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Untitled Article
him ever in sight , watching the direction of his dart , but ever blinded by an envious cloud at the precise moment of observation ! This would be one of the greatest evils of a deathless sojourn among dying men ; to hear all other mourners comforting one another with the certainty of a speedy
departure ; to see every other speculator relaxing his brow of thought at the suggestion that this mystery could not be long hidden ; to close the eyes of the last of a band of intellectual brethren , and say , " I alone am left to wonder and doubt for ever . "—A being whose individual interest is involved in the question , who knows that his ignorance is onl y temporary , feels a curiosity not the less lively for its being hopeful . His observation becomes more keen as he sees one after another taken from the multitude of gazers without ,
and vanishing beneath the cloud which he shall also enter ere long . Age after age has this cloud hung low on the gate of life , and if men have not learned what there is on the other side , they have at least determined in some degree what is not there . The condition of the human being after death depends , of course , on the essence of his being ; and as long as we can only guess at the essence , we can only speculate on the state . Since it is supposed that there is only one
alternative respecting the essence of man , it has usually , but erroneously , been concluded that there is also but one alternative respecting the time and mode of entrance upon a future life . The essence of man , it is said , is either matter or spirit . Granted ; since by spirit nothing more is meant than that which is not matter . —If spirit , the essential portion of the human being must be immortal , must be separated from the destructible portions at death , and enter immediately on its future state . Granted . If matter , the
human being remains unconscious , in fact temporarily annihilated , till the life-giving decree shall go forth again to inspire the whole race with an immortal life . Not granted . It may be so , but not necessarily ; there is yet a third supposition . But we will consider each in its turn , deducing our reasonings from facts rather than from philosophical speculations on matter and spirit : since , till we know the meaning of the terms in which they are conducted , such speculations will afford but an unstable basis for argument . AH agree that the nature of spirit is wholly unascertainable ; but few bear in
mind that matter is also a mere abstract term , under which are congregated many things which we in some measure understand , and many more which we do not . We will say nothing , therefore , about whether spirit is capable of a union with matter , whether matter may or may not be endowed with life and thought , &c , and will pass on to the facts ( few though they be , and obscure in their interpretation ) with which we are furnished by observation and testimony . The first facts to which it is natural to have recourse are those which are
exhibited by the various forms of death . All instances of sudden death are not apparently inconsistent with the notion of a separable soul , and by their peculiar suggestions have no doubt cherished the idea , if not helped to originate it . What more natural ( the conception of an indestructible being residing in a destructible frame having been once admitted ) than to look . on a body suddenly become motionless as a body vacated , and to exclaim ,
*• See the shell of a flown bird ! " What more natural than to suppose , when the " strong swimmer" sinks instantaneously after his last convulsive effort , that his spirit parted in the agony and clave the waters and the invisible air upwards more swiftly than its perishing companion sunk to the caves of the deep ? What more natural than to regard the last vivid glance of the expiring martyr as a silent though eloquent token that the soul had
Untitled Article
218 Physical Considerations connected with Man ' s Ultimate Destination .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 218, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/2/
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