nutritive 
 apparatuses are also in strong resemblance to each 
 other. However, they are unlike as to the selection of 
 the elements of subsistence. The vegetable takes its 
 food from inorganic, while the animal depends on 
 organic fiber. 
 
 Both are of nutritive instincts, conserving their gen- 
 eral plans of organism, which results in that system- 
 atic adjustment of the materials in the arrangements of 
 their bodily forms. Both the animal and the plant in all 
 their states and forms are living beings, inhering in vital 
 
 127 
 
128 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 n 
 
 ethers of the properties and qualities indicated by their 
 individual representatives, and attain to maturity by 
 the common principle of the development of their in^ 
 ternal, constitutional forces. These are progressively 
 evoked or liberated from their latency by the augment 
 of external forces, which, through the instrumentality 
 of their surrounding material cell systems, they induce 
 upon themselves. The bodily organisms in both king^ 
 doms, as to extent and manner of organization, may be 
 regarded as only the requisite material embodiment of 
 the forces essential to their relation with external nat- 
 ure. And when the constitutional functions, with their 
 corresponding organs, are all fully outlined, the body 
 will have attained its full size and shape. 
 
 To this there is a seeming exception in that the vege- 
 table appears, in some of its types, limited in size only 
 by the producing powers of the elements ; and, by con-, 
 tinually issuing new branches, is all the while undergo-, 
 ing changes as to individual appearance. The resem-. 
 blance to its type is, however, not lost thereby. The 
 oak at a century and at a dozen centuries is the same 
 as to its characteristics ; and, bating the mutilations 
 from disease and external causes, maintains the patteru 
 of the oak. The same is to be observed of the polyp 
 in the lower forms of the animal kingdom. But these 
 are not, properly, exceptions to the law of bodily pror 
 duction referred to. 
 
 Up to this point the vegetable and animal are strongly 
 analogous. But beyond this, it is seen that the two nat- 
 ures are widely different. The vegetable in its highest 
 
THE ANIMAL ELEMENT. 129 
 
 forms, exhibits no traces of the distinguishing features 
 and forces now appearing in the animal. Here is a 
 system of nerves, interlying the organism, on which 
 are plying forces not met with in the kingdoms below. 
 
 Plants are to some extent affected by an apparent 
 sensitiveness, as already referred to. Some being of so 
 refined an order as to be impressible, favorably or un^ 
 favorably, by the atmosphere of human life. It is a 
 common trouble of florists, that with some people, and 
 with the most appropriate treatment, some plants will 
 wane and die ; while with others, by the best care, they 
 remain sickly and dwarfed. Also, contrariwise, the 
 plant is at times seen to do specially well with the care 
 of certain ones ; all owing to the impressibility of hu- 
 man temperamental peculiarities. The same, to be sure, 
 would be true of association with other forms of life. 
 In some plants {(genus Mimosa) this trait is so promi- 
 nent as to suggest the name of " Sensitive-plant." 
 
 But this impressibility seems not owing to any func- 
 tional arrangement in the plant, there being no corre- 
 sponding organization. Hence, it is rather a chemical than 
 a vital phenomenon ; rather the nice general cell arrange- 
 ment by the refined plant within, yielding so readily to 
 the neighboring emanation, than that it is owing to 
 sensation properly. All that is apparent in the most 
 perfect plant, in its most satisfied condition, conveys no 
 reason why it should be experiencing happiness. And, 
 when drooping from exhaustion or shriveling by heat, 
 nothing is seen to justify the consideration of pain. The 
 shriveling contortions are from the inflating gases and 
 
130 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 dissolving fiber, and are in like manner seen in the de- 
 composition of lifeless structure. Its beauty in health 
 and its convulsions in the process of fire might suggest 
 sensations of happiness and of pain, but the anatomist 
 would find no occasion to suspect their existence. 
 
 But, regarding the plant as a thing of life, without 
 taking into account the fact of vegetable and animal 
 life being different entities with different properties and 
 different organisms, it might be no small difficulty to over- 
 come the impression that the sense of pleasure in some 
 way belongs to it ; that though no organism indicates 
 it, it may by some secret way yet exist, to be some day 
 uncovered by a better science ; and that thus the thing 
 of life, of beauty, and of sweetness, is also a thing of 
 happiness; or, alas! of pain at times. But, while the 
 conjecture might be entertaining, that the floral uni- 
 verse is an infinite throbbing happiness, the proposition 
 at best could never be more than a sentimental con- 
 jecture. 
 
 The plant is as old as the animal, but no trace of an 
 organism for the embodiment of .sensation has yet been 
 evolved in it. Besides, without it, its mission and plan 
 of being are complete. And though the vegetable is a living 
 entity, and greatly superior to the mineral, the presence 
 of sensation is as probable in the one as in the other. 
 The hair of the human body is also a thing of life, of 
 animal fiber, and is dependent on animal forces ; has a 
 selective function, or mouth, at its root ; no stomach, no 
 heart, no nerve, no sensation ; but is complete, and all 
 
THE ANIMAL ELEMENT. 131 
 
 it should be, and all it was designed to be, without 
 these. 
 
 But the differences between the two kingdoms are 
 more apparent when we come to consider their higher 
 forms. Saying nothing of man, one will readily note 
 many particulars in which the sagacious horse is en- 
 tirely unlike the great tree that overshadows him. The 
 tree is a truly wonderful object to contemplate, but the 
 horse is immeasurably more so. Though characterized 
 with life and working out a design half intelligently, 
 the tree remains stationary, rooted fast in the soil, and 
 is dependent for life on such materials as are within 
 reach of its bodily appointments ; while the horse has 
 the power of locomotion, and conveys himself after the 
 objects of his gratification, when necessary to obtain 
 them. At this high grade of the two kingdoms the dif- 
 ference is prominent and the classification easy. But 
 in the simpler forms, the naturalist has been made to 
 doubt whether he should classify his subject with the 
 animal or vegetable. Being but little advanced in the 
 scale of living nature, and with characteristics im- 
 perfectly developed, it has been difificult to agree that 
 the sponge is or is not an animal, or the polyp is or is 
 not a plant. The natures of the two kingdoms often, 
 in those lower forms, seem so much confounded in the 
 same individual. 
 
 Then in contrasting the two kingdoms, it is necessary 
 that we take them at the points where the highest 
 forms obtain — where these departments of nature are 
 most fully characterized — that no constituent element 
 
132 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 will be overlooked for want of proper development. 
 And, doing so, we see that above the highest attributes 
 of the vegetable realm, the animal brings to our con- 
 sideration a series of functions that evidence the existence 
 of an essence much its superior as well as much farther 
 inward in nature. Here are sight, hearing, touch, taste 
 and smell, employed in the uses of this existence, sub- 
 served by organisms correspondingly wonderful in their 
 mechanism. 
 
 The device of senses were absurd but for the con- 
 sideration that they are fitted to an entity whose nature 
 requires means of this kind to facilitate its development 
 and the accomplishment of its mission. Some of these 
 are serviceable in the selection of the ordinary bod- 
 ily supplies without contact therewith, by conveying 
 their several kinds of apprehension of outward nature 
 to the inward principle of voluntary thought, as by sight 
 or by sound. And but for that thinking principle within 
 to seize and reflect upon the impressions thus derived 
 from nature, and relegating the intelligence they awaken 
 to the powers of volition, out of which the rational action 
 comes, which chooses this and refuses that out of the 
 aggregate presented for bodily food, these faculties would 
 be as useless to animal economy as the microscope to 
 the stone ; and for the same reason were as unmeaning 
 in the unthinking vegetable as in the mineral. No cor- 
 respondence or analogy is to be noted between the simple 
 instinct which builds the fiber in the vegetable or the 
 animal tissue, after an immutable pattern in nature,' 
 
 
THE ANIMAL ELEMENT. 133 
 
 and the designing power that is apparent in the uses of 
 these senses. 
 
 And by no possibility can these senses be considered 
 as belonging to an entity to which they are alike useless 
 and meaningless. Their existence is no more a cer- 
 tainty than is also that of the sentient substance which 
 alone they so perfectly conserve, and for which alone is 
 the purpose of their existence. The design of their ex- 
 istence may not be apprehended without at the same 
 time apprehending the intelligent entity for which they 
 are designed. These senses also refer to a nourishment 
 demanded by this higher essence, which is not required 
 by the kingdom below, and on which it is dependent for 
 the development of its attributes. This development is 
 not, strictly speaking, by the use of assimilating forces, 
 as in vital recuperation, but, purely, by apprehension, 
 which it is the special office of the senses to perform, 
 and which, when it has been attained, is by a mental 
 selectiveness relegated to knowledge, and in this form 
 is satisfying to the yearnings of the thinking principle 
 in the animal economy. 
 
 Apprehension itself is by impression, plainly enough, 
 and thus far the process of nourishing the mind is 
 analogous to that of nourishing the ordinary vitality of 
 vegetable or animal tissue. Through its vibratory prop- 
 erties, nature makes its impressions indifferently upon 
 its surroundings, to be utilized by any receiving entity 
 to the extent and in the manner that its own properties 
 call for. In the lower, or vegetative, processes, there is 
 need manifested for rudimental cell force — the struct- 
 
134 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ural force — obtainable by immediate atomic contact of 
 homogeneous substances. The force craved and acquired 
 on this plane and in this manner, supplies this simple 
 purpose and manifestly no other. It indicates the 
 presence of a capacity to receive and respond only to so 
 much of nature's various operations. All the other of 
 nature's pulsations are without a recognizing echo in 
 the entity of that simple form of being. The mind is 
 the only entity seizing upon and utilizing the aspects 
 of nature — the mere spectacular forces. 
 
 THE PROCESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 To answer the demand of the thinking principle, in 
 respect to external nature, mediate elements are neces- 
 sarily employed; the mental entity being so much 
 higher in the order of being, and hence, too, so much 
 farther removed inward, its commerce with the external 
 phase of existence is possible only by proxy. 
 
 The thinking entity, as a substance, is a matter of 
 force, and so are the interlying entities between it and 
 outward nature over which the apprehending powers of 
 the mind proceed and the impressions are returned ; but 
 the apparition apprehended, ^erse, is not characterized by 
 any of the attributes of substantial force, as that supreme 
 agency in nature is manifested to our understanding. 
 The pictured substance may be styled a condition of 
 force, and so, too, the vehicle of light by which the 
 resemblance is transferred ; and impingement on con- 
 sciousness is by a mode of force : but the picture, the 
 
THE ANIMAL ELEMENT. 135 
 
 resemblance, the variegated abstract fact, imprinted, 
 and now contemplated, is without the recognized attri- 
 butes of substance, outside of which substantial force 
 may not be found. 
 
 From these immaterial realities — these pictures and 
 the work of harmonizing them — the mind satisfies and 
 extends itself. They respond to its hunger. They are 
 its food from the external source. Their presence, by a 
 sort of catalysis, confers a yearned-for release of the 
 expansive properties of the thinking entity. Hence 
 these gratifying sceneries or apparitions of nature, 
 thronging upon the hungry senses, whether of sight, 
 sound, touch, taste or smell, are to be regarded as the 
 outlets rather than the inlets of mental force. 
 
 Strictly considered, therefore, the development of 
 mind, the highest merely animal attribute, is from its 
 own side of nature — the mental ether — partaking of 
 neither the mineral nor the vegetable domain, save of 
 their intelligible aspects as portrayed upon it by the 
 action of the senses. These apparitions pass over the 
 vital fiber which acts as the mere vehicle of the pictur- 
 ing powers. The forces that rebuild or replace that vi- 
 tal fiber itself are entirely unrelated with the picturing 
 forces, — as the microscope itself, is not supposed to be 
 conscious of the apparitions it supplies to the sense of 
 sight. 
 
 ANOTHER IMPORTANT DISTINCTION. 
 
 But in yet another essential particular is the animal 
 distinguishable from and superior to the vegetable. 
 
136 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Without exceeding it in bulk we find the animal far ex- 
 ceeding the vegetable in the activity and variety of its 
 forces. The animal entity, revealing itself by an or- 
 ganization of voluntary functions and also by the attri- 
 bute of mentality, as above referred to, is at the same 
 time characterized by a voraciousness, so to speak, for 
 force impingements, such as is nowhere found in the 
 vegetable. This evidences an internal subtlety of being 
 far exceeding that of the lower kingdom ; while at the 
 same time it proves plainly that the animal represents 
 a state of life correspondingly more intense, active and 
 powerful. It is greatly important to see not alone that 
 the appointments of the animal nature are more varied, 
 and of an order apparently wholly separate from and 
 above the vegetable, but that these functions have far 
 more capacity for the employment of force than is seen 
 in the vegetable ; which fact is a clear confirmation of 
 the claim that the animal state is farther inward and 
 nearer the great heart of universal power. 
 
 In what may be termed the vegetative department of 
 animal economy, the nutritive formulae in all the modes 
 and places of fibrous construction in the body, the anal- 
 ogy between the two kingdoms, as before seen, is very 
 strong ; but the requirements in respect to this process, 
 by these entities of nature, are very unlike. While 
 the slow, leisurely currents of unaided capillary action 
 are quite sufficient to supply the vegetable with the 
 materials it requires for repairs aiid growth, the animal, 
 in its true representative types, to meet its demands. 
 Las need of the most thoroughly efficient system of 
 
THE ANIMAL ELEMENT. 137 
 
 transfer imaginable — beyond the best engineering skill 
 yet developed by the human mind. Here is placed a 
 harmonious network of arteries and veins, suited and 
 extended directly or indirectly to every part of the body, 
 however minute and concealed. And these are made 
 not only strong, but active. They are supplied by a 
 well-knitted, elastic, muscular integument, not only to 
 hold securely, but to assist in propelling the freighted 
 fluid along on its rounds of delivering the needed fiber 
 and fuel, and carrying away the debris and cinder. 
 
 But these alone are not sufficient. A throbbing en- 
 gine, with powerful muscular walls, is placed at the 
 head of these works; while wires of nerve fiber are 
 distributed to all the contractor muscles upon these liv- 
 ing freight lines, by simultaneous impulses to augment 
 the flight of the transporting fluids. And to further in- 
 crease the efficiency of this system, thorough provision 
 is made to apply to this machinery the great motor of 
 heat, in various suitable measures. A special and very 
 intricate device — a pair of lungs — for transferring oxy- 
 gen from the atmospheric air to the blood, in exchange 
 for the extinguishing carbonic acid, is placed in the most 
 protected cavity of the body, and is incessantly operated, 
 pouring a constant blast of this fiery agent into the or- 
 ganism, for the use of the economy. While, at the same 
 time, there is carbonaceous fuel, mainly of fat, distrib- 
 uted to the numerous magazines or receptacle cells that 
 impinge upon this living network, from which to supply 
 the waning fires. 
 
 Besides, that there may be as little waste of force as 
 
138 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 possible, and that the small bodily limits may not be 
 occupied by foreign substances, the admission of ali- 
 ment is presided over by a selective taste, by which nearly 
 all that is not serviceable as food is excluded. Moreover, 
 the admission of the food is first into a most com- 
 plete laboratory of muscular grinding and chemical 
 erosion ; dissolving, combining, eliminating, and thus put- 
 ting it into the most complete readiness to finally pass 
 on to the myriad cell mouths, who, from the urgency of 
 the demands which this inward living energy begets, are 
 gasping for it. 
 
 In contemplating this wonderful device of the animal 
 organism — this inimitable machinery — it is to be remem- 
 bered that the erection and using thereof are wholly 
 from an invisible world, the existence of which may 
 hardly be doubted by the observer whose gift of reason 
 is adequate to the understanding of the physical or ap- 
 parent part itself of this phenomenon. Neither will it 
 be easy for the same measure of mind to fail to locate 
 that invisible world, which contains this greater and more 
 subtle motor of animal life, farther inward and nearer 
 the perfect than that of the vegetable entity. 
 
 Another very important distinction is to be seen sep- 
 arating the animal from the vegetable. It is in respect 
 to the element of affection or the love of individuals for 
 individuals of their kind. Whether any such attribute 
 as affection, properly so called, characterizes the vegetable 
 kingdom, has, so far, not been fully demonstrable. But 
 enough is known to say confidently, that what might be 
 found, could differ but little from mere chemical afiQnity. 
 
THE ANIMAL ELEMENT. 139 
 
 The only trait of the plant in respect to affection for a 
 member of its kind, and in which it resembles the 
 animal, is that of sexual adaptation. 
 
 This, to some extent, is in the likeness of the sexual 
 relation in animal economy. But it is passive and seem- 
 ingly passionless. And, in many instances, this sexual 
 want of the plant is all supplied in the same individual, 
 by self fructification. In other examples the pollen 
 reaches its destination by drifting in the air or being 
 conveyed by insects or by some other accidental means. 
 But in all cases, so far as may be judged, there is a 
 complete absence of any recognition or desire of con- 
 jugality or even companionship. It is but analogous to 
 what may be seen in the selectiveness of chemical affinity. 
 Iron atoms combine more readily with those of iron 
 than with those of any other substance. So the veg- 
 etable entity will be found to be bonded in a sympa- 
 thy or unity with its kind. And as iron atoms are 
 massed by the property of polarity, by their opposite 
 poles seeking each other in affinity, so the vegetable 
 masses or multiplies its individuals by the law of mutual 
 attraction of opposites— opposite halves of the same 
 orders, if we may use the illustration. 
 
 Higher than this, the attribute of affection is not 
 traceable in the plant life. At its best it is but an un- 
 conscious and feeble instinct, exerting little visible in- 
 fluence upon the organism. 
 
 Herein, therefore, is another instance of the superior- 
 ity of the animal over the vegetable, little less marked 
 than is that of intelligence itself. The element of af- 
 
140 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 fection in the animal is of such subtlety and power, and 
 of such intensity, as to often overcome the powers of 
 volition themselves, though aided by the strong rein- 
 forcements of reason, and to completely change the 
 sentiments and current of the whole life. 
 
 Besides, while in the vegetable at best but one form of 
 affection is indicated, namely, that which pertains to 
 sex, in the animal — in the human or rational depart- 
 ment — we may enumerate the conjugal, the fraternal,the 
 filial, and the reverential in at least two varieties — for 
 parents and for Deity. And these affections all refer to 
 corresponding basic entities or substances of which 
 they are the reciprocative and unifying bond. Affection, 
 the same as all modes of common attraction, implies a 
 commonness of essence in the objects drawn and united. 
 These objects so drawn, being individualized states of 
 that substance, are in sympathy as a brother with a 
 brother ; or as individuals of its opposite phases love — 
 as one sex loves the other ; or as child and parent love 
 each other ; or as the Deity may be said to love the hu- 
 manity, and the spiritually enlightened human being loves 
 the Deity. These phases are also endowed with corre- 
 sponding peculiarities. Fraternal and parental loves 
 are chiefly denoted by an expressive tenderness and 
 social fondness, to which the conjugal adds an endear- 
 ing sweetness, all expressed in yearnings analogous to 
 those of appetite ; while, also, the reverential, to that 
 of social fondness, adds submissive confidence, etc. 
 Then, the variety enlarges to view as it is seen that 
 each circumstance draws its special form of sympathy ; 
 
THE ANIMAL ELEMENT. 141 
 
 as pain excites that which expresses itself in sorrow and 
 tears, and happiness that which manifests itself in 
 smiles and rejoicings. 
 
 And now it is to be uniformly remembered that 
 these all are forces embodied in their respective sub- 
 stances, congenital with the soul in which they inhere, 
 and lying wholly within the animal realm ; part of them 
 appearing in the irrational, and all in the rational orders 
 of animal being, in some measure of development; 
 that these forces, recognized and denominated affec- 
 tions or loves, are not denoted by any form of organiza- 
 tion in the lower kingdoms, and are wholly without 
 representation or even imitation in those more external 
 states. 
 
 A word of explanation in reply to the hypothesis sub- 
 mitted by some, that the animal and vegetable entities 
 are identical, from their frequent close resemblances in 
 the lower forms, may properly here be added. Eefer- 
 ence to these resemblances has already been made, but 
 for another purpose. Then, if these entities are intrin- 
 sically so different, and are ranged in states so unequal, 
 relative to the central, innermost and governing perfec- 
 tions of being, why do these mimicries and resemblances 
 in their structure and habit, exist ? And why may we 
 not say that they are fundamentally the same life, ex- 
 tending thus widely, from the lowest vegetable to the 
 highest animal characteristics ? We may answer, that 
 allowing the existence of an interlying medium, im- 
 pressible fiom both states, analogous to what we have in 
 the catalysis of chemistry, where by the mere presence 
 
142 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 of an element essentially foreign, elements derive impor- 
 tant modifying influences from each other, all is explained : 
 The relation being one of impingement rather than of 
 affection. And the fact that, beyond what may in this 
 simple way be wholly explained, resemblances do not 
 continue, but in the higher and stronger orders of both, 
 are lost, is proof of the most conclusive character, that 
 the essences are not the same, and that the phenomena 
 occur according to this explanation. The lower animal 
 types, which are the least perfect, and therefore the weak- 
 est of the animal ethers, would of course suffer more readily 
 restraints and modifications from the lower kingdom, 
 and be more readily suborned into its resemblance, 
 in form and habit. For example, in the coral, which is 
 a community of homogeneous animal lives, the com- 
 munity or the plant-like structure, often extends itself 
 upon the form or typal design of the vegetable. Feeble 
 animal souls, as they are, they are readily trellised 
 upon the vegetable patterns. It is the mutual impinge- 
 ment and transfer of force of the two elements, result- 
 ing in the adoption of common forms, rather than two 
 branches of the same element joined below in a "loop." 
 The principle is seen to operate in other forms of the 
 lower grades — worms, beetles, moths and butterflies, 
 who do not only mimic vegetable life, but also animals 
 of the lower forms. Interesting examples of these are 
 to be seen referred to by Prof. Mivart (Lessons from 
 Nature, etc., pp. 244 — 247), and by Wallace (Natural 
 Selection, Chap. 3), where, in color and form, insects 
 are so disguised by resemblance to their surrounding 
 
THE ANIMAL ELEMENT. 143 
 
 vegetable nature as to readily deceive the beholder into 
 believing one to be a leaf or twig of the kind where it 
 is found, and where it habitually lives; and whereof, 
 also, it most probably derives its temporary modifica- 
 tions, but with which its diverse and superior attributes 
 can in no sense combine or unify. The animal is of 
 and for its own superior domain, and not to be con- 
 founded with that below. 
 
 Prof. Gray, the veteran botanist of Harvard, in his 
 recent lectures to the theological class of Yale, intimates 
 that the vegetable and animal kingdoms unify below ; 
 from the fact " that there are multitudinous forms which 
 are not sufficiently differentiated to be distinctly either 
 plant or animal ; " and also because " in respect to or- 
 dinary plants and animals, the difficulty of laying down 
 a definition has become far greater than before. " From 
 these facts he feels justified in expressing himself in 
 the rather precipitant conclusion : " In short, the ani- 
 mal and vegetable lines, diverging widely above, join 
 below in a loop " (Natural Science and Keligion, p. 11). 
 
 But the professor would hardly concede that min- 
 eral elements chemically combined, and in that condition 
 yielding their true characters for one greatly unlike 
 either, must, because of this, be but the same ele- 
 ment there joining in a loop. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Insensible Substances, Continued. — Intellect 
 Further Considered. 
 
 IT will be observed that I use the terms "substance " 
 and " matter " in somewhat separate meanings, in 
 which essence is always substance, but not always 
 matter — after the old time way of employing them. Of 
 course no very fixed line of distinction can be drawn ; 
 but by this view matter would be that form of substance 
 which is allied to the sensuous state, the substance of 
 sensuous nature. In this sense mind, soul, and spirit, 
 being embodiments of force, are substances, while they 
 are not to be classed with material substance, or, strictly, 
 with the mineral domain. 
 
 In thus conforming to thjs old time conventional use 
 of these words, it is not to be understood that in mat- 
 ters of law, where the same conditions are involved, 
 they are subject to different systems. The principles 
 of force and of cause and effect, can only be considered 
 as of one and the same universal government, extend- 
 ing over, and affecting alike, in like conditions, all forms 
 of substance, whether of supreme mentality or of inert 
 mineral. To be sure, the same conditions throughout 
 
 are not to be expected in wholly unlike phases of sub- 
 
 144 
 
INTELLECT FURTHER CONSIDERED. 145 
 
 stance. Hence the mental and the moral forces we 
 would not look to find operating a piece of granite ; nor 
 would it be certain that we would find in the mental 
 state what would fully correspond to the specific gravity 
 of the stone, though the same principles of cause and 
 effect are necessarily operating in both of these sub- 
 stances which in all other respects are without any 
 relation soever which is defined to the human under- 
 standing. 
 
 In the previous chapter, which has been mainly de- 
 voted to the state and general attributes of animal life, 
 in contrast with the vegetable, reference has been made 
 to the element of mind ; but necessarily in brief and 
 quite general terms, and without the close discrimina- 
 tion that should characterize a presentation of the sub- 
 ject of mind in a fullness adequate to the present 
 purpose, in which it is designed to exhibit its types, 
 with respect to the superior and interior, on the general 
 scale. 
 
 Even to the ordinary observer the kingdom of animal 
 •life is seen to be of great variety in form and grade. 
 But as the simplest part of it is vested with a seemingly 
 impenetrable mystery, the different phases of its phe- 
 nomena are not commonly classified and grouped as the 
 more palpable facts of lower nature are seen to be. 
 Hence, too, fundamental causes for the differences of 
 mental action have not been commonly suspected and 
 looked for ; and so this crowning manifestation in ani- 
 mated nature was, by a sort of common, hopeless con- 
 sent, regarded as derived from a single entity, with 
 
 10 
 
146 CON;>OLATIONS 0¥ SCIENCE. 
 
 all these differences as but from so many of its own in- 
 trinsic properties, or versatilities of the same properties. 
 
 But the mental universe, whose phases are denoted 
 by the various animal types, spreads out into broad ex- 
 tremes, presenting differences as abrupt and wide as 
 those noted between itself and the kingdom below. 
 
 Mentality in its lower forms, where the capacity is 
 barely sufficient to apprehend and impress upon con- 
 sciousness the most external features of nature, and 
 possibly also the registered experiences of the organism, 
 is indeed a wonderful phenomenon, denoting an im- 
 measurable exaltation of being. But when we observe 
 the majesty of that special form of mind whose office 
 is to apprehend abstract principles — principles lying 
 wholly away from and independent of sensuous sub- 
 stances — we strike out again into a new universe, the 
 innermost order of existence ; where are associated, co- 
 operatively, in an inseparable oneness, all the supreme 
 elements of being ; which, in their limited but endlessly 
 unfolding and ever advancing individual forms, consti- 
 tute the finite or human phase ; while in the infinite 
 and unattainable heights and absolute perfections thereof, 
 is the undivided sphere of Deity, — the state of the Su- 
 preme Jehovah! 
 
 DIVIDING LINE BETWEEN INSTINCT AND REASON. 
 
 Setting aside, for the present, a full discussion of the 
 question that in connection with this subject so com- 
 monly arises, as to where — between what merely two 
 tlasses of animals, that is, between man and what ani- 
 
INTELLECT FURTHER CONSIDERED. 147 
 
 mal that is next to man — the line of distinction between 
 irrational and rational mind is to be drawn, let but a 
 brief passing note be made of the mental habits of some 
 of the vertebrates, as they represent the highest order 
 of the animal kingdom. And further, let them be of 
 the mammalia; that our selection may be from the 
 highest in that order. And here we see a very visible 
 dijfference in the mental habits of the horse, the ox, the 
 dog, and that most sagacious of lower animals, accord- 
 ing to some naturalists, — the elephant, and those of man. 
 This difference is more apparent as we remove each 
 to his own sphere and away from the influences of the 
 other ; removing the brute, for a few generations, from 
 the influence of domestication under man, away by 
 himself ; and man away from the wilderness and pre- 
 ponderant brute associations. 
 
 By near proximity, the brute, under the guiding hand 
 of man, might, in time, become influenced by his men- 
 tal habits, and thus, by the imitative quality of his 
 mind, temporarily assume his traits — rational traits — 
 that do not belong to him. Science would allow even 
 more than this. The brute, by his necessary close, ser- 
 vile attention to man, might receive temporary mental 
 impingements from the human source ; where the higher 
 element of mind might, unconsciously, diffuse itself 
 upon the lower substance, and execute its special office 
 through a lower organism, while in no way identical with 
 the resident mind of the brute itself, as will be seen il- 
 lustrated in a future chapter. The element in common, 
 on which the action would be predicated, would be ani- 
 
148 . CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 mal sensibility, lying within the lower nature of man 
 and the brute alike, and available to either mental state, 
 so far as the physical mechanism would be adequate 
 to the execution of the requisite movements. Such 
 transfer, through a rare temperamental condition on the 
 part of the brute, might occur according to well known 
 biological law, analogous to chemical law, referred to in 
 the previous chapter in connection with " mimicries " in 
 nature. Further along it will be seen also that it is 
 not an unusual occurrence for a function of mind to em- is 
 ploy a part of the nervous organism below that of its ;; 
 own immediate seat ; as, for example, the wounding of • 
 a limb by a great mental force precipitated on it, but I 
 more especially in cases of rational acts being performed ? 
 during periods of somnolency. 
 
 But the alleged phenomena of brute rationality would 
 generally, if not always, find a ready and natural ex- 
 planation in the brute's instinctive recurrence to the, 
 modes of its experience, incurred in its management 
 while under training. Hence such deportment might 
 be only of self-repetition, and not of original device. 
 
 To the beholder, who has not gone back and observed 
 the long, careful training, and the minute adapting of 
 beast to master by voice and gesture, the de]3ort- 
 ment of the animal on exhibition will be strong proof 
 of its endowment with human reason. But recurring 
 to the painstaking training, and mechanizing of the an- 
 imal into essentially fixed modes of operating, of which 
 the exhibition is but the last example — the last evolution 
 
INTELLECT FURTHEK CONSIDEEED. 149 
 
 of practice, he sees no need of recourse to rational 
 mind for all that the facts reveal. 
 
 The extent to which this training may influence lower 
 animals, may not be apprehended by even the skillful 
 artists themselves, who, on their own part, do not have 
 the same need of utilizing every experience and co-ordi- 
 nation of circumstances, by which to be directed in sup- 
 plying the foods and conveniences of life, as the lower 
 animals have to do, but who from their different men- 
 tality, can, to some extent, forget experiences, and draw 
 on inductive intellect for the devising of current neces- 
 sities. It is materially otherwise with the brute, who 
 for want of the devising powers of reason must, un- 
 consciously, substitute the remembrance of co-ordinated 
 experiences, and essentially repeat himself — each time 
 adding another evolution to his training. As the blind 
 man, who has not the benefit of sight, must make more 
 extensive use of his other senses, the irrational animal, 
 from want of reason, attains the ends it needs on its 
 simple plane, by a more diligent recurrence to the reg- 
 ister of its experience. And, considering its limited 
 mental range, the brute, as also many others of the 
 lower forms of life, has ever been remarkable for its 
 exact memory. 
 
 As an illustration of rare development of mind in the 
 lower forms, facts connected with the death of an ele- 
 phant, with some of the details, were related to me, in 
 which it was evident that the animal was a good repre- 
 sentative of his sagacious race. Prostrated upon his 
 huge side and suffering intensely, his eyes followed his 
 
150 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 I 
 
 keeper, who, besides other modes of relief, was applying 
 the soothing cold water ; and when at any time it was 
 discontinued, the sufferer would gently seize the hand 
 of the keeper and convey it from the water to the 
 wounded limbs ; also in the same manner calling his 
 attention to other seats of pain. 
 
 Here then, was, apparently, a phenomenon of the 
 human mind. It was doing about as sensibly as a hu- 
 man being would do. And without the use of language, 
 it was quite the same method by which a human being 
 would, under the circumstances, undertake to relieve 
 himself. And the question is, how is it to be accounted 
 for without according to the elephant the reasoning at- 
 tribute of the human mind? But what are the facts 
 in this mental phenomenon ? And what are its con- 
 ditions ? Do these necessarily involve the element of 
 reason ? Will not the theory of recurrence to co-ordi- 
 nated experiences registered in the mind of the animal, 
 and, indeed, assimilated with his bodily functions, 
 readily account for all that so strongly indicates reason 
 in these sentient deportments? In the first place, the 
 animal was affected by pain from which it sought relief 
 by its accustomed modes, so far as they were applicable 
 to the case. In the second place, its movements with 
 reference to the desired result, were the effect of certain 
 modes of mental force — the highest and most efficient 
 of its mental endowments would be called into service 
 by the deadly pain. His movement was toward a com- 
 pound object of relief, — the water and the hand, and 
 from thence to the wounded part. 
 
INTELLECT FURTHER CONSIDERED. 151 
 
 These facts, proceeding from a reasoning intelligence, 
 would be explained, substantially, after this formula: 
 the causative power of the hand must be directed to 
 communicate with the water and effect its deliverance 
 to the suffering part, implying also, a knowledge or a 
 belief of the existence of the requisite ability, and also 
 of the agreeable result following. And all this to be 
 perceived independently of experience or example, other 
 than the ideal act rationally constructed from prin- 
 ciples found in combination with outside circumstances. 
 For, though having experienced the treatment and the 
 consequent relief, and perceiving the probability of its 
 being followed by the same agreeable result, the man, 
 without necessarily noting or remembering these facts, 
 would proceed from their known principles to originate 
 the application, as the keeper himself had done. 
 
 After this manner, substantially, would the rational 
 mind have proceeded to produce the actions referred to 
 in the case of the disabled elephant. The same acts 
 assigned to the irrational mind, would, however, be ex- 
 plained by reference to a quite different mental process, 
 involving a much less capacity. Though the distress- 
 iug heat might have suggested a bath to the elephant, 
 no signals indicated the bringing of the water, nor its 
 application, prior to experiencing the act from the 
 keeper, although a large body of it was near at hand, 
 and his organization would have permitted their use. 
 Kecourse to experience of correlated circumstance, is 
 the short and sufficient means of explaining the meth- 
 
152 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ods of the irrational mind in procuring the somewhat 
 singular deportment of this animal. 
 
 But the animal had, for years, and probably during 
 the whole of his long life, been the constant companion 
 and servant of a keeper, from whom he received every 
 privilege he enjoyed and every supply he needed — had 
 often experienced severe punishment and kind restora- 
 tion from the same hand ; and from the same source 
 had received constant training. His instinct, therefore, 
 could not be otherwise than largely modified into human 
 habits, as his experiences were almost wholly from the 
 traits and treatments of his keeper. Besides, his main 
 experiences, as to his own acts and deportments, were 
 of close observation of the keeper's movements, with 
 a constant retention of their effects upon himself. 
 
 Then that he should have recurred to his keeper's 
 hand, with a view to mimic the mode of relief that he 
 just experienced, was but in accordance with his organic 
 nature and his lifelong training. 
 
 That the motion should be so human like — so like 
 one using his arm in handling an object — is from the 
 peculiar proxy arrangement of his organization, and is 
 not essentially unlike extending his trunk to his food 
 and conveying it to his mouth, or the bird seizing the 
 twig and adjusting it to its nest — a mode of motion 
 that it never learned nor otherwise acquired, but was 
 part of it at its birth — a wonderful piece of mentality, 
 yet wholly below reason. 
 
 People are often led to misjudge that because such 
 phenomena are in strong resemblance to acts of reason, 
 
INTELLECT FURTHEK CONSIDERED. 153 
 
 they are necessarily attributable to reason alone ; not hav- 
 ing fully considered the domain of instinct and the va- 
 riety of purposes to which it may be extended by training, 
 and what results may, and often do, thus follow from 
 the many correlated chains of experiences at the disposal 
 of an acute mind which is yet wholly on the plane of 
 instinct. 
 
 Then, again, it is often the case that the absence of 
 the power of analogy — one of the cardinal elements of 
 reason in its lower forms — leads, substantially, to the 
 same results that follow from the use of this great at- 
 tribute of mind. 
 
 The indistinguishable grouping, simultaneously or in 
 succession, of similar facts upon the mental apprehen- 
 sion, having a resemblance so strong as to cast, essen- 
 tially, the same impression and awaken the same states 
 of consciousness, would also call forth the same deport- 
 ment, the one fact or experience as the other, and 
 would from the sense of oneness^ without analogy, apply 
 to the same uses ; which would very readily occur on a 
 low plane of mind. But the more sentient mind, know- 
 ing them as separate and, by the power of analogy, 
 judging them to be suitably alike, would be disposed to 
 also apply them each to the same use, the same as in 
 the previous case. In the one case, because they are 
 indistinguishable, the one object or experience, may, by 
 instinct, be mistakenly taken for the other; in the 
 other, from a consciousness of their distinction joined 
 with the fact of their resemblance, reason might decide 
 that they may represent or substitute each other. In the 
 
154 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 m 
 
 former case, the substitution would be from a mistaken 
 identity; in the latter, a device emanating from the 
 mind. 
 
 Where the resemblance disappears in an absolute one- 
 ness, analogy or reason is impossible ; but where there 
 is a difference — a separation — a space — as between in- 
 dependent units, analogy erects her ideal mathematical 
 lines, and mentally conveys them over the interlying 
 differences, and by them measures and computes the 
 resemblances, forming thus a judgment as to the extent 
 and manner that one may take the place of the other 
 and yield the same results. 
 
 A main distinction, then, between mind on the level 
 of instinct, and that on the level of reason, is, that in 
 the former it is actuated from without, by the impinge- 
 ment of current experiences correlating with those that 
 are registered in the memory, and thus exciting the voli- 
 tion whereof the mind proceeds, in its accustomed 
 modes, to influence the organism to select results in 
 harmony with the major stress of appetite, passion or 
 any form of yearning; while in the latter it is self- 
 actuating and originative — devising within itself and 
 issuing from itself, new modes and reforms of modes. 
 The former being but adapted to echo devices of 
 thought, the latter to create them. On the lower level, 
 ideas reflect, on the higher, they originate. 
 
 But, as both of these forms of mind are resident in 
 man, who, under Deity, is probably the only example 
 of the attribute of reason, and as they combine in 
 nearly every form of his thought and conduct, it re- 
 
INTELLECT FURTHER CONSIDERED. 155 
 
 quires very careful and penetrative analysis to avoid 
 confounding the one with the other, while, when rightly 
 separated, their unlikeness is readily apparent. And it 
 is from the fact of the uniformly unlike and unequal 
 mind of the brute, as compared with that of man, that 
 the suggestion first proceeded that a radical distinction 
 existed in mind, separating it into the irrational and 
 rational forms. 
 
 But how different from imitation or repetition of ex- 
 perience, is the phenomenon of originating the treat- 
 ment — the part acted by the keeper of this elephant. 
 While it is not the best illustration of the attribute of 
 reason that is to be given, the part performed by the 
 man is yet essentially unlike that performed by the 
 beast. It is supposable that he was then for the first 
 time in the presence of these facts in exactly this com- 
 bination. It was, on the whole, an entirely new im- 
 pression. And, as a combination, it could not connect 
 with any of his experiences. There was no continuity 
 of this composite fact to unify it with one of previous 
 experience or observation, by which the remedial act in 
 respect to it could be prompted, as there was in the case 
 of the elephant. But the keeper, it is to be supposed, had 
 seen cases in which facts similar to these were present. 
 However, they were combined with others not similar ; 
 so that, as aggregates, they were dissimilar and unsug- 
 gestive of the mode of procedure, till sentient and cre- 
 ative reason could administer upon them, separating 
 the similar from the dissimilar, and from an estimate of 
 
156 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 how far the modes of relief in the former might supply 
 the same good in the present case. 
 
 Possessing the power to perceive abstract principles 
 and their properties, from which to select and construct 
 the ideal fact of relief, after which the literal fact should 
 be formed, the unarranged factors of relief, lying strewn 
 through nature, were at his command, to the extent to 
 which this divine attribute of induction was attained in 
 him. With this pre-eminence of mind — appointed for 
 unlimited voyaging in a limitless sea of principles, con- 
 crete and abstract, this assuaging device, seemingly so 
 impossible to the brute, was so simple and easy to the 
 man. 
 
 BEASON IN LOWER ANIMALS NOT POSITIVELY DISCLAIMED. 
 
 For the purpose of exemplifying the realm of instinct, 
 the animal kingdom under man has here been held to 
 view, as being without the element of reason. That is, 
 however, not finally insisted upon, as already intimated. 
 That is to say, that a latent germ of the reasoning mind 
 may be imbedded in the lower organisms, which by 
 some future possibility may grow into recognition, it 
 would be unsafe to positively deny. Only, in the sup- 
 port of that hypothesis, it were necessary to explain 
 why, when surrounded by the same nature that man 
 is, and preceding him in the world, the highest brute 
 has not produced what is necessarily an act of reason ? 
 Also, why their mental state as families, remains abso- 
 lutely fixed — neither gaining nor losing? All modifi- 
 cations are well shown to be temporary only — disap- 
 
INTELLECT FURTHER CONSIDERED. 157 
 
 pearing with the removal of the special causes to which 
 they are due ; thus rising, or settling back again, to the 
 typal character to which they belong, when released 
 from temporary constraint. 
 
 Evidently for want of rational capacity, rational ex- 
 periences by which they are in rare instances influenced, 
 are immediately lost when the rational agent disap- 
 pears. Thus far it is evident that the reasoning ele- 
 ment may impinge its facts in every conceivable way on 
 the mind of the beast, and leave with it no reasoning 
 trait. On the contrary, we observe that in man, ab- 
 stract principles, apprehended by one mind, are, even 
 without sensuous illustration, readily impressed upon 
 its kindred minds, where the same elucidation may con- 
 tinue on indefinitely unfolding new combinations of 
 principles, from which human life shapes itself into 
 ever varying habits. 
 
 From what has been said of instinct, it is appar^.ntly 
 a form of mind that is resident upon the senses only, 
 and is limited to the apprehension of sensuous phe- 
 nomena ; only apprehending the properties of external 
 nature. It may take observation of colors, as identli&ed 
 with visible objects, but not apart from them. It may 
 distinguish yellow and blue, seen by the physical eye, 
 as characterizing some forms of nature, but could not 
 possibly translate them from their respective substances 
 into the ideal realm, and there combine them into 
 green. It, too, may take observation of the association 
 of properties, as color and shape, with some form of 
 taste, and anticipate the latter by the accustomed com- 
 
158 CONSOLATIONS OP SCIENCE. 
 
 bination of the former, as is to some extent illustrated 
 in the selection of food. But it cannot perceive the 
 ideal act of placing upon an object the designating 
 property of color or shape. 
 
 Then, when we come to give our attention to that form 
 of mind whose office it is to apprehend principles out 
 beyond the sensuous state and abstract from material 
 nature, there to see those principles not only, but also 
 their properties and relationships, and be able to ar- 
 range and combine their units into immutable chains of 
 logic ; and in this manner proceed to construct reliable 
 ideal systems which may be, and often are clothed with 
 material forms, as seen in every new device that falls 
 from the hand of man, we are in a realm of mind 
 which is essentially and immeasurably different from 
 that, the movements of which are limited to the sensu- 
 ous state. Such capacity, it is to be remembered, per- 
 ceives the immaterial, — properties that are not and 
 never can be associated with matter, — as the perception 
 of thought itself, for example! Here we deal with 
 another class of attributes, which imply the existence, 
 also, of a corresponding class of functions and sub- 
 stances and a more inward and more controlling realm. 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 The Moral Element and State. 
 
 AMONG the features that adorn the higher state of 
 life, the moral is especially conspicuous. Like 
 intelligence or like reason in intelligence, it is of a do- 
 main of its own. And while it is difficult to separately 
 identify it — intimately joined with life as it is, and 
 being itself a living entity, — yet its place and state are 
 approximately definable by its visible effects on the vo- 
 litions of the human mind. 
 
 As to its relation with mind, by its own conditions as 
 a sense allied to the perception of abstract properties — 
 the qualities of sense and of thought — it can appear in 
 connection with reason alone. It is in accord with af- 
 fection and very prominently reveals itself in that way, 
 yet is in no respect identical therewith, but at once 
 separates itself therefrom when by the light of reason 
 it discovers in affection conditions of unfitness with its 
 nature's requirements. That it is a sense in itself, as 
 we see sight or taste to be, and not to be conformded 
 "with a mode of mental perception, is apparent in the 
 fact that it is primarily a matter of taste, and reveals 
 itself essentially alike in all human life. Man might 
 see, with absolute clearness, the conditions of right and 
 
 159 
 
160 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 wrong, and, beyond personal convenience, choose the 
 right no sooner than the wrong, but for the taste we 
 here call the moral sense, — sometimes, in one phase of 
 it, conscience. 
 
 Being a sense within itself, its own peculiar nature is 
 not describable by reference to another, further than in 
 the matter of mode. So far as may be judged, it de- 
 rives its satisfactions by its special capacity for appre- 
 hending those forms or adaptations of life that we 
 designate by the term moral. We could not describe the 
 sense of sight by reference to the recognized quality of 
 another sense, and therefore could not possibly convey 
 an idea thereof to one who is mentally void of it ; but 
 we could indicate some of its uses by reference to the 
 sense of touch, which joins with sight in the observa- 
 tion of figure and extension. So, also, while the moral 
 taste could not be described to one who is inherently 
 void of it, however intelligent and cultured otherwise 
 he might be, yet some of its uses and importance are to 
 be seen by reference to the social convenience and re- 
 finement that result from it. For the immoral man 
 may still be a lover of the beautiful and of his kindred 
 life. And thus some of the effects of morality might be 
 apparent and interesting to him, as shape and dimen- 
 sions are to the blind ; but if given to right doing, it 
 would be for the effect's sake and not for right's own 
 sake ; as the invalid might eat food for strength's sake, 
 and not for the sake of pleasure which a perverted or 
 absent taste could not afford. But as animal economy 
 would be very insufficiently supplied with food without 
 
THE MORAL ELEMENT AND STATE. 161 
 
 a taste for it, so would society be speedily deprived of 
 its essential virtues, when no longer induced thereto by 
 the cravings of its moral sense. 
 
 One will readily recall the fact that that simple ele- 
 ment of morality called honesty, is mainly advocated 
 from the consideration that it is a matter of commercial 
 necessity, — that without integrity business would be im- 
 practicable. Hence, " honesty is the best policy. " But 
 this is desiring the result, merely, and not the thing it- 
 self. The moral principle is not, in this way, recognized 
 at all, — only its effects. And that men do honestly is 
 not always evidence that they are honest — that it is 
 from the sense of honesty seeking gratification; of 
 which the many depleted individual and community es- 
 tates can testify. And until this sense is sufficiently 
 enlarged to make its demands for gratification the con- 
 trolling influence among the tastes of life, eradicating 
 the false sentiments of exclusive selfishness, and found- 
 ing honesty on a less precarious principle than mere 
 policy, these inflictions must be expected to continue to 
 distress th^ business world. 
 
 But that the love of honesty itself is recognized as a 
 fact, and is also appreciated, is manifested in the fact 
 that certain ones of whom it is believed to be strongly 
 characteristic, are universally at a premium in business; 
 circles. 
 
 While at this stage of human development, this form 
 of the moral sense — as indeed all moral sense — is not 
 commonly well developed, yet scarcely a civilized com- 
 munity is to be found where there are not examples of 
 11 
 
162 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 it sufficiently strong to indicate its special character, — 
 where public confidence, in respect to its possessors, 
 would not rest secured in the presence of a very large 
 measure of temptation. And the saying that " every 
 man has his price, " is a cruel injustice to many on this 
 better grade of human life, with whom neither money 
 nor position is availing to divert from the course of 
 pure equity. 
 
 Then related in this same moral sense with honesty, 
 but more comprehensive in application, and not so par- 
 ticularly commercial in import, is the sentiment referred 
 to in the word Duty. It implies obligation or binding 
 by the appearance of fitness in life, in all its modes — 
 in the personal, social, commercial and esthetical. And 
 while it includes the principles of justice and honesty 
 in all their applications, it does not recognize them by 
 their commercial values, but by their abstract merits of 
 satisfying the taste of equity. To illustrate : One may 
 be so situated as to be interested in the musical taste 
 of the community, and be desirous of musical attain- 
 ment in society; but his interest extends only to its 
 commercial value — the profits of its trade. This value 
 may cause him to be a \qij enthusiastic advocate and 
 patron of music culture. But, plainly, it is not for 
 music's own sake. It is not responding to the passion 
 of music, — only to the passion of money. It does not 
 suggest to us the principle that is apparent in the one 
 who pays his money for the privilege of enjoying the 
 music. The former is yielding to the taste of com- 
 mercial value, the latter to the taste of musical value. 
 
THE MORAL ELEMENT AND STATE. 163 
 
 Then the one fact of music readily employs these two 
 very unlike sentiments of life. In like manner may the 
 facts of justice and honesty be appreciated and de- 
 manded from the same unlike considerations, — the one 
 for their own sake, the other for their effects' sake. 
 
 So while Duty makes requisition for all beneficial 
 conventionalisms of society, it does so from the sense 
 and not the convenience of equity. 
 
 Another peculiarity of this form of the moral sense 
 consists in the fact that its motive, or objective claim, is 
 to convey a good or gain from self to another, rather 
 than the reverse, and often expresses itself in acts of 
 self-sacrifice. And where self becomes the subject of 
 its desires, it is by the way of that lofty sentiment that 
 counts on self only as a necessary factor of the whole, 
 and subservient to the general good, and whose impar- 
 tial participance in the good to be bestowed individual- 
 wise, becomes a common necessity. It actuates life 
 unselfishly by finding its own objective good in yielding 
 good to life beyond the limits of self. It is the source 
 of that feeling of obligation to the disinterested good of 
 fellow beings that is so adorning to the habits of hu- 
 man society, and is referred to in the words of the 
 Divine Teacher: "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye 
 would that men should do to you, do you even so to 
 them." 
 
 That, however, is not necessarily unselfish, nor what 
 is meant by the term duty, which prompts the bestow- 
 ment of good on an object of special personal interest, 
 as upon a friend controlling one's affections and thereby 
 
 or THE 
 
164 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 bis volitions. When done by the universal law of 
 equity, it is in accord with thfe sentiment of duty ; but 
 even then it is due to another, — a more common and 
 inferior, though very precious, principle of life — selfish 
 friendship, or self interest in another, — a principle that 
 is expressed in the provisions that most animals make 
 for their offspring; and which the rational and more 
 diffusive mind of man extends to kindred and other 
 affinities in life. But duty refers to pure equity, with- 
 out regard to sympathy of any form. It is deferring 
 to the good of another in pursuance to the cravings of 
 equity in the presence of manifest worthiness, and not 
 with a purpose to obtain gratification to selfish sympa- 
 thies, however rightful and holy in their place such 
 may be. 
 
 Justice (another name for equity) is often symbolized 
 by the blind eyes, the even balances and drawn sword ; 
 denoting that the feelmg of self interest affected by love 
 or by fear or by commercial advantage, is not observed 
 in determining its awards; and that justice is not a 
 mere expediency determined upon by man while legis- 
 lating for the advantage of aggregated humanity, but is 
 part of an original sense for taking cognizance of the 
 moral qualities of life, indicated by cravings of this 
 special character. 
 
 MORALITY DEFINED. 
 
 Taste of fitness as to parts and modes of rational life, 
 designates the function of morality. The fitness might 
 exist a-nd be distinctly apparent to the intellect, without 
 
THE MORAL ELEMENT AND STATE. 165 
 
 affording us a morality, were the taste therefor wanting. 
 Fitness or harmony of sounds might exist, and a 
 knowledge of them attained by ingenious students of 
 acoustics, but were there not taste whereby melody 
 were appreciable, we would have no music nor be aware 
 of its existence, and its most sublime executions would 
 be liable to excite disgust. The same observations, sub- 
 stantially, would be seen to apply to all our pleasing 
 arts, in which such great accomplishments are attained, 
 and of which we have such immeasurable good. 
 
 It is to be still further observed that by way of these 
 several tastes of life, by which the arts are appreciated, 
 these lovely harmonies, so characterizing nature, serve 
 immeasurably to awaken life and to extend its powers. 
 So also the pure moral sense perceiving the charms of 
 a life of true morality, is the source of a constant and 
 surpassing joy not alone, but of the enlargement of life. 
 Hence, too, the noted fact that morality is life-giving 
 and immorality is devitalizing to the mind. While, 
 therefore, the moral sense suffices to promote the in- 
 dispensable principle of equity, the high order of hap- 
 piness it confers by bringing into consciousness the 
 beauty of fitness in social and divine relations of life, 
 is a surpassing blessing to the race, by stimulating life 
 to all proper attainments. 
 
 THE MORAL SENSE AND THE BRUTE. 
 
 As the element of reason has been claimed in small 
 measures, or in incipiency, for the lower forms of ani- 
 mals, so also has it been claimed that the moral sense, 
 
X66 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 or the begmning of it, is a factor in the brute economy. 
 But as we have seen an absence of that superior men- 
 tality in all forms of life below the human — no phenom- 
 ena occurring there that are necessarily acts of reason — 
 so, likewise, do we find upon a most thorough and care- 
 ful examination of the facts adduced in evidence of this 
 claim, that they lack the conditions of life that render 
 the presence of the moral sense a necessity. Admitting 
 without questioning as to possible extravagances in the 
 reported examples referred to (for most of them are 
 taken on trust), they are yet inadequate to satisfy the 
 requirements of a final test for that divine sense. All 
 the notable feats referred to are easily traceable to selfish 
 instinct in harmony with personal ends in these animals 
 — the good falling luithin the limits of self interest and 
 not beyond. They are but instances of sensing a good 
 wherein self is, directly or indirectly, the sole end, and 
 not where the abstract principle of right — sensing the 
 equity itself in the mutual modes of life, already set 
 forth — is the motive. 
 
 As the late Mr. Darwin's views on natural history 
 are authority with what may be called the Darwinian 
 school of naturalist, outside of which we find but few 
 scientists of note claiming the moral sense for the brute, 
 it will not be necessary to introduce examples other 
 than the most important of those he has seen fit to 
 give. This would be especially proper from the fact that 
 he seems strongly inclined to correct what he regards 
 as an error, that which would limit the moral sense to 
 the realm of man, and may be expected to support his 
 
THE MORAL ELEMENT AND STATE. 1G7 
 
 cause by selecting the most convincing examples ; and 
 also because his range of observation in the field of 
 natural history has been quite as extensive as that of 
 any one of this greatest age ; and still further because his 
 work consists more in tabulating statistics than evolving 
 theories of this great science, and that he is, on the 
 whole, as unbiased and fair in his conclusions as any 
 one we could name. It is important also in accepting 
 statements in evidence, that they come to us from com- 
 petent witnesses — that no essential fact has been over- 
 looked. Hence it requires one who knows what facts 
 are needed and to be looked for, and who has no 
 undue prominence of faculty for drawing facts from the 
 imagination or confounding a fact of one class with that 
 of another. And so while thousands of good people 
 and good judges in their specialties, might be anxious 
 to submit their observations on this subject, being con- 
 fident that in a favorite dog, horse, cow, cat or bird 
 they had witnessed as distinct a morality as that in 
 man, we could take no risk on their judgment, till there 
 was proof of their qualification to apply the proper 
 tests. 
 
 The pure scientist in our specialty, who, besides his 
 love of truth, has his reputation as a scientist at stake 
 under a thousand closely dissecting eyes, who is never 
 satisfied with superficial appearances, who moves toward 
 conclusions slowly and allows no secret possibility to es- 
 cape him, is the proper one from whom to have the 
 facts we wish to apply to our inquiry. It is, however, 
 
168 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 true, that an expert may draw from a witness in respect 
 to a case more than the witness himself knows. 
 
 The instances adduced by Mr. Darwin (Descent of 
 Man, vol. 1, pp. 71 — 75) in support of the theory in 
 question, are few indeed, and, with perhaps two excep- 
 tions, are of very commonplace character. His method 
 is by exhibiting deportments supposed to be parallel with 
 the moral sense in man ; namely, of mutual aid. But 
 mutual aid may be prompted by a variety of animal 
 motives without any necessary reference to the moral 
 element. The idea of the mutual in life plainly par- 
 takes of the selfish character, and of a personal good. 
 Also, mutual aid may occur where even the idea of it 
 does not occur — by incidental arrangement. Thus when 
 the timid, nervous rabbit, sheep or chamois, whose safety 
 lies in the power of its legs, unconsciously, in readiness 
 to spring, stamps the ready foot on the ground, the act 
 would at once startle its equally suspecting companions. 
 The leader, too, of a troop of monkeys, whose place 
 is necessarily in the line of march and ranged in the 
 eyes of the whole company, may unconsciously display 
 a warning to his companions, from the fact that danger 
 would be first apparent to his advanced position. He 
 may well " act as a sentinel " and be unconscious of 
 acting for any one but himself. So of the bird that is 
 perched aloft. To it not only is danger more apparent, 
 but its more lonely position renders it more cautious ; 
 and while its first discovering and first moving in flight, 
 alarming its companions, would suggest the idea of 
 "sentinel" to a rational being, all could as well take 
 
THE MORAL ELEiMENT AND STATE. 169 
 
 place from this accidental arrangement. And does not 
 the baboon attract more attention in an effort to over- 
 turn a stone of unusual size ? And may not the rush 
 of companions to his assistance be from the prospect 
 of more abundant insects, rather than from considera- 
 tion of friendly aid ? The better proof of friendly aid 
 would be that these baboons, after having overturned 
 the stone, would leave their companion in the undivided 
 possession of the uncovered morsels which were his by 
 right of discovery ! 
 
 One may imagine, who does not know, how distress- 
 ing is the presence of parasites, and that the relief 
 from them would be greatly desired ; and when done by 
 a rational being would be accorded to the motive of 
 benevolence. And from these appearances our distin- 
 guished naturalist is considering the act of monkeys 
 searching each other's persons for these troublesome 
 concomitants, as evidence of moral principle, or at 
 least, social aid; and it might be difficult to account 
 for the seeming generosity on other grounds, if these 
 parasites were not relished by them as food ! The tor- 
 mented one becomes quiescent under the sense of relief, 
 while the motives of the relief are the little relishes on 
 the neighboring skin. And by these facts, we may eas- 
 ily explain the not very wonderful fact cited by him 
 (p. 72) from Mr. Brehm, who states, with much con- 
 fidence, that after a troop of monkeys "has rushed 
 through a thorny brake, each monkey stretches itself on 
 a branch, and another monkey sitting by, 'conscien- 
 tiously' examines its fur and extracts every thorn or 
 
170 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 burr." Essentially the same irritation of the skin as 
 produced by parasites, would at once also suggest the 
 same mode of relief, and its invitation by the recum- 
 bent position; while the search for the usual objects 
 would result in the removal, incidentally or by way of 
 testing their fitness for food, the foreign substances that 
 might be lodged there, without necessarily involving the 
 least measure of sympathy. 
 
 Still another class of facts he represents by state- 
 ments, first, from Captain Stansbury, who " found, on 
 a salt lake in Utah, an old and completely blind pelican, 
 which v/as very fat, and must have been long and well 
 fed by his companions ; " and, secondly, a correspond- 
 ing one from Mr. Bly, who saw blind crows fed by their 
 companions. But one will readily recall the quarreling 
 carnivals of these birds, especially the latter class, ab- 
 stracting food from each other's mouths by the very op- 
 posite from friendly sentiments. Then it is also to be 
 remembered with what special care blind animals ad- 
 here to their companions, and to what remarkable 
 extent they make their other senses supply to them the 
 use of sight ; and by these the solution of what there 
 is in these examples, if not easy, is yet very possible, by 
 the possibility of pursuit and robbery yet remaining 
 with these afflicted ones. And if then there is no miscal- 
 culation in respect to these last instances, just reviewed^ 
 all instances of mutual aid thus far adduced by Mr. 
 Darwin as evidence of moral sense in the lower animals, 
 are fairly and easily explained by the theory of mere 
 selfish instinct operating under casual allotment, and 
 
THE MORAL ELEMENT AND STATE. 171 
 
 without reference of any sort to the welfare of com- 
 panions. 
 
 That moral intelligence would dictate arrangements 
 for mutual aid, and, to some extent, in form like the 
 foregoing, were most natural indeed. But that they may 
 occur from the most dissimilar causes is equally plain. 
 And the question as to which of the knowTi causes shall 
 be assigned in a given case, is always to be answered 
 by reference to the grade of life to which the animal 
 concerned, belongs. 
 
 But the facts adduced which are entitled to the most 
 consideration, are those in which there is so evidently 
 the feeling of behalf or sympathy, and which is . seem- 
 ingly quite another sentiment from that of mere desire 
 of companionship. The latter, though often partaking 
 of sympathy, may exist without it, and is sometimes 
 equivalent to mere affinity with surroundings, — which 
 surrounding may be of animate or inanimate nature, — 
 as one feels pleasure in the presence of flowers or in 
 mountain or water scenery or works of art, and may be 
 so strongly attached to these as to leave kindred asso- 
 ciates for their companionship. The fact is probably 
 due to pleasure derived from certain expressions of form 
 or movement on the part of these objects, which har- 
 monize with a corresponding consciousness or taste in 
 the attracted life. To be sure, companionship of this 
 kind is usually of much less power than that of ani- 
 mate life, which may also be from the fact of its repre- 
 senting less of the conditions that are required in 
 response to the great and intricate variety of animal 
 
172 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 sentiments. But the love of companionship is no cer- 
 tain proof of an interlying sympathy; while, on the 
 other hand, the most tender sympathy may be without 
 a corresponding measure of desire to associate, — indeed 
 may exist with no desire of companionship by the mutu- 
 ally affected parties. In fact, finding the two sentiments 
 happily going together, as in the case of love and sym- 
 pathy, is no evidence that they are related or spring from 
 the same cause. 
 
 SYMPATHY DEFINED. 
 
 Sympathy, the chief basis of friendship in society, is 
 one of the many forms of that oneness of life denoted 
 by the general term affection — self represented in 
 another by a living, reciprocating bond that interlies and 
 pervades all of life that ebbs and flows on the same 
 level. This bond may be illustrated by reference to 
 ordinary magnetism — material affection, which, though 
 it is manifested only in its individualized or polarized 
 forms, is nevertheless the same active substance at all 
 the points of the seeming vacuums between, and is that 
 by which the self of one individual substance is identi- 
 fied with all others on the same plane. 
 
 Hence sympathy is realized in the home heart when 
 want is agitating another. 
 
 But the sympathizing bond cannot extend beyond its 
 own element, nor can it be realized at all, speaking of 
 it in the customary way, save in the negative or want- 
 ing state of another. From this fact we have the adult's 
 tenderness toward the young offspring ; and in it, too, 
 
TEE MORAL ELEMENT AND STATE. 173 
 
 considering the intimate nearness of the child in the 
 order of nature, and hence the correspondingly increased 
 power of the bond, we see the cause of that wonderful 
 self-denial of the mother in behalf of the infant nest- 
 ling in her provident arms. 
 
 From this principle also the child may feel sympathy 
 for the parent or the weaker for the stronger, when the 
 latter is regarded by the former as affected by some form 
 of yearning or pain. 
 
 And need we to look farther than this for all that is 
 essential to account entirely for those sympathizing de- 
 portments of the lap-dog and the monkey cited by Mr. 
 Darwin ? In the first of these examples he related an 
 instance of a somewhat common occurrence, " a person 
 pretending to beat a lady who had a very timid little dog 
 on her lap. * * The little creature instantly jumped 
 away, but, after the pretended beating was over, it was 
 really pathetic to see how perseveringly he tried to lick 
 his mistress' face and comfort her" (ibid, p. 74). How 
 readily to a moral being, accustomed to the use of the 
 moral sense, this demeanor would suggest a moral fac- 
 ulty in the dog ; while in fact it is but an instance of 
 sympathy matured into a prominence sufficient to actu- 
 ate the ordinary instinct of the animal ; though much 
 weaker than that with which the parent dog caresses her 
 young progeny when seeking to restore them when 
 abused, or to supply food to their hungry mouths, when 
 their clamor indicates their want of it, for which acts 
 of routine life, no one has claimed a moral quality. 
 
174 COXSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 It is all within the provisions of self-interest. The ex- 
 ample of the monkey is as follows : 
 
 " Several years ago a keeper at the Zoological 
 Gordens showed me some deep and scarcely healed 
 wounds on the nape of his neck, inflicted on him 
 while kneeling on the floor by a fierce baboon. The 
 little American monkey, who was a strong friend of this 
 keeper, lived in the same large compartment, and was 
 dreadfully afraid of the great baboon. Nevertheless, 
 as soon as he saw the keeper in peril, he rushed to the 
 rescue, and by screams and bites so distracted the 
 baboon that the man was able to escape," (ibid, p. 75). 
 
 In this case of the abused as well as petted monkey, 
 it is rather difficult to decide whether its conduct was 
 prompted more from sympathy with the keeper than 
 from consideration of revenge on the baboon, of which 
 the conflict afforded an opportunity. But let us suppose 
 that it was the former, and we shall have but another of 
 the numerous illustrations following this law of oneness 
 or sympathy pervading the same level of animated 
 being ; in the nature of which there is always at least 
 enough of self and self- consideration, so that the acts 
 arising therefrom may be regarded as prompted by self 
 interest. No sentiment higher than this is required to 
 explain this not at all remarkable transaction. 
 
 Another instance from our author in this same con- 
 nection, and again cited from Brehm, is that, *'When 
 the baboons in Abyssinia plunder a garden, they silently 
 follow their leader ; and if an imprudent young animal 
 
THE :>iurv.^L ELEMENT AND STATE, 175 
 
 makes a noise he receives a slap from the others to 
 teach him silence and obedience ; but as soon as they 
 are sure that there is no danger, all show their joy by 
 much clamor." Now his statement as to these pro- 
 cedures is easily accepted. But not quite so with his 
 inferences. Thieves of any order of animals operate as 
 much as possible in silence and under cover ; and noises 
 likely to betray them are no doubt aggravating and sug- 
 gestive of the customary means of resentment, which 
 with lower animals commonly fall upon the weaker ones. 
 A.nd that the slaps referred to are for discipline, what- 
 ever they may incidentally result in, is far less probable 
 than that they are for the more ordinary purpose of 
 easing a passion ! But why did our observing natural- 
 ist not state the fact that these baboons usually leave 
 their quite young ones behind when engaged in these 
 depredations, and infer that they do so from a desire to 
 not have them fall under the influence of stealing ! With 
 respect to dogs possessing " something very much like 
 a conscience, " it were not wonderful that under domes- 
 tication, and their special intimacy with mankind in 
 that state, for many hundreds of generations, the many 
 observations of the traits of man, as to carefulness and 
 trusting, should often produce temporary modifications 
 of their character into resemblances of these. But as 
 in respect to apparent reason in lower animals, so of 
 these modifications,- — they are not reported of the dog 
 away from the influence of man — his favorite compan- 
 ion. 
 
 The error from which the supposition arises that mor- 
 
176 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ality is resident (incipiently) in the brute, consists in 
 assuming that, as seen in man, it is a consummation or 
 superior form of a lower and more simple element^ 
 probably the social instinct. Mr. Darwin says : " The 
 following proposition seems to me in a high degree proba- 
 ble — namely, that any animal whatever, endowed with 
 well marked social instincts, would inevitably acquire a 
 moral sense or a conscience, as soon as its intellectual 
 powers had become as well developed as in man " (De- 
 scent, vol. 1, p. 68). But this statement, so fairly pre- 
 senting the theory under review, fails not to bring to 
 notice the objections in which it is involved. It assumes 
 this possibility not for all social instincts. Only those 
 within a certain undefined limit — those of " well marked 
 social instincts " — are capable of attaining a moral 
 sense. But where does this limit lie ? And what does 
 it consist in ? Is that which is not so " well marked, " 
 lacking the basic principle of the moral sense ? are 
 questions whose answers are of essential importance in 
 the analysis of this problem. By this it is apparent 
 that the mere unqualified social instinct is without the 
 properties requisite for the moral sense, and that only 
 that social instinct is sufficiently marked which is sup- 
 plemented by the requisite property or element ; which 
 would most naturally be the superior or moral sense it- 
 self. Then, still further, the acquisition is made con- 
 tingent on intellectual powers " as well developed, or 
 nearly as well 'developed, as in man ; " assuming, sub- 
 stantially, that those favored animals must wait for 
 
THE MOBAL ELEMENT AND STATE. 177 
 
 their moral sense till they become human ! Well, that 
 will do ! 
 
 But this conclusion is justified by his own statements 
 further on : " There can be no doubt that the difference 
 between the mind of the lowest man and that of the 
 highest animal is immense. An antln'opomorphous ape, 
 if he could take a dispassionate view of his own case, 
 would admit that though he could form artful plans to 
 plunder a garden — though he could use stones for fight- 
 ing and for breaking open nuts, yet that the thought of 
 fashioning a stone into a tool was quite beyond his scope. 
 Still less, as he would admit, could he follow out a 
 train of metaphysical reasoning, or solve a mathemat- 
 ical problem, or reflect on God, or admire a grand nat- 
 ural scene " (p. 100). With these admissions, in the 
 face of his proposition just reviewed, conceding the 
 " immense " difference that he here finds lying between 
 the mental and moral states occupied by the lowest 
 man and the highest animal, it signifies little that he 
 adds that the difference " is certainly one of degree and 
 not of kind. " And this is especially true, as some ever 
 present deficiency, which none of his school have hinted 
 at explaining, has thus far prevented the latter from 
 overcoming that difference; while having the same 
 world, and the same chance as that of man, and an 
 earlier start in which to accomplish it. 
 
 However, let the social instinct be understood to con- 
 sist of all that this school of thinkers claim for it — lei 
 it be regarded as being from the bond of sympathy, 
 from the sense of mutual aid, or commercial obligation, 
 
 12 
 
178 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 yet it is not the moral sense nor the element from which 
 the moral sense is derived. Its essential requirements 
 are not supplied by any of these conditions ; while, nev- 
 ertheless, it is the chief motive and authority for their 
 wise use ; for to the Taste of Fitness, as to the parts 
 and modes of rational life — the equity between its 
 members and the esthetical in its manners — we must 
 ever look for the persistence of the spirit of rectitude 
 and of virtue among mankind. And of this taste or 
 sense, after all, perhaps no one would expect to find 
 even so much as a trace, in all the living domain below 
 man. 
 
 Man is of the very latest arrivals on the planet. The 
 lower orders were in the exclusive possession of this 
 same world for untold ages before his arrival, and 
 since his arrival, all its advantages and all its good in- 
 fluences have been as free and liberal to the brute as to 
 him. And now that with all these the brute has yet no 
 taste for the moral qualities in life, can only be under- 
 stood by the theory that that element is without repre- 
 sentation on so low a plane, but is of a state of life 
 which is superior and farther inward. 
 
 And now, too, the pleasing fact is before us — one 
 which tends to move the profoundest sense of gratitude 
 — that with the superior state of being, wherein are all 
 the superior forces, there also resides the moral sense — 
 the taste for the moral qualities of life ; and that on 
 beyond the finite — in the realm of the Supreme — ^in the 
 soul of the Deity — its absolute perfections mingle with 
 the volitions from which the finite universe derives its 
 
THE MOEAL ELEMENT AND STATE. 179 
 
 laws and limitations. And, in the same view, an equal 
 cause for thankfulness is in the fact that where this 
 moral sense does not extend, there also are the smaller 
 measures of power to secure ends of injustice ; it being 
 always the weaker and less capable side of nature, and 
 that the enactments of which are at most temporary — 
 in time yielding to that spirit of supreme goodness 
 whose beneficence extends finally to all forms of feeling 
 life. 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 The Eeligious Element and State. 
 
 IN human economy the several manifestations of af- 
 fection are not attributable to the modified uses of the 
 one general function, influenced to operate in these sev- 
 eral ways by a conscious obligation to the several re- 
 lated conditions of life. This were the more convenient 
 way of judging of the matter ; but, however evidently 
 appropriate were bonds to strengthen these human re- 
 lationships, the fact of appropriateness, clearly seen 
 and appreciated, were wholly inadequate to account for 
 the several forms of fondness expressed in them. The 
 many instances of lost affection, of either of the forms, 
 where the appropriateness for its continuance remained 
 fully apparent to all concerned, are sufficient evidence 
 that they do not arise from the sense of their necessity, 
 fitness, or desirableness. 
 
 Besides, by a more thorough examination, instead of 
 merely one general function so widely versatile, we find 
 a group with their special attributes adapting life to the 
 several forms of its relationship and impassioning it 
 accordingly. Neither is it in all cases very difficult to 
 separate the parts into their distinct natures, to be thus 
 seen to be original factors of the indissoluble self of 
 
 180 
 
THE EELIGIOUS ELEMENT AND STATE. 181 
 
 man, and of the most essential and beneficent arrange- 
 ments of human economy. 
 
 Without the requisite form of affection, one might 
 know another as a convenience but not as a friend. 
 Friendship would suggest a convenience readily enough 
 at all times. But not so, reversely. The friend is asso- 
 ciated with the highest uses in life; but these uses, 
 apart from this requisite form of affinity, would not in- 
 duce the consciousness of friendship. Without still 
 another, one might know his properly wedded compan- 
 ion as a friend, but not as a conjugal mate. Without 
 the filial form, one might recognize another as his special 
 benefactor, even as his progenitor, but yet not as a 
 parent — an object of filial gratification. With it, there 
 is realized a sense of deference for life in the parental 
 state generally — prominently when it is ranking in sen- 
 iority, and ardently for the immediate progenitors of self. 
 In the final and the highest use, it excites sentiments 
 of adoration for the Deity — the Supreme Progenitor — in 
 him to find, with no lessening of its force in respect to 
 human parentage, its final gratification. Still another 
 illustration : One might be providently disposed toward 
 a child ; not alone from the consideration of its depend- 
 ent condition and possibly an interest in it as the be- 
 ginning of the unfolding of the rare qualities of a 
 human life, but from the more forcible consideration of 
 its owing its origin in the world to him, and yet, without 
 the requisite form of affection, fail to be moved toward 
 it by the greatest — the all-over-shadowing motive of 
 parental love. 
 
182 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Now it is to be conceded that some of these forms are 
 not readily so separated as to be separately viewed. 
 However, the difficulty is easily enough explained. It 
 is, in part, from the presence of the customary dispo- 
 sition to view all phenomena of this character as 
 emanating from one and the same principle of life. Be- 
 sides, occasions which evoke these several forms of af- 
 fection are transient or intermittent, giving the appear- 
 ance of an oscillating action of the mind, moving re- 
 sponsively to the various occasions eliciting it, render- 
 ing the impression that it is but the one principle of 
 mind in all cases. But in these disappearances instead 
 of anything like an arbitrary discontinuance of the 
 special form in a given case, it should be understood as 
 having simply dropped into latency, from the presence 
 of conditions unfavorable to its manifestation; the 
 same as life is known to do under exposure to devitaliz- 
 ing influences; ready, however, to reappear with the 
 recurrence of the required conditions. 
 
 Then, again, some of the forms are feebly developed, 
 even on the human plane. Some are occasionally, and 
 others probably altogether, absent from the lower king- 
 dom. There the conjugal rarely appears and, for many 
 reasons, the filial does not exist ; while of friendship 
 properly, the probability is that what is taken for it, in 
 the lower animals, is nothing higher than merely love 
 of companionship. The fact then that they are weak 
 and not fully demonstrative, would, of course, render 
 the work of distinguishing them more difficult. And 
 hence no difficulties of this character can properly con- 
 
THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT AND STATE. 183 
 
 stitute objections to the claim respecting affection, as 
 above set forth. 
 
 Then, likewise, a special psychical sense for appre- 
 hending the Deity is made necessary by the uniform 
 presence of a persistent tendency in human life to acts 
 that have solitary reference to such an existence. The 
 filial sense will not account for this. One may know 
 another as a parent and not as a deity. Or he might 
 know an object as a deity and not as a parent. From 
 the parental nature being found in a deity, it does not 
 follow that the deific is found in a parent. Neither 
 is the sentiment, subjectively, a product of the mental 
 state. The human mind, with more or less clearness, 
 is universally apprehensive of a sublime living existence 
 which nothing in the limits of the finite domain fully 
 comports with. It is possessed of a certain sense, in 
 varying prominence, that in no nation, cultured or un- 
 cultured, the highest mere human ideal will satisfy to 
 adequate fullness. 
 
 Mind would be able to locate a cause back of phe- 
 nomena ; and so, also, prior to all finite phenomena, 
 whatever they might be, a first cause ; but it could not 
 apprehend, in respect to the attributes and character 
 thereof, any thing not functionally represented in itself. 
 It could not recognize in it the moral quality, unless in 
 itself resided a function of the moral nature to render 
 it morally sentient. So, then, while the unaided sense 
 
 of philosophy would readily confirm a suggestion of the 
 
 • 
 
 Deity, it could not suggest Him. It also entirely con- 
 
184 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 firms music ; but, in the unmusical mind, it could not * 
 suggest music! 
 
 Besides, a purely mental or psychical sense is without 
 external organization, as mental sight, for example; 
 and is denoted only by its special form of force persist- 
 ently developing its characteristics to view in life. And 
 the presence of the characteristics is, unavoidably, 
 proof of the force and of the substance or essence from 
 whence they emanate ; as truly so as a sentient mode of 
 life denotes the sense of sight. Correlatively, also, the 
 existence of the sense is proof of its objective's reality. 
 
 But an argument for the existence of the special 
 sense through which the supreme is impressed upon 
 finite consciousness, were well-nigh as superfluous to one 
 who has considered its prevalence, as were one made 
 for the existence of the special sense of sight. And- it 
 may in this connection only be said that this variously 
 employed sense, joined with the sense of fitness in 
 the modes and relations of life, constitutes that super- 
 ethical sentiment known by the venerated name of Ke- 
 ligion. And it is from this sense of fitness being joined 
 to that of the recognition of the Deity in his supreme 
 worthiness that the human mind so commonly recog- 
 nizes in religion its supreme obligations. Also, in 
 accordance with this fact, this same high deference to 
 religion, when correctly formulated in the mind, is in- 
 dispensable to a well-balanced and properly sentient 
 life. 
 
 This function of consciousness of the existence of the 
 Supreme Being is induced to activity by the powerful 
 
THE EELIGIOUS ELEMENT AND STATE. 185 
 
 taste of fitness in life joined with it ; while, by a similar 
 relation, it derives from the faculty of reason sentient 
 confirmation and also the power of discerning suitable 
 modes of its gratification. And in combination with 
 these chief senses, it constitutes religion not only a con- 
 trolling, but, in the same measure, a refining and an ac- 
 complishing power in life. 
 
 In all examples of religion this taste of fitness has 
 appeared as its main impulse ; but when not associated 
 with a lucid reason to apprehend proper principles for 
 its observance, the impulse, thus deprived of its mental 
 eyes, has often staggered through blindness to the per- 
 petration of gross improprieties and dreadful crimes, of 
 which history has been a ready and commonly a very 
 willing witness. 
 
 As a matter of course, in the less sentient minds, the 
 conception of worthiness in the Deity is mainly limited 
 to his more obvious attribute of supreme power, in its 
 external manifestation ; while, to the more sentient, the 
 qualities of his life — the tastes and the forms of affection 
 in the deific Being — are measurably apparent. Hence 
 on this grade the divine worthiness is estimated by the 
 standard of a totally different and greatly superior 
 order of values, awakening also a correspondingly 
 higher and stronger sense of obligation. 
 
 From this greater eminence of life, less value, com^ 
 paratively, is seen in the mightiness and the intelligence 
 of the Deity to do as he pleases, than in his endearing 
 attributes which respond to the sentiments of affection 
 and the taste of fitness, — even though in his supreme 
 
186 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 power and wisdom he is seen maintaining the constitu- 
 tion of nature by a system of absolutely perfect and 
 unchangeable laws, as we so plainly see him to be doing. 
 And it is on this plane of life — ^where these realizations 
 in respect to the Deity are duly strong in human con- 
 sciousness — that religion becomes a supreme adoration. 
 On this plane, too, by the nature of these facts, man 
 becomes unalterably inclined to attain the accomplish- 
 ments of his mental and moral nature in more and 
 more of the perfection in which they appear in the Di- 
 vine Personality. 
 
 And, now, along with the superior qualities of life, 
 seen to be belonging to the inner and superior state 
 — with reason and the moral sense — we add, in con- 
 clusion, the sense of consciousness of the Supreme Be- 
 ing ; it being the essential factor of the religious element 
 in man. This sense is, less than reason or morality, 
 claimed to be represented in the brute plane of animal 
 economy. We might turn to a few alleged examples 
 of gratitude occurring in the brute, and referred to as 
 evidence of the religious principle. But gratitude — a 
 sentiment of obligation that characterizes the higher 
 practices of religion as well as also the more enlightened 
 forms of social life — is religion in no sense. Besides 
 these examples are so improbable as to evidently afford 
 little assurance of their soundness to those submitting 
 them. 
 
 However, in the lowest human society there is a wor- 
 ship, and in the darkest human mind a glimmer of the 
 deific, traced by the rude symbols of ideal divinities. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT AND STATE. 187 
 
 Yet in the highest and most favored brute there is a 
 characteristic absence of all these. And religious 
 modes of life being in man universally present and in the 
 brute universally absent, can only signify that he is the 
 representative of a domain of life lying far inward from 
 the brute, and unto which the element of the mere brute 
 never attains. And though man's entire nature is not 
 now, and for good reasons, may never be wholly inside 
 of this boundary, those elements of his being which 
 properly designate him as man — his reasoning mind and 
 his moral and religious senses with all their attendant 
 wide range of sentiments, — with all their present wonder- 
 ful achievements, and with all their possibilities in an 
 unlimited future in pursuit of the ever-increasing at- 
 tractions leading the way toward the deific perfections 
 above, — these, towering above and obscuring every other 
 part of his nature, are wholly of the innermost state of 
 life, — the inexpressibly glorious domain of man, the 
 
 ONLY REALIZING COMPANION OF HIS CREATOR ! 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Man in His Essential Self Continues Beyond the 
 
 Limits of Physical Existence. — The 
 
 Objections Keviewed. 
 
 ^^npO be or not to be ; that is the question" which un- 
 X derlies all others in contemplating the future. All 
 speculations and beliefs in respect to what is to be in the 
 state of life beyond the grave are at last contingent 
 upon the fact itself that there is such an existence. 
 The evidence — the universal anticipation of it — on 
 which the human family have so commonly rested their 
 faith in the continuance of life after death, is to be re- 
 garded with great respect, and as by no means without 
 foundation. Aside from the testimony from competent 
 fellow beings in respect to the dead seen in life again, 
 and the fact that the religion having the approval of 
 the highest order of mankind, originated amid circum- 
 stances of this character, and within the historic period 
 — aside from these, the fact of such a belief being com- 
 mon to mankind, regardless of state or education, and 
 hence being organic rather than of an accretive char- 
 acter, stands as proof thereof from nature itself. 
 
 This, until recent years, has been regarded as the 
 only scientific aspect of the question. All nature other- 
 
 188 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 189 
 
 wise being looked upon as at best a sealed book in re- 
 spect to the subject. Theologians of the best culture, 
 with few exceptions, were content to say to the non- 
 theological minds, " We agree with you that a future 
 life is not determinable from a stand-point of science. 
 We rest our faith therein on the authority of Revelation 
 alone, — claiming, however, at the same time that from 
 nature there is no voice against it." 
 
 The mind, by its indulgence in so strong a faith in 
 the future life, and withal one so hopeful as that rep- 
 resented by much of Christendom, has in many ways 
 been largely benefited. But there have all along been 
 many good minds, though less credulous, who have not 
 been able to so largely take advantage of a faith mainly 
 resting on the representations of history, however cred- 
 ible as such ; who sought confirmation by evidence from 
 the field of obvious nature. 
 
 This evidence has, over many difficulties, been slowly 
 advancing to view; but not from the source toward 
 which expectation has been mainly directed. The facts 
 first available are not from the domain of nature sur- 
 rounding man, but from that higher which his own per- 
 sonal existence embodies. 
 
 It has in previous chapters been seen that by tracing 
 the elements of life* in the several kingdoms, — in that 
 of man, in that of the animal below him, and in the 
 vegetable yet lower and more simple, that there are 
 universes of substances lying inward of this — the one 
 with which our present senses connect us — worlds in- 
 ward of this material world of our present state. And 
 
190 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 this is surely the most natural, if indeed not the only prac- 
 tical route by which we could proceed, hoping to dis- 
 cover internal universes — by closely observing the indi- 
 vidual phenomena of plants and animals that bear 
 traces of those states. 
 
 As to the existence of those states, doubt is not so 
 extensive on the part of the learned as casual observa- 
 tion of their works treating on other subjects than that 
 of other universes, would lead one to believe. Few 
 treatises from men of science are found having special 
 Reference to the subject. And treating of physical 
 sciences, they very properly use terms in their physical 
 sense, and may mislead theological minds into the be- 
 lief of their exclusive mineralism. Hence, not infre- 
 quently, they arise and explain. Also, very evidently, 
 many being so much preoccupied with their specialties, 
 have little room or liberty for the work of tracing out 
 new paths of science. Be this all as it may, the con- 
 cessions to the claims of a spiritual state coming from 
 this source, are sufficient in numbers and character to 
 largely commit the science of the age to its support. In 
 the words of Prof. Youmans, already cited, " The tend- 
 ency of this kind of inquiry " (modern science) " is 
 ever/rom the material, toward the abstract, the ideal, 
 the spiritual. " * * " From the baldest materiality 
 we rise at last to a truth of the spirit world, of so high 
 an order that it has been said * to connect the mind of 
 man with the Spirit of God.' " This would legitimately 
 follow from the habit of philosophy being to deal more 
 with the forces than with the materials of nature — their 
 
THE OBJECTIONS KEVIEWED. 191 
 
 correlations and conversions, through the unending va- 
 riations of mode, from ordinary mechanics up to the 
 volitions of mind. 
 
 But whether such a state is for the occupancy of be- 
 ings separated from this — beings originated in that state 
 or entered there from this or some other subordinate 
 state, is evidently less clear to them. And we find 
 them, when they come to devote themselves specially to 
 the question of the soul's future personal existence, 
 hoping and believing from the old forms of evidence — 
 historical revelation and common intuition — rather than 
 from settled principles of science. 
 
 Prof. Huxley's reply to Mr. Frederic Harrison's rather 
 singular position in respect to the question of a future 
 life (A Modern Symposium, — p. 82. — Kose-Belford 
 Pub. Co., Toronto,) probably represents the thoughts of 
 the majority of the distinguished writers of science in 
 the present day : 
 
 "I understand and I respect the meaning of tJie 
 word 'soul,' as used by Pagan and Christian phi- 
 losophers for that which they believe to be the im- 
 perishable seat of human personality, bearing through- 
 out eternity its burden of woe, or its capacity for adora- 
 tion and love. * * And if I am not satisfied with 
 the evidence that is offered me that such a soul and 
 such a future life exists, I am content to take what is to 
 be had and to make the best of the brief span of exist- 
 ence that is within my reach, without reviling those 
 whose faith is more robust and whose hopes are richer 
 and fuller. " 
 
 The sympathy with, and evident tendency toward a 
 
192 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 belief in a future life, which the distinguished biologist 
 has here committed himself to, is seemingly by way of 
 assent to it as a current religious sentiment. And he 
 is so disposed from a common spontaneous impulse to 
 believe, rather than from anything which his exacting 
 habits of thought would justify as evidence. 
 
 But with greater assurance does Prof. Wm. B. Car- 
 penter, the most widely accredited authority in physi- 
 ology living, notwithstanding the frequent references to 
 him as a skeptic, close his great work — '' Principles of 
 Human Physiology " — with these profoundly believing 
 words : " But the Death of the Body is but the com- 
 mencement of a new Life of the Soul ; in which (as the 
 religious physiologist delights to believe) all that is pure 
 and noble in man's nature will be refined, elevated, and 
 progressively advanced toward perfection; whilst all 
 that is carnal, selfish, and degrading, will be eliminated 
 by the purifying processes to which each individual 
 must be subjected, before Sin can be entirely ' swallow- 
 ed up of Victory ' " (American Edition of 1862 — p. 
 870). Although often drawn out on physical and phys- 
 iological topics connected with the recent developments 
 of science, in which his language, used comprehensively, 
 but with special purpose only to physical science, may 
 seem to antagonize the sentiment of this quotation, he 
 has not, so far as I know, given expression to views 
 that are necessarily opposed to it. But he has rather 
 said a good deal to corroborate it — enough to assure us 
 that though these words are not words of argument de- 
 duced from the established principles of his favorite 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 193 
 
 science, they are surely as liberally suggested from that 
 source as from the more commonly accepted evidences 
 of revelation and intuition. 
 
 At the present, scientific research has not fairly 
 reached the ground where the question of man's sur- 
 vival of physical dissolution comes unavoidedly into view. 
 And only here and there do we see an accredited leader 
 snatching a special opportunity to step in advance to 
 apply the rules of scientific evidence to the problem of 
 such an existence. The preliminary work is not yet 
 sufficiently advanced. The problems in respect to the 
 more obvious forms and modes of life are not yet suffi- 
 ciently well solved — are not yet so undebatably clear in 
 all respects as to make it necessary to proceed in force 
 to the next, the final and all-overshadowing question. 
 But as the researches in biology come to uncover more 
 completely the motives that are incidental to the forms 
 of Hfe, and the destinies that are deducible from the nat- 
 ure and arrangement of their functions, their orbits 
 will be called for and must be computed, which will ren- 
 der the question of an after death life impossible to be 
 avoided, leaving the mineralistic scholar, who is indis- 
 posed to such an issue being made in science, to decide 
 whether he will part company with his prejudices or 
 with the issues his times will inexorably bring up for so- 
 lution. 
 
 EELATION OF MIND AND BODY.— CONSCIOUSNESS. 
 
 The part that physical science has to act in settling 
 the question of a future life, is to determine the relation 
 
 13 
 
194 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 of mind and body ; from whicli it is to be ascertained 
 that the mind as well as the soul with which it is iden- 
 tified, is or is not, in its essential wholeness, separable 
 therefrom. Then, when such a separation is found 
 possible, that, at the death of the body, it is actual as 
 well — that the essential being is continued, and that the 
 dead are not dead — that death extends to no more 
 than the body, and that the sorrow of this is all that 
 the facts of death merely will justify, and, when fully 
 Been, will call forth. To a carefully thinking being, 
 however little he might realize thereof, this evidence of 
 a future state would be as uncontrovertible as would be 
 a residence in the land of spirits itself. The conditions 
 incident to that state might still be matters of specula- 
 tion and doubt, but the existence itself would be a fact 
 — a fact in science. Though it might not then be fully 
 and forcibly impressed on consciousness. 
 
 And now in proceeding to consider the evidences, it 
 is manifestly proper to first review the doubts and nega- 
 tives on the opposite side. For though they are not 
 numerous nor very often repeated, they have yet at 
 times been so forcibly stated as to have in many quite 
 strong and clear minds well-nigh extinguished belief. 
 Commonly the first negative met is a claim that, so far, 
 attempts at scientific proof that individual human life 
 may or does exist outside of a physical body, have 
 failed, while the improbabilities have also largely in- 
 creased. While this has much truth in it, it yet is far 
 from being altogether true. Then a more common, and, 
 perhaps, a more sober trouble is in respect to conscious- 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 195 
 
 ness. The expression usually is, How shall we know of 
 a matter of which we are so completely unconscious ? 
 How shall we be made sensible that life exists on the 
 other side of a state of unconsciousness ^ and that it is 
 not itself ended with the dissolution of the organization 
 with which consciousness inheres or is manifested ? Or 
 how shall we have knowledge of a state of conscious- 
 ness unconnected with our present mode of being to 
 which our senses are limited? This form of doubt, out 
 of which these questions arise, is deserving of much re- 
 spect, as it may readily result from the prevalent 
 method of dogmatizing in science, which so uniformly 
 inclines to exclude claims to facts of a psychological 
 character. 
 
 But what shall we say of consciousness ? What is it 
 to be conscious ? It denotes but the detention of the 
 senses, psychical or mental, in their active relation with 
 their objective states, while ministering to the individual 
 life from the side of nature or of being to which they 
 are adapted. Hence it can only be maintained in re- 
 spect to the state on which the senses are employed, 
 whatever side of being that may be. Whenever, there- 
 fore, our system of senses and faculties should be em- 
 bodied in an organism related with another order of ex- 
 istence, or objective world, and be discontinued with 
 the one relating us with this, we should be conscious of 
 that state and unconscious of this. By this view, this 
 negative would lose much of its force ; as evidently, a 
 want of consciousness of another conscious state would 
 not constitute the least measure of proof against its ex- 
 
196 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 istence. And besides, it would render the mind more 
 open to perceive what proofs of such a state might be 
 forthcoming, which is of great importance in this investi- 
 gation. 
 
 BISHOP BUTLER ASSAILED. 
 
 In his Belfast address (Advancement of Science), 
 this form of negative is introduced by Prof. Tyndall, in 
 a problematic manner, and by way of testing the 
 strength of Bishop Butler's position in defense of the 
 doctrine of future life as set forth in " The Analogy of 
 Keligion. " The position is honored with liberal conces- 
 sions of its strength ; yet not with being absolutely in- 
 vulnerable. Fatal flaws are believed to be discovered 
 in the argument. The bishop's well-known position is 
 that the proper self and the body bear the same relation 
 to each other that do the mechanic and his set of tools, 
 which he renders very firm by numerous forcible illus- 
 trations. Against this the professor brings his " disci- 
 ple of Lucretius," armed with the philosophy (the 
 atomic theory) of his distinguished master, — that the 
 soul and body are one and the same, and live and per- 
 ish as one. 
 
 The " disciple " proceeds to intimate that the bish- 
 op's statement that the removal of parts of the body, 
 as limbs, etc., does not remove anything from the con- 
 sciousness of a complete self, is without much force ; 
 and suggests the experiment be continued by removing 
 the brain, or by temporarily paralyzing it; saying: 
 " You begin at one end of the body, and show that its 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 197 
 
 parts may be removed without prejudice to the perceiv- 
 ing power. What if you begin- at the other end, and 
 remove, instead of the leg, the brain ? * * Or, in- 
 stead of going so far as to remove the brain itself, let a 
 certain portion of its bony covering be removed, and 
 let a rhythmic series of pressures and relaxations of 
 pressures be applied to the soft substance. At every 
 pressure ' the faculties of perception and of action' 
 vanish; at every relaxation of pressure they are re- 
 stored. Where, during the intervals of pressure, is the 
 perceiving power ? I once had the discharge of a Ley- 
 den battery pass unexpectedly through me ; I felt noth- 
 ing, but was simply blotted out of conscious existence 
 for a sensible interval. Where was my true self during 
 that interval?" (p. 45). 
 
 Somewhat anticipating the reply, he continues, "You 
 may say that I beg the question, when I assume the 
 man to have been unconscious, that he was really con- 
 scious all the time, and has simply forgotten what had 
 occurred to him. " Truly, so might it naturally be, in 
 harmony with the " instrument " theory, and with no 
 offense to any sense of fitness. And certainly in these 
 illustrations that theory has suffered no damage nor in- 
 convenience. " Where was my true self during that 
 interval?" — so enforced by the passage of the electric 
 discharge from the battery. Well, so far as the theory 
 is concerned, it is a matter of entire indifference as to 
 where the true self was at the time. That only pro- 
 vides that the true self and the organism of nerve wires 
 that continued the discharge through the individual 
 
198 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 body, were not one and the same thing. The self might 
 have been separate from the prostrate instrument ; in- 
 sularly connected therewith ; or even in a measure par- 
 ticipant in its fate. It is not incumbent on the theory 
 to show where or in what condition the self was during 
 the tragical instant. When the refractory lightning 
 leaps from the clouds on to the wires and thereby into 
 the operator's room, it may also penetrate him; but 
 that would not necessarily follow. Neither is it proba- 
 ble that his mind would be so much more active than 
 what is common of man, that it could take note of what 
 transpired in the interval — the flash. 
 
 Substantially the same answer will apply to the 
 removed or disabled brain, — it is simply disabled — dis- 
 qualified for use, in both cases. In the one instance, 
 it is not only sundered, but the vital circulation on 
 which its supply is dependent is also sundered, and it 
 could no longer be the instrument of consciousness. In 
 the other, essentially the same explanation will apply. 
 The instrument is broken and unable to represent its 
 agent, and hence consciousness has disappeared. But 
 that it has ceased with its manifestation, requires proof 
 of a class this school of Lucretius would be the last to 
 admit — evidence from the state beyond the unconscious 
 hiatus itself, testifying from knowledge that the con- 
 sciousness has not survived. 
 
 Without varying the principle, or scarcely the form, 
 our " disciple " submits a further illustration in this 
 same connection : " A telegraph operator has his instru- 
 ments, by which he converses with the world; our 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 199 
 
 bodies possess a nervous system, which plays a similar 
 part between the perceiving powers and external things. 
 Cut the wires of the operator, break his battery, de- 
 magnetize his needle ; by this means you certainly sever 
 his connection with the world ; but inasmuch as these 
 are real instruments their destruction does not touch 
 the man who uses them. The operator survives, and he 
 knows that he survives. What is it, I would ask, in the 
 human system that answers to this conscious survival 
 of the operator when the battery of the brain is so dis- 
 turbed as to produce insensibility, or when it is de- 
 stroyed altogether ? " (p. 46). In connection with the 
 answers already returned, it need here only be replied 
 that though the operator himself knows of his survival, 
 the fact is not within the reach of the consciousness of 
 the outside world till the wires and battery and deliver- 
 ing apparatuses are all up again. During the interval 
 his relation with the outside world would be the same 
 as would be that of the conscious entity in question, 
 whose presence is rendered vacuous to external realiza- 
 tion, by the disabled vital mechanism — a severed or 
 paralyzed brain. And, but for the force of analogy and 
 inductive evidence, the operator so separated from the 
 outside world, would, also, be reasonably supposed not 
 to exist. His existence it would be impossible to affirm. 
 Operators, however, have been, under similar circum- 
 stances, known to survive;- and the ready inference 
 would be that this one, too, has not ceased to exist; 
 though the means of sensuous knowledge have for the 
 time disappeared. But this is all the basis for behef in 
 
200 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 the existence of the unseen and unknown one m this 
 case, save what induction from a knowledge of the nat- 
 ure of the wire, the battery and the man, might certify. 
 For the operator, his fallen means of communication is 
 re-erected and his survival is made apparent. That 
 consciousness that is finally deprived of the essential 
 instrument of the brain, is not so well favored. No 
 master workman is able, at that final time, to revive it, 
 to re- erect the fallen fiber. And the occupant must be 
 content with another state of being and to know of 
 those in this world what he may have means to, without 
 the satisfaction that a definite knowledge of himself re- 
 ciprocally exists with them. Confirmation of their hope 
 of his existence, is to be had mainly, if not only, by 
 the inductive method ; which, in the good fortune of our 
 present day, is, with many, scarce less to be relied upon 
 than would be a verdict from the fickle senses them- 
 selves. 
 
 "Another consideration " he urges in his negative, as 
 pressing upon him " with some force. " It is the well- 
 known fact that " the brain may change from health to 
 disease, and through such a change the most exemplary 
 man may be converted into a debauchee or a murderer. " 
 And to illustrate, he cites the melancholy case of Lu- 
 cretius himself, who was so terrified by promptings to 
 lewdness, that, out of fear of yielding to the base im- 
 pulses, he slew himself. In respect to this he asks, 
 " How could the hand of Lucretius have been thus 
 turned against himself, if the real Lucretius remained 
 as before ? Can the brain or can it not act in this dis- 
 
THE OBJECTIONS KEVIE^ ED. 201 
 
 tempered way without the intervention of the immortal 
 reason ? If it can, then it is a prime mover which re- 
 quires only healthy regulation to render it reasonably 
 self-acting, and there is no apparent need of your im- 
 mortal reason at all. If it cannot, then the immortal 
 reason, by its mischievous activity in operating upon a 
 broken instrument, must have the credit of committing 
 every imaginable extravagance and crime " (p. 46, 47). 
 In this, and in what immediately follows, our " disciple" 
 is disposed to develop the moral aspects of the case. 
 Who is the party properly chargeable with the moral 
 delinquencies of life, but immortal reason itself, if the 
 brain be but an instrument in its employment ? is the 
 substance of his objection; averring in substance, 
 that it would harmonize more with enlightened sensi- 
 bilities to think of the brain as being alone concerned 
 in the lamentable result, rather than the cherished im- 
 mortal reason should be obliged to appear capable of 
 immoral tendencies. 
 
 How far, to be sure, pure reason would be chargea- 
 ble with the results of using instruments that are so 
 much out of order as to be dangerous, would depend 
 upon the nature of the case. There are combinations of 
 machine and operator, where the machine may over- 
 master the operator and inflict great damage. In such 
 a case the operator is not chargeable with the matter ; 
 while also it is of little consequence that we charge it 
 upon the machine. Whether the brain is the parent or 
 the instrument of the element of reason, can make no 
 
202 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 difference as to the necessity of its best possible con- 
 dition. 
 
 But suppose the mental economy to be a congress of 
 functions, each, in some measure, acting in its own 
 sphere, as may readily be conceded ; then suppose the 
 operator (a single function) has his wire fall upon 
 another's or another's upon his, in such a way as to 
 mingle or divert the currents, and at a point beyond 
 his means of knowledge ; will his conscious reason en- 
 able him to obviate mistakes ? And is he, under these 
 circumstances, to be arraigned for misdemeanor, or 
 evil intent ? 
 
 One would think that the professor, of world-wide 
 fame, and abundantly deserving to be classed among 
 the very first of this age, rather misanticipates the 
 bishop in imagining him " thoughtful after hearing this 
 argument " of the " disciple " of the great poet philoso- 
 pher. The bishop has not written in this direction 
 without some mistakes — some important omissions; 
 but in the main he has taken correct grounds, and 
 built his superstructure so well as that it has stood the 
 assaults of a century and a quarter, showing little dam- 
 age, and promising to stand in the future as strongly as 
 in the past. 
 
 But our " disciple " might have submitted, perhaps, 
 a more difficult objection for the bishop's consideration ; 
 more difficult, because in the main it is new and in- 
 volves new principles. He might have added, " But the 
 survivor of the broken medium of communication was 
 enabled to relate at least somewhat of the state of his 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 203 
 
 consciousness during the interval of his isolation; 
 whereas, usually, parties on regaining consciousness 
 are unable to do so. And assuming that there is but 
 the same seat of consciousness in the individual life on 
 which all experiences register themselves, why, during 
 intervals of external suspense, are there not vacuums 
 as to conscious life, in all instances where nothing con- 
 cerning the interim may be evoked from the memory?" 
 
 We shall be helped to the an3wer of this by noting 
 the fact that sometimes, however, they do recall. And 
 that what is regarded as inability, is but circumstantial 
 inability; only depending on the arrival of the proper 
 condition when external activities do not monopolize 
 the apprehending powers, and when the kindred fact by 
 its association, will awaken the memory in respect to it. 
 We may unconsciously drift over many fine pictures, 
 easily enough seen were the right circumstances call- 
 ing attention. Our memories during consciousness are 
 largely due to the interminable series of awakening in- 
 cidents. 
 
 But to be troubled with doubt concerning a future 
 life, arising from a disposition to discredit existence 
 where it is not within the sphere of sensuous observa- 
 tion, would put one on the defensive in respect to a 
 theory of self's continued existence in the present state 
 of being, — that the self of yesterday evening is yet, and 
 is the self of this morning, — that it could possibly have 
 passed through the intervening unconsciousness of the 
 night's repose. 
 
204 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 THE MAIN NEGATIVE. 
 
 The last negative, now to be considered and already 
 indirectly reviewed in the foregoing criticisms, and the one 
 the most confidently advanced among unbelieving men 
 of science, is that mind and all animate conditions result 
 from organization, and are finally and always depend- 
 ent on it ; and hence, also, terminate with it. I say, 
 "the one most confidently advanced"; for very few, so 
 far as I am able to 'judge of their observations, con- 
 sider the claim with entire confidence. It, also, is more 
 problematically than assuredly stated. Prof. Tyndall, 
 in this same Belfast address, referring to the relation of 
 the vital organism with sensation and thought, says, 
 " We can trace the development of a nervous system 
 and correlate with it the parallel phenomena of sensa- 
 tion and thought. We see with undoubting certainty 
 that they go hand in hand. But we try to soar in a 
 vacuum the moment we seek to comprehend the connec- 
 tion between them " (Advancement of Science, p. 80). 
 This is the difficulty commonly seen and confessed. 
 The coincidence is striking enough to suggest, but not to 
 prove that the mind and soul are of a physical origin 
 alone. A vacuum, as to physical demonstration, must 
 be soared through to attain the necessary elements of its 
 proof. In the lower forms, the connection and co-ordina- 
 tion of mind and life with the organism may not 
 be doubted ; but that fact alone settles nothing more 
 than that they are in the arrangement so well adapted as 
 that they may act in exact accordance, or are so com- 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 205 
 
 bined as to influence each other to action, that the state 
 and act of one would, uniformly, correspond with the state 
 and act of the other. But to determine the causative 
 side — ^to determine with which of the related parts to 
 locate the origin of the force impinged, recurrence must 
 be had to other sources of knowledge. One may, stand- 
 ing apart from it, consider a locomotive moving, and 
 from that point of view alone, be unable to decide 
 whether the moving cause is located in the cylinder or 
 in the wheel, or somewhere back of both ; whether the 
 advancing and receding of the piston revolves the wheel 
 or the revolving wheel inserts and retracts the piston. 
 The actions of the piston and the wheel are exactly 
 co-ordinate. 
 
 Much like this position is that of the scientist viewing 
 from physical science alone, the activities of human 
 economy. Is it the mental or the psychical state de- 
 livering the actuating force on the vital organism, or is 
 it the reverse, is the troublesome question. All that we 
 here see is embodiment and action, and that it is, at 
 times, rational. As to how this action transpires in 
 ourselves, we only are conscious of having will, thought, 
 and experience, and that in response to will, much of 
 this action takes place. But the manner of these in us, 
 and their source, may not be known by physical analysis 
 alone. Also, the question as to the location of the 
 moving cause in the locomotive would be very liable to 
 a mistaken answer, if the engine were of invisible sub- 
 stance. The appearance would unavoidably deceive. 
 Finding the wheel itself only capable of action in re- 
 
206 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 sponse to force applied to it, would measurably rectify 
 the mistake ; rendering it necessary to locate the cause 
 outside of it, and derived through one of its points of 
 connection — ^the rail below or the piston rod or walking 
 bar. But in all these, though suitably combined, there 
 is present no cause for such movement. And if they 
 are rightly understood, it must be looked for elsewhere. 
 But heat and water are necessarily in attendance upon 
 this machine ; and, in combination, are generating an 
 adequate force. And although no engine — no point or 
 means of communication of this power is visible, the 
 justifiable conclusion would be that in this force, how- 
 ever unknown is the medium or mode of application, is 
 the cause of the manifest movement. 
 
 Similar to these are the facts in relation to body and 
 mind, or soul, as so far developed. The body is an or- 
 ganization of substances identical with the common 
 elements of nature. It is of the earth, earthy. But 
 it is of the most minute perfection in respect to all the 
 details necessary to the multiform uses for self-preser- 
 vation — present and future — and is qualified to serve at 
 least many of the requirements of voluntary intellectual 
 processes ; is accordingly characterized by feeling and 
 mind. Mind and feeling, like heat and water, are mani- 
 fest to mental observation and to self-consciousness. 
 So, too, the body. But from which of these the causa- 
 tive power proceeds, and what are the element and 
 mode of connection or of communicating the power, are 
 the matters in obscurity to all observation from purely 
 physical data. And judgment as to from which state 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 207 
 
 this motion is communicated, must depend on a knowl- 
 edge of their separate properties and possibilities. 
 
 But we must here first attend to a prior considera- 
 tion, before proceeding to weigh the probabilities in re- 
 spect to which of the allied parts is the true agent of 
 the living, rational phenomena of human existence. 
 Having done so we shall resume work on this line. 
 
 MIND AND SOUL AND ORGANIZATION. 
 
 Speaking of mind and soul as results of physical or- 
 ganization, implies that by them is meant only modes 
 of physical motion — that these are but physical evolu- 
 tions, or physical gymnastics, rendered possible by req- 
 uisite adjustment of its atoms. However, the terms 
 mind and soul can scarcely be used without conveying 
 the impression of their separateness in identity, and 
 that they are substantial realities. Eesults of organi- 
 zation can only be considerated as mechanical effects — 
 movements corresponding with modes of combination ; 
 not the evolution of properties of the substances of 
 these parts, previously concealed in latency, as in chem- 
 ical unity. And here we must be on our guard yet 
 again. The organism may be regarded as being not 
 only an attainment of more subtile and favorable 
 unions of atoms than occur in the ordinary mixtures 
 and combinations elsewhere in nature, but as embody- 
 ing in these living results, atoms of specially required 
 properties, which are wanting in forms denoting the ab- 
 eence of the vital principle. Thus did the Greeks 
 speak of divine atoms, love atoms, hate atoms, etc., 
 
208 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 which went into combination with the atoms of common 
 matter, in the formation of these living organisms, 
 "^ut, by such considerations, separateness of mind and 
 ^oul from the physical organism, was not to be regarded 
 &,s impossilple at all, nor improbable, where other proba- 
 bilities pointed to it. This, indeed, might satisfy now, 
 as it did then, a philosophy of biology that provided 
 for a future life. 
 
 This, however, does not represent the mineralistic 
 school of to-day. With them no such atoms are re- 
 quired in explanation of living phenomena. With them 
 a " two-faced unity " of substance supplies all data re- 
 quired in explaining all that pertains to life and in- 
 tellect; and seems preferable as thereby avoiding 
 troublesome complications arising from the necessity of 
 providing a means of union in the admission of distinct 
 orders of substance. The mineralism of to-day resolves 
 the problem of life and mind into simply one of mechan- 
 ism — spontaneous mechanism. The concession, however, 
 is that, of course, it is not at all easy even with this 
 method. There are vacuums to soar in, and ''paradoxes'* 
 to elucidate, while, at the same time, suffering the in- 
 convenience of the ever two-fold appearance of this 
 " double-faced unity. " It is ever " mind and matter. " 
 The idea cannot all be contained in the word " matter. " 
 Nor is the word " mind " a whit more accommodating. 
 Nor is it wholly the fault of our concededly poor human 
 language. It is quite as much because two distinct 
 states are unavoidably apparent, and that in consequence 
 the logical mind refuses them oneness of sense and ad- 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 209 
 
 mission to be expressed by the same term, or by terms 
 of the same meaning. 
 
 MATTER, ESSENCE OF LIFE. 
 
 In still pursuing the theories in respect to life and 
 mentality incipiently or latently consisting of a proper 
 union of atomic forms or properties of atomic matter, 
 a sort of compromise position we find suggested by 
 Prof. Tyndall, in the address already quoted from at the 
 point where he approaches that peroration that brought 
 to his consideration a world of unmerited abuse, from 
 ecclesiastics and also the religious laity, in which he 
 professed to " discern in that matter * * * ^jje 
 promise and potency of every form and quality of life'* 
 (p. 77). As he is here, as usual, remarkably clear, I 
 take pleasure in representing him in his own words : 
 " Two courses, and two only, are possible " (in account- 
 ing for the origin of life in relation to matter). " Either 
 let us open our doors freely to the conception of creative 
 acts, or, abandoning them, let us radically change our 
 notions of matter. If we look at matter as pictured 
 by Democritus, and as defined for generations in our 
 scientific text-books, the absolute impossibility of any 
 form of life coming out of it, would be sufficient to 
 render any other hypothesis preferable ; but the defini- 
 tions of matter given in our text-books were intended to 
 cover its purely physical and mechanical properties* 
 And taught as we have been, to regard these definitions 
 as complete, we naturally and rightly reject the mon- 
 strous notion that out of sitch matter any form of life 
 could possibly arise. But are the definitions complete ? 
 
 14 
 
210 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Everything depends on the answer to be given to this 
 question. * * Is there not a temptation to close to 
 some extent with Lucretius, when he affirms that, 
 * Nature is seen to do all things spontaneously of her- 
 self without the meddling of the gods ? ' or with Bruno, 
 when he declares that nature is not * that mere empty 
 capacity which philosophers have pictured her to be, but 
 the universal mother who brings forth all things as the 
 fruit of her own womb" (pp. 76, 77). This in effect is 
 submitting, not very confidently however, the supposi- 
 tion that the blankness of matter in respect to the vital 
 principle, may be deceptive, owing to the imperfect 
 common view ; and that in a form not yet apparent to 
 science it really is but a state of life, which state, by 
 Buitable atomic combination and environment, becomes 
 active — enlarges itself, till it appears in the animal and 
 finally mental forms known to us. 
 
 From this supposition, which perhaps represents the 
 extent of his belief in respect to the primal state or 
 essence of life, the professor does not see himself as 
 being fairly a materialist or mineralist ; as it abrogates 
 the common mineralistic views of matter. It would 
 indeed leave him the representative of an absolutely 
 pure psychism. His is not matter and soul joined to- 
 gether ; nor a two-faced unity ; but soul and nothing 
 else. And that which is necessarily spoken of as 
 matter, by himself as well as by others, is, strictly 
 speaking, essence of life ; but in a state so remote from 
 that at which it is recognized life, as that no means of 
 measuring the disparity from one to the other are 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 211 
 
 known to exist, — no parallex of sufficient extent may be 
 found from which lines erected across the chasm would 
 describe an angle of sufficient distinctness for measure- 
 ment. Seeking to comprehend the distance of their re- 
 lation, would be trying " to soar in a vacuum." 
 
 Whatever may be his belief in respect to a future 
 life (of which I cannot confidently speak), this theory, 
 at first view, would seem to provide a quite satisfactory 
 explanation for the phenomenon of life; and thence 
 possibly also would be reconcilable with a theory of 
 a future life. However, only to the extent to which this 
 vital form of matter may be made to conform to the 
 view of its being a substance quite separate and inde- 
 pendent from that of the visible organism, — erecting, 
 inhabiting, and using the organism as a convenience or 
 an instrument, which, without detriment to itself, it 
 might discontinue, — would it be possible to derive from 
 it any form of theory of future life. 
 
 The prominent objection to this speculation of the 
 professor is that the inference on which he founds it is 
 not justifiable. Observing that in following the order 
 of vital evolution backward, from the highest forms 
 down, one finally sees the vital principle disappear in a 
 mere viscid state of matter, and that there are parallel 
 facts in the affections of matter, — for example, the suc- 
 cessive decrease of polar force at each subdivision of 
 the mass, while yet some measure of it remains, how- 
 ever enfeebled, with the last possible or imaginable di- 
 vision, — he infers that a sympathy and ultimate oneness 
 not only of these phenomena, but of their essences, may 
 
212 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 existj^that life and physical attraction may be but 
 widely sundered states of the same substance — " the 
 universal Mother." 
 
 But here the necessary sequence is plainly lacking. 
 From these facts nothing follows to fairly establish even 
 a probability of oneness ; and the inference is without 
 a real justification. All the sameness here brought to 
 view is in respect to quantity — the idea of more and 
 less as applicable to each. And we might gratuitously 
 add that, without having reference to any other order or 
 side of nature, the individuals on the same side are 
 mutually attracted. But the fact that phenomena are 
 parallel, although suggestive, avails nothing as evidence 
 that they are in any way identical or even remotely re- 
 lated. Besides, the simple fact of quantity does not 
 determine the quality, state or substance — that it is 
 black or white, substance or sentiment. We find there- 
 fore by the best presentation of the professor's ingenious 
 speculation no valid reason for its acceptance. 
 
 THE DOUBLE-FACED UNITY. 
 
 But more common, though less plausible, is the theory 
 of " a double-faced unity " advanced by Prof. Bain, of 
 Scotland. By this theory, substance, in its imaginable 
 ultimate first state, exists of two faces, sides, or aspects, 
 the material, or bodily, and the vital, or mental. And 
 these sides, or aspects, are analogous to what is under- 
 stood by the properties of matter. And by similarly 
 uniting they constitute this underlying first form of sub- 
 stance ; from which all other forms and phenomena of 
 universal being have ascended. 
 
THE OBJECTIONS EEVIEWED. 213 
 
 The difference between this and the previous theory 
 by Mr. Tjudall, in respect to the first form of matter, 
 at first view would appear slight, if indeed they would 
 not seem identical with each other. Nevertheless the 
 difference is very important. In the previous, substance, 
 primarily, is life itself, — all visible distinctions thereof, 
 such as the many forms of matter, being but of its 
 phases, and due to some unexplained law. It therefore 
 requires no " union, " — is just the thing in this respect that 
 this of Mr. Bain in vain hopes to be — a solitary one- 
 ness, and in no sense a composite. On the contrary 
 this of Mr. Bain is unavoidably beset with the ever em- 
 barrassing dualism in its " unity ^ " being always a double- 
 facedness. Even though, as provided by the terms of 
 the proposition, the joined faces constitute its verity, so 
 that apart from the unity, substance and faces are alike 
 without existence, the troublesome idea is not effaced. 
 Taken in any way imaginable, while unity and plurality 
 fail to convey the same thought, a two-faced unity will 
 only be understood as a two-fold representation ! In 
 this case the one of the representations, or faces, of the 
 unity, supplies the material — the mineral, purely passive 
 quality, — while the other supplies the immaterial, vital 
 and sentient. 
 
 But as to what about these states which these factors 
 of substance severally represent, this theory is utterly 
 silent. It seems wholly unaware that it has solved noth- 
 ing till the problem of the states belonging to these 
 facial representations is solved. These states could be 
 no less facts than would be their representatives ! The 
 
214 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 mineral or passive "face," or aspect, representative, 
 would be due to anterior mineral forces with their em- 
 bodying mineral substance, though not yet arrived at a 
 state of matter ; while the vital, mental, etc., representa- 
 tive would be equally inexorable in its logical requisition 
 of a prior vital and mental domain of being. But this 
 fact seems persistently overlooked by this school of 
 writers. 
 
 There is a notable want of confidence and clearness, 
 of conception, also, on the part of writers in defense of 
 this theory, necessarily seen in the embarrassment of 
 their efforts to vest its conditions in satisfactory state- 
 ments. Professor Bain, Aberdeen's eminent logician 
 and physiologist, champions this theory in his usual 
 able style. He is concededly one of the ablest advo- 
 cates the theory has been favored with up to the present 
 time. His work entitled "Mind and Body," contains 
 the most direct, painstaking and satisfactory effort at 
 stating and solving its conditions, yet published. But, 
 while invincibly adhering to his purpose, with his most 
 careful and artful use of language upon it, he frankly 
 concedes his inability to wholly set aside the objections 
 referred to. The following are examples of the estima- 
 tion he places on the difficulties he encounters, and of 
 the darkness in which he is obliged to leave it after 
 endeavoring to render his theory available. In the un- 
 dertaking he submits a series of labored attempts at re- 
 lieving th6 " undivided twin " and the " two-sided " cause 
 in respect to the facts of mind and body from the per- 
 sistent realness of duality in their union. This is to be 
 
THE OBJECTIONS EEVIEWED. 215 
 
 SO done that, in the first instance, the twin shall not after 
 all really be a twin, and, in the second place, that the 
 two-sidedness of the " cause " shall not have reference 
 to two effecting potencies jointly contributing to the 
 existence referred to. 
 
 This is necessary with a view to getting rid of the 
 two-fold reality while still retaining a necessary ad- 
 herence to the two-fold aspect, leaving it consistent to 
 speak of mind and body separately without conceding 
 that they really are so and represent different existences. 
 After this troublesome undertaking, he sees proper to 
 submit this important concession : " While admitting 
 that there is something unique, if not remarkable, in 
 the close incorporation of the two extreme and con- 
 trasted facts, termed Mind and Matter, we must grant 
 that the total difference of their nature has rendered the 
 union very puzzling to express in language. The history 
 of the question repeatedly exemplifies this difficulty" 
 (p. 134). 
 
 Of like character with this is the following conces- 
 sion : " This, then, as it appears to me, is the only 
 real difficulty of the physical and mental relationship. 
 There is an alliance with matter, with the object, or ex- 
 tended world, but the thing allied, the mind proper, has 
 itself no extension, and cannot be joined in local union. 
 Now we have a difficulty in providing any form of lan- 
 guage, any familiar analogy, suited to this unique con- 
 junction ; in comparison with all ordinary unions, it is 
 a paradox or a contradiction " (p. 136). 
 
 The trouble is that Mind and Matter are " two ex- 
 
216 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 treme and contrasted facts " and cannot be referred to 
 one and the same subjective fact or state ; and the ad- 
 mission of this is fatal to the purely mineralistic theory. 
 To recognize the union is unavoidable, — it is a mineral, 
 selected and wrought into flesh and blood, etc., made 
 into a living phenomenon, by the presence upon it of a 
 force of an adequate nature ! And yet to speak of it in 
 this way, is to speak of two forces not only but of the 
 substances whose natures they represent and of which 
 they are respectively embodied ! Hence a lack of the lan- 
 guage ( ?) that will express the desired result ! — that will 
 give us a "unity," a "union," a "conjunction," an 
 " alliance "without the reality of the constituent parts! In 
 the professor's last effort, in this work, to give an in- 
 telligent statement of the theory in question, after all 
 his faithful labors have been expended upon it, he leaves 
 it as much as ever in the dark. Although he seems to 
 have won his own assurance in respect to it, and is will- 
 ing to assume that doubting ones, who have followed 
 him, are all safely transposed to his side. He says : 
 
 " The arguments for the two substances have, we be- 
 lieve, now entirely lost their validity ; they are no longer 
 compatible with ascertained science and clear thinking. 
 The one substance, with the two sets of properties, two 
 sides, the physical and the mental — a double-faced unity 
 — would appear to comply with all the exigencies of the 
 case. We are to deal with this, as in the language of 
 the Athanasian Creed, not confounding the persons 
 nor dividing the substance " (p. 126). 
 
 This, so far as I know, is the first service that the 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 217 
 
 creed has rendered to science ! My impression also is 
 that it was formulated quite independently of scientific 
 considerations, and was never hoped nor expected to ex- 
 press anything that was possible in nature. And with 
 this understanding of it in the present case, the pro- 
 fessor has honored himself in selecting it as the closing 
 tribute of labor in behalf of the " double-faced unity. " 
 I apprehend, however, that, outside of this subject, he 
 would consider " ascertained science and clear thinking " 
 available in more tangible terms. 
 
 As a matter of science, this theory, then, is to be objected 
 to on the ground of the seeming irreconcilable self-con- 
 tradictions in which it is involved. As touching the 
 doctrine of future life, its conditions seem utterly in- 
 compatible with the theory of life separate from the 
 physical body ; and, aside from this, it makes the basis 
 of positive existence itself mineral or at best limited by 
 mineral conditions. Cutting off entirely all conditions 
 upon which a future life may be projected, it bleakly 
 points future-ward as regards life that now is, to an 
 eternal nothingness. The soul with the body returns 
 in common dust, to the earth from which, by undirected 
 chance, it aggregated into being, its sundered particles 
 to stray hopelessly apart upon the ever changing drifts 
 of endless time. 
 
 But, disagreeable as is the impression the theory 
 legitimately tends to make on the full and healthy 
 mind, that is not the motive that happily sets it aside. 
 It is rejected only because, as seen, it fails to accord 
 
218 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 with the facts with which it is related and to which itself 
 appeals. 
 
 MINERALISTIC THEORY OF LITE. 
 
 The last negative to the theory of a future life here 
 to be considered, and one already referred to, is that 
 mind, with vitahty generally, is the result of organiza- 
 tion, and, therefore, must also end with it. For, con- 
 sidering either of the several theories of matter just 
 reviewed, by neither of them is matter available for 
 actual life till it is brought into requisite form. There 
 is no life — no living phenomenon — till organization is 
 achieved — till in requisite proportion and requisite rela- 
 tions with each other the ultimate molecular atoms are 
 brought together. This having occurred, life has occurred. 
 
 In proceeding then to consider this negative, it is im- 
 portant to first set before us what its advocates regard 
 life itself to be. And for this purpose Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer is perhaps the most available. He is more ex- 
 plicit than any of his contemporaries, so far as I have 
 seen. After submitting various definitions tentatively, 
 none of which seem to him entirely free from objection, 
 he concludes that " the broadest and most complete defini- 
 tion of life will be — The continuous adjustment of internal 
 relations with external relations'' (Principles of Biology, vol. 
 1, p. 80). This definition he applies to it in " all its man- 
 ifestations, inclusive of intelligence in its highest forms "■ 
 (First Principles, p. 85). Also these internal relations 
 are defined to be "definite combinations of simulta- 
 neous and successive changes " (Principles of Biology, 
 
• THE OBJECTIONS KEVIEWED. 219 
 
 • 
 
 vol. 1, p. 81). The continuous adjustment of these 
 with " co-existences and sequences " (ibid) — that is, con- 
 tinuous adjustment with adjacent nature and its phe- 
 nomena, constitutes Life. And this is what we are to 
 understand Life to be from the standpoint of this 
 philosophy. 
 
 Now, by this definition of Life, it is the result not 
 alone of organization in individual forms — of some 
 requisite group of forces by a corresponding group of 
 their atoms, but it is the result of the joining of such 
 with the related external forces. By this, then. Life is 
 contingent on three several facts : the internal relations, 
 the external relations and their continuous adjustment. 
 And with either discontinued. Life is discontinued. 
 
 Of whatever nature he may consider the internal re- 
 lations to be, even though they were purely psychical, 
 the external are purely mineral, and the separation from 
 them would be the ending of this mysterious molecular 
 complexity called Life. 
 
 Life, then, " in all its manifestations, inclusive of in- 
 telligence in its highest forms," by this mineralistic 
 school of philosophy, represented by Mr. Spencer in 
 the preceding, is to be regarded as merely a condition 
 of certain phases of the mineral element ! Self is but 
 that condition, and nothing more. 
 
 In considering the attainment of organization and 
 the fixed variety of organization as well, from the bare 
 mineral state, it is necessary to bridge or leap over an 
 immense chasm. The great unlikeness of the organ- 
 ized and the unorganized aspects of nature, with hardly 
 
220 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 an analogy between them, would require a mode of in- 
 sight that would certainly be extraordinary if not mi- 
 raculous, to show that they are of the same order of 
 existence. 
 
 As to how Mr. Spencer arrives at organization of 
 matter — how the unorganized becomes organized, the 
 pivotal point of the whole question, and where light 
 were more valuable than anywhere else, and where the 
 eye of solicitude rests and ever has rested since the issue 
 first arose, he fails to be explicit. Kef erring to the in- 
 teresting facts of chemical evolution, resulting in in- 
 creased complexities having correspondingly increased 
 sensitiveness, he follows the principle along upward by 
 illustration and then by inference, from simple or binary 
 relations, till he arrives at the delicate colloidal aggre- 
 gates, where he abruptly introduces us to " organic 
 molecules " or " organic atoms, " without thinking it 
 worth while to account for their presence. 
 
 It is true that he tells us that " organic matters are 
 produced in the laboratory by what we may literally call 
 artificial evolution " (Principles of Biology, p. 482). But 
 by this he is to be understood as referring only to organ- 
 izahle matter and not matter formed into organism. 
 The artificial evolution refers to the attainment of 
 chemical complexities "ending in organizable proto- 
 plasm. " So much he finds it possible to explain quite 
 satisfactorily, but at the very next and supremely essential 
 point — "the molding of such organic matter into the 
 simplest types, " he conjectures, " must have commenced 
 with portions of protoplasm more minute, more indefi- 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 221 
 
 nite, and more inconstant in their characters, than the 
 lowest Ehizopods — ^less distinguished from a mere frag- 
 ment of albumen than even the Protogenes of Professor 
 Haeckel" (p. 481). And "to reach by this process the 
 comparatively well-specialized forms of ordinary Infu- 
 soridy must * * have taken an enormous period of 
 time " (ibid). 
 
 This is rather obscuring than defining the great tran- 
 sition of matter from the dead to the living state. It 
 " must have commenced " with a substance practically 
 indistinguishable from albumen and in inaccessible ages 
 past, is by no means a clear statement of how a piece 
 of mineral jelly became transmuted into life ! 
 
 Also, without any further attempt at explaining how 
 from dead mineral substance they came to be such, ex- 
 cept to say that the process " likely * * took place 
 at a time when the heat of the earth's surface was fall- 
 ing through those ranges of temperature at which the 
 higher organic compounds are unstable " (ibid), " living 
 particles " and " physiological units " (pp. 180, 287) are 
 taken in hand and invested with " an innate tendency to 
 arrange themselves into the shape of the organism to 
 which they belong " (p. 180). That is, to follow obedi- 
 ently the typal design of which they are predestined 
 parts. 
 
 And now we shall see that trouble which was insur- 
 mountable at the very first steps of this theory, thickens 
 with its progress. While no light was at hand to show 
 us the mode of the great transformation from the pas- 
 sive mineral to the subjective living state, and we were 
 
222 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 obliged to proceed without a solution, now even greater 
 will be the difficulty when the theory is to be carried 
 into organization — the accounting for the presence of 
 those units in the peculiar arrangement seen in a living 
 being. That this aggregation of so-called physiolog- 
 ical units has proceeded upon method is unavoidable. 
 And to account for the method, it must be placed in a 
 general system of co-ordinating forces, characterized by 
 fixed typal tendency, aggregating and distributing the 
 " units " as they are required to complete the design ; 
 or it must be placed in the units themselves, each of 
 which must know not only the animal, but the place in 
 the animal to which it belongs. So that when each one 
 has attained to its place, the animal is the result, phys- 
 ically and sentiently. 
 
 The theory assumes the latter. Mr. Spencer says in 
 respect to this, " We have seen it to be necessary from 
 various orders of facts * * * that organisms are 
 built up of certain highly complex molecules, which we 
 distinguish as physiological units — each kind of organ- 
 ism being built up of physiological units peculiar to 
 itself. We found ourselves obliged to recognize in 
 these physiological units powers of arranging them- 
 selves into the forms of organism to which they belong " 
 (Principles of Biology, vol. 2, p. 8). The passage in which 
 he refers to this is where he has made full application of 
 this theory, and is the following : " We have therefore 
 no alternative but to say, that the living particles com- 
 posing one of these fragments, have an innate tendency 
 to arrange themselves into the shape of the organism 
 
THE OBJECTIONS KEVIEWED. 223 
 
 to which they belong. We must infer that a plant or 
 animal of any species, is made up of special units, in 
 all of which there dwells the intrinsic aptitude to ag- 
 gregate into the form of that species : just as in the 
 atoms of salt, there dwells the intrinsic aptitude to 
 crystallize in that particular wiay. It seems difficult to 
 conceive that this can be so, but we see that it is so " 
 (Principles of Biology, pp. 180—181). 
 
 This' view not only credits each of these wonderful 
 units with an " intrinsic aptitude " to aggregate itself 
 to its own species and its exact place in the organism, 
 but also with the sentience of the complete being of the 
 animal or plant to which it belongs ! Otherwise, by 
 what means would be avoided a hopeless jumble, ex- 
 travagance, and indefinite multiplication of the several 
 parts ? How could the tail units determine, relatively 
 to the other parts, where the tail is to be developed ? 
 How, when a lizard loses an arm, these caudal units 
 do not happen to rush to the spot and build out a tail 
 in the place of the new arm that appears ? How could 
 the claw and the leaf units come to discontinue their 
 additions when the claw and the leaf have attained 
 their standard size ? And, as said, how could the tail 
 tmits limit their construction to but one tail? And 
 how could the eye units come to not all double up into 
 only one eye, but must distribute themselves into exactly 
 ^2^70, or as the species requires ? 
 
 Now if there is not sentience here employed, covering 
 the whole of the details of the organism, how shall we 
 be assured that such a principle as sentience has an ex- 
 
224 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 istence ? And if this " intrinsic aptitude " covers all there 
 is of this, where but in this intrinsic aptitude is this 
 super-human sentience to be located ? 
 
 It is of no consequence to the argument that we say 
 it, and if these deductions of our author are factSf 
 there is no objection to be raised ; but while we are 
 about it there could be no impropriety in taking a view 
 of the picture which this theory places before us. By 
 the immutable law of sequence, these postulates make 
 us to see an astounding picture of the vast body of nat- 
 ure. We see this whole cosmical existence as being a 
 field in which a densely crowded panorama is revolving, 
 — ^not only of these far-seeing units, on the alert for 
 formative opportunities to come into proper and ap- 
 pointed relations with each other, but all the myriad 
 swarms of vegetable and animal beings, in all their 
 complete personal appointments in a pregenital exist- 
 ence, are suspended therein; their distributed atoms 
 waiting in turns at the door of generation the signal for 
 the assembling of their " units " and the completion of 
 the practical organism. 
 
 This may be observed to transpire somewhat after 
 the circumstance of the pioneer going to make a home 
 on a western prairie. He has his house built before 
 going, but ships the parts in a promiscuous package to 
 be properly joined on their arrival. Only, in the case 
 of the house, the beams and braces and boards and 
 shingles, do not come together from an intrinsic aptitude 
 on the part of each to take its place in the arrange- 
 ment, as Mr. Spencer sees his physiological units doing. 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 225 
 
 Not knowing how to account for it on other principles, 
 the conclusion would be quite justifiable that each of 
 these " units " of the house by an intrinsic aptitude 
 took its place, — that it foresaw in detail the shape and 
 character of the structure that it was included in ; but 
 it were more in accord with current facts to say that 
 the aptitude and the intelligence were in an attendant 
 artisan and not in the beams and boards themselves. 
 
 It will be observed that in endeavoring to gain a sub- 
 stantial footing for the origin of life, consistent with 
 what life truly is, Mr. Spencer abandons, for the time, 
 his favorite doctrine of evolution by environment, in 
 this theory of physiological units, above set forth, by 
 endowing them with inherent powers to escape environ- 
 ment and voluntarily build themselves into living or- 
 ganisms. And yet, in making the immense sacrifice, 
 no relief is gained from the ever troublesome fact that 
 to that anteceding force, necessary to their existence, 
 which can resolve itself into nothing but a sentient 
 volitience, no form of mineral aspect can be made to 
 apply. And this leaves it so that even the theory of 
 special creation, for which he has so little charity, may, 
 after all, be the last resort in accounting for the ex- 
 istence of these units and the beings they represent ! 
 
 OP THE GENESIS OF NERVES. 
 
 It is not in the province of this work to follow this 
 mineralistic philosophy into its details very extendedly ; 
 but Mr. Spencer, in seeking to account for the origin of 
 
 15 
 
226 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 nerves, seeks again to get on without crediting the ex- 
 istence of a prior typal life principle to act upon the 
 mineral aggregates; now again reverting back to his 
 favorite theory of development by environment. In re- 
 spect to the origin of nerves, he observes that " in all 
 cases, motion follows the line of the greatest traction 
 or least resistance, or the resultant of the two ; " and 
 that " motion once set up along any line becomes itself 
 a cause of subsequent motion along that line " (Princi- 
 ples of Psychology, vol. 1, pp. 5 — 11). On this prin- 
 ciple, protoplasmic matter in incipient organisms, 
 having nerve filaments, becoming impacted with force 
 from the environment, the passage of the force taking 
 the route of the least resistance, leaves in that direction, 
 first a general outlet or inlet for force, and lastly by 
 long use of this kind, reduces it to a channel or thread, 
 into which the sensitive filaments drop and constitute a 
 nerve (p. 515). 
 
 At least two facts are hopelessly in the way of this 
 otherwise plausible theory. In the first place, environ- 
 ment, without intelligent or instinctive direction, is 
 without requisite uniformity of condition ; and, in the 
 second place, without the operation of antecedent typal 
 forces on these colloidal or protoplasmic masses, these 
 " lines of the least resistance " would be utterly without 
 conformity. And, save by mere accident, the individ- 
 ual developments would be radically unlike; and as 
 under this state of things repetitions of force passages 
 over the same lines would rarely, if ever, occur in more 
 than the same individual, this theory of nerve genesis 
 
THE OBJECTIONS REVIEWED. 227 
 
 becomes extremely improbable, if not altogether impos- 
 sible ! 
 
 While nerves may be and seemmgly are formed after 
 this general manner, this method as truly as all others, 
 renders it necessary to include a differentiating power 
 back of this external process to shape and maintain the 
 requisite conditions. And so at this second stage of 
 vital development, as truly as at the first, the mineral- 
 istic philosophy shows itself powerless to get on without 
 involving the existence of a domain of vital substance, 
 from the instinctive and sentient forces of which, oper- 
 ating upon the mineral domain, the whole list of vital 
 phenomena proceed. 
 
 Now this is the entire lore of the mineralistic school 
 of philosophy, claiming the mind and the vital princi- 
 ple generally, to be results, or rather states, of physical 
 organization. Of all their voluminous works covering 
 this subject, none embodies statements or arguments 
 more strongly maintaining that claim. There is not a 
 bottom principle that is not fully comprehended in 
 what has been here brought forward and examined, in 
 all the volumes, worthy of consideration, that have been 
 contributed to the illustration and defense of this theory. 
 And the reader must judge whether, after all, there is 
 in them the strength — the conclusive evidence of sound- 
 ness, that has many times been claimed for them, or 
 whether they do not show evidence of hurried conclusion 
 on the part of men who looked upon the subject as 
 more or less hopeless of a solution in harmony with a 
 cherished theory. 
 
CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 Man in His Essential Self Continues Beyond the 
 Limits of Physical Existence, Continued. — The 
 Abgument foe the Affirmative. 
 
 HAVING now considered, in all their essential details 
 and to an extent which the limits of this work 
 will hardly justify, the doubts and negatives respecting 
 the continuance of man's existence in a state beyond 
 death, we turn to the argument for the affirmative. 
 And we begin by restating the position taken at the 
 first of the preceding chapter, that "the part that 
 physical science has to act in settling the question of a 
 future life, is to determine the relation of mind and 
 body ; from which it is to be ascertained that the mind 
 as well as the soul with which it is identified, is, or is 
 not, in its essential wholeness, separable from the body. 
 Then when such a separation is found possible, that, at 
 the death of the body, it is actual as well. " To this 
 last proposition a more full consideration will be given 
 in the next chapter. 
 
 In considering our existence, we first of all contem- 
 plate our nature as a sentient self. We pass through 
 hours of time without our clothing or our body 
 having come into our thoughts at all. The current ap- 
 
 228 
 
THE AEGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 229 
 
 prehension is that our self is in some sense residing in 
 or about the body. The body concerns us mainly in 
 two respects : Our feeling extends into it, and our con- 
 sciousness or life (external) depends on it. In minor 
 respects, we are concerned in its parts for the uses they 
 are to us, and the aspect of ourselves they constitute. 
 But did our feeling extend into our clothing, our cane 
 or crutch, our sense of self would be found there quite 
 as much as it is in our skin or arm or leg. 
 
 Indeed, the material part of our existence can hardly, 
 if at all, be brought into realization as self. Taking a 
 survey of our whole anatomy, part by part, or in its 
 effective wholeness, the sense of it as an external object 
 is irresistible. 
 
 Now, this being a fact which we need to refer only to 
 common observation and experience, we must treat it as 
 such and give it its due weight in the discussion. It is, 
 to be sure, not cited as positive proof, but as a cor- 
 roborative circumstance — a cumulative proof. This 
 manner of mental disturbance is not without adequate 
 cause, and one that cannot be whoUy attributed to edu- 
 cation. It prevails with people of little education of 
 any kind, and whose state of intelligence would most 
 readily incline them to the opposite view and conclusion. 
 
 That, then, this disturbing cause lies in a fact some- 
 what in accord with the impulse, would be the legiti- 
 mate inference, — that though so related with it that the 
 forces of the two are interlacing each other, the self in 
 its effective wholeness, is in a sense separate from and 
 not at all identical with the body. And now it is our 
 
230 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 next business to see what corroborations can be pro- 
 duced from the facts of human existence to confirm this 
 common impression respecting ourself and our em- 
 bodiment. And here we need not be long considering 
 where we will begin. All sentient operations exclusively 
 pertain to the nervous system. 
 
 In viewing the voluminous mass of brain, securely 
 lying within the bony integument of the skull, and from 
 it proceeding directly, or indirectly, by way of the great 
 spinal cord, the meshes of white or of silvery gray 
 strands, threads and fibers of microscopic fineness, one 
 beholds all there is in the physical aspect of man that 
 is at all concerned with any form of mind or feeling. 
 The masses of bones, flesh and the substances incident 
 to the flesh, that constitute the chief mass of the hu- 
 man body are as remote from the mind as are the hat 
 and the coat. The feeling that is realized in connection 
 with them is from the presence of these nerves lying 
 through them. An insensuous connection is seen to ex- 
 ist between certain nerve filaments and the muscular 
 fiber. However this is by way of the induction princi- 
 ple known in electricity. The nerve itself is wrapped 
 about by an insulating integument ; and in this manner 
 of exclusion ramifies the physical tissue ; and by the 
 inductive process effects muscular activity. In respect 
 to this Dr. Lionel S. Beale, of London, an authority on 
 Microscopic Anatomy that will be conceded by the 
 learned everywhere, whom Professor Bain extensively 
 follows in his celebrated work on Mind and Body, ob- 
 serves : 
 
THE AKGUMENT FOR THE AFFIEMATIVE. 231 
 
 "I have given a drawing taken from a beautiful 
 specimen of muscular tissue, in which the ultimate 
 ramifications of the nerve fibers are very clearly demon- 
 strated. Many points here illustrated have long been 
 and are still disputed by anatomists. Some think the 
 motor nerves pass into the substance of the muscular 
 fibers, others that they are connected with special or- 
 gans imbedded in and in close contact with the muscu- 
 lar tissue, but at least as regards the particular muscles 
 represented, I feel sure that the arrangement as I have 
 given it is correct. In my specimens the fine nerve fi- 
 bers traversing the muscular fibers can be seen very 
 distinctly. The bioplasts often come very close to the 
 muscular tissue, but they are not imbedded in it. * * 
 Although the bioplasts of the several tissues are very 
 near to one another, they never interfere with each 
 other's growth, or coalesce" (Protoplasm, pp. 255, 256). 
 
 Here, not alone the nerve and muscle fibers are in 
 their ultimate ramifications wholly separate, but their 
 bioplasts (the pabulums of their subsistence and growth) 
 are also peculiar and separate from each other. 
 
 This is not saying that remotely the very highest men- 
 tal element may not, by way of the successively lower ele- 
 ments, impinge upon and control even the mineral forces 
 in the states below the lowest vital state, and without 
 reference to organization. The fact thereof, as already 
 seen, lies at the bottom of the 07%m of organization itself. 
 But in man's physical aspect, all sentient transactions 
 take place by means alone of the forces that are inci- 
 dent to the nerve circuits. 
 
232 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 THE MODE OF NERVOUS DEVICE. 
 
 In principle of arrangement and operation the whole 
 system of nerves is quite like the magnetic telegraph ; 
 the nerve fibers being tractile to what is called nerve 
 force, the same as the telegraph wire is tractile to elec- 
 trical force. Batteries of cups or cells are found con- 
 nected with these lines of nerves to supply the nerve 
 force with which they are charged, after the manner 
 that in telegraphy batteries are placed to the wires to 
 supply them with the force with which electricity is 
 resident. In confirmation of this Dr. Beale, above re- 
 ferred to, says : 
 
 "The nervous apparatus, through which alone the 
 vital power of the highest bioplasm of every creature 
 acts, consists essentially of fine fibers which form, with 
 the mass of bioplasm, uninterrupted circuits. The fi- 
 bers are continuous with the bioplasts, and grow from 
 them. * * The smallest nerve fiber instead of re- 
 sembling an ordinary telegraph wire, might rather be 
 compared with a bundle of wires, each having its bat- 
 tery (mass of bioplasm in the case of the nerve) con- 
 nected with it. So that even a very short piece of nerve 
 fiber would contain numerous bioplasts, or little bat- 
 teries, which continue to act, that is, give rise to nerve 
 currents for some time (the period varying in different 
 cases) after the nerve has been removed from the body " 
 (Protoplasm, p. 317). 
 
 In this quotation Dr. B. is in substantial accord with 
 the learned in this department, everywhere ; and while 
 it is seen to entirely confirm the statements just made, it 
 
THE ABGUMENT FOE THE AFFIKMATIVE. 233 
 
 also anticipates my next observation by saying that 
 these cells " give rise to nerve currents for some time 
 after the nerve has been removed from the body, " and 
 that " the fibers are continuous with the bioplasts and 
 grow from them." The next fact, then, to be noted, 
 and one that immensely concerns this subject, is that 
 the force called nerve force, which is subservient to the 
 higher forces of mind, feeling, etc., is not originated in 
 the nerve fibers at all but is delivered to them out of 
 a form of substance that is simply adjacent, and 
 much less complex, and at most of barely any organi- 
 zation ; while often it is simply a tractile mass with no 
 form of organization visible. 
 
 Now that the nerve forces and the construction 
 of the nervous fabric, as we have seen, proceed from 
 the bioplastic cells, it is plain that by way of those 
 cells, mainly, the unconscious and the conscious opera- 
 tions of the mind upon the body take place, and that 
 the forces that so sentiently actuate the nerves and give 
 expression to the whole organism, in whatever form it 
 may be that they exist, hold only a certain form of re- 
 lation therewith. If the mind were in any way iden- 
 tical with or dependent on the organization, we should 
 certainly see its presence first with the highest forms of 
 organization — in the nerve fabric itself — and not in the 
 lowest, and least elaborate, even in that that has not yet 
 attained to the simplest form of organization. This, it 
 would seem, must cut off all means of presuming that 
 the mind is within or in any proper sense limited to the 
 enclosure of the nervous integuments ; and would leave 
 
234 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 it only possible to consider self as a separate party; 
 though an occupant of the same space described by the 
 bodily limits. 
 
 In this connection it is still further important to be 
 observed that seeing, as we do, that the mental element 
 is in no fixed relation with any part of the nerve sub- 
 stance, but is in a state of incessant transference, — is 
 not fixedly, but transiently actuating the parts, we find 
 again this self with respect to the body, to reside ex- 
 ternally of it, and with no such connections with it vis- 
 ible, as would render its efficient individual complete- 
 ness contingent on the union of the two. 
 
 DR. FERRIEr's experiments. 
 
 The fact is fully established that the co-ordination of 
 muscular action results from local cerebral arrangements. 
 The application of electrodes to different parts of the 
 gray matter of the brain, which is the external layer, 
 next to the membranous coverings and the skull, is 
 followed by muscular action in different parts of the 
 body. Quite recently. Dr. Ferrier, of England, sub- 
 mitted a series of most thorough experiments of this 
 kind made on the lower animals, cats, monkeys, rabbits 
 and dogs, finding the principle true in every instance. 
 Dr. Ferrier, in these observations is thoroughly endorsed 
 by both Dr. Beale and Prof. Carpenter, and the reports 
 of his experiments they have extensively embodied in 
 their works. 
 
 Dr. Ferrier has carried his experiments quite into de- 
 tail ; and of the several kinds of animals examined, has 
 
THE ARGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 235 
 
 mapped the brain, showing the locations of the groups 
 thus actually found, much after the manner of phrenol- 
 ogists. The following statements from his conclusions 
 concerning his experiments will sufficiently illustrate his 
 views : 
 
 "1. The anterior portions of the cerebral hemi- 
 spheres are the chief centers of voluntary motion 
 and the active outward manifestation of intelli- 
 gence. 2. The individual convolutions are separate 
 and distinct centers; and in certain definite groups 
 of convolutions (to some extent indicated by the re- 
 searches of Fritsch and Hitzig) and in corresponding 
 regions of non-convoluted brains, are localized the cen- 
 ters for the various movements for the eyelids, the face, 
 the mouth and tongue, the ear, the neck, hand, foot 
 and tail. Striking differences corresponding with the 
 habits of the animal are found to be in the differentia- 
 tion of the centers. Thus the centers for the tail in 
 dogs, the paws in cats, the lips and mouth in rabbits, 
 are highly differentiated and pronounced " (Dr. Beale 
 on Protoplasm, p. 323). Dr. Hughlings Jackson has 
 made similar observations on the human system. 
 
 THE SELF AND ITS INSTRUMENT. 
 
 Now, in the lower portion of this gray-matter layer 
 of the brain, whereon these electrodes are applied, " the 
 number of nerve fibers, like that of the bioplasts, is al- 
 together beyond calculation. A portion of the gray 
 matter upon the surface of the convolutions, not larger 
 than the head of a very small pin, will contain portions 
 of many thousands of nerve fibers, the distal ramifications 
 
236 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 of which may be in very distant and different parts of the 
 body. " And these masses of bioplastic cells and their 
 attendant nerve filaments, are formed into local groups 
 by kinds, with reference to special destinations and 
 offices, as is seen in these experiments. However, is it 
 not the same mental element ? — ^the same sentient voli- 
 tional force ? — indeed the very and complete Self, that 
 appears as the disturbing — the actuating cause of each 
 of these several groups from which the voluntary mus- 
 cular action occurs ? Is it not Self that appears in the 
 voluntary movements of the foot, the eye, the hand or the 
 tongue ? Does not Self say, I am doing it? There cer- 
 tainly is no plainer — not a more pronounced fact of any 
 kind. But it is also no less plain, that this mental ele- 
 ment^ — this sentient, volitional self-force, passes, without 
 contact with intervening ones, from one of these groups 
 over to another. While one set of bioplasts, or more or 
 less sets, as the case may be, which are correlated in 
 the execution of one given purpose, are being impacted 
 by it, it is absent from others, and, in turn, will also be 
 absent from these. The mental element is to be seen 
 operating these groups of bioplasts and nerves upon 
 'the same mechanical principle that the pianist oper- 
 ates the keys and the wires of the piano in executing a 
 sentiment of music : Now the ravishing hands fall on 
 these keys, and now, completely leaving these and pass- 
 ing over others, descend on those, striking only such as 
 are grouped in the strain and which the spirit of har- 
 mony foresees and dictates to be used on the occasion. 
 Eecognizing here that it may be judged that in this 
 
THE AEGUMENT FOR THE AFFIEMATIVE. 237 
 
 illustration I have not covered all the ground, — that as 
 there are, besides the fully defined intelligent move- 
 ments and expressions, many that are vaguely intelli- 
 gent and often barely traceable as such, after all the 
 inactive groups may be retaining their appropriate parts 
 of mind, but in a state of comparative latency; and 
 that in some sense the mind is stni identical with the 
 brain and of it. This, perhaps, solitary objection, is 
 readily set aside by the fact that conceding it, it were 
 still required to admit the existence of an outside and 
 essentially independent mentality to impinge upon 
 and arouse the latent part in such unison with other 
 and not all parts as to obviate confusion and produce 
 intelligent results! But for the purpose of rendering 
 an explanation for the mixed phenomena referred to, it 
 may be said that in these separate actuations of the 
 braia groups the entire self may not always be employed. 
 The effort or intent may be feeble from indifference or 
 hesitancy, or from being tentatively distributed to a va- 
 riety of objective motives; so that the action may be 
 aimless and irrelevant or seemingly automatic. Like 
 as when the operator's mind is loosely floating amid a 
 congeries of harmonies, his leisure fingers stroll listlessly 
 over the keys, but in the moment of the mind's con- 
 centration in the proposition of an execution they de- 
 scend in a harmonic crash ! so, too, when the mental 
 element has in any other department of thought become 
 concentrated into an active purpose, the executive men- 
 tal force is precipitated upon the required groups, and 
 the action becomes strongly differentiated and pro- 
 
238 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 nounced. It will be seen, also, that at that time of 
 mental concentration there is a corresponding absence 
 of diffused phenomena throughout the organism. 
 
 In this connection it may also be incidentally noted as 
 a fact of no small importance, that when the electrodes 
 are applied only general movements of the affected 
 parts are elicited. There is seen no detailing of move- 
 ment with reference to a purpose — there is no special- 
 izing that would be necessary to certifying to the presence 
 of a mental cause. Hence, two facts, at least, must be 
 conceded: First, that the brain, as an instrument, 
 is, comparatively, a simple one, — in device is not of the 
 versatility that is necessary for an intellectual aspect of 
 movement, in which fact we are again reminded that it is 
 impossible for the mind to be the result of this phys- 
 ical organization ; and, second, that the mental fabric — 
 the individual mind — holds an external relation with the 
 brain analogous somewhat to that which the electrodes 
 themselves sustain to it; and that as in telegraphy 
 many unlike messages pass over the same wire, so over 
 one brain mass of nerve wires are discharged innumer- 
 able dissimilar forms and measures of mental impulses 
 from its similarly adjacent mental operator. 
 
 It is, also, to be still further noted from these cita- 
 tions of facts that this mind is a unit of parts or func- 
 tions and therefore exists in some manner of form and 
 embodiment in this adjacent and separate relation, as 
 the ideas and resolutions brought to bear upon the 
 brain are fully formed and energized before being pre- 
 cipitated on the cell and nerve arrangement. And it 
 
THE AEGUMENT FOK THE AFFIRMATIVE. 239 
 
 comes to be seen again from this point of view that the 
 mind, as such — on its own part — exists and does its 
 work without a physical brain at all — ^that for ideation 
 it has not even recourse to the much talked about gray 
 matter. It is as the operator who first executes the idea 
 and the purpose to do so within himself, before rattling 
 it off on the wires ! 
 
 This same principle is still further illustrated in the 
 fact that this individual mind is capable of sending the 
 same mental dispatch — the same purpose to be effected 
 — over various and dissimilar departments of nerve wire. 
 If one set of these wires is down, pre-occupied, or from 
 other cause unavailable, it dispatches over another set. 
 For example, when an object is to be removed the mental 
 impulse will descend upon the group affecting the hand, 
 but if the hand is not at liberty the mind changes the im- 
 pellent force over to the group affecting the foot, perhaps ; 
 and soon. However, the idea — the message or pur- 
 pose in the transaction — is identically the same, by which- 
 ever member accomplished, — over whichever nerve wires 
 transmitted. Hence, neither is the operator nor the ideay 
 that are witnessed in the rational transaction, identified 
 with the organism, nor dependent on it more than for a 
 means of transaction. 
 
 Similar to this is that often seen in cases of approach- 
 ing death, where the vital machinery is so depleted 
 by the erosions and waste of disease as to be wholly 
 unserviceable to the restorative vital forces, where 
 deep lesions and extensive paralysis with confusion of 
 interfallen fiber incident to the collapse of the mass. 
 
240 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 have necessarily taken place, the whole mind — the com- 
 plete sentient self with all the sweet thoughtful affec- 
 tions re-appears in the countenance and on the lisping 
 tongue. The fact is so common as to be not at all 
 wonderful. It has often been remarked upon in cases 
 of chronic insanity — where brain lesions have remained 
 incurable. In these cases the recurrence to the normal 
 state is not so gradual as to denote the restoration of 
 the organism to wholeness and health, but compara- 
 tively instantaneous. It is Self re-appearing above the 
 wreck, independent of breaks and wide disconnections of 
 its former channels, seizing, independently of these, the 
 remote centers directly and re-erecting them for this 
 moment's use in the transmission of a greeting by the 
 same loved one from practically beyond the tomb. 
 
 And, here it is to be further noted, as a matter of 
 stni further interest to the subject, that this recurrence 
 to consciousness and to sentience cannot be entirely the 
 result of vital reaction, from the fact that such a re- 
 action is dependent on unbroken tissue. Eeactions are 
 the repairing forces, and do not thus suddenly rebuild 
 or span over breaks. The marvelous fact is more read- 
 ily understood by considering that it is from a mental 
 effort, more or less intense, made by the departing self, 
 favored by the reactive flow of the vital forces in the 
 parts actuated. Similar impulses of mental force are 
 on other occasions seen to be more or less effective in 
 overcoming physical dormancies, as in some forms of 
 alarming dreams wherein we remember having strug- 
 gled immensely to regain control of our physical powers. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 241 
 
 And when it was regained it was, at times, with such 
 force as to cause a smart rebound of the body. 
 
 In cases of catalepsy the same fact is at times illus- 
 trated. A somewhat remarkable case of this character 
 has been reported from Newark, N. J., of a young lady 
 of that place in November, 1880. During her cataleptic 
 trance of five weeks, she was without the power of rec- 
 ognizing or speaking. She lay painless and quiet, with 
 little movement save " a slow twitching of the eyelids. " 
 " The severest electric shocks caused not even the twitch 
 of a muscle. On her recovery, she stated that she had 
 been conscious, but had but the one thought — the ter- 
 rible one that her physicians might pronounce her dead 
 and she be buried alive ! " The agonizing thought could 
 not have been without the greatest volitional effort. 
 But " in vain did she try to speak. She could not move 
 her lips. " Without avail did the operator in her com- 
 plete Self hammer the keys of the fallen wires to send 
 out the infinitely important message that life was not 
 yet departed and might be recalled to external con- 
 sciousness. This, then, may indicate the straining effort 
 by which the mental force, under such intense solicitude^ 
 may over-leap the breaks in nerves, or immediately 
 seize upon the more external centers themselves and 
 actuate the organs of sense or of sight, hearing and 
 speech for the brief moment's parting salutation. 
 
 And when now we thus see that when the organism 
 is so extensively broken down and so much of it actually 
 carried away wholly beyond the bodily limits, without 
 detriment to the wholeness of this sentient Self, is it 
 
 16 
 
242 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 not sufficiently apparent that the accomplishment of the 
 little remaining work of decomposition — separation or 
 death — of the body will likewise be a matter of indiffer- 
 ence to the individual's survival in this same complete- 
 ness ? We note that up to this state of the procedure, dis- 
 organization has had only the effect to liberate the Self 
 without in any respect having diminished or disqualified 
 it. So, while the remaining shreds of organization by 
 which its slight adherence to the external state are con- 
 tinued, are hut the same in nature and character as the 
 ones destroyed, the further progress and the final end 
 of the work of death would be only of like effect — its 
 further liberation and finally entire separation from the 
 body, and the beginning of the career that awaits it 
 in the region beyond. 
 
 Dr. Beale, in seeing the force of this same class of 
 facts that I have here adduced, has very properly sub- 
 mitted from his first-class eminence as a physiologist, 
 the challenge to mineralists : " Since all forms of vital 
 power are transferable, is it not going farther than is 
 warranted by reason to affirm, that no vital power can, 
 under any circumstances, be freed from the material, 
 and yet be?" 
 
 DREAMS AND SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 We come now to consider the evidence of yet another 
 class of facts — facts that are incidental to dreams and 
 somnambulism or sleep-walking. In sleep, while the 
 brain is much less active, the mind is known to be at 
 times more efficient than in waking. In such cases the 
 
THE ARGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 243 
 
 strongest and most accurate thinking transpires with 
 little or no use of the brain ; harmonizing with what 
 has already been observed, that the conception of the 
 thought and the impulse to its execution take place apart 
 from the brain and prior to being delivered upon it. 
 Indeed, there is no necessity of seeing that aU thoughts 
 go to the brain; but that even of the greatest, some 
 may never appear upon that organ at all. While of 
 some only the remembrance of them goes to the brain. 
 Miss H. Martineau, of England, reports the case " of a 
 congenital idiot who had lost his mother when he was 
 under two years old, and who could not have subse- 
 quently been made cognizant of anything relating to 
 her ; and who yet when dying at the age of thirty, sud- 
 denly turned his head, looked bright and sensible, and 
 exclaimed in a tone never heard from him before, * Oh, 
 my mother ! how beautiful ! ' and sunk round again — 
 dead" (Household Words, vol. 9, p. 200). The case is 
 cited by Prof. Carpenter in his Mental Physiology, and 
 seems to show conclusively that the mind underwent 
 enlargement without the ordinary use of the brain, — ^thafc 
 mind may have resources of development from a state 
 unconnected with the brain. 
 
 In the case of this idiot, there occurred the moment- 
 ary, unmistakable manifestation of a measure of ap- 
 preciation and affection that is inseparable from a state 
 of lucid reason, though without a corresponding brain, 
 and is conclusive proof that the movements and con- 
 ceptions, and, hence, enlargements of mind may take 
 place with little or no regard to a brain substance. The 
 
244 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 enlargement in this example took place while on the 
 dream side of his life — while the dwarfed, defective 
 brain, with its darkening and disordering reactions on 
 the mind, was harmlessly down in sleep. 
 
 Instances of extraordinary mental achievements dur- 
 ing sleep, are of quite frequent occurrence. A few well 
 authenticated examples will illustrate. On the authority 
 of Prof. Wm. B. Carpenter, I here insert a narrative by 
 the Eev. John de Liefde, taken from the experience of 
 a fellow clergyman. The clergyman was, at the time 
 referred to, a student of mathematics in the Mennonite 
 Seminary of Amsterdam, under Prof. Yon Swinden. A 
 banking-house had given the professor a severe problem 
 requiring very skillful figuring, upon which he had al- 
 ready made some unsuccessful attempts. Finally he 
 selected from his students a number to whom he in turn 
 submitted it, one of whom was this young student him- 
 self, who says : 
 
 " My ambition did not allow me any delay. I set to 
 work the same evening, but without success. Another 
 evening was sacrificed to my undertaking, but fruitlessly. 
 At last I bent myself over my figures for the third even- 
 ing. It was winter and I calculated till half-past one 
 in the morning — all to no purpose ! The product was 
 erroneous. Low at heart, I threw down my pencil, 
 which already by that time had beciphered three slates. 
 I hesitated whether I would toil the night through, and 
 begin my calculation anew; as I knew the professor 
 wanted an answer the very same morning. But, lo! 
 my candle was already burning in the socket ; and, also, 
 the persons with whom I lived had long gone to rest. 
 
THE AKGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 245 
 
 Then I also went to bed ; my head filled with ciphers ; 
 and tired in mind, I fell asleep. In the morning, I 
 awoke just early enough to dress and prepare myself to 
 go to the lecture ; vexed at heart at not having been 
 able to solve the question and at having to disappoint my 
 teacher. But, wonder! as I approach my writing 
 table, I find on it a paper, with figures in my own hand, 
 and (think of my astonishment !) the whole problem 
 upon it solved quite aright, and without a single blunder. 
 I wanted to ask my hospita whether any one had been 
 in my room ; but was stopped by my own writing. * 
 
 * * Thus I must have calculated the problem in 
 my sleep, and in the dark to boot ; and what is most 
 remarkable, the computation was so succinct, that what 
 I saw now before me on a single folio sheet had required 
 three slatefuls closely beciphered on both sides during 
 my waking state. Prof. Von Swinden was quite amazed 
 at the event, and declared to me that whilst calculating 
 the problem himself, he had never once thought of a 
 solution so simple and concise " (Mental Phys., pp. 593, 
 694). 
 
 Of the same class of phenomena is a circumstance 
 referred to by Prof. Haven in his Mental Philosophy. 
 Speaking of a school for young ladies where a prize 
 had been offered for the best paintings, he says : 
 
 " Among the competitors was a young and timid girl, 
 who was conscious of her inferiority in the art, yet 
 strongly desirous of success. For a time, she was 
 quite dissatisfied with the progress of her work ; but by 
 and by began to notice as she resumed her pencil in the 
 morning that something had been added to the work 
 
246 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 since she last touched it. * * * The additions were 
 evidently by a superior hand, far excelling her own in 
 skill and workmanship. Her companions denied, each 
 and severally, all knowledge of the matter. She placed 
 articles of furniture against her door in such a way 
 that any one entering would be sure to awaken her. 
 They were undisturbed ; but still the mysterious addi- 
 tions continued to be made. At last her companions 
 concluded to watch without and make sure that no one 
 entered her apartment during the night ; but still the 
 work went on. At length it occurred to them to watch 
 her movements ; and liow the mystery was explained. 
 They saw her, evidently in sound sleep, rise, dress, take 
 her place at the table, and commence her work. It was 
 her own hand that, unconsciously to herself, had exe- 
 cuted the work in a style which in her waking moments 
 she could not approach, and which quite surpassed all 
 competition. " 
 
 Another case, similar in character, is taken from Dr. 
 Abercrombie, who relates respecting an eminent lawyer 
 of Scotland, who had been consulted in respect to a 
 case of much importance and of great difficulty, — that 
 he had been studying it with intense interest and appli- 
 cation. The doctor goes on to say : 
 
 " After several days had been occupied in this man- 
 ner, he was observed by his wife to rise from his bed in 
 the night and go to a writing-desk which stood in the 
 bedroom. He then sat down and wrote a long paper 
 which he carefully put in his desk, and returned to bed. 
 The following morning he told his wife that he had had 
 a most interesting dream ; — that he had dreamt of de- 
 
THE ARGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 247 
 
 livering a clear and luminous opinion respecting a case 
 which had exceedingly perplexed him; and that he 
 would give any thing to recover the train of thought 
 which had passed before him in his dream. She then 
 directed him to the writing-desk, where he found the 
 opinion clearly and fully written out; and this was 
 afterward found to be perfectly correct " (Intellectual 
 Powers, 5th Ed., p. 306). 
 
 Dr. Hammond seeks to parry the force of this exam- 
 ple by suggesting that the man must have been awake 
 while executing the work — that waking transactions are, 
 at times, recalled as having been dreams. But the ex- 
 ample he submits is not at all a parallel case. One, 
 truly, may passively view a fire or hear a story told and 
 in time recalling it, be uncertain as to whether it was 
 a real transaction or only a dream. But hardly so of 
 a matter of such deliberate straining effort, wherein the 
 co-ordinations of the surrounding state — determining 
 whether one was waking or sleeping — become most 
 definitely impressed. 
 
 He remembered the great lucid effort as co-ordinating 
 with the dreaming state, and the equally laborious, but 
 less successful, as with the waking state. And in no case 
 imaginable is memory more worthy of entire reliance. 
 
 These cases are somnambulistic dreams. They are 
 " acted dreams, " as Prof. Carpenter rightly denominates 
 somnambulisms. In dreams of this character, the 
 mind attains control of some of the nerves of motion, 
 and at times, to some extent, also, those of the senses ; 
 and but for this last stated means of external manifes- 
 
248 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 tation and record of the passing thought, if recalled at 
 all, it would be recalled as merely a dream. But som- 
 nambulists more commonly remember nothing of their 
 somnambulic transactions, — not even recalling that they 
 have dreamed correspondingly with the acts alleged of 
 them in that state, or dreamed at all. So, but for the 
 matter of mere accident, in these examples, their most 
 successful thinking — their strongest and most sane 
 achievements of mind, would in the one case have been 
 vaguely recalled as only a dream ; and in the other two, 
 the artist girl and the young mathematician, not even the 
 hint from a dream thereof remained to them of their 
 mind's successful work in the dream-land. Nothing re- 
 specting themselves, for that time, could have been 
 known but that they had been pursuing common sleep — 
 sleep like any other sleep. And what achievements of 
 like efficiency and sanity may not, then, have transpired 
 to these people at other times, and to other people as 
 well, that have remained utterly unknown to the waking 
 side ? And who with these facts before him shall say 
 that such is not more or less common to human life all 
 the time ? 
 
 Grotesque as ordinary dreams represent its move- 
 ments to have been, there are thus instances that show 
 consistent, connected and systematic thinking to have 
 been pursued by the mind during sleep. And because 
 the more perfect of these are commonly not recalled 
 after waking, but are known by having been somnam- 
 bulistically acted out, we are led to see that the more 
 sane transactions of mind in the sleeping state take 
 
THE AEGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 249 
 
 place when the sleep is the most complete! This, also, 
 is assured by the fact that in the waking state the ap- 
 prehending powers of the mind are, according to the ex- 
 tent of the waking, diverted and employed by the brain 
 forces, objectively upon the external or waking facts ; 
 which, in their glaring realness to the open senses, nec- 
 essarily obscure the impressions of past mental move- 
 ments in proportion that they have been less connected 
 with the brain. Hence, the deepest dreams, ordinarily, 
 are most forgotten. Besides a state of partial or di- 
 vided consciousness is necessarily incompatible with 
 clear thought. And so the most grotesque dreams are 
 best remembered. 
 
 And from this it would also be quite natural to infer 
 that when sleep again ensued, the mind might recover 
 the forgotten transaction and possibly proceed again in 
 respect to it, taking up the thread of the previous 
 dream, specially so if the sleep were of the same de- 
 gree of soundness. 
 
 And here, too, there are corroborations at hand. 
 Prof. Hamilton, who says, "whether we recollect our 
 dreams or not, we always dream, " states touching this 
 principle, " I have always observed that when suddenly 
 awakening from sleep (and to ascertain the fact I have 
 caused myself to be roused at different seasons of the 
 night) I have always been enabled to observe that I 
 was always in the middle of a dream " (Metaphysics, 
 p. 225). Only part of the mind's transaction in that 
 state was he able to recall. But what he recalled was 
 in BUch/or77i as to enable him to know that where it was 
 
250 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 discontinued to his memory, was only where it went 
 under cover of some obscuring circumstance, and was 
 not the beginning nor ending thereof. This is a very 
 common fact in respect to dreams. 
 
 Then, again, there occur what seem to be "serial 
 dreams. " Those who have been in the habit of taking 
 account of their dreams have at times noted this pecul- 
 iarity, that the mind in its wanderings has undergone 
 a quite sensible reaction as of the surprise of suddenly 
 arriving upon a matter of thought previously engaged 
 upon, or upon a scenic display — a landscape or city, 
 possibly — previously looked upon, and having an as- 
 pect of great familiarity, and yet in the waking state 
 be able to recall of it little or nothing but the fact of a 
 strong impression of that character having taken place. 
 That such recoveries of prior trains of thought and 
 scenic pictures, after the lapse of a period of waking, 
 are matters of fact, is frequently shown in the transac- 
 tions of somnambulists, of which a case given by Prof. 
 Carpenter will serve to illustrate ; though he cites it 
 for a different purpose. The subject was a young lady 
 of very sensitive organization and who had undergone 
 a long and severe illness. Her illusion was in respect 
 to an only brother who had died some years before. In 
 her somnambulistic dreams she saw him and conversed 
 with him, evincing the deepest emotions with extrava- 
 gant forms of speech. On one occasion, he observes: 
 
 "It happened that when she passed into this con- 
 dition, her sister, who was present, was wearing a 
 locket containing some of their deceased brother's hair. 
 
THE AEGUMENT FOK THE AFFIKMATIVE. 251 
 
 As soon as she perceived this locket, she made a vio- 
 lent snatch at it, and would not be satisfied until she 
 got it into her possession, when she began to talk to it 
 in the most endearing and extravagant terms. Her feelings 
 were so strongly excited on this subject, that it was judged 
 prudent to check them ; and as she was inaccessible to all 
 entreaties for the relinquishment of the locket, force 
 was employed to obtain it from her. She was so deter- 
 mined, however, not to give it up, and was so angry at 
 the gentle violence used that it was found necessary to 
 abandon the attempt ; and having become calmer, after 
 a time, she passed off into ordinary sleep. Before going 
 to sleep, however, she placed the locket under her pillow, 
 remarking, 'Now I have hid it safely, and they shall not 
 take it from me.' On awaking in the morning, she had 
 not the slightest consciousness of what had passed, 
 but the impression of the excited feelings still remained, 
 for she remarked to her sister, ' I cannot tell what it is 
 that makes me feel so ; but every time that S — comes 
 near me I have a kind of shuddering sensation,' the in- 
 dividual named being a servant whose constant attention 
 to her had given rise to a feeling of strong attachment 
 on the side of the invalid, but who had been the chief 
 actor in the scene of the previous evening. This feel- 
 ing wore off in the course of a day or two. 
 
 "A few days afterward, the somnambulism again re- 
 curred; and the patient, being upon the bed at the 
 time, immediately began to search for the locket under 
 her pillow. In consequence of its having been removed 
 in the interval (in order that she might not, by accident- 
 ally finding it there, be led to inquire into the cause of 
 its presence, of which it was thought better to keep her 
 in ignorance) she was unable to find it ; at which she 
 
252 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 expressed great disappointment, and continued search- 
 ing for it, with the remark, * It must be there ; I put it 
 there a few minutes ago, and no one can have taken it 
 away' " (Mental Phys., pp. 597, 698). 
 
 Though here on waking there was no remembrance 
 of what had thus transpired — not even of the careful 
 hiding of the locket, when she re-entered the deep 
 somnambulistic sleep, immediately the same train of 
 thought and the same feelings and scenes, were recurred 
 to and entered upon as if they had taken place but the 
 previous moment, though several days of waking had 
 intervened ; giving evidence that not alone is the mind 
 in that state capable, spasmodically, of individual un- 
 connected efforts, but of serial, systematic chains of 
 thought, though broken in upon and sundered by the 
 diverting power of the waking state. 
 
 We have room for only a few, but citations of exam- 
 ples of the above character from the most unquestion- 
 able authorities, might be indefinitely prolonged, si 
 have referred to them for the purpose of showing what 
 the mind can do with little or no relation with the brain. 
 
 STATE OF THE BRAIN DURING SLEEP. 
 
 In sleep the brain reposes — is to a large extent or 
 wholly without activity and the use of its function. " In 
 profound ordinary sleep, the cerebrum with the sensory 
 ganglia, is in a state of complete functional inactivity" 
 (Carpenter's Phys., p. 610). Experiments invariably 
 show the brain in a state of sleep to have receded from 
 the cranium and to have assumed a state of compara- 
 
THE AKGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 253 
 
 tive rest. Blumenbach and Dendy, severally referred to 
 by Dr. Hammond, Ex- Surgeon General, U. S. Army, 
 report cases in illustration of this fact. The former re- 
 ports an instance of a young man having fallen and 
 fractured his skull on the right side of the coronal 
 suture. "After recovery took place a hiatus re- 
 mained, covered only by the integument. While the 
 young man was awake this chasm was quite superficial, 
 but as soon as sleep ensued it became very deep. The 
 change was due to the fact that during sleep the brain 
 was in a collapsed condition" (Sleep and its Derange- 
 ments, p. 30). The latter " states that there was, in 
 1821, at Montpellier, a woman who had lost part of 
 her skull, and the brain and its membranes lay bare. 
 When she was in deep sleep the brain remained motion- 
 less beneath the crest of the cranial bones ; when she 
 was dreaming, it became somewhat elevated ; and when 
 she was awake it was protruded through the fissures of 
 the skuU" (ibid). 
 
 Dr. Hammond has pursued this investigation on his 
 own part by performing numerous operations on lower 
 animals, finding always that during sleep the brain in 
 like manner receded, and rose again upon waking. He 
 observes, giving the process in full : 
 
 " Since the chapter on the Physiology of Sleep was 
 written, I have, by additional experiments, satisfied my- 
 self that the theory then enunciated is correct in every 
 particular. 
 
 " By means of an instrument adapted to show the ex- 
 tent of cerebral pressure, and which I first described 
 
254 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 nearly two years ago, I have been enabled to arrive at 
 very positive results. In every instance the pressure 
 was lessened during sleep and was increased during 
 wakefulness. The experiments were performed upon 
 dogs and rabbits. Briefly, the instrument consists of a 
 brass tube, which is screwed into a round hole made in 
 the skull by a trephine. Both ends of this tube are 
 open, but into the upper is screwed another brass tube, 
 the lower end of which is closed by a piece of very thin 
 sheet of India rubber, and the upper end with a brass 
 cap, into which is fastened a glass tube. This inner 
 arrangement contains colored water, and to the glass 
 tube a scale is affixed. 
 
 " This second brass tube is screwed into the first, till 
 the thin rubber presses upon the dura mater and the 
 level of the colored water stands at 0, which is the mid- 
 dle of the scale. Now, when the animal goes to sleep, 
 the liquid falls in the tube, showing that the cerebral 
 pressure has been diminished, — an event which can only 
 take place in consequence of a reduction of the quan- 
 tity of blood circulating through the brain. As soon as 
 the animal awakes, the liquid arises at once. Nothing 
 can exceed the conclusiveness of experiments of this 
 character. No mere theorizing can avail against them" 
 (pp. 317, 318). Trephining the skull and rendering a 
 section of the brain bare to view, is so simple and con- 
 venient a way of observing this phenomena that the ex- 
 periments are quite common. 
 
 He attributes this collapsing of the brain to the with- 
 drawal of the circulation. Others are in doubt whether 
 it is not the reverse. It, indeed, is more probable that 
 the brain ceasing, from some other cause, to act and to 
 
THE AEGUMENT FOK THE AFFIKMATIVE. 255 
 
 require this nourishment, is why, in natural sleep, it is 
 discontinued. The blood is only the repair material. 
 It is not the repairer. It delivers its freight only to the 
 bioplasts. From thence the cell building force takes 
 and applies it. However, as also without the building 
 material the artisan must stop, the interception of the 
 circulation would cause a coUapse. Certain it is that 
 brain without blood would be deprived of its function. 
 And this is the state of the brain when in natural sleep. 
 What he observed of it when in this collapsed state 
 during sleep, was that it was bloodless. Eef erring to 
 an experiment made by him in 1860, he says : 
 
 " A medium-sized dog was trephined over the left pa- 
 rietal bone, close to the sagittal suture, ha\dng previously 
 been placed under the full anaesthetic influence of ether. 
 The opening made by the trephine was enlarged with a 
 pair of strong bone-forceps, so as to expose the dura 
 mater to the extent of a full square inch. The mem- 
 brane was then cut away and the brain brought to view. 
 It was sunk below the inner surface of the skull, and 
 but few vessels were visible. Those which could be per- 
 ceived, however, evidently conveyed dark blood, and the 
 whole exposed surface of the brain was of a purple 
 color. As the anaesthetic influence passed off the cir- 
 culation of the blood in the brain became more active. 
 The purple hue faded away, and numerous small vessels 
 filUed with red blood became visible; at the same 
 time the volume of the brain increased, and when 
 the animal became fully aroused, the organ protruded 
 through the opening in the skull to such an extent that, 
 at the most prominent part, its surface was more than 
 
256 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 a quarter of an inch above the external surface of the 
 cranium. While the dog continued awake, the condition 
 and position of the brain remained unchanged. After 
 the lapse of half an hour, sleep ensued. While this was 
 coming on, I watched the brain very attentively. Its 
 volume slowly decreased; many of its smaller blood- 
 vessels became invisible, and finally it was so much con- 
 tracted that its surface, pale and apparently deprived of 
 blood, was far below the level of the cranial wall" (pp. 
 38, 39). 
 
 Similar results followed the experiments of Mr. 
 Durham, also cited by Dr. Hammond, performed on a 
 dog about the same time, of which he says : 
 
 " As the effects of this agent (chloroform) passed off, 
 the animal sank into a natural sleep, and then the con- 
 dition of the brain was materially changed. Its surface 
 became pale and sank down below the level of the bone ; 
 the veins ceased to be distended, and many which had 
 been full of dark blood could no longer be distinguished. 
 When the animal was roused, the surface of the brain 
 became suffused with a red blush, and it ascended 
 through the opening of the skull. As the mental ex- 
 citement increased, the brain became more and more 
 turgid with blood, and innumerable vessels sprang into 
 sight. The circulation was also increased in rapidity. 
 After being fed, the animal fell asleep, and the brain 
 again became contracted and pale" (ibid, p. 34). 
 
 Dr. Hughlings Jackson examined the retina of the 
 eye, by means of an opthalmoscope with a view to ob- 
 serving its condition during sleep, and found that it was 
 paler and its arteries more, contracted than in the 
 
THE ARGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 257 
 
 waking state (see Royal Lond. Opthalm. Hos. Reports). 
 This coating of nerve substance or mesh of nerve fila- 
 ments, is quite the same order of tissue as that of the 
 optic ganglion, of which, practically, it is a continuance, 
 and would be, characterized in sleep somewhat as the 
 brain is. And we find, then, this examination of nerves 
 closely identified with the brain substance itself, by the 
 specially favorable circumstance of a transparent eye 
 to look through, down in upon it in all its quiet natural- 
 ness, revealing the same state of facts. 
 
 Thus, then, is the brain functionless in the state of 
 profound sleep. And though absolute sleep — a state of 
 entire inaction of the brain — may not occur in life, it ia 
 functionless to the extent that sleep prevails ; and to 
 the same extent it is parted from the m'ind or Self ; like 
 as the paralyzed limb is parted from the will, — essen- 
 tially as in death. Then what thinking in sleep trans- 
 pires in the mind previously in the waking state joined 
 with that brain, takes place, substantially, in the state 
 of death! 
 
 Thus have we seen that of the transactions of the mind 
 in sleep, the more efficient take place in the deeper 
 sleep — in the more extended inaction of the brain — in 
 the nearest approach to death. 
 
 If, then, the stronger and more sane thinking is posr 
 sible with less brain contact (and our examples have 
 shown that in sleep mind has achieved successes beyond 
 the ability of its waking state), it is plainly conclusive, 
 not alone that thinking goes on after all connection 
 therewith is wholly sundered, but that in its entire free- 
 
 17 
 
i:5S CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 dom from it it will attain to greater strength and efficiency 
 and wider range. 
 
 THE mind's rapid MOVEMENT AND SOMETIMES KEEN 
 APPREHENSION DURING DREAMS. 
 
 In the conclusion, thus arrived at, we have an ex- 
 planation, also, why in dreams the mind is seen to ex- 
 ecute its movements more rapidly than in waking, and 
 why at times it displays such extraordinary attainment 
 during sleep. Prof. Carpenter says, " One of the most 
 remarkable of all the peculiarities in the state of dream- 
 ing, is the rapidity with which trains of thought pass 
 through the mind ; for a dream in which a long series 
 of events has seemed to occur, and a multitude of im- 
 ages has been successively raised up, has been often 
 certainly known to have occupied only a few minutes, 
 or even seconds, although whole years may seem to the 
 dreamer to have elapsed " (Mental Phys., p. 688). Dr. 
 Hammond, referring to the same matter, supplies an 
 incident from the Revue de Paris related by Lavalette, 
 as occurring to him while in prison: 
 
 " One night, while I was asleep, the clock of the Pal- 
 ais de Justice struck twelve and awoke me. I heard 
 the gate open to relieve the sentry, but I fell asleep 
 again immediately. In this sleep I dreamt that I was 
 standing in the Eue St. Honore. * * * All of a 
 sudden, I perceived at the bottom of the street and ad- 
 vancing toward me, a troop of cavalry, — the men and 
 horses, however, all flayed. The men held torches in 
 their hands, the red flames of which illuminated faces 
 
THE ARGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 259 
 
 without skin, and bloody muscles. Their hollow eyes 
 rolled fearfully in their sockets, their mouths open from 
 ear to ear, and helmets of hanging flesh covered their 
 hideous heads. The horses dragged along their own 
 skins in the kennels which overflowed with blood on all 
 sides. Pale and disheveled women appeared and disap- 
 peared at the windows in dismal silence ; low, inarticu- 
 late groans filled the air, and I remained in the street 
 alone petrified with horror, and deprived of strength 
 sufficient to seek my safety in flight. This horrible 
 troop continued to pass along rapidly in a gallop, and 
 casting frightful looks upon me. Their march contin- 
 ued, I thought, for five hours, and they were followed 
 by an immense nimiber of artillery wagons full of 
 bleeding corpses, whose limbs still quivered ; a disgust- 
 ing smell of blood and bitumen almost choked me. 
 At length the iron gates of the prison, shutting with 
 great force, awoke me again. I made my repeater strike ; 
 it was no more than midnight, so that the horrible 
 phantasmagoria lasted no more than two or three min- 
 utes — that is to say, the time necessary for relieving the 
 sentry and closing the gate. The cold was severe and 
 the watchword short. The next day the turnkey con- 
 firmed my calculations. I, nevertheless, do not remem- 
 ber any thing of my life, the duration of which I have 
 been able more exactly to calculate, of which the details 
 are deeper engraven on my memory, and of which I 
 preserve a more perfect consciousness " (Sleep and its 
 Derangements, pp. 79, 80). 
 
 Though the mind in this instance must have been 
 near the waking state, and more hampered and distorted 
 from brain influence than in deeper sleep, it yet detailed 
 
260 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 this series of impressions in a few minutes that would 
 have required hours in the waking state. 
 
 So, also, there sometimes occur certain forms of ex- 
 traordinary attainment, — of language speaking, and 
 music rendering, etc., developed in trance and hypnotic 
 or mesmeric subjects, exciting great astonishment, and 
 often rendering a resort to spiritualistic theories of in- 
 terpretations the only way out. A case of this character 
 is also referred to by Prof. Carpenter, who relates it as 
 follows : 
 
 " When Jenny Lind was singing in Manchester, she 
 was invited by Mr. Braid to hear the performance of 
 one of his hypnotized subjects, an illiterate factory girl, 
 who had an excellent voice and ear, but whose musical 
 powers had received scarcely any cultivation. This 
 girl in the hypnotic state followed the Swedish nightin- 
 gale's songs in different languages both instantaneously 
 and correctly ; and when in order to test her powers, 
 Mdlle. Lind extemporized a long and elaborate chro- 
 matic exercise, she imitated this with no less precision, 
 though unable in her waking state even to attempt any- 
 thing of the sort. * She caught the sounds so promptly,' 
 says Mr. Braid, * and gave both words and music so sim- 
 ultaneously and correctly, that several persons present 
 could not discriminate whether there were two voices or 
 only one' " (Mesmerism, Spiritualism, etc., pp. 19, 20). 
 
 In this case the rapidity of mental activity during 
 sleep is also very forcibly exemplified. Scarcely a per- 
 ceptible interval of time transpired between Miss Lind's 
 utterances and their repetition by the girl. Besides there 
 is seen to have been a corresponding and surpassing 
 
THE ARGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 261 
 
 activity of the apprehending powers necessary to a 
 proper vocalization of both the music and the unknown 
 tongue; all evincing an accomplishment that in the 
 waking state might have required years of laborious 
 training. We are not to understand by the facts here 
 given that the hypnotized subject at the time rational- 
 ized the music or the language. 
 
 Still another example of this class of facts, though 
 referring to a different phase of mental activity, is 
 cited by Dr. Hammond as having occurred in the course 
 of his practice. He says : 
 
 " A young girl, recently under my professional care, 
 was cataleptic on an average once a week, and epileptic 
 twice or three times in the intervals. Five years pre- 
 viously she had spent six months in France, but had 
 not acquired more than a very slight knowledge of the 
 language, scarcely, in fact, sufficient to enable her to ask 
 for what she wanted at her meals. Immediately before 
 her cataleptic seizure, she went into a state of ecstacy, 
 during which she recited poetry in French, and deliv- 
 ered harangues about virtue and godliness in the same 
 language. She pronounced at these times exceedingly 
 well, and seemed never at a loss for a word. To all 
 surrounding influences she was apparently dead. But 
 she sat bolt upright in her chair, her eyes staring at 
 vacancy, and her organs of speech in constant action. 
 Gradually she passed into the cataleptic paroxysm. She 
 was an excellent example of what Mrs. Hardinge calls 
 a * trance medium.' The materialistic influence of bro- 
 mide of potassium, however, cured her catalepsy and 
 epilepsy, destroyed her knowledge of the French tongue 
 
262 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 and made her corporeal structure so gross that the 
 spirits refused to make any further use of it for their 
 manifestations" (Nervous Derangement, p. 117). 
 
 In this case the same imitative or repeative phase of 
 mind is joined with the memory in its extraordinary 
 activity; and that which was at some time a special 
 tax on that faculty, or was from novelty or from some 
 other occasion of interest peculiarly impressed, nat- 
 urally became the theme of this activity ; as is always 
 to be expected. It is possible, though not probable, that 
 the girl deliberately conversed in French. The wonder- 
 ful achievement was a feat of the memory joined with 
 the reflexive or imitative power. 
 
 A very similar case is referred to by Prof. Hamilton 
 in his celebrated Lectures on Metaphysics. It is cited 
 from Coleridge : 
 
 "A young woman of four or five and twenty, who 
 could neither read nor write, was seized with a nervous 
 fever ; during which, according to the asseverations of 
 all the priests and monks of the neighborhood, she became 
 possessed, and, as it appeared, by a very learned devil. 
 She continued incessantly talking Latin, Greek and He- 
 brew, in very pompous tones, and with most distinct 
 enunciation. * * * The case had attracted the 
 particular attention of a young physician, and by his 
 statements many eminent physiologists and psychologists 
 visited the town and cross-examined the case on the 
 spot. Sheets full of her ravings were taken down from 
 her own mouth, and were found to consist of sentences, 
 coherent and intelligible each for itself, but with little or 
 
THE AKGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 263 
 
 no connection with each other. Of the Hebrew, a small 
 portion alone could be traced to the Bible, the remainder 
 seemed to be in the rabbinical dialect. All trick or con- 
 spiracy was out of the question. * * * The young 
 physician, however, determined to trace her past life 
 step by step ; for the patient was incapable of returning 
 a rational answer. He at length succeeded in discover- 
 ing the place where her parents had lived; traveling 
 thither, found them dead, but an uncle surviving ; and 
 from him learned that the patient had been charitably 
 taken by an old Protestant pastor at nine years old ; had 
 remained with him some years. * * With great diffi- 
 culty, and after much search, our young medical phi- 
 losopher discovered a niece of the pastor's, who lived 
 with him as his housekeeper. * * * She remembered 
 the girl. * * Anxious inquiries were then, of course, 
 made concerning the pastor's habits ; and the solution 
 of the phenomenon was soon obtained. For it appeared 
 that it had been the old man's custom, for years, to 
 walk up and down a passage of his house into which 
 the kitchen-door opened, and to read to himself, with a 
 loud voice, out of his favorite books. A considerable 
 number of these were still in the niece's possession. * 
 * Among the books were found a collection of 
 the rabbinical writings, together with several of the 
 Greek and Latin fathers; the physician succeeded in 
 identifying so many passages with those taken down at 
 the young woman's bedside, that no doubt could remain 
 in any rational mind concerning the origin of the im- 
 pressions made on her nervous system " (Lectures on 
 
264 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Metaphysics, pp. 239, 240). 
 
 Fortunately, through the sagacity and persevering 
 energy of this young physician, definite light is thrown 
 on this class of phenomena. Speaking in unknown 
 languages in this case, including good pronunciation, 
 is clearly seen to have been the work of memory, 
 joined, as in the previous case, with the imitative fac- 
 ulty, and during a state of great activity and strength 
 of both. She was, however, able to recall only the pas- 
 tor's vocalizations of those tongues (that would naturally 
 have produced a very peculiar impression on her) in en- 
 tirety so far as to full sentences ; while the ecstacy was 
 not complete enough to properly bridge over the breaks 
 between sentences and take the next in order. 
 
 Phenomena of this character, that have been greatly 
 puzzling from ordinary standpoints of consideration, be- 
 come very simple in the light of the fact thus developed, 
 that mind in its own sphere and relieved to its own nat- 
 ure and away from physical contact, is of greater effi- 
 ciency in its functions. And when Dr. Hammond, in 
 the case of the epileptic French-speaking girl referred 
 to, with sober good will heaves a bomb- shell over at the 
 spiritualist, it turns out to be a boomerang. When he 
 speaks of the bromide of potassium having cured her cat- 
 alepsy and epilepsy, and so destroyed her knowledge of 
 the French tongue, he is testifying against his own min- 
 eralism by submitting the fact that on the restoration of 
 health the mind was again subjected to the restrictions 
 the brain places upon it, and that it is in this state less 
 efficient. Instead of the mind or ideation being merely 
 
THE AKGUMENT FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE. 265 
 
 " the clash of atoms, " we see that the atoms are unable 
 to clash nearly as fast as the mind would have them do. 
 We find, then, that this customary realization of self 
 residing apart from the body, is not an illusion but a 
 matter thoroughly sustained from scientific data. 
 
 WORDS IN CONCLUSION OF THIS CHAPTER. 
 
 To pass from existence in one state of realizing life 
 mto like existence in another, such as leaving our bodies 
 at death implies, is certainly nothing more wonderful 
 than is our evolving at birth from the senses and self 
 of another to the senses and self of our own — a phe- 
 nomenon that is an utterly impenetrable mystery ; and 
 yet it is the very first fact in the order of our own exist- 
 ence. The brain is of service in the economy of life in 
 supplying it with some valuable form of subsistence from 
 the physical side of being — impressions, perhaps, that 
 are needful or indispensable to mind in the early state, 
 though it is not* at the present important to state what 
 is the character of this need. So, too, is the umbilicus 
 of the unborn child valuable to its pre-natal life in con- 
 necting it with a source of subsistence that in that state 
 is indispensable. But the umbilicus is not a permanent 
 necessity. Neither is the continuance of this tie join- 
 ing it with the mother, determined by any very closely 
 fixed period in the child's development. The child may 
 be bom — ^the tie sundered — before full maturity, and 
 yet live and do well. So, likewise, may not the brain 
 — the tie with the external world — be discontinued, 
 the individual being be safely liberated, without regard 
 
266 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 to any special time of life after Self shall have been 
 fully established ? 
 
 And, yet further; as birth must take place — the um- 
 bilicus must be sundered in the course of time — to give 
 to the growing man a larger liberty and wider range of 
 action, so must the growing mind — the Self — in time 
 outgrow the need of the brain ligature to the external 
 world, to enter upon the yet greater liberty and yet 
 wider range provided in the spiritual realm — the beyond 
 of death. 
 
CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 Man's Proper Immortality Affirmed by the Or- 
 ganic Law of His Being. 
 
 CONSIDEEING the future life of man as an ascer- 
 tained fact, — that at death he is merely divested 
 of the body and still lives, it needs to be further settled 
 that he will thence live always — is properly immortal. 
 
 determining duration. 
 
 The extent of the duration of an individual's exist- 
 ence, is, in all cases, to be estimated mainly by ascer- 
 taining what its adaptations are ; as an adaptation may 
 not be supposed to exist without an objective reality. 
 Nature is in no instance so lacking as to produce an aim- 
 less creation ; or to create uses and not also the object 
 of their application. Everywhere the means and the end 
 are conjoined ; and the one is no more a fixed verity than 
 is the other. The principle applies to all living nature. 
 The webbed foot is made for service in the water ; but 
 its existence is no more a certainty than is that of the 
 water which its peculiarity indicates. Indeed, the exist- 
 ence of the water may be said to be the prior fact — ^the 
 fact that determined the conformation of the foot. So, 
 too, the wing was constructed with reference to locomo- 
 tion on the air ; the fin, through the water ; the foot, on 
 
 267 
 
268 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 solid ground ; the eye was made to operate in properties 
 that are peculiar to the light ; the ear, to sound. But 
 without the equal existence of these objective realities, 
 air, water, earth, light and sound, these peculiar con- 
 formations of limbs and organs would not be called for, 
 and would have no existence. 
 
 Furthermore, this principle is universally recognized. 
 The naturalist, seeing a bird with webbed feet, says, It 
 is aquatic — it is adapted to swimming ; and there must 
 be water hereabout. When the feet are prehensile, he 
 says. This animal is adapted to climbing or digging and 
 lives on trees or in the earth. When he takes up a 
 tooth of required form he decides it to be from the car- 
 nivora — the flesh-eaters, — that the animal was hostile, 
 and that in its age animals preyed upon each other. 
 Its construction implies an adaptation — a use, and, as 
 well, the object of the use. 
 
 These are of the more simple instances wherein the 
 principle is illustrated. Let us now proceed to consider 
 another, one of a somewhat different class. A seed 
 germinated — a plant was bom, which, completing its 
 orbit of being, reached maturity and ripened its fruit. 
 Now, although natural history is not sufificiently ma- 
 tured to enable the naturalist, from any philosophy of 
 the mode of the plant's life and form to see that it is 
 adapted to fruit, — ^the kind of fruit and the manner of 
 its bearing, yet that its mode did from the first unfail- 
 ingly point to it, no naturalist can doubt. The plant 
 in its conception comprised its entire history ; and the 
 ending was as truly a factor thereof as the beginning. 
 
MAN'S PROPEE IMMORTALITY AFFIRMED. 269 
 
 What from the beginning was its future was as truly a 
 fact thereof as was its present. Its future was but its 
 uniranspired fact. Its feebleness may not in aU in- 
 stances admit of aU the facts in the conception trans- 
 piring. The progress of the plant may be intercepted 
 by some accident befalling it — it may be crushed or its 
 supply cut off, and thus not suffered to come to maturity, 
 while still the destiny in its conception remains the 
 same. 
 
 It required the existence of the conditions for the 
 ending state as much as for those for the beginning state, 
 to constitute for it the mode of its being. The plan 
 rested as heavily on the conditions of the ending as on 
 those of the beginning state of its life. 
 
 When, therefore, we have the life adaptations of an 
 order of being, we have with equal certainty its future 
 — as unequivocally as that one and one are two. In 
 some instances they seem hopelessly obscure, as in the 
 plant in its early state, or in the butterfly in the larval 
 state. In other instances they are, however, very sim- 
 ple, and readily apparent. 
 
 Then to determine the term of duration after death, 
 whether of man or beast, or any other type of life, it 
 requires to be ascertained what is the function of its 
 life, and thence what is the orbit of its movement that 
 its destiny is to describe. 
 
 And here, before entering upon the solution of the 
 problem of man's term of duration in the next life, we 
 may as well at once attend upon the question that will 
 
270 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 inevitably arise in the mind of the reader, Is the brute 
 not also immortal in case the man is ? 
 
 Life in animals below man is characterized in many 
 respects as in man himself. Their organisms are oper- 
 ated substantially in the same way. Their bodily move- 
 ments are in obedience to impingements of force residing 
 apart from the body. And these impingements indicate 
 this force as more or less intelligent. In them, as in 
 man, the nervous system is but an instrument. 
 
 And judging by what is known at the present time, 
 this principle holds good down to the lowest limit of the 
 kingdom. The animal element, in all its phases of in- 
 dividual being, holds, as does the human, an existence 
 apart from the mineral embodiment which it animates. 
 That, then, the death of its body does not bar the con- 
 tinuance of its individual existence, is necessarily to be 
 conceded. And if there are no after death adverse 
 conditions, its continuance might weU be endless. 
 
 Of these, however, there is a possibility. Life in one 
 aspect is identical with force however peculiar and won- 
 derful it otherwise is. It is characterized by the laws 
 of force. On its concentration it attains to increased 
 activity and intensity, and often makes new disclosures 
 of properties and develops to view new attributes or 
 wider range of old ones. This we see, for example, in 
 man. Straining efforts in study bring the mind out 
 into clearer vision of principles. Straining of life 
 under burdens of heavy sorrow has brought to realiza- 
 tion the greater depths and breadths of affection. That 
 which is a passive ether, may, by being focalized, become 
 
MAN'S PROPEE IMMORTALITY AFFIRMED. 271 
 
 an effective agent. Physics affords numerous illustra- 
 tions of this character. The rays of light converged 
 through a lens become more luminous and more hot. 
 The same fact is also illustrated in the electric light. 
 Then that which must be conceded as a zo-ether — ^the 
 animal element in primary diffusion (as to all elements 
 such a state belongs) — is likewise susceptible of this 
 kind of mutation, whose instances of focalization, or 
 nuclii, are its individual forms ; these being multiplied 
 by the ordinary processes of generic propagation. The 
 male and female factors in generation are frequently 
 spoken of as the positive and negative states of the 
 same element. And from their mutual ardor in copu- 
 lation, originates the new individual, or nucleus, en- 
 dowed with all the life and attributes of its kind. 
 
 A knowledge, in minutia, of these facts, is not at 
 present attainable. We can speak only of the possibil- 
 ities that are apparent from the general principle that 
 is known. But the individuals thus derived — bom — if 
 not from their natures permanently continuous, would 
 but be expected at the consummation of their period to 
 lapse again into re-diffusion with their several elements. 
 
 Now instinct, the order of mentality residing in the 
 brute, as has been seen (see Chap. 9), is not origina- 
 tive — is incapable of devising within itself and issuing 
 from itself new modes, or to dis-establish itself from old 
 ones. It is restricted to merely the power to reflect 
 devices. It serves for their echo ; not for their origin. 
 Its indications are more those of an instrument than of 
 a proprietor. And its functions being thus to merely 
 
272 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 serve, we may not know what, its individual forms may 
 only be temporary. 
 
 And though these lower animals seem to possess both 
 will and choice operating by the impulses of pleasure 
 and pain, it admits of doubt that the merely auxiliary 
 mental element of which their existences are constituted 
 is capable of the conditions of a proper Self — anything 
 more than a s?^6-Self, analogous to that kind of self 
 that is constituted in every special sense, and that re- 
 sides in its own special head or brain or sub-brain — 
 the adjacent ganglion, — as for example the optic gang- 
 lion situated adjacent to the eye in the optic nerve 
 rendering it a self-sentient member, as experiment 
 proves it to be. 
 
 A passing word, in respect to the moral aspect of this 
 view to the general reader, seems called for in this place. 
 From custordary observation of those beautiful beasts 
 of domestication, so intimately and agreeably associated 
 with man, and arrayed in those same senses in which he 
 himself is, to say that this is all that there is of those 
 lives, can hardly fail to impress one disagreeably ; at 
 first suggestion at least. But we recall that facts are 
 altogether inexorable, and loyalty to them is ever to be 
 preferred over any other consideration, however pleasing. 
 Besides, to recognize all that is commonly seen in their 
 existence, and to bestow all the consideration of love 
 and sympathy and care that may be bestowed upon 
 them, is fully justified by this view. It can cause no 
 diminution of feeling interest in their welfare. At the 
 same time to themselves, merely, their dissolution could 
 
MAN'S PROPEK IMMORTALITY AFFIRMED. 273- 
 
 not partake of the character of a calamity, — a disap- 
 pointment or an injustice ; as without reason, such an 
 event could hardly be realized, and certainly not valued. 
 
 It would follow, only, that at the termination of their 
 round of being, whatever length of duration that might 
 require, and by whatever law might apply in the case,., 
 the power (whatever it should be) that so held their 
 constituent mental elements in these concentrated,, 
 individualized forms, would, by change of conditions in- 
 duced by the special character of their own properties,, 
 disappear ; and the individual lives would lapse into re- 
 distribution with the general tides of their original 
 elements ; possibly to be re-gathered and re-represented 
 in other instances of individual life, in connection with 
 this existence, or, also, possibly amid the scenes sur- 
 rounding man in his immortal home. 
 
 It remains, however, to be said, that, should it prova 
 that the beast is constituted with the element of reason 
 in latency, that might under some form of coming cir- 
 cumstances in another state, become active, and so 
 would become endowed with that high order of sentience, 
 it, too, would be immortal, — and human as well. But 
 of it, at present, there is no trace nor hope of a trace. 
 
 IN THE CASE OF MAN THE ESSENTIAL FACTS ARE 
 ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. 
 
 In the living forms below man we find mind restricted 
 to the level of mere instinct, and hampered with con- 
 ditions that at best forebode their end. But the re- 
 verse of thesf conditions we find in the estate of the 
 
 18 
 
274 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 human mind. It possesses the elements of reason. 
 And an analysis of this great order of mind leads at 
 once to the discovery that its continuance is endless. 
 
 We first note that its adaptation (which is seen to be 
 inexorable law) shows that the mission it is ordained to 
 fulfill is such as to require endless time. It devises 
 new modes, and dis-establishes itself from old ones, 
 when they cease to answer its requirements. The trans- 
 actions in the history of our arts and sciences are, in a 
 limited way, a standing illustration of this truth. New 
 devices — new modes — are incessantly appearing in every 
 department of our activities, while old .ones are being 
 discontinued, as our sense of convenience calls for. From 
 this fact in its nature its existence is not determined by 
 one class of circumstances. On being brought into re- 
 lation with new conditions incident to the line of its 
 being, it would by this facility in its nature attain to new 
 conditions of adjustment, dis-establishing itself from the 
 old. New worlds of altogether new substances might thus 
 he passed into and through, becoming as dead to the 
 worlds left behind. 
 
 Endless contingencies would then seem to be provided 
 for by the endlessly versatile genius of this order of 
 mind ; and from this aspect of the case it is adapted to 
 an endless existence. 
 
 Then, added to this, we come to consider the next 
 item of adaptation — that the reasoning element is an 
 endlessly progressive sentience. And here we must 
 stop to anticipate a probable criticism. The form of 
 mind below it, too, is adapted to perceive on a plane 
 
MAN'S PKOPEE IMMORTALITY AFFIRMED. 275 
 
 that is of endless variety and extent. The adaptation 
 is, however, to but the same state and to essentially 
 the same thing, whether the object be one on a neigh- 
 boring planet or immediately before it. Consistency 
 with what is to be said does not require, therefore, that 
 the mere animal must exist till it has seen the last 
 thing in physical nature. The last object on the re- 
 motest star in the universe might as well be first seen 
 as last. The mission of the representative of this or- 
 der of mind, is in this respect, fulfilled in the very first 
 act of its perception. Neither does it require priority 
 in the order of what it sees. It requires not that a tree 
 must be seen before there is ability to see a horse. 
 
 It is not so with the reasoning sentience of man. 
 "When he has perceived one and one in combination as 
 two he has perceived but a single and simple principle 
 — the additive. The multiplicative is founded on this, 
 but is attainable only by additional mental acquirement 
 — ^further enlargement and greater grasp of mind. And 
 many a brain-weary pupil who has unraveled the usu- 
 ally prescribed course, principle by principle, will testify 
 that the remotest fact of mathematical attainment is 
 not perceived by the same low power that the first is, 
 nor grasped by the same feeble fabric. But from these 
 utterly simple beginnings, rises this principle of science 
 to infinite enlargement and infinite variety. That the 
 plan of the reasoning being — the appointment of its 
 destiny — included the last and highest as certainly as 
 the first and lowest element of this science, admits of 
 no doubt whatever. 
 
276 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 And that it was ordained to consummate the first , is a 
 fact as commonly conceded as that the eye was formed 
 to utilize the light. But the attainment from the first 
 to the last is but the process of the mind's evolution 
 along this line of principles. It is but unfolding the in- 
 nate plan of its destiny ; as the plant does when throw- 
 ing out leaf after leaf in its progress toward bloom and 
 fruit. No one suspects that of this great principle of 
 science the last fact is in, and that the last knowable is 
 known. No one, on reflection, questions that the know- 
 able applies to the whole infinite extent of these princi- 
 ples, — to all the unknown as well as to those known. 
 Hence, the reasoning mind, indisputably adapted to their 
 attainment — by its essence and mechanism being or- 
 dained to verify all these in their order — one following 
 upon another — makes the mission of man unendingly 
 prolonged. 
 
 I have referred only to mathematics in the illustra- 
 tions thus given. It will readily occur that the subjects 
 of mental pursuit are numerous beyond calculation, and 
 that the same observations will apply to each. In each 
 the mind achieves its attainments by evolving its nature 
 along the lines of its endless paths ; the achievement 
 of each principle giving it width and strength to reach 
 and grasp the next. And on each his mission allots him 
 the same unending career. 
 
 Again, in these facts of the ever enlarging and 
 strengthening sentience we have the very opposite of 
 termination. Truly the ox also for a time passes through 
 an enlarging process, and yet is seen to attain to a limit 
 
MAN'S PROPER IMMORTALITY AFFIRMED. 277 
 
 prior to appropriating all the universal extent of assim- 
 ilable elements. But, as before explained, the facts are 
 not parallel. The stages in the development of the ox 
 are all accomplished without passing on to a new form 
 or state of elements. The last mouthful of grass at the 
 end of his twenty years run of life is in no respect un- 
 like the first. And the level of attainment made in the 
 last was fully made in the first. All subsequent ones 
 were but repetitions. The enlargement of the reasoning 
 sentience is of an altogether different class of facts. The 
 nature of these facts make it that the more knowing 
 and seeing that transpire to it, the more is it set on to 
 see and to know, and the larger are its qualifications to 
 know and to see. 
 
 It is so related with existence that constantly recur- 
 ring new mental scenery — new developments of princi- 
 ples — must arise to view, with their ever fresh induce- 
 ments. The monotony of all the time continuing in one 
 impression, tends to sometime destroy all desire in re- 
 spect to it. But here each new achievement begets a 
 new zest. The last achievement is then always the 
 point where self is the most assured of its continuance. 
 And this fact must so continue so long as the infinite 
 mazes of the knowable unknown shall supply food for 
 the ever more and more hungry mind. Thus do the 
 very essence and mechanism of the reasoning element 
 of which man is the finite embodiment, again indicate 
 for him this destiny. 
 
278 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 THE EVIDENCE OF PRESCIENCE. 
 
 In nature, everywhere, individual presentiments 
 are taken as exponents of destiny. To some ex- 
 tent the individual is possessed of a prescience 
 of its future. It is presciently affected by its des- 
 tiny. In some this is stronger than in others. And 
 parts only of destiny, usually, are impressed with 
 sufficient clearness to be plainly noted. Neither 
 are these at all times equally or even at all apparent 
 to mere human discernment. But the pregnant 
 dam, realizing that she is tending toward progeny, 
 seeks for it appropriate seclusion. The bird, on arrival 
 of the breeding season, from presciencing a brood, pro- 
 ceeds to build a requisite nest in anticipation of their 
 requirements. Besides, the principle is here seen to ex- 
 tend to even the unconscious states of existence. In the 
 ovulating process in the cavity of the bird, independent 
 of her own volitions, an order of prescience, foreseeing 
 the character of the dependence of the coming bird's 
 pre-natal state incased in the shell away from the mother, 
 stores under that shell, for its use during that period, 
 the exact quality and quantity of the nutriment it shall 
 require. The fly, too, deposits her eggs with reference to 
 the sustenance of her larvae. It sometimes happens 
 that the same conditions are suited to her own wants, 
 though more frequently not. The IchneumonidcB, a large 
 family, deposit their eggs in the larvae, the pupse and 
 even the eggs, of other insects, on which their larvae 
 immediately feed. The Urocerata bore holes in trees in 
 
MAN'S PKOPEB IMMORTALITY AFFIRMED. 279 
 
 which they deposit their eggs, their larvae being borers 
 and subsisting on the juices of the wood. There is, 
 then, the same principle of prescience to be seen 
 present down in this lower kingdom that we see in the 
 dam and the bird. And if possessed of the right means 
 of apprehending, the principle were, doubtless, to be 
 found of universal extent. 
 
 In other instances animals have a strong prescience of 
 themselves as existing in a future period, seen in the 
 fact that they lay away stores and make other provi- 
 sion for life's necessities with which to meet that 
 coming time. For that purpose the squirrel is busy lay- 
 ing in supplies during the nutting season ; the bee is 
 filling its galleries with honey in the time when nature's 
 laboratories are busily sending it forth ; the beaver is 
 raising its dam, and the muskrat is building its house. 
 
 The larva, at the requisite maturity of its nature for 
 the incoming change, presciences itself as existing not 
 only in a coming period but in a different mode of being, 
 and in some instances, in different elements — in another 
 world. It proceeds to place itself in suitable surround- 
 ings, with a view to the safety and promotion of its 
 transformation. When the ordinary state of surround- 
 ing nature incidentally furnishes those conditions, the 
 principle will be less, if at all, apparent. When the act 
 consists in simply burrowing in the earth for lodgment 
 during the chrysalis state, the fact is not prominently 
 suggestive ; unless we stop to notice that certain rules 
 respecting depth are observed. We then see that there is 
 a prescience of need as to measures of warmth, moist- 
 
280 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ure, light, and air for self while undergoing the change. 
 And when, as at times is seen, the arrangements in- 
 clude special shape and size of the chamber of trans- 
 formation, a prescience of the new shape and mode of 
 being, also, is forcibly suggested. 
 
 In some cases, however, the ordinary state of sur- 
 rounding nature is very foreign to the needs of the in- 
 sect. In the large family of the Lepidoptera, with the 
 generality the transformation requires such particularity 
 and delicacy of circumstance as that the most elabor- 
 ate encasing and sealing in away from the ordinary in- 
 fluences of the elements, is indispensable. This may be 
 conveniently seen in the construction of the silk cocoon. 
 Of extraordinary care and diligence bestowed upon the 
 construction of this wonderful tomb- cradle, we have 
 an example in that important worm — the beneficent 
 exuder of the silk of commerce. Figuier, in detailing 
 its behaviour and mode of procedure, observes that up 
 to the time of its maturity " the worm had never tried 
 to leave its litter. It lived a sedentary life and never 
 thought of wandering away from its food. Now it is 
 seized with an important desire for changing its quar- 
 ters. It gets up, it roams about and moves its head in 
 all directions to find some place to cling on to. It walks 
 over everything within its reach, particularly over those 
 obstacles which are placed vertically. It aspires, not to 
 descend, like the heroes of classic tragedy, but to rise. 
 
 * * It now looks for a convenient place in which 
 to establish its cocoon. Every one has remarked how 
 the animal sets to work to accomplish its task. It begins 
 
MAN'S PROPER IMMORTALITY AFFIRMED. 281 
 
 by throwing from different sides threads destined for 
 fixing the cocoon. * * The proper space having been 
 circumscribed by this means, the worm begins to un- 
 wind its thread. * * Folded upon itself almost like 
 a horse-shoe, its back within, its legs without, the worm 
 arranges its thread all around its body, describing ovals 
 with its head. * * As long as the cocoon is not very 
 thick one can watch it through the meshes of the web 
 applying and fixing its thread, still to a certain degree 
 soft, in such a manner as to make it adhere closely to 
 the parts already formed " (The Insect World, p. 224). 
 Upon the task it bestows seventy hours, as an average, 
 of this kind of toil, weaving about itself, into the space of 
 an inch and a half, over a thousand yards of silk fiber. 
 
 The first weaving is of floss silk closely matted, and 
 forms an excellent protection from rain. Next beneath is 
 spun the finer quality of silk in the manner referred to, up 
 and down and crosswise in all directions about the body. 
 Lastly, within this, and of still more delicate silk, and 
 glued firmly together, is formed the last and innermost 
 layer immediately surrounding it. The whole consti- 
 tutes a chamber wall well calculated to exclude water, 
 air, and cold, and what might be of no less importance, 
 to break, by its most delicate elasticity, the force of rude 
 jostlings. 
 
 To all these wise provisions — these elaborate arrange- 
 ments — ^the little animal is moved by a prescience, how- 
 ever irrational, of not alone itself and its needs in the 
 transforming state, but scarcely less also of itself as a 
 
282 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 being transformed — ^the objective fact which all these 
 arrangements and proceedings include. 
 
 From the family of the Neuroptera, the larva of the 
 widely prevalent and well-known dragon-fly, constitutes 
 a fair subject for a still further illustration of this prin- 
 ciple. On account of its sharply defined habits, it has 
 been a favorite subject of remark by naturalists. Of 
 it Figuier, the French naturalist above cited, appropri- 
 ately says : 
 
 " The female lays her eggs in the water, from which 
 emerge larvae, which remind one somewhat of the form 
 of the insect, only their body is more compact and their 
 head flattened. The larvsB and pupae inhabit the bot- 
 tom of ponds and streams, where, keeping out of sight 
 in the mud, they seek for insects, moUusks, small fish, 
 etc. If any prey passes within their reach, they dart 
 forward, like a spring, a very singular arm, which rep- 
 resents the under lip. * * * To effect its meta- 
 morphosis, it drags itself out of the water, where it has 
 lived for nearly a year, climbs slowly to some neighbor- 
 ing plant, and hangs itself there. Very soon the sun 
 dries and hardens its skin, which, all of a sudden, be- 
 comes crisp, and cracks. The dragon-fly then sets 
 free its head and its thorax and its legs ; its wings, still 
 soft and wanting in vigor, gain strength by coming in 
 contact with the air, and after a few hours they have 
 attained their full development. Immediately the in- 
 sect abandons, like a worn-out suit, the dull, slimy skin 
 which had covered it so long, and which still preserves 
 
MAN'S PBOPER IMMORTALITY AFFIRMED. 283 
 
 its shape, and dashes off in quest of prey " (The Insect 
 World, pp. 420, 422). 
 
 From its birth it breathed water only, for which it 
 was provided with gills. It lived exclusively at the bot- 
 tom in the slime and mud ; and its great vivacity is ev- 
 idence that for the time it was well suited with that 
 state. It evinced as complete an absence of relation 
 with the atmospheric world above as did the fish. Yet 
 on arrival of the requisite maturity, it was seized by a 
 controlling impulse to leave its surrounding and to rise 
 — ^to proceed in a direction hitherto unrecognized — to fix 
 itself upon a means of ascent for existence in an element 
 unexperienced and practically unknown. That the in- 
 sects referred to employ their customary intelligence in 
 these deportments cannot be questioned. And though 
 they may not be said to follow their external senses in 
 their choices severally of manner of deportment, they fol- 
 low, to the last, a sentiment that is equivalent to sight 
 in its power over the volitions. It is sight, — an order 
 of sight whose apprehending qualities admit of its be- 
 ing thrown forward through time to seize upon and, with 
 some measure of accuracy and fuUness, define the facts 
 of untranspired existence. 
 
 It hence follows that generic impressions, however ob- 
 scure, — impressions that characterize a whole order or 
 family of beings — are as fully to be relied on as evidence 
 of the existence of the facts of being to which they 
 point, as that a web-foot is evidence of water or an eye 
 determines the existence of light. 
 
 Then, as stiU another fact in evidence of the endless- 
 
284 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ness of his future existence, it may be stated that man, 
 too, is characterized by this same law of prescience, by 
 which, however obscurely and without the details of mode 
 and circumstances, he foresees himself as surviving with- 
 out limit — to be always in a state intent on advancing 
 to the attainment of the next fact of principle; and 
 so onward throughout the endless knowable unknown. 
 And, whatever his theoretical acquirements may lead 
 him to reason out contrary to this, it is doubtful 
 whether this sentiment of continued future existence 
 can be educated into complete silence in any instance. 
 Education may do much toward obscuring, but it can do 
 nothing toward eliminating this constituent principle of 
 his being. That he presciences himself in a survival of 
 death, is evident from the race-wide impression that in 
 some form the dead are still living on. Every land 
 has at least its superstition respecting this — ^that that 
 which would occur to all as the most probable time 
 when his final ending should take place — physical death, 
 has not so terminated him and does not. Neither would 
 it be of consequence to claim the fact to be a superstition. 
 Then the principle of this prescience would be necessary 
 in turn to explain the presence of the superstition. 
 Therefore in this form the impression were as valuable 
 as a matter of evidence, as though it were found form- 
 ulated in the most lucid terms of his reason. The phe- 
 nomenon is plainly due to the prompting of a sense 
 having an adequate power over the volitions ; and, being 
 common to the race, it cannot be otherwise regarded 
 than a generic function ; and points to an endless life 
 
MAN'S PEOPER IMMORTALITY AFFIRMED. 285 
 
 as truly as to simply existence beyond the grave. It is 
 necessarily founded on those provisions in the constitu- 
 tion of his nature which determine the mode and the ex- 
 tent of his continuance in being — ^the requirements 
 and destiny of a reasoning mind. And, however unreal- 
 izing of it, this prescience cannot have reference to less 
 than all of future life — an undefined vision of Self in 
 all its coming history. 
 
 From the nature of the case the force of this pre- 
 science would be less realized in a mind pre-occupied by 
 the luminous visions of reason tending to obscure it. It 
 is, hence, more difficult to draw man's attention rightly 
 upon it in his own case than in the case of the in- 
 sects, etc. It is not readily detected, nor is its impor- 
 tant bearing on this subject readily seen without careful 
 inquiry into the nature and cause of those eager move- 
 ments of mind, in its healthy state, toward achieve- 
 ments that lie extended out infinitely, along which, to be 
 sure — along all this endless attaining — the existence of 
 self is always the prior fact. These facts when seen 
 and comprehended, become evidence quite conclusive 
 and unquestionable. And the naturalist apprehending 
 them rightly would say of the possessor of these pecul- 
 iarly marked activities of mind, " This being is one des- 
 tined, in some form, to survive always." He would say 
 it upon the same principle that would be his authority 
 for asserting of the insect that he sees weaving its co- 
 coon, "This is a creature of a twofold life;" or of the 
 one which, in opposition to all the custom of its previous 
 
286 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 life of adhering exclusively to the bottom of the pool, 
 he now saw crawling toward the air above, " Its exist- 
 ence extends into another order of elements — into 
 another world. " 
 
 This principle of presciencing self in a future may 
 be safely considered as present throughout all living nat- 
 ure. It is not necessary that we see it equally or even 
 at all illustrated in each of the families, nor in all the 
 individuals of the same family to yet be fully assured of 
 its existence there. We need not be able to sense heat 
 in the greatest cold attainable in order to know that 
 heat still is there. 
 
 THE MAIN OBJECTIONS TO THIS THEOEY CONSIDEEED. 
 
 But here it may occur that still a serious flaw exists 
 in this part of the argument. That plant whose nature 
 included its future period of fruit — whose mode of de- 
 velopment was evidence of its fruit-bearing destiny — 
 whose last act of principle was as truly a fact of its be- 
 ing as its first — may have the fatal foot descend upon 
 it; and that untranspired fact of its history may after 
 all never transpire, and its existence be terminated short 
 of this indicated destiny. The silk- worm weaving its co- 
 coon for the use of its future self which it foresees, may 
 be suddenly cut short by the proprietor choosing to util- 
 ize that cocoon in his crop of silk. The squirrel may 
 fall a victim to the sportsman's shot before he shall 
 have arrived in that future wherein he has prescienced 
 himself in the enjoyment of his hoard of nuts. Then 
 the man, too, it is objected, though presciencing him- 
 
MAN'S PROPER IMMORTALITY AFFIRMED. 287 
 
 self of an endless continuance in life may suffer a sim- 
 ilar disappointment. 
 
 But at most this objection could avail but in part, as 
 the disappointment in no case applies to all of the same 
 order or family. Always of each, some, at least, attain 
 to the prescienced end, or have done so. And but for 
 modifying accidents all would, beyond a doubt. But it 
 has in substance been already said that the prescience is 
 general and not specific in character, and is more or less 
 obscure. Besides, though the individual does so foresee 
 itself, the perception is by the generic law represented 
 in it. Its prescience is of the family nature and the 
 family destiny, and may be illustrated in a regiment of 
 troops ordered to take a position. The order having 
 been promulgated, the individual member anticipates 
 himself in the appointed position, and deports himself 
 accordingly. Yet by accident he may be prevented from 
 attaining his anticipations ; though in the regiment they 
 will be fulfilled. By the general order necessarily rep- 
 resented in his individual case he has seen of himself 
 what transpired only of his regiment. Bating only in- 
 superable accidents it would also have transpired in his 
 own case. So, too, the untranspired fact of principle in the 
 plant is properly of its genus. The untranspired ex- 
 istence of the larva in the fly state in the air and by 
 wings, did transpire in its genus, and was actually 
 prescienced by it in respect to itself as included in the 
 nature bearing that destiny ; though it fell a prey to the 
 fish before gaining the top of the water. And, also, but 
 for the overmastering accident, it, too, would infallibly 
 
288 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 have attained to that end. And so the prescience was 
 not in error. 
 
 But for accidents of surroundings there probably 
 would be no variations as to features, size or destiny 
 among the individuals of any family of plant or animal. 
 
 Still further, we have seen that the visible part of the 
 plant is but the mineral structure of its embodiment — 
 really its tool or its house, on which its existence is not 
 finally dependent, and that the same is true of the body 
 of the animal, of whatever order or family. Then who 
 can say that the plant whose unfinished body was 
 crushed, may not on its own side of nature, attain the 
 same prescienced end of reproduction by a means not 
 requiring the visible embodiment of germs ? And may 
 not the squirrel too, and the bee, in some form in a sep- 
 arate state of life, realize a supply of some character 
 toward which their prescience vaguely led them, though 
 it be not a physical aliment ? 
 
 From the plain fact, however, that the most favored 
 plant always attains to fruit, — the most favored caterpil- 
 lar always attains to the state of the fly, etc., the objec- 
 tion wholly loses its force. The prescience after all, is 
 infallible. It establishes the state and sets forth what 
 manner of future the genera attains, in all cases. And 
 as to the argument, it is a matter of entire indifference 
 whether individual exceptions are referred to or not, more 
 than to say that but for adequate hindrances no ex- 
 ceptions were possible ; and, also, that whether there 
 really are any such exceptions or not, in any order of 
 life, is finally unknown. 
 
MAN'S PROPER IMMORTALITY AFFIRMED. 289 
 
 But in the essential nature of man, altogether differ- 
 ing from the lower forms of life, there are facts to be 
 seen why all individuals thereof must attain to the gen- 
 eric destiny. It is of a devisive volitience, capable not 
 alone of apprehending the rationale in creation, but of 
 creating — of originating ideals and embodying them ; 
 being thus co-ordinate in substance with the supreme es- 
 sence embodying the supreme prerogatives ; and is dis- 
 tinguished therefrom alone by the ever- abiding infinite 
 difference that the infinite and the finite capacities and 
 prerogatives must constitute. 
 
 Then the human individual being thus generically su- 
 preme above them, all lower elements must ultimately 
 yield to its requirements, and are without a possibility 
 to contravene its tendency to destiny, however inferior 
 on the scale the representative may be found. 
 
 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ON THIS CHAPTER. 
 
 It is not expected, that at first reading at least, in all 
 instances where the reader is unaccustomed to the prin- 
 ciples brought forward, these presentations will be 
 wholly clear and satisfactory. Much will depend on the 
 ready facility for perceiving the force there is in the 
 universal law of tendencies. That trait of mind that will 
 readily perceive that an object liberated before a major 
 force at once becomes a projectile, and that without 
 modifications derived from outlying modes of resistance,. 
 or from its own properties, it will continue the charac- 
 ter of motion derived from the impulse (a fundamental 
 law recognized in all mechanics, and that is the basis' 
 
 19 
 
1:90 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 of all astronomical calculations) may be safely hoped to 
 have little difficulty in following the argument and at- 
 taining its conclusions. 
 
 Yet still another difficulty is foreseen, even with this 
 class of readers. The one unhabituated to continuing 
 the mental vision of man as uninterruptedly passing on 
 through death, will require time for the adjustment of 
 his mental senses to that fact ; as when one in order to 
 see clearly an object portrayed in a stereoscope needs at 
 the instrument to await awhile a certain adjustment of 
 the eyes. 
 
 Only when one doubts that the plant that bore fruit 
 was definitely actuated to that end by a tendency that 
 resided in it in its beginning, and that was identical with 
 it throughout its entire history, and on the contrary con- 
 siders it, in each case, as having merely happened so, 
 may he consistently doubt for the self of man an end- 
 less career. 
 
 It is true that mind has not in any instance been seen 
 to have fulfilled this destiny, and may not so be seen. 
 But does the thinker hesitate on this account ? Has he 
 Been the mind achieving the unknown achievements yet 
 of the future? Does he know of any one who has? 
 Certainly not. And does he doubt that the mind will at- 
 tain to them ? — that further principles will be known 
 that are not yet known ? Has he seen his approaching 
 harvest in its golden maturity ? Has any one seen it ? 
 Does he believe it possible that any one has seen it ? It 
 is impossible. Without admitting this same principle 
 that in man establishes his immortal destiny, it is of no 
 
MAN'S PKOPER IMMORTALITY AFFIEMED. 291 
 
 consequence to his purpose that he says, "Other har- 
 vests have been seen to mature ; " for then it could no 
 longer follow from that ripening that ripening would in 
 this instance take place, though no hindrances whatever 
 occurred ! The sun, including the solar system, is known 
 to accomplish an orbit. Has any one seen it accom- 
 plished? Has any one in the history of our race seen 
 an instance of its accomplishment ? No, neither has 
 been seen. How then is it known ? In its deportment 
 a tendency to that effect is seen. And on the strength 
 of this evidence alone, no astronomer doubts its truth. 
 It is entirely sufficient that it is seen fulfilling ! The 
 same philosophy sees in man's deportment the tendency 
 of this destiny, and likewise its fulfillment, which is ev- 
 idence much less fallible than men require for their 
 daily business transactions. 
 
CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 Questions Eespecting the Kelation of the Two 
 WoBLDS. — The Laws and Modes of Mental Inteb- 
 
 COUBSE OB THE TbANSMISSION OP THOUGHT. InSPIBA- 
 
 TION. 
 
 THE conclusions attained in the foregoing chapters 
 would naturally and properly be followed by a de- 
 sire to know to what extent the survivors in that inner 
 and superior world may have the ability to know of us 
 and our affairs in this; and also to what extent 
 influences may be derived from them. 
 
 With a view to answering alone from the standpoint 
 of natural facts, we first look to see what means of in- 
 tercourse these facts supply. And first in order the 
 present chapter is devoted to considering the mode by 
 which one mind or self operates upon another mind or 
 self, — how one observes another, and how thought and 
 sympathy are transmitted. It being a fact that over all 
 obstacles, individuals have to some extent intercourse 
 with each other. All lament, however, that the means 
 of intercourse are so incomplete and the inter- 
 course is so imperfect. With the most expert ones 
 there constantly is a mistaking of meaning, even 
 on the same levels of attainment and on subjects of a 
 
 292 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 293 
 
 common understanding. This is true of the highest 
 circles of letters and of science. But it is particularly 
 noticeable in the intercourse between men of science, 
 where an accurate understanding is more imperatively 
 necessary. How much misleading there has been over 
 the terms "development" and "protoplasm," for exam- 
 ple, in respect to which it is very uncertain even now 
 whether any two are exactly understanding each other. 
 Much of the debate over them is due to mutual misun- 
 derstandings. 
 
 With the more common class the deficiency is still 
 greater. The field of thought upon which a clear, 
 mutual understanding may take place with people 
 of ordinary attainments is surprisingly limited. Only 
 upon matters of very commonplace experience, in which 
 all are largely participating, can understandings be re- 
 lied upon with anything like mathematical certainty. 
 Perplexed minds, who are painfully conscious of the im- 
 perfection of their linguistic arrangements for deliver- 
 ing their thoughts to others, are often heard to exclaim : 
 "Oh, if I could only express myself !" It indicates the 
 strait to which, in some measure, every mind is subject ; 
 while indeed many are so poor in language as to be 
 mainly cut off from being understood, or known as to 
 their mental status, save what may be seen in their gen- 
 eral deportment. 
 
 RESPECTING THE MODE OF MENTAL INTERCOURSE. 
 
 The mode of mental intercourse in the present state 
 of being is mainly by means of certain external signs of 
 
294 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 gestures and sounds, conventionally adopted, and ad- 
 dressed to the senses. These devices of communication 
 are so obvious and pronounced as to almost wholly ob- 
 scure certain other phenomena of a psychological char- 
 acter that are incident to human beings. Yet back of 
 all artificial modes of speech, and quite independent of 
 them, is a means of intercourse as to the general charac- 
 ter of thought and feeling, that is quite universally in- 
 telligible, whereby a neighbor's sentiments may be ob- 
 tained in some measure of fullness, of whose conven- 
 tional language we are ignorant; whereby even the 
 dumb brute may be understood and may also under- 
 stand. The modulating impulses of thought and of 
 passion, of pain and of pleasure, are often so pronounced 
 as to be unmistakable by the most unskillful beholders, 
 as to their general character, without the specialties 
 and details that are incident to them. A physician of 
 many years' practice once said, "I would rather trust 
 my diagnosis of an infant than of the average adult. 
 Its feelings without language are more easily and per- 
 fectly communicated than are those of the adult who 
 undertakes to supplement the natural language of pain 
 by verbal statements that are as likely to mislead as 
 otherwise. " 
 
 There is the blush that rises on the face from the 
 abashed feelings, or from the feelings of shame. And 
 there is the pale blench that comes from cringing fear. 
 The eye glares forth the lurid gleams of frantic hatred 
 or vengeance, terrifying to intercept. Or from it may 
 fall, remotely opposite from this, the tender, glowing ar- 
 
THE KELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 295 
 
 dor of impassioned love, quite as impossible to resist 
 as the other is to endure. Then from it will sparkle 
 forth the humor of capricious wit, or gleam the earnest- 
 ness of determined argument. Or its quiet, steady flame 
 will plainly tell of laboring, straining evolutions of 
 thought going on privately within. 
 
 It is to be remembered that beholding a being in life 
 thus, is mainly the beholding of life itself, — the composite 
 state of innumerable varieties of actuations that at every 
 point of time are taking place within, and are both vol- 
 untarily and involuntarily reacting upon the organism. 
 On a moment's reflection, the object of our contemplation, 
 when thus looking on a fellow being, is not the mineral 
 compound of flesh and blood, etc., that our senses lodge 
 against ; it is the inner self beyond, to the impulses of 
 which the mobile, delicately pliant mineral aggregate 
 yields expression, by means of the interlying elements 
 of nerve forces. But these movements are the uncon- 
 ventional ones. They are not those artificially pro- 
 duced and mutually agreed upon to be us^ as "the 
 signs of ideas." Upon reaching us through the medium 
 of our senses, they rhythmically excite like impulses in 
 ourselves, which is the basis of this common understand- 
 ing by means of them. The sight of tears excites us to 
 tears ; the sight of smiles, to smiles ; which is in no 
 sense conventional, but is by sympathy or sameness of 
 life, which in all instances under equal conditions yields 
 the same phenomena, and by the phenomena, alternately, 
 is excited the same impulse ; as the string sharing the 
 same chord of harmony with a neighboring string, when 
 
296 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 singing, awakens in the other the vibrations of the same 
 song, and in turn when song is sounding forth from the 
 other, is prompted to corresponding vibrations. 
 
 It is seen, then, that the transmission of thought, as 
 ordinarily seen to occur, is by means of the law which 
 enables the mind to impress intelligently modulated 
 forces upon its own adjacent substances, voluntarily 
 projecting the conventional sounds and gestures forth 
 upon the neighboring senses of sight and hearing of an- 
 other ; and by which, too, still further, the states of feel- 
 ing and of thought are involuntarily portrayed through 
 upon the external features of Self to be observed by an- 
 other. 
 
 But one more method, one less familiar to the gen- 
 eral mind, should, properly, be here considered. The 
 individual life, by the very conditions of its individuality, 
 is, in its proper selfhood, impermeable and indiffusible 
 by even its own element, somewhat as the crystallized 
 part of a fluid does not admit into its personal limits 
 the adjacent fluid, nor enter into diffusion therewith. 
 Yet over an ever present co-equal ether of its own nat- 
 ure and plane, and infinitely abounding, and adequate 
 to receive and transmit any grade of mental conception, 
 and of sentiment and passion, on its plane, its impulses 
 of thought and of feeling extend abroad to the limits of 
 another individual, there to await the properly matured 
 apprehending powers — ^the suitably refined and disci- 
 plined sensibilities, and the discriminating judgment, to 
 be received and conveyed inward upon the register of 
 consciousness of the neighboring individual. 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 297 
 
 From the obscureness of the elements involved in 
 this statement, it naturally becomes more difficult to 
 verify to the average undertanding. And for the pur- 
 pose I refer to but a few classes of facts. In the order 
 of nature each individual of whatever kingdom, is sur- 
 rounded by an atmosphere or an ether of more or less 
 density, consisting of its own order of substance under 
 unlike conditions, and more or less stable. Our earth— 
 a mineral ball — is enveloped in an atmosphere, which 
 is of the mineral state, and hence is also mineral. This 
 atmosphere, quite dense upon the surface, grows more 
 rare as it widens out from the center to join the atmos- 
 pheres of neighboring planets ; and from the solar sys- 
 tem, in yet greater rarity, it proceeds till it joins that of 
 neighboring systems, and so on, overspreading infinity. 
 When the steel-faced forge-hammer rebounds from a bar 
 of cold steel with such a piercing ring, atoms themselves 
 have not touched. The concussion was only upon their 
 atmospheres in which they, themselves, remained all 
 the while suspended. The force, however, was mainly 
 effective upon the centers — the individuals — themselves, 
 causing a change of their aggregates. The bar of steel 
 and the face of the hammer were not quite the same 
 after the stroke. It was, after all, a communication of 
 individuals with each other, by way of their common 
 atmospheres, which render their flexible, centripetal and 
 centrifugal forces, possible. 
 
 The same is true of planetary relations. They com- 
 municate with each other sympathetically, individual 
 with individual, by means of the interlying ethers or at- 
 
298 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 mosplieres affording embodiment for the p^issage of 
 forces and their modulations, of whatever kind. The elec- 
 trical agitation of the sun is at once discernible upon the 
 electric element of the earth, and, without doubt, in 
 like manner affects other planetary centers. And so 
 reciprocally. Beyond the reach of our physical percep- 
 tion, save in extreme instances, the measureless fields 
 of spaces are strung in infinite variety of ways, by the 
 lines of planetary and stellar intercourse. 
 
 Finding this fact prevalent throughout the mineral 
 domain, and rigidly the law in respect to all its forms 
 and phases, it is to be judged possible, at least, that an 
 analogous relation is sustained between the individuals 
 of the living and mental element. The two orders of 
 existence, though never the same, are seen to be so far 
 in harmony with each other as to have the law of force 
 in common ; and there subsists between the individuals 
 of each, the fact of sympathy. The sympathy in each 
 domain is in respect to properties of being, according 
 to which their several elements deport themselves and 
 develop their phenomena. In the mineral it is mani- 
 fest mainly in the induction of chemical changes by 
 varying the measures of force, which results in more or 
 less influence on the general aspect of nature. But the 
 spectroscope reveals the fact that even the special forms 
 of substances are communicated on this plane. In the 
 living and mental, the distinguishing properties are of 
 thought and of feeling, in the wide use of these terms. 
 At least the main bond of sympathy between intelligent 
 individuals is in respect to these properties. When intel- 
 
THE KELATION OF THE TWO WOELDS. 299 
 
 ligence and feeling are absent .from an object, our sym- 
 pathy with it is quite impossible. Besides, for the 
 individual who is the embodiment of these properties, 
 there is a substantial attachment — an actual drawing 
 force, — as literally as is that which impels one magnet 
 upon another. 
 
 That this affection is not in respect to the externa! 
 body, is duly apparent in the fact that when the body 
 has generally fallen away, and what of it remains is an 
 object of disgust and wholly repellent, the sympathy 
 not alone but even the affection remains in full strength, 
 and often attains to increased ardor. The. attractive 
 powers of the physical person are but of the real being 
 within portrayed through it, to whom it is an instru- 
 ment of more or less pleasing finish and graceful plia- 
 bility. The exciting influence — the real magnet drawing 
 upon Self, directing the attention upon the external form 
 on which the realizing senses are lodged — is within the 
 casket, beyond the sensuous domain. 
 
 The mental element, though by interlying forces joined 
 therewith, as pronunently seen in the union of body and 
 mind, while not being identical with the mineral, is still by 
 this common law of force, impossible to be without a re- 
 ciprocal relation of its individual centers, by way of its 
 own special substance in atmosphere, and wholly un- 
 connected with external means of intercourse. And this 
 reciprocity or intercourse can be only of the evolution 
 of its functional properties, which mainly, if not wholly, 
 consist of thoughts and feelings. It is, then, unavoid- 
 able, where confidence is placed in the fixedness and 
 
300 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 unity of natural law throughout its several systems of 
 being, that independent of the customary avenues of ex- 
 ternal intercourse, there is some measure of intercourse 
 or communication of states of mind and of feeling 
 taking place between individual lives. But the over- 
 powering glare of external realization, from the very 
 nature of it, tends to divert from the use of this mode 
 of intercourse and to obscure the realization of it when 
 taking place. 
 
 Expectant attention, monopolizing the main energies 
 of the mind devoted to intercourse, is constantly em- 
 ployed in receiving and sending dispatches by this route. 
 When an impulse of the mind takes place in respect to 
 another, it is, as the most practical way, at once dis- 
 patched through the organism. But a small percentage 
 of thought is by impulse directed to the abstract mind 
 of another in the manner that occurs, for example, in 
 mental prayer. And were it done with a force quite 
 sufficient to excite recognition in an adjacent mind in a 
 quiescent state and expectant of it, such conditions are 
 rarely found in a state where the senses are at all times 
 so overpowered by glaring external phenomena as is 
 common to man's earthly life. 
 
 ATTITUDE OF SCIENTIFIC MEN. 
 
 So difficult does this appear, and so unlike common 
 phenomena, that usually the most conservative and safe 
 of scientific men are found discrediting the claim of 
 mind directly influencing mind independent of the or- 
 ganism. And here, on account of the reading public 
 
THE KELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 301 
 
 being more generally familiar with his works, and being 
 at the same time first-class authority of many years' 
 standing among the highest professional men, I again 
 limit my references mainly to Prof. Wm. B. Carpenter, 
 not forgetting that others are equally worthy. The ex- 
 perimental evidence is usually put under the head of 
 Mesmerism or Hypnotism. In his recent work on Men- 
 tal Physiology, he makes this strong statement, which 
 he rigidly adheres to throughout : 
 
 " The writer does not hesitate to express the convic- 
 tion, based on long, protracted, and careful examination 
 of the evidence adduced to prove the existence of a 
 mesmeric force acting independently of the conscious- 
 ness of the 'subject,' that there is none that possesses 
 the least claim to acceptance as scientific truth. * * 
 It has been repeatedly found that mesmerizers who had 
 no hesitation in asserting that they could send partic- 
 ular individuals to sleep, or affect them in other ways 
 by an effort of * silent will,' have altogether failed to do 
 so when the subjects were carefully kept from any suspicion 
 that such will was being exercised; whilst, on the other 
 hand, sensitive subjects have repeatedly gone to sleep 
 under the impression that they were being mesmerized from 
 a distance, when the supposed mesmerizer was not even 
 thinking of them " (p. 619). 
 
 These statements he has fortified by a variety of care- 
 ful, thorough and fair meaning tests which resulted in 
 the failures he speaks of. But in some of these exper- 
 iments there was possibly a violation of at least one 
 proper and very important condition. The case he cites 
 from the trial investigations of Dr. Noble, of Manches- 
 
302 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ter, as being an example of the proper precaution to be 
 taken, and the one he places foremost as such, is faulty 
 in this very particular. The experiment by Dr. Noble, 
 narrated by himself, is as follows : 
 
 " An intelligent and well-educated friend had a female 
 servant, whom he had repeatedly thrown into a sleep- 
 waking state, and on whom he had tried a variety of ex- 
 periments, many of which we ourselves witnessed. We 
 were at length informed that he had succeeded in mag- 
 netizing her from another room, and without her knowl- 
 edge ; that he had paralyzed particular limbs by a fixed 
 gaze, unseen by the patient ; and we hardly know what 
 besides. These things were circumstantially related to us 
 by many eye-witnesses ; amongst others, by the medical 
 attendant of the family, a most respectable and intel- 
 ligent friend of our own. We were yet unsatisfied ; we 
 considered that these experiments were so constantly 
 going on, that the presence of a visitor, or the occur- 
 rence of anything unusual, was sure to excite expecta- 
 tion of some mesmeric process. We were invited to 
 come and judge for ourselves, and to propose whatever 
 test we pleased. Now, had we visited the house, we 
 should have felt dissatisfied with the result ; we, there- 
 fore, proposed that the experiment should be carried out 
 at our own residence ; and it was made under the following 
 circumstances : — The gentleman early one evening wrote 
 a note, as if on business, directing it to ourselves. He 
 thereupon summoned the female servant (the mesmeric 
 subject), requesting her to convey the note to its desti- 
 nation, and wait for an answer. The gentleman him- 
 self, in her hearing, ordered a cab, stating that if any 
 one called he was going to a place named, but was ex- 
 
THE BELATION OF THE T^YO WOKLBS. 303 
 
 pected to return by a certain hour. Whilst the female 
 servant was dressing for her errand, the master placed 
 himself in the vehicle, and rapidly arrived at our dwell- 
 ing. In about ten minutes afterward the note arrived, 
 the gentleman in the meantime being secreted in an ad- 
 joining apartment. We requested the young woman, 
 who had been shown into our study, to take a seat 
 whilst we wrote the answer ; at the same time placing the 
 chair with its back to the door leading into the next room, 
 which was left ajar. It had been agreed that after the 
 admission of the girl into the place where we were, the 
 magnetizer, approaching the door in silence on the other 
 side, should commence operations. There, then, was 
 the patient, or * subject' placed within two feet of her 
 magnetizer, — a door only intervening, and that but 
 partially closed, — ^but she, all the while, perfectly free 
 from all idea of what was going on. We were careful 
 to avoid any unnecessary conversation with the girl, or 
 even to look toward her, lest we should raise some sus- 
 picion in her own mind. We wrote our letter (as if in 
 answer) for nearly a quarter of an hour, once or twice 
 only making an indifferent remark; and on leaving 
 the room for a light to read the supposed letter, we 
 beckoned the operator away. No effect, whatever, had 
 been produced, although we had been told that two or 
 three minutes were sufficient, even when mesmerizing 
 from the drawing-room, through walls and apartments, 
 into the kitchen. In our own experiment the interven- 
 ing distance had been very much less, and only one solid 
 substance interposed, and that not complete ; but here 
 we suspect was the difference — the 'subject* was uncon- 
 scious of the magnetism and suspected nothing " (Mental 
 Physiology, pp. 619, 620). 
 
304 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Not all temperaments are influenced alike by the same 
 circumstances. The Dr. himself (and so Prof. Car- 
 penter) may have seen an applicant for promotion be- 
 come non-plused and utterly fail in the presence of a 
 severely critical and exacting examining committee, who 
 under casual circumstances would have promptly suc- 
 ceeded in every test. The tendency of such circum- 
 stances as those above given, with the average individual 
 as operator or as subject, would be to impair or to de- 
 stroy about the first requisite condition of mind on 
 which the successful operation depended, — in the oper- 
 ator that of undiverted strong concentration of purpose, 
 and on the part of the subject, undiverted indifference 
 or expectancy. The influence of mind immediately 
 upon mind is, by the nature of the case, more difficult 
 than by way of the open senses ; and the excitement of 
 operating under a critical test and under conditions of 
 special anxiety, as seems evident in this case, might have 
 been so much to the operator's disadvantage as to cause 
 his failure therey when the same effort made under pas- 
 sive surroundings might have been promptly successful. 
 The subject, too, was under less favorable conditions than 
 in her familiar and unconstrained surroundings at home. 
 One sick away at the residence of a most kind and free- 
 hearted neighbor, will, for the same reason, not do as 
 well as at home, though of less comfortable appoint- 
 ment. While, therefore, the precautionary arrangements 
 were truly well calculated to insure failure, they were 
 equally well calculated to defeat the real ends of science. 
 And these gentlemen of eminence. Dr. Noble in exact- 
 
THE BELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 305 
 
 ing these conditions and Prof. Carpenter in endorsing 
 them, were therein unscientific. The same objection 
 applies to many of the tests reported by Mr. Carpenter, 
 Mr. Braid, Mr. Noble and others. A fair test will have 
 great care to respect mental conditions. It is not to be 
 conducted as one of physical mechanism or of mere bone 
 and muscle, without regard to sensitiveness. 
 
 May not, then, this "intelligent and well-educated 
 friend " have been defeated unfairly ; and possibly with- 
 out himself knowing to what the failure was due ? And 
 may not what he and others reported as examples of 
 mesmerizing through intervening walls and apartments,, 
 after all, have really been as claimed ? From the ac- 
 count it is to be judged that essentially the same pre- 
 cautions against giving the subject an occasion ii> 
 expect anything, were taken at home. His qualification 
 is endorsed, and the veracity of the " friend " is to be 
 assumed. And so, probably, after all, the professor gives 
 us real cases of mind operating on mind independent of 
 the senses, in the illustrations set forth in opposition to 
 the theory. 
 
 IMPORTANT INSTANCES OP MIND IMPRESSING MINIK. 
 
 But the same persons are not always equally avail- 
 able for the phenomena, under the same circumstance, 
 any more than that one should always be in the same 
 state of health. Neither are races alike in this respect, as 
 also in many others. Among Europeans it is only here 
 and there one who is prominently a subject, while 
 among the Orientals the subjects are much more nu- 
 
 20 
 
30(3 COInSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 merous and much more susceptible — available for more 
 profound depths of mesmeric sleep, being more sensitive 
 to mental impressions. In India, for example, this tem- 
 peramental state is much more prevalent and pro- 
 nounced, and the illustrations are more extraordinary. 
 Among Europeans now and then a case is reported of 
 surgery without pain, under mesmerism, prior to the in- 
 troduction of ether. In 1829, M. Cloquet, one of the 
 most eminent surgeons of Paris, performed a severe op- 
 eration on a female patient who had been thrown by 
 mesmerism into a state of somnambulism. In the op- 
 eration she showed herself entirely insensible to pain, 
 whilst " of all that took place in it she had subsequently 
 no recollection." In addition to this. Prof. Carpenter 
 observes that about twelve years afterward two ampu- 
 tations were performed in England, one in Nottingham- 
 shire and the other in Leicestershire, " upon mesmerized 
 patients, who showed no other sign of consciousness 
 than an almost inaudible moaning ; both of them ex- 
 hibiting an uninterrupted placidity of countenance; 
 both of them declaring, when brought back to their or- 
 dinary state, that they were utterly unaware of what 
 had been done to them during their sleep^" (Mesmerism 
 and Spiritualism, p. 14). About the same time, while 
 a few cases thus here and there were reported in Eu- 
 rope and England, Dr. Esdaile, a surgeon of the British 
 service in Calcutta, was employing it upon Indian pa- 
 tients with about the regularity that ether is now em- 
 ployed ; in consideration of which the governor-general 
 conferred upon him the rank of presidency-surgeon. 
 
THE KELATION OF THE TWO WOBLDS. 307 
 
 Under the influence of mesmerism he performed some 
 of the most severe operations in the history of surgery, 
 during which the patients were entirely unconscious. 
 One of these, the removal of a tumor from the face of 
 a peasant, forty years old, he relates as follows : 
 
 " In half an hour, the man was catalepsed. * * 
 I put a long knife in at the comer of the mouth, and 
 brought the point out over the cheek bone, dividing the 
 parts between ; from this, I pushed it through the skin 
 at the inner comer of the eye and dissected the cheek 
 back to the nose. The pressure of the tumor had caused 
 the absorption of the anterior wall of the antrum, and 
 pressing my fingers between it and the bones, it burst, 
 and a shocking gush of blood and brain-like matter 
 followed. The tumor extended as far as my fingers 
 could reach under the orbit and cheek bone, and 
 passed into the gullet — having destroyed the bones and 
 partition of the nose. No one touched the man, and I 
 turned his head into any position I desired, without re- 
 sistance, and there it remained till I wished to move it 
 again: when the blood accumulated I bent his head 
 forward, and it ran from his mouth as if from a leaden 
 spout. The man never moved nor showed any signs of 
 life, except an occasional indistinct moan; but when 
 I threw back his head, and passed my fingers into 
 his throat to detach the mass in that direction, the 
 stream of blood was directed into his windpipe, and 
 some instinctive effort became necessary for existence ; 
 he therefore coughed, and leaned forward, to get rid of 
 the blood ; and I supposed that he then awoke. The op- 
 eration was by this time finished, and he was laid on 
 the floor to have his face sewed up, and while this was 
 
303 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 doing, he, for the first time, opened his eyes. * * 
 The man declares by the most emphatic pantomime, 
 that he felt no pain while in the chair, and that when 
 he awoke I was sewing up his face on the floor " (Mes- 
 merism in India, pp. 147, 148). 
 
 Not only is the availability of this race for mesmerism 
 well shown in the experiences of this celebrated surgeon, 
 but it is related, on good authority, that some of their 
 fakirs, by a process of self-mesmerism, are enabled to 
 so completely suspend the vital forces as to safely allow 
 of being buried for weeks, and then be exhumed and re- 
 stored. Prof. Carpenter relates, on the authority of Mr. 
 Braid of Manchester, who obtained his information 
 directly from British officers, who had been eye-wit- 
 nesses of them in India, several instances, as follows : 
 
 " In one of these, vouched for by Sir Claude H. Wade 
 (formerly political agent at the court of Kunjeet Singh), 
 the fakir was buried in an underground cell, under 
 strict guardianship, for six weeks; the body had been 
 twice dug up by Kunjeet Singh during the period of in- 
 terment, and had been found in the same position as 
 when first buried. 
 
 "In the other case, narrated by Lieut. Boileau, in 
 Ms 'Narrative of a Journey in Kajwarra,' in 1835, 
 the man had been buried for ten days, in a grave 
 lined with masonry and covered with large slabs of 
 stone, and strictly guarded; and he assured Lieut. 
 Boileau, that he was ready to submit to an interment 
 of twelve months' duration, if desired. In the third 
 case, narrated by Mr. Braid, the trial was made under 
 the direct superintendence of a British officer, a period of 
 
THE BELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 309 
 
 niue days having been stipulated for on the part of the 
 devotee ; hut this was shortened to three at the desire 
 of the officer, who feared lest he should incur blame if 
 the result was fatal. The appearance of the body when 
 first disinterred, is described in all instances as having 
 been quite corpse-like, and no pulsation could be de- 
 tected in the heart or in the arteries" (Pin. Human Phys. 
 pp. 868, 869). 
 
 A writer in Scribner's Monthly for Dec. 1880, gives 
 a very full and interesting account of these death-like 
 sleeps achieved by self-mesmerism, which are rarely, if 
 ever, achieved by any other people. With them it is of 
 traditional antiquity. 
 
 Dr. Esdaile derived from his experience with this 
 people the fact that the mesmeric influence can be 
 transmitted through the air for a considerable distance, 
 and even pass through dense materials. An experiment 
 of this kind was made substantially as follows : 
 
 A blind prisoner who was barely able to distinguish 
 light from darkness was the subject. Operating upon 
 him for ten minutes from without through the window, 
 he was rendered insensible and slept for more than two 
 hours. At another time, at a distance of twenty yards 
 from him, wholly unknown by him as to his presence, 
 after operating on him for fifteen minutes he was over- 
 powered and fell from his seat unconscious, — ^was car- 
 ried to his bed and slept three hours, at the end of 
 which wondering how he came there. At another time 
 he directed his sub-assistant surgeon to proceed to the 
 jail and place the man with his face toward the wall, 
 
310 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 but not touching it, and take care not to excite his at- 
 tention to the matter, and keep him engaged in con- 
 versation. Dr. Esdaile placed himself opposite to him 
 on the other side of the wall, leaning his forehead 
 against it, and after several attempts, at the end of sev- 
 enteen minutes the subject ceased to reply in conversa- 
 tion and presently fell back like one dead. 
 
 Now if we may place reliance on these statements 
 (and if we may not, on what statements may we?) 
 made by competent and careful men, who share our 
 largest confidence as men of learning and candor, what 
 disposition is to be made of these facts ? It is to be 
 remembered, also, that claims of observation of like 
 facts, by people of superior attainment and unquestion- 
 able veracity, could, in considerable numbers, be added to 
 these, from various sources. The only solution that 
 seems legitimate is that a mind projected its impulses 
 upon a neighboring mind, by a medium not recognized 
 by the external senses, and that the impulses were sus- 
 ceptible of being directed sieparately upon a line or 
 route to the object mentally indicated, and upon leav- 
 ing the mind did not become indiscriminately diffused 
 upon all surrounding objects. The subject intended, 
 alone, and not any of his associates, was thus ajffect- 
 ed. The facts supply sensuous proof of the most un- 
 questionable character, that, as already seen by other 
 facts, individual minds are related and hold some 
 measure of correspondence by means of an interly- 
 ing, passive, mental medium; upon quite the same 
 principle, that one magnet, by means of a passive 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 311 
 
 ether of essentially the same element, exerts force upon 
 another. Now, in the exertion of force by one magnet 
 upon another, intervening substances may be directly 
 or sympathetically affected by the passing current, and, 
 so far as they are identical in substance with the magnets 
 themselves, become its vehicle. The gleam that under 
 , favorable circumstances is seen emitted between poles, 
 •' the partial visibility of the earth's magnetic phenomena, 
 in what are known as " northern lights, " caused by im- 
 pingement of plying forces upon suitable elements of the 
 adjacent atmosphere, may be suggested as examples of 
 the working of this law. Yet no one will fail to see 
 that, primarily, the plying force is purely between and 
 relative to the magnets themselves. 
 
 So in the correspondence between minds, in this in- 
 dependent manner, though inferior elements between, 
 including those of the bodily organisms, may be influ- 
 enced thereby, and be made instruments of achieving 
 the mesmeric state, it will be apparent still that the force 
 is primarily and purely that of mind upon mind, in the 
 so-called mesmeric phenomena. 
 
 INSPIRATION. 
 
 Being founded on a law of mind that cannot be less 
 than universally operative, this mode of intercourse, sub- 
 ject to weakening, aberrating, and obscuring influences, 
 as we have observed in the case of our present existence, 
 must be found in vogue with mind of the same order or 
 in so far as the order is the same, in whatever mode or 
 altitude of being. And from what has been to some 
 extent seen, all intervening conditions are permeable 
 
312 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 by it with more or less effectiveness. The mind of the 
 blind man was forcibly impressed by a neighboring mind 
 of whose presence he had no knowledge whatever. And 
 the operator had set aside all his own senses, save that 
 of hearing, which was of but indirect service, by inter- 
 posing a wall, at the time of delivering the impression. 
 There is, then, very little difference to be accounted for 
 between this state of things and what would have been 
 if one of them had been out of the body and the 
 other in or only partly in, or where neither had been in 
 the body. The operator had a slight external means — 
 rather a suggestion — by which to direct the impression, 
 — a reverberation of the subject's voice and a confident 
 memory of his position as seen previous to operating, 
 and these were probably of no real necessity, more than 
 to stimulate assurance. It is not stated and is not likely, 
 that exact measurements were taken so that the men- 
 tally erected line should rest directly on the subject. 
 The place of the subject was only approximately known. 
 The direction was evidently secured by some form of 
 sympathy attained from previous personal knowledge, 
 or by a mental definition of the characteristics of the 
 subject; as when while we think of a person we uncon- 
 sciously picture him to mind. The mode is unknown 
 and only a matter of curiosity. The fact of the trans- 
 mitted control in these conditions, alone is important, 
 and goes far, if not conclusively, to prove, by external 
 means, that minds need not reside in the same order of 
 senses nor in the same world, to be impressible, though 
 vaguely it may be, one by the other. 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 313 
 
 It also is seen to be a feature of this law that the 
 greater the attainment of the mind — the greater its al- 
 titude — the more influence may it exert and the more 
 control may it assume, directly or indirectly. The re- 
 fined and otherwise highly attained mind may not for 
 the hour visibly wield a control over the wild, unthink- 
 ing masses, equal to that of the more coarse and low, 
 but in the years its power will be seen to have been the 
 greater, — more strong and enduring, and hence more 
 achieving. 
 
 The influence of the more attained mind upon lower 
 minds, in this Way, is not only more strong than that 
 which may be returned upon it from them, but it seizes 
 with a stronger grasp and transforms more rapidly the 
 physical materials employed in its organism. It erects 
 more lines of brain and other nerve fiber, and breaks 
 more down. With the greater wear and tear of the or- 
 ganism, the average life-time of the higher intellect is 
 yet longer than that gf the lower ; which is another in- 
 stance illustrating the law that with the more exalted 
 minds and realms of mind, is the major control and the 
 more wide-reaching influence. 
 
 SEAT OF INFINITE POWER AND INFLUENCE. 
 
 And thus may we prolong the vision upward, eleva- 
 tion over elevation, till in the supremely exalted mind 
 of the Deity himself we see vested the final supremacy 
 of power, and the prerogative of an infinitely extended 
 influence upon all the realms of being, down to their 
 last details. The descent of this influence must be 
 
314 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 supposed to take place by essentially the same law 
 which, from this Mind proceeding, animates all others of 
 rational and moral qualities. It would, also, be from 
 the promptings to good, incident to a feeling, rational 
 intelligence ; which promptings would always be charac- 
 terized by the absolutely perfect wisdom that can be- 
 long to that state and being alone. Then, in case the 
 state of finite beings might be truly requiring acts of 
 direct correspondence from Him, such as consciously or 
 unconsciously imparting elements of wisdom, or of 
 foresight, or by temporal interpositions of any kind, 
 no fact in nature would be more probable, more reason- 
 able and scientific than that such inspiration or inter- 
 position should take place. 
 
 To what extent like inspirations between finite fellow 
 beings may be taking place throughout the infinite ranges, 
 is at present unimportant. But as in all states or 
 worlds finite beings necessarily exist embodied in organ- 
 isms of external senses, suited to surrounding nature, 
 it may always be, as here, the less common mode of 
 intercourse. 
 
 LIFE IS FILLED WITH INSTANCES OF PECULIAR IMPRESSIONS. 
 
 The obscuration of this mode of intercourse by the 
 glaring realities of the sensuous state, has been referred 
 to. Still life is more or less filled with peculiar im- 
 pressions, sometimes of great importance, that are un- 
 accounted for by ordinary facts — even by recourse to 
 spasmodic brain movements. For example, there are 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 315 
 
 impressions more or less common of some coming ex- 
 ternal matter of interest, which in due time transpires. 
 At least there is a correspondence of particulars between 
 the impression and what subsequently comes to pass. 
 This could not well be the result of brain action. Is it not, 
 indeed, necessary that such should be referred to this 
 mode of intercourse, from a mind situated so as to see 
 farther into cause anct effect ? And if these, then may 
 not others also; though their explanation might be 
 possible by another theory. If we were obliged to sense 
 our experiences more closely, resulting in greater acute- 
 ness and discrimination, we might expect a proportionate 
 accumulation of this kind of evidence, — from the faint 
 glimmer of a detached, peculiar sensation of thought to 
 the glaring, overpowering inspiration of a Hebrew 
 prophet. 
 
 PEOPLE VARY IN AVAILABILITY FOR THIS PHENOMENA. 
 
 It has been observed that races are not alike suscep- 
 tible in all things. The same class of facts pertaining 
 to human nature we might find less common and less 
 prominent in one nationality than in another. Eaces of 
 equal attainment are not abreast in poetry, history, in 
 science, and in art. One would be regarded as unwise 
 to study sculpture or painting from the German schools ; 
 or chemistry from the Italian; or history from the 
 French ; or fine arts from the English. So he should 
 not be expected to study the principles of architecture 
 from the Jewish race, nor those of inspiration from the 
 
316 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 European. And yet in the study of this subject by a Euro- 
 pean, nothing were more probable than that his own race, 
 and perhaps his own experiences, would be the chief source 
 from which to collect his facts — a race in whose entire 
 history from barbarism up, less phenomena of this 
 character has been alleged than has been alleged 
 of any other people. But from what is authentically 
 known of them, it is safe to judge that if the facts of in- 
 dividual life experiences of the great Hebrew race could 
 be recovered in essential particulars as they occurred, it 
 would be found a field immensely rich in instances of 
 most striking illustrations of the law of inspiration as 
 here set forth. No race has displayed to historic view 
 evidence of as much and as unquestionable inspirational 
 phenomena as has this, at one time for twenty consecu- 
 tive centuries the most pure and influential race on the 
 planet. 
 
CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 Questions Concerning the Eelation op the Two 
 Worlds, Continued. — Difficulties Necessarily At- 
 tending THE Transmission of Thought. — They Be- 
 come MORE Formidable between Kesidents of the 
 Two Worlds. 
 
 THE difficulties attending the transmission of thought, 
 though numerous in detail, are few in class. They 
 arise mainly out of individual obliquity from unequal 
 development of functional forces, resulting in unintelli- 
 gible constructions of thought ; or, if it be the recipient, 
 in defective modes of their apprehension. Or they arise 
 out of individual unlikeness, one to another ; out of un- 
 likeness of their surroundings ; or out of the unavaila- 
 bility of intervening substances, as to their properties 
 or state of arrangement. These causes, of course, com- 
 bine in endless variety of ways. Probably no instance 
 of misunderstanding is due to one cause alone. 
 
 We often find people having quite nearly the same 
 general appearance. Yet a close inspection will always 
 bring to view some striking differences. So, too, with 
 minds, however nearly their views and abilities may be 
 the same, we need not canvass long to find many partic- 
 ulars in which one is not like the other. It is often 
 
 317 
 
318 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 remarked with more meaning than is apprehended, that 
 people do not see and think alike from the fact that 
 themselves are not alike. Each difference in confor- 
 mation of individual mental substance, or even of the 
 physical related therewith, stands for a corresponding 
 difference in the mental forces and in the results they 
 enact. 
 
 Then let it be supposed that a thought is evolved — 
 has been brought from merely nascent impressions into 
 a definite mental statement — and is addressed to a 
 neighboring mind. By the mind from which it is 
 evolved it is now also being seen, — it has become to 
 that mind itself an objective reality, prior to being de- 
 livered, as truly as though it consisted of a letter or a 
 telegram. But the thought is seen by the apprehending 
 powers of the originator as it stands constructed or in- 
 fluenced by the resident mental forces, and hence by a 
 light more or less refracted, and possibly not as it really 
 is — a more or less incorrect representation of fact. In- 
 deed, in the process of its evolving it was advanced 
 along these same aberrated lines of mental vision to this 
 final state. Then between what Self sees it to mean, 
 and what another sees it to mean, there may be quite a 
 difference. Nothing is more common than that one sees 
 the constructions of his own thoughts conveying differ- 
 ent meanings at different times. Often when one comes 
 to re-read with a rested mind the thoughts put down in 
 the last hours of a day of hard toil, he finds them not 
 appearing as they then did. The explanation is, that 
 the weary powers, in irregular order, were sinking down 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 319 
 
 to rest — to replenish overdrawn forces — when the con- 
 ceptions recorded were taking place, adding at each 
 time a new refraction. There is, then, trouble at what 
 must necessarily be the very first step in the transmis- 
 sion of thought. For, though the construction might 
 be clothed in a wording perfectly intelligible to both 
 the issuing and receiving minds, a transmission of the 
 sentiment intended were, by this state of facts, quite im- 
 possible ; only so far as the construction were a true ex- 
 ponent thereof, could the transmission be approximated. 
 And this, again, only in case the receiving mind were 
 itself, functionally, in exact balance. 
 
 But if such a state of mind were indeed possible, 
 it would be the most extremely rare. And, in the 
 proposed transaction, adding to the mental obliquity of 
 the party issuing the communication, that, also, of the 
 receiving party, at the other end of the route, would, 
 plainly, give us a still wider misunderstanding between 
 the two. 
 
 Obliquity in the same degree and manner in both in- 
 dividuals, might in some instances contribute to the 
 transfer of thought, provided surroundings were the 
 same. They would misconceive in the same manner, 
 and would likely have their aberrations coincide, and, 
 thereby seeing upon essentially the same lines of vision, 
 would be more successful in apprehending each other's 
 meanings. From this, those who come together in a 
 sect by a free following of their inclinations, whether in 
 philosophy, politics or religion, are more likely to be 
 able to transfer to each other their exact sentiments on 
 
320 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 those subjects. And to this fact the crystallization 
 into these several orders of society is mainly due. 
 
 Hence, conversely, in the unlikeness of individuals to 
 each other is found a large part of the explanation why 
 they do not more fully succeed in a mutual understand- 
 ing over these dividing lines. Not alone are they affected 
 by obliquities of mind, but in their obliquities they are 
 not alike. 
 
 Also, surroundings are rarely the same, to any con- 
 siderable extent. Then, the excitants of functions not 
 being the same in both, to some extent the same ob- 
 liquity with respect to each other must follow that 
 follows from representation of unlike functional devel- 
 opments. The very just observation is often made, 
 based on this fact, that one may not be wholly able to 
 judge of another who is not in the same circumstances 
 with him. And it were, indeed, a happy thing to have this 
 charity extended to other conditions of like inevitable 
 misunderstandings, out of which for want of this charity 
 so many alienations rise. With difficulties even as small 
 as these in the way of fully receiving each other's mean- 
 ing, and the readiness with which, by these difficulties, 
 misunderstandings occur through the lassitude of 
 thought that attaches to the much that is all the time 
 being said, what breadths of charity are not indeed 
 constantly being called for. 
 
 THE INTERLYING SUBSTANCES. 
 
 From this brief reference to the difficulties that are 
 constituted in the very structures of the minds them- 
 
THE BELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 321 
 
 selves, we proceed to consider those that are incidental 
 to the substances intervening between minds. So far 
 as relates to this state of existence, these substances 
 are mainly the physical elements employed in the or- 
 ganisms of the external body. Plainly these organisms 
 are between the individual minds. All this embodiment 
 — all this brain, these nerves and organs of sense, con- 
 stituted of the mineral kingdom and extremely foreign to 
 the mental element, when made the medium of inter- 
 course, it would seem, would be more a barrier to arrest 
 intercourse than otherwise ; as iron, wood or stone, 
 when interposed between water and its destined end, 
 arrests its flow. 
 
 It is not necessary to here again go over the ground to 
 show that mind in its essential nature is an element 
 separate from the body, — ^that the body is an instrument 
 which it seizes hold of and lets go again, in a large part 
 at its own election, — ^that in its devices the principles 
 of the microscope, telegraph and telephone, etc., are so 
 fully and literally employed as that these inventions could 
 well have been suggested by an accurate understanding 
 of the organism and the mode of its being operated. 
 The fact to be borne in mind is that the substances so 
 employed are in themselves of the mineral state, and as 
 void of mind or of mental characteristics as is a line 
 of copper wire, and serve the ends of their employment 
 in quite the same manner as does the wire when placed 
 in the circuit. Minds in approaching each other in in- 
 tercourse by way of the external senses alone, can them- 
 selves come no farther than the bioplastic cells into 
 
 21 
 
322 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 which the nerve fibers dip. From there onward to the 
 next mind, is apparatus alone, supplemented by the ele- 
 ments, atmospheric and otherwise, still further lying 
 out between the organisms themselves. 
 
 By this route, then, no mind sees, hears, or otherwise 
 knows of a neighboring mind, only as impressions come 
 and go over these manifold nerve-wires in and out by 
 the organs of sense. Let us suppose a case. Two in- 
 dividuals in full possession of their faculties are en- 
 gaged in neighborly intercourse. They are casually 
 sitting or standing in each other's presence. What is 
 now taking place ? Literally, there is a direction of the 
 senses — one set upon another, — all very sensitively alert. 
 Conventional sounds and gestures are proceeding, by a 
 somewhat regular alternation, from each. A fluct- 
 uating demeanor of countenance is seen according 
 to how the communication takes effect within, or as 
 purposes mature and get into readiness for deliverance. 
 The illustration will, perhaps, be rendered more forcible 
 by recalling a scene of intercourse between people using 
 a speech not known by ourselves, where we are brought 
 to note more particularly the external demeanor. 
 
 This half pantomimic representation to sensuous 
 view, is the physical organisms undergoing the process 
 of intercourse between the two veiled minds within. Yet 
 the realization of the fact of intercourse, rendered un- 
 questionable by recognition of the many evidences of com- 
 mon thought and feeling, quite effectually obscures this 
 mineral aspect of the case, and confounds the external 
 person with the real self — renders, to casual observa- 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 323 
 
 tion, operator and apparatus indistinguishably the same. 
 The real facts transpiring are that these neighboring 
 minds are from within operating their organisms in this 
 manner in delivering messages to each other, mainly 
 addressing them by the use of conventional sounds or 
 oral speech, to the hearing department of sense ; while 
 others which may not be sent that way may, from the 
 legible countenance and gesticulations, be directed by 
 way of the light to the seeing department. The process, 
 with all facilities in full operation, is at best a tedious 
 and slow drill. When the conception is of some length, 
 often much of what in the order of transmission comes 
 last, is forgotten in substance or in the arrangement, 
 while what goes before is being rattled off. The flight 
 of an impression along a nerve is said to be not as 
 rapid as that of the eagle. And as has been seen, the 
 mind operates much more rapidly in dreams, when less 
 encumbered by the organism, than in the waking state* 
 
 But this organism, like any other apparatus or in- 
 strument, is, to a considerable extent, liable to be 
 faulty and to do its work imperfectly. The materials 
 thereof, as when employed in more simple mechanisms, 
 are subject to wear and tear, and, in time, to yield their 
 hold and break down, causing a corresponding diversion 
 of the forces to which they supplied a vehicle or a 
 bridge. In this repect, mechanically considered, its li- 
 ability to get out of true working order is not equaled 
 by any other instrument. The nervous arrangement 
 alone is much more extensive and complicated than is 
 
324 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 seen of any other device of art or of nature, though 
 the system is one of simplicity. 
 
 Allowing, then, for the great superiority of the men- 
 tal forces, and of the vital forces largely at their com- 
 mand, and their adaptability, like a good economist, to 
 rendering substitutes for deficiencies, it is hardly possible 
 that at any time, with the most favored individual, there 
 are not many derangements large enough to cause, in 
 its transit, important variations to the idea dispatched. 
 
 MIND IN THE PROCESSES OF INSANITY. 
 
 In illustration of how thought becomes arrested, ab- 
 errated and tangled in its passage through the organism, 
 conditions of mind in cases where the organism is dis- 
 eased, may be cited. What is manifest in respect to it 
 then is but an exaggeration of the perversions that to 
 some extent always prevail, even when at the best. In 
 recognized instances of insanity — in the instances of 
 those wonderful misworkings of the mind, the nervous 
 system is invariably found in a state of corresponding 
 disorder. Most people, from some one or more of the 
 numerous causes, have been, to some extent, insane in 
 one or more of the numerous forms of pronounced in- 
 sanity; to say nothing of the trivial moody states 
 about which the mind is generally fluctuating. In most 
 countries people are liable to extensive malarial disturb- 
 ances, usually characterized by delirious fevers. To 
 become " flighty " is very common ; while at times — fre- 
 quent enough to have been seen by most every one — the 
 aberration rises to frenzy, fretting the vision with the 
 
THE KELATION OF THE TWO WOBLDS. 325 
 
 most strange and terrifying fancies, and apprehending 
 nothing in its real state of fact. The poison of alcohol, 
 BO deplorably prevalent, is a yet more efficient means to 
 the same end. Following its havoc with the nervous 
 machinery, when imbibed to the extent that is often 
 seen, comes not alone greater perversion to transpiring 
 thought, but a corresponding perversion of the aesthet- 
 ical and moral senses, together with (in many cases) a 
 reversing of the normal current of sympathy and affection. 
 In consequence of it, not alone are ideas obscured and 
 entangled, but there is a descent from refinement to 
 coarseness and vulgarity ; from a relish of virtue there 
 is a change to the relish of vice ; instead of affection, 
 hatred is cherished toward the dearest friends ; while 
 promptings to acts of affection are converted to desires 
 for the infliction of injury. Instances of insanity — 
 from other causes, however, in some examples partake 
 of this same character. Even at times when the judg- 
 ment is healthy and ordinarily sane, the impulse ta 
 vice and crime becomes overmastering. At the rising 
 of the impulse, the patient is at times terrified with the 
 spectacle of crime into the execution of which these 
 impulses are dragging him over his prostrate will, and 
 he sounds with most anxious solicitude the note of alarm, 
 begging that the intended victim fly for safety. 
 
 Though cases of insanity of this character are not 
 rare and may readily be recalled by most people from 
 their own knowledge, a few examples cited by Prof. 
 Maudsley of London, a well-known authority on brain 
 disease, are well to the point. The first he gives on the 
 
326 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 authority of the eminent Dr. Pinel of France, and is in 
 substance as follows : 
 
 " A man who had previously followed a mechanical 
 occupation, but was afterward confined at Bicetre, ex- 
 perienced at regular intervals, fits of rage, ushered in by 
 the following symptoms : At first he experienced a sen- 
 sation of burning heat in the bowels, with an intense 
 thirst and obstinate constipation; this sense of heat 
 spread by degrees over the breast, neck, and face, with 
 a bright color; sometimes it became still more intense, 
 and produced violent and frequent pulsations in the 
 arteries of those parts, as if they were going to burst ; 
 at last the nervous affection reached the brain and then 
 the patient was seized with an irresistible sanguinary 
 propensity ; and if he could lay hold of any sharp in- 
 strument, he was ready to sacrifice the first person that 
 came in his way. In other respects he enjoyed the free 
 exercise of his reason ; even during the fits he replied 
 directly to questions put to him, and showed no kind of 
 incoherence in his ideas, no sign of delirium ; he even 
 felt deeply all the horror of his situation, and was often 
 penetrated with remorse, as if he was responsible for 
 his mad propensity. Before his confinement at Bicetre 
 a fit of madness seized him in his own house ; he im- 
 mediately warned his wife of it, to whom he was much 
 attached ; and he had only time to cry out to her to run 
 away lest he should put her to a violent death. * * 
 This internal combat between a sane reason in opposition 
 to sanguinary cruelty reduced him to the brink of 
 despair" (Kesponsibility in Mental Disease, pp. 141, 
 142). 
 
 A somewhat similar case he relates from Dr. Jean 
 
THE BELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 327 
 
 Esquirol, a French physician of great note who died in 
 1840, and who with Pinel was also greatly interested in 
 the study and care of the insane. It is of a country gen- 
 tleman who was of good health and circumstances, and 
 of the age of forty-five, who came to consult him about 
 his case. Of his case the doctor says : 
 
 " There was no indication of the slightest disorder of 
 reason in him; he answered with precision all my 
 questions which were numerous. * * Nevertheless 
 in the night he awoke suddenly with the thought of kill- 
 ing his wife, who was lying by his side. He left his 
 bed, and walked up and down the room for an hour, 
 after which, feeling no more disquietude, he lay down 
 and went to sleep ; three weeks afterward the same idea 
 occurred on three occasions, always in the night. Dur- 
 ing the day he took plenty of exercise, occupied himself 
 with his numerous affairs, and had only the remem- 
 brance of what he had felt in the night. He had been 
 married twenty years, had always enjoyed health, * 
 
 * had never had the least disagreement with his 
 wife, to whom he was attached. * * He is sad and 
 troubled about his condition ; has left his wife from fear 
 that he might yield to his propensity " (ibid, pp. 147, 
 148). 
 
 Another case which he cites is that of a gentleman 
 fifty years of age, who came to consult him about his 
 condition, being much disturbed by homicidal impulses. 
 They were so constantly and strongly impressed upon 
 his mind that (though a man of great energy and self 
 control) " he was compelled to live away from his fam- 
 ily, wandering from hotel to hotel, lest he should become 
 
328 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 a murderer'* (ibid, p. 144). Another case is that of a 
 lady quite advanced in years, who " was afflicted with 
 recurring paroxysms of convulsive excitement, in which 
 she always made desperate attempts to strangle her 
 daughter, who was very kind and attentive to her, and 
 to whom she was much attached" (ibid, p. 145). Still 
 another case he cites as follows : 
 
 " A man at fifty-five years, sober and industrious, had 
 suffered from an attack of cerebral hemorrhage, a year 
 ago, and remained hemiplegic. His intelligence was 
 sound and he followed his usual occupation. But his 
 character was changed : he felt weary of life ; he had 
 become morose and irritable ; and he complained that 
 at times the blood rose to his head, when vertigo, noises 
 in the ears, and flashes before the eyes occurred. These 
 attacks became periodic. During them his heart beat 
 violently, his eyes were injected, the face flushed, the 
 fingers of paralyzed side contracted, the arteries of 
 neck throbbed; he was unspeakably dejected, wept, 
 said he was lost, and became furious, throwing himself 
 upon wife and children " (ibid, p. 170). 
 
 Not alone are the promptings to suicide and homi- 
 cide, but to the entire list of crimes and vices common to 
 mankind. Nothing is more common than vulgarity and 
 profanity. And in the long years ago the poet philoso- 
 pher Lucretius, terrified by the strong promptings to 
 lewdness, realized in paroxysms of insanity, raised his 
 hand against his own life to prevent its falling a prey to 
 these vile impulses of his diseased brain. Commonly 
 these take place in exact reverse of the character when 
 sane. Or, probably, where any trait of mind or of feel- 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 329 
 
 ing is cherished with some special measure of interest, 
 the reversing of it takes place ; so that not only is the 
 one loved now being hated, but the one hated is being 
 loved. If the patient previously had been specially 
 cherishing piety, the disorder will likely have rendered 
 him profane, particularly so if the disturbance has be- 
 come acute. 
 
 Prof. Maudsley himself very truly observes in respect 
 to one phase of this order of insanity as follows : 
 
 " The symptoms are chiefly those of disorder of the 
 moral sentiments, and the two conditions of excitement 
 and depression vary in degree and intensity in different 
 cases. In the state of excitement the sufferer is very 
 much like a person who is half intoxicated — loquacious, 
 boastful, aggressive, never weary of talking of himself 
 and of the wonderful things which he can do. And he 
 does things which he would never have dreamed of 
 doing in his sober senses — engages in projects of social 
 or political reform, or launches into commercial specu- 
 lations quite foreign to his natural character and habits. 
 His morals undergo a sad degeneration: heretofore 
 modest, truthful, and chaste, he is now full of self-glori- 
 fication, disregardful of truth, and given to excesses ; he 
 displays a complete indifference to the feelings of those 
 who are related to him, frequents low company, tramples 
 upon social and domestic proprieties, and is angrily im- 
 patient of the slightest remonstrance or interference" 
 (ibid, pp. 176, ITT). 
 
 Of another phase, the epileptic, he continues : 
 
 " Nothing can be more striking than the abrupt and 
 extreme change in moral character which is witnessed 
 
330 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 sometimes in asylum epileptics before or after an out- 
 break of epilepsy. Hitherto industrious, attentive, and 
 docile, the disposition and conduct undergo a sudden 
 change. They become negligent, lazy, indolent, forget 
 very simple things, will not do their work, pass their 
 time in inaction or wander about aimlessly ; their dis- 
 position, too, becomes evil — they are for the time liars, 
 thieves, suspicious, discontented and irritable, and on 
 the slightest pretexts, or without actual provocation, 
 yield to sudden outbreaks of violence " (ibid, p. 178). 
 
 In these instances of " moral insanity " it is often the 
 case that not alone does the mind itself remain sane 
 and strong to judge of the misdemeanors toward which 
 they are impelled, as other people do, but there is also 
 the same repugnance thereto that others have. They 
 abhor and deplore in the very midst of the proceedings. 
 In such cases it is, then, plain that not the entire prin- 
 ciple of the moral sense is intercepted by the state of 
 disorder in the organism to which the painful perversion 
 is due, — ^that indeed hack of the organism the moral 
 sense itself is sane ; upon the principle set forth by St. 
 Paul as to his own experience, " When I would do good, 
 evil is present with me, " and which to the same limited 
 but important extent, is true of the best while in the 
 flesh. 
 
 While, therefore, there must be differences between 
 individuals as to the rectitude and strength of the moral 
 sense itself, wholly back of the organism, its transmis- 
 sion over the organism is liable to be very imperfect, to 
 exactly reverse it, as seen in these insanities. "As- 
 
THE BELATION OF THE TWO WOKLDS. 331 
 
 Buredly, " says Mr. Maudsley, " moral insanity is dis- 
 order of mind produced by disorder of brain. In 
 examining the conditions of its occurrence, we have 
 seen how plainly it follows the recognized causes of in- 
 sanity ; how it may precede for a time the outbreaks of 
 various forms of unequivocal general alienation ; how it 
 accompanies intellectual insanity in most of its varieties ; 
 how it may follow other forms of general insanity ; how 
 it may precede or follow epilepsy or occur as a masked 
 epilepsy" (ibid, p. 182). 
 
 What has been said of " moral insanity " is of course, 
 in principle, applicable to mental insanity, which surely 
 is no less prevalent. It is found that however weak and 
 unbalanced the purely mental functions themselves may 
 be, there is an exact correspondence between the tangled, 
 meaningless or misleading expressions of thought and 
 the manner of an existing brain disorder — its broken 
 state, or its unserviceableness from some other fact, — 
 brain lesions, its over-pressure of blood or the deficiency 
 of its supply. Dr. Carpenter attributes much of its im- 
 pairment brought on by " an impairment of nutrition. " 
 The causes are numberless when we go into detail. 
 
 Aside from contending with the disorders and im- 
 perfections within the brain mechanism itself, there are 
 sometimes defects at the very beginning of the trans- 
 mission of thought by this route. It is sometimes 
 difficult to get the forces of the mind at all delivered 
 upon the instrument. The mind finds it at times diffi- 
 cult to get hold of the requisite part of this living 
 
332 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 mechanism, from the absence of requisite means of 
 connection. Many may from their own experience re- 
 call difl&culties, on a smaller scale, like the following cases 
 cited from Sir Kobert Christison, by Prof. Carpenter : 
 
 " a. * The first was that of a gentleman who frequently 
 could not carry out what he wished to perform. Often 
 on endeavoring to undress, he was two hours before he 
 could get off his coat, all his mental faculties, volition 
 excepted, being perfect. On one occasion having ordered 
 a glass of water, it was presented to him on a tray, but 
 he could not take it, though anxious to do so ; and he 
 kept the servant standing before him half an hour, when 
 the obstruction was overcome. 
 
 "b, *In the other case the peculiarity was limited. 
 If, when walking in the street this individual came to a 
 gap in the line of houses, his will suddenly became in- 
 operative, and he could not proceed. An unbuilt-on 
 space in the street was sure to stop him. Crossing a 
 street also was very difficult ; and on going in or out of 
 a door, he was always arrested for some minutes. Both 
 of these gentlemen graphically described their feelings 
 to be 'As if another person had taken possession of 
 their will' " (Mental Physiology, p. 385). 
 
 The sensation of these gentlemen referred to in the 
 words, "As if another person, had possession of their 
 will," could only have been of the fact that their wills 
 were not effective. The fact of these somewhat singular 
 phenomena or extreme exemplification of a more or less 
 common difficulty, was that to that extent there was an 
 inability on the part of the mind to get hold of the right 
 nerves, which, when it got to them worked well enough. 
 
THE KELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 333 
 
 The will itself was not " paralyzed, " it was actively try- 
 ing to command the organism. And it persisted till " the 
 obstruction was overcome. " It was somewhat like when 
 one in an alarming dream seeks desperately to move, 
 and for a time is unable ; or as when one in stammer- 
 ing or stuttering, mentally strains and is for a time un- 
 able to gain possession of the nerve centers controlling 
 the organs of speech. 
 
 Another kind of derangement of the organism, and 
 of frequent occurrence, is that seen in certain forms of 
 Aphasia, where the patient, though he be wholly rational 
 and the organs of speech healthy and entire, and at his 
 command, is powerless to seize the right word, when en- 
 deavoring to speak. When the mind orders the word, 
 one of quite opposite meaning is produced. A profes- 
 sional gentleman of high standing, upon my remarking 
 this fact to him, answered me that the difficulty had at 
 several times occurred to himself with sufficient force 
 to attract his attention. As for example when he was 
 intending to say " east " the word " west " was uttered. 
 
 Prof. Carpenter reports a very pronounced case of a 
 gentleman of considerable scientific attainment, a life- 
 long acquaintance, who became very seriously troubled 
 in this way. He had attained to over seventy years of 
 age, but retained an unusual degree of bodily vigor. In 
 his case, however, the malady took a wider range than 
 simply the want of power to obtain the proper word. 
 He was come to be more forgetful of words than usual, 
 and sometimes failed to grasp their meaning, and 
 to recognize pepple when seen in unusual places. Mr. 
 
334 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Carpenter, in speaking of him, makes the following 
 statement : 
 
 " The want of memory of words then showed itself 
 more conspicuously ; one word being substituted for an- 
 other, sometimes in a manner that showed the chain of 
 association to be (as it were) bent or distorted, but 
 sometimes without any recognizable relation. Thus on 
 calling one day at the writer's residence, and finding 
 neither him nor Mrs. C. at home, he asked his son 
 (then quite a lad) *how his wife was,' meaning, of course, 
 his mother. But about the same time he told a friend 
 that he *had had his umbrella washed,' the meaning of 
 which was gradually discovered to be, that he had his 
 hair cut" (Mental Physiology, p. 445). 
 
 THE PATHOLOGY OR PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 In the pathology of this a partial insight may be had 
 as to why the mind becomes so adversely affected while 
 traversing an impaired organism, so far as pertains to 
 recent impairments. Every brain track or nerve line, 
 by use becomes to some extent automatic, and in con- 
 sequence, is disposed to impart its quality of action to 
 any impulse that passes upon it ; much after what is 
 seen in the use of a musical instrument — a horn or a 
 violin. It will, by use, become accustomed to qualities 
 of tone till it comes to automatically favor those quali- 
 ties, and with greater difficulty yields to rendering 
 others. When an arm is excited to action, its first im- 
 pulse is to execute its own special movements. How- 
 ever, it may be induced to perform the function of the 
 
THE TtELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 335 
 
 leg. The principle holds good in respect to bodily ac- 
 tivities generally, and is a physiological law. 
 
 And though by the conditions of the argument no ex- 
 planation is called for as to the mode of operation or 
 mis-operation, by which the messages of thought become 
 perverted within the organism, this simple law may sug- 
 gest all, and the facts may be considered as being well 
 and truly stated by Prof. Maudsley when he says : 
 
 " When injury or disease has destroyed that part of 
 the brain which ministers to the expression of ideas in 
 speech, as in the condition of disease known as aphasia, 
 the person must slowly learn again to talk his own 
 language ; he is like a child learning to speak, cJr like 
 one who is learning to talk a foreign language; he 
 must educate another portion of brain to do the work 
 which the damaged portion can no longer do " (Kespon- 
 sibility in Mental Diseases, p. 19). 
 
 To the reactions that must take place with such in- 
 novations and usurpations incident to establishing these 
 new routes for the mind, might well be ascribed all the 
 strange phenomena of the insane ; though we have no 
 means of verifying in detail or to understand anything 
 of the mechanical aspect of the case. 
 
 The few only of the great world of human beings are 
 so badly deranged as to be pronounced insane. How 
 much of this unsoundness is prevalent with those 
 who are denominated the sane people of which we 
 see communities made up, were hard to even approxi- 
 mate. Perhaps none are without physical defects in 
 the form of disease, the disturbance of which must, to 
 
336 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 some extent, affect the so-called state of mind, and ren- 
 der its manifestation or transmission of thought in- 
 complete and incorrect ; while, without regard to disease, 
 there are the healthy irregularities and unbalanced con- 
 ditions that are not possible to be without their corre- 
 sponding aberrations. And there are the instances where 
 the perversions by disease — the deformities by this cause 
 — have, unfortunately, in thatform, settled into healthy 
 fiber, remaining in the organism as healthy gnarls, 
 knots and cavities, the seats of former injuries, con- 
 tinue in the tree ; or as the healthy crooked limb remains 
 on the body, the healthy sightless orb in the socket, or 
 the healthy soundless drum in the ear, to give their 
 lameness and cast their shadow and their silence where 
 what these defects withhold is vital to the full execution 
 of the organism's work. 
 
 Then, again, when we come to consider that there are 
 two organisms to be traversed by each dispatch between 
 minds — that correctly apprehending is quite as necessary 
 as correctly revealing ideas, and is as dependent on the 
 good state of the organism of the receiver as correct 
 dispatching is on that of the sender, and that it is 
 as liable to the same imperfections — ^we see that the 
 obstacles to transmission seen in the one organism, 
 as above, are always to be multiplied by two. And then 
 when we come to add to this what must in part be the 
 result of this same organic deficiency, and part that of its 
 imperfect development, the deficiency of the instrument 
 of language, upon which so large a part of the transfer 
 of ideas depends, we may judge of the limited extent to 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 337 
 
 which we are able to understand one another in life. 
 But a few are able to converse understandingly upon 
 unfamiliar topics ; topics that are not the embodiments of 
 mutual and often repeated experiences. In attempting 
 to introduce wholly new ideas or experiences, how soon 
 do we discover our insular situation of mind. How we 
 strike out and grasp, vainly, at this or that word or fig- 
 ure of speech by which to make ourselves understood. 
 People, though they have a very gratifying measure of 
 mutual understanding, are also, many of them, pain- 
 fully realizing that for much of the inner thought — 
 the newer and often higher and more valuable — there 
 are no means to communicate. 
 
 THE DIFFICULTIES OF TRANSMITTING THOUGHT ENLARGE 
 BETWEEN RESIDENTS OF THE TWO WORLDS. 
 
 But while, in this manner, between minds residing in 
 them, these embodying elements place such obscurity 
 and effect such perversion, it is also a fact that by 
 means of them a large and satisfying measure of inter- 
 course becomes possible and is constantly transpiring. 
 From them is supplied a system of external senses that 
 is common to all minds resident in the sensuous state. 
 And these, co-ordinating in the attainment of the same 
 common facts of nature, in this proxy way supply a 
 bridge over which mind may hold commerce with mind. 
 Imperfectly as they serve us, they are still the means 
 of directly knowing much of each other, who are living 
 on this same side or in this same aspect of being; 
 which must be also true of the residents of any other 
 
 22 
 
 
338 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 -world. From this fact residents in elements so unlike 
 ds not to afford senses in common, must necessarily be 
 of very limited measures of intercourse ; and the fact 
 of such dissimilarity of elements in the two states is it- 
 self sufficient cause why we have so little special knowl- 
 edge of those living in the land beyond death. 
 
 What they may see and know of us may well be more 
 than what we see and know of them. In life, as in all 
 other respects, the superior comprehends more of at- 
 tainment than the inferior. In them, therefore, the 
 mental modes of perception not alone, are to be con- 
 sidered as more effective in discerning neighboring lives, 
 regardless of dissimilarity of embodiment, but it is to 
 be considered that the same higher order of attainment 
 would afford them also wider range of power over adjacent 
 elements; to utilize them — those that are inireedom drift- 
 ing, or those (as the ancients believed) which are wrought 
 into organisms in the embodiments of their kindred yet 
 surviving in the mortal land — to some extent as means 
 of perception and of impression. 
 
 But with all these possibilities and probabilities, while 
 we see little and know little practically of them, their 
 knowledge of us is necessarily, also, more restricted 
 and uncertain than is ours of each other, or theirs of 
 one another on their own side of existence. 
 
CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 Questions Respecting the Relation of the Two Worlds, 
 Continued. — ^Facts Establishing the Possibility of 
 Intercourse between Minds within the Flesh and 
 Those Beyond. — Conditions of Lucid Intercourse 
 Extremely Eare. — Special Devices for the Attain- 
 ment OF Intercourse, Impracticable and Endangering 
 to Mind and Morals. 
 
 FROM the fact of the continuance of life into the re~ 
 gion beyond death it does not follow that between 
 that world and this there should be any means of inter- 
 course whatever. Neither, when otherwise sufficiently 
 assured of their existence, is the intercourse with the 
 departed of greatest importance. In some respects we 
 see that good might come of it ; especially so if that 
 world were seen to be superior to this in the gratifications 
 it would afford to the better part of life ; and provided 
 the intercourse were so complete and true as to rightly 
 represent the facts pertaining to that life. 
 
 Yet, too, we can see how that in instances quite com- 
 mon, it would be detrimental. It is not always the case 
 that people who do the most visiting — ^who, socially, are 
 all the time lying in each other's bosoms, are doing as 
 well by their own lives and by a needy world, as if it 
 
 339 
 
340 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 were otherwise ; especially so where the friendship is ex- 
 clusive—limited to a small coterie, to the home, to the 
 family and kindred, perhaps. To a large part of the 
 good in the world — the real comfort and happiness — 
 hard, self-denying labor has been essential. And it is 
 doubtful whether real good is not always so precious 
 and rare as to be ever equally costly. And to the extent 
 that habits detract from the interest to be taken in the 
 general welfare, are they to be regarded as injurious to 
 mankind. 
 
 The privilege of intercourse of this kind, then, while 
 often it would be extremely gratifying and helpful, might 
 after all, as a whole, be easily over-estimated ; while upon 
 the importance of an entire assurance that our departed 
 are still living in all their essential wholeness, and are 
 continuing under the same beneficent regulations of life 
 (a fact that must follow from their survival), it were 
 difficult to place an estimate adequately high. 
 
 But in the past, before the scientific attainments of 
 our day, from such intercourse alone, or from phenom- 
 ena that were that in appearance, the assurance of 
 another life could have been derived in sufficient strength 
 to have materially influenced the sentiments of the peo- 
 ple — ^to have been the strong incentive to mental devel- 
 opment that its influence has averaged to the race. 
 
 The evidence as to the possibility of intercourse be- 
 tween the two worlds, must first be in respect to the part 
 in it taken by the residents on the other side. We must 
 first consider what possibilities are with them that would 
 
 1 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 341 
 
 enable them to deliver messages through to the people 
 of this world — ^by what means at their command they 
 could make themselves understood by us, or impart in- 
 fluences upon us, of which we might or might not have 
 an imderstanding, or be aware. 
 
 By the nature of the case, much of what should go 
 into the answer to this inquiry, is matter that is ex- 
 clusively vested in the limits of that world itself, and 
 beyond our present means of ascertaining. Beyond those 
 facts that are constitutionally essential to existence, or 
 that necessarily follow from such facts, and must remain 
 essentially the same in all worlds, we cannot presume 
 to venture any statements. Of the details beyond what 
 are thus facts arising purely from the necessities of be- 
 ing, we cannot be supposed to have anything very defin- 
 ite to say. However, it may quite safely be judged 
 that they are more able on their part to overcome the 
 intervening obstacles than are we — that possibly if the 
 restrictions on our part were as well removed as on 
 theirs, the measure of intercourse might be consider- 
 able. 
 
 From the facts brought to view concerning the forms of 
 substance in this state — that in the higher there arc 
 properties with prerogatives not appearing in the lower 
 — it is hardly to be doubted that in each separate higher 
 state of being, the passive substances, corresponding 
 to these of the mineral with us, likewise present proper- 
 ties not met with in the lower world ; which might con- 
 stitute them available means of achieving more of the 
 desired ends of their occupants. Then, too, might this 
 
342 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 avail of power, more than what we in this state are 
 privileged with, include a more extensive mastery of the 
 elements between them and us. 
 
 Observe what new and wonderful means of intercourse 
 have come to us in the last few years by means of more 
 extended research in our higher and more subtile forms 
 of substance. This intercourse transpires by means of 
 ethers greatly condensed and crystallized and extended 
 between parties over distances indefinitely great. But 
 what are the facts in respect to this wire, doing tele- 
 graphic and telephonic service? We cut out a section 
 and subject it to a not very high degree of heat, and it 
 recedes from visibility. Continuing to be the same 
 substance, the atmospheres of its atoms are so im- 
 measurably extended as to render it invisibly rare, and 
 altogether intangible. This dissolution has been but a 
 process of its forces, induced by adjacent forces, and 
 proves its own forces to be mainly the agents of its con- 
 solidation, not alone, but the parts, concerning itself, 
 that constituted it the tractile medium for the dis- 
 patches. 
 
 By casual or unskilled observation, these facts are 
 not being considered; but, on reflection, it is plain 
 enough that in this medium of intercourse, we are op- 
 erating but a series of forces, one incumbent upon and 
 actuating the other, in obedience to the causative force 
 leaping forth from the intelligent will of man. 
 • And yet these forces, of which our explorers have 
 learned but a few, and those imperfectly well, are con- 
 stantly showing complications with other forces still 
 
THE BELATION OF THE TWO WOKLDS. 343 
 
 more remote, the number, variety, and influence of 
 which, none can tell. Probably to the ever rising in- 
 telligence they will only multiply and extend ; as the en- 
 larging telescope, instead of finding a boundary, only 
 increases the number and the distance of stars. The 
 remotest atom is a compound ; and hence, too, every 
 force, however remote, is a cluster, the whole sur- 
 mounted by the Infinite Mind. 
 
 But only in their larger classification and more com- 
 prehensive grouping, can they be considered as appear- 
 ing to the earlier understanding. And to the Infinite 
 Mind alone, may they be open to view in their infinite 
 detail of operation. These forces are largely, if not en- 
 tirely, represented between the finite mind and the ex- 
 ternal aspect of the mineral state ; which state seems, 
 however, to be so conditioned that to life therein, the higher 
 forces are not attainable in efficient measures ; while the 
 departed, by the sundering process of death, have risen 
 into larger possession of them, and more away from 
 the possession of the lower. And this seems to consti- 
 tute the difference, as to state, between the two worlds 
 we call the physical and the spiritual ; however abrupt 
 and wide that difference may be. 
 
 It cannot be certainly known how extensive sundering 
 of relation with physical forces, this separation from 
 the body includes. But f^om the fact that the departed 
 are so completely unrecognizable by all the sensuous 
 modes of recognition, it becomes quite certain that their 
 abode and identification are with a world of substance 
 essentially foreign to our own ; and by their more ex- 
 
344 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 tended requirements of being, it could only be of a cor- 
 responding higher order. 
 
 But the fact must constantly remain in view, that the 
 minds of the physical and of the spiritual worlds are of 
 the same mental substance and forces, with one 
 another — that these forces, while in the body, are 
 having the mineral at command, as we have amply seen 
 and are all the time realizing. And that mind is not 
 entirely dependent for its contact with external nature 
 upon exact forms of organization, is definitely known in 
 that in the body it shifts from one group of nerves to 
 another, and at times, also, to those of lower forms ; 
 and that it repairs brain and even creates new brain, 
 by the lower forces at its command. And, hence, it is 
 a fact that it is provided with some form of force that 
 supplies to it a means of laying hold of loose, unassim- 
 ilated, mineral substance. And to this loose substance 
 the otherwise embodied mind is disembodied. It is practi- 
 cally, to all intents and purposes, disembodied mind 
 from the spirit world so far actuating and directing the 
 mineral elements of this. Neither does this need to 
 seem like drawing out the illustration to a " hair-split- 
 ting " fineness, or like a straining to make out a case. 
 The fact is sufficiently bold to have become a matter of 
 science, and is of a class of facts already cited. How- 
 ever, the principle is commonly referred to for other 
 purposes than the one for which I am here employing it ; 
 which, notwithstanding, does not render it less useful in 
 this connection. It is, then, not to be disputed that with 
 the human mind in the other world, there is retained 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 345 
 
 some measure of power to control mineral elements of 
 this world. 
 
 EXPECTANT ATTENTION. 
 
 Appropriate to this may be cited a few facts of the 
 class given in illustration of the law of " emotional ex- 
 citement " or " expectant attention, " as the principle is 
 more commonly named. Prof. Carpenter in treating of 
 this law makes use of the following illustrations : 
 
 " A lady, who was watching her little child at play, 
 saw a heavy window- sash fall upon its hand, cutting ojff 
 three of the fingers ; and she was so much overcome by 
 fright and distress, as to be unable to render it any as- 
 sistance. A surgeon was speedily obtained, who, having 
 dressed the wounds, turned himself to the mother, whom 
 he found seated, moaning, and complaining of pain in 
 her hand. On examination, three fingers, correspond- 
 ing to those injured in the child, were discovered to be 
 swollen and inflamed, although they had ailed nothing 
 prior to the accident. In four- and- twenty hours, incis- 
 ions were made into them, and pus was evacuated; 
 sloughs were afterward discharged, and the wounds 
 ultimately healed" (Mental Physiology, p. 682). 
 
 Again: 
 
 " A highly intelligent lady known to Dr. Tuke related 
 to him that one day she was walking past a pubhc in- 
 stitution and observed a child, in whom she was partic- 
 ularly interested, coming out through the iron gate. She 
 saw that he let go the gate after opening it, and that 
 it seemed likely to close upon him, and concluded that 
 it would do so with such force as to crush his ankle ; 
 
346 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 however, this did not happen. *It was impossible,' she 
 says, ' by word or act to be quick enough to meet the 
 supposed emergency ; and, in fact, I found I could not 
 move, for such intense pain came on in the ankle cor- 
 responding to the one which I thought the boy would 
 have injured, that I could only put my hand on it to less- 
 en its extreme painfulness. I am sure I did not move so 
 as to strain or sprain it. The walk home — a distance of 
 about a quarter of a mile — was very laborious, and in 
 taking off my stocking I found a circle round the ankle, 
 as if it had been painted with red currant juice, witli d 
 large spot of the same on the outer part. By morning tlie 
 whole foot was inflamed, and I was a prisoner to my 
 bed for many days ' " (ibid) . 
 
 Facts of this kind are not so uncommon as one not 
 familiar with this class of reading might suppose. Mr. 
 C. accounts for these by the theory of " local disorder of 
 nutrition followed upon powerful emotion, determined 
 as to their seat by the intense direction of the attention 
 to a particular part of the body. " While, in the main, 
 this theory may be the true one, it does not sufficiently 
 provide for the facts in the case that are of chief im- 
 portance. That the effect should be so exclusively local, 
 that the location should be so far from the seat of the 
 disturbing cause — the mind, and that the disordered 
 nutrition should be so instantaneously destructive of the 
 tissue, are not made clear. The detonation of thunder 
 will precipitate the oxidation of milk when drawn, and 
 so disorder it ; and the intense mental disturbance of 
 the mother may render her milk fatally unfit for the child, 
 as is sometimes the case, even so particularly impress- 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 347 
 
 ing upon it the special form of the disturbance as that 
 the disturbance will be, in effect, reproduced in the 
 child ; still the impression is general and not local. In 
 these cases the effects are so very local, as to be denoted 
 by exact bounds; and where nutrition could only be 
 present in a state of assimilation. Besides the effects 
 were not of the character of the famishing or diseasing 
 of the fiber, but of their massive, mechanical crushing ; 
 upon which, in due time, disease followed ; the same as 
 if the crushing had been caused by external violence — 
 by the falling sash or the closing gate. 
 
 We note, also, that the bruises were not on the brain, 
 on which the mind ordinarily delivers its forces, nor 
 was there any damage discovered along the nerves — the 
 line of travel — leading from the brain to the wounded 
 part ; all of which should have been, if the mind, with 
 its crushing force, had reached the spot by the usual 
 way of the organism. Evidently the organism was lit- 
 tle, if at all, employed in delivering this force on a re- 
 mote member of the body. These powerful impulses of 
 mind, so crushingly laying hold on the distant fiber, as 
 by these facts, could only have reached their destination, 
 sympathetically indicated, by having taken a route 
 through matter practically external of the body. 
 
 But in the light of these facts, might not the princi- 
 ple that provided a condition that was in these cases so 
 effective, provide, also, for mental force to be adminis- 
 tered on external mineral nature in measures indefinitely 
 greater ? — to have entirely simdered the maternal fingers, 
 and the ankle ? 
 
348 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE, 
 
 Also, we saw, in the instance of mesmerism, the 
 power of the mind to concentrate forces upon a line, 
 and upon special points, and on definite objects, — that 
 not all adjacent minds were affected — only the one in- 
 tended. So here we have, and in relation to another class 
 of circumstances, yet another illustration of the same 
 power. Though involuntarily and unconsciously ex- 
 ecuted, that there was a concentration of mental forces 
 and whatever other forces were required, on the wounded 
 part, is manifest beyond doubt. As to the mode by 
 which the forces are combined and made available — ^how 
 they are made to seize on objects, though questions to 
 be expected, need not here be asked, nor answered. 
 How the magnetic forces seize upon a fiber of metal and 
 join it with another, or upon the elements constituting 
 the fiber, bringing them into the needed density, while 
 it would be interesting as a matter of knowledge, could 
 have no bearing on the fact of intercourse by teleg- 
 raphy. The present indications are that all the lower 
 forces, per se, operate in circuits and actuate each other 
 by the well-known law of induction. But when we de- 
 cide to move an arm, we are merely conscious of send- 
 ing an impulse upon it, and that, in accordance with the 
 direction indicated in the impulse, the arm moves. We 
 have no realization of getting hold of the arm. Were it 
 paralyzed, the unavailing will-pressure being a more 
 pronounced effort, might cause the sensation of an en- 
 deavor to seize it, by carefully noticing. 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 349 
 STIGMATIZATION. 
 
 In these instances the forces acting so instantaneously, 
 would suggest that they are involuntary, and of no 
 avail for the voluntary purposes of the mind. But the 
 voluntary and involuntary processes so imperceptibly 
 merge in each other as that these instances cannot be 
 taken as conclusive. Indeed, we find, that under other 
 conditions of essentially the same phenomena, the facts 
 are of opposite indication. In illustration, more es- 
 pecially of the law of "expectant attention," Mr. C. 
 cites one of those singular cases of stigmatization, 
 sometimes met with in reports of intense religious 
 emotion, taken from Macmillan's Magazine of April, 
 1871, and is as follows : 
 
 " The most recent case of this kind, that of Louise 
 Lateau, has undergone a scrutiny so careful, on the 
 part of medical men determined to find out the deceit, 
 if such should exist, that there seems no adequate rea- 
 son for doubting its genuineness. This young Belgian 
 peasant had been the subject of an exhausting illness, 
 from which she recovered rapidly after receiving the 
 sacrament; a circumstance which obviously made a 
 strong impression on her mind. Soon afterward, blood 
 began to issue every Friday from a spot in her left side ; 
 in the course of a few months, similar bleeding spots 
 established themselves on the front and back of each 
 hand, and on the upper surface of each foot, while a 
 circle of small spots formed on the forehead ; and the 
 hemorrhage from these recurred every Friday, some- 
 times to a considerable amount. About the same time. 
 
350 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 fits of 'ecstasy' began to occnr, commencing every 
 Friday between eight and nine a. m., and ending at 
 about six p. m. ; interrupting her in conversation, in 
 prayer, or in manual occupations. This state seems to have 
 been intermediate between that of the biologized and that 
 of the hypnotized subject ; for, whilst as unconscious as 
 the latter of all sense impressions, she retained, like the 
 former, a recollection of all that had passed through her 
 mind during the 'ecstasy.' She described herself as 
 suddenly plunged into a vast flood of bright light, from 
 which more or less distinct forms soon began to evolve 
 themselves ; she then witnessed the several scenes of the 
 passion successively passing before her. She minutely 
 described the cross and the vestments, the wounds, the 
 crown of thorns about the head of the Savior ; and gave 
 various details regarding the persons about the cross, — 
 the disciples, holy women, Jews, and Koman soldiers. 
 And the progress of her vision might be traced by the 
 succession of actions she performed at different stages 
 of it ; most of these being movements expressive of her 
 own emotions ; whilst regularly, about three p. m., she 
 extended her limbs in the form of a cross. The fit ter- 
 minated with a state of extreme physical prostration: 
 the pulse being scarcely perceptible, the breathing slow 
 and feeble, and the whole surface bedewed with a cold 
 perspiration. After this state had continued about ten 
 minutes, a return to the normal condition rapidly took 
 place. These last phenomena, which were paralleled to a 
 certain degree in Mr. Braid's experiments, seem quite 
 beyond the power of intentional simulation ; while the 
 tests applied to determine the possibility of the artificial 
 production of the stigmata and of the issue of blood 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 351 
 
 from them, appear no less conclusive as to their non- 
 simulation " (Mental Phys., pp. 689, 690). 
 
 While the entire sanity of this and similar subjects 
 may be questioned, the facts of the stigmatization and 
 the ecstasy, which alone concern the principle under 
 consideration, and are of any value whatever, are well 
 authenticated. Her case (which is recent — she being 
 bom in 1850) was examined under all the advantages 
 of modem science, by a commission sent for that pur- 
 pose by the Eoyal Academy of Medicine of Belgium, 
 who, after a most determined, painstaking and com- 
 plete investigation, pronounced the stigmatization and 
 ecstasies, real ; but the physiological and pathological 
 principles cited in explanation, fail to account for these 
 special local transudations of blood. The general tran- 
 sudation of blood through the perspiratory ducts of the 
 skin (" sweating blood ") under conditions of great emo- 
 tional excitement, is a well-known fact, and in the light 
 of physiological principles may be readily conceded. 
 
 In this case the essential facts are not materially un- 
 like those of the examples previously cited. In those 
 the fiber was crushed in definite localities without ajffect- 
 ing the surrounding parts, as in case of an ordinary 
 bruise. In this, the fiber was so displaced as to allow 
 the passage of the blood out through the skin, while, 
 also, the surrounding part seemed unaffected. In the 
 others, as in this, the wounds were extremely sensitive 
 and sore. In the former, the injuries were inflicted by 
 sudden intense mental impulses. Those impulses were 
 directed on the parts painfully imagined or seen injured 
 
352 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 in others for whom tender affections were cherished; 
 and the injury was in each case in the form of the in- 
 jury imaginarily seen. In this case there was no sud- 
 den impulse of the mind — ^no startle or fright. But, 
 instead, it is seen that the subject rapidly recovered 
 from an exhausting illness, after having received the 
 sacrament. Hence the subject of the sacrament must 
 have made a much stronger impression on her mind 
 than is usual. Besides, at about the same time occurred 
 those ecstasies, in which the passion scene stood out be- 
 fore her, vividly displaying to her view the crucifixion — 
 the transfixed condition of her passionately loved Savior 
 — of which the overpowering impressions would not fail 
 to be those blood-issuing, living wounds, suggesting ter- 
 rific pains ; which would not fail to be located on cor- 
 responding parts of her own person, causing intense 
 concentration of the mental forces, and their seizing, 
 breaking and sundering of the fiber. 
 
 Then here, too, as in the other named particulars, 
 there is an exact parallel between this and the other ex- 
 amples : the injuries in her person, too, were, in location 
 and in form, the same as those imaginarily seen on the 
 person of another. And we may only point to one feature 
 of difference, and this not at all a radical one. It is 
 that in this case the means of voluntarily determining 
 the direction and execution of these forces upon a defin- 
 ite object is more fully demonstrable. Notwithstanding 
 the ecstasy was uncontrollable, the element of reason 
 was represented, and in such relation as to constitute 
 the stigmatization, essentially, an act of the will. Not 
 
THE BELATION OF THE TWO WOKLDS. 353 
 
 directly so, but indirectly ; being in position to determine 
 the direction and the execution of the forces. We see 
 that the dominant impressions produced the stigmata ; 
 that many other features of the general scene were also 
 sorely impressive; but that among all these, reason 
 (such as it was) drew the major attention to the wounds, 
 upon which followed (upon their sympathetic seats in 
 her own person) the concentration and precipitation of 
 the forces in measure and manner adequate to produce 
 these wounds. Truly, when the reasonableness of a 
 proposed act greatly preponderates over that of another, 
 the volition may indistinguishably merge into a neces- 
 sity — at least into the appearance of necessity — when 
 in fact it continues to be volition. The full agency of 
 the mind remains in the transaction. So in this case. 
 Another illustration of the principle is seen in that 
 the mental impulses of the mother extend with promi- 
 nent effect to the person of the child while in the 
 fetal state, though " there is no nervous communication " 
 whatever between them. Mr. C's explanation is that 
 as the child in that state is wholly nourished from the 
 blood of the mother, the impression is received on her 
 blood only, causing minute alterations in it, and being 
 in this form transmitted would correspondingly influence 
 the bodily formation of the child. The explanation 
 would apply very satisfactorily but for the fact that the 
 blood would be expected to affect the body of the mother 
 in some measure the same as that of the child, seeing 
 she derives all her own nourishment from the same 
 fluid. But this is not seen. It could apply only by 
 
 23 
 
35d CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 considering the impression to be made on the volume of 
 the blood separately belonging to the child, which would 
 make it necessary that it be delivered upon the blood only 
 after it has entered the person of the child, — beyond 
 all nerve connection with the mother, — in another in- 
 dividual ; it mattering not whether on the blood or fiber. 
 But the blood, also, is without nerve connection. It 
 is merely a train of supply material not yet incorpo- 
 rated, being propelled along the passages to its destina- 
 tion by mechanical appliances, and may have been 
 brought through artificial tubes over from the veins of 
 another and be in reality the blood of another individ- 
 ual. And, in any case, its seizure by the mental forces 
 would be the mind seizing substances having no specific 
 connection with any organism. And although by means 
 of the more intimate blending of their vital forces while 
 thus situated with respect to each other, and being more 
 impressible during its early states of development, the 
 mental forces of the mother are more effective on the 
 child, in uterOytho^n upon a person external; yet so seiz- 
 ing its blood or the fiber itself, is, in principle, seizing 
 and influencing the body of a neighbor. 
 
 MIRACULOUS CURES. 
 
 still further illustrations of this law are to be found 
 among the many instances of wonderful cures cited in 
 all ages. "Expectant Attention" will here go far to ex- 
 plain what is not fraud. We have place for but a few 
 examples. The first is from Dr. Paris, cited by Dr. 
 Hammond, and is specially important on account of 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 355 
 
 the prominent part taken in it by Sir Humphrey Davy. 
 Dr. Paris says : 
 
 " As soon as the powers of nitrous oxide gas were dis- 
 covered, Dr. Beddoes at once concluded that it must nec- 
 essarily be a specific for paralysis ; a patient was selected 
 for trial, and the management of it was entrusted to 
 Sir Humphrey Davy. Previous to the administration 
 of the gas, he inserted a small thermometer under the 
 tongue of the patient, as he was accustomed to do upon 
 such occasions, to ascertain the degree of animal tem- 
 perature, with a view to future comparison. The para- 
 lytic man, wholly ignorant of the nature of the process to 
 which he was to be submitted, but deeply impressed from 
 the representations of Dr. Beddoes with the certainty of 
 its success, no sooner felt the thermometer under his 
 tongue than he concluded that the talisman was in full 
 oi)eration, and in a burst of enthusiasm declared that 
 he already experienced the effect of its benign influence 
 through his whole body. The opportunity w^as too 
 tempting to be lost ; Davy cast one intelligent glance at 
 Coleridge, and desired his patient to visit him the fol- 
 lowing day, when the same ceremony was performed, 
 and repeated every succeeding day for a fortnight ; the 
 patient gradually improving during that period when he 
 was dismissed as cured, no other application having been 
 Used" (Nervous Derangement, p. 224). 
 
 The second is from Dr. Carpenter, and, though the 
 event is of over two hundred years ago, is regarded as 
 entirely reliable. The subject was a niece of Pascal, 
 one of the first men of science of that time. The 
 young girl was sorely afflicted with fistula lachrymalis. 
 
35(3 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 It was at a time when the orders of the Jesuits and 
 Jansenists were at the height of their hostility. The 
 account proceeds as follows : 
 
 " The poor girl had been threatened with the * actual 
 cautery ' by the eminent surgeon under whose care she 
 was, as the only way of getting rid of the disease of the 
 bones of the nose,which manifested itself in an intoler- 
 able fetor ; and the day was fixed for its application. 
 Two days previously, however, the patient walked in 
 procession before a * holy thorn,' which was being ex- 
 hibited with great ceremony in the chapel of the con- 
 vent ; and was recommended by the nuns, as she passed 
 before the altar, to apply the precious relic to her eye, 
 and implore relief from the dreaded infliction. This 
 she did, no doubt, with the most childlike confidence and 
 heartfelt sincerity ; and her faith was rewarded by the 
 favorable change which took place within a few hours, and 
 which had so far advanced by the time of the surgeon's 
 next visit, that he wisely did not interfere, the cure in a 
 short time becoming complete. Of course, this ' mira- 
 cle ' was vaunted by the Jansenist party as indicating 
 the special favor of the Virgin, while the Jesuits could 
 scarcely bring themselves to believe in its reality. A 
 most careful enquiry was made by direction of the court ; 
 the testimony of the surgeons and others, who knew the 
 exact conditions of the patient both before and after the 
 * miracle ' (that condition being patent to their observa- 
 tion), was conclusive ; and the reality of the cure could 
 no longer be denied, though it remained inconceivable 
 to the Jesuits that a miracle should have been worked 
 in favor of their opponents " (Mental Phys., p. 685). 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 357 
 
 These cures occurred without any effects having been 
 produced upon the fibers of the impaired structures 
 but those by the mental forces. There was no virtue 
 in the thorn itself, nor in anything attaching to it. A 
 thorn from a neighboring field, if this should not have 
 been such, if surrounded with the same holy mysteries 
 in the mind of the girl, would have been equally effica- 
 cious. And so likewise the paralytic would have real- 
 ized as much good from any simple object conveniently 
 at hand, if unknown to him, thrust under his tongue or 
 otherwise pretentiously applied, and supposed to be the 
 great agent of the certain cure. To impulses of mind, 
 made strong and persistent by expectant attention upon 
 the cure that loomed above all doubt, was due whatever 
 change to structure was necessary to restoration. 
 
 " Miracles " of this kind may at any time be expected 
 to occur under conditions of this character, and without, 
 after all, being miracles. And there is no reason to 
 doubt that they are of frequent occurrence, and beyond 
 the saintly limits of Lourdes and Knock, and without 
 their being necessarily the works of any order of super- 
 natural interference. 
 
 It is, then, seen that the very quality of the purpose 
 becomes imparted to the substance. The expectance of 
 an injury is followed by the appearance of the injury 
 expected and imaginarily seen — the fiber is seized and 
 disturbed in a way to correspond. In the expectance of 
 the removal of an evil — the healing of an injured part, 
 the fiber is seized in a way to produce restoration. 
 
358 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 That all should be available for such phenomena to 
 the extent even of it being merely perceivable, is not 
 called for. People vary greatly in other respects, and 
 why not in this ? It is a matter of mind as well as of 
 body, and largely of education. For the best of reasons, 
 a skeptic or one of ordinary faith in historic Christianity, 
 could not possibly be a subject of stigmata ; while one 
 of but ordinary faith in the talismanic virtues of relics, 
 could not be the subject of the cure by the touch of the 
 " holy thorn ; " while, reversely, one mentally conditioned 
 to be benefited in this way, would probably fail to realize 
 the paralytic's cure under the direction of merely men 
 of science. And whether with or without religious senti- 
 ments, one having but ordinary believing powers, would 
 be expected to be without results in any case. 
 
 Science, then, as the state of human attainment now 
 is, to find bold examples of the working of this law, 
 would look more hopefully among the superstitious, 
 where believing has attained to greater freedom from 
 doubt, and to greater strength ; and from this less cult- 
 ured class of minds, for still more striking illustrations, 
 would look forward to an age of greater culture than the 
 present, wherein the power of believing, having greater 
 appreciation,would be nurtured into greater prominence. 
 
 By these testimonials of science, mind as mind, is 
 seen to have at its command, a means, from its own 
 seat, apart from the interlying brain and other nerves, 
 to move external substances at will, — however limited 
 this means, or rare the requisite conditions for its em- 
 ployment ; also, that it has the ability, to a great extent, 
 
THE EELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 359 
 
 to characterize those movements by its special purposes. 
 And the essential conditions being in the mind itself, 
 whose surrounding elements are, ever, to some extent, 
 subservient to it, it could not be necessary that the mind 
 should be a being of this world. It might be from the 
 next, or of any superior world beyond. 
 
 And as these means are seen to exist, thus limited, 
 or at all, in the use of minds so limited and hampered 
 as those of the present state, it cannot fail to be seen 
 that with minds of the greater attainment, to be met 
 with in the region beyond the flesh, the principle might 
 be employed to a greater extent — to the wielding of 
 ponderous substances or gaining measurable or joint 
 control of the organism of a fellow mind. 
 
 But merely the existence of the means of intercourse 
 between the two worlds and not the extent and the fre- 
 quency of the employment thereof, is here established. 
 That is a subject for further consideration. 
 
 On recalling the facts we have developed, the possi- 
 bility of intercourse would consist of 
 
 ABOUT TWO GENERAL MODES. 
 
 These would be, first, mind acting on mind directly, as 
 seen in part in Dr. Esdaile's case of mesmerism, possi- 
 bly inclusive of what is called clairvoyance ; and second, 
 external phenomena addressed to the senses in conven- 
 tional signs, or any manner of external demonstration. 
 This would include whatever pertains to movements of 
 the organism or any signs in external nature. In the 
 first instance, the impressions received and those re- 
 
360 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 turned, mentally, would be the exchange of sentiments, 
 which would be intercourse. In the second place, the 
 mind on the spiritual side would make itself understood 
 by addressing the senses of the one on the mortal side, 
 much after the manner of a fellow mortal, by some form 
 of apparition. The answer returned to the spirit would 
 be by its discernment of the thought transpiring in the 
 mortal party, or possibly by some mode of personal 
 sight of the physical phenomena used in replying. 
 
 From this it would appear that they of the other side 
 would have less difficulty in receiving our sentiments 
 than we theirs. They might be in possession of our dis- 
 patches and we without even the means of knowing of it. 
 
 From the nature of the facts governing in the matter, 
 and they are of a very tangible character, instances 
 that might be properly termed communications from 
 the spirit world, could not, as the world of mankind 
 now is, be numerous, however common might be the 
 impressions of an intangible character derived from that 
 source. What has been said of unlikeness in minds 
 being a hindrance to the communication of thought, ap- 
 plies here. So, likewise, the difficulty of rendering im- 
 pressions directly of mind upon mind, in the presence of 
 a system of waking senses filling the mind with the 
 glaring realities of an external world, which only the 
 severest discipline, on the part of the most favored minds, 
 can shut out or render passive, is almost wholly insur- 
 mountable. So that nearly every door of this, the best 
 and most available route between the worlds, is, for the 
 time, closed and barred. 
 
THE KELATION OF THE TWO WOKLDS. 361 
 
 Then, when we come to consider the seizing and the 
 occupying of the organism of a fellow mind (after the 
 fashion of a medium), we have to first consider that 
 the resident mind itself continues to share it and in 
 some measure at least divides the control, so that from 
 this cause accuracy of work would be quite impossible. 
 But supposing, for the sake of a case, that the organism 
 were wholly vacated for the new incumbent, there would 
 be the almost inevitable disparity between its provisions 
 — ^its special forms, and measures of. transmitting power, 
 and the new-comer who is to use it. And this trouble 
 being the main cause of aberrations, and always result- 
 ing in some form of mental derangement, in resi- 
 dents of this world, the results of such occupancy, or 
 co-occupancy, could not be materially otherwise than to 
 some extent insanities, and unsafe. 
 
 It would seem that the most sane effects of spirits 
 upon physical substances would be such as might take 
 place outside of the aberrating influences of the living 
 organism, which would, by what we have seen, be hardly 
 possible with ordinary minds in either world. 
 
 DIM REALIZATIONS OF ONE WORLD BY THE OTHER. 
 
 Also, it is to be noted that in proportion to this limited 
 means of intercourse, there must be a corresponding 
 insensibility of each other's state or world. Where 
 there are no adapted senses to perceive, there must be 
 darkness or the aspect of nothingness ; which fact, in 
 respect to this case, may in one way be viewed as a 
 
362 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 painful privation, and in another — ^to the innumerable 
 uninformed and weak— as a great mercy. That we do 
 not see the world of the departed is due to the fact 
 that we are without requisite senses, and additionally, 
 that we have a system of senses so inexorably fixing our 
 mind on this, and against which our strong yearnings 
 are of little or no avail. The same, to some extent 
 (and with the average new arrival there, to a large ex- 
 tent), is necessarily true of the residents of the other 
 world, where, the nature of the mind being the same, it 
 requires the same or corresponding facilities — senses 
 for communication with environments. The realness of 
 that world to those residing there, would tend to lessen 
 the chances of clear perceptions respecting this. 
 
 Our utter diminutiveness in everything — the total ab- 
 sence of attainment in anything, at birth, and with 
 nothing in respect to us that is not directly descended 
 from our ancestry, makes it absolutely certain that this 
 world is our true beginning place — that we never existed 
 in another, nor had prior existence in this — have then 
 never been in the world of the departed, and have 
 nothing to remember in respect to it, save those who 
 from us have entered there. It is otherwise with them. 
 They go from us enlarged, experienced, and full of 
 memories of their previous life and world, now only 
 veiled from sight ; and hence with a stronger realization 
 of its existence and the existence of the remaining ones, 
 with their conditions and affairs, the efforts of the mind 
 to seize enlightening means with respect to these, would 
 be more successfully made. Hence, we and our world 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 363 
 
 and our affairs, might well be better known to them than 
 are they and theirs to us. 
 
 However, the thought often cherished in late years, 
 that after death we may more completely behold the 
 scenery of this world, that we shall be conditioned to go 
 all over its broad face to see its many wonders and be in- 
 timately with the people yet residing in the mortal land, 
 is without a probability. The presences of the departed, 
 that may in some alleged instances well be believed in, 
 are to be otherwise understood. The principles govern- 
 ing the conditions of this intercourse, provide amply 
 that such may take place ; and yet that they are not 
 immediate, personal presences, that would involve a 
 recognition of sensuous nature generally. 
 
 The nature of the presence may be measurably com- 
 prehended by a reference to telephonic communication. 
 Prior to this device, the immediate intercourse of friends 
 not personally present to each other, evinced not the 
 slightest sign of a possibility, while to-day finds them, 
 by means of a passive wire, whispering in each other's 
 ears by use of Hterally the same sounds they would em- 
 ploy in the same room with one another, though phys- 
 ical nature, hundreds of miles in thickness, is lying 
 between them. The identification of the friend might 
 thus be complete ; and so far as this simple transaction 
 of talking is concerned, all this intervening distance 
 and obstruction is annihilated and the presence has 
 much of the nature of realness, and is quite satisfying. 
 
 But not so of the surrounding scenery. It continues 
 utterly concealed by the interlying obstructions. At 
 
364 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 each end of the wire is located a bright world, — a 
 house and a home and inmates. Between the 
 worlds the forces incident to the wire, afford the 
 only means of the perception of each other. 
 
 Similarly to this, as has been seen in various illustra- 
 tions, are the mental forces available in conveying im- 
 pressions between remote minds, quite independent of 
 environing substance and external senses ; and of being 
 projected upon a line to a specific individual ; rendering 
 it plainly possible to excite the most confident and sat- 
 isfactory realization of the immediate personal presence 
 of a spiritual being, though the presence be not a fact. The 
 principle may readily explain, when the range of its 
 possibilities are all considered, all of what may be found 
 to be real instances of visitation of the departed, even 
 to bodily appearances, which might, all the way from 
 the other world, be miraged upon the consciousness of 
 the subject. 
 
 For numerous reasons, all means of intercourse must 
 always be less with the minds of less attainment in that 
 culture which includes the believing powers, while no 
 limit is to be placed upon the extent to which power of 
 this kind may be vested in spirits of the highest orders, 
 who are ever worthy to be trusted with its wise adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 SPECIAL DEVICES FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF INTER- 
 COURSE IMPRACTICABLE, DANGEROUS, ETC. 
 
 From a purely practical point of view, a few words of 
 caution may here be parenthetically placed in the closing 
 
THE RELATION OP THE TWO WORLDS. 365 
 
 of this chapter. In connection with the subject of in- 
 tercourse between the two worlds, in which, at all times, 
 many have been deeply interested, with varying good 
 and ill, probably nothing has been more deplorable than 
 the evil results of, by unwise means, seeking to facilitate 
 it. The understanding generally has been, that the first 
 step to be taken was toward becoming entirely passive 
 to impressions — ^toward self-dispossession of all resistance 
 to the ingress of foreign sentiments and agencies from 
 the invisible side, — ^unwisely saying to unknown appli- 
 cants, " Thy will be done. " 
 
 This applies not alone to where foreign control over 
 self was sought, but, as well, where, in a circle or society 
 of people, for the purpose of intercourse with spirits, 
 effort was being made. And such requirement is not 
 without good reasons. With a view to attaining the re- 
 sults sought, these conditions become a necessity ; on 
 the same principle that when one wishes the full benefit 
 of a teacher or leader he renders himself passive to his 
 wish. But in these cases the trouble is that no definite 
 principle or character of thought is made requisition 
 for. In passively following a guide who is known as to 
 his sentiments, a definite and exclusive purpose is main- 
 tained ; and the mind retains in possession the elements 
 of resistance and of aggression, and remains really as 
 invulnerable to improper sentiments as at any time; 
 while here it is materially otherwise. Without a knowl- 
 edge or a concern, as is often the case (and what the 
 end — impartial deliverance of messages to second parties 
 — ^really calls for), as to what shall be the character of 
 
366 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 the principle transmitted, one is liable to attain to little 
 or no choice of principles or motives ; and in this state, 
 for want of its exercise, will presently be without requisite 
 power to hold to the higher principles, and in place, will 
 accept and go into identification with, the lower. 
 
 There is not room to here go into detail, but the re- 
 sults, when rightly canvassed, may generally be found 
 to harmonize with this conclusion. If the body under- 
 goes deterioration under the unnatural nervous processes, 
 as is generally seen, the evil effects on the mind and 
 morals, are at least equally, and often still more, to be 
 deplored. 
 
 IN CONCLUSION. 
 
 The illusions of mind are so abundant and versatile, 
 that it were difficult to determine when we have an in- 
 stance of real spirit intercourse. There often are phe- 
 nomena reported that are inexplicable by any other 
 theory. But whether the conditions were adequately 
 seen, however conscientiously reported, may, again, at 
 times, admit of doubt. In all cases it were safer to 
 rely on the element of enlightened reason, than on sen- 
 suous observation of alleged facts of intercourse, for the 
 proof of a future life. For while the most unsuggest- 
 ive occurrence might be a real instance of the phenom- 
 ena, a strongly suggestive one might contain nothing 
 of it. 
 
 By the very nature of the case, the conditions of it 
 are obscure, and it may mix with a long train of our 
 most ordinary thoughts and transactions, and with 
 
THE RELATION OF THE TWO WORLDS. 367 
 
 many people may make a large part of their life ex- 
 periences; while others, who may be overpoweringly 
 impressed that they are habitually having intercourse 
 with the departed, are simply suffering from nervous 
 disorders. 
 
CHAPTEE XTIIl. 
 
 Consideration of the Claims op Intercourse between 
 THE Two Worlds. — The Probable and Improbable. 
 — Its Appearance in the Bible, Etc. 
 
 THE brief space allotted to this chapter will not ad- 
 mit the discussion to extend far into the details of 
 theories, and to many of the alleged facts, of inter- 
 course between the residents of the two worlds. It is 
 only necessary to set forth the principles that apply 
 from the facts already submitted, with a few more facts 
 in which their still further working may be seen. 
 
 Man may be supposed to be attended in all ages by 
 some measure and form of the phenomena of his entire 
 nature, sufficiently distinct for recognition. This may 
 be supposed to differ with the changes he is constantly 
 undergoing ; not only because change in himself would 
 have a corresponding effect upon the phenomena, but 
 no less because, in the judgment of the controlling mind 
 or minds above him, his needs undergo change. In in- 
 fancy, childhood, youth, maturity and old age, the same 
 general nature appears, but, in passing through the 
 range of these stages, at each, some habits and uses are 
 laid off and others taken on, always toward more personal 
 prerogatives and wider independence. At mature in- 
 
 368 
 
CLAIMS OF INTEBCOUBSE. 369 
 
 fancy the child leaves the mother's nipple and takes the 
 spoon, while from the nourishment of milk it goes to 
 the nourishment of bread. On entering youth it re- 
 leases the parent from much of the care over its own 
 person ; to the perceptive habit of thought, which was 
 the main feature of mind to be seen in childhood, it 
 adds the reflective — stakes up abstract studies, general- 
 izes principles, and lays out for itself in the future. 
 The parental government remaining over it, employs 
 less sensuous means and more mental. On entering 
 matunty the parental government is mostly discon- 
 tinued, and the ability to govern and manage is so en- 
 larged as to include the government and management of 
 others. On arriving at the greater period of old age, 
 the mind leaves more fully the narrow limits of selfish- 
 ness — of local and self interest — and grows cosmopol- 
 itan. From the exclusive love of the few — ^the home, 
 the state and the nation — it enlarges to include the na- 
 tions and the entire race; and from the deferential 
 esteem of human superiors, enlarges to include more 
 fully the homage of the Infinite Mind. 
 
 He who has looked upon the progress of the race, during 
 its historic period, will not fail to see in the history of 
 the human mind, the same graduated scale — one stage 
 and class of wants rising upon another, without any de- 
 parture from the essential nature. In the earlier ages, 
 with individual exceptions, the aggregate mind is dis- 
 tinctly seen to have been weak and fickle, as is generally 
 true of childhood ; at once bringing to view the small 
 attainment of reflective powers. The form of mind 
 
 24 
 
S70 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 present and employed, was chiefly the perceptive and 
 sensuous, which could be evoked only by external appear- 
 ances — by some sort of outward physical sensation. 
 Government was possible, mainly, by reference to sensuous 
 pain. In this way, mainly, could the people be made 
 to see and have regard to limits placed by social law. 
 And in respect to instruction of any character, the prin- 
 ciples w"ere necessary to be brought within reach of this 
 means of knowing. 
 
 Then, to establish confidence in the existence of the 
 spiritual state of being, so important to the stimulation 
 of mental and moral growth, philosophy, without suffi- 
 cient reasoning abilities, being inapplicable, resort could 
 only be had to addressing phenomena of this character 
 to the eye. And supposing that there was an adequate 
 power at the time ministering to man's needs, wisely 
 directing for him according to the means at hand, as we 
 would do by a child, and as it is safe to say an interested 
 superior state would have done, we would expect to find 
 phenomena of a spiritual character to have been more 
 abundant and striking, with people in those far-back 
 ages, than at the present time. Besides, the feeble con- 
 dition of the general mind, with a view to attaining 
 mental and moral development, might well have ren- 
 dered the impression of spiritual phenomena indispen- 
 sable. 
 
 But, as to the prevalence of alleged phenomena of 
 intercourse between the worlds, in proportion to the 
 number of the people, one age may represent as much 
 of it as another. And if there might be more found in 
 
CLAIMS OF INTERCOUKSE. 371 
 
 one age than in others, it should be in that where ner- 
 vous energy is undergoing the greatest tax. All kinds 
 of nervous affections, with their modifying effects on 
 mental actions, as a rule, are more frequent with peo- 
 ple who are performing more brain labor. 
 
 However, in no age may this intercourse t)e found to 
 have been as common as is generally claimed by believ- 
 ers. After counting out the frauds, and the instances of 
 which the explanation may be readily found by reference 
 to the laws governing the hallucinations of mind, what 
 will be left, will, in most cases, be found but a small per- 
 centage. All ages have had their jugglers, outwitting 
 the most shrewd of non-professionals, drawing public 
 patronage by imposing claims of holding intercourse 
 with the dead. And, as a rule, to which there may be 
 honorable exceptions, on the ground of wide prevailing 
 frauds of this kind, professionals are to be regarded as 
 unsafe. By a credulity rendered doubly strong by keen 
 desire for evidence of the survival of the beloved dead, 
 on a large class of good, intelligent people, the claims 
 of these jugglers are imposed without difficulty, and when 
 it may seem to them that they have guarded with due 
 care every point. 
 
 But there are incidents at times occurring where only 
 the purest integrity could be ascribed, such as seeing 
 the departed alive, face to face, and perhaps engaging 
 them in conversation, which certainly would be very 
 convincing to any ordinary person. The conversation 
 might, likewise, disclose, on the part of the visitant, 
 such knowledge, of private character, present or past, 
 
372 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 pertaining to the consulting individual, as would be of 
 great additional force. The spiritualistic literature of 
 our own day, with its unending variety and numbers of 
 detailed incidents would hardly supply a really stronger 
 example. And yet the apparition might be no more 
 than a subjective experience, — either from a strongly 
 excited imagination — the image-creating power — or from 
 an intensely vivid memorization, or, still more likely, 
 from the joint occurrence of both ; but be no more really 
 a second party or outside spiritual being, than is the ar- 
 tist's fancy sketch, standing in the canvas, a real per- 
 son. Nor would the incidental conversation, with the 
 substance thereof, be necessarily anything different in 
 kind from an imaginary conversation, in which the re- 
 sponding words necessarily also appear conveying the 
 thoughts imagined to be existing in the imaginary party. 
 Hallucinations of this kind, as well as of others, in 
 endless variety, are known to result of physical derange- 
 ment. Dr. Hammond says : 
 
 " Physical causes, calculated to increase the amount 
 of blood in the brain or to alter its quality, may give 
 rise to hallucinations of various kinds. A gentleman 
 under the professional care of the writer, can always 
 cause the appearance of images by tying a handkerchief 
 moderately tight around his neck ; and there is one form 
 which is always the first to come and the last to disap- 
 pear. It consists of a male figure clothed in costume 
 worn in England three hundred years ago, and bearing 
 a striking resemblance to the portraits of Sir Walter 
 Ealeigh. This figure not only imposes on the sight but 
 
CLAIMS OF INTERCOUESE. 373 
 
 also on the hearing ; for questions put to it are answered 
 promptly " (Nervous Derangement, p. 233). 
 
 The doctor in this same connection and place submits 
 an instance related in Nicholson's Journal, which is as 
 follows : 
 
 " I know a gentleman in the vigor of life, who, in my 
 opinion, is not exceeded by any one in acquired knowl- 
 edge and originality of deep research; and who for 
 nine months in succession was always visited by a fig- 
 ure of the same man, threatening to destroy him, at 
 the time of his going to rest. It appeared upon his ly- 
 ing down, and instantly disappeared when he resumed 
 the erect position " (vol. 6., p. 166). 
 
 The explanation rendered is the very natural one, 
 that "the recumbent position facilitated the flow of 
 blood to the brain, and at the same time tended, in a 
 measure, to retard its exit. Hence, the appearance of 
 the figure was due to the resulting congestion. As soon 
 as the gentleman rose from bed the reverse condition 
 existed, the congestion disappeared and the apparition 
 went with it. " 
 
 Apparitions from this cause, at times, are accompa- 
 nied with the sensation of their tangibility — with the 
 ability to employ force, as sometimes occurs in dreams 
 when one undergoes an act of force administered upon 
 his person, possibly strong enough to wake him, and 
 from which he may have sensations of soreness follow- 
 ing into the waking state, — being the result of a specif- 
 ically directed mental shock as in the case of the bruised 
 fingers and ankle. And here is, opportunely, also, a case 
 
374 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 well illustrating this, though meant for a somewhat dif- 
 ferent purpose, cited by the same authority. He says : 
 
 "Mayo (in "Lessons on the Truths Contained in 
 Popular Superstitions, ") relates the case of a Herr von 
 Baczko, already subject to hallucinations, his right side 
 weak from paralysis, his right eye blind, and the vision 
 of the left imperfect, who, while one evening engaged in 
 translating a pamphlet into Polish, suddenly felt a poke 
 in his back. He turned round and discovered that it 
 proceeded from a negro or Egyptian boy, apparently 
 about twelve years of age. Although convinced that the 
 whole was an hallucination, he thought it best to knock 
 the apparition down, when he felt that it afforded a sen- 
 sible resistance. The boy then attacked him on the 
 other side and gave his left arm a peculiarly disagree- 
 able twist, when Baczko again pushed him off. The 
 negro continued to visit him constantly during four 
 months, preserving the same appearance and remaining 
 tangible, then he came seldomer, and finally appearing 
 as a brown colored apparition with an owl's head, he 
 took his leave " (ibid, p. 234). 
 
 Whatever may be the causes of the physical disturb- 
 ances, hallucinations of this character directly result 
 from them ; they come with them and with them also 
 disappear. 
 
 However, apparitions of the dead, not alone, are re- 
 ported, but also of the living; and why should they not? 
 Mr. Robert Dale Owen, a spiritualist, and yet a very 
 conservative, careful, and candid writer, in 1861 wrote 
 a work that circulated largely among thoughtful readers 
 of this country and England, in which we find the fol- 
 
CLAIMS OF INTERCOUESE. 375 
 
 lowing statement, taken from a lady, then residing in 
 Washington, and who was the daughter of a western 
 clergyman of well-known reputation. In every respect 
 it seems to be well authenticated. The lady relates two 
 such apparitions having taken place in one day at her 
 residence in Indiana, on the bank of the Ohio Eiver : 
 
 " On the 15th day of September, 1845," said Mrs. D., 
 "my younger sister, J., was married, and came with her 
 husband, Mr. H. M., to pass a portion of the honey- 
 moon in our pleasant retreat. On the 18th of the 
 same month, we all went, by invitation, to spend the day 
 at a friend's house about a mile distant. As twilight 
 came on, finding my two little ones growing restless, we 
 decided to return home. After waiting some time for 
 my sister's husband, who had gone off to pay a visit in 
 a neighboring village, saying he would return soon, we 
 set out without him. Arrived at home, my sister, who 
 occupied an upper room, telling me she would go and 
 change her walking dress, proceeded up stairs, while I 
 remained below to see my drowsy babes safe in bed. 
 The moon, I remember, was shining brightly at the time. 
 Suddenly, after a minute or two, my sister burst into 
 the room, ^vringing her hands in despair, and weeping 
 bitterly. *0h, sister, sister!' she exclaimed, *I shall 
 lose him, I know I shall ! Hugh is going to die ! ' In 
 the greatest astonishment, I inquired what was the 
 matter ; and then between sobs, she related to me the 
 cause of her alarm as follows : 
 
 " As she ran up stairs to their room she saw her hus- 
 band seated at the extremity of the upper veranda, his 
 hat on, a cigar in his mouth, and his feet on the railing, 
 
376 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 apparently enjoying the cool river breeze. Supposing, 
 of course, that he had returned before we did, she ap- 
 proached him, saying, ' Why, Hugh, when did you get 
 here ? Why did you not return and come with us ? ' As 
 he made no reply, she went up to him, and bride-like, 
 was about to put her arms around his neck, when, to 
 her horror, the figure was gone and the chair empty. * 
 
 * * It was not till more than two hours afterward, 
 when my brother-in-law actually returned, that she re- 
 sumed her tranquillity. 
 
 "Previous to this, however, — namely, about an hour 
 before Hugh's return, — while we were sitting in the 
 parlor on the lower floor, I saw a boy, some sixteen 
 years of age, look in at the door of the room. It was 
 a lad whom my husband employed to work in the gar- 
 den and about the house, and who, in his leisure hours, 
 used to take great delight in amusing my little son 
 Frank, of whom he was very fond. He was dressed as 
 was his wont, in a suit of blue summer cloth, with an 
 old palm-leaf hat without a band, and he advanced, in 
 his usual bashful way, a step or two into the room, then 
 stopped and looked around apparently in search of 
 something. Supposing he was looking for the children, 
 I said to him, * Frank is in bed, Silas, and asleep long 
 ago.' He did not reply, but, turning with a quiet smile 
 that was common to him, left the room, and I noticed from 
 the window, that he lingered near the outside door, 
 walking backward and forward before it once or twice. 
 
 * * * Shortly after, my husband, coming in, said, 
 *I wonder where Silas is? He must be somewhere 
 about.' I replied, * He was here a few minutes since, 
 and I spoke to him.' Thereupon Mr. D. went out and 
 
CLAIMS OF INTEECOUKSE. 377 
 
 called him, but no answer. He sought him all over the 
 premises, then in his room, but in vain. * * * At 
 breakfast he first made his appearance. * Where have 
 you been, Silas?' said Mr. D. The boy replied that 
 he had been *up on the island fishing.' 'But,' I said, 
 *you were here last night.' *0h, no,' he replied, with 
 the simple accent of truth. * Mr. D. gave me leave to 
 go fishing yesterday ; and I understood I need not re- 
 turn till this morning ; so I stayed away all night. I 
 have not been near here since yesterday morning.' 
 
 " I could not doubt the lad's word. He had no motive 
 for deceiving us. The island, of which he spoke, was 
 two miles distant from our house. * * 
 
 " It is proper I should add that my sister's impression 
 that the apparition of her husband foreboded death did 
 not prove true. He outlived her; and no misfortune 
 which could in any way connect with the appearance 
 happened in the family. Nor did Silas die ; nor, so far 
 as I know, did anything unusual happen to him " 
 (Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World, pp. 321, 
 324. — Lippincott & Co., Publishers). 
 
 What was the physical condition of such unusual 
 character, in which these sisters were for the time 
 affected so nearly alike, may not be easily determined ; 
 but the representations were so perfect in all respects as to 
 be indistinguishable from the real persons. No in- 
 stance of spirit visitation would be more unquestionable. 
 And yet that they were subjective, and not at all object- 
 ive, impressions, is too plain to be doubted. The sis- 
 ter followed an illusion of her own mental creation. 
 She had rushed toward an empty chair ; and the said 
 
378 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Mrs. D. addressed her words to empty space. When in 
 the shadowy evening the belated boy sees a stump or a 
 stone transformed into a crouching beast, the super- 
 added features there appearing to complete its form, are 
 but subjective facts of his own mind. 
 
 But there is another feature to be here considered — 
 one of no small importance to this whole matter — which 
 is that the same mental specter may at the same time 
 be apparent to quite a number. Dozens, hundreds, per- 
 haps thousands, may be quite instantaneously affected 
 in the same manner. The fact has variously been re- 
 ferred to, that mind to some extent acts directly on mind ; 
 that, as, by means of an element in common, magnets 
 exert force on each other, so minds are related and par- 
 take in some measure of each other's conception of 
 thought, — that the same mental image to which fancy 
 might excite one mind, might at once become com- 
 mon ; as all along the wire, to the open offices, the same 
 dispatch is simultaneously rattled off. Then, where 
 people are situated together in a humdrum, passive 
 sort of way, or in a way to make their senses and 
 feelings run together into a common channel, with some 
 measure of the realization of exclusiveness therewith, 
 as on ship-board, or in a military body, a long-con- 
 tinued one-sided meeting, or a mediumistic circle, such 
 phenomena would be properly expected to occur. In 
 this way, people of good minds might readily partake 
 of a delusion of a very surprising character. 
 
 Pacts of this character are not at all uncommon. 
 
CLAIMS OF INTERCOURSE. 379 
 
 Dr. D. H. Tuke, eminently trustworthy, is authority for 
 the following : 
 
 " A curious illustration of the influence of the im- 
 agination in magnifying the perceptions of sensorial im- 
 pressions derived from the outer world, occurred during 
 the conflagration of the Crystal Palace in the winter 
 of 1866-7. When the animals were destroyed, it was 
 supposed that the chimpanzee had succeeded in escap- 
 ing from his cage. Attracted to the roof with this ex- 
 pectation in full force, men saw the unhappy animal 
 holding on to it and writhing in agony to get astride 
 one of the iron ribs. It need not be said that its strug- 
 gles were watched by those below with breathless sus- 
 pense, as the newspapers informed us, with ' sickening 
 dread.* But there was no animal whatever there, and 
 all this feeling was thrown away upon a tattered piece 
 of blind, so torn as to resemble, to the eye of fancy, the 
 body, arms and legs of an ape " (Illustrations of the 
 Influence of the Mind upon the Body, etc., London, p. 
 44). 
 
 Another illustration is given in a fact cited by Dr. Hib- 
 bert, of Edinburgh. I quote it, also, from Dr. Hammond. 
 It is from a statement by a sea captain of Newcastle- 
 upon-Tyne, and is as follows : 
 
 " His cook, " he said, " chanced to die on their pas- 
 sage homeward. The honest fellow having had one of 
 his legs a little shorter than the other, used to walk in 
 that way which our vulgar idiom calls *up and down.' 
 A few nights after his body had been committed to the 
 deep, our captain was alarmed by his mate with an ac- 
 count that the cook was walking before the ship, and 
 
380 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 that all hands were on deck to see him. The captain 
 after an oath or two for having been disturbed, ordered 
 them to let him alone and try which, the ship or he, 
 should first get to Newcastle. But turning out on 
 further importunity, he honestly confessed that he had 
 like to have caught the contagion, for, on seeing some- 
 thing move in a way so similar to that his old friend 
 used, and withal having a cap on so like that he was 
 wont to wear, he verily thought there was more in the 
 report than he was at first willing to believe. A gen- 
 eral panic diffused itself. He ordered the ship to be 
 steered toward the object, but not a man would move 
 the helm. Compelled to do this himself, he found on a 
 nearer approach, that the ridiculous cause of all their 
 terror was a part of a main-top, the remains of some 
 wreck floating before them " (Nervous Derangements, 
 pp. 237, 238) 
 
 An Italian writer relates the assembling of a crowd 
 of people on the streets of Florence to see an angel 
 hovering in the sky ; which was found to be merely a 
 gilded figure of an angel mounted above the dome of 
 a church. A mist had somewhat obscured the dome 
 itself, while above it the sun was reflecting on the image. 
 
 A similar and very remarkable event of this charac- 
 ter is also given in this connection by Dr. Hammond, 
 and credited to the celebrated French physician, M. 
 Parent, who died in 1836. The account is taken from 
 Laurent in his own words substantially as follows : 
 
 " The first battalion of the regiment of Latour d'Au- 
 vergne, of which I was surgeon-major, while in garrison 
 at Palmi in Calabria, received orders to march at once 
 
CLAIMS OF INTEKCOUKSE. 381 
 
 to Tropea in order to oppose the landing from a fleet 
 which threatened that part of the country. * * * 
 When they reached Tropea they found their camp ready 
 and their quarters prepared, but as the battalion had 
 come from the farthest point and was the last to arrive, 
 they were assigned the worst barracks, and thus eight 
 hundred men were lodged in a place which, in ordinary 
 times, would not have sufficed for half their number. 
 They were crowded together on straw placed on the 
 ground and, being without covering, were unable to un- 
 dress. The building in which they were placed was an 
 old, abandoned abbey, and the inhabitants had pre- 
 dicted that they would not be able to stay there all 
 night in peace, as it was frequented by ghosts, which 
 had disturbed other regiments quartered there. We 
 laughed at their credulity ; but what was our surprise 
 to hear about midnight the most fearful cries proceeding 
 from every comer of the abbey, and to see the soldiers 
 rushing terrified from the building. I questioned them 
 in regard to the cause of their alarm, and all replied 
 that the devil lived in the building, and that they had 
 seen him enter by an opening, into their room, under 
 the figure of a very large dog with long black hair, and 
 throwing himself upon their chests for an instant, had 
 disappeared through another opening in the opposite 
 side of the apartment. We laughed at their conster- 
 nation, and endeavored to prove to them the phenom- 
 enon was due to a very simple and natural cause and 
 was only the effect of their imagination ; but we failed 
 to convince them, nor could we persuade them to return 
 to their barracks. They passed the night scattered 
 along the sea-shore, and in various parts of the town. 
 
382 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 In the morning I questioned anew the non-commissioned 
 officers and some of the oldest soldiers. They assured 
 me that they were not accessible to fear ; that they did 
 not believe in dreams or ghosts, but that they were fully 
 persuaded that they had not been deceived in respect to 
 the events of the preceding night. They said that they 
 had not fallen asleep when the dog appeared, that they 
 had obtained a good view of him, and that they were 
 almost suffocated when he leaped on their breasts. 
 
 " We remained all day at Tropea, and the town being 
 full of troops we were forced to retain the same bar- 
 racks, but we could not make the soldiers sleep in them 
 again without our promise that we would pass the night 
 with them. I went there at half past eleven with the 
 commanding of&cer; the other officers were, more for 
 curiosity's sake than anything else, distributed in the 
 several rooms. We scarcely expected to witness a repe- 
 tition of the events of the preceding night, for the sol- 
 diers had gone to sleep reassured by the presence of 
 their officers who remained awake. But at about one 
 o'clock in all the rooms at the same time, the cries of 
 the previous night were repeated, and again the soldiers 
 rushed out to escape the suffocating embraces of the 
 big black dog. We had all remained awake watching 
 for what might happen, but, as may be supposed, had 
 seen nothing" (Nervous Derangement, pp. 239, 240). 
 
 In this case the minds of the eight hundred, or nearly 
 so, were merged into a oneness of mental sensibility — 
 into a common medium of mental sense and activity, 
 so that the same specter would be created, and alike 
 deported, in all these minds in the same instant of time. 
 
CLAIMS OF INTERCOUESE. 383 
 
 In aU the departments of the house the dog was the 
 same, and each man had the same horrible hug from 
 him. In one instance when, as the men protested, they 
 were awake, in the other when they were asleep ; which, 
 however, could be of no consequence. But the officers, 
 who were socially separate and not included in this fu- 
 sion of mind, were not hallucinated — did not see nor 
 feel the dog. That it was a nightmare, as the doctors 
 concluded, may be true enough so far as that definition 
 goes ; but the only fact of interest remains thereby un- 
 explained, and may be explained only on the principle 
 I have been setting forth, here and elsewhere, and of 
 which it is a capital illustration. 
 
 This principle of hallucination, if the necessary facts 
 eould be obtained, would, with hardly a doubt, supply 
 a ready explanation to many of the chief wonders of 
 " physical phenomena " in alleged spirit intercourse ; 
 while, in the imposition of fraud, by parties capable of 
 establishing its conditions, its application would often 
 supply an indispensable help. Under proper conditions, 
 (into which any one who is an honest investigator may 
 drift, provided his temperamental make-up is of the req- 
 uisite impressibility), without regard to education and 
 integrity, it spares no one. 
 
 Mr. Kobert Dale Owen, previously cited, a well-known 
 American author and statesman, and a man of special 
 integrity and of a careful, conservative nature, it will be 
 remembered, was made a victim of delusion in the 
 " Katie King " affair in Philadelphia a few years ago. 
 A quite detailed report of these interviews with " Katie " 
 
384 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 was published in the Atlantic Monthly for January, 
 1875, over Mr. Owen's own signature. The interviews 
 — "forty memorable sittings " — ^were held in the previous 
 June and July, and were , attended by his friend, Dr. 
 Child, and quite a number of others. At these seances, 
 many " materializations " besides those of " Katie "^ 
 were exhibited from the cabinet ; some of whom were 
 immediately recognized by parties present. But always 
 the same appearances were recognized by all in the 
 same way, as in case of any ordinary exhibition. What 
 transpired was, indeed, most marvelous. At one time, 
 Mr. 0. was invited by " Katie " to cut off a lock of her 
 hair, which she had separated with her own fingers. In 
 a short time, however, the ringlet so removed by Mr. 0. 
 dissolved from view. For the benefit of other parties, 
 she, taking the scissors herself, cut bits from her dress 
 and veil, whereof the openings presently disappeared 
 and the garments were whole again. She repeatedly 
 walked out of the cabinet in the presence of all ; at 
 times advancing and touching them, and imprinting a 
 kiss. "Once," says Mr. Owen, — "and for the last 
 time that evening — she emerged from the cabinet, came 
 quietly close up to me, extending a hand. I passed my 
 left arm gently round her, and sustained her left arm, bare 
 from the elbow, in my right hand. To the touch her 
 garments and person were exactly like those of an 
 eartKly creature." 
 
 Still further he says of anothei' sitting : " This even- 
 ing, having observed that * Katie ' delighted in flowers, I 
 handed her a large calla lily. She smelt it, exclaiming : 
 
CLAIMS OF INTERCOUBSE. 385 
 
 * What a cJiarming odor ! ' Each time that evening when 
 she issued from the cabinet, she carried the flower in 
 her hand. I begged her, if she could, to repeat for us 
 the phenomenon of disappearance, and had placed my- 
 self so that I could see her entire person without the in- 
 tervention of any part of the cabinet front. It is an 
 era in one's life, when one witnesses, in perfection, this 
 marvelous manifestation. * Katie' stood on the very 
 threshold of the cabinet, directly in front of me, and 
 scarcely nine feet distant. I saw her, with absolute 
 distinctness, from head to foot, during all the time she 
 gradually faded out and re-appeared. The head disap- 
 peared a little before the rest of her form, and the feet 
 and lower part of the drapery remained visible after the 
 body and the cross she wore had vanished. But the 
 lily was to be seen, suspended in the air, several seconds 
 after the hand which held it was gone ; then it vanished, 
 last of all. When the figure re-appeared, that lily 
 showed itself in advance of all else, at first like a bright 
 crystal, about eighteen inches from the floor ; but grad- 
 ually rising and assuming the lily shape as the hand 
 which held it, and the form to which that hand belonged, 
 first shimmered and then brightened into view. In less 
 than a minute after the re-appearance commenced, 
 Katie issued from the cabinet in full beauty, bearing the 
 lily in her right hand, with the cross on her bosom, and 
 arrayed in the self-same costume previously worn ; then, 
 coming toward us, she saluted the circle with all her 
 wonted grace. I am not sure whether we have on 
 record, any account of the vanishing and re- appearance, 
 
 25 
 
CSG CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 in the light, of physical objects ; at least any example 
 where it was observed so closely and in such perfection 
 as this. During the sitting of July 10, ' Katie ' allowed 
 us again to witness this phenomenon ; and, on that oc- 
 casion, a bouquet which she held in her hand vanished 
 and re-appeared, as the lily and the cross had done. " 
 
 Another feature of a no less interesting character was 
 seen in a subsequent sitting, and related by Mr. 0. as 
 follows : " During this and the sitting of June 12, the 
 re-appearance seemed to be effected in a somewhat mod- 
 ified way. The form came into view first as a sort 
 of dwarfed or condensed Katie, not over eighteen inches 
 high ; then the figure appeared to be elongated, almost 
 as a pocket telescope is drawn to its full length, till the 
 veritable Katie, not a fold of her shining raiment dis- 
 arranged, stood in full stature before us. * * * 
 Another phenomenon, that of levitation, which we wit- 
 nessed during the sitting of July 12, and on four or five 
 other occasions, recalled some of the old paintings of the 
 transfiguration. Within the cabinet, but in full view, 
 we saw Katie's entire form — her graceful garments lit- 
 erally * white as the light ' — suspended in mid-air. I ob- 
 served that she gently moved hands and feet, as a 
 swimmer, upright in the water, might. She remained 
 thus, each time, from ten to fifteen seconds." 
 
 These delectable pictures, by mere sensuous evidence 
 of spirit intercourse unsurpassed, were, no doubt, of 
 exquisite enjoyment ; and would have been so, to many, 
 though known to be delusions. After having written 
 the article and forwarded it, Mr. Owen was made ac- 
 
CLAIMS OF INTERCOURSE. 387 
 
 quainted with the fact of a fraud being at the bottom 
 of the performances, fully confessed ; when, with proper 
 integrity, he telegraphed the publishers to withhold it, 
 and, being too late, sent a counter-statement to the 
 public through the dailies. 
 
 If the delusions were most remarkable, it is to be 
 remembered that the conditions, too, were extraordina- 
 rily favorable. Much of this time spent away from the 
 common aspect of the world, with their continuously, 
 for weeks, drifting more and more intimately into one 
 idea, and expectant of the same general class of ob- 
 jective appearances, and in view of what is possible and 
 more or less at all times transpiring, it is not at all 
 surprising that these should have been subjectively 
 impressed with the same images — should have seen 
 the same "Katie," the same flowers, draperies and 
 movements — heard the same voice and words, etc., etc. ; 
 as the Londoners saw the same distressed monkey ; the 
 Florentines, the same mid-heaven soaring angel; and 
 the soldiers, the same spectral dog. 
 
 EVIL SPIEITS, ETC. 
 
 But these phenomena, however, derived from the 
 same principle, are to be regarded as wholly different 
 from that of inspiration or of mental intercourse ; from 
 the fact that their conditions place them beyond the 
 direct control of the will. And it may here be added 
 that to influences of this character — involuntary and 
 unconscious emanations of mind, more or less necessary 
 to all its activities, indifferently drifting off upon this 
 
388 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 adjacent mental atmosphere, and becoming lodged upon 
 a mind with a physical organism, with the liability of 
 being unadapted thereto, and thus being transformed in 
 ihe organism into vicious insanities — might at times be 
 due those peculiar disturbances that apparently imply 
 the presence of an external vicious spirit, as demoniacal 
 possession, and witchcrafts, of the past, and the pos- 
 session of mediums by low spirits — as is often alleged — 
 in our day ; — there being at the same time, no external 
 spirit directly concerned, while, too, the mind from 
 whom the influence unconsciously drifted away, might 
 be immaculately pure. But the principles of ordinary in- 
 sanity sufficiently cover all such cases, without refer- 
 ence to agencies from another sphere. 
 
 TRANCE MEDIUMS. 
 
 And here, before closing under this head, a word at 
 least requires to be said in respect to the claims of in- 
 tercourse through trance- speaking mediums ; though the 
 trance medium and the somnambulist so commonly rep- 
 resent the same class of phenomena, as to rarely, if 
 ever, require separate classification. That thoughts 
 from the other world to this, may sometimes find favor- 
 able conditions of this character, is, of course, possible. 
 But the occasional brilliancies displayed, that render the 
 claim that these are influenced from the other world, 
 plausible with some, are not worthy of reliance. 
 
 So far as I have seen, thought produced in that state 
 is so aimless and little connected as to indicate epileptic 
 brain actions. But, aside from the notoriety, little im- 
 
CLAIMS OF INTEECOURSE, 389 
 
 portance can be attached to such operations at best. 
 The productions generally might well be inferior to 
 those of their own sober efforts. 
 
 We have, however, seen that minds from the other 
 world sustain such relation to those of this, that, with 
 the average, as they live and die, there are conditions, 
 though seldom, where tangible intercourse would be 
 possible and to be expected ; and it may mingle with the 
 class of phenomena we have just been considering. In- 
 numerable diamonds, in dimensions of dust, may be 
 scattered throughout all the sand-fields of the globe ; 
 but of Kohinoors, the world exhumed, might not sup- 
 ply a dozen. 
 
 Profane history is not without instances, unavoidably 
 told, of definite mental presentiments and counsels, of 
 great interest, that to mere human means of discern- 
 ment were quite impossible. The career of Joan of 
 Arc, with the divinations of coming events in her mili- 
 tary career against the English in France, her being 
 directed by " voices " from minds of superior military 
 ability, that she came to the field of war an unlettered 
 peasant girl from the wild interior, are as truly matters 
 of history as are the campaigns of Napoleon. 
 
 SPIRIT INTERCOURSE AS PERTAINING TO THE BIBLE. 
 
 In these manifestations, as they occur in the common 
 course of human events, there is noticeably little 
 unity of conception or of motive, — no general policy nor 
 plan, nor common objective end. They mainly pertain 
 to local and individual affairs and are of a temporal 
 
390 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 character, and not, therefore, attributable to any 
 forecasting, general order of management, nor to any 
 highly attained individual mind. The opposite of this 
 is manifest in that which pertains to the Biblical record. 
 Over those thousands of years the prophecies and 
 teachings from this source, have maintained the most 
 inflexible adherence to the same theology, anthropology, 
 and ethics, the same motive and objective end. On those 
 ever changeful human nature could make no impression. 
 The last and the first of this long line of prophets, 
 seers and apostles, were in essentials in strict accord as 
 to their teaching and manner of life. To maintain this 
 unity through all these ages, against continuous circum- 
 stances so strongly hostile, and when the best human 
 elements of the times were mentally and morally so 
 unequal to their appreciation, required an immense 
 mental force of high order, to be continually applied. 
 Besides, the principles which they taught and the spirit 
 that mainly characterized those recognized on this roll, 
 were such as are at this greatly advanced day, by our 
 best mmds, being pronounced unsurpassed. 
 
 Such, then, is plainly a phenomenon, and due to a 
 corresponding cause — an agency of unlimited suprem- 
 acy over both man and his environments, actuated by a 
 vast motive of beneficence to the race ; from earliest 
 times maintaining a moral light and life-giving princi- 
 ple in the world that should unfold the civilization that 
 now is and that which is to come. And that the means 
 of intercourse, found in readiness existing in the nature 
 of things, as we have seen, when they were or could be 
 
CLAIMS OF INTERCOURSE. 891 
 
 made sufl&cient therefor, should have been employed in 
 all this, were more reasonable than to suppose special 
 ones needlessly to have been extemporized. Hence, that 
 indications of epilepsy, catalepsy, trance, etc., should 
 be discovered to have characterized the deportment of 
 even the most celebrated of these in their times of 
 prophesying, etc., as scientific writers have claimed, 
 were properly to be expected ; and could detract noth- 
 ing from the highest estimate placed upon their mission. 
 Also, that certain alleged necromancies and divinations, 
 then widely prevalent, were strictly forbidden by these, 
 when they themselves held intercourse with angels, is 
 no evidence of a purpose to monopolize the intercourse 
 between the two worlds, but of the false character of 
 these pretensions, and their tendency to evil in com- 
 munity. 
 
 And, lastly, there is really no call for belief that any 
 of the angelic visitations recorded in the Bible, were in 
 character such as not to come under the law that per- 
 sonal appearances or other demonstrations of spirit 
 presence, are alone by mental impressions from that 
 world, fixed upon the minds or physical substances of 
 this world. However striking and real their appear- 
 ance among men in the flesh, they could not have per- 
 sonally disappeared from their own world to which, 
 necessarily, they are allied by senses as we are to this. 
 
CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 Approximate Analysis of Keal Life in the Land Im- 
 mortal. — Changes that are Possible; that are 
 Probable; that are Improbable; that are Impossi- 
 ble. — Bodily State and Advantages. — Death and 
 " Old Age " Abolished. — Palpable Surroundings. — 
 Eecognitions, Eeunions and Companionships. — Edu- 
 cation AND Worship. 
 
 AS to the first meaning of that wonderful word^ 
 " Self " — of the conditions, and their philosophy, 
 that underlie and form into " Self, " our ignorance, with- 
 out the trace of a hope, must be as enduring as our ex- 
 istence. But happily after its institution, the laws that 
 determine its qualities, necessities, possibilities and des- 
 tinies, are as securely in hand as is the simplest princi- 
 ple in nature ; and what parts of them our understanding 
 has not yet fully traced, are, with a fixed certainty, of 
 the ever interesting order of " the knowable unknown, " 
 
 In respect to the aspects of life in the coming exist- 
 ence, many of the details must remain unknown till 
 those sceneries shall directly fall upon us through the 
 new organs for our senses, which, taking the place of 
 these now relating us with this existence, shall locate us 
 in that. It must, also, be considered that on arriving 
 
 392 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMORTAL. 393 
 
 there, all may realize, perhaps, prominent expectations 
 unfulfilled. 
 
 CHANGES THAT ARE POSSIBLE. 
 
 As to changes that are possible in the next world, 
 considered with respect to this, the general fact that 
 has already been referred to, may be noted, that in 
 the higher order of substance, passive elements may well 
 reveal themselves in a greater variety of characters and 
 uses. In this fact, mainly or alone, could we look for 
 changes or the cause of changes that are not to be an- 
 ticipated and defined from this state. And these, in 
 class, can only be few, and without influence upon the 
 radical nature of life itself. They are only of environment, 
 over which life's own conservative laws are, throughout, 
 finally supreme. The forces of those superior passive 
 elements or environments might, if essentially the same, 
 be still differently balanced, and correspondingly affect 
 the mode and the aspect of their existence. For ex- 
 ample, the densities and gravities might, by that means, 
 vary from those of ours. And how soon a not very 
 great change in respect to these in ours, might cause a 
 material shifting in the modes of existence here below. 
 Our mineral environment of the present state is as it is 
 by the mere fact that the invested forces are, in just 
 this way, balancing each other. The major part of it 
 (so far at least as our world is concerned) is sufficiently 
 dense to be relatively fixed and firm, of which forms 
 derived from it are to quite an extent stable and con- 
 tinuous ; which is a matter quite essential to the devel- 
 
394 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 opment of individual being; mentally as well as bodily. 
 But much of it, too, is fluid ; and much is volitant, to 
 an unlimited extent. One part of these is rolling in the 
 external cavities of the earth, too heavy and fixed to rise ; 
 another is drifting in the form of clouds, resting on the 
 bosoms of atmospheric strata — mountain ranges, in a 
 state of nebulae. Other forms are constituting the at- 
 mosphere, with its burden of impalpable dusts and 
 gases, extending over all one continuous envelope, and 
 reaching out into the inaccessible ethers above. 
 
 With a not very great change of temperature modify- 
 ing their forces, in some of these substances the change 
 would be quite important. Let it be the water for ex- 
 ample: and a not very great increase of the general 
 heat would transform all the oceans into vapor ; or if 
 it were a decrease, they would be beds of ice-rock. 
 Should, by some circumstance, the same relaxation to 
 the forces of this element take place without the agency 
 of heat, rendering essentially the same results, and, to 
 many classes of animals, life would become impossible 
 or their modes of being would be greatly changed, with 
 transformations of their organisms. But suppose, on 
 the same principle, that some fact of nature should 
 transpire by which the gravity of atmospheric air would 
 be increased to nearly equal that of water, what un- 
 thought-of changes might not then take place in the 
 matter of locomotion ; seemingly, without much incon- 
 veniencing any of the orders of life now existing? 
 Water-breathing and air-breathing animals would, gen- 
 erally, be restricted to their several elements only so far 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMORTAL. 395 
 
 as would be necessary for nourishment, or to suit the 
 sense of congeniality. Man, himself, with little more 
 effort than is required for his ascending the water, 
 could, also, ascend the air. 
 
 While we can well see how in our world such an ar- 
 rangement would be greatly inferior to the one existing, 
 — that much greater would be the impurities of the at- 
 mosphere, and that less of inspiring beauties would be 
 possible, we may safely judge that in a higher order of 
 substance, through a more perfect adjustment of ele- 
 ments in normal relation with each other, the tendency 
 would be to increase fixedness and to render the separa- 
 tion of extremes more wide and complete. Hence, there 
 would be less antagonism and more reciprocity in the 
 forces. And hence, with all the elements in greater purity 
 and completeness of adjustment, there, also, would be 
 a greater stability of their modes and greater freedom, 
 by which they would be more available to the vital 
 agents, and be subject to greater variety of arrange- 
 ment of whatever character. 
 
 In these, then, we see indicated, though not specif- 
 ically defined, not alone changes that are possible, but 
 that are, also, probable. That is, in the very nature of 
 these facts, as to substance, it becomes quite necessary to 
 foresee modifications in the future body of nature, harmon- 
 izing with those provisions. And added to this, as a matter 
 of course, must follow the consideration that the en- 
 vironment will carry its peculiarities into the appoint- 
 ments of the future body for man. Considering, again, 
 for a moment, as to how the embodiment of self is 
 
396 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 effected here, we see that, first and last, it is achieved 
 by assimilating forces working involuntarily and in- 
 sensibly upon surrounding material substances, bringing 
 them into the required combination. Eeference to those 
 forces, by way of consciousness, is had alone by the 
 sense of hunger excited along the preliminary passages 
 of food, calling for the substances they require. This 
 hunger to appease, we place the desired aliment into the 
 passages, out of which it is taken and placed in position. 
 Now, the assimilation of substances into requisite 
 bodily form, is in any state unavoidable. But the same 
 mode of access to the required substances may not be 
 always necessary. Artificial arrangements for its pro- 
 curing may not always be required. And the breaking 
 of bulk by an internal chemistry is in some conceiva- 
 ble cases unnecessary. Water and salt, though of em- 
 inent service to the economy, undergo no digestion, but 
 pass in required measures directly on to their destinations. 
 Oxygen, in large quantities, is partaken of independently 
 of the alimentary system, by the great endosmotic filter 
 of the lungs, and by the same organ, exosmotically, is its 
 effete product eliminated. And at times when the 
 stomach is insufficient for its function, oleaginous food, 
 in considerable amounts, is taken through the skin, by 
 its being externally laid on ; and through that organ in 
 return, is much of the worn-out material cast away. 
 
 Apparently, then, it is from the low and unrefined or- 
 der of the environing substance, that the spacious in- 
 ternal organs for receiving and dissolving massive ag- 
 gregates, are called for, in our present embodiments. 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMORTAL. 397 
 
 Then, in so far as this, and in whatever is dependent 
 thereon, change is probable in the appointments of the 
 future body. And however there may be, in respect to 
 minor matters, other changes in it, in no other respect 
 is there any so probable as in that which concerns the 
 means of subsisting it from its surrounding elements. 
 
 The same principle, too, might be expected to apply 
 to individuals of lower forms of life, should they appear. 
 This is rendered probable from the necessity of the ex- 
 istence of more direct and immediate adjustment, and 
 the more ready subservience to adjacent higher forces 
 on the part of elements of a higher order ; as is fore- 
 seen of the elements of our present surrounding, when 
 they shall be more advanced on the route to that ulti- 
 mate harmony of their primal parts, toward which all 
 their unceasing movements under our eyes are tending 
 to finally bring them. Then, too, from this it would 
 seem probable that bodily subsistence might be more by 
 involuntary processes, and of less tax on time and the 
 mental energies. 
 
 But, let the changes in the new condition be these or 
 any others which this line of facts might legitimately 
 suggest, there need be no regrets in their anticipation. 
 In neither of the changes that our bodies have under- 
 gone in the natural way from childhood up, though 
 quite numerous, has our estate of happiness suffered 
 depreciation. From them has come no inconvenience, 
 unless it has been from their worn-out condition in old 
 age. In early infancy the thymus gland is a large, active 
 and highly necessary organ, which with age wholly dis- 
 
398 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 appears, as the need of it is discontinued by the arrival 
 of new conditions. But in parting with the old and en- 
 tering upon the new form of organism, nothing is seen 
 to indicate any change in the sense of sameness in -self 
 or in the tenor of enjoyments. 
 
 CHANGES THAT ARE IMPROBABLE. 
 
 Under this head a few general facts will cover all that 
 it will be of importance to refer to. It will be improb- 
 able that that existence will be changed from an es- 
 sentially cosmical or world-like character and aspect. 
 However widely sundered one order of substance may 
 lie from another, from the requirements of its being, 
 certain facts found in one must exist in respect to the 
 other. To its parts there must be an underlying same- 
 ness, co-equality, and adherence, in order to have ex- 
 pression at the same plane of being. These facts in 
 passive substance, — substance, which, for its special 
 placement or direction, depends on the impingements of 
 vitality in some form — ^will, necessarily, establish its ex- 
 tension in space, not alone, but also its gravitation, 
 with oscillations occasioned by the diversity of the special 
 elemental qualities or parts, comprehended by this un- 
 derlying sameness. Then, densities, fixities, shapes 
 and all the essential properties and habits of substances, 
 seen in our world and determined by the same basic 
 facts, are belonging to the next existence, also, — if pas- 
 sive substance of any form shall have representation 
 there; which the presence of the ever-continuing ra- 
 tional mind, requiring this aspect of being for food, 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMORTAL. 399 
 
 seemingly makes a necessity. As these are mental re- 
 quirements, it is in the highest degree improbable that 
 substance of this character should be discontinued from 
 the mind in all its unending future. That we should, 
 then, at any time in all our unending career in a spirit- 
 ual existence, find our surroundings to impress us as 
 materially unlike a body of nature — a world — a uni- 
 verse of worlds, is to be set down as highly improbable. 
 Besides, considerations of number, figure, relatively, 
 etc., are inseparable from all forms of thought or men- 
 tal procedure. And these can find no prompting ex- 
 pressions in a nature outside of the mind, but in 
 substance of this character. Hence, the ever growing 
 mind may never lay this book of nature aside. 
 
 We now come from this to the next general fact in 
 order in considering the improbable in place of the prob- 
 able: Again that of our embodiment in that world. 
 A probable modification has been arrived at. But an 
 essential unlikeness in form and feature the facts im- 
 port as improbable. For substantial reasons, the or- 
 ganism as to form, uses, and aspect, cannot be expected 
 to differ very essentially from that of this world, when 
 here it is in its complete and normal state. Self is con- 
 stituted in definitely characterized forces determining 
 the type of being, which can be no less fixed and en- 
 during in the character of their arrangement, than is 
 the being itself. These forces, too, necessarily give 
 character to form in harmony with that arrangement. 
 And this type, as has been seen, is prior to the embodi- 
 
400 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ment. It shapes the external body on the internal 
 pattern. 
 
 In the lower forms of substance these forces are nec- 
 essarily more hampered, and, in their results, more de- 
 fective, — deviating into physical excesses in some parts 
 and into deficiencies in others, — possibly into " mimic " 
 developments in some instances, and in others where the 
 circumstances call for such, into the formation of tem- 
 porary organs. But as is seen of the vegetable, that 
 the embodiment is more perfect where the conditions 
 for its proper development are more fully present, 
 what change of our bodily form would be occasioned 
 by the presence of a higher order of elements, could 
 only be to that which would be more pleasing — to more 
 symmetry and harmony. 
 
 And still further, it is to be noted that the existing 
 functions of the several senses will depend on embodi- 
 ment in proper organs, to bring them into correspond- 
 ence with that future body of nature, — that these must 
 be from the elements of that nature itself, of which the 
 similarity of properties might well render those organs 
 faithful reminders of their earthly predecessors. Em- 
 bodiment is, hence, not only a necessity, but at least a 
 close, recognizable resemblance is equally a necessity. 
 And among the improbabilities, in respect to that state, 
 will be the loss of the bodily means of recognizing those 
 previously known. In corroboration of this, we may 
 further note that in the properties so determined upon 
 in respect to that inner body of nature, are provided 
 all the conditions that are known to us as necessary to 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMOBTAL. 401 
 
 sound, light, and heat — temperature. Then organs of 
 vision and of hearing, as well as the organic arrange- 
 ment for general sensibility, are called for, — to which 
 we may safely add the remainder of the list of the 
 sense arrangements pertaining to our present existence, 
 as they, also, refer to material conditions embraced in 
 the generalizations named. 
 
 As truly as the lobster puts forth a new claw in place 
 of the one removed, the dog would replace the missing 
 foot on the airy part at which he vainly licks, and the 
 man would replace with a new one, the amputated arm, 
 removed from the one he still feels is there, if these 
 were as closely related with this order of passive sub- 
 stance as is the lobster. That not being the case, 
 which can be the only reason, the forces of these sensa- 
 tions of the limbs still existing, subjective though they 
 may be, as claimed by some, might well be expected to 
 find the processes of reclothing themselves available in 
 a higher order of substance. 
 
 CHANGES THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE. 
 
 These, likewise, for the present, it will be sufficient to 
 refer to in but a few particulars. It may well be be- 
 lieved that while passive substance is all the time shift- 
 ing into new relations, change in the nature of the ele- 
 ments themselves is a permanent impossibility. And 
 all existences that are continued into the next state, if 
 they are favored with the same liberty, wiU acquit them- 
 selves of the same deportment. When, therefore, we 
 have seen the rational mind in one world, we have seen 
 it for all worlds wherein the liberty is the same. 
 
402 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 In the world of most restraint we must see it in less 
 of itself ; while still by its shifting therein from one con- 
 dition to another, it fails not to display its nature suffi- 
 ciently well to be safely judged of in respect to its 
 endowments, and its character and aspect when existing 
 at its best, and which must be its final attainment. 
 
 Speaking of the rational mind, necessarily includes 
 all its co-attributes of sentiment — the various affectibns, 
 and the moral, reverential, and religious senses, which 
 are found with that order of mind alone. And in the 
 existence of these, as of mind, must be included their 
 requirements and the essential modes of their gratifica- 
 tion and enlargement. So that likewise when we see 
 man with these in one world we see him so in all worlds 
 wherein his nature has equal freedom. 
 
 In short, then, that man should appear in the next 
 world, the embodiment of a nature that is not that of his 
 present, with the sentiments and tendencies not the 
 same, so far as the conditions might be the same, is, 
 from a human standpoint of view, impossible. Should 
 the conditions of that world be more favorable to his 
 nature than are the present, then, too, would his best 
 estate in this, the most completely represent his state 
 in the next, and the dispositions and demeanors of life 
 at its best in this world, would be the most perfect ex- 
 hibition to be seen on earth, of what is his real life in 
 the Land Immortal. 
 
 That the conditions of the next world are in advance 
 of those pertaining to this, need not here be re-argued. 
 That it lies in advance on the line of our progress — our 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMORTAL. 403 
 
 mental and all sentient enlargement — and is placed to 
 meet the needs of our coming growth, is sufficient. The 
 thinking mind recognizes no requirement of proof more 
 conclusive. Hence, the first general fact that strikes 
 the realizing sense is that in all respects life is by the 
 change raised to greater advantages and will display 
 more of its real self. So, then, in proceeding to give 
 an approximate view of life beyond the tomb, we have 
 to proceed to answer the question as to what might be 
 the indication of life at its best. The extreme classes of 
 mankind point oppositely. The low barbarian regards 
 his the favored class and state, and points with deep 
 disdain to the civilized state of life, as one of wide de- 
 parture from the simple and the true, while his more 
 enlightened brother is deploring that state, and striving 
 to raise him to his own. Generally there is an agree- 
 ment of the civilized or partially civilized, that what is 
 comporting with the Christianity of the gospel, is life at 
 its best. At any rate, that which would be the most in- 
 telligent, just, benevolent, and refined would be regarded 
 as such. If leaving unconsidered the adaptations to the 
 spiritual, these would be agreed upon by less believing 
 men of science, as life at its best. 
 
 But all nature sets forth that growth of all the con- 
 stituent parts, in harmony, is necessary to attainment 
 toward the perfected — the uppermost state. The un- 
 grown plant is by none regarded at its best. Neither 
 when growth has been confined to but a part of its 
 structure, leaving others unmatured. To this principle, 
 all must agree that man is no exception. But to this 
 
404 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE.. 
 
 there is still another criterion to be added, which may be, 
 besides, a help in determining when all of man is in- 
 cluded in the growth — the enlargement. 
 
 Measures of force are to be consulted. With the most 
 attainment, in whatever department of being, resides 
 the most power, — ^from it proceeds the greater — the 
 most overmastering — influence over the elements of its 
 kind. From the less, in the given time, only less could 
 proceed. Then in tracing the forces that have influ- 
 enced, not the greatest number of individuals, but the 
 greatest aggregate of mind, the clue will lead, neces- 
 sarily, to the minds or mind of the greatest attainment. 
 In our age the aggregate of mind is immense over all 
 other ages ; and its special development, and where it 
 rises above all contrast with the remainder of the 
 world, and completely overpowers it, is abruptly lim- 
 ited with the communities where the popular mind is 
 brought most directly facing the open gospels, — ^where, 
 by the minds holding chief control over the great mass, 
 an almost universal deference is shown to the central 
 character in those gospels. The control seen in this 
 deference has not been attained, and is not continued 
 without force of the requisite nature. If the force con- 
 sists in purely ideas, then, as we know, ideas through- 
 out have not the same measure of force ; and the differ- 
 ence must be founded on a corresponding difference in 
 the measures of power possessed by the minds issuing 
 them ; which would determine the most attained mind 
 to be that of Jesus in the gospels. But deference is 
 equally if not more to the life, than ideas of Jesus. 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMORTAL. 405 
 
 Then, again, the effect of this life is achieved by force 
 of a requisite nature ; and that from other lives equal 
 effects are not following, is only from the fact that in 
 measures of this force they are not his equals; and 
 that, in attainment, the life of Jesus is in the same 
 measure transcendent over theirs. He may be regarded 
 as merely human or as superhuman, it is the same, so 
 far as this law is concerned. 
 
 Next in reigning influence over the same lives, have 
 been and are his immediate disciples — the Apostles — 
 who are deferred to next to him. And always, circum- 
 stances being equal, the one who is the most nearly the 
 Jesus type of life, is the one having the largest influ- 
 ence on the body of mankind. But so commonly are 
 the operations of this force beneath the face of affairs, 
 that, by the common mind, its magnitude is not seen. 
 It is, however, ascertained, and, by the duly reflective, 
 may not be doubted. What the influence of a super- 
 ficial storm is to that of an ocean- deep tidal wave, is 
 that of Caesar to that of Paul, on the human world. 
 And, always, influence is force, derived from adequate 
 sources. The disparity of their effects but denotes the 
 disparity of the attainments of these two great lives of 
 history. 
 
 Then it were necessary to conclude that what Jesus 
 and Paul in theory and life recognized as parts of 
 the nature of self, requiring equal culture to bring man 
 to his best, is of higher authority than would be the 
 claims from lives of less attainment ; and that worship- 
 ing and supplicating the Supreme Being is based on a 
 
406 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 part of our nature, and requires practice and culture as 
 much as does the element of ethics or esthetics, or pure in- 
 tellect. And now it being understood what are the elements 
 in attainment in life at its best in this state, we have an 
 outline view of the workings of life in the next, — upon 
 what tendencies it is employed, seeking their fulfillment. 
 
 THE BODILY STATE. DEATH ABOLISHED. 
 
 But before entering upon any details, some further 
 reflections upon the personal state seem in place. Con- 
 siderable has already been said concerning the embodi- 
 ment, without referring to certain facts that bear upon 
 its continuance — whether it is indefinite, or eternal, or 
 terminates within a quite uniform limit of time, as ia 
 the case with our present bodies. What can have any 
 bearing upon that with any certainty, is what may be 
 derived from the facts of life itself, together with the 
 conclusions that have been arrived at in respect to the 
 cosmical substance of that state, and what are the facts 
 concerning death in this existence. In brief, the sepa- 
 ration from the body in this world, as generally under- 
 stood, takes place by some disqualifying changes in the 
 bodily substances, — as by way of accidents suddenly 
 throwing them apart, sometimes very instantaneously 
 and utterly; or, more commonly, by the intrusion of 
 foreign agencies, as poisons or infusorial parasites, in 
 one way or another, consuming or otherwise disqualifying 
 the fiber ; which may take but a few moments, or it 
 may require many years. These intrusions are, of 
 course, in the lower order of substance more easily 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMORTAL. 407 
 
 made, as to the chemical poisons and the living germs, 
 from the facts that extremes are more intimate y and the 
 conservative forces are less vigorous to exclude. Also, 
 from facts referred to, violences are more common and 
 extreme in lower substances, adjustments of elements 
 being less free and regular. 
 
 In the earlier states, life is less secure, though the or- 
 ganism is more free from disturbing agencies. The 
 feebler self with its feebler forces, lays hold less strongly 
 on the surrounding material. In the enlarged self 
 the efficiency is increased, the adhesion is firmer, and 
 the control is more complete. So much does this 
 control increase with the attainment of life, that 
 though the foreign elements must be much more abun- 
 dant, and the destroying forces greatly increased, with 
 sunderings and paralyzations much more extensive, what 
 remains is held with a force never so great. Somewhat 
 Phoenix-like, half successful effort is made at evoking a 
 newness out of the old, by the partial restoration of 
 sight, hearing, and other senses, as well as at times 
 a partial replacing of the organism in other respects. 
 
 A professional friend of the writer has several times 
 related to him the case of a lady of his acquaintance in 
 Canada who had recovered sight, hearing, teeth, and hair 
 from nearly a total loss of these, above the age of seventy. 
 
 Thus, then, in this world, life attains to the extent of 
 maintaining a very sensible competition with these hos- 
 tilities which in these substances are so specially strong 
 and finally succeed wholly in demolishing the organism, 
 revealing, distinctly, a principle that under more favor- 
 
408 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 able conditions would result in the permanent embodi- 
 ment of self. 
 
 Then, in the next, where, by the nature of the ele- 
 ments, as seen, such violent movements as here take 
 place, could have no occasion and would be without oc- 
 currence, and where substances, by a more free and 
 direct adjustment, would not drift so far into wrong re- 
 lations, producing antagonisms, as here, and where with 
 greater attainments, the pertaining forces of life would 
 be more effective in their conservative efforts, bodily dis- 
 solution would have little visible cause. It is, to be 
 sure, not claimed how much higher that order of sub- 
 stance is than this, nor how much higher is required for 
 such a state of things ; but it is to be remembered that 
 it lies so remote as to be without a sensuous trace being 
 discernible from this department of existence, and 
 could hardly be so near as to involve the necessity of 
 any more death. But that in rising time there should 
 be no departures, farther inward, constituting entrances 
 into still further invisible worlds of still higher relations 
 of being, is not provided against by this conclusion. On 
 the contrary, the line of facts that has governed all con- 
 clusions in this work, seems to strongly imply such 
 changes. Not that the endless peopling, in any num- 
 bers imaginable, on the same plane of substance, could 
 make any impression on the infinite space, and that 
 over-crowded conditions would necessitate such depart- 
 ures, but that such might be incidental in the processes 
 of endlessly attaining. To be sure, higher orders of 
 cubstance might always occupy the same space simul- 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMOKTAL. 409 
 
 taneously with the lower, without impinging, while em- 
 bodiments only, might have sensible relation with space. 
 But all this I would have regarded as problematical 
 only, and in no sense as essential. 
 
 OLD AGE ABOLISHED. 
 
 And still further, with no death-producing causes re- 
 maining, manifestly there would be left none from 
 which decrepitude could result to the accumulation of 
 any measure of age. On the contrary, increase of age, 
 in a general way, would stand for increase of attain- 
 ments, whereof instead of more paralysis, wrinkles, 
 and fadedness there would be greater perfection, and 
 more vivacity and bloom. Intelligence, affection, moral, 
 esthetical and religious senses, all in their several forms 
 enlarged, involving higher qualities and more ardor in 
 each, could only result in more commanding graces of 
 life and correspondingly more charms to its embodiment. 
 And though it is not to be understood that the power of 
 life over life is from the condition of the body, but from 
 life only, regardless of whether there is a body about or 
 not, in the event of a body existing, perfections of the 
 person are very desirable supplements. There is, 
 then, satisfaction in anticipating, in the conditions that 
 remedy, in the next life, the evils of old age in this, 
 equally, relief from encumbering defects of body that 
 harass so many of our beautiful lives here. 
 
 PALPABLE SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 Prom the order of facts we have followed, a tactile 
 
410 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 relation with that external existence is a necessary con- 
 clusion, — to not alone look upon, and otherwise pas- 
 sively perceive it, but to impinge upon and devise with 
 respect to it — to direct and shape it to ends. What 
 these shapings may be like, is not to be said. The 
 very first essay might be the most wide of the mark. 
 But passive forms of substance, for their best state and 
 results, await intelligent direction. Our world under 
 the guiding hand of man, expresses beauties that were 
 otherwise not to be expected. Save in the aspect of 
 its vast, unwieldy developments, as mountains, rivers, 
 seas, and the heavenly expanse, our most gratifying im- 
 pressions from nature are those of its modification by 
 art. The beautiful gardens and parks are not met with 
 in the wild confusion of nature in its spontaneous states. 
 Foliage and bloom, rich as at times they are in the state 
 of undirected nature, do not there equal those which in 
 their native regions are receiving the judicious care of 
 man. The same is true of animals under domestication. 
 Though their culture is at times eccentric, and in a 
 sense against nature, from which they return at first 
 opportunity, still, as impressing the intelligent eye, from 
 the state of culture they are more pleasing and helpful 
 than from the undirected and the unrestrained condition. 
 It is, therefore, hardly to be doubted that man, in the 
 next state, will avail himself of his never failing supe- 
 riority, for the larger gratification of his increasing 
 desire for knowledge, and for his rising tastes, to di- 
 rect the elements of that nature to higher achieve- 
 ments, and thus minister more largely to those wants 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMOETAL. 411 
 
 than would result from their unaided efforts. It may 
 be judged necessary that he should thus minister to his 
 own bodily needs, possibly in ways approximating those 
 of his ministry to those needs in this world, or it may 
 not; but a nature, cultivated and wrought into uses 
 above where spontaneity would carry it, would hardly 
 fail to be found where man's dominion extends over it. 
 
 RECOGNITIONS. 
 
 As to the ability of merely recent acquaintances recog- 
 nizing one another in the other world, the fact of it was 
 referred to and substantially settled, while speaking of 
 embodiments there. With continued likeness of person, 
 of perceiving powers, and of judgment, there could be 
 no failure about it. There could be little more difficulty 
 in recognizing a friend whom, because of death, we have 
 not seen for some years, than whom, by one of the 
 many causes of separation in this life, we have not 
 seen for the same time. From some considerations, the 
 difficulty would not be as great. Let it be that the 
 party to be recognized has been subjected to much sick- 
 ness, or to disfiguring accident, which would not apply 
 with respect to the next world, and the difficulty might 
 be greater here than there. Here, sometimes, under 
 such circumstances, it fails. In some cases the liabilities 
 would be the same there. Let the separation have 
 taken place many years previous in the early infancy of 
 the party; or let the party have been subjected to the 
 influences of a greatly changed mode of life for quite a 
 term of years, the identification would be very difficult if 
 
412 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 not in some instances quite impossible, whether in this 
 world, or in the next. A large part of the race die in 
 tiny infancy an-d in early youth, before being is fully 
 outlined. And this outlining — ^this extension of the 
 figure to the full enlargement, and the completion of the 
 person, might, in the coming state, as here, result in a 
 loss of recognition. But, perhaps, little more would it 
 occur from this cause than it would in a corresponding 
 time from the enlargement and finish of life itself, — 
 retaining, perhaps, little of the habits and manners of 
 life in the previous state, on which to fix a recognition. 
 
 Such separations, as pertaining to parents and chil- 
 dren, though rare, are now and then reported of our 
 present world — babies being stolen or by other means 
 taken from them, not to be rejoined with them till after 
 many years. Sometimes, as in the early settlements of 
 our country, such kidnappings are perpetrated by savages, 
 and so far as the nature of the child will allow, it will be 
 made into a savage, losing, if it had attained it, the 
 mother tongue and the recollection of parents and kin- 
 dred. Identification of such is necessarily difl&cult, if 
 not impossible, in this life. 
 
 In cases of such complete separation, the evidences 
 relied on for identification usually are permanent marks 
 on the person, or the accents in speech, or other con- 
 genital traits. Where it has not extended beyond the 
 usual means of recognition, family names, appearances, 
 habits and events, with sometimes contemporary wit- 
 nesses, are referred to. In these respects, the other 
 world manifestly has advantages over this. To say 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMORTAL. 413 
 
 nothing of the frequent possibilities of the departed 
 reading the conditions and general character of the 
 events incident to remaining friends, the constant 
 stream of arrivals from the lower coimtry might allow 
 of no break in the chain of social evidence from the 
 earliest to the latest comer. Besides, the family mental 
 traits and tastes are usually so intimately interwoven 
 with self, as to long survive imder the strongest mod- 
 ifying influences. And, naturally, these would be by 
 none more readily detected than by those of like nature. 
 In a higher state, also, congenital traits would be more 
 pronounced, while the ability to note them would be 
 keener. We find it, then, possible to identify in the 
 next world more reliably than in this; whatever un- 
 foreseeable facts might render recognition for a time 
 less clear. 
 
 And these, taken together, namely : that there is an 
 unbroken chain of eye-witnesses, extending even to par- 
 ties separated and lost to each other in this world, and 
 that peculiarities that are permanent, and consistent 
 with the utmost goodness of character, are there mpra 
 legible than here, what yearnings for recognition may 
 not then in time be gratified ? 
 
 REUNIONS. 
 
 The question of reunion, if not the very foremost in 
 i^espect to the future, with enlightened minds, could 
 hardly be less than second to existence itself. Few 
 harder strains has human nature borne than those per- 
 taining to yearnings for the departed; possibly little 
 
414 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 thinking how important may be those strains of longing 
 as helps in preserving the very tie of interest on which 
 the earlier coming together again depends — that there 
 are conditions in which these yearnings are legible to 
 some extent by the minds of the departed. 
 
 In considering the matter of reunion, philosophical 
 inquiry might recall that physical nature exists in many 
 grand divisions, — that there exist not only innumerable 
 and immeasurable systems of worlds that might be sup- 
 posed inhabited now or at some time, but that the same 
 world, as ours, might be so conditioned as to practically 
 bar one class of people in and another out ; and that it 
 might be substantially the same with the corresponding 
 material of the spiritual universe. And certainly of 
 divisions there, there is at least the greatest probability ; 
 but, evidently, not with restrictions in the same measures 
 to its inhabitants that our state places about us, for 
 reasons already referred to. However, supposing differ- 
 ences to exist, and with reference to suiting grades of 
 spiritual development, the tendency from the lower to 
 the higher life could not be perrdanently intercepted. 
 
 But though, in our world, cosmical conditions re-act 
 upon human life — elevating or depressing it, and its 
 influences have been so strong as to, in the long years, 
 have broken up the family of man into races of great 
 differences, yet in the same country, in the same neigh- 
 borhood, and in the same house, may be found, at least 
 may be placed and continued quite indefinitely, the lowest 
 and the highest man of our planet. Hence, in a world 
 or in a universe where elements are more equally bal- 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMORTAL. 415 
 
 anced, differences of conditions in localities might well 
 not be of sufficient consequence to make an important 
 difference in the direction people should take from this 
 existence to the next. 
 
 Also, differences in individuals, inclusive of our world, 
 exist only in the measures and forms of their attain- 
 ments, which are as various as the race is numerous, 
 ranging from the highest intelligence to the lowest igno- 
 rance, and from the most lovely virtues to the most ab- 
 horrent vices and crimes. And for the universal good, 
 the elevation of the lowest, too, is required; and the 
 kind offices thereof being helpful to the elevation of the 
 higher, the same higher order of environment might 
 well be even the best place for the culture and disci- 
 pline, of whatever character, needful to be administered ; 
 there being no difference in the constitutional nature 
 and ultimate requirements in all the family of man. 
 
 It is then to be judged that while the several casts of 
 life, from sameness of measures and forms of attain- 
 ment, resulting in more nearly the same shades of 
 thought and sentiment, would tend to gravitate toward 
 communities and departments, there could no fixed, 
 separate states result. Nor would arrivals and reunions 
 be determined by affinities for such states alone, but, as 
 well, by reasons of previously established interests. And 
 while attachments from this cause may not be perma- 
 nent in all coming time, those lives who have by any 
 proper means become to each other objects of greatest 
 interest, will, by the best reasons, be foremost to re- 
 unite. Such, by the facts cited in the remarks on rec- 
 
416 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ognition, will not have been really separated. To the 
 survivor, it would be a separation more than to the de- 
 parted, who, besides the more favored condition for, at 
 times, reading impressions derived from the life below,, 
 has intelligence by arrivals ever continuing to be made,, 
 while none — certainly not with equal reliability — are 
 returning below. 
 
 It is to be remembered, too, that the departed are in 
 a state more favorable to ardor in love, in interest, 
 in solicitude, that greater warmth, in that holier element, 
 exists with the party above for the party below, than 
 these heavy elements will allow to be cherished and re- 
 turned. It would, then, be but in strict accordance with 
 the established facts of nature, that the event of a loved 
 one from below entering among the scenes of the next 
 world, would be a theme of joy in the circle above, only 
 mitigated by the sorrow of bereavement in the circle 
 below, — ^that it would be anticipated by preparations 
 made in the spirit in which friends make ready for the 
 arrival of loved ones from abroad, — that when the de- 
 parture here and the arrival there take place, the first 
 objects upon which the new orbs would rest would be 
 the faces and forms of the most intimately dear ones, 
 perhaps, long associated with the dead. 
 
 COMPANIONSHIPS. 
 
 In a previous chapter it was shown that human life 
 is no exception to nature in all the orders of it known, 
 in that its individuals are in possession of a principle of 
 mutual adherence. And not only is this adherence in 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMOKTAL. 417 
 
 aggregate, but it exists in special forms, as between at- 
 tributes and qualities. That is, human life being hu- 
 man life, alone is cause of a certain general attachment 
 to it by a human life — a drawing toward it as a mag- 
 net toward a magnet ; that all things being equal, an 
 artist is specially drawn toward an artist; and of 
 these, again, by further specializing, a sculptor is drawn 
 toward a sculptor, a painter toward a painter, a musician 
 toward a musician. And thus might the illustration be 
 indefinitely continued. The intelligent have attractions 
 for the intelligent, the benevolent for those of benevo- 
 lence, and the refined for those of refinement ; and so 
 also, though this needs qualifying, the ignorant, the self- 
 ish, and the coarse and vulgar, each is drawn to his 
 kind. Strictly considered, it does not admit to be said 
 that the ignorant and the low generally, are drawn 
 together. That is, it cannot be said that the reverse of 
 intelligence, which is neither a function nor a quality 
 but merely vacuity — ^nihility, can draw. And so of self- 
 ishness and coarseness, they denote absences rather 
 than entities. That in such respects individuals stand 
 for nothing, is the truth rather than that what so distin- 
 guishes them, is a something. Great ignorance is rather 
 the name of a corresponding lack of intelligence, than 
 the name of a something. So, too, of "great coarse- 
 ness, " " great ' vulgarity " or " great vice. " It is, then, 
 not possible that these conditions in themselves have 
 drawing qualities ; and the real fact in respect to what 
 may seem so, more likely is this : That these, from in- 
 ability to be allied with people of attainment in these 
 
 27 
 
418 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 respects, on account of the small interest they are able 
 to supply, are in a sense ejected and forced upon their 
 kind, to form communities with views and modes of life 
 corresponding to those levels. Such aggregates of com- 
 mon sentiments and common causes breeding sympathies, 
 become drawing forces in themselves ; which constitutes 
 an explanation of evil society and its seeming power 
 to attract. But here, still, intelligence attracts intelli- 
 gence, benevolence, benevolence, and virtue, virtue. 
 Deference is bestowed upon the most shrewd and cun- 
 ning ; and he who is generous and disposed to deal fairly 
 among their class, is regarded with distinction, etc. 
 
 We, then, here see the law of society crystallizations 
 — of special friendships and companionships, above the 
 general love and interest one feels for his fellows, as 
 such. The law is, also, seen to be the result of princi- 
 ples that are permanently inseparable from life. And, 
 moreover, instead of a tendency to more exclusiveness 
 and greater remoteness from others, it becomes, in the 
 wisdom that must in higher attainments characterize it, 
 a most effective means to enlarge the love and interest 
 for the general mass ; as to all real culture the enlarged 
 powers of appreciation render not only special friendships 
 more intimately dear, but the outside relationships of life 
 proportionately rise in interest — are more nearly ap- 
 proached and more included. As when we, with a 
 larger and purer telescope, increase our means of seeing, 
 we come not only nearer to the more immediate planets 
 of our own system, but to the remoter ones therein, and 
 to the farthest stars. Also, environment can never be 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMORTAL. 419 
 
 wholly the same to two minds, from the fact that they must 
 occupy separate standpoints, and that its features, in 
 all times and places, are not the same, nor can be. 
 Plainly, then, minds can never fall into sameness of 
 balance, temperament, and taste, but diversity in these 
 respects, like diversity in sounds of music, will always 
 contribute its sweet impressions upon life. 
 
 Individuals, then, might, without special conditions of 
 attachment — ^without considerations of necessary arbi- 
 trary bonds — drift away upon unlike currents, which, 
 though rambling more or less apart, are never lost from 
 the tide. But, again, arbitrary enactments from proper 
 sources of authority, limiting and directing conduct, are 
 a constant necessity to finite life. We are always in 
 our modem day, with our unknown before us, with our 
 nature less perfectly understood by ourselves than cer- 
 tain others understand it ; with no means, but guardian 
 authority, to direct us, and by which to find the best 
 way. Then, too, error is ever less right than the truth, 
 and less to the purposes of life ; and to incur it is to 
 incur at least a privation ; and to occasion it to others, 
 is their misfortune at our hands, however in integrity 
 committed and in charity received. Life, also, is ever, 
 to some extent, conditioned by adjacent life. What 
 another life is, and hoiv it is, is possible to be a large 
 advantage or disadvantage to it ; which would, under a 
 general state of rational intelligence, unavoidably result 
 in enactments of arbitrary dispensations from the higher, 
 and finally the highest, for the lower. 
 
 While conformity to law of this character, to what- 
 
420 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ever details it might extend, might well be spontaneous, 
 drifting independently after casual impulses, without 
 regard to their mature and fit condition, and hence justi- 
 fication, would be greatly inconsistent with the require- 
 ments of such a state as would be characterized true 
 intelligence. Companionships, then, might result not 
 alone from a disposition to follow social tastes, but from 
 the desire of obedience to needful regulations, — ^to sat- 
 isfy the claims of sympathy and justice ; the realization 
 of which might often be as helpful in the progress of 
 self as would be the exhilarating companionship of 
 equals in attainments. Quite nearly as strong attach- 
 ments as those existing between the more attained par- 
 ent and the less attained child, and from similar facts of 
 life, could exist between the more attained and the less 
 attained, as teacher and pupil, in that future state. 
 There is entertainment of the highest order in the scene 
 of life unfolding from its beginnings ; and to remove the 
 obstructions would be correspondingly a work of pleas- 
 ure, not only to the sense of generosity, but to intelli- 
 gence ; and this, together with the fact that feebleness 
 is ever looking toward strength and rejoicing in its 
 superiors on account of their helpfulness, would, also, 
 suggest a bond of companionship. 
 
 The sexual element, the most prominent distinction 
 ?.n human life, and one of the most powerful social 
 incentives, has been regarded as primarily an appoint- 
 ment to serve the need of reproduction. This super- 
 ficial view discovers but a small part of its purpose. It 
 is chiefly important as a nourishment to the two equal 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMOBTAL. 421 
 
 lives. First of all, it pertains to mind and all the es- 
 sential self, and next, to the person. Keciprocally, the 
 qualities of the one nature refer to a want in the other, 
 to establish a requisite fullness and completeness of being. 
 Hence the distinction could not be referred to tempo- 
 rary causes. Social life is nowhere complete in the one 
 element of either ; while the elements in proper union, 
 ever result in a sense of social satisfaction and content- 
 ment. But from the best results arising out of the most 
 intimate reciprocities, special claims and concessions, as 
 to individual unions, would seem to be always required ; 
 resulting in companionships, which, in instances of great- 
 est compatibility, would be long enduring, and for aught 
 that now appears, might be eternal. 
 
 In respect to the continuance of companionships es- 
 tablished in this life, ordinarily, none would be more 
 probable than those of the family, where more of the con- 
 ditions of sympathy and affection are present, and where 
 so many of the strongest obligations have been created. 
 Here the facts of life are so deeply and intimately 
 interwoven in all directions, as that the several bonds 
 might be safely supposed to be of long continuance. 
 The facts of parent and child, of common parentage, of 
 joined parentage, of husband and wife, and of common 
 family vicissitudes, could be a matter of memory, in- 
 terest, and preference, through vast measures of time, 
 and in some respects, eternal time. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 That wonderful element of the human mind, above 
 
422 ^ CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 all else, craves attainment, — not alone of facts and the 
 better use of the faculties of thought, but the greater 
 perfection of all the elements pertaining to self. Always 
 the most attained, in respect to anything, and markedly 
 so in .respect to the attributes of life, is the most pleas- 
 ing and the most satisfying. Hence, the ever eager 
 pursuit of what lies still beyond — of being as well as 
 of facts and principles. Of all surroundings, too, it is 
 desired to have them at their best. The best animals 
 of their kind, the best plants of their kind, the best 
 minerals of their kind, the best achievements of the arts, 
 and not the poorest of these, are the most highly valued. 
 And ao the interest of self calls equally for the labor of 
 improvement to be bestowed upon the fellow life ; and 
 unendingly so. That this would be bestowed advanta- 
 geously, by the use of appropriate devices whereby 
 larger results could be secured than would accrue by 
 casual contact, could not fail to be true where devising 
 minds are concerned. The processes could not fail to 
 be of management by conventional wisdom, and of the 
 general character of institutions. The tendency in the 
 higher attainments of mind is, without exception, more, 
 instead of less, toward institutional means. Institutions 
 are one of the salient marks that distinguish between 
 mind in barbarism and in civilization. Not only is pas- 
 sive substance more commonly wrought into mechan- 
 isms, but the social forces are wrought into rules, laws, 
 governments to secure harmony, and efficiency toward 
 the ends desired. 
 
 Nature is all the time being placed more under 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMORTAL. 423 
 
 the dominion of mind, while, in its turn, the mind itself 
 becomes the profited subject of its own legislation. And 
 under association with fellow lives, life passes into sub- 
 jection to conventional legislation, — ^is directed by its 
 provisions and conformed to its own institutions ; itself 
 contributing to their creation as having a certain nu- 
 merical value in the aggregation out of which the ruling 
 sentiment is derived. As a rule, by its adaptations, it 
 is directed to one or a class of those institutions, through 
 which, by bestowing its labors there, it contributes its 
 principal service to the world. And this can be no more 
 true of rational mind in one world than in another. It 
 is, also, necessarily as true of one world as of another, 
 that where there is less attainment, from the less desire 
 of attainment being coupled with weaker means for 
 achieving it, but little progress, if any, may be made 
 without the presence of arbitrary legislations and insti- 
 tutions, from superiors, and operated by superiors. 
 Hence, dispensations and commissions from the higher 
 states, and, finally, from the highest, must always be 
 expected to descend to the lower states. 
 
 From these considerations, it is quite plain that the 
 labor being bestowed upon fellow lives in the next world, 
 partakes of the essential character of institutions of 
 learning, analogous to those great systems found in our 
 better society here, — with teachers, and classes, and 
 seasons of work, of which, while the modes are unfore- 
 seeable, the elements are not alone of instruction in the 
 abstract facts of being, but, also, in the education of 
 self into the ever greater refinement and strength of 
 
424 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 every sense and passion pertaining to it. What in thia 
 world we see achieved in the most brilliant intelligence, 
 the most exhilarating virtues, the most exquisite tastes, 
 and in the most ardent affections, are but little more 
 than our weak beginnings in these, which suggests to 
 us, in part, what are the character and the ends of the 
 labors that await us in the world of our next existence. 
 
 WORSHIP. 
 
 To have survived the ordeal of physical dissolution, 
 alone would be, to the average life, an overwhelming fact, 
 tending to move the whole consciousness to its greatest 
 depths — to deepest reflections concerning the vastness 
 and potency of the principle that must underlie such 
 an event. It would hardly fail to induce an earnest self- 
 questioning as to what this comprehensiveness and good- 
 ness of design must be owing, and to what embodiment 
 these and the power of their execution must be finally 
 ascribed. The same reflections, to be sure, are due from 
 intelligences capable of estimating the facts of the pres- 
 ent existence. But it may well be judged that to find 
 one's self still living after the process of physical death 
 has been fully accomplished, and that life is again sur- 
 rounded ^nth provisions suitable for subsistence and for 
 enjoyment, and that these provisions are of a superior 
 order, would very much aid in realizing that to d, Being 
 of incomprehensible superiority of mind and affection, 
 of whatever mode of existence, such facts must be as- 
 signed. One could not, from such a standpoint, easily 
 see all these facts, so taken together, to be matters of 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMOKTAL. 425 
 
 chance, fior indifferently set aside claims rising to view 
 for grateful reverence and adoration, to be bestowed in 
 the direction indicated by these tokens of interest and 
 love. 
 
 The thoughts, too, pertaining to the now easily dis- 
 cernible fact of the endless continuance of this being, 
 and of the adapting of supplies to its needs, however 
 extreme the attainments that were being made, could 
 not fail to still further strengthen the conviction of a 
 living, infinite Being's presence and care in it all ; while 
 such regularity in punctually suiting these supplies to 
 its ever varying wants, as would be apparent of the fut- 
 ure, might make it strongly seen that these transpirings 
 were mainly, if not wholly, for the sake of man. 
 
 Then, again, with increased general attainment must 
 be included the sentiment of religion. And if the change 
 of state should be more favorable to one sentiment of 
 life than to another, it would by nature of the case be 
 the religious. With such increased verifications of its 
 claims to truth, not alone, but with so much more in 
 the facts of that existence well calculated to immedi- 
 ately arouse and nourish it into power, would follow the 
 devotion of a larger part of life to its exercises, its more 
 extensive presence in all life's practices and affairs — 
 giving more largely shape and character to all the man- 
 ifold educational and social relations of that state. 
 
 We are, of course, unable to foresee the modes and 
 rites employed in worship there. These we must leave 
 to be made acquainted with on our arrival among the 
 next scenes. But we always gain assurance and enthu- 
 
426 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 siasm from the consciousness that others are employed 
 from like motives to the same end. And when the views 
 and the objective ends of worship are essentially the 
 same, worship by one excites worship in another, as truly 
 as the singing string excites the neighboring string to 
 song. To a thinker the presence of thinking companions 
 is an important aid. The work of thought, while it may 
 require some measure of seclusion, goes on less efficiently 
 without the consciousness of similar employment being 
 engaged in by neighboring minds. Hence, thinkers are 
 attracted to thinkers, — not alone to share the results of 
 their labors, but by near proximity with them to have 
 better results of their own minds. Human effort in no 
 respect rises to its best when conscious of being wholly 
 alone. One may be delighted and benefited greatly by 
 pondering or mentally rehearsing a song — an oratorio — 
 but only in hearing it rendered by a multitude of sing- 
 ers, does his musical mind come to a full waking in 
 respect to it. 
 
 Then, too, in the seclusion of his thought, though 
 one may pay very great and gratifying honors to the 
 Supreme Being, and in that communion realize a very 
 important aid to all his superior nature, the profounder 
 sentiments of adoration and praise await the re-enforc- 
 ing influence of the worshiping multitude — the assembly 
 of worshipers in concert. 
 
 From this it would appear necessary that as in educa- 
 tion, worship, too, in the respect in which it is a matter 
 of mutual interest and for its best results depends upon 
 mutual help, becomes, in the next world, the care of arbi- 
 
LIFE IN THE LAND IMMOKTAL. 427 
 
 trary law — of social legislation, emanating mainly or 
 wholly from the more attained, who are ever more fully 
 directed by the Divine Wisdom itself. 
 
 With the Deity omnipresent there as here, and as 
 completely beyond all sensuous observation, no special 
 great local altar upon which general attention would be 
 directed, would be called for or practicable. But in its 
 place might be seen the one common, essential faith, 
 hope, and communion, upon the one vast altar of the 
 outspread celestial universe. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Concluding Eeflections and Parting Words. 
 
 HAVING now, substantially, completed the task un- 
 dertaken in this work, I here submit a few part- 
 ing words on taking leave of the reader. In the 
 results of the investigations pursued in these chapters, 
 it is not only ascertained that the individual human 
 life is of endless continuance, but the coming state is 
 foreseen to possess advantages and measures of hap- 
 piness not found in this world, and that, all things 
 considered, so far as human judgment can discover, 
 entrance upon that state is a beneficent promotion. 
 With that greatest of apostles, all may say, " To die 
 is gain." Greater or total immunity from impurity 
 of passions — from sinfulness or desire for unholy 
 and rebellious life, seems a necessary good fortune of 
 life in that world. That is, when taken in comparison 
 with life in this world, the disparity in favor of that 
 world would be thus great. Further than that, nothing 
 we have discovered would justify a fixed conclusion. 
 What alloys of that state might be objectionable to a 
 state or to states yet further on than the one of our 
 common immediate inheritance, is not brought into the 
 discussion. 
 
 428 
 
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 429 
 
 And yet not all could be paradise with all souls even 
 in that fair world. There are foreseeable conditions 
 in which many would partake, that might average far 
 more sorrow and pain than happiness, perhaps for the 
 long time coming. When in drunkenness — in the dark- 
 ness of life occasioned from it — one inflicts an injury 
 on another, getting sober does not make him a happier 
 man. To reflect that he did it when, in the drunken 
 paroxysms, he was beyond the command of himself, while 
 it may under some circumstances cause some mitigation 
 of pains, may, also, under others, render them even 
 more intense. To have proved faithless in the proper 
 charge over himself, still further injury is to be reck- 
 oned to his account, from the pain of which getting 
 sober does not relieve him. So, likewise, to one having 
 lived a life of injury — of sinning against man and God, 
 entering upon a state of greater sensitiveness in respect 
 to right and wrong, would not be the occasion of his 
 happiness. Atonement by reparation, would seem to be 
 the only way to relief. Full forgiveness, even by such in 
 that world as would be immediate sufferers from those in- 
 juries, and forgiveness by the greatest in holiness, without 
 an ordinance reversing, in this respect, the system of nat- 
 ure, could not avail to quench the burning pains so long as 
 the consequences of the wrong were matters of distress. 
 But, also, in a world freed from malice and given to uni- 
 versal friendship and affectionate help, and where the 
 evidences of final release from all wrong conditions and 
 evil effects, however long deferred, are so unmistakable 
 none could be allowed to be the subject of unmixed 
 
430 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 suffering, and wholly without happifying impressions. 
 
 Among the pleasing considerations, already referred 
 to, that would create longings for that world, are the re- 
 unions we are justified in expecting with those of 
 special friendship and interest. These may not be the high- 
 est interest in heaven to be sometime attained to there, but 
 to the people now living below, their dear and intimately 
 related friends are the main attractions there, so long 
 as its other excellencies are so little understood and ap- 
 preciated. Many, too, must be the glad occasions in 
 that many mansioned Father's home — that land af 
 many home circles — constellations of spiritual happi- 
 ness — to which Jesus so soothingly referred in his last 
 hours of earth. Friends are being given back to friends ; 
 family members are being rejoined ; mothers are having 
 their babes replaced upon their bosoms ; all with the cir- 
 cumstances and demonstrations of wild delight, praises 
 and thanksgivings to God, such as are unknown in all 
 below heaven. And from this cannot be separated the 
 special familiar intercourse and rehearsals of the past, 
 following on in due time ; as when friends of special in- 
 timacy long separated meet again. It might be forgot- 
 ten for the time that it really is the holy country spoken 
 of, and seem to be the same old earth in a new dress and 
 under a new sky. 
 
 Again, in the generally intensified life and increased 
 activity of functions, will be the increased efliciency of 
 the memory, to which reference has been made in cases 
 of hypnotism, a state somewhat partaking of the nature 
 of death, and as is frequently reported in cases of par- 
 
CONCLUDING EEFLECTIONS. 431 
 
 tial drowning. We also more commonly remember the 
 right and appropriate experiences than the inappropri- 
 ate. And among the things of interest in the life to 
 come, it is probable that by a more clear mental recur- 
 rence, we shall be able to live over again the better and 
 more agreeable part of our history — of our childhood, 
 our youth, with every succeeding state of our advancing 
 age, with their many dear associations. I say the better 
 part, from the fact that the imperfect is the unadapted 
 and finally rejected part. All growths are characterized 
 by a conservative law, by which imperfections are caused 
 to disappear, while that which is in harmony with the 
 being's ends, assimilates and becomes identified with the 
 being itself. So that the first that we would forget 
 permanently would be the things that we would least 
 care to remember. Then the right things — the har- 
 monies — of our past lives, and not alone ours, but those 
 of others, might often be food for happy contemplation 
 there, and finally without the disturbing sensations of 
 the evil parts therewith. 
 
 CONTEMPLATIONS OF DEATH. 
 
 As to death, whatever are seen to be the facts of the 
 future, to many people it is associated with a sense of 
 alarm and even terror ; not from regrets as to parting 
 with friends and cherished surroundings, the ordeal on 
 its own account is looked upon with a suspicion of some- 
 thing dreadful. In part it may be owing to its so strongly 
 seeming to be the final ending of all, and, also, in part from 
 its not having been personally experienced. From what- 
 
432 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 ever cause the sense is wholly illusory. Often persons must 
 have felt all that one feels in dying and have afterward 
 fully recovered. If complete death of the entire organism 
 has not been experienced by any one now living in this 
 world, many have undergone complete death of a con- 
 siderable part thereof, in which all was illustrated. 
 Amputations, woundings, convulsions — those terrifying 
 spectacles — are not death, but only illustrations of dis- 
 ordered states of life, from which, indeed, death may be 
 the result. Death follows after the vital forces have 
 failed to maintain the organism. Their withdrawing is 
 dying, denoted by a growing insensibility, and is real- 
 ized as rest. Instead of being a matter of pain, "(ieath 
 is a retiring from pain. Whoever has relaxed from se- 
 vere exertion into profound sleep may be said to have 
 undergone all the realizations of the dying. In cases of 
 complete paralysis where all sensuous relation is dis- 
 continued, death is essentially illustrated. There are no 
 intelligent reasons why death itself should be a subject 
 of dread. To many heavily burdened lives, it might 
 well be regarded as the pilgrim, wearied and bruised by 
 the long fatiguing day, at nightfall regards the spread 
 couch inviting him to rest. What pertains to life this 
 side and the other side, could be to the informed the 
 only matters to influence the choice as to dying. The 
 indifferent to the requirements of duty — the laden with 
 guilt, could not wish it, — ^would crave to first reform 
 and make restitution. The good, conscious of having 
 outlived all requirements of further service to the liv- 
 
CONCLUDING EEFLECTIONS. 433 
 
 ing, might well contemplate the event as one of signal 
 blessing. 
 
 But that these facts, taken purely on their own merits 
 in arriving at these conclusions, may accomplish the pur- 
 pose intended in these labors, attention is recalled to 
 the fact, which the good thinker will recognize as emi- 
 nently just, that understanding them as true, and stead- 
 fastly believing in them — confiding in them, may not in 
 all cases be the same thing. The truth would seem to 
 be all that one could need. But this, after all, is not 
 enough. The confiding power must be present before 
 the truth can have its proper influence on the sentiments 
 of life. The writer had an intimate friend of much 
 more than ordinary accomplishment, and of special 
 good judgment in matters pertaining to the exact 
 sciences, who was, time after time, having what were to 
 him very clear evidences of spirit intercourse. For the 
 hour, nothing could be more satisfactory than those 
 demonstrations. And yet this realization was at each 
 time doomed to soon vanish away, leaving doubt as 
 overmastering as before. Now though these evidences 
 might not have been genuine, it was not because he had 
 discovered any flaw in them that he so soon became 
 doubting again, but there was a lack in the confiding 
 power. What, therefore, this man needed was not more 
 proof, having failed to dispose of what he had, but more 
 strength in the believing department of his being, — 
 especially in respect to the spiritual aspect of nature. 
 
 It is true that people sometimes have this too large 
 
 28 
 
434 CONSOLATIONS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 or too little qualified, and believe too soon and too mucL 
 — without adequate inspection. But quite as often in 
 our day the reverse exists ; and people by doubting too 
 much are liable to fail in receiving the benefits of truths 
 that are mentally clear and well established. This is 
 most liable to be the case in respect to truths of unusual 
 import. Much of the evil arises from the acquired 
 habit of negativing too promptly. Hence, too, the rem- 
 edy is, in a large part, to be found in a change of this 
 habit. Also, conforming to the habits of life main- 
 tained by people of more robust powers of belief, is of 
 essential aid in strengthening this important element of 
 rational being. Following submissively the mode of 
 thought and of life known of those greatest minds and 
 lives recorded in human history, as already referred to, 
 Jesus and the apostles, this believing quality of mind 
 could hardly fail to speedily enlarge into ample fullness 
 for a just realization of this class of facts. 
 
 The facts of music, of mathematics, or of language 
 will be apprehended with more difficulty by natures less 
 adapted to these principles of being ; and why not so of 
 all other elements of knowledge ? Then to yearn after 
 evidences of the departed wisely, would, in most in- 
 stances, require some of the self-discipline which would 
 render the self-nature more available for the evidence ; 
 in accordance with the laws which universally apply to 
 the acquisition of practical knowledge in any department 
 of being. 
 
 But it is now become a matter of sincere congratula- 
 tion that by due attention to the force of the facts of 
 
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 435 
 
 science as they are commonly received in this age of the 
 world, the ordinary deficiencies in powers for discerning 
 facts of a spiritual character, may be overcome by sup^ 
 plying proof from this source ; proof of a future world 
 not only, but of life's endlessness, — of that world's bet- 
 ter adaptation to the higher wants of man, and of his 
 endlessly attaining in that state. To essentially the 
 same facts of a future world to which Christian 
 teachings have for these centuries pointed the be- 
 reaved for comfort, the science of to-day coming forward, 
 directs the suffering heart of man for consolation. It 
 has raised man to an eminence of knowledge concerning 
 the principles of being, from which the chasm of mor- 
 tality is seen bridged and the passage of the dear ones 
 to the common country and home beyond, safely accom- 
 plished ; in seeing which, the paining mind drinks in 
 the sweet relief. 
 
 In reverting to the deep past, at times one gets the 
 living mass of those ages vividly on the field of his 
 vision, and asks where are they now? One who is in 
 love with the literature of the past, and has become in» 
 timate with the great lives whose benefits to mankind 
 cease not descending to the generations rising along th^ 
 course of time, asks with insuppressible solicitude, 
 What has become of those great and precious energies— 
 those vast mental and moral substances that for a brie, 
 time animated visible forms, then utterly disappeared, 
 from view ? Science has substantially discovered ^miy 
 and the world of their permanent abode. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAOB. 
 
 ABEECEOMBIE, DK.— Important legal decision evolved 
 in a dream 246 
 
 Age, Old, Abolished 409 
 
 AiiGER, Kev. Mb.— Doctrine of the Greeks, concerning the 
 
 soul.' 48 
 
 Animal — Being thereof inhering in animal ether 127-131 
 
 Animal — Element thereof contrasted with that of the 
 
 vegetable 131 
 
 Animal — Lower forms less strong and differentiated and 
 
 more easily confounded with the vegetable 242 
 
 Animal — Wonderful Anatomic machinery thereof 136, 137 
 
 Animals — Under man, probably not immortal 272, 373 
 
 Aphasia 333, 334 
 
 Aristotle 47 
 
 Athanasian Creed 216 
 
 Atoms— They touch only by their atmospheres 297 
 
 BAAL 43 
 Baboons — Cited by Dr. Darwin as examples of the 
 
 presence of sympathy in brutes 174 
 
 Baboons — Depredations of, cited by Brehm 174, 175 
 
 Bain, Pbof.— Double-faced unity theory of matter 210-213 
 
 Baird, Mr. — His hypnotic subject sings with Jenny Lind . . 260 
 
 Beale, Dr. Lionel S.— On nerve circuits 230, 231 
 
 Bigotry— Not limited to a class 83 
 
 Blumenbach, Dr.— Experiments on brain action 253 
 
 BoiLEAu, Lieutenant. — Witnesses self-mesmerization 
 
 in India 308, 309 
 
 Brain— As an instrument comparatively simple 238 
 
 Brain— State of dm-ing sleep 257 
 
 Brain — The umbilical tie of self with the external world . 265 
 
 Brehm— On the moral sense in birds 170 
 
 Butler, Bp.— Assailed by Prof. Tyndall 196-200 
 
 437 
 
438 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 CAKPENTER, PROF.— Acted dreams 247 
 Carpenter, Prof. — Cited by Prof. Youmans on the 
 
 employment of the mineral by the vital forces. 11 9, 120 
 
 Carpenter, Prof. — 2^ote on natural selection 90 
 
 Carpenter, Prof. — On faith in a future life 192 
 
 Carpenter, Prof. — Views on Mesmerism 301 
 
 Catalepsy— A peculiar case of a young lady in Newark, N. J. 241 
 
 Christians— Apostolic and modern compared 69 
 
 Christison, Sir Rob't.— Paralyzation of the will faculty. . 332 
 
 Church, The— An important want of 34 
 
 CiiOQUET, M. — Surgery performed under mesmerism 306 
 
 Consciousness — What is meant by a state of consciousness. 195 
 
 Creation, SPECiAii— Difficult to set aside 225- 
 
 DANA, PROF.— Definition of the term "mineral", . .108, 109 
 Darwin, Dr. — Authority on Darwinism 166 
 
 Darwin, Dr. — Theory of the human intellect having 
 ascended from the instinct, "well developed," in lower 
 
 Animals 176 
 
 Death— Abolished, etc 406, 407 
 
 Death — How generally contemplated 431 
 
 Death- The conditions which may effect a choice in respect 
 
 to it 432 
 
 Democritus 207 
 
 Dendy, Dr. — Experiments on brain activity 253 
 
 Distance — As applied to difference in measures of psychi- 
 cal capacities , 96, 97 
 
 Dreams and Somnambulisms 242-252 
 
 Dreams — Observations on 247, 248 
 
 Dreams — Serial, etc 250, 251 
 
 Duration— Means of determining it of individual exist- 
 ences 267-270 
 
 Durham, Mr.— Experiments by chloroform on the brain. . 256 
 
 Duty — A distinct sense 163, 164 
 
 Duty — Its relation with the moral sense 162 
 
 EDUCATION— In the spirit world 421-424 
 Elephant— His sagacity, etc 149-151 
 
 Engine, the steam— In illustration of the reciprocal rela- 
 tion of body and mind 205, 206 
 
 Environment— Of life in the spirit world, and the results 393-397 
 
 Epidendrum— Its subsistence from the atmosphere, etc 122 
 
 Eras of Special Attainment 42 
 
INDEX. 439 
 
 PAOE. 
 
 ESDAILE, Dr. — His experiments in mesmerism in India. 30G- 308 
 EsQUiROii, Dr. — Reports cases of insanity with homicidal 
 
 promptings 327, 328 
 
 Ether, vegetable— Possible in the spiritual state 11 6-119 
 
 Ether, vegetable— Universally 116 
 
 Expectant Attention— Case of the Jansenist Girl and the 
 
 Holy Thorn 356 
 
 Expectant Attention— Its bruise of an ankle and of 
 
 fingers 345, 346 
 
 Expectant Attention— Sir Humphrey Davy's experiments 
 
 in, with the paralytic 355 
 
 Expectant Attention Utilized in mental intercourse . . 300 
 
 FERRIER, DR 235 
 
 Figuier, Prof 235 
 
 Forces— Their universal presence and embodiment by 
 
 substance 100 
 
 Fritch, Dr 235 
 
 GENERATION, SPONTANEOUS— Not admissible, etc.111-116 
 Gray, Prof. — Judges that the vegetable and animal 
 
 kingdoms may unite in a loop below 143 
 
 HAECKEL, PROF . —His piotogenes, etc 221 
 Hallucinations— Of Herr Von Baczko by the spec- 
 tral negro 374 
 
 Hallucinations Of— Mrs. D. and her sister, related by R. 
 
 Dale Owen 375-377 
 
 Hallucinations Of— The crew concerning the de- 
 ceased cook 379 
 
 Hallucinations Of— The Londoners concerning the 
 
 Chimpanzee 379 
 
 Hallucination Of — The regiment concerning the spec- 
 tral dog ... 380-382 
 
 Hallcination Of— Robert Dale Owen, concerning " Katie 
 
 King" 384-387 
 
 Hamilton, Prof.— Case of speaking unknown languages 
 
 during fever delirium 262, 363 
 
 Hamilton, Prof.— Respecting dreams 249 
 
 Hammond, Dr. — Account of the French speaking epileptic 261 
 
 Hammond, Dr.— Experiment on brain in the lower ani- 
 mals 253-256 
 
 Hammond, Dr. — Suggests an explanation 247 
 
440 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Happiness— The state and conditions of, in the spirit 
 
 world 428-431 
 
 Haerison, Feedeeic 191 
 
 Haven, Pbof.— The somnambulic painting girl, etc 245 
 
 HiTziG, Mr 235 
 
 Homer 47 
 
 .Huxley, Prof.— Kespect for the sentiment of faith in a 
 
 future life 191 
 
 ICHNEUMONID^ 278 
 Immoetalitt — As taught among the ancient Egyp- 
 tians, Chaldeans and Hebrews 43-45 
 
 Immortality — Comparative value of the several ancient 
 
 theories 46 
 
 Immortality. — Imperfectly stated prior to Christianity. . . 40 
 
 Immortality— Man's proper, affirmed from the organic 
 
 law of his being 267 
 
 Immortality— Eight view of, an important need of the 
 
 age 25-38 
 
 Inspiration— Law of 311-316 
 
 Inspiration— Peoples unequally available for its condi- 
 tions 315, 320-324 
 
 Instinct and Eeason— The distinction 146-154 
 
 Intercourse — Importance of it between the two worlds 
 
 not always as great as supposed 339-340 
 
 Intercourse, Mental— Mode of, and difficulties attend- 
 ing 293-319 
 
 Intercourse— More difficult between the two worlds. .337-338 
 
 Intercourse— Necessity of, between worlds greater in 
 
 early times 372, 387 
 
 Intercourse- Special device for procuring intercourse 
 with the spirit world ^attended with danger to mind 
 and morals 364, 365 
 
 Intercourse, Spirit— As found in the Bible 389, 391 
 
 JACKSON, DR. HUGHLINGS— Examination of the retina 
 of the eye during sleep, etc . . 256, 257 
 
 Jesus— His allusions to the future life 56, 57, 65 
 
 Jesus — His Gospel 35 
 
 Jesus — His re-appearance after death 66 
 
 KNOCK 357 
 Knowledge 134, 135 
 
INDEX. 441 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 LAVALETTE — His rapid mental movement in a dream in 
 prison 258, 259 
 
 liEPIDOPTEBA 280 
 
 LiEFDE, Eev. John de — Cites a mathematical triumph 
 
 wrought in sleep 244 
 
 Life in the Spirit World 392 
 
 Life— Origin of individual life 271 
 
 LiND, Jenny— Sings with the hypnotized singing girl 260 
 
 Lobster— Its low order permits the renewal of lost parts. . 401 
 
 Lourdes 357 
 
 Lucretius— His philosophy referred to 196-198-200 
 
 Lucretius— Terrified by insane promptings to lewdness, 
 
 commits suicide 328, 329 
 
 MAN— His continuance beyond death 188 
 Martineau, Miss H.— Cites the case of a congenital 
 
 idiot 243 
 
 MAUDSiiET, Dr.— Statements concerning moral insanity 329, 330 
 
 Maudsley, Dr. — New brain routes used by mind 335 
 
 Mesmerism— Example by Dr. Noble 302 
 
 Mesmerism— Orientals more available for 305 
 
 Mesmerism— Self , by Indian Fakirs 308, 309 
 
 Metampsychosis 43-47-49 
 
 MrLiiER, Hugh— Observations on the flora of coal period 125, 126 
 
 Mimosa— Its sensitiveness 129 
 
 Mind— And body 193 
 
 Mind — And organism 207 
 
 Mind— Forms its conceptions independently of brain 239 
 
 Mind— In the processes ot insanity 324-334 
 
 Mind — Rapid movement of, in dreams 258 
 
 Mind — Soul and Spirit are substances, etc 144 
 
 Mind — The only element seizing upon and utilizing the 
 
 aspects of nature 134 
 
 Mineral, The— Organized by the vegetable 109, 110 
 
 Mineralism 208 
 
 Mineralistic— School unsatisfied 227 
 
 MiNERALiSTic— Theories of life 218 
 
 MrvART, Prof. — Cited in mimicry in nature 142 
 
 Moral Element, The— And the brute 165, 166 
 
 Moral Element, The — A separate sense 160 
 
 Moral Element, The— Defined 164, 165 
 
 Moral Element, The— State of 159 
 
442 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 NERVES— Mode of their device 232 
 Nerves— Origin of— Theory by Mr. H. Spencer..225, 226 
 
 Neuropteka 282 
 
 Newton, Sib Isaac— As an example of realizing powers. . . 99 
 Noble — His experiments in mesmerism 302, 303 
 
 OLD AGE ABOLISHED 409 
 Orientals- More available for mesmeric phenomena 305 
 Owen, Bob't D. — Cites the two sisters' impression of the 
 
 spectral boy 375-377 
 
 Owen, Rob't D.— His relation in the "Katie King" affair. 384-387 
 Oxygen — Its discovery and prevalence 100 
 
 PAUL, ST.— His view of the future life 53 
 Piano and Operator— Illustrating the brain operated 
 
 by the Self 236, 237 
 
 PiNEL, Dr.— Reports an instance of insanity with prompt- 
 ings to suicide 326 
 
 Plant, The— Its modification by environment 114, 116 
 
 Plant, The — Its possible presence in the spiritual state. 122-1 24 
 
 Plant, The— Not a mineral development Ill 
 
 Plant, The — The most favored always attains to fruit 288 
 
 Plato — His supposed sympathies with metempsychosis. . . 50 
 
 Prescience— Evidence of 278 
 
 Priestly — His discovery of Oxygen 100 
 
 Protoplasm— Present in all vital forms 113 
 
 Protoplasm— The term not of uniform meaning. 293 
 
 REALIZATION — Not generally strong concerning the 
 spirit world, and why 361, 362 
 
 Realizing Powers— Importance of 72-73 
 
 Realizing Powers — Development of 79 
 
 Reason — In lower animals not positively disclaimed 156 
 
 Recognitions in the spirit world 411-413 
 
 Reunions in the spirit world 413-416 
 
 Rome— Church of 53 
 
 SCIENCE— Tendency of, to confirm immortality 82-85 
 Self — Characterized by drawing forces in reciprocity 
 
 with selves 299 
 
 Self — The physical senses lodge only on its environment. . 295 
 Self — The realization thereof does not include the phys- 
 ical organism 229 
 
INDEX. 443 
 
 PAGV' 
 
 Senses, The— Delusion of 80 
 
 Senses, The — Bequire supplementing by mind 81 
 
 Sentience — The reasoning form requires successive en- 
 largement of powers 275-277 
 
 Socrates 52 
 
 Spectkoscope, The 298 
 
 Spencer, Herbert— Definition of life 218-220 
 
 Spencer, Hebert — He abandons, temporarily, his theory 
 
 of development by environment 225 
 
 Spencer, Herbert— Theory of psychological units 221-222 
 
 Spirit World, The— Location of 92, 93, 102-107 
 
 Spirits, Evil— No evidence that departed mortals are 
 
 such 387, 388 
 
 Stansbury, Capt. — Feeding of the blind pelican by its 
 
 mates 170 
 
 Stigmatization— Case of Louise Lateau 349, 350 
 
 Substance and Matter — The terms how used 144 
 
 Substance, Mineral — Its ulterior oneness 106 
 
 Substance— Origin of special forms of 106 
 
 Substances— They do not impinge when their properties 
 
 are unlike 93, 94 
 
 Substances — When of the same properties they are mu- 
 tually impenetrable — must be separate in space 95 
 
 Substances— Universally present and resolvable into their 
 
 insensuous states 100, 102 
 
 Swindon, Prof. Von— A mathematical achievement in 
 
 sleep 245 
 
 Sympathy— Definition of 172 
 
 Sympathy— The brute claimed to possess it . . , , 173, 174 
 
 TEMPOKAL AID 31, 33 
 Tendency— The law of, is evidence: of destiny. ..289, 291 
 
 Theodicy— Its conditions 23 
 
 TUKE, Dr.— An instance of expectant attention ! 345 
 
 Tyndall, Prof.— Matter, essence of life 209, 210 
 
 Tyndall, Prof.— On the value of the realizing powers. . .98, 99 
 
 Tyndall, Prof.— The Belfast address 204 
 
 Tyndall, Prof.— Unable to follow the translation of light 
 
 into consciousness 88,|89 
 
 UNITS— Mr. Spencer's of physiological units 221, 223 
 Units— The theory hopelessly involved 223, 224 
 
 / 
 
444 INDEX. 
 
 page; 
 T 7B0CERATA 278 
 
 WADE, SIR CLAUDE H.^He witnesses the burial of 
 the Fakir in India 306, 308 
 
 WiNCHELii, Prof. — Destined familiarity with the spirit 
 
 world 91 
 
 World, Spirit— Superior conditions of 402, 403 
 
 Worship— How characterized in the Spirit World 424, 427 
 
 YOTJMANS, PROF.— Tendency of science toward the 
 spiritual , 86. 88 
 
 I 
 
ALSO BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 PROPHECY AND PROPHETS; 
 
 OE 
 
 The Laws of Inspiration and their Phenomena. 
 
 E>R.ioEi. ^1,00. 
 
 This small work thoronehly discusses the subject 
 of Prescience, Prediction and Inspiration, from the 
 standpoint of science, and is of special value in the 
 presence of modem agnosticism and materialistic 
 unbelief. 
 
 From the table of contents the following are a 
 few selections : 
 
 Prophecy, a Legitimate Sutiject for Science. 
 
 The Argument for Prophecy.— The Preliminary Conditions 
 Stated. 
 
 Ppesclencing the Phenomena of the Future.— Knowiedge of 
 Future Events.— Prophecy the Communication of the 
 Ends Rather than the Means of Discovery.— How Com- 
 municated' 
 
 Correspondence between Extremes of Mind.— Mode of the 
 Higher with the Lower. 
 
 Intuition and Inspiration— Their Relation. 
 
 Some Reasons why Prophetic Events are so rarely Met with 
 in Profane History. 
 
 Principles to be Observed in Determining Prophetic Events. 
 
 Prophecy in Profane History. 
 
 The Phenomena in Sacred History. 
 
 History a Science.— Fossil Literature.— Ontological Outlook. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, 
 BERKELEY 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 Books not returned on time are subject to a fine of 
 50c per volume after the third day overdue, increasing 
 to $1.00 per volume after the sixth day. Books not in 
 demand may be renewed if application is made before 
 expiration of loan period. 
 
. i^^^TTr 
 
 :u3^; 
 
 
 
 m